ASTRO PHYSICS AP400 GTO WITH WOODEN TRIPOD – CN …

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USED ASTRO PHYSICS AP400 GO TO MOUNT W/WOODEN TRIPODThe two most important considerations in mount design and construction are maximum strength/rigidity for a given size and accuracy of the drive system. Without this basic foundation, all other features of a mount are just superfluous frills. The Astro-Physics 400GTO was engineered to be a compact, firm platform for your high-resolution instrument. Whether your interests are purely visual or include astro-photography, a steady image in the eyepiece or camera viewfinder is extremely important.The 400GTO is constructed of the highest quality components to provide you with years of observing pleasure. All parts are precisely machined on our computerized CNC lathe and machining center using solid or thick-wall aluminum and stainless steel. Machining tolerances are very high to achieve a tight, solid fit of all components. These are not thin-wall, weak, porous die castings as in most other mounts of comparable size. We avoid the use of any carbon steel shafts or plated steel fasteners because they will deteriorate with time. This mount will not rust or bind up and will retain its appearance and function throughout the years.Both axes respond to fingertip pressure with unparalleled smoothness. Built-in clutches can be disengaged for smooth sweeping or locked for astrophotography. The worm gears, motors and drive components are enclosed to protect them from dirt and dust. With the 105 Traveler, the 400 mount damps out in one second when mounted on the lightweight aluminum tripod.Your 400GTO mount can grow with your skills and interests in astronomy. You can enjoy the visual pursuits using the go-to Keypad controller and/or DigitalSky Voice software to help you find many fascinating objects. If you plan to take astro-photos, you will be pleased with the solid stability and inherent accurate tracking capability of the drive system. The GTO Control Box contains a plug-in for the CCD auto-guiding and imaging systems. These units will allow you to auto-guide astronomical photos and explore CCD imaging.FeaturesPrecision machined aluminum with radiused edgesGears and motors are fully enclosedGear in declination axis allows full 360 degree continuous rotation; scope can move through the zenith for photography2.5" (6.4cm) hollow right-ascension and declination shafts maximize strength at minimum weightLarge thrust bearings form highly-stable thrust surfaces for tremendous rigidity in a small packageRemovable stainless steel counterweight shaft for compact storageEngraved setting circles with Porter Slip Ring designFine altitude and azimuth adjustments for quickly and accurately zeroing in on the pole in the fieldBlack anodized finish will retain its lustrous beauty for yearsBase fits into 6" diameter pier with 0.083" wall thicknessSpecifications of the Equatorial Head

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ASTRO PHYSICS AP400 GTO WITH WOODEN TRIPOD - CN ...

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Astro-Physics products can be shipped to overseas destinations except for the following countries: Australia, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Astro-Physics is dedicated to the production and development of amateur telescopes and accessories. They strive to produce the highest possible quality telescope components at an affordable price. Astro-Physics builds optics, critical gears, circuit boards, and components including the knobs and fitting from scratch.

Astro-Physics offers a variety of telescope mounts andmount accessories, tube rings and photo / visual accessories.

The German Equatorial mounts Astro-Physics manufactures are: the Mach1GTO, 1100GTO, 1600GTOand 3600GTO. The Mach1GTO is compact, light-weight and portable. The 1100GTO German Equatorial Mount incorporates the design features of the 1600GTO in a smaller, more portable package.The 1600GTO can be used for basic configuration or with the optional Absolute Encoders it can go into demanding astro-imaging. The 3600GTO is the solution for imaging with large instruments or with a combined weight.

Mounting plates are another product of Astro-Physics. They produce an arrangement of dovetail mountings and fixed mountings. Astro-Physics also offer an array of accessories from counterweight shaft options, shaft extension and shaft safety parts, tripod, piers, power supplies and so much more. From the smallest accessory to the largest telescope mount you will find Astro-Physics products to be of the finest quality.

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About Cystic Fibrosis | CF Foundation

Watch a video that provides a glimpse into the everyday life of Kaitlyn Broadhurst, a 25-year-old living with cystic fibrosis.

People with cystic fibrosis are at greater risk of getting lung infections because thick, sticky mucus builds up in their lungs, allowing germs to thrive and multiply. Lung infections, caused mostly by bacteria, are a serious and chronic problem for many people living with the disease. Minimizing contact with germs is a top concern for people with CF.

The buildup of mucus in the pancreas can also stop the absorption of food and key nutrients, resulting in malnutrition and poor growth. In the liver, the thick mucus can block the bile duct, causing liver disease. In men, CF can affect their ability to have children.

Breakthrough treatments have added years to the lives of people with cystic fibrosis. Today the median predicted survival age is close to 40. This is a dramatic improvement from the 1950s, when a child with CF rarely lived long enough to attend elementary school.

Because of tremendous advancements in research and care, many people with CF are living long enough to realize their dreams of attending college, pursuing careers, getting married, and having kids.

While there has been significant progress in treating this disease, there is still no cure and too many lives are cut far too short.

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CF – Definition by AcronymFinder

CFCompact Flash (solid state memory technology)CFCold Fusion (Allaire web application development product)CFCanadian ForcesCFCenter Field (Baseball)CFCopy(ies) FurnishedCFConfiguration FileCFCarbon FiberCFCash FlowCFCongoCFCompact Framework (Microsoft)CFChristian FellowshipCFCardiff University (Wales)CFCardiff (postal code for Cardiff, Wales)CFCapital FederalCFCalfCFCommunity ForestryCFCentral African Republic (country code, top level domain)CFChristian ForumsCFCollaborative FilteringCFConfer (Latin: Compare)CFCompact Fluorescent (lamp/bulb)CFConceptual FrameworkCFComplement Fixation (assay method for determination of infection in blood or serum)CFCenter Front (tailoring)CFConstituio Federal (Brazil; Federal Constitution)CFContinuous FlowCFConservation FoundationCFContinued FractionsCFCalgary Flames (NHL hockey team of Calgary, Alberta, Canada)CFConservative FutureCFClimate and ForecastCFCerebrospinal FluidCFCarry FlagCFChinese FoodCFCapacity FactorCFCoal FiredCFCaliforniumCFColdfireCFCentrifugal ForceCFCarry ForwardCFCodice Fiscale (Italian: fiscal code)CFCardiac FailureCFCease-FireCFCienfuegos (postcode, Cuba)CFCold Front (meteorology)CFCall ForwardingCFCarrier FrequencyCFCombining Form (linguistics)CFCadillac FairviewCFCanadian French (language)CFCommon FunctionsCFChange FormCFCausal FactorCFChronic Future (band)CFCaptain Falcon (Nintendo)CFCold Feet (movie)CFCenter FrequencyCFChildfreeCFConsolidated Freightways (trucking company)CFCharcoal FilterCFCeltic Frost (band)CFCareer FieldCFCenter Fire (Ammunition)CFCustomer FocusCFCoopration Franaise (French)CFCommercial FilmCFComputing FacilityCFCommon Formats (United States Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005)CFCenter Forward (soccer position)CFChange FilterCFClimbing Fiber (neuroscience)CFCalibration FactorCFCentral FacilityCFCharlie-Foxtrot (slang for Cluster Flock; polite form)CFCommunication FunctionCFCanadian FighterCFConsulting ForesterCFCoalition ForceCFCentral FilesCFChange FrequencyCFCompound FractureCFConfidence FactorCFCaucasian FemaleCFCoated Front (paper)CFCompression FactorCFComplementary FunctionCFCahiers FrancaisCFCommunications FlightCFCenter FundedCFCharter One Financial (NYSE Symbol)CFCentrally FundedCFCollection FunctionCFCitrovorum FactorCFConseco Fieldhouse (Indiana)CFCloud FractionCFCompletion FormCFCowboys Fringants (band)CFCo-facilitatorCFCathode FollowerCFContra Fidem (Latin: Against My Will)CFChristmas FactorCFCommonwealth FundingCFCold FinishCFCervical Fracture (neck)CFCarbolfuchsinCFCharleston ForgeCFCommodities FinanceCFConcept FormulationCFChicago ForceCFChart FieldCFConcept FeasibilityCFCompress-and-Forward (networking)CFConfinement FactorCFContinental Freight (trucking company)CFCounts Fingers (used with the 20/ scale after c. 20/400; ophthalmology)CFConstruction ForcesCFClearance FacilityCFCoupling FaultCFCenter of FlotationCFCompliance FindingCFComputation FacilityCFConsulting FellowCFConservation Farmers (Nepal)CFComit de FacilitationCFCumulus FractusCFCape Fear Railways, Inc.CFCalf-FedCfFrictional Resistance CoefficientCFConstructed Fare (airlines)CFConfrontation Field (ophthalmology)CFClinical FacilitatorCFContingency FlagCFContent FreezeCFCoin First PayphoneCFChikara FansubsCFCreative Fluff (website)CFConstruction Flagman (NYC Transit Authority)CFCondensate and FeedCFCab to FrameCFCable, Fuzing or FiringCFClarissima Foemina (Latin: Most Famous Lady, epigraphy)CFCluster Foulup (polite form; military slang)CFCompartmented FacilityCFImagery and Geospatial Community Management Office (NIMA)CFControlled FlawCFAir Post Registration (Scott Catalogue prefix; philately)CFCampus Focus, Student Organization (University of Akron)CFCassville Ferry (Wisconsin)CFCivilingenjors ForbundetCFCountermeasure FactorCFControlled Iteration First PassCFConversion FacilityCFConversion FactorCFConvertible FreighterCFCooling FanCFContractor-FurnishedCFContributing FactorCFControl FlowCFControl FreakCFControl FunctionsCFCore Fighter (Gundam)CFCore Foundation (Apple Computer)CFCorkscrew Follies (Rollercoaster Tycoon game)CFCorn FlakesCFCorn FlourCFCorporate FinanceCFCorporate FraudCFCorrectional FacilityCFCorrelation FactorCFCost and FreightCFCount ForwardCFCounter ForceCFCounterfireCFCrazy Frog (advertisement)CFCrest-Factor (distribution in multiplexed transmission signals)CFCritically FactorCFCrossfireCFCubic FootCFCumulative Frequency (statistics)CFContinuous FormCFCourt FilingCFCovering ForceCFCounty FairCFCoupling Facility (IBM mainframes)CFHundred FeetCFCustomer FulfilmentCFCustomer FurnishedCFCutoff FrequencyCFCyberfairCFCystic FibrosisCFCystic Fibrosis FoundationCFDrift Error Confidence Factor (US DoD)CFFlying Deck Cruiser (US Navy)CFFrench CanadianCFCivic Force (Japan)CFChaplain to the ForcesCFCauseway Ferry (US DoD)CFCarrier FreeCFCapita Financial (various companies)CFCompact Flash

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Villainous Crush – TV Tropes

"Just fear me. Love me. Do as I say, and I shall be your slave." Jareth the Goblin King to Sarah, LabyrinthThis trope applies whenever a villainous character has romantic and/or sexual feelings for a heroic one.If this crush takes a turn for the perverse (and most such crushes tend towards this), this can lead to tropes like I Have You Now, My Pretty, Forceful Kiss, Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me, And Now You Must Marry Me, Scarpia Ultimatum, and Go-Go Enslavement where the villain tries to force their desires upon the character, although none of those require a Villainous Crush. Additionally, the villain may become a Stalker with a Crush. If the crush itself is a motivating factor in their Start of Darkness, then it's Love Makes You Evil.This trope isn't always negative, though. This trope can conversely be a very humanising trait for an Anti-Villain. The heroic character may become a Morality Pet, and can be fairly certain that their villainous admirer will never harm them or allow harm to come to them, barring certain exceptions. They may even step in to protect them from other villains who have fewer compunctions. Taken all the way, it may become Love Redeems.If the feelings are mutual or an actual relationship develops, then it's Dating Catwoman instead. When this is purely subtextual, see Foe Romance Subtext. The specific variant when the Evil Empress captures the hero to seduce him is Villainesses Want Heroes. Not to be confused with Foe Yay, which are purely audience reactions.No Real Life Examples, Please!Example subpages:Other examples:

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Light: Well, we've been outside talking for awhile and we've decided to make it official. I LOVE L! AND HE LOVES ME! I'm going to dump Misa so I can be with L!

Everyone: Gasp

Western Animation

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Department of Physics and Astronomy – Department of …

Our department is known for the global impact our students, faculty and alumni make with their research and cutting-edge international collaboration.We have ample hands-on research opportunities for all of our studentsfrom undergraduates to graduate students and post doctoral fellows.

In addition to ensuring you have a solid foundation in all central areas of physics, you'll also have the opportunity to take specialized experimental courses in order to tailor your studies to your own interests or goals. You can also explore our interdisciplinary program, engineering physics. This program will give you the practical problem solving skills that an engineering degree teaches backed up by the theory that physics offers.

As a physics student, we encourage you to take part in some of our many hands-on research opportunities. You have the option to either work with one of our internationally recognized faculty or to design your own research program. These opportunities will give you the skills and confidence to compete in the job market or to pursue a graduate degree.

Einstein, Black Holes, and Gravitational Waves

Public Lecture with Nobel laureate Dr. Barry Barish

Thursday, February 8, 2018 at 7:00pm

W.W. Hootie Johnson Performance Hall

Darla Moore School of Business (Room #101)

Applications to the University of South Carolina are handled onlineand there are options for you to apply as an undergraduate or to graduate school.

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Queen’s Brian May Will Rock You With 3-D book, Adam Lambert Tour, Astrophysics, Animal Rescue – Newsweek

Its a project that was in the back of my mind for a while because I had all these 3-D pictures that Id taken over the years, Queen guitarist Brian May tells me in a posh Manhattan hotel suite. He grabs a strawberry from the coffee table and continues. I was thinking, Does it constitute some kind of history, or is it just snaps?

The former is certainly the case in his new book, Queen in 3-D, which captures the thrilling history of his band with over 300 previously unseen stereoscopic photographs. (Stereoscopic, or 3-D, photography re-creates the illusion of depth by utilizing the binocularity of our vision.) The impressive book includes his own reflective narrative (May didnt need a ghostwriter), and comes with an OWL 3-D viewer, which brings out the full effect of these images.

The cover photo, and many of the images within, focuseson Queens iconic lead singer, Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991 after battling AIDS. Mercurys vocalssometimes operatic (Queens mix of rock and opera is groundbreaking), other times roaring with rock furyand his theatrical stage personamade him one of musics most beloved frontmen.

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He had a great vision for music of all kinds, but especially for harmonies, like you hear in Bohemian Rhapsody, May says.

British rock group Queen in concert. From left: Freddie Mercury, John Deacon and Brian May. Express Newspapers/Getty

Queens music blended elements of prog rock, heavy metal, pop, folk and classical in unique ways on albums like A Night at the Opera, News of the World,Jazz and The Game.

And Mays guitar work and songwriting often defined what was signature in Queen. Combining technical virtuosity with richly orchestrated multitracking, Mays playing, with its inventive harmonies,emotive melodies, soaring leads and clever rhythm work, has sometimes landed him on Greatest Guitarists of All Time lists. His unmistakeablesound is made possible by his Red Special, the guitar his father, Harold May, an electronics engineer, helped him build. He was very proud of the fact that wed done it together, as I still am, May tells me.

Young Man Blues: A pre-Queen Brian May. QPL

Following Mercurys death, Queen took an extended break. But in 2006, its surviving membersteamed up with former Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers and hit the road as Queen + Paul Rodgers. It wasnt exactly Queen, but it did rock.

And since 2011, former American Idol finalist Adam Lambert has been the guy in the frontman role. His powerful vocals and flamboyant stage presence work well with Queens music. The first tour billed as Queen + Adam Lambert was in June 2014, and a few weeks ago, the band wrapped up the U.S. leg of its latest tour, which will head to Europe in November before reachingNew Zealand and Australia in mid-February 2018. (Heres the full tour itinerary.)

Queen's Brian May, left, and Roger Taylor perform in Barcelona in 2016. QPL

In concert, May is still very much a guitar hero. At the Queen + Adam Lambert show in Newark, New Jersey, last month, he launched into a lengthy solo, and I noticed some licks from Brighton Rock, the blistering leadoff track on 1974s Sheer Heart Attack. Theres a little bit of that in there, Mays tells me. Its always different. Its just what I feel, really. During thatportion of the show, visual effects made it seem as if May was soaring through outer space.

Theres a reason for that.

The man whom many call Dr. Mayand whose father built him not only a guitarbut a telescope as wellreceived his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007. Eight years later, he became involved with NASA as a science team collaborator with the New Horizons Pluto mission, and he even used his stereoscopic photography skills on images of that planet.

May was also a co-founder of Asteroid Day, and one of those big rocks is actually named after him (Asteroid 52665 Brianmay). Same goes for Mercury (Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury). Now doesnt Queens Dont Stop Me Now seem all the more relevant (Im a shooting star leaping through the sky/Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity, Mercury sings)?

Guitarist Brian May, right, and lead singer Freddie Mercury, onstage in the '70s. QPL

In his conversation with Newsweek, May also sheds light on his animal welfare work (when doesthis guysleep?), including his efforts to stop fox hunting in the U.K., and the significance of Frank, the robot on the cover of News of the World (and on the T-shirt May is wearing during our talk). Frank makes a number of appearances at each Queen + Adam Lambert gig, which makes sense since this year marks the 40th anniversary of that amazing album.

Drummer Roger Taylor, guitarist Brian May and singer Adam Lambert perform with Queen at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on July 26, while Frank looks on. Michael Loccisano/Getty

How did Adam get the job? Well, the funny thing is we didnt look for him. Then one day somebody rang me up and said, Theres this guy on American Idol, and hes just done Bohemian Rhapsody,and youve got to see him because hes the guy who should go out and sing for you.

What was your first reaction? As you do, I looked on YouTube and thought, Hmmm, yeah.And at the same time, somebody had told Roger [Taylor, Queens drummer/singer]. Then we got a phone call from American Idol people saying, Will you come over and play with the two finalists?And so we did. Adam was one, and Adam did not win [onAmerican Idol].

Queen + Adam Lambert perform in Brussels in 2016. QPL

What was so captivating about Adams singing and stage persona? Its kind of funny looking back on it. The other guy [Kris Allen] was great too. But I think it was obvious that Adam had that kind of special, indefinable thing going for him, something unique, and almost scary. Hes on the edge, a bit like Freddy was. Some people could take him, and some people [couldnt]. And everybody deifies Freddy now, but if wed been sitting here 40 years ago, people were all out to get him. They were all like, Who does he think he is?

So Adams a bit like that. A lot of people look at Adam and think, What the hell does he think he is? But when they see him in concert, they get it. They fall in love with him. I think because he has this insane confidence, but also a humility. Its like he has both ends of the spectrum. And its genuine, you know? Hes very respectful. But he also knows what he can do, and thats a powerful thing.

'Queen in 3-D' was published by the London Stereoscopic Company. Paul Harmer

How did the idea for Queen in 3-D come about? It was in the back of my mind for a while because I had all these 3-D pictures that Id taken over the years. What happened was, my team kind of caught hold of the idea and they said, Look, you should take this seriously. And I have an archivethis sounds very swank, doesnt itand an amazing guy looks after my stereoscopic collection [of photography], curates it and researches it. He said, Look, if you just let me go through your houseand well see what we have.

So he ransacked the entire place and found all kinds of stuff that I had no idea I still had, including some bits of film that were processed but not mounted. And in one of those rolls we found this portrait of Freddy [Mercury], which is on pageI cant remember. This lovely one of him. And we gradually found more and more stuff. Then we thought, Not only is there enough for a book, theres probably too much, so were going to have to get really selective.

What came up for you while putting it all together? Seeing these picturesthe essence of the 3-D picture is its much more than a snap, its almost like a tableau that you could walk into and see the things that you were seeing at the timeand all sorts of memories came out.

'Queen in 3-D' London Stereoscopic Company/Brian May

How did the process of creating the book go? You get to the hard part where you really have to shape the book, and I started scratching my head about which dates were which and what came in what order. And theres a great joyful process of discovery in writing a book. You have all this stuff and its like nearly a book, and then theres this very hard piece where its the journey from nearly a book to a book. Then I thought, Ah, Im done now.But actually no, because youve got to sell the thing.

I attended the Queen + Adam Lambert show in New Jersey recently. Tell me about the show.

The stage reminded me a little of Queens stage on the 1978 Jazz tour, which I attended at the Nassau Coliseum [in Uniondale, New York]. Wow, all right!It is an interesting little vehicle we built there. Im very proud of it. For the first time, we actually put nine months of preparation in before we set foot on the stage, and I think it shows. In the past, we would throw a couple of ideas at the set designers and then arrive in the rehearsal room with a look on our faces like, Oh, what should we do now?

Queen and Adam Lambert perform onstage during the North American Tour kickoff at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on June 23. Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Miracle Productions LLP

This time, we thought it through more. You want to be conscious of the past, but you want to be conscious that its an organic thing, a new thing, and you have a new generation to play to. Theres so much new video and sound technology. Theyre all new toys. We were always a band that embraced every toy we could lay our hands on because its fun to do that.

What were some of the key elements that made Freddie such an amazing frontman? Well, the answer that comes to mind to me ishe was a self-made man. He had a vision of himself which was cast-iron. He knew where he wanted to be, he had a total focus on how he wanted to live, to create, to be perceived, to workand to play.

Singer Freddie Mercury during a Queen performance at London's Earls Court in June 1977. Gary Merrin/Keystone/Getty

All of that was very much part of him, even when we first met him. He wasnt a star when we met him, but a guy working in a boot store, and he was also at art school doing graphic design. But he had an insane confidence and belief. He behaved like he was a rock star. Not in an arrogant way, but just in a very kind of innocent way. Of course Im going to be a rock star, that kind of thing. You know, we were all kids. The funny thing was, as Roger will tell you too, he had this belief in himself as a singer, but wasnt yet a singer because he hadnt had the chance to mold himself. And when we first...Im cutting to the chase.

Go for it. When we first played with him, he ran around like a whirling dervish and kind of screamed, and we were a bit taken aback. We thought, Oh, my God, the guy has talent, but hes very untamed. Is this ever going to work? What happened was, when we first got into a studio, Freddie started to hear himself coming back off the tape, and there was this enormous cataclysm, because he didnt like what he heard. Hes like, Thats not good enough. Let me try this.

Queen in concert in the 1970s. QPL

In the space of a few months, he had transformed himself into a guy who not only had a great instrumentbut actually knew how to use it. And that process went on for quite a few years, until hes in the studio doing things like the introduction to You Take My Breath Away[from 1976s A Day at the Races], which we play in the [Queen + Adam Lambert] show.

Whats particularly striking about that song? Its a priceless gem. Normally, its the four of us singing harmonies, because we did that; well, the three of us. John [Deacon, Queens bassist] was kind of not interested [in singing]. But this was just Freddie, and he was in there with Mike Stone, a very unsung hero engineer, and he would just do track after track, multitracking himself. You could hear that on this beautiful little intro. I dont know how many voices there are, probably 30 to 40, but its all Freddie, molding this beautiful sound sculpture. The harmonies were unusual.

What often occurred when you, the guitarist, combined forces with Freddie, the singer? Its hard to say. Its a four-way thing, not just two-way. But Freddie did have a sort of vision of me. In the very early days, he said, You are what I want. You are my Jimi Hendrix, and we will do this thing.I think he had more belief in me than I had. And I remember that once wed done a few albums, Freddie said, Ive got something for you, darling. Ive got this little cassette.He had spent hours and hours in the studio putting together all of the solos that Id done up to that time. He said, Just listen to this.And hed made it into a continuous sort of guitar solo thing.

Wow! That is wonderful. I lost it.

Oh no! I never lose things, but I cant find that.

Brian May hits the red zone in concert. QPL

But that was him. He would surprise you in all sorts of ways. And he did have a vision. And not just for the musicbut for the presentation as well. Freddie was very conscious. Well, I guess we were all conscious in different ways; Im the guitar player, and I have a different kind of consciousness, and Roger, whos very much the rock star drummer, has a different kind of awareness of where we sat in music in general. John [Deacon] has a consciousness of the technical stuff and business too, which is important, and he also became an amazing bass player and a songwriter.

We all turned into songwriters. I guess Id already started writing songs before I met Freddie. But the four of us were all very keen to create, and it was quite competitive. We were mutually supportive, but also quite combative, like John comes in with something and goes, I want to do this.And Roger goes, Thats crap, thats disco, we dont do disco. Thats rubbish. This kind of confrontation [led to] Another One Bites the Dust, and everybody loved it.

A Day at the Studio: Freddie Mercury, left, and Brian May. QPL

There was always support, but also conflict. I think that's what made us what we were, what made us strong. It was a big rejection process of That isnt good enough.We can do that better.In the end, there was enough mutual respect that the guy who originally brought the song would have the final say.

And it was a process that did us proud all the way up to a certain point where we realized there was an element missing. We thought the thing thats missing is that we ought to be sharing everything, knowingly, with the creative process. So we made this big decision, which was every song that got used in the album would be credited to the four of us, as opposed to the guy who brought it in. And that was a big, big thing. It changed the way we worked.

When did that happen? It happened with things like I Want It All. I brought I Want It All [from 1989s The Miracle] in. It was a sort of recharging thing for us. The funny thing is, theres a price to pay. Because somebodys using I Want It All, they want to use it for a sports anthem at the moment. And people are bringing me these versions of it. And Im thinking, Oh, thats really nice, theyre using my song.Then Im thinking, Its not really my song, its Queens song, because its credited to the four of us.So theres a little bit of a price to pay, but thats OK.

Guitarist Brian May QPL

Some of Queens most thrilling music features operatic parts. Bohemian Rhapsody is a quintessential example. Theres a lot of elements. As kids, we were brought up in an environment which was so different from the way things are today. If youre a kid and youre into one kind of music, thats what you plug into. But in our day, there was nothing like that. There was only one radio station, to start. And what we heard on the radio was dictated by what just a few people would bring to it.

Youre speaking about the BBC? Yeah, and it was incredibly broad. We were brought up with everything from Mantovani, which is sort of light classical, to proper classicalTchaikovsky, Beethoven, whatever. And this kind of strange English kind of world which is music hall. Its got George Formby, a Lancaster boy with an amazing, kind of naughty sense of humor, but an incredible technique on banjo [May plays air banjo ukulele for a moment]. So I grew up listening to a lot of that because my dad played ukulele. But also there would be Uncle Macs Childrens Favourites[a BBC radio show] onSaturday morning. Uncle Mac was the guy who would play requests from children. And there was Lonnie Donegan.

How did the music of Lonnie Donegan influence Queen? He is a very interesting phenomenon. I mention him especially because hes part of the English development towards what we are. Hes singing songs like My Old Mans a Dustman and Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (on the Bedpost Over Night)? [May plays a bit of air uke that resembles his strumming on Good Company from A Night at the Opera.]Hes been to America, hes picked up all kinds of stuff, and hes basically bringing blues to England. It becomes this thing called skiffle. That was the first exposure England had to the American blues. I grew up with this amazing kind of saturation of all different styles.

Hollywood

Theres also plenty of terrific piano parts in Queens repertoire. Freddie and I had piano lessons, strangely enough. We didnt know each other in those days, but we both had four years of piano lessons. And of course you get exposed to a lot of classical stuff. No one would teach you pop in those days.

And no one would teach you guitar. The guitar was outlawed at my school. You were not allowed to bring a guitar to school, so we used to hide and play in our lunchtime. And thered be some guy on the lookout to make sure nobody discovered it. It was something sort of degenerate to play guitar. So its unthinkable that you would have guitar lessons, but you had piano lessons, and I had violin lessons. Its kind of an unimaginably different background from now, isnt it?

Queen's Freddie Mercury, left, and Brian May are photographed onstage in the '70s. QPL

Queen continued to progress on News of the World. In Queens recent concert, the robot on the cover of the album makes quite an appearance. Frank is named after his creator, Frank Kelly Freas. Were always on the lookout for connections. And Roger [Taylor] is particularly good at this stuff. Roger picked up a science fiction magazine called Astounding Science Fiction, from the 50s, and on the front of it is a picture of a robot, this guy, and in his hand, hes got blood on it, hes picked up a soldier. And this robot is a character who looks very fearsome and frightening because hes huge and hes mechanical, but actually what hes done is he picks up this soldier and hes injured him by accident or he was already injured, I dont know. But hes not picking him up because he wants to harm him, but because he wants to fix him.

It was a very appealing idea to us. It connected to some of the things we were into. So we got in touch with the artist, Frank Kelly Freas, and said, Will you re-create this robot for us and make a cover for us? And he did. Franks got me in his hands, strangely, enough, and Rogerhes dropping him.

Island

The audience was thrilled when Frank appears onstage. He picks you up in his hand. And Adam sits on his head, and says, This guy gives great head! Perfect! The Queen archivist was saying to me, Look, this is the 40th anniversary of News of the World. Then we picked up this album, and I went, You know what, it would be so great if we did theme [parts of the show] on this anniversary. And look at this guy, wouldnt it be great if he came to life? I thought, Wouldnt it be great if he picked me up? In his hand. And they were like, Yeah, we can make that happen.

Frank is there in peoples minds the whole time, and we love it. It gives the show a kind of theatrical overtone. And I know Freddy wouldve loved it. He loved all that theater stuff.

Sheer Ax Attack: Bassist John Deacon, left, Freddie Mercury and Brian May. QPL

Some of the most moving moments of Queens current live show occur when you perform Love of My Life on a 12-string acoustic guitar and sing. The song originally featured Freddies beautiful vocals. I love doing that. Its exactly the way I used to do it with Freddie, so its nice. And I get to sing. Im not the world's greatest singer, but I enjoy that moment of communication. Then Freddie [via holographic effect] is the jewel in the crown. From certain angles, it looks like he is actually with me. I can sort of communicate with him because I know what hes going to do. I know when hes going to put his hand out.

Sometimes its very jolly, and I just think, Ah, this is great. Hey, Fred. And sometimes, it gets me and I think, Shit, hes not really there. Its funny the things that go through your mind.... Thats the moment when all the things come out of the box, and I think, Wow, were here 20 years after Freddys gone, and hes still there large as life. And hes still emotionally connecting with people.

Guitarist/songwriter Brian May performs with Queen + Adam Lambert in Barcelona in 2016. QPL

Your guitar work is very distinctive. And you play a guitar that you created with your father. Yeah, its very much part of me really. My dad was also a good musician. He was a great piano playeran instinctive piano player. All through the war, he played piano and ukulele as well. And when the war was over, he had a wife and a child on the way. It was me. I said to him, Why didnt you continue playing the piano? He said, I couldnt. I had to geta job, I had to make money to bring up my family and to get a mortgage and stuff.

But he was a great scientist and engineer, my dad, so thats the career he followed. It was like a proper job, if you like. He was in the civil service. He was an electronics draftsman. He worked on blind landing equipment for airplanes. Anyways, the reason Im telling you this is because he supported everything I did. He was a great father to me.

Thats wonderful. And he taught me about electronics. We couldnt afford a guitar, so we made a guitar together. It took us two years. And he was very proud of the fact that wed done it together, as I still am. And then I continued my schooling. Now the thing is, my father had given up his sort of artistic side so that I could go to school and I could have clothes to wear, you know, because we were poor.

So when I went through school, he was proud of the fact that I was good at science as well. I went on to get a degree in science at the Imperial College [London]. So hes really happy, he thinks things have turned out well. One day, I say, Dad, Im going to give all this up, and Im going to go out and play guitar.Hes so horrified because he feels like I have thrown away everything he fought to give me.

All that education. Yeah, everything that he gave up his artistic side to do. So I think he had a terrible time and I didnt realize how painful it was for him. We hardly spoke for about a year and a half. It was really hard while we went off and started Queen.

The idea that I would go off and be a pop star instead of becoming a scientist or an engineerit was just unthinkable to my dad. So we had this crazy situation where hes enabled me to make the guitar, but he doesnt want me to go out and become the guy that plays that guitar. It was a hard thing for me.

Rock Royalty: Guitarist Brian May with Queen in concert. QPL

And it only resolved itself when we played Madison Square Garden, and I flew my mom and dad out on the Concord, which is an airplane that hed worked onbut could never afford to fly on. So I put my mom and dad on it, and put them up in the Plaza Hotel and said order room service. He came to the show, and after, he came back and shook my hand. My dad was kind of formal. He said, OK, I get it now. Which was a big moment for me.

These days, you have so much going in your life. Theres an insane amount going on now.

Has your study of astrophysics blended with your role in Queen? I dont know if they blend, but I think they complement each other. I like cross-pollinating everything, you know? At school, there was this terrible divide between arts and science. Like if you were an artist, you could not take a scientific course, and vice versa. So I remember having this terrible argument with one of my teachers. I said, I want to do both. And he said, You cant. If youre a scientist, you have to do this, and you have to learn German so that you can read scientific papers.

They had it all mapped out. You cant take the art courses, and you have to give up music as a subject, which I did. SoI sort of rebelled against that all my life. And I had to make the choice at some point, and it was clear that I was a better musician than I was a scientist, in my mind.

Brian May during a sound check. QPL

Eventually, I did three years undergraduate physics, with astronomy as a part of it, and I did four years postgraduate research in zodiacal dust, at Imperial College. And thats the point where I had to decide, because Queen was already going. I was teaching math to make some money in a comprehensive school.

What was going through your mind at that point? I thought, If I dont do music now, Ill never do it, the opportunity will go. So we went off, and we did this insane Queen thing, which couldve completely disappeared down the plughole, but didnt.

But what about your science studies? I wrote up a couple of papers, which was good, and they were published, so at least the work was out there, but I didnt finish the [Ph.D.] thesis. And it was always in the back of my mind.... Theres an amazing man named Sir Patrick Moore, who is the father of English astronomy. And I was lucky enough to become friendly with him, and he became like an uncle to me. He said, Brian, youve never finished your Ph.D., why dont you go back and do it now? I said, Patrick, I cant. Its all gone from my head. Ive been a musician for 30 years, its not going to work. He said, Dont be ridiculous, of course you can do it.

Musician and author Brian May poses for a portrait at a signing of his astronomy book 'Bang! The Complete History of the Universe' in Los Angeles on at Book Soup on May 6, 2008. Charley Gallay/Getty

So I started talking about it in interviews, like we are, and somebody posted it. And the head of astrophysics at Imperial College at that time read the interview and phoned me up and said, If youre serious about wanting to finish up your Ph.D., I will be your supervisor.

Wow! No one can say no to that. So I ditched everything for a year, just absolutely cleared the decks, went inand did it. And it was tough, because he wasnt easy on me.

Was he a Queen fan? Not in the least. But he enjoyed what I did. Getting the Ph.D. opened all these doors. Suddenly I could go back to some of the places I had been when I was doing the astronomy, and I remet with all these guys. The funny thing is, so many of these scientists are very much like metheyre very much into music. So we have a lot in common.

Oh, thats interesting. Then I got to know a lot of these NASA guys who run these experiments, these things like Rosetta, where they rendezvous with a comet, and New Horizons, where they rendezvous with Pluto. And Im the luckiest man in the world because I got invited to go and see their operations. I was in the control room when New Horizons was passing Pluto. I saw those images come in. I was able to grab a couple and make a stereo pair of them. And the guy whos head of the project instigator for Rosetta is the biggest heavy metal freak Ive ever met in my life. His bodys covered in tattoos, half of which are, like, Einstein and scientists, but the other half is heavy metal, you know?

So now I find there isnt that dividing line. They all come to our shows. I love when the NASA guys come. And I was happy to show them what weve done in my guitar solo.

Brian May performs onstage during Queen + Adam Lambert for iHeartRadio Live at the iHeartRadio Theater on June 16, 2014 in Burbank, California. Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Clear Channel)

The space, celestial scenes that are projected... Yeah, its a little journey. Its nice that I dont feel alone anymore, because all of these people feel the same as me, that art and science should be mixed and a complete, rounded human being needs to have an appreciation of both.

Your animal welfare work is another big part of your life. When did your passion for it begin? When I got a message from this lady, where I live in the country, saying, Can I come on your property and build some runs to soft-release some foxes? I didnt know what it all was. She already ran this wonderful wildlife rescue, and all the animals that came in would be medically seen and restored to health, but then its like, What do you do? You dont want to keep them as pets, you want them to have a life back out there.

What did you learn from her? She explained that if you take an animal from its environment and then you fix it physically and then put it out in the middle of a forest, its probably not going to survive. So this soft-release thing is really important, and the run is a place where they can recover physically, but they also are in contact with the wildlife thats around. You gradually open the door and they will go out, and theyll keep coming back for food. But theyll be able to learn how to take care of themselves all over again. Finally comes the day when they dont come back. So thats what changed my life. I said, Yes, you can build anything you want, well do all these runs.

Queen's Brian May holds a baby fox rescued by the Secret World Wildlife Rescue centre in Somerset in Midsomer Norton, England, on April 24, 2010. The guitarist is a passionate campaigner for animal welfare. Matt Cardy/Getty

You and Anne Brummer founded the organization Save Me, which campaigns against a repeal of the Hunting Act in the U.K. Fox hunting is still outlawed in Britain, yet Prime Minister Theresa May wants to bring it back. Anne had been involved in the political side of things. Shed been around when the Hunting Act was brought in, at great pain, in Britain. Under Tony Blairs government, the Hunting Act was brought in, which outlawed hunting foxes. The sad thing is, it still goes on undercover. And we have a prime minister whos in favor of fox huntingand would like to bring it back. But shes failed to do that. Shes failed at everything, basically.

I became involved with Anne on the political side. But we spent half of our time actually physically on the ground, rescuing animals. And we started going into the House of Parliament, and lobbying MPs, to support our cause.

Brian May leads an anti-fox hunting rally for PETA on July 14, 2015 in London. Stuart C. Wilson/Getty

Were the MPs surprised that Queens guitarist was lobbying in the House of Parliament? A lot of these MPs wouldnt be interested, except that theyre interested in talking to me because perhaps their kids were into Queen. So Queen is a fantastic way of opening doors.... So being a sort of well-known face in music has been very useful. What you do once the doors opened is a different matter, because theres plenty of celebrities who will just put their name to causes. But all these MPs discovered that I wasnt one of those people, that I was a person who wanted to work at it every day and was committed to changing the way animals are treated.

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Queen's Brian May Will Rock You With 3-D book, Adam Lambert Tour, Astrophysics, Animal Rescue - Newsweek

Book Review: Astrophysics For People In A Hurry – WSHU

According to reports, the famous astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, wont be available to answer any questions during Monday's solar eclipsey. Tyson says hell be in an undisclosed location where he will experience this celestial phenomenon in private.

But Tyson did share his ideas about the cosmos and the people who have studied it, in his latest book, Astrophysics For People In A Hurry. Book critic Joan Baum has this review:Neil de Grasse Tyson knows hes a science rock star and loves it. Just look at that photo of him on the back flap of his newest book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Hes smiling, standing in mock swagger mode before an astronomy display, his favorite planet Saturn in view. And hes delighted to trot out the fact that hes had an asteroid named for him, and that as far as he knows, his guys not heading toward Earth to do any damage.Neils not just content, however, with trying to explain difficult concepts about the cosmos, such as dark matter, the longest -standing unsolved mystery in astrophysics. He also wants to tease us into being hungry for science. And may we call him Neil since he often calls his favorite scientist Al? Though his admiration remains the highest for the theorist of the general theory of relativity, Neil does playfully say that for the most mind-warping ideas of 20th century physics, just blame Einstein. But Neil also talks about scientists most of us havent heard of, such as Fritz Swicky, who in the 1930s analyzed dark matter, and Vera Rubin, who in 1976 showed that the stars farthest from the center of their spiral galaxies orbit at the highest speeds. And who knew about exoplanets those celestial bodies that orbit around a star that is not the sun? They were first detected in 1995 and so far, scientists have identified over 3,000. As for Pluto no longer being a planet, Neils advice is simple, Get over it.For all its ease of style, however, Astrophysics For People In A Hurry, isnt that easy to digest especially for people in a hurry. Go slow. Re-read. Reflect. The author, who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium and the host of award-winning science programs, is a man on a mission, particularly evident in the eloquent last chapter of the book, Reflections on the Cosmic Perspective. Dare we admit, he begins, that our thoughts and behaviors spring from a belief that the world revolves around us? Apparently not. Yet evidence abounds. In other words, Neil is saying that many people, including some with influence and power, wont admit that human beings are not the center of the universe. Driven by inflated ego, a misreading of nature and a fear of seeming small and insignificant as a species some may not even see that we all are participants in a great cosmic chain of being. That differences of race, ethnicity, religion and culture, which as Neil said, Led our ancestors to slaughter one another, are part of a direct genetic link across species both living and extinct, extending back four billion years to the earliest single-celled organisms on earth.And the science deniers dont celebrate as they should, Neil says, being part of an evolving universe of interrelated forces and matter, a humbling perspective that might make them more curious and caring about the planet we all share.Joan Baum is a book critic who lives in Springs Long Island.

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Book Review: Astrophysics For People In A Hurry - WSHU

On the Bright Side: Chemistry journal to feature work of Hartwick scholars – Oneonta Daily Star

The International Journal of Quantum Chemistry will feature research conducted by a team led by a Hartwick College professor and assisted by two Hartwick students in the cover story of the Sept. 15 issue.

Associate Professor of Chemistry John Dudek led a team that included professors based in Germany at the University of Cologne Laboratory Astrophysics Group and others. The article, Carbon-sulfur chains: A high-resolution infrared and quantum-chemical study of C3S and SC7S, concerns the detection of carbon sulfur molecules in space.

One of the more interesting aspects of space is its chemistry, Dudek said. What molecules exist in space and how did these molecules form?

Each molecule has its own spectral fingerprint, which astronomers need to locate a molecule in space.

We both need each other its difficult for astronomers to find some of these molecules, he said.

The team recreated two carbon-sulfur compounds and determined their high-resolution infrared fingerprints using spectroscopy and computer modeling. The results were the first such fingerprints of the SC7S molecule.

Hartwick undergraduates Justine Kozubal and Sierra Bentley assisted in the research, although they are not listed as co-authors. Provost Michael G. Tannenbaum, a former president of the council on undergraduate research, says Dr. Dudek regularly engages students in experiential and collaborative research activities.

Kozubal spent four weeks last summer working in the Cologne laboratory on an Emerson scholarship, and she and Dudek co-authored a paper on another molecule from their research. Bentley spent four weeks this summer working in the laboratory as part of a Duffy scholarship, and a forthcoming paper on the molecule she studied will feature Bentley as a co-author.

Kozubal, who graduated this spring with bachelors degrees in chemistry and physics, had recently taken an astrophysics course when she began her research in Germany.

It was a graduate level astrophysics lab and I hadnt seen anything like it before, she said. But I learned how to use it and take data looking for the carbon sulfur molecules.

The experience helped her decide to apply for graduate school, and she will begin classes this fall at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in their physical chemistry Ph.D. program.

Dudek and other students involved in the collaboration with Cologne presented their results at the International Symposium of Molecular Spectroscopy, and she was invited to the regional American Chemical Society conference in Binghamton last fall.

Dr. Dudek said he hopes to return to Germany with another student in January and summer 2018 to continue the collaboration.

I think its a great opportunity for students to do research at a world-class institution. I would like to continue our collaboration for as long as possible. he said.

There are still some carbon sulfur molecules that need to be investigated, he said in a Hartwick media release. Afterwards, we will probably start investigating carbon silicone molecules that might exist in space.

Provost Michael Tannenbaum said in the release that the publication of the article in the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry underscores the ability of science faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions, like Hartwick, to undertake meaningful and impactful research.

Erin Jerome, staff writer, may be reached at (607) 441-7221, or at ejerome@thedailystar.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DS_ErinJ .

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On the Bright Side: Chemistry journal to feature work of Hartwick scholars - Oneonta Daily Star

Solar eclipse gives Buellton elementary students crash course in … – Santa Ynez Valley News

Students at Oak Valley Elementary School in Buellton started school just three days before the alignment of the Earth, moon and sun gave them their first look at a solar eclipse.

Yet in that short time, they had absorbed a lot of information about not only the mechanics of the phenomenon, but things like the dangers of improperly viewing the event and what ancient people believed about eclipses.

Syzygy, a partial eclipse where it kind of looks like a crescent the zone of totality in the U.S., which is from Oregon on down to South Carolina, said 10-year-old Elijah Navarro, as he ticked off some of the subjects he and fellow fifth-graders had been studying less than half an hour before the eclipse was scheduled to begin Monday morning.

I cant wait to see it, since we have glasses, Elijah added. But we wont see a total eclipse. Well mostly see a partial, like 60 percent. It will look like a crescent moon.

* * *

Getting those eclipse glasses for the entire school was not an easy task for Principal Hans Rheinschild. In fact, it proved impossible. Rheinschild said he could only get enough for half the school.

We have partners, and we each get to use them for 30 seconds, explained Katelyn Melby, also 10, and a fifth-grader. Only 400 (pairs) were up to date.

Elijah added, We got a list, and it named some glasses that it said do not work.

Ive seen them and theyre very dark, said 10-year-old Tanner Rhodes, one of Katelyns classmates. You cant use 3-D glasses. Even though they look the same, theyre not.

Rheinschild, who is also principal of Jonata Middle School in Buellton, said he was impressed by how much knowledge the teachers had imparted and the students had been able to absorb.

Its only the fourth day of school, he said, as he waited for the students to begin assembling in the quad. But Ive been going into the classrooms a lot, and every classroom I go into, theyre doing a lesson about the eclipse. I think every school in America is.

* * *

The trio of fifth-graders had moved on to talking about what ancient people thought about eclipses.

The first people that ever viewed an eclipse drew what it looked like where they were on rock, Katelyn said.

It looked like an octopus, Elijah interjected. But with more than eight legs.

They thought the world was ending, added Tanner.

They put up sacrifices because they thought that would save the world, Elijah said.

Some people thought it was bad luck and some thought it was good luck, Katelyn continued. Some thought that the gods were taking the sun.

By now Monday's eclipse has begun.

Look at the difference in the shadows, Katelyn said, pointing at the gray images of the three projected on the concrete corridor outside their classrooms. Usually theyre darker than that.

Then they showed off something else theyd learned. If you dont have viewing glasses you can improvise a viewer by crossing your spread fingers into a waffle pattern and looking at the shadow that projects.

The shadows make little circles, Katelyn said, looking down at the crescent shapes that appeared in the edges of each square between their fingers.

* * *

Lined up across the quad facing the multipurpose room and away from the sun, the students were greeted by Rheinschild.

Welcome to the eclipse of 2017, he said. This is a very special thing. You may not get to see another eclipse until youre as old as I am, maybe in your 50s or 60s.

Whispered wows rose from the rows of students.

The main thing about today is safety, safety, safety, he continued, once again going through the viewing procedure.

All of the students would remain facing away from the sun, then half the students would put on the glasses, turn around and look at the eclipse for 30 seconds. Then, they would turn back around and hand the glasses to their partners, who would do the same thing.

Then it was time for the viewing to begin, and as the glasses were passed back and forth and the students turned, the same ooohs and aaahs arose from small faces repeatedly awed by what they were seeing.

* * *

Although the impression of the celestial event on the students was undeniably satisfying, the almost once-in-a-lifetime aspect of the eclipse might not be a bad thing for Rheinschild, who spent a lot of time preparing for it.

As a principal, Ive never had to deal with an eclipse before, he said. Its been a learning experience, definitely. Ill be retired by the time the next one comes along.

Continued here:

Solar eclipse gives Buellton elementary students crash course in ... - Santa Ynez Valley News

Astronomy and Astrophysics departments prepare Penn State … – The Daily Collegian Online

The common advice to children is do not stare into the sun.

On Monday, the Penn State community and millions of others around the country will be doing exactly that, viewing a rare anomaly: a solar eclipse.

Although State College will only be able to see approximately 80 percent of the eclipse, that is still enough to see the beauty and rarity of the phenomenon.

The eclipse is to begin at approximately 1:15 p.m., will be close to totality at 2:35 p.m. and will end around 4 p.m.

The Astronomy and Astrophysics department has been gearing up all week to prepare for the event, and will even go as far as hosting viewing parties on top of laboratories and handing out eclipse glasses around campus.

Students may go to these locations on campus to safely watch the eclipse: Davey Laboratory rooftop observatory, The Arboretum at Penn State's H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens, along with Mount Nittany Middle School at 656 Brandywine Dr. in State College.

At its peak, spectators will only be able to see a sliver or crescent part of the sun. However, in order to look up at the eclipse, it is necessary to wear the specific protective glasses to ensure no damage to one's eyes.

The United States has not witnessed a total solar eclipse since 1979, 38 years ago. Astronomers everywhere have labeled todays eclipse to be a generational event.

Because the eclipse will only be visible if skies are clear, the Astronomy & Astrophysics department will cancel the viewing events if the weather wares on the cloudy or overcast side, the department said in a news release.

Excerpt from:

Astronomy and Astrophysics departments prepare Penn State ... - The Daily Collegian Online

Solar eclipse gives Buellton elementary students crash course in … – Santa Maria Times (subscription)

Students at Oak Valley Elementary School in Buellton started school just three days before the alignment of the Earth, moon and sun gave them their first look at a solar eclipse.

Yet in that short time, they had absorbed a lot of information about not only the mechanics of the phenomenon, but things like the dangers of improperly viewing the event and what ancient people believed about eclipses.

Syzygy, a partial eclipse where it kind of looks like a crescent the zone of totality in the U.S., which is from Oregon on down to South Carolina, said 10-year-old Elijah Navarro, as he ticked off some of the subjects he and fellow fifth-graders had been studying less than half an hour before the eclipse was scheduled to begin Monday morning.

I cant wait to see it, since we have glasses, Elijah added. But we wont see a total eclipse. Well mostly see a partial, like 60 percent. It will look like a crescent moon.

* * *

Getting those eclipse glasses for the entire school was not an easy task for Principal Hans Rheinschild. In fact, it proved impossible. Rheinschild said he could only get enough for half the school.

We have partners, and we each get to use them for 30 seconds, explained Katelyn Melby, also 10, and a fifth-grader. Only 400 (pairs) were up to date.

Elijah added, We got a list, and it named some glasses that it said do not work.

Ive seen them and theyre very dark, said 10-year-old Tanner Rhodes, one of Katelyns classmates. You cant use 3-D glasses. Even though they look the same, theyre not.

Rheinschild, who is also principal of Jonata Middle School in Buellton, said he was impressed by how much knowledge the teachers had imparted and the students had been able to absorb.

Its only the fourth day of school, he said, as he waited for the students to begin assembling in the quad. But Ive been going into the classrooms a lot, and every classroom I go into, theyre doing a lesson about the eclipse. I think every school in America is.

* * *

The trio of fifth-graders had moved on to talking about what ancient people thought about eclipses.

The first people that ever viewed an eclipse drew what it looked like where they were on rock, Katelyn said.

It looked like an octopus, Elijah interjected. But with more than eight legs.

They thought the world was ending, added Tanner.

They put up sacrifices because they thought that would save the world, Elijah said.

Some people thought it was bad luck and some thought it was good luck, Katelyn continued. Some thought that the gods were taking the sun.

By now Monday's eclipse has begun.

Look at the difference in the shadows, Katelyn said, pointing at the gray images of the three projected on the concrete corridor outside their classrooms. Usually theyre darker than that.

Then they showed off something else theyd learned. If you dont have viewing glasses you can improvise a viewer by crossing your spread fingers into a waffle pattern and looking at the shadow that projects.

The shadows make little circles, Katelyn said, looking down at the crescent shapes that appeared in the edges of each square between their fingers.

* * *

Lined up across the quad facing the multipurpose room and away from the sun, the students were greeted by Rheinschild.

Welcome to the eclipse of 2017, he said. This is a very special thing. You may not get to see another eclipse until youre as old as I am, maybe in your 50s or 60s.

Whispered wows rose from the rows of students.

The main thing about today is safety, safety, safety, he continued, once again going through the viewing procedure.

All of the students would remain facing away from the sun, then half the students would put on the glasses, turn around and look at the eclipse for 30 seconds. Then, they would turn back around and hand the glasses to their partners, who would do the same thing.

Then it was time for the viewing to begin, and as the glasses were passed back and forth and the students turned, the same ooohs and aaahs arose from small faces repeatedly awed by what they were seeing.

* * *

Although the impression of the celestial event on the students was undeniably satisfying, the almost once-in-a-lifetime aspect of the eclipse might not be a bad thing for Rheinschild, who spent a lot of time preparing for it.

As a principal, Ive never had to deal with an eclipse before, he said. Its been a learning experience, definitely. Ill be retired by the time the next one comes along.

See the rest here:

Solar eclipse gives Buellton elementary students crash course in ... - Santa Maria Times (subscription)

These three countries are winning the global robot race – CNNMoney

The three countries are leading an artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, Malcolm Frank, head of strategy at leading outsourcing firm Cognizant, told CNNMoney in an interview.

Frank is the co-author of a recent book entitled "What to Do When Machines Do Everything," on the impact artificial intelligence will have on the global economy in the coming years.

"I think it's three horses in the race, and that's probably the wrong metaphor because they are all going to win," he said. "They are just going to win differently."

While AI is progressing quickly elsewhere too, Frank said the other development hotspots are mainly city hubs such as London and Stockholm, or far smaller economies such as Estonia.

"The big three [are] India, China and the U.S," he said.

Here's why:

America

Silicon Valley giants such as Facebook (FB, Tech30), Amazon (AMZN, Tech30), Google (GOOGL, Tech30) and Tesla (TSLA) are already investing billions in harnessing the power of computers to replace several human tasks.

Computers are already beginning to substitute for people in sectors such as agriculture and even medicine, not to mention the race to get driverless cars on the road.

"With Silicon Valley, and the vendors and momentum that exists there... that's going to continue," Frank said.

China

The world's second largest economy is also betting big on artificial intelligence.

Tech companies including Tencent (TCEHY) and Baidu (BIDU, Tech30) are competing with Silicon Valley to develop new uses for AI, and tech billionaire Jack Ma of Alibaba (BABA, Tech30), one of China's richest men, has even said CEOs may eventually be obsolete.

Unlike in the U.S., however, the biggest push towards this new world in China is coming from the government.

"You look at the playbook China has had very successfully, with state sponsorship around developing the [physical] infrastructure of the country," Frank said. "They're taking a very similar approach around artificial intelligence, and I think that's going to yield a lot of benefit."

The Chinese government has already laid out an ambitious plan for a $150 billion AI industry, saying last month that it wants China to become the world's "innovation center for AI" by 2030.

India

In India, the main shift towards artificial intelligence is coming from companies that make up its $143 billion outsourcing industry -- a sector that employs nearly 4 million people.

Top firms like Infosys (INFY), Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro (WIT), which provide technology services to big names including Deutsche Bank (DB), Lockheed Martin (LMT), IBM (IBM, Tech30), Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) and the U.S. Army, are increasingly relying on automation in their operations.

"In India, you look at this remarkable platform that is in place now... of incredibly sophisticated skills that are focused on the needs of [global] companies," said Frank.

In addition, India's startup scene also makes him "very optimistic" about the future of artificial intelligence there.

Cognizant (CTSH), which is based in the U.S. but has most of its workforce in India, is also making ever greater use of AI -- from online bots managing clients' finances to helping create automated systems for smart devices.

Should we be worried?

Many are worried about the potential pitfalls of artificial intelligence, including Tesla's billionaire founder Elon Musk. He has warned that the technology could pose "an existential threat" if not used properly, and published a letter this week with over 100 other industry experts demanding a global ban on using it to make weapons.

Frank said that the development of artificial intelligence requires careful thought, by governments and companies working together to establish ground rules. The tech executive compared it to safety regulations for air travel and for cars, which have evolved several times over the years.

The focus needs to be on creating a world "where AI is going to be safe and you get the benefits of it without the downsides," he said.

As for the other pervasive fear -- that more robots will lead to job losses -- Frank argues that AI will not only create more and different kinds of jobs in the future, but also enhance many of the existing ones.

"That's what happened with assembly lines, that's what happened with the steam engine, that's what we think is going to happen with artificial intelligence."

CNNMoney (New Delhi) First published August 21, 2017: 10:14 AM ET

Originally posted here:

These three countries are winning the global robot race - CNNMoney

We Must Stop The Artificial Intelligence Arms Race At Any Cost – Huffington Post Canada

My visit to Japan has coincided with the 72nd anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings. On August 6, 1945, the nuclear bomb dropped by the Enola Gay Boeing B-29 exploded, killing an estimated 140,000 people. Three days later, the U.S. dropped the second bomb by the Bockscar B-29 on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 75,000. Within weeks, Japan surrendered. On the occasion of the 72nd anniversary ceremony about 50,000 people, including representatives from 80 nations, gathered at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. During the occasion, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for global cooperation to end nuclear weapons.

Even today, there are victims who are still suffering from the bombings. During my conversations with my Japanese friends, one thing was clear to me: that they all have at least someone linked to their family who was a victim of the bombing. Their stories speak to us. They ask us to introspect about what the world might become.

While viewing the picturesque terrain of Japan during a train journey from Tokyo to Kyoto, I was trying to find an answer to a question: At the end of the day, what did nuclear science achieve? Nuclear science was supposed to bring unlimited supply of energy to the power-starved countries of the world.

Nuclear bombs were not what Albert Einstein had in mind when he published the special theory of relativity. However, the bombs killed or wounded around 200,000 Japanese men, women and children. Our trust in the peaceful nuclear program has endangered humanity. The United States and Russia held over 70,000 nuclear weapons at the peak of the nuclear arms race, which could have killed every human being on the planet.

Recent advances in science and technology have made nuclear bombs more powerful than ever, and one can imagine how devastating it could be to the world. These advances in science and technology have also created many unprecedented and still unresolved global security challenges for policy makers and the public.

It is hard to imagine any one technology that will transform the global security more than artificial intelligence (AI), and it is going to have the biggest impact on humanity that has ever been. The Global Risks Report 2017 by the World Economic Forum places AI as one of the top five factors exacerbating geopolitical risks. One sector that saw the huge disruptive potential of AI from an early stage is the military. AI-based weaponization will represent a paradigm shift in the way wars are fought, with profound consequences for global security.

Major investment in AI-based weapons has already begun. According to a WEF report, a terrifying AI arms race may already be underway. To ensure a continued military edge over China and Russia, the Pentagon requested around US$15 billion for AI-based weaponry for the 2017 budget. However, the U.S. doesn't have the exclusive control over AI.

Whichever country develops viable AI weaponry first will completely take over the military landscape as AI-based machines have the capacity to be much more intense and devastating than a nuclear bomb. If any one country has a machine that can hack into enemy defence systems, that country will have such a distinct advantage over any other world government.

Without proper regulation, AI-based weapons could go out of control and they may be used indiscriminately, create a greater risk to civilians, and more easily fall into the hands of dictators and terrorists. Imagine if North Korea developed an AI capable of military action that could very quickly destabilize the entire world. According to an UNOG report, two major concerns of AI based weapons are: (i) the inability to discriminate between combatants and non-combatants and (ii) the inability to ensure a proportionate response in which the military advantage will outweigh civilian casualties

My visit to Japan is also marked by concerns in the region about the possibility of nuclear missile strikes, particularly after U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened each other with shows of force. As Elon Musk said, "If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. [There is] vastly more risk than North Korea."

AI technology is growing in a similar fashion as the push for nuclear technology. I don't know if there is a reasonable analogy between the nuclear research and AI research. Nuclear research was supposed to bring an unlimited supply of energy to the power-starved countries of the world. However, it was also harnessed for nuclear weapons.

A similar push is now been given to AI technology as well. AI might have great potential to help humanity in profound ways; however, it's very important to regulate it. Starting an AI arms race is very bad for the world, and should be prevented by banning all AI-based weapons beyond meaningful human control.

In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the government's Pan-Canadian AI strategy, which aims to put Canada at the center of an emerging gold rush of innovation. So, what does this actually mean for the AI arms race that is well underway?

We are living in an age of revolutionary changes brought about by the advance of AI technology. I am not sure there lies any hope for the world, but certainly there is a danger of sudden death. I think we are on a brink of an AI arms race. It should be prevented at any cost. No matter how long and how difficult the road will be, it is the responsibility of all leaders who live in the present to continue to make efforts.

You can follow Pete Poovanna on Twitter: @poovannact and for more information check out http://www.pthimmai.com/

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We Must Stop The Artificial Intelligence Arms Race At Any Cost - Huffington Post Canada

Artificial intelligence expert Andrew Ng hates paranoid androids, and other fun facts – The Mercury News

Get tech news in your inbox weekday mornings. Sign up for the free Good Morning Silicon Valley newsletter. BY RYAN NAKASHIMA

PALO ALTO What does artificial intelligence researcher Andrew Ng have in common with a very depressed robot from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? Both have huge brains.

HE NAMED GOOGLE BRAIN

Googles deep-learning unit was originally called Project Marvin a possible reference to a morose and paranoid android with a brain the size of a planet from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Ng didnt like the association with this very depressed robot, he says, so he cut to the chase and changed the name to Google Brain.

A SMALL WEDDING

Ng met his roboticist wife, Carol Reiley, at a robotics conference in Kobe, Japan. They married in 2014 in Carmel, California, in a small ceremony. Ng says Reiley wanted to save money in order to invest in their future they even got their wedding bands made on a 3-D printer. And instead of a big ceremony, she put $50,000 in Drive.ai, the autonomous driving company she co-founded and leads as president. In its last funding round, the company raised $50 million.

GUESSING GAMES, COMPUTER VERSION

One of Ngs first computer programs tried to guess a number the user was thinking of. Based simply on the responses higher or lower, the computer could guess correctly after no more than seven questions.

GUESSING GAME, ACCENT VERSION

Americans tend to think I sound slightly British and the Brits think I sound horribly American, Ng says. According to my mother, I just mumble a lot.

HE LIKES BLUE SHIRTS

He buys blue button-down shirts 10 at a time from Nordstroms online. I just dont want to think about it every morning. Theres enough things that I need to decide on every day.

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Artificial intelligence expert Andrew Ng hates paranoid androids, and other fun facts - The Mercury News

How do you bring artificial intelligence from the cloud to the edge? – TNW

Despite the enormous speed at processing reams of data and providing valuable output, artificial intelligence applications have one key weakness: Their brains are located at thousands of miles away.

Most AI algorithms need huge amounts of data and computing power to accomplish tasks. For this reason, they rely on cloud servers to perform their computations, and arent capable of accomplishing much at the edge, the mobile phones, computers and other devices where the applications that use them run.

In contrast, we humans perform most of our computation and decision-making at the edge (in our brain) and only refer to other sources (internet, library, other people) where our own processing power and memory wont suffice.

This limitation makes current AI algorithms useless or inefficient in settings where connectivity is sparse or non-present, and where operations need to be performed in a time-critical fashion. However, scientists and tech companies are exploring concepts and technologies that will bring artificial intelligence closer to the edge.

A lot of the worlds computing power goes to waste as thousands and millions of devices remain idle for a considerable amount of time. Being able to coordinate and combine these resources will enable us to make efficient use of computing power, cut down costs and create distributed servers that can process data and algorithms at the edge.

Distributed computing is not a new concept, but technologies like blockchain can take it to a new level. Blockchain and smart contracts enable multiple nodes to cooperate on tasks without the need for a centralized broker.

This is especially useful for Internet of Things (IoT), where latency, network congestion, signal collisions and geographical distances are some of the challenges we face when processing edge data in the cloud. Blockchain can help IoT devices share compute resources in real-time and execute algorithms without the need for a round-trip to the cloud.

Another benefit to using blockchain is the incentivization of resource sharing. Participating nodes can earn rewards for making their idle computing resources available to others.

A handful of companies have developed blockchain-based computing platforms. iEx.ec, a blockchain company that bills itself as the leader in decentralized high-performance computing (HPC), uses the Ethereum blockchain to create a market for computational resources, which can be used for various use cases, including distributed machine learning.

Golem is another platform that provides distributed computing on the blockchain, where applications (requestors) can rent compute cycles from providers. Among Golems use cases is training and executing machine learning algorithms. Golem also has a decentralized reputation system that allows nodes to rank their peers based on their performance on appointed tasks.

From landing drones to running AR apps and navigating driverless cars, there are many settings where the need to run real-time deep learning at the edge is essential. The delay caused by the round-trip to the cloud can yield disastrous or even fatal results. And in case of a network disruption, a total halt of operations is imaginable.

AI coprocessors, chips that can execute machine learning algorithms, can help alleviate this shortage of intelligence at the edge in the form of board integration or plug-and-play deep learning devices. The market is still new, but the results look promising.

Movidius, a hardware company acquired by Intel in 2016, has been dabbling in edge neural networks for a while, including developing obstacle navigation for drones and smart thermal vision cameras. Movidius Myriad 2 vision processing unit (VPU) can be integrated into circuit boards to provide low-power computer vision and image signaling capabilities on the edge.

More recently, the company announced its deep learning compute stick, a USB-3 dongle that can add machine learning capabilities to computers, Raspberry PIs and other computing devices. The stick can be used individually or in groups to add more power. This is ideal to power a number of AI applications that are independent of the cloud, such as smart security cameras, gesture controlled drones and industrial machine vision equipment.

Both Google and Microsoft have announced their own specialized AI processing units. However, for the moment, they dont plan to deploy them at the edge and are using them to power their cloud services. But as the market for edge AI grows and other players enter the space, you can expect them to make their hardware available to manufacturers.

Credit: Shutterstock

Currently, AI algorithms that perform tasks such as recognizing images require millions of labeled samples for training. A human child accomplishes the same with a fraction of the data. One of the possible paths for bringing machine learning and deep learning algorithms closer to the edge is to lower their data and computation requirements. And some companies are working to make it possible.

Last year Geometric Intelligence, an AI company that was renamed to Uber AI Labs after being acquired by the ride hailing company, introduced a machine learning software that is less data-hungry than the more prevalent AI algorithms. Though the company didnt reveal the details, performance charts show that XProp, as the algorithm is named, requires much less samples to perform image recognition tasks.

Gamalon, an AI startup backed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), uses a technique called Bayesian Program Synthesis, which employs probabilistic programming to reduce the amount of data required to train algorithms.

In contrast to deep learning, where you have to train the system by showing it numerous examples, BPS learns with few examples and continually updates its understanding with additional data. This is much closer to the way the human brain works.

BPS also requires extensively less computing power. Instead of arrays of expensive GPUs, Gamalon can train its models on the same processors contained in an iPad, which makes it more feasible for the edge.

Edge AI will not be a replacement for the cloud, but it will complement it and create possibilities that were inconceivable before. Though nothing short of general artificial intelligence will be able to rival the human brain, edge computing will enable AI applications to function in ways that are much closer to the way humans do.

This post is part of our contributor series. The views expressed are the author's own and not necessarily shared by TNW.

Read next: How to follow today's eclipse, even if you live outside the US

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How do you bring artificial intelligence from the cloud to the edge? - TNW

The Artificial Narrative Of Artificial Intelligence – Above the Law

As the legal community flees Las Vegas, leaving another successful ILTACON and several hundred thousand dollars in bad decisions in their wake, two questions weigh upon my mind. Is there something broken about the way we talk about artificial intelligence, and why does the airport give a goddamn about my mixers?

Artificial intelligence is a sufficiently ominous sounding invention. It gets the Asimov-obsessed firm stakeholders all hot and bothered in a way that predictive coding never really could. But ultimately, discussions of artificial intelligence in the law break down to one of two flavors: vendors willing to tell you frankly that this technology requires carefully constructed processes, vigilant management, and meticulous attention to detail; and those who tell you its MAGIC! Seriously, just buy yourself some AI and your firm is set! Somehow, after years and years of AI talk in the legal profession, there are still people peddling the latter option. Havent we all figured out what AI really is by now? Are there still clients out there falling for robotic nerve tonic?

Speaking of tonic, I ask the bartender for a vodka soda no use wasting the last minutes in this desert monument to excess sober. She tells me she cant serve those until 10:30. Is it really morning?

Its no secret that, for the sake of laughs, well always compare AI to the Terminator movies. A cold, unfeeling strand of code ruthlessly burying associates. But ditch the glossy ad campaign and, in reality, these products arent going to master a 100TB document review by osmosis. No, much like the T-800 these robots show up on the job naked and need to beat your biker bar full of associates to death before it can do its job properly.

Sure itll learn from your first-pass reviewers but what will it learn? Will it pick up all their bad habits? Will it learn the systemic oversight your client never passed along? Most importantly, will it learn to forget all these mistakes as soon as you uncover them or will vestigial f**k-ups keep infecting the process months after they get caught? AI may be brilliant, but if the processes that set it down its path lack detailed consistency, its going to end up throwing your firm out an airlock. Like the surgeon with a scalpel, lawyers who fail to understand that the profession is mastering the tool itself, will just chain themselves to expensive trinkets that do the client more harm than good.

When did a vodka soda become verboten this early in the morning at the Las Vegas Airport? Look, I get that some states have Blue laws, but generally Vegas isnt puritanical about the gross consumption of liquor. Whats the deal with booze? She tells me before 10:30 she can only make Bloody Marys and Screwdrivers. Wait, so vodka is on the menu? Because these arent premixed drinks.

This is all so confusing. Does Vegas really care about my mixers? Has Big Orange spread its tentacles from the Tropicana deep into this McCarran bar?

Not that there arent still some musing about the fully automated lawyer a cognitive map of a present-day rainmaker that firms can license out to clients who want to plug the BoiesBot 3500 on their latest matter. Its not that the technology required to perfect this strategy is far off though it might be but raise your hand if you imagine a bar association will ever sign off on disrupting the profession like that. Theyre scared enough about raising bar cut-off scores to allow a handful more humans into the market. A practicing attorney firms can duplicate at zero marginal cost? Not likely to pass that muster any century soon.

Strong AI solutions are the future hell, strong AI solutions are the present but before you invest in anything, take measure of how the vendor sees its own product. The best are always a little leery of the phrase artificial intelligence. Theres more enthusiasm for machine learning and other synonyms that dont carry the same baggage as AI. The key is looking for someone who can admit that their products power is all about your commitment to it as a client and how hard youll work to make it give its peak performance.

The guy next to me, a cybersecurity expert who Id say modeled his whole ethos upon The Dude if I didnt know he rocked that look long before Jeff Bridges, runs afoul of the same libation limitations when he asks for some champagne. She can only offer him a mimosa. Goddamned orange farmers hit us again! Thats when something special happens. He tells the bartender to give him a mimosa, but put the orange juice on the side so he can control the mix. And thats how he got a glass of champagne.

Cybersecurity Dude hacked the bar AI!

Because anything as a service is only as powerful as its instructions. He recognized the flaw in the establishments process an instance of bad tagging that let the bartender miss something critical. Thats how he found the key item the bartenders rules missed.

And thats how I, eventually, got my vodka soda.

Screw you, Tropicana.

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The Artificial Narrative Of Artificial Intelligence - Above the Law

I was worried about artificial intelligenceuntil it saved my life – Quartz

Earlier this month, tech moguls Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg debated the pros and cons of artificial intelligence from different corners of the internet. While SpaceXs CEO is more of an alarmist, insisting that we should approach AI with caution and that it poses a fundamental existential risk, Facebooks founder leans toward a more optimistic future, dismissing doomsday scenarios in favor of AI helping us build a brighter future.

I now agree with Zuckerbergs sunnier outlookbut I didnt used to.

Beginning my career as an engineer, I was interested in AI, but I was torn about whether advancements would go too far too fast. As a mother with three kids entering their teens, I was also worried that AI would disrupt the future of my childrens education, work, and daily life. But then something happened that forced me into the affirmative.

Imagine for a moment that you are a pathologist and your job is to scroll through 1,000 photos every 30 minutes, looking for one tiny outlier on a single photo. Youre racing the clock to find a microscopic needle in a massive data haystack.

Now, imagine that a womans life depends on it. Mine.

This is the nearly impossible task that pathologists are tasked with every day. Treating the 250,000 women in the US who will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, each medical worker must analyze an immense amount of cell tissue to identify if their patients cancer has spread. Limited by time and resources, they often get it wrong; a recent study found that pathologists accurately detect tumors only 73.2% of the time.

In 2011 I found a lump in my breast. Both my family doctor and I were confident that it was a Fibroadenoma, a common noncancerous (benign) breast lump, but she recommended I get a mammogram to make sure. While the original lump was indeed a Fibroenoma, the mammogram uncovered two unknown spots. My journey into the unknown started here.

Since AI imaging was not available at the time, I had to rely solely on human analysis. The next four years were a blur of ultrasounds, biopsies, and surgeries. My well-intentioned network of doctors and specialists were not able to diagnose or treat what turned out to be a rare form of cancer, and repeatedly attempted to remove my recurring tumors through surgery.

After four more tumors, five more biopsies, and two more operations, I was heading toward a double mastectomy and terrified at the prospect of the cancer spreading to my lungs or brain.

I knew something needed to change. In 2015, I was introduced to a medical physicist that decided to take a different approach, using big data and a machine-learning algorithm to spot my tumors and treat my cancer with radiation therapy. While I was nervous about leaving my therapy up to this new technology, itcombined with the right medical knowledgewas able to stop the growth of my tumors. Im now two years cancer-free.

I was thankful for the AI that saved my life but then that very same algorithm changed my sons potential career path.

The positive impact of machine learning is often overshadowed by the doom-and-gloom of automation. Fearing for their own jobs and their childrens future, people often choose to focus on the potential negative repercussions of AI rather than the positive changes it can bring to society.

After seeing what this radiation treatment was able to do for me, my son applied to a university program in radiology technology to explore a career path in medical radiation. He met countless radiology technicians throughout my years of treatment and was excited to start his training off in a specialized program. However, during his application process, the program was cancelled: He was told it was because there were no longer enough jobs in the radiology industry to warrant the programs continuation. Many positions have been lost to automationjust like the technology and machine learning that helped me in my battle with cancer.

This was a difficult period for both my son and I: The very thing that had saved my life prevented him from following the path he planned. He had to rethink his education mid-application when it was too late to apply for anything else, and he was worried that his back up plans would fall through.

Hes now pursuing a future in biophysics rather than medical radiation, starting with an undergraduate degree in integrated sciences. In retrospect, we both now realize that the experience forced him to rethink his career and unexpectedly opened up his thinking about what research areas will be providing the most impact on peoples lives in the future.

Although some medical professionals will lose their jobs to AI, the life-saving benefits to patients will be magnificent. Beyond cancer detection and treatment, medical professionals are using machine learning to improve their practice in many ways. For instance, Atomwise applies AI to fuel drug discovery, Deep Genomics uses machine learning to help pharmaceutical companies develop genetic medicines, and Analytics 4 Life leverages AI to better detect coronary artery disease.

While not all transitions from automated roles will be as easy as my sons pivot to a different scientific field, I believe that AI has the potential to shape our future careers in a positive way, even helping us find jobs that make us happier and more productive.

As this technology rapidly develops, the future is clear: AI will be an integral part of our lives and bring massive changes to our society. Its time to stop debating (looking at you, Musk and Zuckerberg) and start accepting AI for what it is: both the good and the bad.

Throughout the years, Ive found myself on both sides of the equation, arguing both for and against the advancement of AI. But its time to stop taking a selective view on AI, choosing to incorporate it into our lives only when convenient. We must create solutions that mitigate AIs negative impact and maximize its positive potential. Key stakeholdersgovernments, corporates, technologists, and moreneed to create policies, join forces, and dedicate themselves to this effort.

And were seeing great progress. AT&T recently began retraining thousands of employees to keep up with technology advances and Google recently dedicated millions of dollars to prepare people for an AI-dominated workforce. Im hopeful that these initiatives will allow us to focus on all the good that AI can do for our world and open our eyes to the potential lives it can save.

One day, yours just might depend on it, too.

Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

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I was worried about artificial intelligenceuntil it saved my life - Quartz

Astrophysicist to speak at museum – Hastings Tribune

An astrophysicist with ties to MIT, one of the largest telescopes in the world and Inland, Nebraska will be speaking in Hastings this weekend.

Astrophysicist Megan Donahue will share her insights at the Hastings Museum both Saturday and Sunday in anticipation of Mondays total solar eclipse.

I knew the eclipse was going over the farm I grew up on and I thought, Wouldnt it be cool to go back home to see the eclipse? Its going to be one of the better places to see the eclipse, Donahue said in a recent phone interview.

Donahue grew up on a farm near Inland and graduated from Hastings St. Cecilias High School in 1981. She earned a physics degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 and earned her doctorate in astrophysics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1990.

I had no clue about what it meant to be a physicist or a scientist, Donahue said going back to her youth. I was really interested in the topic of physics. I was really excited about science fiction and science.

Donahue grew up in the days of the Star Trek and the space program and while she didnt have any direct scientific role models as a child, she found them at MIT.

Donahue said she came to her specialty in astrophysics after realizing how much time and energy she would put into the study of that area.

It was the one thing that would capture my attention and I would lose track of time. That was a sign, she said.

Donahue spent some time as a Carnegie fellow in Pasadena, California, at the Carnegie Observatory. That was back when they were still operating the 200-inch Hale telescope, which at the time was one of the largest in the world.

That was a prestigious thing to have, especially back then, she said.

Donahue was there for three years before going to Baltimore where she worked for several years. Since 2003, she has served as a professor in the physics and astronomy department at Michigan State University.

While she no longer has family ties in this area, Donahue thought coming back to Nebraska for the eclipse would be a great opportunity.

She said there are certainly places out west that might have clearer skies that day but the time to drive from place to place in those mountainous areas might be more of a challenge.

I thought at least in Nebraska I would have free range to go east or west a couple hours if I needed to. I also I thought this would be a good place to stage out of, she said of Hastings. Im crossing my fingers it will be a great place to hang out and watch it.

While in the area, Donahue will be speaking three times at the Hastings Museum:

At 10 a.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Donahue will be speaking about the solar eclipse in Black Hole Sun: Views from the Dark Side of the Moon.

She will use NASA images and animations to give a basic overview of solar eclipses and their distinct stages.

I have some pretty good animation of why we have eclipses and how often we have them and where is there going to be the next one cause youre going to want to know, Donahue said. You see this one youre going to want to see another one. That is for sure.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, Donahue will also give the talk Galaxies Galore! which will delve deeper into her research and work at Michigan State including her work with the Hubble Space Telescope.

When it comes to the solar eclipse, Donahue has a bit of advice for all gazers.

During that two minutes of the full eclipse, Donahue said people will see colors that she can hardly name and that can only really be captured with the human eye. Thats why she said to leave the camera down.

Ive always been told for your first eclipse just look at it. Just watch it, she said. Let the pros take the pictures because you have to set the exposure time and getting the dynamic ring is tough but your eyes will immediately get it.

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Astrophysicist to speak at museum - Hastings Tribune

An App To Help The Blind ‘See’ The Eclipse – Science Friday

Its a question solar astrophysicist Henry TraeWinter started thinking about several months ago after a blind colleague asked him to describe what an eclipse was like.

I was caught completely flat-footed, Winter said. I had no idea how to communicate what goes on during an eclipse to someone who has never seen before in their entire life.

Winter remembered a story a friend told him about how crickets can start to chirp in the middle of the day as the moon covers the sun during an eclipse. So, he told his colleague that story.

The reaction that she had was powerful, and I wanted to replicate that sense of awe and wonder to as many people as I could across the country, Winter said.

[Learn about some of the experiments that will be conducted during the Great American Eclipse.]

So Winter, who works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, decided to build an app to do just that: help blind people experience this summers eclipse.

[The blind] community has been traditionally left out of astronomy and astrophysics, Winter said, and I think that that is a glaring omission that its time to answer.

Eclipse Soundscapes, which launched for iPads and iPhones Thursday, features real-time narration of different aspects of the eclipse timed for the users location.

A rumble map allows users to hear and feel the phenomenawhen they touch photos of previous eclipses.

Dark areas in the photos, like the solid black face of the moon, are silent when you touch them. Wispy strands of sunlight radiating out from behind the moon emit lower hums. And touching brighter areas, like the shards of light that peek out from behind the moons valleys, produce higher frequencies.

The sounds are paired with vibrations, soft for darker areas and more intense for brighter spots.

We managed to create frequencies that resonate with the body of the phone, said the apps audio engineer Miles Gordon, so the phone is vibrating entirely using the speaker.

[Need a last minute plan for the eclipse? No problem.]

The goal of this app is not to give someone whos blind or visually impaired the exact same experience as a sighted person, Winter said. What I hope this is, is a prototype, a first step, something we can learn from to make the next set of tools.

Other tools exist to allow blind people to experience the eclipse, including tactile maps and books, but its still understood largely as visual phenomena.

Less well-known are the changes in temperature, weather patterns and wildlife behaviors that accompany total eclipses.

Chancey Fleet, the colleague who first asked Winter to describe an eclipse at a conference months ago, was skeptical when she learned about his idea for an app.

The first time I heard that blind people were being asked to pay attention to the eclipse, I kind of laughed to myself, and tried to contain my really dismissive reaction, said Fleet, whos an accessible technology educator at a library in New York. It almost sounds like a joke.

But after learning about the sounds associated with the eclipse, shes interested in trying out Winters app.

Im looking forward to experiencing it for myself, and not just hearing or reading about it, Fleet said. Nothing is ever just visual, really. And [this] just proves that point again.

The app development team has gotten help from Wanda Diaz Merced, an astrophysicist who is blind, to make sure the software is easy to navigate.

She believes the app will show people that theres more to an eclipse than spooky midday darkness.

People will discover, Oh, I can also hear this!Diaz Merced said. And, I can also touch it!'

She also sees the app as a tool to get more blind kids interested in science.

That is very, very, very important, she said.

The Eclipse Soundscapes team, which is backed by a grant from NASA, has recruited the National Park Service, Brigham Young University and citizen scientists to record audio of how both people and wildlife respond during the eclipse.

Phase two of the project is to build an accessible database for those recordings, so blind people can easily access them.

Thats the element of the project Diaz Merced is most excited about from a scientific standpoint.

[How to throw an eclipse party thats out of this world.]

After she lost her sight in her late 20s, she had to build her own computer program to convert telescope data to sound files so she could continue her research (heres her TED talk).

She hopes this project spurs more interest in making data accessible to researchers like her.

What I do hope is that databases in science will use [this] database model for us to be able to have meaningful access to the information, Diaz Merced said. And that perhaps through [the] database, we will not be segregated.

In that way, she hopes the impact of the eclipse will last much longer than a day.

Continued here:

An App To Help The Blind 'See' The Eclipse - Science Friday