Tourist board for Bay Islands

Posted on by

Sept. 23, 2014, 6:30 p.m.

Group champions islands' beauty and lifestyle.

Thanks to Bay Islands Chamber of Commerce, the bay islands now have a tourism board that will promote and market the islands' rare features and opportunities

THE bay islands now have a dedicated tourism board championing their unique beauty, lifestyle and opportunities.

The board was formed at the September meeting of the Bay Islands Chamber of Commerce and the members are Steve Morgan, Bob Turner, Petrae Mclean, Kayleen Higgs and Maggie Carstairs.

Chamber president Col McInnes, of Lamb Island, said the board's role would be to promote the bay islands and act as a conduit for marketing possibilities for island-based businesses in tourism.

"They will also coordinate events and form close contacts with other tourism organisations," he said.

"The board will achieve some very good things for the islands and will help make many people aware of all that's good about them.

"The islands have so much going for them.

"Where else can you buy a home for $300,000 and, from your bedroom window, see your boat anchored out in the water?

Go here to see the original:

Tourist board for Bay Islands

Answer to restoring lost island biodiversity found in fossils

Posted on by

Many native species have vanished from tropical islands because of human impact, but University of Florida scientists have discovered how fossils can be used to restore lost biodiversity.

The key lies in organic materials found in fossil bones, which contain evidence for how ancient ecosystems functioned, according to a new study available online and in the September issue of the Journal of Herpetology. Pre-human island ecosystems provide vital clues for saving endangered island species and re-establishing native species, said lead author Alex Hastings, who conducted work for the study as graduate student at the Florida Museum of Natural History and UF department of geological sciences.

"Our work is particularly relevant to endangered species that are currently living in marginal environments," said Hastings, currently a postdoctoral researcher at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. "A better understanding of species' natural roles in ecosystems untouched by people might improve their prospects for survival."

Thousands of years ago, the largest carnivore and herbivore on the Bahamian island of Abaco disappeared. The study reconstructs the ancient food web of Abaco where these two mega-reptiles, the endangered Cuban Crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) and the now-extinct Albury's Tortoise (Chelonoidis alburyorum), once flourished. Today, there is no modern terrestrial ecosystem like that of ancient Abaco, with reptiles filling the roles of largest herbivore and carnivore.

In the study, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and National Geographic Society, researchers embarked on the difficult task of reconstructing an ecosystem where few of the components still exist. To understand these missing pieces, scientists analyzed the types of carbon and nitrogen in well-preserved fossil bones from the Cuban Crocodile and Albury's Tortoise, which was unknown to scientists before its 2004 discovery in the Bahamas. The data reveal the crocodile and tortoise were both terrestrial, showing that reptiles "called the shots" on the island, Hastings said.

The terrestrial nature of these creatures is a great indicator of how biodiversity has changed in the Bahamas and what the ideal circumstances would be for these or similar species to return, said Florida Museum ornithology curator and study co-author David Steadman.

"On islands like Abaco that have always been dominated by reptiles, the flora and fauna are more vulnerable because they have evolved to lead a more laid back, island existence," Steadman said. "Understanding this is important to designing better approaches to conservation on the island."

Early paleontological sites in the Bahamas have yielded bones from numerous species of reptiles, birds and mammals that no longer exist on the islands. James Mead, a vertebrate paleontologist with East Tennessee State University, said more research into the evolutionary history of native plants and animals on Abaco is needed as well as conservation programs based on paleontological research that aims to restore these species.

"The Cuban crocodile is living today in small numbers in Cuba, but this new research shows that it is not living to its fullest potential," Mead said. "The crocodile could live more abundantly in a much wider habitat if we allowed it."

Story Source:

See the original post:

Answer to restoring lost island biodiversity found in fossils

TAN Presents: Trans Health Care, Part 1: Laws & Landscapes – Video

Posted on by


TAN Presents: Trans Health Care, Part 1: Laws Landscapes
Trans Advocacy Network #39;s 7th webinar takes on health care. Are you interested in promoting trans health equity in insurance in your area, but don #39;t know where to start? In part 1 of our health...

By: TAN TransAdvocacyNetwork

Go here to see the original:

TAN Presents: Trans Health Care, Part 1: Laws & Landscapes - Video

Can tapioca replace corn as the main source for starch sweeteners?

Posted on by

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

22-Sep-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

IMAGE: Industrial Biotechnology, led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, and Glenn Nedwin, PhD, MoT, CEO and President, Taxon Biosciences, Tiburon, CA, is an authoritative journal focused on biobased industrial and environmental...

New Rochelle, NY, September 22, 2014Cassava, also known as tapioca, has large starch-filled roots and can grow at high yields in areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America where corn and sugarcane are not commonly grown. With the availability of novel enzymes and processes designed to break down tapioca starch into sugars that can then be used to produce sweeteners such as glucose, fructose, or maltose syrup, tapioca may be an ideal alternative to corn, as described in a Review article in Industrial Biotechnology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available for free on the Industrial Biotechnology website.

In the article "Cassava, the Next Corn for Starch Sweeteners", Jay Shetty, DuPont Industrial Biosciences (Palo Alto, CA), Bruce Strohm, Grain Enzyme Technology (Beloit, WI), and Sung Ho Lee and David Bates, and Gang Duan, from DuPont Industrial Biosciences in Cedar Rapids, IA and Wuxi, China, respectively, describe the current geographic distribution of cassava cultivation, and the composition and utility of the starch that comprises 24-30% of the cassava tuber. The authors discuss the variety of enzymes and processing steps available to convert tapioca starch to glucose via liquefaction and saccharification.

"Novel enzyme discovery and development continues to be core to expanding industrial biotechnology opportunities," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, Professor, Biological & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

###

About the Journal

Industrial Biotechnology, led by Co-Editors-in-Chief Larry Walker, PhD, and Glenn Nedwin, PhD, MoT, CEO and President, Taxon Biosciences, Tiburon, CA, is an authoritative journal focused on biobased industrial and environmental products and processes, published bimonthly in print and online. The Journal reports on the science, business, and policy developments of the emerging global bioeconomy, including biobased production of energy and fuels, chemicals, materials, and consumer goods. The articles published include critically reviewed original research in all related sciences (biology, biochemistry, chemical and process engineering, agriculture), in addition to expert commentary on current policy, funding, markets, business, legal issues, and science trends. Industrial Biotechnology offers the premier forum bridging basic research and R&D with later-stage commercialization for sustainable biobased industrial and environmental applications.

View original post here:

Can tapioca replace corn as the main source for starch sweeteners?

Jason Hope Predicts the Internet of Things Will Change the Face of Business

Posted on by

Scottsdale, AZ (PRWEB) September 22, 2014

The Internet of Things, that vast connectivity that is happening with everything from the Apple Watch to Internet-enabled doorbells, is changing personal life for the better, but business is poised to change as well. Jason Hope, futurist and entrepreneur, indicates that the Internet of Things is going to make vast changes in the business world in the coming years. According to Hope, the Internet of Things is going to change the way we do business, the way employees function in the work place and the way consumers interact with businesses.

Mr. Hope was quoted in a recent blog post, "We're already seeing these changes in the world of cloud computing," notes Hope. "We've been able to eliminate much hardware in favor of computing in the cloud. As that continues to be implemented in the future, and new connected devices are brought to market; we'll see greater connectivity in the business world as a whole."

Hope is not the only one who is making these types of predictions. Earlier this year, Samsung's president for North America, Gregory Lee, declared in a recent September 16, 2014 article on TechRadar, that 2014 would be the "Year of the Internet of Things." The IDC has found that nearly 40 percent of the world force will be mobile workers by 2015, said BusinessNewsDay even back on January 5, 2012.

"Imagine a device that will lock your front door as you leave, open your car and start the remote start, notify you of your morning meeting and send a text to your boss based on your GPS location telling him that you will be a little late for that meeting. This is the reality that the Internet of Things brings to the business world," comments Hope.

The function of work may also change. People's work will become more anticipatory rather than reactionary as the Internet of Things, and the devices it brings, is able to anticipate work patterns, objectives and even basic movements.

"It's an exciting time for business, and watching it all unfold is like having a front row seat to a blockbuster film," says Hope.

About Jason Hope:

Jason Hope, an Arizona native currently living in Scottsdale, is an entrepreneur and futurist who is passionate about technology and health, and how the two can complement each other. His recent donations to the SENS Research Foundation to fight the effects of aging points to this passion. To learn more about Jason's work, visit him at http://www.jasonhope.com.

Read more from the original source:

Jason Hope Predicts the Internet of Things Will Change the Face of Business

X Prize Pledges $15M for Software That Lets Children Teach Themselves

Posted on by

The X PRIZE Foundation, the brainchild of entrepreneur and futurist Peter Diamandis, is already working on everything from sending people to the moon, to cleaning up our oceans, to developing a real life Star Trek tricorder. And on Monday, the venerable non-profit announced another ambitious goal. It wants to bootstrap technology that will let the worlds children teach themselves to read and write.

The newly launched Global Learning X PRIZE is offering up $15 million to fund open source software that can remake education in the developing world. Ideally, Diamandis says, the X PRIZE team is looking for software that is artificially intelligent, so it can better understand how students learn and what their interests are, in order to keep them more engaged in their education.

This 200-year-old industrial age educational system that we all grew up in, in which we all sit in a classroom, the bell rings, and like cogs in a wheel, we change classrooms? Inevitably, half the students are lost, and half are bored, Diamandis told WIRED on Monday at the Social Good Summit in New York City, where the new prize was announced. The question is: How do you change that so its personalized education? Thats possible, and thats the goal.

Were aiming at kids who live in villages where theres nothing. This has to take them from complete illiteracy to basic reading, writing and numeracy.

As Diamandis admits, theres no shortage of technological innovation in education these days. The last few years have given birth to models like the massively open online course, which promises to give an elite global education to anyone online for free. But as important as this technology may be, he says, it often assumes a higher state of learning than exists. If you dont have the basics of education, you dont know how to use the web and dont know how to type in a URL, he says. Were aiming at kids who live in villages where theres nothing. This has to take them from complete illiteracy to basic reading, writing and numeracy.

If X PRIZE were to achieve such an ambitious goal, it wouldnt be the first time. In 2004, the foundation launched its Ansari X PRIZE, which challenged teams to create their own private spacecraft and is often credited with kickstarting what is now becoming a mature commercial spaceflight industry. Just last week, NASA awarded two multibillion dollar contracts to SpaceX and Boeing, entrusting them with the development of two new spacecraft that will shuttle NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station in the near future.

Im really proud we helped kick the private space flight industry in the butt, Diamandis says of the Ansari prizes legacy. We helped bring regulatory reform, capital to the marketplace, and more excitement about spaceflight to the industry.

Now, Diamandis hopes to replicate that success with the Global Learning prize. Teams will have six months to register, after which theyll have 18 months to build their software. It could be teams from Microsoft and Google or two kids in a garage from Nairobi, he says.

Then, the foundation will test those technologies with children throughout Africa, and it is now raising money through crowdfunding to expand that test from 5,000 kids to 10,000. Once the winning team is chosen, Diamandis says he plans to work with companies like Google, Samsung, HTC, and other device manufacturers to ensure the software is integrated into all of their new phones and tablets.

I want to make this software available for every tablet and smartphone out there, Diamandis says. Imagine that when someone gets a tablet in the future, it will become their teacher, as well.

See original here:

X Prize Pledges $15M for Software That Lets Children Teach Themselves

First Zero-G 3D Printer Is On Its Way To The Space Station

Posted on by

This 3D printer will be making parts on board the International Space Station (Credit: Made In Space)

On Tuesday morning, a SpaceX Dragon capsule will berth with the International Space Station. Included in its nearly 2 and a half tons of cargo is a first for the final frontier a 3D printer.

This 3D printer was developed by a small startup, Made In Space, which was founded in 2010 and incubated at Singularity University. Since 2011, the company has been actively working on development of their printer with NASA. The company has also received $824,597 in Small Business Innovation Research grants from NASA.

In 2013, NASA awarded Made In Space a Phase III Sole Source contract to build a 3D printer to send to the International Space Station the printer thats on its way to the station right now. The purpose of this printer is the demonstrate that 3D printing can work on board the station. If so, NASA intends to use its printer for experimental purpose with an eye to one day printing parts for the station on-demand.

As you might imagine, 3D printing poses some special challenges when you try to do it in zero gravity.

There are two main categories of problems, Brad Kohlenberg, a Business Development Engineer at the company told me. First is just making work. Second is making it safe in a closed loop environment.

The safety issue is the simple fact that when a 3D printer creates objects from its plastics, it will off-gas emitting toxic gasses into the local air. This isnt a problem on Earth, where doors, windows and HVAC systems allow those gases to diffuse safely. On the space station, however, the atmosphere is strictly controlled and this becomes a real problem.

To solve that problem, the company has developed an environmental control unit that filters out harmful gasses and nanoparticles produced during the printing process. Its so efficient, in fact, that the filter all by itself can purify a room on Earth.

Were actually in talks with other manufacturers about spinning that off, Kohlenberg told me. Doing crazy things that even if you fail to meet your goal, you could revolutionize another industry.

Made In Space tests its 3D printer on a microgravity parabolic flight.

Read this article:

First Zero-G 3D Printer Is On Its Way To The Space Station

NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft Successfully Entered Into Martian Orbit

Posted on by

Artists' conception of the MAVEN spacecraft. (Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

At 10:24 pm EDT on Sunday, NASAs MAVEN spacecraft arrived in orbit around Mars. MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, is a probe designed to explore the upper atmosphere of Mars in order to learn more about it. The spacecraft launched on Monday, November 18, 2013, taking about 10 months to get to the Red Planet.

As the first orbiter dedicated to studying Mars upper atmosphere, MAVEN will greatly improve our understanding of the history of the Martian atmosphere, how the climate has changed over time, and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability of the planet, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a press release.

For the next six weeks, the spacecraft will be undergoing a series of tests to maneuver into its proper orbit and to ensure that all of its instruments are working properly. It will then begin its one-year mission to explore the Martian atmosphere.

Its taken 11 years from the original concept for MAVEN to now having a spacecraft in orbit at Mars, Bruce Jakosky, MAVENs principal investigator said in the release. Im delighted to be here safely and successfully, and looking forward to starting our science mission.

The goal of the science mission specifically is to learn more about the composition of the Martian atmosophere and how it interacts with solar wind and other phenomena. The probe will also measure how fast gasses are escaping from Mars slowly thinning atmosphere. When those rates are measured, scientists hope to be able to reconstruct the Martian atmosphere as it existed thousands or millions of years ago. Those reconstructions could help determine if the conditions existed for life to exist on ancient Mars.

The MAVEN probe will also have company soon Indias Mars Orbiter mission is scheduled to enter into Martian orbit this week. That probe also launched in November of 2013, and is loaded with scientific instruments to study the Red Planet. If it successfully enters orbit, Indias space agency will become the fourth to successfully send a probe to Mars, after the U.S., Russian, and the European space agencies.

Follow me onTwitterorFacebook. Read my Forbes bloghere.

Go here to see the original:

NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft Successfully Entered Into Martian Orbit

The CCPs Media Ethics Watchdogs Are Useless Without Freedom of the Press, Experts Say – Video

Posted on by


The CCPs Media Ethics Watchdogs Are Useless Without Freedom of the Press, Experts Say
Follow us on TWITTER: http://twitter.com/cnforbiddennews Like us on FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/chinaforbiddennews The 21st Century Business Herald website was allegedly involved in...

By: ChinaForbiddenNews

Link:

The CCPs Media Ethics Watchdogs Are Useless Without Freedom of the Press, Experts Say - Video

Lets Play Monster hunter Freedom unite (German/HD) part 6 Das ist ja der Hammer – Video

Posted on by


Lets Play Monster hunter Freedom unite (German/HD) part 6 Das ist ja der Hammer
willkommen bei lets play Monster Hunter freedom unite Bitte das bewerten nicht vergessen --------------------------------------------------------- jetzt auch auf facebook: https://www.facebook.com/...

By: xXveenomXx

Continued here:

Lets Play Monster hunter Freedom unite (German/HD) part 6 Das ist ja der Hammer - Video