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Regno Unito, Londra, Tower Bridge, Estate 2016
Il Tower Bridge, il ponte simbolo di Londra fu costruito in stile gotico vittoriano nel 1886 su di un progetto di Horace Jones e Wolfe Barry, e fu terminato nel 1894.
Tower Bridge è costituito da due parti mobili che, in meno di un minuto, si sollevano completamente durante il passaggio di grandi navi grazie a un sistema elettronico che nel 1976 ha sostituito il vecchio impianto idraulico.
Un tempo le parti mobili si aprivano fino a 5 volte al giorno, ma oggi non vengono quasi più aperte perché le navi ormai attraccano in tutt'altra zona, più a valle, e non hanno più necessità di passare dal ponte per raggiungere le banchine.
Sul Tower Bridge sorgono le due famose torri, alte 25 m, che lo caratterizzano su foto e cartoline, e al loro interno ospitano alcune mostre e un museo: The Tower Bridge Exhibition che, attraverso percorsi interattivi, espone gli ingranaggi idraulici che hanno sollevato il ponte fino al 1976.
The Tower Bridge, symbol of London, was built in Gothic Victorian style in 1886 on a project of Wolfe Barry and Horace Jones, and was completed in 1894.
Tower Bridge is composed of two moving parts. During the passage of large ships, in less than a minute, these parts are raised completely with an electronic system that in 1976 replaced the old hydraulic system.
Once the moving parts were opened up to 5 times a day, but today are hardly opened because the ships dock is in a completely different area, further downstream
Two famous towers, 25 m tall, stand on the Tower Bridge. These towers characterize the bridge in photos and postcards and inside host some exhibits and a museum: The Tower Bridge Exhibition.
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Remnants of extinct monkeys are hiding inside you, along with those of lizards, jellyfish and other animals. Your DNA is built upon gene fragments from primal ancestors. Now National Science Foundation-funded researchers have made it more likely that ancestral genes, along with ancestral proteins, can be confidently identified and reconstructed. They have benchmarked a vital tool that would seem nearly impossible to benchmark. The newly won confidence in the tool could also help scientists use ancient gene sequences to synthesize better proteins to battle diseases.
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A McChord Air Force Base crewmember poses in front of a U.S. Air Force Base C-17A Globemaster jet out of McChord AFB, Washington, parked during sunrise at Pegasus Runway, McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica. McMurdo is one of three U.S. research stations on Antarctica. The National Science Foundation operates them all. In addition to maintaining three U.S. research stations on the continent, the National Science Foundation's U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) supports research projects in an array of scientific disciplines, including for example, aeronomy and astrophysics, biology and medicine, geology and geophysics, glaciology, and ocean and climate systems. Outreach such as the Antarctic Artists and Writers program and education programs are also supported. For more information about USAP, visit the program's website here.
Image credit: Major Steve Mortensen/McChord AFB, National Science Foundation
The European Space Agency (ESA) has held an hour-long hangout to explain what's likely to happen when its Rosetta spacecraft touches down on Comet 67p.…
The first space station lofted into orbit by China is coming down next year, the country's space agency has confirmed.…
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Royal Academy of Arts, London
It is packed with thrilling works by Pollock, Rothko and the rest, but this major exhibition is also overloaded and erratic with little space for female artists
There are beautiful, marvellous and terrifying things in the Royal Academy's much-trumpeted survey of Abstract Expressionism. What more could one ask in a show including the explosive and tender Jackson Pollock; De Kooning swerving and jumbling and dismembering his frightening figures of women; Rothko's tangy brightness and trembling, tremulous darkness; Barnett Newman's zips and planes and intervals; Guston's dirty abstract impressionism in which figures wait to be unleashed. Franz Kline's angled black and white incidents; Arshile Gorky's quietly writhing accretions: they are all here. I wanted to be blown away, and to reconnect with a kind of painting that once had me in its thrall, and whose traces and impulses continue to be felt into the 21st century. I wanted to see it in some new and instructive way, but I didn't.
From Gorky's querulous biomorphs to one of Rothko's very late grey and black images of emptiness and closure, I struggled. Overloaded, frequently puzzling and erratic, this is an exhibition whose pleasures and there are many come at a price. For all its key works, and also because of them, it often flattens out signal achievements, with deadening juxtapositions and clunky sightlines. While the biggest names get rooms to themselves, others fight it out in thematic displays that deaden individual works and achievements.
Related: Abstract expressionism not just macho heroes with brushes
What united the artists was ambition, turned into the method-actor romanticism of cold lofts, bad coffee and fights
Continue reading...Freeloader fly (Neophyllomyza sp.) collected in Nahanni National Park Reserve, Northwest Territories, Canada, and photographed at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (sample ID: BIOUG15747-B06; specimen record: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=CNNHC068-14; BIN: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:ACR5257)
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The puzzling appearance of an ice cloud seemingly out of thin air has prompted NASA scientists to suggest that a different process than previously thought -- possibly similar to one seen over Earth's poles -- could be forming clouds on Saturn's moon Titan.
Located in Titan's stratosphere, the cloud is made of a compound of carbon and nitrogen known as dicyanoacetylene (C4N2), an ingredient in the chemical cocktail that colors the giant moon's hazy, brownish-orange atmosphere.
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Our Ocean Conference 2016
Washington, DC, U.S. Department of State
September 15-16, 2016
For more than 50 years, Star Trek has inspired us to pursue knowledge, create new technologies, and boldly go toward a better future for humanity. To celebrate Star Trek's recent 50th anniversary, Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics asked several current, former, and visiting Perimeter researchers to tell us why the series is so important to them.
The epic series has also inspired numerous generations of physicists to probe the limits of our current understanding of the universe.
The Daily Galaxy via Perimeter Institute
Alarms are being raised over the recent advancements in a new DARPA-funded technology known as “electroceuticals,” with the possibility that dark forces could be unleashed in a world where millions have hundreds of tiny neural dust sensors gathering and transmitting the most personal of information into external computer networks. The fears being that non-state actors, hostile nations, and could hack into the most secure and sensitive databases, gaining access to in-body telemetry from a head of state or sending nefarious commands directly into their brain unleashing havoc.
Engineers at UC Berkeley have cracked the millimetre barrier producing the first dust-sized wireless sensor small enough to implant into the body and be parked next to a muscle, nerve or organ. These motes are sprinkled thoughout the body, bringing closer the day when a Fitbit-like device could monitor internal nerves, muscles or organs in real time. The neural dust sensor is born from a DARPA funded weapons program. (DARPA is also the organization responsible for creating the Internet).
We already have zero ability to keep foreign actors, hostile groups, not to mention cybercriminals, from hacking into the most secure and sensitive databases. If they gained access to in-body telemetry from a head of state or sent nefarious commands directly into their brain, what havoc they could wreak.
Wireless, batteryless implantable sensors could improve brain control of prosthetics, avoiding wires that go through the skull. (UC Berkeley video by Roxanne Makasdjian and Stephen McNally)
Because these batteryless sensors could also be used to stimulate nerves and muscles, the technology also opens the door to “electroceuticals” to treat disorders such as epilepsy or to stimulate the immune system or tamp down inflammation.
The so-called neural dust, which the team implanted in the muscles and peripheral nerves of rats, is unique in that ultrasound is used both to power and read out the measurements. Ultrasound technology is already well-developed for hospital use, and ultrasound vibrations can penetrate nearly anywhere in the body, unlike radio waves, the researchers say.
“I think the long-term prospects for neural dust are not only within nerves and the brain, but much broader,“ said Michel Maharbiz, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and one of the study's two main authors. “Having access to in-body telemetry has never been possible because there has been no way to put something supertiny superdeep. But now I can take a speck of nothing and park it next to a nerve or organ, your GI tract or a muscle, and read out the data.“
The sensor, 3 millimeters long and 1×1 millimeters in cross section, attached to a nerve fiber in a rat. Once implanted, the batteryless sensor is powered and the data read out by ultrasound. (Ryan Neely photo)
Maharbiz, neuroscientist Jose Carmena, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, and their colleagues will report their findings in the August 3 issue of the journal Neuron.
The sensors, which the researchers have already shrunk to a 1 millimeter cube about the size of a large grain of sand contain a piezoelectric crystal that converts ultrasound vibrations from outside the body into electricity to power a tiny, on-board transistor that is in contact with a nerve or muscle fiber. A voltage spike in the fiber alters the circuit and the vibration of the crystal, which changes the echo detected by the ultrasound receiver, typically the same device that generates the vibrations. The slight change, called backscatter, allows them to determine the voltage.
In their experiment, the UC Berkeley team powered up the passive sensors every 100 microseconds with six 540-nanosecond ultrasound pulses, which gave them a continual, real-time readout. They coated the first-generation motes 3 millimeters long, 1 millimeter high and 4/5 millimeter thick with surgical-grade epoxy, but they are currently building motes from biocompatible thin films which would potentially last in the body without degradation for a decade or more.
While the experiments so far have involved the peripheral nervous system and muscles, the neural dust motes could work equally well in the central nervous system and brain to control prosthetics, the researchers say. Today's implantable electrodes degrade within 1 to 2 years, and all connect to wires that pass through holes in the skull. Wireless sensors dozens to a hundred could be sealed in, avoiding infection and unwanted movement of the electrodes.
“The original goal of the neural dust project was to imagine the next generation of brain-machine interfaces, and to make it a viable clinical technology,” said neuroscience graduate student Ryan Neely. “If a paraplegic wants to control a computer or a robotic arm, you would just implant this electrode in the brain and it would last essentially a lifetime.”
In a paper published online in 2013, the researchers estimated that they could shrink the sensors down to a cube 50 microns on a side about 2 thousandths of an inch, or half the width of a human hair. At that size, the motes could nestle up to just a few nerve axons and continually record their electrical activity.
“The beauty is that now, the sensors are small enough to have a good application in the peripheral nervous system, for bladder control or appetite suppression, for example,“ Carmena said. “The technology is not really there yet to get to the 50-micron target size, which we would need for the brain and central nervous system. Once it's clinically proven, however, neural dust will just replace wire electrodes. This time, once you close up the brain, you're done.“
The team is working now to miniaturize the device further, find more biocompatible materials and improve the surface transceiver that sends and receives the ultrasounds, ideally using beam-steering technology to focus the sounds waves on individual motes. They are now building little backpacks for rats to hold the ultrasound transceiver that will record data from implanted motes.
They're also working to expand the motes' ability to detect non-electrical signals, such as oxygen or hormone levels.
“The vision is to implant these neural dust motes anywhere in the body, and have a patch over the implanted site send ultrasonic waves to wake up and receive necessary information from the motes for the desired therapy you want,” said Dongjin Seo, a graduate student in electrical engineering and computer sciences. “Eventually you would use multiple implants and one patch that would ping each implant individually, or all simultaneously.”
Maharbiz and Carmena conceived of the idea of neural dust about five years ago, but attempts to power an implantable device and read out the data using radio waves were disappointing. Radio attenuates very quickly with distance in tissue, so communicating with devices deep in the body would be difficult without using potentially damaging high-intensity radiation.
A sensor implanted on a peripheral nerve is powered and interrogated by an ultrasound transducer. The backscatter signal carries information about the voltage across the two electrodes. The 'dust' mote was pinged every 100 microseconds with six 540-nanosecond ultrasound pulses.
A sensor implanted on a peripheral nerve is powered and interrogated by an ultrasound transducer. The backscatter signal carries information about the voltage across the sensor's two electrodes. The ‘dust' mote was pinged every 100 microseconds with six 540-nanosecond ultrasound pulses.
Marharbiz hit on the idea of ultrasound, and in 2013 published a paper with Carmena, Seo and their colleagues describing how such a system might work. “Our first study demonstrated that the fundamental physics of ultrasound allowed for very, very small implants that could record and communicate neural data,” said Maharbiz. He and his students have now created that system.
“Ultrasound is much more efficient when you are targeting devices that are on the millimeter scale or smaller and that are embedded deep in the body,” Seo said. “You can get a lot of power into it and a lot more efficient transfer of energy and communication when using ultrasound as opposed to electromagnetic waves, which has been the go-to method for wirelessly transmitting power to miniature implants”
“Now that you have a reliable, minimally invasive neural pickup in your body, the technology could become the driver for a whole gamut of applications, things that today don't even exist,“ Carmena said.
Other co-authors of the Neuron paper are graduate student Konlin Shen, undergraduate Utkarsh Singhal and UC Berkeley professors Elad Alon and Jan Rabaey. The work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense.
The Daily Galaxy via UC Berkeley and vancouver.24hrs
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Teleportation has largely been the realm of science fiction and Star Trek plots. Now, Chinese and Canadian scientists say they have successfully carried out a form of teleportation at the quantum level across an entire city. The two teams working independently have teleported near-identical versions of tiny particles called photons through cables across Calgary in Canada and Hefei in Anhui province.
Quantum teleportation is the ability to transfer information such as the properties or the quantum state of an atom — its energy, spin, motion, magnetic field and other physical properties — to another location without traveling in the space between. While it was first demonstrated in 1997, today's studies are the first to show the process is technologically possible via a mainstream communications network.
Ben Buchler, Associate Professor with the Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology at the Australian National University, said the technical achievement of completing the experiments in a "non-ideal environment" was "pretty profound". "People have known how to do this experiment since the early 2000s, but until these papers it hasn't been performed in fibre communication networks, in situ, in cities," said Buchler, who was not involved in the research. "It's seriously difficult to do what they have done."
A cornerstone of quantum teleportation is quantum entanglement, where two particles are intimately linked to each other in such a way that a change in one will affect the other.
Researchers have long known that a photon particle can be split in two and yet the pair are still “entangled”, which means that any change in the state of one immediately affects the other, although how this happens is still unknown.
The two papers demonstrate that the possibility of quantum [internet] networks that span a city are a realistic proposition, which is an exciting vision for the future
The forms of teleported photons were destroyed in one laboratory and recreated in another more than 8km apart in the two cities through optical fibre. Similar experiments have been carried out before, but only within the same laboratory.
the research was a step forward in the development of a “quantum internet”, a futuristic particle-based information system that could be much more secure than existing forms of digital data. Quantum networks make eavesdropping almost impossible because the particles used cannot be observed without being altered.
But in his commentary on the research in the scientific journal Nature Photonics, French physicist Frederic Grosshans said the two experiments clearly showed that teleportation across metropolitan distances was technologically feasible.
“The two papers demonstrate that the possibility of quantum [internet] networks that span a city are a realistic proposition, which is an exciting vision for the future,” Grosshans said. Professor Zhang Qiang, one of the leaders of the Chinese team, said: “Maybe in the distant future, materials can be teleported through a fibre or even open space, too.”
The research was carried out by scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China and the University of Calgary and their papers were published in the journal on Monday.
This, in theory, means it could be possible to transmit information by manipulating entangled photons, but various factors, including fluctuating temperatures, can interfere with the process over longer distances outside the laboratory. The researchers used sophisticated equipment to counter these and other problems, allowing the Chinese team, led by Professor Pan Jianwei and Professor Zhang, to achieve “full” quantum teleportation of photons over a optical fibre network 12.5km apart.
The Chinese and Canadian teams used different approaches to carry out their experiments. The Chinese team demonstrated a fuller version of the quantum network with higher reliability, but the Canadian approach was more efficient, according to Grosshans.
The Daily Galaxy via scmp.com and ABC Online
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Mars is a dusty place and you might not think it is surprising that we regularly see dust storms on its surface. But the phenomenon has puzzled scientists since the 1980s when experiments showed that typical wind speeds recorded on Mars are not strong enough to lift the dust.
Many theories have been suggested to explain the dust storms but few experiments have investigated them.
This experiment was designed by four students from the university of Duisberg-Essen in Germany as part of their thesis project. It will fly on ESA's parabolic flight campaign that offers repeated 20 seconds of weightlessness.
Inside the canister is a small wind channel filled with carbon dioxide at low pressure to represent the atmosphere found on Mars. The canister spins like a centrifuge and recreates different levels of gravity the faster it spins the heavier the contents will be. This experiment cannot be done on the ground because the team wants to recreate Mars gravity around two thirds of gravity on Earth.
This experiment is part of ESA's “Fly your thesis!” educational programme that offers university students a way to run experiments in weightlessness. Follow the teams' progress on their own website.
Credit: ESA/Anemoi4
NASA's Cassini mission stared at Saturn for nearly 44 hours in April 2016, capturing four Saturn days in a time-lapse video and the footage is nothing short of stunning. From April 25 to April 26, 2016 the spacecraft stayed in the planet's atmosphere. Cassini will begin a series of dives between the planet and its rings in April 2017, building toward a dramatic end of mission -- a final plunge into the planet, six months later.
A Saturn day is equivalent to 10.5 hours. In the video, Saturn and its ring are observed moving in a steady pattern while oval-shaped storms were seen moving along with the planet's orbit. The hexagon on the planet's North Pole is also visible in the video --a product of six jet streams located in the northern region. Fun fact, the sides of the hexagon alone are already bigger than the Earth.
Since NASA's Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn, the planet's appearance has changed greatly. This view above shows Saturn's northern hemisphere in 2016, as that part of the planet nears its northern hemisphere summer solstice in May 2017.
After more than 12 years studying Saturn, its rings and moons, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has entered the final year of its epic voyage. The conclusion of the historic scientific odyssey is planned for September 2017, but not before the spacecraft completes a daring two-part endgame.
Beginning on November 30, Cassini's orbit will send the spacecraft just past the outer edge of the main rings. These orbits, a series of 20, are called the F-ring orbits. During these weekly orbits, Cassini will approach to within 4,850 miles (7,800 kilometers) of the center of the narrow F ring, with its peculiar kinked and braided structure.
"During the F-ring orbits we expect to see the rings, along with the small moons and other structures embedded in them, as never before," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "The last time we got this close to the rings was during arrival at Saturn in 2004, and we saw only their backlit side. Now we have dozens of opportunities to examine their structure at extremely high resolution on both sides."
Cassini's final phase -- called the Grand Finale -- begins in earnest in April 2017. A close flyby of Saturn's giant moon Titan will reshape the spacecraft's orbit so that it passes through the gap between Saturn and the rings an unexplored space only about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) wide. The spacecraft is expected to make 22 plunges through this gap, beginning with its first dive on April 27.
During the Grand Finale, Cassini will make the closest-ever observations of Saturn, mapping the planet's magnetic and gravity fields with exquisite precision and returning ultra-close views of the atmosphere.
Scientists also hope to gain new insights into Saturn's interior structure, the precise length of a Saturn day, and the total mass of the rings -- which may finally help settle the question of their age. The spacecraft will also directly analyze dust-sized particles in the main rings and sample the outer reaches of Saturn's atmosphere -- both first-time measurements for the mission.
"It's like getting a whole new mission," said Spilker. "The scientific value of the F ring and Grand Finale orbits is so compelling that you could imagine a whole mission to Saturn designed around what we're about to do."
Since the beginning of 2016, mission engineers have been tweaking Cassini's orbital path around Saturn to position the spacecraft for the mission's final phase. They have sent the spacecraft on a series of flybys past Titan that are progressively raising the tilt of Cassini's orbit with respect to Saturn's equator and rings. This particular orientation enables the spacecraft to leap over the rings with a single (and final) Titan flyby in April, to begin the Grand Finale.
"We've used Titan's gravity throughout the mission to sling Cassini around the Saturn system," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL. "Now Titan is coming through for us once again, providing a way for Cassini to get into these completely unexplored regions so close to the planet."
The Grand Finale will come to a dramatic end on Sept. 15, 2017, as Cassini dives into Saturn's atmosphere, returning data about the planet's chemical composition until its signal is lost. Friction with the atmosphere will cause the spacecraft to burn up like a meteor soon afterward.
To celebrate the beginning of the final year and the adventure ahead, the Cassini team is releasing a new movie of the rotating planet, along with a color mosaic, both taken from high above Saturn's northern hemisphere. The movie covers 44 hours, or just over four Saturn rotations.
The Cassini spacecraft has logged impressive numbers in the 12 years since it arrived at Saturn on July 1, 2004. This infographic offers a snapshot of just a few of the mission's big numbers on Sept. 15, 2016, as it heads into a final year of science at Saturn.
"This is the sort of view Cassini will have as the spacecraft repeatedly climbs high above Saturn's northern latitudes before plunging past the outer -- and later the inner -- edges of the rings," said Spilker.
And so, although the mission's end is approaching -- with a "Cassini Final Plunge" clock already counting down in JPL mission control -- an extremely important phase of the mission is still to come.
"We may be counting down, but no one should count Cassini out yet," said Curt Niebur, Cassini program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The journey ahead is going to be a truly thrilling ride."
"The spacecraft will repeatedly climb high above Saturn's poles, flying just outside its narrow F ring 20 times. After a last targeted Titan flyby, the spacecraft will then dive between Saturn's uppermost atmosphere and its innermost ring 22 times," said Brian Dunbar, a NASA official.
The series of dives will be performed before Cassini plunges to its death in September next year.
The Daily Galaxy via nasa.gov
the installation comprises an enclosed orb-like structure that offers an all-immersive light experience for one viewer at a time.
The post light reignfall perceptive cell by james turrell now at LACMA, los angeles appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
the collection aims to highlight the obvious contrast between two contradictory materials - the luxury of marble and the cheap, throwaway nature of plastic containers.
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Hey!!
I made a few changes to my setup blog, realy quite small XD
My new profile pick, it's a lil hamster.
i have a some prints made from the gifs at InPrint , if you have one you'd like and don't see it in the selection, just talk to me.
It rang this year for the first time since segregation, for a congregation that formed as our nation was founded.
The next time the Freedom Bell tolls, it will be for a historic moment in the African American story, a story in which it plays a part: the grand opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Sept. 24
The museum is more than a century in the making, and the steel bell—deemed the Freedom Bell—has a similarly long past.
The First Baptist Church of Williamsburg on Nassau Street circa 1901. The building served as the church's home for a century, from 1856 until 1956. (Credit: John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library Special Collections, Colonial Williamsburg)
It starts with the First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Va. The congregation began in secret in 1776, made up of enslaved and free African Americans who wanted to worship on their own terms. It's believed to be first church in the United States that was organized entirely by African Americans, for African Americans.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the First Baptist Church of Williamsburg on Jun 26, 1962 with Pastor Rev. David Collins, left, and civil rights leader Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker. (Credit: First Baptist Church)
In 1886, the First Baptist Church acquired and used the Freedom Bell, which was manufactured by Blymyer Norton & Co. in Cincinnati. After years of silence because of architectural and mechanical issues in the 20th century, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation assisted the church in restoring the bell in 2015. Descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings were the first members of the public to ring it on Feb. 1 of this year and all told, thousands of people rang the bell in Williamsburg.
Now, the 500-pound bell continues its journey with a trip to the nation's capital, where it will ring at the dedication of the Smithsonian's newest museum. President Barack Obama, nearing the end of his historic presidency, will be in attendance for the opening of a national museum dedicated to telling the American story through the African American lens.
“That it will ring on such a day in the presence of our nation's first African-American president, is a glorious advent that we could not have shared in our prayers or imagined in our wildest dreams,” said First Baptist Church Pastor Rev. Dr. Reginald F. Davis in a news release.
Observing the First Baptist Church of Williamsburg's bell in the bell tower of the church on Dec. 1, 2015, during the bell's conservation. Pictured are conservators Tina Gessler, right, and David Blanchfield.
After the museum's grand opening, the Freedom Bell will return to Williamsburg—130 years after it first arrived.
More information on the Freedom Bell can be found at Let Freedom Ring Challenge.
Learn more about the museum's grand opening on its website.
The post Historic Freedom Bell to ring in African American History Museum opening appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture opens Saturday, Sept. 24, following a dedication ceremony with President Barack Obama. When it opens, the museum will display more than 3,000 artifacts ranging from pieces of a slave ship to Carl Lewis' Olympic medals. Its staff of 200 can boast a fundraising program that has topped $315 million in private funds. Visually striking, the museum is on the National Mall at the corner of Constitution Avenue and 14th Street, N.W., across from the Washington Monument.
History, community and culture are the themes of the museum's 12 inaugural exhibitions. The 400,000-square-foot museum also houses an education and technology center on the second floor, the Sweet Home Café, a museum store, the Oprah Winfrey Theater, a welcome center and orientation theater, and a contemplative court.
“This joyous day was born out of a century of fitful and frustrated efforts to commemorate African American history in the nation's capital,” says Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the museum. “Now at last the National Museum of African American History and Culture is open for every American and the world to better understand the African American journey and how it shaped America.”
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution
On Saturday, Sept. 24, the museum's official dedication will take place at 10 a.m. on an outdoor stage facing the Washington Monument grounds. The public is encouraged to bring blankets as there will be no seating on the Monument grounds. Jumbotrons will broadcast the ceremony across the site. The program will combine speeches with musical performances and readings by well-known actors. Among the dignitaries attending will be Rep. John Lewis, President and Mrs. George W. Bush, the Chief Justice, Smithsonian Secretary David Skorton and Bunch. Obama's speech will be followed by celebratory fanfare and a city-wide bell ringing.
A free, three-day festival commemorating the new museum begins at noon Friday, Sept. 23, on the Washington Monument grounds between 15th and 17th streets along Constitution Avenue. “Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration” will feature music, performances, oral histories, storytelling and workshops. Evening concerts featuring well-known performers will be presented on two large, tented stages and include Living Colour, Public Enemy, The Roots, Experience Unlimited (EU), singer Meshell Ndegeocello and a special guest to be announced.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture
Hours for the grand-opening weekend will be Saturday, 18 p.m., and Sunday, 7 a.m.midnight. The museum is free, but timed passes will be required for the foreseeable future. The free, timed passes are available online at www.nmaahc.si.edu and through ETIX Customer Support Center, 919-653-0443 or 800-514-3849. Starting Monday, Sept. 26, the museum will begin distributing a limited number of same-day passes beginning at 9:15 a.m. All visitors will go through security screening and bag checks at the entrances.
Detailed information on visiting, including hours, special programs, directions, public transportation, parking and tours, will be regularly updated at www.nmaahc.si.edu.
“A Century in the Making”—This exhibit provides an overview of the century-long struggle to open the museum.
Slave buttons used by slave trader Thomas H. Porter, on view in the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
History Galleries
A miniature pair of shackles used as a protective amulet by the Lobi tribe of West Africa. The bronze shackles consist of a pair of loops linked to a single bolt. There is a third loop at the top of the amulet. The bronze is covered with a dark patina.
Community Galleries
Revolutionary (Angela Davis), 1971, by Wadsworth A. Jarrell (American, born 1929). Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Culture Galleries
United States Farm Security Administration portrait of George Washington Carver, March 1942, by Arthur Rothstein for U.S. Farm Security Administration. National Museum of African American History and Cultuer.
NMAAHC was designed by a collaboration of four firms that formed the Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup, with David Adjaye as design architect and Phil Freelon as lead architect. About 60 percent of the building is below ground.
Above Ground
Fifth floor: Staff offices, board room (closed to the public)
Fourth floor: Culture galleries: “Musical Crossroads,” “Cultural Expressions,” “Visual Arts Gallery,” “Taking the Stage”
Third floor: Community galleries: “Power of Place,” “Making a Way Out of No Way,” “Sports Gallery,” “Military History Gallery”
Second floor: Education and resource space, Center for African American Media Arts
First floor: Central Hall (named Heritage Hall), welcome center, orientation theater, museum shop
Below Ground
Concourse 0: Atrium, contemplative court, Oprah Winfrey Theater, Special Exhibitions Gallery, Sweet Home Café
Concourse 1: History Gallery—“1968 and Beyond”
Concourse 2: History Gallery—“Era of Segregation”
Concourse 3: History Gallery—“Slavery and Freedom”
The post National Museum of African American History and Culture Opens this Weekend appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.
过去3年间,新加坡缉获大量非法象牙,生态保护团体担心犯罪团伙正在开辟新的走私路线。翻译:金艳 (翻译:子明/chinadialogue)
English language: Large ivory seizures in Singapore make it a smuggling hub of ‘primary concern'
生态保护组织称,过去3年间新加坡缉获大量非法象牙,使得这个东南亚城邦成为全球最大的有组织象牙走私犯罪中心。
这些象牙多数会销往中国大陆和香港,因此,两地的海关会把来自这些港口的集装箱作为重点检查对象。EIA活动负责人朱利安·纽曼以及TRAFFIC专家汤姆·米利肯表示,为了躲过中国海关的重点检查,装载象牙的集装箱会被运送到新加坡或是马来西亚的巴生港作为中转,在那里停留几个月,然后装载到另一艘船上,文件上货物的来源也会改成新的港口。
Related: Why the Guardian is publishing its elephant reporting in Chinese
Related: 《卫报》为何要用中文报道大象的生存危机?
Related: 事实上,大象已经濒临灭绝
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ajg_steyning posted a photo:
People on the Millennium bridge over the River Thames in London
Access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy is crucial to achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable Development Goal 7 is all about saving energy. But why is it so important to think energy efficiency first? Let me start with some context.
This week, hundreds of leaders from politics, business and civil society gather in New York for Climate Week. The fact that Climate Week and the United Nations Private Sector Forum are now an annual event along with the World Economic Forum shows the importance and opportunity to mitigate climate change and create sustainable growth.
We have the opportunity to work together across sectors, businesses, civil society and at all levels of government to capture what is truly the opportunity of our lifetime - to create liveable, sustainable and competitive solutions that will benefit us all.
How are we taking action? We are saving energy
At this point, you might be thinking: While that all sounds great, how do we actually go from talk to action and make it happen?
A natural starting point for action is using our resources better and making more out of less, which is in fact doable today. If we use our energy resources more efficiently, we can generate 49% of the necessary reductions in emissions to mitigate climate change, as has been shown by research from the International Energy Agency.
Getting it right from the start with efficient technologies
The goal is clear. With SDG 7 we focus on energy. It is about giving access to sustainable energy to the 1.1 billion people who are looking forward to being able to cook without having to spend hours collecting firewood, study at night, or keep life-saving medicine cool.
If we are to give 1.1 billion people access to energy as is foreseen in SDG 7, we need to ensure that these 1.1 billion new consumers of energy use it as efficiently as possible. Imagine for a second: What would happen if 1.1 billion new energy consumers adopted the technologies we used 25 years ago including our energy habits?
Currently, the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements is 1.7 percent. Yet this is still way behind the annual 2.6 percent needed between 2010 and 2030 to meet the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) objective of doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency. In order to deliver on doubling our energy efficiency, we should ask ourselves what we can already do today?
If we are to seize the potential of energy efficiency, I believe collaboration is absolutely essential. This is what we are committed to doing. One example of this is the SEforAll partnership, where we as partner in the new District Energy in Cities Initiative will set up a team of deployable district energy experts to support cities in developing, retrofitting or scaling up district energy systems. The team will assist more than 30 cities that have been chosen as part of an extensive consultation process to identify municipalities with high district heating or cooling potential.
The Sustainable Development Goals - The opportunity of a lifetime
If we are to succeed, it requires action from all of us - and as a business leader, I believe that we need to be leading by doing. In fact, we are already working with the US Department of Energy and the Alliance to Save Energy to ensure that the US will double its energy productivity by 2030, which would save $327 billion annually in avoided energy costs and would lower greenhouse gas emissions to one third below the level emitted in 2005.
Energy efficiency and sustainability are not about limiting our options or comfort. On the contrary, they are about innovation and creating new opportunities. I am happy to see new solutions emerging where we are able to combine digitalization, innovation and energy efficiency to create sustainable solutions. This not only improves our environmental footprint but also frees money to be spent elsewhere.
The technology is available today. What we need to do is use our minds smartly and collaborate in order to create innovative solutions that will help mitigate climate change without compromising on cost, quality or comfort.
This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post to mark the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, or, officially, "Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development"). The SDGs represent an historic agreement -- a wide-ranging roadmap to sustainability covering 17 goals and 169 targets -- but stakeholders must also be held accountable for their commitments. To see all the posts in the series, visit here.
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instagram.com/the_big_smoke_/ posted a photo:
steven.kemp posted a photo:
The Walkie Talkie building in London (AKA 20 Fenchurch Street) taken at sunset from the roof garden of a building near St Pauls Cathedral.
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American Baghdad is a short film that documents the struggles of leaving a homeland behind. In the film, Iraqi refugees speak candidly about the process of gaining asylum in California. It's a necessary and humanizing portrait: They were displaced due to America's war in Iraq, and were among the small percentage of those who were granted refugee status and permitted to immigrate. El Cajon, a county in San Diego, has one of the highest concentrations of Iraqi refugees in America, and a majority of these refugees are Chaldean, a Christian minority in Iraq.
To learn more about the film, visit http://americanbaghdad.com/. American Baghdad is produced by Atlas Brave.
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-- 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.
For hundreds of years, on the eighth month of the lunar calendar, people have gathered along the shores of China's Qiantang River at the head of Hangzhou Bay to witness the waves of its famous bore tide. Higher-than-normal high tides push into the harbor, funneling into the river, causing a broad wave that can reach up to 30 feet high. If the waves surge over the banks, spectators can be swept up, pushed along walkways or down embankments. Below, I've gathered images from the past few years of the Qiantang bore tides.
cafe_in_space posted a photo:
Another shot taken from the Woolwich ferry.
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gagliardiphotography posted a photo:
Westminster, London. View of Bridge and Houses of Parliament from across river Thames.
MiamiRoofing162 posted a photo:
ADSINUK posted a photo:
Sunset in North London
A replica of a 2,000-year-old Roman arch that was destroyed by ISIS in Syria last year was unveiled in New York City today. The triumphal arch, a two-thirds scale of the original, was first showcased in Trafalgar Square in London this past April. Now, it will stay in City Hall Park for a week before being shipped to its next destination, Dubai.
The replica was made by the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) using 3D computer models based on photographs of the original arch; the photos were taken by archaeologists and tourists before the city of Palmyra, where the arch stood, was captured by ISIS in May 2015. Two robots in the city of Carrara, in Italy, then used the 3D modeling to re-create the finely carved arch out of Egyptian...
What makes a house feel like a home? Is it friendly roommates, beer in the fridge, or a house plant that has a name? No, of course not. It's seasonal decor! That's why I've already picked up half a dozen pumpkin-scented candles, a pumpkin carving kit, and Halloween Oreos to outfit my new 700-square-foot apartment for the best time of the year.
But treats and candles don't feel like enough. Honestly, I need these giant retro Halloween masks. Only then will I know satisfaction. They remind me of the tempered scares and monsters of days long past. They're quite whimsical and tame compared to the monsters 2016 has given us: for example, this cat that ate Kevin Spacey!
Designed...
The traditional hoopla around the latest iPhone upgrade seemed to go off as planned last week with queues of apparently sane people waiting outside Apple stores around the world.…
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Georg Markgraf Scientist of the Day
Georg Markgraf, a German astronomer and naturalist, was born Sep. 20, 1610.
A Malmo man is facing paying thousands of kronor in damages after attending a friend's 60th birthday party and ending up crawling naked and bleeding from an elderly woman's hen house.…
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Photo Credit: C-SPAN
On September 9, the Obama administration revoked authorization for construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on federally controlled lands and asked the pipeline's owners, led by Energy Transfer Partners, to voluntarily halt construction on adjacent areas at the center of protests by Native Americans and supporters.
However, at the same time the pipeline and protests surrounding it were galvanizing an international swell of solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its Sacred Stone Camp, another federal move on two key pipelines has flown under the radar.
In May, the federal government quietly approved permits for two Texas pipelines -- the Trans-Pecos and Comanche Trail Pipelines -- also owned by Energy Transfer Partners. This action and related moves will ensure that U.S. fracked gas will be flooding the energy grid in Mexico.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is also set to carry oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), but in the northern U.S., from North Dakota's Bakken Shale Formation through several Great Plains states to Illinois.
Within a two-week span in May 2016, as the Sacred Stone Camp was getting off the ground as the center of protests, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued presidential permits for the Trans-Pecos and Comanche Trail Pipelines. Together, the pipelines will take natural gas obtained from fracking in Texas' Permian Basin and ship it in different directions across the U.S.-Mexico border, with both starting at the Waha Oil Field.
Similar to the case of North Dakota oil wells whose oil will likely be transported via Dakota Access, and like the name Dakota itself, the Comanche Trail Pipeline's nomenclature originates from a Native American tribe.
Today the Comanche Nation is headquartered in the southwestern part of Oklahoma in Lawton, and was removed from Texas in the aftermath of the Comanche Wars. As part of those wars, this nomadic tribe used the Comanche Trail which crossed West Texas and through what is now Big Bend National Park.
Like many other tribes, the Comanche Nation has come out in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Some members have formed a support group called Comanches on the Move, which has taken caravans on the road from Oklahoma to the Sacred Stone Camp in North Dakota.
The same month the Obama administration permitted the Comanche Trail and Trans-Pecos Pipelines, the U.S. and Mexican governments announced the signing of an agreement creating the U.S.-Mexico Energy Business Council. This council's objective is "to bring together representatives of the energy industries of the United States and Mexico to discuss issues of mutual interest." Its membership list is a who's who of major oil and gas players.
The list includes a senior-level lobbyist for Halliburton; the president of oil and gas industry services giant Honeywell Mexico; the CEO of Hunt Consolidated Energy (and former energy policy adviser for George W. Bush's 2000 campaign); the CFO of Sempra Energy's Mexican subsidiary, IEnova; and the president of the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association (PESA), who worked on the press team in the George W. Bush White House and 2000 presidential campaign.
Image Credit: U.S. International Trade Administration
PESA members, including Halliburton (Halliburton's Robert Moran, a councilmember, serves on PESA's Board of Directors) and other oil and gas industry services companies, will serve as among the biggest winners of Mexico's ongoing energy sector privatization.
IEnova, the Sempra Energy subsidiary, owns numerous pipeline assets throughout Mexico and also owns the Energía Costa Azul LNG terminal on Mexico's west coast. The Trans-Pecos Pipeline is set to connect to IEnova's Ojinaga-El Encino Pipeline at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Hunt, meanwhile, serves as a symbol of the contradiction existing between U.S.-Mexico energy relations and U.S.-Mexico immigration policy. Prior to its involvement in the U.S.-Mexico Energy Business Council, Hunt was actually the first company to have a "holes in the wall" open border policy. Under the George W. Bush administration, this policy allowed energy to flow between borders, with gas flowing to real estate owned by the powerful and wealthy Hunt family.
"Over the years, Hunt has transformed his 6,000-acre property, called the Sharyland Plantation, from acres of onions and vegetables into swathes of exclusive, gated communities where houses sell from $650,000 to $1 million and residents enjoy golf courses, elementary schools, and a sports park," wrote the Texas Observer in 2008. "The plantation contains an 1,800-acre business park and Sharyland Utilities, run by Hunt's son Hunter, which delivers electricity to plantation residents and Mexican factories."
Hunt was also one of the companies recently approved to bid on offshore oil parcels on the Mexico side of the Gulf of Mexico.
The creation of the U.S.-Mexico Energy Business Council comes as Mexico continues to make its push to privatize its energy sector under the auspices of constitutional amendments signed into law in 2013 and move away from the state-owned system run by Pemex (Petróleos Mexicanos). Under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as first reported by DeSmog, the U.S. State Department helped spearhead those privatization efforts.
"The Council, comprised of private sector representatives from both countries, is expected to exchange information and industry best practices in order to provide actionable, non-binding recommendations to both governments on ways to strengthen the U.S.-Mexico relationship on trade, investment, and competitiveness in the energy sector," reads the press release announcing the council's launch.
At a joint press conference featuring Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto and President Obama held at the White House on July 22, Obama mentioned the council and its looming first meeting.
"This fall, our new U.S.-Mexico Energy Business Council will meet for the very first time to strengthen the ties between our energy industries," said Obama. "And, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your vision and your leadership in reforming Mexico's energy industry."
With most eyes on the immigration debate and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's grandiose claims about building a "beautiful wall" on the U.S.-Mexico border, it's easy to forget that proverbial walls are coming down when it comes to energy, and in particular, the flow of oil and gas across the border.
"As long as the wall doesn't go below ground," one industry executive recently told Financial Times, "I think we'll be OK."
Thanks to the regulatory blessing of the Obama administration, Energy Transfer Partners may be the first beneficiary to go "under the wall" with its Trans Pecos and Comanche Trail Pipelines.
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-- 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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AndWhyNot posted a photo:
Sight see-ers and selfie snappers pause on Westminster Bridge, etching their silhouettes faintly against the glowing sky.
10-stop long exposure plus grad for sky.
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» LongExposures website and blog
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Michael.Lee.Pics.NYC posted a photo:
Jubilee Bridges seen from the London Eye
MichaelLeePicsNYC.com
Art prints available here
JH Images.co.uk posted a photo:
This is looking back from Canary Wharf to the City of London at sunset. It produced lovely golden light.
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