Ventura County beaches draw crowds during heat wave

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Ivan Pan and his family needed just one piece of information before deciding on a daylong trip to a Ventura beach: The temperature where they live in Valencia was expected to reach 102 degrees.

Pan, his wife, Erin, and son Juninho were enjoying the clear, breezy weather at San Buenaventura State Beach on Saturday afternoon and said they would be milking their time in the area before having to return to the heat.

The Pans were not alone. With forecasters predicting record-breaking temperatures throughout Ventura and Los Angeles counties this weekend, thousands of others flocked to area beaches for a brief reprieve from the heat, as well.

The increase in heat means more work for Brendan Delear, a lifeguard working at Tower 8 near the Ventura Pier.

Photo by Carmen Smyth, Ventura County Star

CARMEN SMYTH/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Megan Lee rides the waves on an inflatable mattress with her friend Michelle Miller as they try to beat the heat at San Buenaventura State Beach on Saturday afternoon.

We dont want to react, we want to prevent, Delear said. Youre running all day.

Delear said on a typical day the citys beaches would see around 1,500 visitors, but because it is the beginning of summer and the heat wave had arrived, there could be more than 6,000 people at the beaches in a single day. This ups the chance of being called on water rescues, he said.

Delear said during a normal summer, he would see five to 10 rescue calls, but by Saturday afternoon, he already had responded to two calls. To avoid any scary moments in the water, Delear said the best thing for swimmers to do is to avoid testing their abilities.

Know your limit, Delear said. The waves arent always consistent.

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Ventura County beaches draw crowds during heat wave

Bacteria on Maui beaches low, says report

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Maui County beaches have some of the state's lowest bacteria contamination rates, with only 2 percent of surveyed Valley Isle beaches exceeding the state's daily maximum bacterial standards, according to a report released Wednesday.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said that Hawaii County also had only 2 percent of its surveyed beaches go beyond the allowed standards. Kauai County had the highest rate in the state with 7 percent and Oahu had a 3 percent rate. All percentages were derived from 2012 sample testing data.

NRDC is an international nonprofit environmental organization with 1.4 million members and online activists. It issued its annual beach report Wednesday. High bacteria levels in water indicate the presence of human or animal waste, with storm water runoff identified as the highest known source of this pollution, the report said.

Lokelani Intermediate School student Jaedan Correll, 11, tosses a baseball to his mom, Linsay Ono, on Thursday at Charley Young Beach. They were playing catch at the waters edge while Jaedan worked on his skills. He said his mom knows her stuff. Shes really good. She said she learned from her dad. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Ocean water testing samples show that Maui County beaches have some of the states lowest bacteria contamination rates. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Overall, Hawaii ranked fourth in beach water quality out of 30 states, with 4 percent of samples exceeding national standards of designated beach areas in 2012. In all, Hawaii reported counting 470 coastal beaches and beach segments, although not all beaches were sampled.

"I still think our beaches are some of the better in the nation," said Dale Mikami, of the state Department of Health's Clean Water Branch.

The report details water quality findings from some of the country's best beaches and describes best practices for testing and public notification. No Hawaii beaches made the list, but states that had beaches on the list include Alabama, California, Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire.

States that made the "repeat offenders" list for having persistent contamination problems included California, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin. Hawaii did not have any beaches on the repeat offenders list.

In Maui County, beaches that were sampled and had incidents of exceeding the state's daily maximum bacterial standards were: Hanakao'o Beach Park, Honolua Bay, Kahului Harbor, Kahana, Kamaole Beach Park I, Kanaha Beach Park, Maliko Bay, Olowalu, Puamana Beach Park and the Kihei beach near St. Theresa Church.

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Bacteria on Maui beaches low, says report

controlling photoshop (pt.1) using Human Level Artificial Intelligence – Video

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Controlling photoshop (pt.2) using Human Level Artificial Intelligence – Video

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Controlling photoshop (pt.2) using Human Level Artificial Intelligence
In this video a robot is following instructions from a user to modify an image using photoshop. The user gives a command to make an old person young again. T...

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Robot games spur advances in artificial intelligence

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EINDHOVEN, Netherlands On any other soccer field it might be considered a disaster.

The forwards keep getting calls against them. The goalie falls over when the ball isnt even near the net. As for the striker well lets just say he wont be rushed when he lines up to kick the ball.

But this isnt the Champions League.

Its RoboCup 2013 and what it is championing is robotic technology and artificial intelligence. While the robots may seem a bit bumbling, theyre getting smarter every year and by 2050 the goal is to have a team of robots beat humans at their own game.

A team of 20 University of B.C. students is here among the 2,500 participants from around the world and while in early rounds their pint-sized robots the Thunderbots were holding their own, the most lasting impact will be sharing their knowledge and learning with others here, a kind of robotic crowd-sourcing that each year ensures the soccer-playing robots advance even more.

Its definitely more than the time on the playing field, said Andrea Palmer, out-going technical team lead, who is heading up the Thunderbots along with incoming lead Andrew Wong.Its a great learning experience for everyone on our team.

We brought two first year engineers and they actually got to sit down with the second best team in the league and talk through all of their code and all of their electronics and they learned a lot from that.

We have PhD students on our team who are also learning so its a great experience for everything and to see the amount of intelligence thats in this room right now, and with all the sponsors here and being able to learn from them and interact with them its an amazing experience.

Its a playing field thats not exactly level, though. Jacky Baltes, a professor of robotics at the University of Manitoba and the organizing chair for the humanoid league at RoboCup 2013, said UBC and the University of Manitoba, the only two Canadian teams in the 40-country event, dont enjoy the kind of funding other countries expend on boosting their robotic research.

Both of these teams have been very successful, the UBC team has focusing on the small size league and we have been focusing on the humanoid league, he said.

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Robot games spur advances in artificial intelligence

Honeywell International Gulfstream Aerospace GV-SP (G550) Departure | N933H | MSP – Video

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Honeywell International Gulfstream Aerospace GV-SP (G550) Departure | N933H | MSP
Honeywell International Gulfstream Aerospace GV-SP (G550) Departure 30L | N933H | Minneapolis St Paul International Airport in Minnesota KMSP/MSP HD Camera: ...

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Honeywell International Gulfstream Aerospace GV-SP (G550) Departure | N933H | MSP - Video