Virginia Tech Astronomy Club wakes up early to see lunar eclipse

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BLACKSBURG, Va. -

Some students got up pretty early on a school day to see the lunar eclipse.

About 20 students, most members of the Astronomy Club of Virginia Tech, gathered at the Price's Fork observatory in Blacksburg for a clear view of the early morning sky.

It was the first visible total lunar eclipse for the area in several years.

We've had an unusual void of lunar eclipses since December 2010 we haven't had a total lunar eclipse since then until this April and we were clouded out this April as well. So, for a lot of people this was really the first opportunity for them to see a total lunar eclipse from Virginia since December 2010, said Virginia Tech Astronomy Club President Nick Anderson.

The next total lunar eclipse will be in April of next year.

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Virginia Tech Astronomy Club wakes up early to see lunar eclipse

Ebola Screening A Logistical Nightmare, Says Epidemiologist

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Airport screening for Ebola at the point of disembarkation (or arrival) will be a logistical nightmare and much less effective than aggressive exit-screening in outbreak-affected countries, says a leading epidemiologist.

Screening of arriving passengers here at the disembarkation point is just a nightmare to do logistically, said Peter Katona, a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the division of infectious diseases at UCLAs Geffen School of Medicine. You can weed out arriving passengers at high risk based on where they have been and where they changed planes. But you have

Even so, on Wednesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that airline passengers who have arrived in the U.S. through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa would undergo enhanced screening for the deadly virus, notably being checked for fever using a non-contact thermometer.

JFK Airport, Immigration (Credit: Wikipedia)

The CDC reported that the screenings are due to take effect at New Yorks Kennedy airport on Saturday, with Washington-Dulles, Newark, Chicago-OHare and Atlanta International to follow next week. The CDC says that the new screenings will cover over 94 percent of travelers from affected countries.

The problem with a massive arrival screening process is those protocols tend to be fairly crude, says John Hansman, Director of MITs International Center of Air Transportation, noting the tendency is to over-screen and generate lots of false positives.

And, as Katona points out, in the affected regions points of embarkation, embarking passengers desperate to get out of a stricken area may be prone to lie about their contact history to do so.

In such regions, he suggests using an aggressive form of questioning that includes some sort of carrot and stick psychology; with the real promise of quality health-care as the carrot and prosecution and jail time as the stick. But with the lackluster international response to the crisis thus far, hes uncertain whether such an approach can work in West Africa.

Thus, with the potential for infected passengers to slip through such health dragnets, does flying anywhere in the commercial air transport system during such outbreaks present a significant risk?

Sitting next to someone isnt enough to transmit Ebola on an aircraft itself, says Katona. If theyre not vomiting or coughing on you then the risk is very small, he said.

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Ebola Screening A Logistical Nightmare, Says Epidemiologist

Can artificial intelligence design your site? The Grid hopes so

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Summary: Via artificial intelligence, crowdfunded startup The Grid is plotting to put a web designer at everyone's disposal.

A startup is hoping that artificial intelligence can evaluate content and automatically build a web site around it. The Grid, launched a Google alum and the first designer behind Medium, could be promising on a broad scale.

The company, founded by former Google AdSense Director of Products Brian Axe and the first Medium designer Leigh Taylor, uses artificial intelligence software to speed up web design. The Grid plans to crowdfund its development.

According to The Grid, the company's software can speed up web development by collecting images and text, analyzing content to create a web site in three minutes, automate color schemes, crop images and build sites from a smartphone or tablet.

Via AI, The Grid is plotting to put a Web designer at everyone's disposal. The Grid is hoping to raise $70,000 to start production and launch accounts in late spring of 2015. The software will ultimately go for $25 a month, but founding memberships will get $8 a month.

I don't usually chase crowdfunding pitches or startups this early, but the concept is notable given the importance of user experience in the enterprise. Companies are going to have to recruit UX experts to put a human face on what businesses run by smart machines and algorithms. Technology that could refine and adapt designs over time automatically could alleviate more than a few enterprise issues.

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Can artificial intelligence design your site? The Grid hopes so

The Grid: Artificial intelligence as your personal graphic designer

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2 hours ago by Nancy Owano

A preorder campaign has been launched for a web design platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to bring people closer to the quality websites they wish they had without a lot of bother and time. The offer: Any user, regardless of knowledge of web development, can use the platform to get an elegant website. The target: Anyone wanting to start a business or showcase talent with a good web site, without the fear of having to drop beans into pipes of a template-driven ordeal with results that in the end disappoint. Say hello to something called The Grid, which proposes to become a new way to create beautiful websites using AI to design the site based on content and user goals. The Grid engine auto-designs; the technology involves algorithms which analyze the media and apply palettes that can keep the messages consistent.

"A template isn't for you," says a promotional video. Your site should reflect who you are and should look good doing it. Problems arise because designing and developing are time-consuming jobs, and would it not be better if the website made itself? In a sense that is what The Grid does: no coding, no walled gardens, no templates, says the video. You tell The Grid what you want and its AI builds a solution tailor-made to the purposemore customers,, or more followers. What is more, The Grid site can adapt and adjust content.

The team explains how it adapts: everything you throw at it - videos, images, text, urls and more, is automatically shaped. Instead of spending time cropping images, for example, The Grid crops images to fit any size on any display. If the site owner should want to add e-commerce capabilities, then the user can add products and a shopping cart optimized for desktop and mobile automatically appears. Remove the products and the shopping cart disappears. "The layout changes as you add content."

The team behind The Grid, founded in San Francisco in 2010, consists of web developers and designers. "Template making platforms take hours, if not days to make something you'd be proud of," said The Grid CEO and cofounder Dan Tocchini. "We've spent the last few years building a form of artificial intelligence that functions like your own personal graphic designer, able to think about your brand and present it in the best way possible. The design adapts to your content, not the other way around."

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

The Grid's crowdfunding campaign officially launched Wednesday, and the company is hoping to release the first accounts by late spring 2015. The software will retail for $25 per month but, according to the press release, a limited number of founding memberships will be given to pre-order supporters at a locked-in rate of $8 per month in addition to other features and benefits.

Explore further: Poor design means terrible websites still haunt the web

More information: thegrid.io/

2014 Tech Xplore

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Elementary! IBM gets serious about Watson

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I spent an hour with Mike Rhodin, senior VP of the Watson group, on Monday night at the new HQ at Cooper Union Square. He seems like the perfect guy to sell artificial intelligence to the masses: He's intense but not too intense, nice suit but no tie, and there was no hint of computer jargon in the whole conversation.

Read MoreYou may soon getfinancial advice from a machine

One thing's for sure: IBM needs a revenue generator. Revenues have declined every year since 2011.

What I wanted to know first was, how much buy-in has there been from the top at IBM? Rhodin says he has complete support, and as evidence he points out that the entire operation is being run as a start-up within IBM. He reports monthly directly to Rometty and a few board members.

He refuses to be drawn into any discussion of how big a business Watson can become. He won't talk revenue projections, noting only that Watson is currently "part of IBM's $20 billion analytics business." He noted that Deloitte estimates the cognitive computing market will expand in five years to $50 billion in the U.S. alone.

There are several headwinds for IBM and Watson:

1) Too big to succeed, and potent competition. IBM is big. Really big, and there's some doubt it can pull off something like this. The current belief is that the only way any technology could advance is if it were invented by a 19-year old in his basement.

Read MoreArtificial intelligence could end mankind: Hawking

Maybe. But that's an easier call to make for social media than it is for artificial intelligence.

Invention does not always come from kids or small companies. IBM will have 2,000 people working on Watson by year end.

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Elementary! IBM gets serious about Watson

3 years after 'Jeopardy,' IBM's Watson gets serious

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I spent an hour with Mike Rhodin, senior VP of the Watson group, on Monday night at the new HQ at Cooper Union Square. He seems like the perfect guy to sell artificial intelligence to the masses: He's intense but not too intense, nice suit but no tie, and there was no hint of computer jargon in the whole conversation.

Read MoreYou may soon getfinancial advice from a machine

One thing's for sure: IBM needs a revenue generator. Revenues have declined every year since 2011.

What I wanted to know first was, how much buy-in has there been from the top at IBM? Rhodin says he has complete support, and as evidence he points out that the entire operation is being run as a start-up within IBM. He reports monthly directly to Rometty and a few board members.

He refuses to be drawn into any discussion of how big a business Watson can become. He won't talk revenue projections, noting only that Watson is currently "part of IBM's $20 billion analytics business." He noted that Deloitte estimates the cognitive computing market will expand in five years to $50 billion in the U.S. alone.

There are several headwinds for IBM and Watson:

1) Too big to succeed, and potent competition. IBM is big. Really big, and there's some doubt it can pull off something like this. The current belief is that the only way any technology could advance is if it were invented by a 19-year old in his basement.

Read MoreArtificial intelligence could end mankind: Hawking

Maybe. But that's an easier call to make for social media than it is for artificial intelligence.

Invention does not always come from kids or small companies. IBM will have 2,000 people working on Watson by year end.

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3 years after 'Jeopardy,' IBM's Watson gets serious

Mark McCandlish, The Price For Being a UFO Whistle Blower, On FarOutRadio 10-6-14 – Video

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Mark McCandlish, The Price For Being a UFO Whistle Blower, On FarOutRadio 10-6-14
SUBSCRIBE LIKE Mark McCandlish is our guest this evening. He #39;s an aerospace technical illustrator and outstanding artist. Mark is also an aerospace whistleblower and he #39;ll be with us...

By: FarOutRadio

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Mark McCandlish, The Price For Being a UFO Whistle Blower, On FarOutRadio 10-6-14 - Video

Horizontal Machining – Makino a51nx – Small Part Aerospace Manufacturing – Video

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Horizontal Machining - Makino a51nx - Small Part Aerospace Manufacturing
Aluminum machining witnessed in this video demonstrates the small part aerospace manufacturing capabilities of the Makino a51nx 400mm high-speed horizontal machining center.

By: Headland Machinery

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Horizontal Machining - Makino a51nx - Small Part Aerospace Manufacturing - Video

Vector Aerospace to supply Royal Thai Air Force with engine and component parts

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Gains May Accelerate For Thai Stock Market

RTT News - Thursday 9th October, 2014

The Thai stock market on Wednesday halted the two-day slide in which it had plunged more than 30 points or 2 percent. The Stock Exchange of Thailand settled just below the 1,545-point plateau, and ...

Asia News Network - Thursday 9th October, 2014

Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday that Thailand needed a law to regulate demonstrations. He said Thais would have to learn to accept rules, otherwise the country would ...

Asia News Network - Thursday 9th October, 2014

Police believed among the 14 injured in the Bukit Bintang grenade blast early Thursday are two China nationals, two Sinagporeans and a Thai. They were all admitted to the nearby Tung Shin Hospital ...

Straits Times - Thursday 9th October, 2014

SYDNEY (AFP) - A woman missing for more than two weeks in a rugged Australian rainforest has stumbled out alive after surviving on creek water and small fish, officials and reports said Thursday. ...

Channel News Asia - Thursday 9th October, 2014

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Vector Aerospace to supply Royal Thai Air Force with engine and component parts

NASA Selects Three Proposals to Support Behavioral Health and Performance on Deep Space Missions

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NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) will fund three proposals to help investigate questions about behavioral health and performance on future deep space exploration missions. Research like this may help astronauts as they venture farther into the solar system than ever before to explore an asteroid and, eventually, Mars.

The selected proposals are from three institutions in two states and will receive a total of about $3.2 million during a three-year period. The three projects were selected from 11 proposals received in response to the research announcement "Human Exploration Research Opportunities - Behavioral Health and Performance." Science and technology experts from academia and government reviewed the proposals.

Two proposals will investigate neurobehavioral conditions and standardized behavioral measures relevant to exploration class missions. One proposal will evaluate the neurobehavioral effects of a dynamic lighting system on the International Space Station.

HRP research provides knowledge and technologies to reducecrew health and performance risksduring space exploration. It also develops potential countermeasures for problems experienced during space travel.Mission planners and system developers can use these potential countermeasures to monitor and mitigate the risks to crew health and performance.

While the programs research goals are to ensure astronauts living off the Earth safely complete their challenging space missions and preserve their long-term health, these same research studies can also lead to advancements in human health understanding and treatments for patients on Earth.

For a complete list of the selected principal investigators, organizations and proposals, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/1rX1Qzr

For information about NASA's Human Research Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/humanresearch

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NASA Selects Three Proposals to Support Behavioral Health and Performance on Deep Space Missions

The science behind why our inboxes are so full of political losers

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If it appears that your favorite candidate has been flooding your e-mail box with tales of woe lately, here's one reason why: New research shows that the Internet loves an underdog candidate.

Apair of behavioral scientists, Todd Rogers of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Don A. Moore of the University of California at Berkeley, examined whether campaign donors are more likelyto open theirwalletsfora candidate who's projected to win or one who's projected to lose.

Working with theonline fundraising and digital marketing firm Anne Lewis Strategies, the researcherstracked the outcomes of e-mails sent ontwodays in June to the e-mail list of the Democratic Governors Association. The e-mails were aimed at fundraising around the gubernatorial race pittingFlorida Democrat Charlie Crist againstRepublican Rick Scott. The e-mails were identicalexcept for the first line: One said: "We've fallen behind Rick Scott in the latest polls," while the other said: "Rick Scott is LOSING in three straight polls."

Luckily for science, the polling on the race has been tight enough to justify either interpretation of the state of the contest.

The down-by-a-hair e-mails turned out to be the big winner, with people far more likely to support a candidate who is barely losing than one just barely winning. The underdog e-mails raised 60 percent more money than those that suggested that the race was still close but that the preferred candidate had pulled ahead, according to the study released last week, "The Motivating Power of Under-Confidence."

"This constant testing of widely varying messages could generate the pattern we observe: messages highlighting that the candidate is barely losing may tend to dominate other messages," the study says.

This makes some intuitive sense. Voters have little interest in spending money to ensure victory. But there are wrinkles. For supporters, the idea that your candidate is losing is appealing. But the pitch doesn't work on uncommitted voters.

Rogers and Moore also found that would-be voters were more likely to support a fictional candidate when they were first presented with positive statements about their candidacy. The researchers attribute that to the behavioral practice of "herding," in whichwe humans are likely to throw our lots in with those who others seem to believe are likely to succeed.

"Talking to uncommitted voters," says Lewis, "is like going on a first date. You want them to think you're a winner. But after you've been married for 20 years, you can be a little more like, 'Yikes, I need help.'"

That helps explain one dichotomy of politics. On television, where candidates are appealing to a general audience, they're likely to talk about the strength of their campaign. But their online mailing lists tend to be made up of supporters -- one reason that candidates often appear far more sad sack in our e-mail inboxes than on our TV sets.

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The science behind why our inboxes are so full of political losers

Amazon Rainforest DNA Skin-repair Secret Revealed by Dr. Al Sears MD

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Dr. Al Sears, MD, revealed an ancient skin-repair secret he found in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru. Uncaria Tomentosa Extract is also known as Cat's Claw. It grows in the Rainforest and is used to repair skin and reverse the signs of aging.

This article was originally distributed via 24-7 Press Release Newswire. 24-7 Press Release Newswire, WorldNow and this Site make no warranties or representations in connection therewith.

ROYAL PALM BEACH, FL, October 01, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- America's #1 anti-aging physician, Dr. Al Sears, MD, travels over 20,000 miles a year seeking out hidden cures and natural healing secrets. He recently journeyed deep into the Peruvian Rainforest to live amongst the native Ashaninka Indians. This is where he encountered an ancient skin healing plant, called uncaria tomentosa or Cat's Claw, in its native environment. The plant grows on a long vine that appears to have claws. The claws allow it to climb trees and reach high into the Amazon jungle's canopy.

The Ashaninkas have been using this plant since before recorded history. It has nearly miraculous anti-aging properties, and is just one of many healing secrets hidden deep in the Amazon. The Ashaninkas have a profound knowledge of the healing herbs in the jungle, and Dr. Sears was there to record and preserve that knowledge because their natural habitat is almost gone now.

"Cat's Claw is a powerful medicinal herb that is effective in treating diabetes, prostate problems and fatigue. It has enormous anti-inflammatory and pain relieving applications," Dr. Sears, founder of the Dr. Sears Center for Health and Wellness in Royal Palm Beach, Florida said. "The real news about this breakthrough is that we now know it can activate the enzyme telomerase, and signal your telomeres to grow longer."

A Nobel prize-winning breakthrough identified telomeres as the keys to aging. Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of each strand of DNA. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres grow a little bit shorter. They act as the body's aging clock, and as they get shorter they produce older-looking skin and all that goes with it.

Harvard researchers found a way to activate the enzyme, telomerase, which signals telomeres to grow longer and create fresher, younger looking cells.

Cat's Claw has been proven to have telomerase activation power. In fact, cat's claw extract lengthened cell telomeres and extended the lifespan of the cells by 201% (1). The telomere-protective effect of cat's claw extract can trigger DNA repair in the skin and fight skin inflammation (2).

"After speaking to the healers in the rainforest and studying the research, I was very excited to add cat's claw to my DNA rejuvenation cream, Revive, from Pure Radiance. The improvement was so impressive, I changed the name of the skin cream to TeloRevive Rejuvenating Night Cream," Dr. Sears explained. "When you apply cat's claw to your skin it can help repair your DNA while you sleep like you did when you were younger. Cat's claw is a skin rejuvenating breakthrough. It allows you to go to sleep at night and wake up the next day with your skin looking younger and fresher."

For more information about Dr. Al Sears, MD and his research on Cat's Claw and TeloRevive Rejuvenating Night Cream, please call: 1-888-795-4005 or simply visit Pure Radiance online.

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Amazon Rainforest DNA Skin-repair Secret Revealed by Dr. Al Sears MD