Change likely for freedom camping bylaw

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Freedom camping bylaws in Marlborough are set to change, but not before another summer with the visitors.

Feedback from the public is likely to result in changes to Marlborough's freedom camping bylaw, but not in time for the upcoming summer season.

Marlborough District Council reserves and amenities manager Rosie Bartlett said the council had received 161 submissions regarding the bylaw, which indicated there was a need for change within the region.

Such a change would take time, she said.

The bylaw came into effect in 2012 and meant freedom campers were able to camp anywhere in the district except banned areas.

Koromiko resident Jessie Somerville said she would be advocating for changes to the bylaw, after a build up of people setting up camp in her neighbourhood, near the Collins Memorial Reserve, on the corner of State Highway 1 and Freeths Rd.

She was not against freedom camping, but preferred to see designated areas for campers, which were away from built-up areas.

"[They should be] in remote areas where there's no other alternative, [at the moment] they really are just taking money off people they should be supporting."

The council was taking business away from Picton campgrounds, motels, bars and restaurants, by having a free camping spot just minutes from the town, Somerville said.

The Koromiko reserve had a toilet block, which meant camping vehicles did not have to be self-contained to stop there.

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Change likely for freedom camping bylaw

When racism was a science

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An old, stucco house stands atop a grassy hill overlooking the Long Island Sound. Less than a mile down the road, the renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory bustles with more than 600 researchers and technicians, regularly producing breakthroughs in genetics, cancer and neuroscience.

But that old house, now a private residence on the outskirts of town, once held a facility whose very name evokes dark memories: the Eugenics Record Office.

In its heyday, the office was the premier scientific enterprise at Cold Spring Harbor.

There, bigoted scientists applied rudimentary genetics to singling out supposedly superior races and degrading minorities.

By the mid-1920s, the office had become the center of the eugenics movement in America.

Today, all that remains of it are files and photographs reams of discredited research that once shaped anti-immigration laws, spurred forced-sterilisation campaigns and barred refugees from entering Ellis Island.

Now, historians and artists at New York University are bringing the eugenics office back into the public eye.

Haunted Files: The Eugenics Record Office, a new exhibit at the universitys Asian/Pacific/American Institute, transports visitors to 1924, the height of the eugenics movement in the United States.

Inside a dimly lit room, the sounds of an old typewriter click and clack, a teakettle whistles and papers shuffle.

The offices original file cabinets loom over reproduced desks and period knickknacks. Creaky cabinets slide open, and visitors are encouraged to thumb through copies of pseudoscientific papers.

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When racism was a science

Lombok: The island of breathtaking beaches

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Just a 2-hour flight from Jakarta, Lombok offers a wealth of gorgeous beaches that are far less crowded than in neighboring Bali

If Bali is the island of the Gods, then Lombok, its neighbor to the east, is the island of breathtaking beaches.

A 2-hour flight from Jakarta, Lombok is blessed with deserted beaches, quiet hillside towns populated mostly by roosters and fruit vendors, and a fascinating blend of cultures. Home to more than 2.4 million Indonesians, Lombok is 80% Sasak Muslim and 20% Balinese Hindu, making for a vibrant mix of majestic mosques and ancient temples.

Here are my favorite beaches in Lombok. Luckily, most of them are located not far from the Lombok International Airport.

CALM AND SLEEPY. Tanjung Aan Beach is locatd on the south coast of Lombok. All photos by Nila Tanzil/Rappler

Tanjung Aan Beach

Down in southeast Lombok sits sleepy Tanjung Aan Beach. The isolated stretch of white sand is comprised of two sweeping bays.

Tanjung Aan is perfect for those looking to take a relaxing dip or for a snorkeling spot. The smooth turquoise waters and the white powdery sand make the beach a Lombok must. Nowadays, there are a number of food vendors serving up tasty local snacks you can enjoy while sunbathing on this gorgeous beach!

MYTHICAL BEACH. Once a year, a Bau Nyale ceremony where locals search for sea worms is held on Seger beach.

Seger Beach

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Lombok: The island of breathtaking beaches

MU to host partial solar eclipse viewing

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The University of Missouris Department of Physics and Astronomy will host a viewing of a partial solar eclipse Thursday afternoon at Laws Observatory.

Angela Speck, professor of astrophysics and director of astronomy, said in a news release that the partial eclipse begins at 4:40 p.m., with maximum coverage occurring around 5:45 p.m. Speck reminded people to refrain from viewing the eclipse with the naked eye. The event is free and open to the public.

The University of Missouris Department of Physics and Astronomy will host a viewing of a partial solar eclipse Thursday afternoon at Laws Observatory.

Angela Speck, professor of astrophysics and director of astronomy, said in a news release that the partial eclipse begins at 4:40 p.m., with maximum coverage occurring around 5:45 p.m. Speck reminded people to refrain from viewing the eclipse with the naked eye. The event is free and open to the public.

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At UMN lab, use 100-year-old telescope to see billion-year-old stars

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View from the root top of the Tate Laboratory of Physics at the University of Minnesota on Friday, Oct. 10, 2014. (Pioneer Press: Juan Pablo Ramirez)

The graduate students who run public-viewing nights at the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics assume the public knows very little about the cosmos. This is a good thing, since what I know about the origins of the universe can be summed up in the theme song from the sitcom "The Big Bang Theory."

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state.

Then nearly 14 billion years ago, expansion started. Wait ...

I recently took my 12-year-old son to the observatory on top of the Tate Laboratory of Physics on the University of Minnesota campus, where every Friday night during spring and fall semesters, astrophysics teaching assistants give a short talk and let the public look through the 19th-century telescope.

My son is not one of those kids who is captivated by outer space, but he likes science, and I knew he would be interested in the antique scope.

"We do what we can to bring astronomy to the public because it's one of those sciences that captures the imagination," said graduate student Melanie Beck, whose interest in astronomy was sparked by seeing Comet Hale-Bopp as a child and who now heads up astrophysics outreach programs.

The Friday topics range from asteroids to the Big Bang, from spacecraft and satellites to the life and death of stars.

"People love to hear about galaxies, and they love to hear about colonizing Mars, and they always love black holes," Beck said. "Even if the topic is not about black holes, people always ask questions about black holes.

The night we were there, the subject was the most-distant galaxies. About 40 people, including college students on date nights and a few families, sat on hard chairs in a classroom with old radiators and a poster of the periodic table on one wall. It felt like Cosmos 101.

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At UMN lab, use 100-year-old telescope to see billion-year-old stars

Computer baby TEDx magnet

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The new face of artificial intelligence is coming to TEDx Christchurch early next month.

BabyX is a "first step, a metaphor for a new type of technology," said Mark Sagar, director of the Laboratory for Animate Technologies at the University of Auckland.

"We're creating a system that creates it's own expressions and it's own emotion. It can think and react. It's live . . . it's experiencing the world just like we do," he said.

The "face" of BabyX is a human toddler on a computer screen and its brain a powerful computer. The TEDx audience will see Sagar interact with BabyX live on stage.

He won two technical Oscars for work on computer-generated faces while special projects supervisor at Peter Jackson's Weta Digital.

Another speaker, Mark Gee, still works at Weta - he's helping finish the third Hobbit film - although his TEDx talk will focus on astronomy photography. Gee was short-listed for the 2012 and 2014 Astronomy Photographer of the Year.

Gee was set to photograph the recent blood moon at the Carter Observatoryand said being in remote places at night to photograph the universe made him feel "small and insignificant".

Remoteness also features in the work of Dr Jenni Adams, a University of Canterbury associate professor of physics. Among her research interests is IceCube, a telescope constructed of a cubic kilometre of ice and 5160 optical modules buried 1450 to 2450 metres beneath the South Pole.

It detects neutrinos streaming through the Earth, some of which collide with ice particles. Neutrinos help explain processes that go on in the sun and are an important building block for the blueprint of nature.

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Computer baby TEDx magnet

Vector Aerospace and Orange County (CA) Sheriffs Department Sign AS350 and UH-1H MRO Support Contract

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Richmond, BC Vector Aerospace Corporation (Vector Aerospace- http://www.vectoraerospace.com), one of the worlds leading independent providers of aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services, is pleased to announce the signing of a five (5) year agreement with Orange County Sheriffs Department to conduct maintenance, repair and overhaul on their AS350 and UH-1H helicopters.

Signing this contract with Orange County Sheriffs Department highlights Vectors ability to provide tip-to-tail MRO support for AS350 fleets, states Chris McDowell, vice president, sales & marketing at Vector Aerospace Helicopter Services North America (HS-NA). With extensive qualifications and experience on Arriel 1 & 2 engine platforms, AS350 components and UH-1H aircraft, we are looking forward to supporting the MRO requirements of Orange County over the next 5 years.

We are pleased to sign this agreement with Vector Aerospace, states Sergeant William Fitzgerald, Aviation Support Unit, Orange County Sheriffs Department. Over and above the economic requirements, our decision to leverage Vectors maintenance, repair and overhaul services is based on their reputation for superior customer support and high quality service.

Vector Aerospace supports Turbomeca, Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney Canada and General Electric engine products (including complete test capability), and is a D-Level certified Airbus Helicopters repair center, Sikorsky customer support center and Bell MRO provider. Airframe capabilities include major inspections, structural repair, dynamic component overhaul and full avionics upgrades including complete aircraft rewire and glass cockpit engineering, development and integration.

About Orange County Sheriffs Department Aviation Support Unit

The Orange County Sheriffs Department Aviation Support Unit was approved by the County Board of Supervisors in 1984. Since then, Duke has been improving Law Enforcement and other aviation support services provided to residents of Orange County In addition to providing aerial surveillance for ground support, their crews are able to quickly transport members of specialized personnel (SWAT, Dive Team, Search and Rescue and Canines), to provide an aerial platform for personnel to view and assess fires and other disasters, assist with fire suppression by using water dropping buckets and provide aerial evacuation from high rise structures during fires or other emergency situations.

About Vector Aerospace

Vector Aerospace is a global provider of aviation MRO services. Through facilities in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, South Africa, and Kenya, Vector Aerospace provides services to commercial and military customers for gas turbine engines, components and helicopter airframes. Vectors customer-focused team includes over 2,700 motivated employees.

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Vector Aerospace and Orange County (CA) Sheriffs Department Sign AS350 and UH-1H MRO Support Contract

Genetic engineering may undercut human diseases, but also could help restore extinct species, researcher says

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Oct 17, 2014 by Alvin Powell In his talk, Adapting Species to a Changing World: The Potential of Genome Editing, Professor George Church spoke about his efforts to engineer a mammoth from its closest living relative, the African elephant, while also discussing the primary goal of such technology: improving human health. Credit: Ann Wang

Mammoth DNA in recovered cells frozen for thousands of years is likely too fragmented to clone an animal, according to Harvard geneticist George Church. So he's working instead to engineer one genetically from a close relative, the Asian elephant.

Genetic studies have shown that the Asian elephant is more closely related to the extinct mammoth than to its closest living relative, the African elephant. That provides scientists with the basic stock to build a mammoth, said Church, the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.

"The Asian elephant and the mammoth are really close, closer than the African elephant," Church said during a lecture yesterday. "We're assuming that the Asian elephant is basically right, a mutant [mammoth] that has a problem living at minus 50 C."

Church acknowledged there are important differences between the two animals and said current efforts are aimed at one key contrast: cold tolerance. Increasing that in Asian elephants would mean changing several traits, such as adding a double fur coat and a thick layer of fat to keep out the cold, and reducing ear size to cut heat loss. Church said researchers are testing possible changes in lab cultures and are still several years from trying them out in an elephant.

Church's mammoth work is part of a kaleidoscope of research efforts fueled by genetic engineering, he said. While health and medical goals are driving down the price of genome analysis and fostering the development of new technology, some of the most far-reaching applicationslike resurrecting the mammoth and other extinct creatureslie outside human health.

Another potential non-medical use involves using genetic engineering to manage existing species, such as building malaria resistance into mosquitoes to minimize the human suffering the disease causes, or "de-evolving" the herbicide resistance weeds develop over time to restore a herbicide's effectiveness.

Church spoke at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, one of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture (HMSC). His presentation, "Adapting Species to a Changing World: The Potential of Genome Editing," was before a crowd of several hundred in a packed Geological Lecture Hall. He was introduced by HMSC Executive Director Jane Pickering.

Though much of Church's talk focused on "de-extinction" and the genetic engineering of species, he also discussed the primary goal of such technology: improving human health. With the cost of decoding the genome having dropped from $3 billion to $999, cheap, widespread genetic analysis may help people understand their risk for genetically influenced ailments. Rapid, portable analysis could be used in the environment to detect potential infectious agents, and in the doctor's office to guide more effective care.

Church acknowledged that many medical conditions have a complex genetic background and are influenced by several genessometimes even several hundred genesbut said there can be a relative handful that outstrip others in importance and so provide therapeutic targets. For example, height has been shown to be influenced by 700 genes, but just a couple, affecting growth hormone production and use, are known to have a sizeable effect on getting taller.

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Genetic engineering may undercut human diseases, but also could help restore extinct species, researcher says

Jerrold Meinwald wins National Medal of Science

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University Photography file photo

Jerrold Meinwald, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, has received the National Medal of Science in chemistry.

Jerrold Meinwald, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, has received the National Medal of Science, the nations highest honor for achievement in science and engineering. Meinwald received the medal in chemistry; other awards were bestowed in behavioral and social sciences, biology, engineering, mathematics and physical sciences, the White House announced Oct. 3.

Over his long career, Meinwald, who joined Cornells faculty in 1952 as an instructor in chemistry, has made fundamental discoveries of how chemicals act as repellants and attractants between organisms. He and the late Thomas Eisner, a longtime friend and colleague who won the National Medal of Science in 1994, are credited with establishing the field of chemical ecology the science that deals with the many ways animals, plants and microorganisms chemically interact.

Its a very nice thing, Meinwald said of the award. Its maybe a representation of a growing interest in the field of chemical ecology.

Meinwalds research has involved the isolation and identification of biologically active compounds from insect and other arthropod sources; pheromone systems of some amphibian and mammal species; and identification of messenger molecules involved in such systems and the understanding of underlying signal transduction pathways.

Meinwald has helped decipher the intricate chemical strategies that insects use for a variety of activities: mating, location of food, protection of offspring and defense against attackers. Throughout his decades-long scientific partnership with Eisner, Eisner, a biologist, conducted most of the biological experiments, while Meinwald and his research group of undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs provided the essential chemical expertise.

Chemicals of unforeseen potential have been among Meinwalds findings over the years. He helped discover that birds and spiders reject fireflies because of lucibufagins, a family of steroids, which Meinwald isolated for the first time. These compounds have proved to have cardiotonic and antiviral effects, with potential therapeutic value for humans.

Meinwald began his career as a conventional organic chemist, he said, but moved on to do collaborative chemistry with Eisner. Meinwald is an active advocate for chemists who seek scientific partnerships outside of chemistry, whether in biology, physics or other fields.

My own award represents a career built in large part on collaboration, he said.

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Jerrold Meinwald wins National Medal of Science