ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla (Reuters) - With the North Star as the guiding light for runaway slaves and Canada as the Promised Land, the underground railroad that U.S. schoolchildren read about in textbooks points to freedom in just one direction - the north. But scholars gathering this week for the National Underground Railroad Conference will head south to St. Augustine, Florida, home to the former ...
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N.C. Senate Pro-Tem Phil Berger, left, and N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis announce a joint budget during a press conference held Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at the Legislative Building in Raleigh.
House and Senate leaders presented a $20.2 billion budget Wednesday that the chambers will vote on this week.
The budget includes 1.2 percent raises for state employees and teachers, and a 1 percent cost of living increase for state retirees.
A $10 million plan to compensate state eugenics victims did not make it in to the budget. Senate leader Phil Berger said there was not support in his chamber for payments. The compensation effort is likely dead this year.
House Speaker Thom Tillis said he considered the inability to get eugenics funding a personal failure.
Its something Ill continue to work on, he said.
The budget includes portions of the education plan Berger pushed, but does not end teacher tenure.
The budget includes more money in anticipation of higher Medicaid costs. Rep. Nelson Dollar said legislators asked for a recalculation of costs for inflation and additional use of the government insurance program for the poor and disabled after state health officials told them last week that a $205 million budget shortfall this year had grown by another $75 million.
Legislators want better management of Medicaid and its budget, one of the most unpredictable elements of the state spending plan. Every time we hear a number from the department, it seems to be changing, said Dollar, a Cary Republican.
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State legislators offer $20.2B budget without eugenics provision
RALEIGH (AP) A group set up to help people sterilized against their will in North Carolina is halting its efforts to find more victims.
The N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation said Wednesday the group must end its work because its funding expires June 30. Legislators did not include any money in the state budget for the foundation or to compensate the victims of the decades-old sterilization program.
The foundation says it has now verified 161 victims, including 146 living victims.
The foundation also says the number of likely living victims is now estimated at between 1,350 to 1,800 people, instead of the previous 1,500 to 2,000 victims.
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RALEIGH (AP) Victims of a decades-old forced sterilization program will have to wait on compensation because legislators did not include any money for them in a state budget deal, in part because Republican leaders could not agree on how to respond to the victims.
North Carolina was the first state in the country to tackle the question of how much to give victims of the program, which lasted from 1929 to 1974 and sterilized more than 7,600 people. The program was aimed at creating a better society by weeding out people who were deemed feeble-minded, many of them poor women.
The state House had agreed to provide $50,000 to victims who were alive as of March 1, 2010, but the effort faltered in the Senate. Many Republicans raised questions about the potential aggregate cost of providing $50,000 to each living victim and whether offering compensation would open the door to other groups of people to seek damages for previous misguided activities by the state.
"I think there's a very strong message from the Senate that they're not prepared to take it up this year," House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, told reporters today in announcing details of next year's proposed $20.2 billion budget agreement. The two chambers will vote on the compromise later this week before it goes to the governor.
Tillis spoke passionately for the compensation, taking the unusual step during floor debate earlier this month to turn over the proceedings to someone else so he could speak. He has said that a lack of compensation would be a personal failure on his part.
"It's something that I'll continue to work on," Tillis said.
The compensation also had the support of Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.
One of the most outspoken victims, Elaine Riddick of Atlanta, said she was angry with the Senate. Riddick was 14 years old when she said she was raped and then sterilized after giving birth to a son.
"I have given North Carolina a chance to justify what they had wronged," she said, adding that she plans legal action on behalf of herself and other victims, including those who have died. "I gave them up until the last moment, but now I have no other choice. These people here don't care about these victims. ... I will die before I let them get away with this."
State officials have estimated that 1,500 to 2,000 of the victims are still alive. They have verified 132 victims, of whom 118 are living.
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Q: WHAT HAPPENED IN NORTH CAROLINA? A: Under the state's eugenics program, which began in 1929, more than 7,600 people underwent sterilizations. Some procedures were forced to weed out the "feebleminded" while others were a voluntary form of birth control.
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What caused NC to have one of the nation's largest post-World War II eugenics programs?
A woman who was 14 years old when the state of North Carolina forcibly sterilized her says she is angry victims of the program will not receive any compensation.
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Victims of a decades-old forced sterilization program in North Carolina will have to wait on compensation because legislators did not include any money for them in a state budget deal, in part because Republican leaders could not agree on how to respond to the victims.
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Q: WHAT HAPPENED IN NORTH CAROLINA?
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The proposed electric buses by Syarikat Prasarana Bhd will serve as a pilot project for future operational performance. Bernama pic
Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (Prasarana), which will be introducing electric buses in its operations, wants to reiterate its commitment to promote green technology.
Our Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project is a serious business venture and marks the beginning of a new era in public transportation.
The deployment of electric buses under the BRT project will not only be a showcase for green technology, but also serve as a pilot project for future operational performance of electric buses in the country.
The operation of buses, which will be under subsidiary RapidKL, is in line with the company's effort to reduce the level of harmful gases emitted by diesel-powered buses.
While the initial investment is big, it will be more economical compared with the maintenance of diesel-powered buses that require top overhaul of engines every 21/2 years and complete overhaul of engines every five years.
When we compare the 10-year life cycle of both buses, the electric bus is cheaper and helps eliminate a lot of these maintenance and invisible costs such as breakdowns. Plus, it emits no gas at all.
The new BRT-Sunway Line project -- a public-private partnership project between Prasarana, a government-owned company and Sunway Bhd -- will involve 15 electric buses running on dedicated guideways and passing through strategic places in Bandar Sunway with a length of more than 6km.
The BRT is a fully rapid transit system, combining the excellent features of rail systems with flexibility and cost savings of using over-the-road and environmentfriendly vehicles that operate on their own roadways and lanes, thus maximising speed and service.
Construction work is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of next year and is expected to be completed by 2014.
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Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (Prasarana), which will be introducing electric buses in its operations, wants to reiterate its commitment to promote green technology.
Our Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project is a serious business venture and marks the beginning of a new era in public transportation.
The deployment of electric buses under the BRT project will not only be a showcase for green technology, but also serve as a pilot project for future operational performance of electric buses in the country.
The operation of buses, which will be under subsidiary RapidKL, is in line with the company's effort to reduce the level of harmful gases emitted by diesel-powered buses.
While the initial investment is big, it will be more economical compared with the maintenance of diesel-powered buses that require top overhaul of engines every 21/2 years and complete overhaul of engines every five years.
When we compare the 10-year life cycle of both buses, the electric bus is cheaper and helps eliminate a lot of these maintenance and invisible costs such as breakdowns. Plus, it emits no gas at all.
The new BRT-Sunway Line project -- a public-private partnership project between Prasarana, a government-owned company and Sunway Bhd -- will involve 15 electric buses running on dedicated guideways and passing through strategic places in Bandar Sunway with a length of more than 6km.
The BRT is a fully rapid transit system, combining the excellent features of rail systems with flexibility and cost savings of using over-the-road and environmentfriendly vehicles that operate on their own roadways and lanes, thus maximising speed and service.
Construction work is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of next year and is expected to be completed by 2014.
The letter writer, Tai Hean Kiat of Sungai Buloh, Selangor, said it was pointless to deploy a handful of electric buses to showcase green technology when the rest of the bus service is hamstrung by a shortage of drivers.
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ONONDAGA COUNTY, N.Y. -- Onondaga County is trying to help people beat the heat by extending beach hours at Jamesville Beach and Oneida Shores. The two locations will be open until 8 p.m. today and tomorrow. That's two hours longer than normal.
Regular weekend hours for Jamesville Beach and Oneida Shores are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. for the rest of the week.
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OCEAN CITY--It's the first official day of summer and people were already looking to beat the heat during the first heat wave of the season. Large crowds headed to the beach in Ocean City looking for some much needed relief.
They came armed with chairs and umbrellas, ready to face the day while attempting to beat the heat. Id rather be here than home, said Dawn Benyola from Williamstown.
Terrible at home, said Stanley Hoff about the temperatures he left behind in Harleysville, Pennsylvania.
Looking to escape the heat, they came in droves and showed up early to claim their piece of sand. We got here at 10 and there was hardly anybody here, said Benyola, looking around, then all of a sudden, everybody started coming in. It got crowded real fast, but I can't blame 'em.
Many found the relief they were looking for in and around the ocean. The water's great, 74 degrees, said Hoff, fresh out of the water, body surfings great.
Lifeguards kept a watchful eye over the dozens of swimmers who frolicked in the refreshing surf, but those on the beach will tell you just being by the water provided a nice break from the heat. It's definitely cooler cause of the breeze, said Ashlyn Hewitt, visiting from North Carolina.
But even with the nice sea breeze, everyone was being sure to stay hydrated during this oppressive heat, because hey- they've got a lot planned for this sunny beach day. We're going in the water, yeah - playing, playing in the sand, finding seashells, said Lizzie Wolf and her cousin Samantha Hewitt, excited for a day at the beach.
I might just go in the water, play, make sandcastles, said Danielle Benyola excited to spend the day by the shore
While Wednesday was hot. Thursday should be even hotter- but the good news is the heat wave should end late Friday, when we're expected to see a drop in both the heat and humidity, something many are already anxiously anticipating.
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The beaches are open on this hot day.
Today is the kind of day to stay inside, turn on the A/C and stay cool, but some people are bound to head to a local beach and all of the state swimming areas are open, except for Pachaug State Forest, at Voluntown.
Green Falls Pond, at the park in Voluntown, was closed as of June 13 for dam work. The swimming area will reopen when water levels rise back to normal levels, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Its also a great day to grab an ice cream and there are many places in the state to enjoy a cone or a bowl.
View Home Grown Connecticut Ice Cream in a larger map
Cooling centers are also open in several communities.
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Readmore: Local, Health, Water Issue, Outdoors, News, E. Coli, E. Coli Outbreak, Bacteria Outbreak, Chippewa County, Chippewa County Beaches, E Coli at Beaches, Beaches Closed, Chippwewa County Beaches Closed, Northern Michigan Beaches Closed, No Body Contact Advisory
CHIPPEWA COUNTY -- Several beaches inChippewaCountyhave been closed due to elevated levels of E. coli.
The beaches that are closed include Four Mile beach in Soo Township, Sherman Park in Sault, Brimley State Park in Superior Township and Sugar Island Township Park in Sugar Island Township.
There are also advisories listed for areas within the North Shore of Sugar Island and areas within the Waiska Bay and Back Bay in Superior and Bay Townships.
In addition to the beach closures, the Chippewa County Health Department has also posted a "No Body Contact Advisory" for areas within the Waiska Bay and Back Bay. People in these areas should avoid body contact with surface waters.
For up to date information, visit theChippewa County health department's website.
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19-06-2012 15:46 This is an OSU Astronomy "Coffee Brief" for the Clanton et al. (2012) paper titled "Precision Near Infrared Photometry for Exoplanet Transit Observations - I: Ensemble Spot Photometry for An All-Sky Survey" posted on the astro-ph archive on June 20, 2012. For more details, see the paper at: Video made by Chris Clanton (OSU Astronomy).
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The Canadian High Arctic offers continuous darkness during the winter months -- an enormous advantage for astronomers searching for repeating events like planetary transits of stars. Exceptionally clear, arctic winter skies and calm atmospheric conditions also make for excellent conditions for astronomy.
In February 2012, members of a team of astronomers and graduate students from the University of Toronto and the National Research Council braved -40 degrees Celcius temperatures to perform the first astronomical surveys, and continue measurements of atmospheric turbulence, at the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) on Ellesmere Island. Since 2009, the National Research Council has been organizing observations at PEARL. The results confirm the observatory -- at 80 degrees North -- as among the best in the world; it is an excellent location from which to search for exoplanets, an excellent future home for the half-metre Dunlap Institute Arctic Telescope, and an important opportunity to establish a unique astronomical facility in Canada.
The team tested two Arctic Wide-field Cameras (AWCams) at Environment Canadas Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL), located 15 kilometres from Eureka, Nunavut. The AWCams are designed to search for transiting exoplanets around nearby, bright stars. In the High Arctic, without the interruption of daylight, such cyclical events are much more likely to be detected, especially at the longer orbital periods which are very difficult to reach from current ground-based observatories.
The top of the Ridge Lab roof, where our cameras were deployed.
According to Law, Finding planets around nearby stars is particularly important. Because of their proximity to us, we can obtain a much more detailed understanding of their atmospheres and compositions compared to more distant worlds. In addition, the data collected is currently being used for variable star measurements, and to search for transient events like supernovae and micro-lensing events.
The researchers also measured the atmospheric turbulence, or astronomical seeing, at the sitea condition vital to understand before placing larger telescopes at the location. Graduate student, Wayne Ngan , spent 17 days at PEARL and says, Despite the challenges of working in a cold, dark, and windy location, our tests indicate that the location has excellent potential for large telescopes like the Dunlap Institutes half-meter telescope thats currently undergoing testing in New Mexico.
Law and the team look forward to returning to Ellesmere Island later this year. Because of the continuous winter darkness, relative ease of access via the PEARL laboratory, and excellent astronomical conditions, says Law, we are all very excited about the arctic sites exceptional potential.
Provided by Canadian Astronomical Society
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Extremely cool astronomy: Searching for exoplanets from the Canadian High Arctic
Because why not, I have two more Venus Transit shots to show you. Well, one picture and one quick time lapse video. I know its been a couple of weeks since the transit, but since today is the solstice, what the heck. And these are really special.
The first is a picture taken by friend-of-the-blog Babak Tafreshi, who founded and directs the wonderful project The World at Night, which shows people how lovely our skies are. He took several shots of the transit from Norway and put them together into this gorgeous composite photo:
[Click to ensolarnate, and you really need to; I had to shrink it quite a bit to fit the width of the blog.]
I love this shot, because. he took it at midnight! From northern Norway in June the Sun doesnt set; it skims the horizon at midnight, circling nearly parallel to it for a time. This coincided with the transit, making this one of the single most interesting sequences of the transit Ive seen. I also like how the Sun went behind a hill there on the right, with Venus and a sunspot still peeking over the edge. Babak says hes working on a time lapse video of the event too. [This picture was also on today's APOD.]
Speaking of which, the second transit shot is a time lapse video sent to me by Mark Ellis (who took the pink aurora picture I posted yesterday). He took this sequence in Minneapolis as Venus crossed the Suns face:
Short, but neat! I also like the music; it was written by Marks son Ryan. It fits the feel of the video very well.
I love these time lapse videos of the transit. The Sun is setting due to the Earth spinning on its axis, and Venus transiting the Sun due to its orbital geometry combined with our own. I like to picture all that motion in my head as I watch Venus silhouetted on the setting Sun, imagining myself affixed to a spinning world whirling around a star with other attendant worlds, all of us in a constant and complicated dance, moving to the tune of gravity.
How wonderful it is that we can understand and appreciate this celestial clockwork!
Image credit: Babak Tafreshi/Dreamview.net/TWaN
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Is Our Definition Of Artificial Intelligence Wrong? "The annual Loebner competition, where participants attempt to show that a machine can pass for a human in conversation, is based on Alan Turing's theory that such a test would be an adequate demonstration of intelligence. But Turing was wrong.
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21 June 2012 Last updated at 00:00 By Prof Noel Sharkey Artificial Intelligence, University of Sheffield
Computer pioneer and artificial intelligence (AI) theorist Alan Turing would have been 100 years old this Saturday. To mark the anniversary the BBC has commissioned a series of essays. In this, the fourth article, his influence on AI research and the resulting controversy are explored.
Alan Turing was clearly a man ahead of his time. In 1950, at the dawn of computing, he was already grappling with the question: "Can machines think?"
This was at a time when the first general purpose computers had only just been built.
The term artificial intelligence had not even been coined. John McCarthy would come up with the term in 1956, two years after Alan Turing's untimely death.
Yet his ideas proved both to have a profound influence over the new field of AI, and to cause a schism amongst its practitioners.
One of Turing's lasting legacies to AI, and not necessarily a good one, is his approach to the problem of thinking machines.
He wrote: "I have no very convincing arguments of a positive nature to support my views."
Instead, he turned the tables on those who might be sceptical about the idea of machines thinking, unleashing his formidable intellect on a range of possible objections, from religion to consciousness.
With so little known about where computing was heading at this time, the approach made sense. He asserted correctly that "conjectures are of great importance since they suggest useful lines of research".
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Entrepreneur Lars Hard feels he has seen the future of search, information gathering and the web in general, and it is artificial intelligence. Computational intelligence, to put it more succinctly: the ability to gather information or find your destination on the web faster and more efficiently with an artificial search partner that can predict what ...
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Artificial Intelligence is the Next Step in Search (and everything else)