New Jersey Weighs Smoking Ban At Beaches, Parks

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TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban smoking at all public beaches and parks in the state.

A state Assembly committee advanced the proposal at a hearing Thursday morning. It now goes to the full Assembly, where a final vote has not been scheduled.

The bill is designed to eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke at beaches and parks, cut down on litter and improve fire safety in those public areas. Smoking would still be allowed in parking lots near beaches and parks.

Violators would get fined $250 for a first offense, $500 for a second offense and $1,000 for subsequent ones.

When you look at our public parks and beaches, we do not want people to experience secondhand smoke, or increase the litter of cigarette butts, said Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri-Huttle, one of the bills sponsors. This enhances our beaches. I think it promotes more tourism.

Karen Blumenfeld, executive director of Global Advisors on Smokefree Policy, said more than a third of New Jerseys municipalities have laws on the books that restrict smoking in parks and recreational areas.

We all know that theres no safe level of secondhand smoke at all, she said. Secondhand smoke outdoors does affect people.

Blumenfeld said some beach towns already have banned smoking on their sands, including Seaside Park, Long Branch, and Sunset Beach in Cape May Point.

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New Jersey Weighs Smoking Ban At Beaches, Parks

Square Kilometre Array Will Transform Our Understanding of the Universe

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The Whos Who of global radio astronomy gathered in Stellenbosch this week to discuss future science with the SKA. The meeting was characterized by electrifying expectations and impatient excitement on the part of scientists who are keen to see the long-awaited SKA (Square Kilometre Array), and its precursors such as South Africas MeerKAT and Australias ASKAP, become a reality.The SKA Project is an international enterprise to build the largest radio telescope in the world.The more than 160 delegates at the conference included high-level delegations from China, South Korea, the UK, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Argentina, Australia and the US. There is a global buzz about doing cutting-edge science with the SKA and the project is already attracting some of the worlds foremost scientific talent to South Africa, SKA SA project director Dr. Bernie Fanaroff said.At the opening session of the conference the Director General of the SKA Organisation Professor Philip Diamond emphasized the fact that the SKA would be a global observatory and not an experiment.The SKA is an amazing science discovery machine, explained astrophysicist Professor Katherine Blundell from the University of Oxford in the UK. With the SKA we will be able to see fuller, reach deeper and understand better. It will literally expand our horizons and give us a much clearer picture of how the universe came to be what it is today.Like all the other scientists at the meeting this week, Professor Michael Kramer, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany is thrilled about the future possibilities of the SKA. I cant wait to get my hands on SKA data, he said.There will be a clear distinction in radio astronomy research between before and after the SKA. All the radio astronomy research done up to now will be a prelude compared to what will be possible in future.When asked about why the SKA is seen as an instrument that will transform radio astronomy, scientists talk about its sheer size, exceptional sensitivity, wide frequency range and unique flexibility. It is described as a one of a kind instrument that has the power to unite the global radio astronomy community to work towards common science goals for several decades.The SKA will also achieve lots of synergies with other telescopes across all electromagnetic frequencies, ranging from optical telescopes to new, high-energy telescopes on Earth and in space, as well as with gravitational wave predictors, Professor Kramer added. We are lucky to live in a time when all these instruments will be working together to give us new windows on the universe.Amongst those at the meeting is Professor Pierre Cox, Director of the ALMA radio telescope in Chile. ALMA operates at very high radio frequencies and will have important synergies with South Africas MeerKAT telescope and the SKA.Experts at the meeting agreed that the SKA presents wonderful opportunities for young men and women in Africa to be the engineers, computer scientists and astrophysicists that will make the technology happen and produce the transformational science outcomes that will only be possible with the SKA.A special session at the conference focused on making the science of radio astronomy accessible to learners, including a group of children from the primary and secondary school in Carnarvon. Top scientists took on the challenge to present their research to these young people in small groups and to answer all their questions about astronomy and the universe.Another highlight of the week was a public talk by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, famous for her role in the discovery of the first radio pulsars. She launched the audience into a world of unimaginable extremes with her talk about pulsars and fast radio bursts. The SKA will not only enable astronomers to see ten times as many pulsars as is currently possible, but will also bring about new and unexpected discoveries, she said. South Africa is going to be a very special place in the near future of radio.The meeting concludes in Stellenbosch today (Friday, 21 February 2014) with a summary of the weeks discussions by Professor Roger Blandford from Stanford University, who convened the USAs 2010 decadal review of priority astronomy projects.PIO Contact:Marina Joubert+27 (0)834 094 254marina@ska.ac.zaScience Contact:Prof. Justin Jonas+27 (0)725 085 307j.jonas@ru.ac.zaMore information and photographs:http://www.ska.ac.zahttp://www.skatelescope.org

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Square Kilometre Array Will Transform Our Understanding of the Universe

Arthur M. Wolfe, physics and astronomy figure, dies in California

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SAN DIEGO, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Arthur M. Wolfe, an American astrophysicist known for his discoveries about star formation and the early universe, died, the University of California says.

Wolfe, who spent a decade as director of the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the UC San Diego, died Monday in La Jolla, Calif., of cancer, the university said Thursday.

He was 74.

"Art Wolfe was a big thinker," Mark Thiemens, dean of the UC San Diego Division of Physical Sciences, said. "He wrestled with understanding how galaxies were formed and evolved. And he peered back in time 10 to 15 billion years to develop new ideas about the early universe. He was a leading force at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences. All of us on campus benefited from his presence, research and leadership."

Born in New York City in 1939, Wolfe received a bachelor's degree in physics in 1961 from City College of New York's Queens College, a master's degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1963 and his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin in 1967.

Trained as a theoretical physicist, Wolfe made fundamental contributions to both theoretical general relativity and observational astronomy.

In 1989 he accepted a professorship in the Physics Department at UC San Diego and become director of Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences in 1997.

He retired last March.

"Art was a true leader in the fields of cosmology and extra-galactic astronomy," said J. Xavier Prochaska, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz who, as a former graduate student, was one of the many prominent scientists Wolfe had mentored. "He influenced the research of hundreds of colleagues with his deep physical insight and was a terrific mentor to young researchers."

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Arthur M. Wolfe, physics and astronomy figure, dies in California

playing the contra adventure (pt 8) using Human-Level Artificial Intelligence – Video

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playing the contra adventure (pt 8) using Human-Level Artificial Intelligence
http://www.humanlevelartificialintelligence.com This video shows a robot playing a PS1 game called the contra adventure. There are no sound in parts of the v...

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playing the contra adventure (pt 8) using Human-Level Artificial Intelligence - Video