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Every breath we take  
Research from a cinema in Germany shows how the breath of a crowd can reflect how they're feeling, as Stephen Ornes reports  
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5 Things I Learned In My First Year As A Vegan  

A photo posted by nzinga young (@veganzinga) on Jun 17, 2016 at 6:14pm PDT

Going vegan has been a learning process.

Learning the atrocities of the meat and dairy industries and living more ethically are part of it, but here are other things I learned during my first year as an ethical vegan.

Exploitation is everywhere.

I was on vacation when I realized the $5 I paid to take a picture with a python was supporting its captivity. Colored candies I bought for my niece seemed vegan at the time, but were probably dyed with bug juice. Getting my sunscreen and multivitamins right was hard enough, but every few months I learned something new.

I didn't realize how pervasive animal exploitation is in our culture.

I didn't realize how pervasive animal exploitation is in our culture until I had to become more mindful. I'm a lot better now, but I'm sure there are a few more "uh oh" moments left in me.

Vegans are nicer in person.

My experiences with vegans online and offline have been very different.

Some online vegans can be pretty intense. Honest questions from aspiring vegans and differing views from well-meaning people are subject to brutal criticism in Facebook groups. There are more great vegans on social media than unnecessarily judgmental ones, but I have yet to meet a rude vegan offline.

The people I've met have been lovely. We can discuss differing opinions without raising our voices. We may not always agree, but we honor and respect each other for being different parts of the same fight.

I'm not sure if the anonymity of the internet makes people bolder or if I'm not in the right circles, but my view of vegans changed for the better when I started connecting in person.

A photo posted by nzinga young (@veganzinga) on Jul 20, 2016 at 6:35pm PDT

Activists are trying their best.

If you maintain a consistent argument and fight for full liberation, you're called a rigid abolitionist who's too stuck in your ways.

If you work for incremental change and improved conditions for farm animals, you're called a dirty welfarist who's doing more harm than good.

And let's not get started on vegans who urge us to consider the human rights issues tied into animal exploitation.

As a new vegan, I started to believe these reviews of vegan thought leaders, but I have yet to meet anyone from differing camps who wasn't passionate about animal liberation. The methods may differ from person to person, but the ultimate goal of freedom for all animals seems to be the same.

Connecting with vegans helped me formulate my own opinion about the biggest names in the movement. I may still disagree with their tactics -- especially ones that disrespect other social justice movements -- but everyone seems to be making an impact the best way they know how.

Intersectionality matters.

With a situation as dire as systematic murder, it's easy to focus solely on what's best for non-human animals. That's why it's important to have vegan organizations with a broader perspective. Groups that understand all oppression is intertwined and remind us that fighting for animals doesn't mean disregarding other injustices.

Collectively Free protests the forced impregnation of dairy cows and the underpaid Ethiopian workers that keep your favorite coffee shop in business.

Food Empowerment Project reminds us that the factory farm employees we often vilify are also being exploited.

Veganism is certainly about animals, but it doesn't mean we disrespect our own species along the way.

Veganism is certainly about animals, but it doesn't mean we disrespect our own species along the way.

I should be doing more.

I spent a lot of this year buying vegan without being vegan. I was caught up in vegan consumerism without doing anything to inspire change. I hope my latest initiative helps vegans everywhere get those closest to them to understand the importance of a vegan lifestyle.

My goal is to have a bigger impact during my second year of veganism. For more on my initiative to get our friends and family to go vegan, visit Wanyama Box.

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The Write Questions: Advice From The Wrong Side Of The Lens  

Photo by Rhododendrites (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I am unashamed to admit it: I am terribly proud of my people.

To what "people" am I referring here? To doctors? To scientists? To astronauts and aspiring astronaut-types? I'm surely proud of all those people. Today, I'm referring to another group to which I belong; to something I've done on and off for more than half my life; to one of the most important things I've ever done, as well as one of the most important things that occurs in a truly free and democratic society. I am referring, of course, to the press.

My people - journalists - are amazing. We bust in doors behind which lie nefarious activities that undermine the basic tenets of our civil liberties. We point the spotlight on violations of human rights. We call "foul" when justice isn't being served and, in that sense, are our own sort of justice. Therein lies the agony and the ecstasy of the media: with words, sounds, and images, we convene trials, summon the accused, calls witnesses, and cause judgments to be made. Like an outstanding attorney, an excellent journalist solicits input from relevant experts and arranges concrete evidence in such a way that the jury - our audience - can make an informed decision. In outstanding journalism - not editorial, just plain ol' features about life and the people who live it - there's no need to prosecute or to defend. The facts, well-presented, do that for themselves. The facts, poorly presented or not presented at all, twist and maul the truth and raze our ability as professionals to educate, empower, and vouchsafe civilization.



Photo By Txbeaker [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


These days, both facts and the way in which they are presented are more malleable than ever. When I first got into the field, it wasn't so. Back then, I inked an honest-to-god press. The thing was a behemoth - a giant born from the black depths of global mechanization. You basically had to wrestle it in order to get your paper out. Every word you fed into that thing you thought about. Then you thought about it twice and twice again, because lord knows you didn't want to go more rounds with that infernal machine than was absolutely necessary. My summer at The Otter Valley News and Views is witnessed by the ink particles still embedded deep within the lining of my lungs.

Photography used to follow a similar plodding, dedicated to-the-point-of-cultish course. At The Daily Californian, we photographers rolled our own black-and-white film, ran up and down at sporting events at nearly the same pace as the players, and worshiped the smell of fixer in the morning- or at least pretended to, because what we sweated (and sometimes bled) for mattered. Our shots were a critical part of the process. They provided more than just meaning and context. Photographs printed on paper drew people in: they gave the words our colleagues penned the opportunity to inform readers and transform the world for the better. That was before I graduated from college, before I built something that flew into space, before I ever laid hands on a patient. Long before I ever saved someone's life, through journalism, I was able to have a significant, positive impact on the lives of my fellow human beings. And also: really great calves.

So here I am, 18 years and several degrees later, dealing first-hand with journalism from the far side of the lens. A lot has changed. For one, the cameras are now in my face, not hanging about my neck as they ought to be. The questions will be coming my way. In 48 hours, my exit from "Mars" will be attended by 55 members of the media (and my brother, who has promised to heckle me "like a reporter"). On either side of me will be five very nice, very smart, very tired innocent bystanders: my crewmates, who have born a ceaseless onslaught of media for the last 12 months with an impressive amount of grace.

In return for our patience, we've had some outstanding coverage. My most sincere thanks to VICE, The History Channel, The Surge, BBC Stargazer, The University of Rhode Island, The British Journal of Medicine, Radio New Zealand, Voices from L5 and many others for your thoughtful, thorough, and accurate pieces. We've also had our share of "What the heck is this? We don't play xBox! No one has actually been chosen to go to Mars! As for sending robots ahead of time to build our shelters for us... it's a cool idea, but not, as some people would have you think, "a done deal." Those last two informational travesties resulted from what increasingly passes for reporting: taking a story written by someone else, distilling it (badly), sprinkling it with Googled facts, and passing it off as news.*

Here we arrive at something else that's changed since that fateful day when I talked my way into a job shooting mayoral candidates, house-fires, extra softball innings, and other natural disasters for a living: As much good journalism as there is (more than ever, really), really bad media abounds.

What's the disparity between good journalism and...not? Here's my view: a journalist gathers and contextualizes information such that readers can imbue it with social relevance and personal meaning. Making up facts, distilling other peoples' articles without adding value, and lifting quotes from blogs posts rather than conducting interviews is not journalism. It takes up space in news feeds, but it isn't news. Predigested and filling, it lacks mentally nutritional value while giving readers a serious case of brain gas.

True, there's always been fluff out there. Also true: like the scarlet letter, sensationalism used to be highly visible from a distance (and for the same reason). Clearly marked by cheap newsprint yellowing before it even hit the stands or by super-glossy covers with garish titles, these tabloids practically glowed when held against a dark background. If you wanted news, you had to pluck off your doorstep or out of a metal box at a busy intersection.

These days, good journalists and bad media are jammed into the same space. No books, no covers: just the great equalizer of pixels on a screen. In the digital age, the friendly labeling we once counted on to help us discriminate between medicine and poison - between information and aggrandizement - has faded away. A text from your mother and a text from a scammer claiming that your mother is in the hospital and needs $10,000 for a procedure appear exactly the same way on your phone's LCD. An opinion piece written on an iPad on the way home from work may look as, or more, legitimate than a Pulitzer-winning piece of investigative reporting. On the surface, these two often appear the same.

That's one major change since I got into this business in 1996. The other is that properly trained, properly-paid journalists are vastly outnumbered by people under deadline to write click-bait.

So: what's a simulated astronaut to do?

Fundamentally, my job, whether I'm an astronaut or a reporter or a doctor, is to make things work: to take the limited resources at hand and deliver a victory for the home team. Ship me anywhere in the 'verse. Make the delay 20 minutes, 200 hours, or 40 days and 40 nights. Whatever the apparent barriers, I won't abandon my people - many of whom are or could be good writers who aren't given the time or training to make their product what it rightfully should be. I can't change that right now, but I can help even the odds stacked against us all by expediency, mediocrity, and inertia.

On 8/28 you will be able to ask us any question in the world. To help even the odds, here's a list of questions we've already answered many, many times:

• What have you learned?
• 
  
• What do you miss?
• 
  
• What did you eat?
• 
  
• Have you seen The Martian?
• 
  
• How did it feel to not have the Sun and the wind in your face for a year?
• 
  
• What's the first thing you're going to do?
• 
  
• What's been the biggest challenge about being on Mars?
• 
  
• Do you guys argue? How do you deal with conflict?
• 
  
• What do you do if someone gets sick?
• 
  
• Have there been any disasters during the mission?
• 
  
• Do you really want to go to Mars?
• 
  
• Did this mission - do any simulations - help pave the way for the human exploration of Mars?
• 
  
• How is this simulation different from Mars?
• 
  
• How did your families react to your decision to go into isolation?
• 
  
• Did you always want to be an astronaut?
• 
  
• Have you ever felt like quitting?
• 
  
• What will be the hardest part about coming back to Earth?
• 
  
• Would you do it again?
• 
  
• Are any of you signed up for the one-way trip?

We're very glad that people are curious enough about our mission to ask any question that comes to mind. At the same time, anyone locked in a box with no direct access to the outside world, no fresh food except the small amount that they can grow in whatever space they aren't sleeping on, and only five flatmates can easily imagine what they are going to miss: more friends, family, sunshine, wind, flowers, pineapple, sushi, long walks in the woods, and tailgating at Cal games (go Bears!). If "What do you miss?" was a mystery, thanks to the power of Reddit, six crew blogs, and countless news articles, that mystery has been solved.

To my fellow journalists out there: there are much better questions to be asked and answered. For the record, the questions that were truly mysterious until I arrived on "Mars" and have never/rarely been asked by the media are:

1. What turned out to be replaceable? What foods were replaceable, or even better/easier to make? What new favorite food took the place of the old one that you can't have?
   
   
2. You can't talk directly to your family - how well do the other things that you can do compensate for that? And how well does your new family, your crew, compensate for it?
   
   
3. While nothing can replace sunshine and wind, how well do the new adventures that you get to have compensate for their temporary loss? How well does the new filter between you and the world function to give you a sense of peace and the ability to accomplish things that you would struggle to accomplish otherwise, with the world knocking at your door?
   
   
4. Now that you have been there for a year, what message do you have for the people of Earth about their planet?
   
   
5. What message do you have for the folks designing the human Mars missions?
   
   
6. Name one total disaster - suits, radios, experiments, food recipes - and how, if you were able to salvage something from it, you did.
   
   
7. Name an epic win and how you accomplished it.
   
   
8. How is human society going to have to change to survive and thrive on Mars?
   
   
9. What do you expect will be extremely challenging for you when you return to Earth and what's your plan for overcoming that challenge?
   
   
10. What do you think will be the thing that you remember most - the dreaded memory and the cherished memory?
    
    
11. What's the weakness that could have torn this mission apart? What's the strength, or strengths, that saved it?
    
    
12. Did you find all the media attention flattering or annoying? How weird is it to be a journalist inside a Mars mission?
    
    
13. Did any of you get sick or get hurt? If that had happened on Mars would you have been alright?
    
    
14. Do you think that six people will be enough - or too many?
    
    
15. Did you get enough support from the people of Earth? What else could we have done to help this mission?
    
    
16. Do you plan to drive right away, or will you be re-integrating back into the operation of heavy machinery slowly?
    
    
17. What advice do you have for choosing the next crew?
    
    
18. Would you have tried to vote from space? How do you think that future Mars crews should handle the political process?
    
    
19. We talk a lot about the science of these missions - what the role of art, music, entertainment during these long voyages?
    
    
20. In a place where there's no money and nothing to buy, what do you value?

When we ask the right questions, we get people thinking, challenging assumptions, and pushing the boundaries of what ought to come next. These are free from me to you. Go to!

We Martians are ready to meet the press. We've been getting ready all year. All that we ask in return for the time that we're giving you the minute we hit dirt - I have to let you photograph me before I can so much as hug my husband - is this: be journalists. Be the truth-advocates who held this country together for hundreds of years. Adventurers like us are always good for a story. We scientists have been keeping things interesting for the last few centuries. Astronauts - bright and shiny! - are the new kids on the block when it comes to popular coverage, and deservedly so. We've faced dangers and made sacrifices for twelve long months, and we thank you for your attention. So please, come one and come all to the show. And when you come, bring the right questions. When the hatch opens and we finally present ourselves to you, that's the signal: It's YOUR turn to be the hero. To write our way into the future. To find the facts, solicit the opinions, and frame the stories that will make the last year - our lives in service to science and Earth and all of humankind - meaningful. To make the fact that I waited 366 days PLUS 10 minutes to hug my husband worthwhile. So let's do this, people. We scienced the heck out of this. Now, let's write the heck out of this.

You ask. We'll answer. Make me proud.


Courtesy of Wikimedia commons, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=197374

*Corrections were requested to all of these articles.

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Are Dogs Really That Different From Wolves?  
How are dogs and wolves similar and different? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Oliver Starr, wolf handler, wilderness advocate, on Quora:

How are dogs and wolves similar and different? In a word? Intensity. Take any behavior exhibited by even the most uninhibited dog, then turn it up to thirty-seven and you've got that same behavior in a wolf.

Put another way, dogs dig holes; wolves dig mines. Dogs might rip up your sofa, a wolf will reduce one to feathers,splinters, springs and bits of fabric no more than a one-inch square.

I like to call wolves "raw dogs", "proto-dogs", or "the blueprint". Even with captive bred wolves, they exhibit a broader and more complex range of behavior than what I've experienced with dogs.

Even primitive dog breeds (more "wolf like" dogs) seem to be less adept at solving problems and more inclined to look towards a human for help.

Wolves have around 33% more gray matter than a comparably sized domestic dog. In general, I've witnessed the ability among wolves and high content wolfdogs to solve problems quickly that stymy dogs until they give up.

Aqutaq [my wolf], for example is incredibly adept with a lead line. She fully understands the concept of the line and that it connects us in such a way that we must be on the same side of any tall obstacle. She might be sixteen feet in front of me and on the wrong side of a tree, yet she'll anticipate this issue, and alter course such that she moves to pass the tree on the side that matches mine.

If she becomes entangled while moving through brush, she also understands to retrace the path of the line to unwind it.

Physically, they're very similar, although domestic dogs can eat foods that contain many more carbohydrates as a result of their long-term association with people. Wolves are also only reproductively active once a year, whereas dogs can cycle multiple times. Pound for pound wolves are stronger, have better endurance, have a much greater bite force, and are faster than all but a very select few breeds of dog.

For those that are curious, in my life I've had many different breeds of domestic dogs including:

• 
  
• Malamutes
• 
  
• Shepherd-Collies
• 
  
• Border collies
• 
  
• Dachshunds
• 
  
• Pomeranians
• 
  
• Heinz-57 mutts
• 
  
• Varying wolfdog mixes
• 
  
• Selectively bred high-content wolf dogs
• 
  
• Wild-caught wolves (the one that ate me)
• 
  
• Offspring of same wild caught wolf
• 
  
• Offspring of lower-content wolfdogs
• 
  

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



More questions:​

• 
  
• Wolves: What should I do if I see a wolf in the wild?
• 
  
• Bears: What should I do if I encounter a bear in the wild?
• 
  
• Predators: Is it possible for humans to live safely alongside predators?
• 
  

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High Seas Biodiversity Agreement: the importance of sustainable access and benefit sharing  
As African States, we are fully cognisant of the contribution of oceans and seas to our development. In this regard, the far-reaching positive implications as well as the benefits of the BBNJ process will be understood and appreciated even more, now that we are standing at a juncture where ocean-based economic development is at the top of the agenda for many Governments.

©James Warwick/Wildscreen

We welcome and appreciate the fact that the process towards the negotiation and adoption of an Internationally Legally Binding Instrument under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is potentially one of the most significant in international environmental law-making in the twenty-first century. It promises to address legal, governance and regulatory gaps in UNCLOS, including the issues identified in the package agreed in 2011, namely the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, in particular, marine genetic resources and questions on the sharing of benefits; measures such as area-based management tools, including marine protected areas; environmental impact assessments; capacity building and transfer of marine technology.

We are also of the view that the application of the common heritage of mankind principle in the new treaty would serve both to promote a sustainable access regime and ensure a benefit-sharing regime. The sharing of benefits is the key element for which the common heritage of mankind is best known. As John Noyes observes, benefit sharing reflects the idea of the need to promote the development of developing countries--an idea that is reflected in a multitude of international law instruments. The rationale for a benefit-sharing element of the common heritage of mankind is captured in the famous statement of the then Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations, Ambassador Pardo, warning against the failure to implement the common heritage of mankind principle. Ambassador Pardo warned that, "There would be intolerable injustice that would reserve the plurality of the world's resources for the exclusive benefit of less than a handful of nations. The strong would get stronger, the richer would get richer, and among the rich themselves there would arise an increasing and insuperable differentiation between two or three and the remainder." Ambassador Pardo's argument, and, indeed, the foundation of the common heritage of mankind principle's benefit-sharing component, is based on the pursuit of a more equitable framework.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the UN's Preparatory Committee Meeting (Aug 26-Sept 9) on an internal legally binding instrument on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and is a part of HuffPost's "What's Working" initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here.

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Is Signal From HD164595 Evidence Of Aliens Or Just Another False Alarm?  
Social media and news outlets the past few days have been abuzz with the prospects of a strong signal apparently coming from the star unromantically known at HD 164595, which is about 94 light years from Earth. Reading news reports, one would think that the signal was intercepted last week, but actually it was picked up over a year ago in May of 2015.

Indeed, the buzz is reminiscent of extensive news coverage that surrounded KIC 8462852, now known as Tabby's Star, last year when it was suggested by Penn State astronomer Jason Wright that the star's odd dimming behavior might be the result of an alien civilization building a mega-structure blocking the star's light. We've also seen recent fascination with the discovery of a rocky planet orbiting inside the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, which is quite near (by galactic standards) Earth at a little over 4 light years distant. It's our next-door neighbor.

Scientists have been careful in expressing optimism over these unusual discoveries, noting that neither of the candidates for extraterrestrial civilizations are anything more than interesting at this point. There is no evidence right now that something artificial is going on either around KIC 8462852 or HD 164595 and it's not even certain that the signal under discussion now came from HD 164595.

Both METI International, using the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama, and the SETI Institute, using the Allen Telescope Array in California, have plans to train their observational equipment on HD 164595 to see if anything interesting might emerge that supports, or discounts, the idea that the signal was artificial. Perhaps something intriguing will show up.

However, SETI astronomer Seth Shostak makes several good points about the problems with HD 164595 being a signal from a civilization. For example, it would have required a great deal of power to generate the signal we received -- either the equivalent of all of humanity's power usage on Earth if it were aimed directly at us or the equivalent of the entire power output of the Sun if the broadcast was omnidirectional.

Neither of these conditions are impossible, but they should raise eyebrows. Oddly enough, it's the argument for the lower level of power usage that should raise significant questions. If the signal were a beacon aimed at Earth, we are forced to ask, why? At 94 light years away, as Shostak notes, our television and other signals have not yet had time to reach HD 164595. How would they know we are here? Of course, 94 years ago they may have had technology that would allow them to detect our presence, even if we were not sending out much in the way of signals at that time. But it's difficult to imagine how they would pick up the presence of Earth civilization as it existed in 1920. And if they were somehow able to do this, why would they send a message to a civilization that didn't look as though it could respond?

Perhaps they are both prescient and very patient. They knew that a century later, humans would have the capacity to send out signals at the speed of light, so they anticipated that. And they are patient enough to wait two centuries for an answer.

This explanation is possible, but if that alien civilization were anything like us, it would seem pretty unlikely. It's best to expect other explanations will work better for this signal until we have more evidence. Of course, if the signal doesn't appear again, it may be little more than another fascinating data point like the WOW! Signal, that showed up once leaving little more than a tantalizing mystery.

The public and news media should keep in mind that science is a system of organized skepticism. And it's that way for a good reason; skepticism keeps us from drawing unwarranted conclusions from what we observe. When it comes to SETI, we should avoid getting too excited about possible signals of artificial and extraterrestrial origin, because usually there is a better explanation than little green men from Alpha Centauri, whether or not it's a beautiful place that we ought to see.

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Drama in orbit: Brazen UFO attacks Earth's Sentinel-1A satellite  

Plucky climate-change probe fends off cosmic intruder

The European Space Agency's Sentinel-1A satellite has been hit by an unidentified flying object while in orbit. Panic not: the probe remains fully operational.…

 
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US board gives student assistants unionization rights  
Decision overturns a 2004 ruling, but university representatives disagree with verdict  
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Why use silicon qubits for quantum computing?  
Andrea Morello believes that classical computing might hold the key to quantum computing  
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Test Of Experimental Alzheimer's Drug Finds Progress Against Brain Plaques  

Researchers have failed repeatedly in their efforts to slow or halt Alzheimer's disease. But there are hints that an experimental drug can do what previous medicines could not.

 
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Australian geoboffin discovers 3.7 billion year old fossils after ice melts  

Stromatolites are evidence of changing chemistry on Earth

The world's oldest fossils have been discovered in Greenland after a layer of snow on ancient rocks melted, revealing stromatolites embedded in the Isua supracrustal belt.…

 
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5 Things I Learned In My First Year As A Vegan  

A photo posted by nzinga young (@veganzinga) on Jun 17, 2016 at 6:14pm PDT

Going vegan has been a learning process.

Learning the atrocities of the meat and dairy industries and living more ethically are part of it, but here are other things I learned during my first year as an ethical vegan.

Exploitation is everywhere.

I was on vacation when I realized the $5 I paid to take a picture with a python was supporting its captivity. Colored candies I bought for my niece seemed vegan at the time, but were probably dyed with bug juice. Getting my sunscreen and multivitamins right was hard enough, but every few months I learned something new.

I didn't realize how pervasive animal exploitation is in our culture.

I didn't realize how pervasive animal exploitation is in our culture until I had to become more mindful. I'm a lot better now, but I'm sure there are a few more "uh oh" moments left in me.

Vegans are nicer in person.

My experiences with vegans online and offline have been very different.

Some online vegans can be pretty intense. Honest questions from aspiring vegans and differing views from well-meaning people are subject to brutal criticism in Facebook groups. There are more great vegans on social media than unnecessarily judgmental ones, but I have yet to meet a rude vegan offline.

The people I've met have been lovely. We can discuss differing opinions without raising our voices. We may not always agree, but we honor and respect each other for being different parts of the same fight.

I'm not sure if the anonymity of the internet makes people bolder or if I'm not in the right circles, but my view of vegans changed for the better when I started connecting in person.

A photo posted by nzinga young (@veganzinga) on Jul 20, 2016 at 6:35pm PDT

Activists are trying their best.

If you maintain a consistent argument and fight for full liberation, you're called a rigid abolitionist who's too stuck in your ways.

If you work for incremental change and improved conditions for farm animals, you're called a dirty welfarist who's doing more harm than good.

And let's not get started on vegans who urge us to consider the human rights issues tied into animal exploitation.

As a new vegan, I started to believe these reviews of vegan thought leaders, but I have yet to meet anyone from differing camps who wasn't passionate about animal liberation. The methods may differ from person to person, but the ultimate goal of freedom for all animals seems to be the same.

Connecting with vegans helped me formulate my own opinion about the biggest names in the movement. I may still disagree with their tactics -- especially ones that disrespect other social justice movements -- but everyone seems to be making an impact the best way they know how.

Intersectionality matters.

With a situation as dire as systematic murder, it's easy to focus solely on what's best for non-human animals. That's why it's important to have vegan organizations with a broader perspective. Groups that understand all oppression is intertwined and remind us that fighting for animals doesn't mean disregarding other injustices.

Collectively Free protests the forced impregnation of dairy cows and the underpaid Ethiopian workers that keep your favorite coffee shop in business.

Food Empowerment Project reminds us that the factory farm employees we often vilify are also being exploited.

Veganism is certainly about animals, but it doesn't mean we disrespect our own species along the way.

Veganism is certainly about animals, but it doesn't mean we disrespect our own species along the way.

I should be doing more.

I spent a lot of this year buying vegan without being vegan. I was caught up in vegan consumerism without doing anything to inspire change. I hope my latest initiative helps vegans everywhere get those closest to them to understand the importance of a vegan lifestyle.

My goal is to have a bigger impact during my second year of veganism. For more on my initiative to get our friends and family to go vegan, visit Wanyama Box.

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

 
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The Write Questions: Advice From The Wrong Side Of The Lens  

Photo by Rhododendrites (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I am unashamed to admit it: I am terribly proud of my people.

To what "people" am I referring here? To doctors? To scientists? To astronauts and aspiring astronaut-types? I'm surely proud of all those people. Today, I'm referring to another group to which I belong; to something I've done on and off for more than half my life; to one of the most important things I've ever done, as well as one of the most important things that occurs in a truly free and democratic society. I am referring, of course, to the press.

My people - journalists - are amazing. We bust in doors behind which lie nefarious activities that undermine the basic tenets of our civil liberties. We point the spotlight on violations of human rights. We call "foul" when justice isn't being served and, in that sense, are our own sort of justice. Therein lies the agony and the ecstasy of the media: with words, sounds, and images, we convene trials, summon the accused, calls witnesses, and cause judgments to be made. Like an outstanding attorney, an excellent journalist solicits input from relevant experts and arranges concrete evidence in such a way that the jury - our audience - can make an informed decision. In outstanding journalism - not editorial, just plain ol' features about life and the people who live it - there's no need to prosecute or to defend. The facts, well-presented, do that for themselves. The facts, poorly presented or not presented at all, twist and maul the truth and raze our ability as professionals to educate, empower, and vouchsafe civilization.



Photo By Txbeaker [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


These days, both facts and the way in which they are presented are more malleable than ever. When I first got into the field, it wasn't so. Back then, I inked an honest-to-god press. The thing was a behemoth - a giant born from the black depths of global mechanization. You basically had to wrestle it in order to get your paper out. Every word you fed into that thing you thought about. Then you thought about it twice and twice again, because lord knows you didn't want to go more rounds with that infernal machine than was absolutely necessary. My summer at The Otter Valley News and Views is witnessed by the ink particles still embedded deep within the lining of my lungs.

Photography used to follow a similar plodding, dedicated to-the-point-of-cultish course. At The Daily Californian, we photographers rolled our own black-and-white film, ran up and down at sporting events at nearly the same pace as the players, and worshiped the smell of fixer in the morning- or at least pretended to, because what we sweated (and sometimes bled) for mattered. Our shots were a critical part of the process. They provided more than just meaning and context. Photographs printed on paper drew people in: they gave the words our colleagues penned the opportunity to inform readers and transform the world for the better. That was before I graduated from college, before I built something that flew into space, before I ever laid hands on a patient. Long before I ever saved someone's life, through journalism, I was able to have a significant, positive impact on the lives of my fellow human beings. And also: really great calves.

So here I am, 18 years and several degrees later, dealing first-hand with journalism from the far side of the lens. A lot has changed. For one, the cameras are now in my face, not hanging about my neck as they ought to be. The questions will be coming my way. In 48 hours, my exit from "Mars" will be attended by 55 members of the media (and my brother, who has promised to heckle me "like a reporter"). On either side of me will be five very nice, very smart, very tired innocent bystanders: my crewmates, who have born a ceaseless onslaught of media for the last 12 months with an impressive amount of grace.

In return for our patience, we've had some outstanding coverage. My most sincere thanks to VICE, The History Channel, The Surge, BBC Stargazer, The University of Rhode Island, The British Journal of Medicine, Radio New Zealand, Voices from L5 and many others for your thoughtful, thorough, and accurate pieces. We've also had our share of "What the heck is this? We don't play xBox! No one has actually been chosen to go to Mars! As for sending robots ahead of time to build our shelters for us... it's a cool idea, but not, as some people would have you think, "a done deal." Those last two informational travesties resulted from what increasingly passes for reporting: taking a story written by someone else, distilling it (badly), sprinkling it with Googled facts, and passing it off as news.*

Here we arrive at something else that's changed since that fateful day when I talked my way into a job shooting mayoral candidates, house-fires, extra softball innings, and other natural disasters for a living: As much good journalism as there is (more than ever, really), really bad media abounds.

What's the disparity between good journalism and...not? Here's my view: a journalist gathers and contextualizes information such that readers can imbue it with social relevance and personal meaning. Making up facts, distilling other peoples' articles without adding value, and lifting quotes from blogs posts rather than conducting interviews is not journalism. It takes up space in news feeds, but it isn't news. Predigested and filling, it lacks mentally nutritional value while giving readers a serious case of brain gas.

True, there's always been fluff out there. Also true: like the scarlet letter, sensationalism used to be highly visible from a distance (and for the same reason). Clearly marked by cheap newsprint yellowing before it even hit the stands or by super-glossy covers with garish titles, these tabloids practically glowed when held against a dark background. If you wanted news, you had to pluck off your doorstep or out of a metal box at a busy intersection.

These days, good journalists and bad media are jammed into the same space. No books, no covers: just the great equalizer of pixels on a screen. In the digital age, the friendly labeling we once counted on to help us discriminate between medicine and poison - between information and aggrandizement - has faded away. A text from your mother and a text from a scammer claiming that your mother is in the hospital and needs $10,000 for a procedure appear exactly the same way on your phone's LCD. An opinion piece written on an iPad on the way home from work may look as, or more, legitimate than a Pulitzer-winning piece of investigative reporting. On the surface, these two often appear the same.

That's one major change since I got into this business in 1996. The other is that properly trained, properly-paid journalists are vastly outnumbered by people under deadline to write click-bait.

So: what's a simulated astronaut to do?

Fundamentally, my job, whether I'm an astronaut or a reporter or a doctor, is to make things work: to take the limited resources at hand and deliver a victory for the home team. Ship me anywhere in the 'verse. Make the delay 20 minutes, 200 hours, or 40 days and 40 nights. Whatever the apparent barriers, I won't abandon my people - many of whom are or could be good writers who aren't given the time or training to make their product what it rightfully should be. I can't change that right now, but I can help even the odds stacked against us all by expediency, mediocrity, and inertia.

On 8/28 you will be able to ask us any question in the world. To help even the odds, here's a list of questions we've already answered many, many times:

• What have you learned?
• 
  
• What do you miss?
• 
  
• What did you eat?
• 
  
• Have you seen The Martian?
• 
  
• How did it feel to not have the Sun and the wind in your face for a year?
• 
  
• What's the first thing you're going to do?
• 
  
• What's been the biggest challenge about being on Mars?
• 
  
• Do you guys argue? How do you deal with conflict?
• 
  
• What do you do if someone gets sick?
• 
  
• Have there been any disasters during the mission?
• 
  
• Do you really want to go to Mars?
• 
  
• Did this mission - do any simulations - help pave the way for the human exploration of Mars?
• 
  
• How is this simulation different from Mars?
• 
  
• How did your families react to your decision to go into isolation?
• 
  
• Did you always want to be an astronaut?
• 
  
• Have you ever felt like quitting?
• 
  
• What will be the hardest part about coming back to Earth?
• 
  
• Would you do it again?
• 
  
• Are any of you signed up for the one-way trip?

We're very glad that people are curious enough about our mission to ask any question that comes to mind. At the same time, anyone locked in a box with no direct access to the outside world, no fresh food except the small amount that they can grow in whatever space they aren't sleeping on, and only five flatmates can easily imagine what they are going to miss: more friends, family, sunshine, wind, flowers, pineapple, sushi, long walks in the woods, and tailgating at Cal games (go Bears!). If "What do you miss?" was a mystery, thanks to the power of Reddit, six crew blogs, and countless news articles, that mystery has been solved.

To my fellow journalists out there: there are much better questions to be asked and answered. For the record, the questions that were truly mysterious until I arrived on "Mars" and have never/rarely been asked by the media are:

1. What turned out to be replaceable? What foods were replaceable, or even better/easier to make? What new favorite food took the place of the old one that you can't have?
   
   
2. You can't talk directly to your family - how well do the other things that you can do compensate for that? And how well does your new family, your crew, compensate for it?
   
   
3. While nothing can replace sunshine and wind, how well do the new adventures that you get to have compensate for their temporary loss? How well does the new filter between you and the world function to give you a sense of peace and the ability to accomplish things that you would struggle to accomplish otherwise, with the world knocking at your door?
   
   
4. Now that you have been there for a year, what message do you have for the people of Earth about their planet?
   
   
5. What message do you have for the folks designing the human Mars missions?
   
   
6. Name one total disaster - suits, radios, experiments, food recipes - and how, if you were able to salvage something from it, you did.
   
   
7. Name an epic win and how you accomplished it.
   
   
8. How is human society going to have to change to survive and thrive on Mars?
   
   
9. What do you expect will be extremely challenging for you when you return to Earth and what's your plan for overcoming that challenge?
   
   
10. What do you think will be the thing that you remember most - the dreaded memory and the cherished memory?
    
    
11. What's the weakness that could have torn this mission apart? What's the strength, or strengths, that saved it?
    
    
12. Did you find all the media attention flattering or annoying? How weird is it to be a journalist inside a Mars mission?
    
    
13. Did any of you get sick or get hurt? If that had happened on Mars would you have been alright?
    
    
14. Do you think that six people will be enough - or too many?
    
    
15. Did you get enough support from the people of Earth? What else could we have done to help this mission?
    
    
16. Do you plan to drive right away, or will you be re-integrating back into the operation of heavy machinery slowly?
    
    
17. What advice do you have for choosing the next crew?
    
    
18. Would you have tried to vote from space? How do you think that future Mars crews should handle the political process?
    
    
19. We talk a lot about the science of these missions - what the role of art, music, entertainment during these long voyages?
    
    
20. In a place where there's no money and nothing to buy, what do you value?

When we ask the right questions, we get people thinking, challenging assumptions, and pushing the boundaries of what ought to come next. These are free from me to you. Go to!

We Martians are ready to meet the press. We've been getting ready all year. All that we ask in return for the time that we're giving you the minute we hit dirt - I have to let you photograph me before I can so much as hug my husband - is this: be journalists. Be the truth-advocates who held this country together for hundreds of years. Adventurers like us are always good for a story. We scientists have been keeping things interesting for the last few centuries. Astronauts - bright and shiny! - are the new kids on the block when it comes to popular coverage, and deservedly so. We've faced dangers and made sacrifices for twelve long months, and we thank you for your attention. So please, come one and come all to the show. And when you come, bring the right questions. When the hatch opens and we finally present ourselves to you, that's the signal: It's YOUR turn to be the hero. To write our way into the future. To find the facts, solicit the opinions, and frame the stories that will make the last year - our lives in service to science and Earth and all of humankind - meaningful. To make the fact that I waited 366 days PLUS 10 minutes to hug my husband worthwhile. So let's do this, people. We scienced the heck out of this. Now, let's write the heck out of this.

You ask. We'll answer. Make me proud.


Courtesy of Wikimedia commons, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=197374

*Corrections were requested to all of these articles.

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Are Dogs Really That Different From Wolves?  
How are dogs and wolves similar and different? originally appeared on Quora - the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Oliver Starr, wolf handler, wilderness advocate, on Quora:

How are dogs and wolves similar and different? In a word? Intensity. Take any behavior exhibited by even the most uninhibited dog, then turn it up to thirty-seven and you've got that same behavior in a wolf.

Put another way, dogs dig holes; wolves dig mines. Dogs might rip up your sofa, a wolf will reduce one to feathers,splinters, springs and bits of fabric no more than a one-inch square.

I like to call wolves "raw dogs", "proto-dogs", or "the blueprint". Even with captive bred wolves, they exhibit a broader and more complex range of behavior than what I've experienced with dogs.

Even primitive dog breeds (more "wolf like" dogs) seem to be less adept at solving problems and more inclined to look towards a human for help.

Wolves have around 33% more gray matter than a comparably sized domestic dog. In general, I've witnessed the ability among wolves and high content wolfdogs to solve problems quickly that stymy dogs until they give up.

Aqutaq [my wolf], for example is incredibly adept with a lead line. She fully understands the concept of the line and that it connects us in such a way that we must be on the same side of any tall obstacle. She might be sixteen feet in front of me and on the wrong side of a tree, yet she'll anticipate this issue, and alter course such that she moves to pass the tree on the side that matches mine.

If she becomes entangled while moving through brush, she also understands to retrace the path of the line to unwind it.

Physically, they're very similar, although domestic dogs can eat foods that contain many more carbohydrates as a result of their long-term association with people. Wolves are also only reproductively active once a year, whereas dogs can cycle multiple times. Pound for pound wolves are stronger, have better endurance, have a much greater bite force, and are faster than all but a very select few breeds of dog.

For those that are curious, in my life I've had many different breeds of domestic dogs including:

• 
  
• Malamutes
• 
  
• Shepherd-Collies
• 
  
• Border collies
• 
  
• Dachshunds
• 
  
• Pomeranians
• 
  
• Heinz-57 mutts
• 
  
• Varying wolfdog mixes
• 
  
• Selectively bred high-content wolf dogs
• 
  
• Wild-caught wolves (the one that ate me)
• 
  
• Offspring of same wild caught wolf
• 
  
• Offspring of lower-content wolfdogs
• 
  

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



More questions:​

• 
  
• Wolves: What should I do if I see a wolf in the wild?
• 
  
• Bears: What should I do if I encounter a bear in the wild?
• 
  
• Predators: Is it possible for humans to live safely alongside predators?
• 
  

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Michel Chevreul Scientist of the Day Michel-Eugène Chevreul,...  

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Michel Chevreul Scientist of the Day

Michel-Eugène Chevreul, a French chemist and color theorist, was born Aug. 31, 1786.  

read more…

 
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African Ring of Fire to show up at annular solar eclipse  

Set your watches for tomorrow's skylight extravaganza

Tomorrow's morning sky will be temporarily blotted by an inky blackness as the Sun disappears behind the moon, leaving a dazzling ‘ring of fire' in an annular solar eclipse over Africa.…

 
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Astronauts sequence DNA in space for the first time  

Microgravity does little to life's secret sauce, experiment confirms

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Dome framed by sastrugi  

Full Text:

The dome at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is framed by ridges of snow called sastrugi. These sharp, irregular, grooves or ridges are formed on a snow surface by wind erosion, saltation of snow particles and deposition, and found in polar and open sites such as frozen lakes in cold temperate regions. The ridges are perpendicular to the prevailing winds; they are steep on the windward side and sloping to the leeward side. Amundsen-Scott is one of three U.S. research stations on the Antarctic continent. All of the stations are operated by the National Science Foundation's U.S. Antarctic Program.

Image credit: Bill McAfee, National Science Foundation

 
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Blink and you missed it: asteroid came within 90,000 km, only one sky-watcher saw it  

SONEAR sees 25-metre-plus rock when it was, well, so near

A small asteroid made a rare, close pass between Earth and the moon on August 28.…

 
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More tomatoes, faster: accelerating tomato engineering  

Full Text:

Tomatoes are already an ideal model species for plant research, but National Science Foundation-funded scientists just made them even more useful by cutting the time required to modify their genes by six weeks. While looking for ways to make tomatoes and other crop plants more productive, the researchers developed a better method for “transforming” a tomato -- a process that involves inserting DNA into the tomato genome and growing a new plant. By adding the plant hormone auxin to the medium that supports the growth of the cells, they can speed up the plant's growth, ultimately accelerating the pace of their research.

Image credit: Sheryl Sinkow, Boyce Thompson Institute

 
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SpaceX's <span class="strike">used</span> flight-proven rocket to loft Euro satellite this year  

First real test for second-hand reusable Falcon

European satellite operator SES will trust its latest hardware to a SpaceX Falcon rocket that has already made it into space once.…

 
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Seismic 'weather bomb' lights up Earth's interior  
Rare deep-Earth tremor caused by storms useful for seismic tomography  
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Their Masters' Voices: Dogs Understand Tone And Meaning Of Words  

When humans talk to dogs, the canine brains seem to separate the meaning of the words from the intonation used, and to analyze each aspect independently.

 
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High Seas Biodiversity Agreement: the importance of sustainable access and benefit sharing  
As African States, we are fully cognisant of the contribution of oceans and seas to our development. In this regard, the far-reaching positive implications as well as the benefits of the BBNJ process will be understood and appreciated even more, now that we are standing at a juncture where ocean-based economic development is at the top of the agenda for many Governments.

©James Warwick/Wildscreen

We welcome and appreciate the fact that the process towards the negotiation and adoption of an Internationally Legally Binding Instrument under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is potentially one of the most significant in international environmental law-making in the twenty-first century. It promises to address legal, governance and regulatory gaps in UNCLOS, including the issues identified in the package agreed in 2011, namely the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, in particular, marine genetic resources and questions on the sharing of benefits; measures such as area-based management tools, including marine protected areas; environmental impact assessments; capacity building and transfer of marine technology.

We are also of the view that the application of the common heritage of mankind principle in the new treaty would serve both to promote a sustainable access regime and ensure a benefit-sharing regime. The sharing of benefits is the key element for which the common heritage of mankind is best known. As John Noyes observes, benefit sharing reflects the idea of the need to promote the development of developing countries--an idea that is reflected in a multitude of international law instruments. The rationale for a benefit-sharing element of the common heritage of mankind is captured in the famous statement of the then Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations, Ambassador Pardo, warning against the failure to implement the common heritage of mankind principle. Ambassador Pardo warned that, "There would be intolerable injustice that would reserve the plurality of the world's resources for the exclusive benefit of less than a handful of nations. The strong would get stronger, the richer would get richer, and among the rich themselves there would arise an increasing and insuperable differentiation between two or three and the remainder." Ambassador Pardo's argument, and, indeed, the foundation of the common heritage of mankind principle's benefit-sharing component, is based on the pursuit of a more equitable framework.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post in partnership with Ocean Unite, an initiative to unite and activate powerful voices for ocean-conservation action. The series is being produced to coincide with the UN's Preparatory Committee Meeting (Aug 26-Sept 9) on an internal legally binding instrument on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and is a part of HuffPost's "What's Working" initiative, putting a spotlight on initiatives around the world that are solutions oriented. To read all the posts in the series, read here.

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Missing Milky Way mass blown away by bingeing supermassive black hole  

Mystery of the missing baryons leads to a surprising find

The supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy was bursting with nuclear activity when humans' first ancestors roamed the Earth, according to a team of astrophysicists.…

 
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