Beachgoers beware: Biting flies hit Ottawa County beaches – WZZM

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Biting flies annoy beachgoers

Jaleesa Irizarry, WZZM 11:42 PM. EDT July 28, 2017

OTTAWA COUNTY, MICH. - It's supposed to be a perfect weekend to head to the beach, but you may be accompanied by some unwanted guests. Ottawa County Park officials confirm, biting flies have reportedly hit a few Ottawa County beaches.

Visitors at North Beach Park along Lake Michigan were greeted with a 'black fly warning' on Friday. A worker at the park booth says a number of people asked for refunds earlier in the day due to the increase of black flies.

The insects are known to sting people around the ankles.

"It's worse than a mosquito," beachgoer, Barry Watson, said.

Park officials tell WZZM13 they first noticed the flies on Thursday. Park Supervisors say the increase in insects is due to the winds.

"They bite and they're annoying and I don't like them," beachgoer, Cynthia Caulfield, added.

Signs warning about the biting flies were put up at North Beach Park in Ferrysburg and Kirk Park in West Olive on Friday. Park officials say because of the wind the flies may be an issue on Saturday as well.

"Its been pretty over the top today," Kirk Park beachgoer, Mike Ward, said. "I smashed one and blood just squirted everywhere, it was pretty epic."

While the signs claim these are black flies. Michigan State University Entomologist Howard Russell begs to differ, he believes they're stable flies. "They're strong fliers, the wind helps, they blow in from areas where they breed," Russell told WZZM 13 over the phone.

Russell says like black flies, stables flies bite, and bite a lot, "They're very aggressive biters and it's a hot bite.They like to bite low. Once you lay down you're right in there power zone. The repellents really don't provide a lot of protection."

Russell says the best way to avoid getting bitten is wearing pants to cover your legs and ankles.

Ottawa County Park officials are offering a full refund within 15 minutes of entering the park if you can't handle the flies.

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Best Beaches in Texas – Cond Nast Traveler – Cond Nast Traveler

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We'll admit it. At first glance, the state of Texas beaches is underwhelming. Between the spring breakers and year-round partiers on South Padre Island to beaches that are more dirt than sand, it can be hard to find hidden pockets of real beach. But whether you want to hunt for seashells, windsurf, actually surf (who knew), or just sit out with plenty of layers of SPF and a good book , Texas has a beach for you, with real sand and access to the Gulf.

Padre Island is the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world but its national seashore is one of the state's most underrated areas. Home to sea turtle nesting grounds, 380 bird species, and 70 miles of coastline, these shores are secluded. From Malaquite Beach to South Beach, visitors can camp directly on the sand for a few dollars a night or just find a quiet spot to pitch an umbrella for the day. If you're looking to go to the island's more remote beaches, make sure your car has four-wheel drive.

Located along the the state's Upper Gulf coast on the Bolivar Peninsula, Crystal Beach is for the party set. Sunbathers can pull their cars (and trucks) directly onto the edge of the sand, set up barbecues, and walk right out to the water. Plan a trip here later in the season, since strands of seaweed brought in by the current pile up in the early summer months.

Alamy

Windsurfing at Bird Island Basin.

You won't spend much time on the beach along Bird Island Basin. You'll be in the water, thanks to some of the best windsurfing conditions in the U.S. A part of the Padre Island National Seashore, the basin has steady breeze, warm Gulf waters, and shallow depths, making it perfect for beginners and experienced windsurfers alike. Plus, there's plenty of room for other water activities, like kayaking and fishing. There's a boat ramp for access to Laguna Madre if you want to explore other areas of the protected seashore.

Across the ship canal from Port Aransas, San Jose Island is accessible only by boat. A ferry travels hourly between here and nearby Mustang Island. Since the island is privately owned, visitors are restricted to beach areas. But fishing along the jetty for speckled trout, redfish, and flounder, beach-combing, and birding along the shore are all welcome. In February, avid birders visit for the annual Whopping Crane Festival .

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A view of Mustang Island State Park's coastline at sunrise.

Named one of the "prettiest, cleanest swaths of publicly owned land on the Gulf" by Texas Monthly , Mustang Island State Park has something for everyone. There are tide pools, hiking and mountain bike paths, Texas-sized waves for surfers, white sand, and car-free beaches. If you're up for even more, rent a kayak and head out on the paddling trail, which offers more than 20 miles of wildlife watching and shallow-water fishing.

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13 South Shore Beaches Close Due to Contamination – NECN – NECN

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WATCH LIVE

(Published Friday, July 28, 2017)

Thirteen beaches on Massachusetts' South Shore have been closed this week due to high levels of bacteria found in the water.

The other 52 salt-water beaches on the South Shore have been deemed safe for swimming and remain open.

The high levels of bacteria are most likely the result of runoff rainwater that was contaminated. Certain beaches saw bacteria levels four times the limit while others were closed as a precuation.

In all, 65 South Shore beaches were tested for intestinal bacteria found in humans and animals that can cause disease.

The following beaches have been closed for swimming:

Milton Street

Rice Road

Sachem Street

Channing Street

Brant Rock

Fieldston

Green Harbor

Rexhame

Sunrise

White Horse Beach

Hingham

Lighthouse

Humarock

Water quality tests results for Cape Cod, the South Coast, and North Shore can be seen viewed here.

It's unclear when these beaches will reopen.

Published at 12:06 PM EDT on Jul 28, 2017 | Updated at 5:07 PM EDT on Jul 28, 2017

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13 South Shore Beaches Close Due to Contamination - NECN - NECN

Police warn of summer spike in lost children on beaches – KRISTV … – KRIS Corpus Christi News

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PORT ARANSAS -

Losing a child is every parent's worst nightmare, but think about that happening on miles of crowded beach. Police say that isa big problem during busy summer months.

CCPDgot a missing child call on a Padre Island beach shortly after 8 p.m. on Friday evening. That girl was found safely. Port Aransas police usually respond to missing children calls about five times a week in the summer.

A family day at the beach took a terrifying turn for Bron Doyle when his 13-year-old niece got lost.

"She just wasn't paying attention, and she's walking, and next thing you know she's missing," Doyle said.

With dusk falling, he was well aware of all the risks.

"Wewere scared," Doyle said. "We didn't know whether she got taken by the current. whether she wandered up into the sand dunes, which is pretty dangerous. She could have been kidnapped, or just got lost."

Port Aransas police and emergency responders searched for two hours before the teenager was safely located. Police Chief Scott Burroughs says in a situation like this, it isimportant to call 911 right away.

"A child that's lost and panicking can run, and they can a mile or two a mile or two away in just a matter of 15 or 20 minutes," Chief Burroughs said.

He says that children should know their parents full names and phone numbers, and while they should not approach a stranger, they should contact a working lifeguard or police officer.

A photo of a lost child is also hugely helpful in locating them.

"We encourage people to photograph their children every morning when they come to the beach with exactly what they were wearing, exactly what they look like that day," Chief Burroughs said.

Parents can also help their kids stay oriented by teaching them how to recognize beach mile markers, and setting up near a fixed landmark, like a guard stand.

Since memorial day weekend, Port Aransas police have responded to about 40 missing children calls.

"Very scary, scary!" said mom Elida Padilla.

With that in mind, Padilla and other parents are relying on close supervision of their children.

"We make sure we always know where they're at," Padilla said.

"We do a head count," grandmother Tanya De LaRosa added.

Port Aransas police say most of these incidents happen with children ages 4- to 9-years-old, close to dusk, and when there are more adults supervising, becausethey might be distracted.

Police say parents should also be aware of teenagers purposely splitting off, or estranged spouses that try to contact their children at the beach.

Reading on your phone? Download the KRIS 6 News Mobile App for iOS/iPhonehereand for Androidhere.

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Best Astronomy Pictures: Insight Photographer of the Year | Time.com – TIME

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When you gaze up at the night sky, you're not just looking at celestial objects far away in space. You're looking at objects far away in time, too.

The light from a distant star can take thousands of years to reach Earth. That means astrophotography images of the night sky is the closest thing we may have to a time machine. The best astrophotography is breathtakingly beautiful to boot.

Below are several images shortlisted for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017 awards , meaning they represent the most stunning astrophotography work in the world. They include images of the Northern Lights, a crescent Moon, and the Milky Way.

The final winners of the contest will be announced Sept. 14 at London's Royal Observatory Greenwich.

Yulia Zhulikova

During an astrophotography tour of the Murmansk region with Stas Korotkiy, an amateur astronomer and popularizer of astronomy in Russia, the turquoise of the Aurora Borealis swirls above the snow covered trees. Illuminated by street lamps, the trees glow a vivid pink forming a contrasting frame for Natures greatest lightshow.

Murmansk, Russia , Jan. 3, 2017

Canon EOS 6D camera, 14 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 3200, four 2-second exposures combined

Steve Brown

The seemingly pop art inspired canvas of the rainbow of colours exhibited by the brightest star in our sky, Sirius. These colours are obvious to the naked eye and more so through the eyepiece of a telescope, but are difficult to capture in an image. To do this the photographer had to somehow freeze each colour as it happened by taking a series of videos at different levels of focus and then extracted the frames from each video to make up this composite image. By capturing the star out of focus, the light from Sirius was spread out over a larger area, which resulted in the colours it displayed being more obvious. The image is made up of 782 different frames at different levels of focus. There is a single frame of a focused Sirius in the centre of the image.

Stokesley, North Yorkshire, UK. Jan 11, 2016.

Canon EOS 600D camera with Star Adventurer tracking mount, 250 mm lens, ISO 3200, composite of 782 images

Agurtxane Concellon

The purples and greens of the Northern Lights radiate over the coal mining city of Svea, in the archipelago of Svalbard. The earthy landscape below the glittering sky is illuminated by the strong lights of industry at the pier of Svea.

Svea, Svalbard, Norway , Feb. 25, 2017

Nikon D810 camera, 15 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 500, 13-second exposure

Brandon Yoshizawa

The snow-clad mountain in the Eastern Sierras towers over the rusty aspen grove aligned perfectly in front of it, whilst our galaxy the Milky Way glistens above.

Eastern Sierras, Calif. Oct. 21, 2016

Nikon D750 camera, 50 mm f/1.8 lens, foreground: f/8, ISO 500, 10-second exposure, sky: f/2.5, ISO 6400, 6-second exposure

Warren Keller

Lying in the constellation of Orion, at a distance of 1467 light years from our planet is the emission and reflection nebula NGC 2023. Most often photographed next to the famous Horsehead Nebula, the photographer has instead given NGC 2023 the spotlight in order to try and bring out all of the wonderful detail seen across its diameter of 4 light years, making it one of the largest reflection nebulae ever discovered. Partner Steve Mazlin is the lead processor on this one for SSRO.

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, near La Serena, Chile. Jan 2, 2016.

RCOS 16-inch f/11.3 reflector telescope, PlaneWave Ascension 200HR mount, FLI PL16803 camera, 1800-second exposure

Ainsley Bennett

The 7% waxing crescent Moon setting in the evening sky over the Needles Lighthouse at the western tip of the Isle of Wight. Despite the Moon being a thin crescent, the rest of its shape is defined by sunlight reflecting back from the Earths surface.

Alum Bay, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, UK, 3 October 2016

Nikon D810 camera, 200 mm f/5.6 lens, ISO 500, 2.5-second exposure

Michael Wilkinson

The Sun photographed in Calcium-K light, depicting the stars inner chromosphere. In the colour-rendering scheme used, the surface is shown as negative, with the sunspots as bright spots, but the area outside the limb is shown with increased contrast, highlighting a surge on the western limb, and several small prominences. Although the Sun is shown entering a quieter phase, a lot of activity is still taking place, illustrating just how dynamic our star is.

Groningen, Netherlands. April 4, 2017.

APM 80 mm f/6 refractor telescope, Vixen Great Polaris mount, ZWO ASI178MM camera, stack of 400 frames

Giorgia Hofer

The magnificent sight of the Super Moon illuminating the night sky as it sets behind the Marmarole, in the heart of the Dolomites in Italy. On the night of 14 November 2016, the Moon was at perigee at 356.511 km away from the centre of Earth, the closest occurrence since 1948. It will not be closer again until 2034. On this night, the Moon was 30% brighter and 14% bigger than other full moons.

Laggio di Cadore, Province of Belluno, Italy. Nov. 15, 2016.

Nikon D750 camera, 400 mm f/8 lens, ISO 250, background: f/7.1, ISO 200, 1/1000-second exposure, foreground: f/8, ISO 250, -second exposure

Andrew Whyte

The radiant, concentric star trails seemingly spinning over a lone stargazer against the glowing purples and pinks of the night sky during the hour when the clocks spring forward to begin British Summer Time. With time so intrinsically linked to celestial activity, a one-hour star trail seemed the perfect metaphor. Through the use of long exposures, the trails depict the rotation of the Earth on its axis centring on the north celestial pole, the sky moving anti-clockwise around this point.

Titchfield, Hampshire, UK. March 26, 2016.

Sony 7s camera, 17 mm f/4 lens, ISO 1600, 120 x 30-second exposures

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Best Astronomy Pictures: Insight Photographer of the Year | Time.com - TIME

Astronomy: August’s solar eclipse nearly total – Longmont Times-Call

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Daniel Zantzinger Skywatcher's Guide

Among the myriad celestial sights these August nights, the new moon's eclipse of the sun on Aug. 21 is clearly this month's highlight.

In a nutshell, the moon passes between earth and sun Aug. 21 (a Monday), casting its shadow called the umbra onto the earth's surface and briefly blocking sunlight. The path of the nation's first total solar eclipse in 38 years is a 70-mile wide band that stretches 8,600 miles from sunrise near Midway Atoll and the International Date Line in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to sunset southwest of the Cabo Verde archipelago in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean. For North America, the path of totality, tilted from the northwest to the southeast, is a narrow strip spanning from the westernmost coast of central Oregon to the easternmost coast of central South Carolina.

Most skywatchers, however, don't live along this path, and as such have two options.

First option is to visit https://is.gd/2017eclipsemap, find a location closest to you and hit the road. Skywatchers can book a room in Casper, Wyo., or pitch a tent in Grand Island KOA Journey campground in Nebraska.

The truly hardcore and well-financed who want to experience the greatest duration of totality need head no further than to the wilds of Giant City State Park, about six miles from Carbondale, Ill. If you want to experience the greatest eclipse, that is, be exactly where the axis of the moon's shadow slices closest to the earth's center, trek to the northwestern outskirts of Hopkinsville, Ky.

Before you pack up the RV, though, be forewarned. Totality along thiseclipse path is never longer than 2 minutes 40.2 seconds. The umbra is racing across the earth's face at three times the speed of sound, so unless you're in the unlikely position of piloting a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird roaring down the path of totality, you're going to get your two-plus minutes as a maximum regardless where you go and how much you spend.

Second, and better, option is to stay put with family and friends. Be here now.

Although totality will come and go for the lucky few in just a few minutes, the partial eclipse lasts nearly three hours. Obscuration of the sun for the northern half of Colorado is more than 90 percent. Further, the partial for most of the rest of the country is better than 80 percent.

For skywatchers in Longmont and surrounding areas, the eclipse begins at 10:23 a.m., reaching a maximum obscuration of 93.84 percent at 11:46 a.m. before sliding off and finally ending at 1:14 p.m.

If you can, take the day off work, invite family and friends over, fire up the barbecue and make a summer day of it.

There are basically two ways that skywatchers can experience the solar eclipse, by direct viewing through a safe solar filter and indirectly by projection. It goes without saying that immensely painful and irreversible blindness can happen in an instant if you don't properly protect your eyes from the brilliance of the sun, especially when using a telescope and binoculars.

Direct viewing requires nothing more than inexpensive eclipse glasses with "ISO 12312-2" printed on them. There are pre-mounted glass and thin, metal coated plastic film filters available for telescopes and binoculars that you can buy, or you can make one yourself using Baader Astro-Solar thin film. Let it stay slack, otherwise your view will be hazy and it might tear during observation, creating dangerous viewing condition. Be sure that it can't blow off.

Projection works with a telescope, binoculars or even your hands.

Position the 3-inch or smaller telescope's aperture so the light floods through your lowest power eyepiece, and then focus the image on a mounted piece of paper. Larger telescopes risk overheating, so for those cut a 3-inchhole in a piece of cardboard and mount it over the aperture.

You can also project with binoculars. Move the paper and/or the binoculars to resolve the image.

Fold your fingers of both hands in a waffle pattern and let the sunlight through onto a flat uniform background a sidewalk, for example. You'll see multiple images of the partially obscured solar disc.

For more information, visit http://www.skyandtelescope.com/2017-eclipse.

The moon is full at 12:11 p.m. Aug. 7, and is called the Full Sturgeon Moon.

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Astronomy: August's solar eclipse nearly total - Longmont Times-Call

A tale of three stellar cities – Astronomy Now Online

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OmegaCAM the wide-field optical camera on ESOs VLT Survey Telescope (VST) has captured the spectacular Orion Nebula and its associated cluster of young stars in great detail, producing this beautiful new image. This famous object, the birthplace of many massive stars, is one of the closest stellar nurseries, at a distance of about 1350 light-years. Credit: ESO/G. Beccari

Using new observations from ESOs VLT Survey Telescope, astronomers have discovered three different populations of young stars within the Orion Nebula Cluster. This unexpected discovery adds very valuable new insights for the understanding of how such clusters form. It suggests that star formation might proceed in bursts, where each burst occurs on a much faster time-scale than previously thought.

OmegaCAM the wide-field optical camera on ESOsVLT Survey Telescope(VST) has captured the spectacularOrion Nebulaand its associated cluster of young stars in great detail, producing a beautiful new image. This object is one of the closest stellar nurseries for both low and high-mass stars, at a distance of about 1350 light-years.

But this is more than just a pretty picture. A team led by ESO astronomer Giacomo Beccari has used these data of unparallelled quality to precisely measure the brightness and colours of all the stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster. These measurements allowed the astronomers to determine the mass and ages of the stars. To their surprise, the data revealed three different sequences of potentially different ages.

Looking at the data for the first time was one of those Wow! moments that happen only once or twice in an astronomers lifetime, says Beccari, lead author of the paper presenting the results. The incredible quality of the OmegaCAM images revealed without any doubt that we were seeing three distinct populations of stars in the central parts of Orion.

Monika Petr-Gotzens, co-author and also based at ESO Garching, continues, This is an important result. What we are witnessing is that the stars of a cluster at the beginning of their lives didnt form altogether simultaneously. This may mean that our understanding of how stars form in clusters needs to be modified.

The astronomers looked carefully at the possibility that instead of indicating different ages, the different brightnesses and colours of some of the stars were due to hidden companion stars, which would make the stars appear brighter and redder than they really were. But this idea would imply quite unusual properties of the pairs, which have never before been observed. Other measurements of the stars, such as their rotation speeds and spectra, also indicated that they must have different ages.

Although we cannot yet formally disprove the possibility that these stars are binaries, it seems much more natural to accept that what we see are three generations of stars that formed in succession, within less than three million years, concludes Beccari.

The new results strongly suggest that star formation in the Orion Nebula Cluster is proceeding in bursts, and more quickly than had been previously thought.

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Physics Professor Krishna Rajagopal Named Dean of Digital … – India West

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Krishna Rajagopal, the William A.M. Burden professor of physics and former chair of the MIT faculty, has been named dean for digital learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the institute said in a July 26 news release.

Rajagopal will assume the post Sept. 1.

I am excited about this new challenge, as I will be helping MIT faculty members take their passions for teaching and learning to new levels in ways that can have long-lasting impact across MIT and around the world, the Indian American educator said in a statement.

Our digital learning efforts already reach thousands of students in MIT classrooms and millions of learners around the world. What makes this an exciting time for education is that as these technologies, as well as research on how people learn, evolve, they are transforming how we teach today, and will do so in ways that we cannot yet see and must invent, he said.

In his role, Rajagopal will lead efforts to empower MIT faculty to use digital technologies to augment and transform how they teach, MIT said.

He is charged with building and strengthening connections between academic departments and the Office of Vice President for Open Learning, to facilitate broad-based engagement and bottom-up change, it added.

Rajagopal will work with vice president for open learning Sanjay Sarma and senior associate dean of digital learning Isaac Chuang on the offices strategy and organization.

Krishna combines his stellar research career with a passion for improving teaching and learning and a remarkable ability to integrate diverse points of views into a unifying vision, Sarma, who made the Rajagopal announcement, said in a statement. In a time of significant changes in education, I am confident that Krishna will offer great guidance for our open learning initiatives. He will work to maintain and enhance MITs position as a leader in providing access to high-quality education around the world, and he will continue to improve teaching at MIT.

Previously, Rajagopal served as associate head for education in the department of physics, where he stewarded the department's undergraduate and graduate educational programs and became known for his dedication to students, the news release said.

Since joining the MIT faculty in 1997, Rajagopal has produced a significant body of research in theoretical physics focused largely on how quarks behave in extraordinary conditions such as the hot quark soup that filled the microseconds-old universe, conditions that provide a test bed for understanding how a complex world emerges from simple underlying laws, MIT said.

His work links nuclear and particle physics, condensed matter physics, astrophysics, and string theory, it added.

He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2004. He is a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow and won the Everett Moore Baker Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2011 and the Buechner Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 1999, according to his bio.

Rajagopal grew up in suburban Toronto after his family moved there from Munich when he was less than 1 year old.

He graduated from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and then earned a doctorate degree at Princeton University. After stints as a junior fellow at Harvard University and a Fairchild Fellow at Caltech he joined the MIT faculty in 1997.

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Physics Professor Krishna Rajagopal Named Dean of Digital ... - India West

Physics lecturer makes case for children to pursue science – The Nation

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Like the solar storms and space radioactivity he has tirelessly chased in his research, the 49-year-old physics lecturer at MUs Faculty of Science has been a local and international force to be reckoned with in the fields of global radiation and cosmic ray research and development.

Ruffolo created new theories of turbulent transport of cosmic rays and developed a widely recognised computer software model to predict the effects on Earth of a solar storm.

He also led the establishment of a neutron monitor in Thailand to detect galactic cosmic rays at the worlds highest geomagnetic cut-off energy (about 17 GV). Out of the worlds 40 neutron monitor stations, the Princess Sirindhorn Neutron Monitor near the summit of Doi Inthanon (Thailands highest mountain) in Chiang Mai province was the worlds first to measure real-time cosmic rays.

Ruffolo was granted Thai nationality in 2012. He received an honour as the Thailand Research Fund (TRF)s Senior Research Scholar in 2016.

A former gifted child, who surpassed age peers to graduate with a PhD at the age of 22 in 1991 at University of Chicago, Ruffolo has come to love Thailand. He first worked here as a high school physics instructor before moving on to university teaching.

After I obtained the PhD, I wanted to do something for Thai society; there were few astrophysicists in Thailand at that time, he recalls. I wanted to be partake in grooming Thai students to become future astrophysicists and space physics scientists. There are more scientists now but there should be even more of them and Thai people should have a thorough understanding of the solar winds, he said.

Although solar storms have not yet killed anyone or torn down any buildings, they could cause blackouts and destroy satellites and spacecraft used for communications. Cosmic rays from solar wind turbulence could also affect human health as people travel by plane or in space. Ruffolo said he would continue studying cosmic rays in relations to the Earth climate to help build a global disaster warning system. And he will pursue other new research that would benefit Thailand and the world.

Scientist is an honourable job that is essential to a countrys development, so I want Thai youths to be interested in studying physics more. I want them to see it as a freedom in learning. Studying science is fun and challenging as you have to find answers for new questions, he said.

Usually children are interested in space but it is difficult to link that interest to physics, which people perceive as a matter of formulas and calculation. Actually space physics is an art, so if we can let children see that physics is fun, while space learning is about applying imagination to something that kids are keen about, he said.

I want parents to let their children feel free to do what they like, are good at and want to do not just follow societys value that academically excellent students must become doctors and engineers. If any kid likes science and wants to become a scientist, the parents should support him or her, he added.

The winner of Thailands annual outstanding scientist award receives a trophy from HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn along with a Bt400,000 cash prize.

The new generation scientist awards 2017, which came with a trophy from the princess and Bt100,000 each, were granted to:

Assistant Professor Burapat Inceesungvorn from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University; Assistant Professor Benjapon Chalermsinsuwan from the Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University; Assistant Professor Varodom Charoensawan from the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University; and Assistant Professor Viboon Tangwarodomnukun from the Department of Production Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology Thonburi.

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Physics lecturer makes case for children to pursue science - The Nation

Milky Way’s origins are not what they seem – Northwestern University NewsCenter

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EVANSTON - In a first-of-its-kind analysis, Northwestern University astrophysicists have discovered that, contrary to previously standard lore, up to half of the matter in our Milky Way galaxy may come from distant galaxies. As a result, each one of us may be made in part from extragalactic matter.

Using supercomputer simulations, the research team found a major and unexpected new mode for how galaxies, including our own Milky Way, acquired their matter: intergalactic transfer. The simulations show that supernova explosions eject copious amounts of gas from galaxies, which causes atoms to be transported from one galaxy to another via powerful galactic winds. Intergalactic transfer is a newly identified phenomenon, which simulations indicate will be critical for understanding how galaxies evolve.

Given how much of the matter out of which we formed may have come from other galaxies, we could consider ourselves space travelers or extragalactic immigrants, said Daniel Angls-Alczar, a postdoctoral fellow in Northwesterns astrophysics center, CIERA (Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics), who led the study. It is likely that much of the Milky Ways matter was in other galaxies before it was kicked out by a powerful wind, traveled across intergalactic space and eventually found its new home in the Milky Way.

Galaxies are far apart from each other, so even though galactic winds propagate at several hundred kilometers per second, this process occurred over several billion years.

Professor Claude-Andr Faucher-Gigure and his research group, along with collaborators from the FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments) project, which he co-leads, had developed sophisticated numerical simulations that produced realistic 3-D models of galaxies, following a galaxys formation from just after the Big Bang to the present day. Angls-Alczar then developed state-of-the-art algorithms to mine this wealth of data and quantify how galaxies acquire matter from the universe.

The study, which required the equivalent of several million hours of continuous computing, was published today (July 27 in the U.K.) by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

This study transforms our understanding of how galaxies formed from the Big Bang, said Faucher-Gigure, a co-author of the study and assistant professor of physics and astronomy in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

What this new mode implies is that up to one-half of the atoms around us including in the solar system, on Earth and in each one of us comes not from our own galaxy but from other galaxies, up to one million light years away, he said.

By tracking in detail the complex flows of matter in the simulations, the research team found that gas flows from smaller galaxies to larger galaxies, such as the Milky Way, where the gas forms stars. This transfer of mass through galactic winds can account for up to 50 percent of matter in the larger galaxies.

In our simulations, we were able to trace the origins of stars in Milky Way-like galaxies and determine if the star formed from matter endemic to the galaxy itself or if it formed instead from gas previously contained in another galaxy, said Angls-Alczar, the studys corresponding author.

In a galaxy, stars are bound together: a large collection of stars orbiting a common center of mass. After the Big Bang 14 billion years ago, the universe was filled with a uniform gas no stars, no galaxies. But there were tiny perturbations in the gas, and these started to grow by force of gravity, eventually forming stars and galaxies. After galaxies formed, each had its own identity.

Our origins are much less local than we previously thought, said Faucher-Gigure, a CIERA member. This study gives us a sense of how things around us are connected to distant objects in the sky.

The findings open a new line of research in understanding galaxy formation, the researchers say, and the prediction of intergalactic transfer can now be tested. The Northwestern team plans to collaborate with observational astronomers who are working with the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories to test the simulation predictions.

The research was supported by NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Northwesterns CIERA. The simulations were run and analyzed using NSFs Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment supercomputing facilities, as well as Northwesterns Quest high-performance computer cluster.

The study is titled The Cosmic Baryon Cycle and Galaxy Mass Assembly in the FIRE Simulations. In addition to Angls-Alczar and Faucher-Gigure, other authors include Duan Kere (University of California, San Diego), Philip F. Hopkins (Caltech), Eliot Quataert (University of California, Berkeley) and Norman Murray (Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics).

More information on the research can be found at Northwesterns galaxy formation group website and on the FIRE project website.

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Milky Way's origins are not what they seem - Northwestern University NewsCenter

MSU gravitational physicist receives NASA award to explore extreme gravity and the universe – Space Daily

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A Montana State University gravitational physicist has received funding for a research project that aims to answer fundamental questions about the universe.

NASA awarded $750,000 to Nicolas Yunes for his project "Exploring Extreme Gravity: Neutron Stars, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves." Yunes is a founding member of the MSU eXtreme Gravity Institute, known as XGI, and an associate professor in the Department of Physics in MSU's College of Letters and Science. The award, which covers a three-year period, came from NASA's Established Program to Simulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR.

Yunes' project is one of 22 selected to receive EPSCoR grants for research and technology development in areas critical to NASA's mission and one of 13 to receive the top award of $750,000, according to the agency.

"This is very exciting," Yunes said. "This grant will allow us to explore fundamental questions about gravity and our universe."

Yunes said the award will also allow him to grow his research group within the eXtreme Gravity Institute.

"The institute has really become a hub for this kind of education and research in the Mountain West," Yunes said. "As a result, we're attracting many great students, researchers and faculty to study here in Montana, and this NASA funding is indispensable to our growth and mission."

The project will focus on improving and developing tools to extract as much astrophysics information as possible from X-ray data obtained with NASA'S Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer, known as NICER, a payload installed in June aboard the International Space Station that will provide high-precision measurements of neutron stars. Neutron stars are objects that contain ultra-dense matter at the threshold of collapse into black holes, according to NASA.

Researchers in Yunes' group will work to create a framework to test Einstein's Theory of General Relativity using X-ray data from NICER, as well as gravitational wave data gathered by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA, a gravitational wave observatory in space.

"This will allow for consistency checks of Einstein's theory and the search for modified gravity anomalies with neutron stars and black holes," Yunes said.

The researchers will also learn more about nuclear physics and general relativity by combining NICER X-ray data with information about gamma rays gained from NASA telescopes, as well as gravitational wave data gleaned from gravitational wave detectors, such as the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or advanced LIGO.

Yunes said his project is directly related to NASA's strategic mission to better understand the universe through observation and its mission of discovery and knowledge.

"The region of the universe where gravity is unbearably strong and dynamically changing - the extreme gravity universe - is one of the last unturned stones," he said. "This is in part because extreme gravity objects, like neutron stars and black holes, are difficult to resolve due to their size and distance from Earth.

"NASA's investments in neutron star astrophysics and in space-borne gravitational wave astrophysics are aimed at resolving such objects and, for the first time, exploring the extreme gravity universe in detail. We want to aid in this endeavor by developing the tools and the understanding needed to extract the most information from the data."

MSU's eXtreme Gravity Institute was created to further the understanding of astrophysics and fundamental physics through extreme gravity phenomena, including black holes and neutron stars. XGI researchers have contributed to the first detection of gravitational waves, have published research about a new era of discovery in gravitational physics and have won prestigious awards, including a Breakthrough Prize, the General Relativity and Gravitation Young Scientist Prize, and a L'Oreal USA For Women in Science fellowship, among other honors.

Project co-investigators include XGI astrophysicist Bennett Link and gravitational physicist Neil Cornish, both professors in MSU's Department of Physics, as well as Holly Truitt, director of University of Montana's Broader Impacts Group.

In addition to Yunes' research team, another MSU research team has received EPSCoR funding for 2017.

Brock LaMeres, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in MSU's College of Engineering, has received $100,000 for his ongoing project to develop a radiation-tolerant computer technology for use in outer space. The funding will be used to launch a satellite containing the computer prototype from the International Space Station.

That NASA selected to fund the proposals shows that MSU researchers are pursuing novel work that benefits the agency, said Angela Des Jardins, director of Montana NASA EPSCoR and the Montana Space Grant Consortium.

"NASA EPSCoR opportunities bring our capabilities to NASA's attention," Des Jardins said. "As a result, not only are we providing NASA with strategic expertise in key missions but we are also creating valuable research infrastructure here at home."

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Artificial Intelligence Is Stuck. Here’s How to Move It Forward. – New York Times

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To get computers to think like humans, we need a new A.I. paradigm, one that places top down and bottom up knowledge on equal footing. Bottom-up knowledge is the kind of raw information we get directly from our senses, like patterns of light falling on our retina. Top-down knowledge comprises cognitive models of the world and how it works.

Deep learning is very good at bottom-up knowledge, like discerning which patterns of pixels correspond to golden retrievers as opposed to Labradors. But it is no use when it comes to top-down knowledge. If my daughter sees her reflection in a bowl of water, she knows the image is illusory; she knows she is not actually in the bowl. To a deep-learning system, though, there is no difference between the reflection and the real thing, because the system lacks a theory of the world and how it works. Integrating that sort of knowledge of the world may be the next great hurdle in A.I., a prerequisite to grander projects like using A.I. to advance medicine and scientific understanding.

I fear, however, that neither of our two current approaches to funding A.I. research small research labs in the academy and significantly larger labs in private industry is poised to succeed. I say this as someone who has experience with both models, having worked on A.I. both as an academic researcher and as the founder of a start-up company, Geometric Intelligence, which was recently acquired by Uber.

Academic labs are too small. Take the development of automated machine reading, which is a key to building any truly intelligent system. Too many separate components are needed for any one lab to tackle the problem. A full solution will incorporate advances in natural language processing (e.g., parsing sentences into words and phrases), knowledge representation (e.g., integrating the content of sentences with other sources of knowledge) and inference (reconstructing what is implied but not written). Each of those problems represents a lifetime of work for any single university lab.

Corporate labs like those of Google and Facebook have the resources to tackle big questions, but in a world of quarterly reports and bottom lines, they tend to concentrate on narrow problems like optimizing advertisement placement or automatically screening videos for offensive content. There is nothing wrong with such research, but it is unlikely to lead to major breakthroughs. Even Google Translate, which pulls off the neat trick of approximating translations by statistically associating sentences across languages, doesnt understand a word of what it is translating.

I look with envy at my peers in high-energy physics, and in particular at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, a huge, international collaboration, with thousands of scientists and billions of dollars of funding. They pursue ambitious, tightly defined projects (like using the Large Hadron Collider to discover the Higgs boson) and share their results with the world, rather than restricting them to a single country or corporation. Even the largest open efforts at A.I., like OpenAI, which has about 50 staff members and is sponsored in part by Elon Musk, is tiny by comparison.

An international A.I. mission focused on teaching machines to read could genuinely change the world for the better the more so if it made A.I. a public good, rather than the property of a privileged few.

Gary Marcus is a professor of psychology and neural science at New York University.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on July 30, 2017, on Page SR6 of the New York edition with the headline: A.I. Is Stuck. Lets Unstick It.

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Artificial Intelligence Is Stuck. Here's How to Move It Forward. - New York Times

Artificial intelligence can help fight deforestation in Congo: researchers – Reuters

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LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A new technique using artificial intelligence to predict where deforestation is most likely to occur could help the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) preserve its shrinking rainforest and cut carbon emissions, researchers have said.

Congo's rainforest, the world's second-largest after the Amazon, is under pressure from farms, mines, logging and infrastructure development, scientists say.

Protecting forests is widely seen as one of the cheapest and most effective ways to reduce the emissions driving global warming.

But conservation efforts in DRC have suffered from a lack of precise data on which areas of the country's vast territory are most at risk of losing their pristine vegetation, said Thomas Maschler, a researcher at the World Resources Institute (WRI).

"We don't have fine-grain information on what is actually happening on the ground," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

To address the problem Maschler and other scientists at the Washington-based WRI used a computer algorithm based on machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence.

The computer was fed inputs, including satellite derived data, detailing how the landscape in a number of regions, accounting for almost a fifth of the country, had changed between 2000 and 2014.

The program was asked to use the information to analyze links between deforestation and the factors driving it, such as proximity to roads or settlements, and to produce a detailed map forecasting future losses.

Overall the application predicted that woods covering an area roughly the size of Luxembourg would be cut down by 2025 - releasing 205 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.

The study improved on earlier predictions that could only forecast average deforestation levels in DRC over large swathes of land, said Maschler.

"Now, we can say: 'actually the corridor along the road between these two villages is at risk'," Maschler said by phone late on Thursday.

The analysis will allow conservation groups to better decide where to focus their efforts and help the government shape its land use and climate change policy, said scientist Elizabeth Goldman who co-authored the research.

The DRC has pledged to restore 3 million hectares (11,583 square miles) of forest to reduce carbon emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement, she said.

But Goldman said the benefits of doing that would be outweighed by more than six times by simply cutting predicted forest losses by 10 percent.

Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Emma Batha. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org

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Artificial intelligence ethics the same as other new technology – Crux: Covering all things Catholic

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[Editors note: Brian Patrick Greenis Assistant Director of Campus Ethics Programs at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and faculty in the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University. He has a strong interest in the dialogue between science, theology, technology, and ethics. He has written and talked on genetic anthropology, the cognitive science of the virtues, astrobiology and ethics, cultural evolution and Catholic tradition, medical ethics, Catholic moral theology, Catholic natural law ethics, transhumanism, and many other topics. He blogs atTheMoralMindfieldand many of his writings are available at hisAcademia.eduprofile. He spoke to Charles Camosy about the ethical challenges posed by advances in artificial intelligence.]

Camosy: One cant follow the news these days without hearing about artificial intelligence, but not everyone may know precisely what it is. What is AI?

Artificial intelligence, or AI, can be thought of as the quest to construct intelligent systems that act similarly to or imitate human intelligence. AI thereby serves human purposes by performing tasks which would otherwise be fulfilled by human labor without needing a human to actually perform the task.

For example, one form of AI is machine learning, which involves computer algorithms (mathematical formulas in code) being trained to solve, under human supervision, specific problems, such as how to understand speech or how to drive a vehicle. Often AI algorithms are developed to perform tasks which can be very easy for humans, such as speech or driving, but which are very difficult for computers. However, some kinds of AI are designed to perform tasks which are difficult or impossible for humans, such as finding patterns in enormous sets of data.

AI is currently a very hyped technology and expectations may be unrealistic, but it does have tremendous promise and we wont know its true potential until we explore it more fully.

What are some of the most important reasons AI is being pursued so energetically?

AI gives us the power to solve problems more efficiently and effectively. Some of the earliest computers, likethe ENIAC, were simply programmable calculators, designed to perform in seconds calculations that took humans hours of hard mental work. No-one would now consider a calculator to be an AI, but in a sense they are, since they replace human intelligence at solving math problems.

Just as a calculator is more efficient at math than a human, various forms of AI might be better than humans at other tasks. For example,most car accidents are caused by human error what if driving could be automated and human error thus removed? Tens of thousands of lives might be saved every year, and huge sums of money saved in healthcare costs and property damage averted.

AI may also give us the ability to solve other types of problems that have until now either been difficult or impossible to solve. For example, as mentioned above, very large data sets may contain patterns that no human would be capable of noticing. But computers can be programmed to notice those patterns.

Altogether, AI is being pursued because it will offer benefits to humanity, and corporations are interested in that because if the benefits are great enough then people will pay to have them.

What kinds of problems might AI solve? What sorts of problems might it raise?

We do not yet know all the types of problems that we might be able to hand over to AI for solutions.For example, currently, machine learning is involved in recommendation engines that tell us what products we might want to buy, or what advertisements might be most influential upon us. Machine learning can also act much more quickly than humans and so is excellent for responding to cyber attacks or fraudulent financial transactions.

Moving into the future, AI might be able to better personalize education to individual students, just as adaptive testing evaluates students today. AI might help figure out how to increase energy efficiency and thus save money and protect the environment. It might increase efficiency and prediction in healthcare; improving health while saving money. Perhaps AI could even figure out how to improve law and government, or improve moral education. For every problem that needs a solution, AI might help us find it.

At the same time, for every good use of AI, an evil use also exists. AI could be used for computer hacking and warfare, perhaps yielding untold misery. It could be used to trick people and defraud them. It could be used to wrongly morally educate people, inculcating vice instead of virtue. It could be used to explore and exploit peoples worst fears so that totalitarian governments could oppress their people in ways beyond what humans have yet experienced.

Those are as-yet theoretical dangers, but two dangers (at least) are certain. First, AI requires huge computing power, so it will require enormous energy resources that may contribute to environmental degradation. Second, AI will undoubtedly contribute to social inequality and enriching the rich, while at the same time causing mass unemployment.

Could robots with AI ever be considered self-conscious? A kind of non-human person?

This is a subject of debate and may never clearly be answered. It is hard enough to establish the self-consciousness of other living creatures on Earth, so a much more alien entity like an intelligent artifact would be even more difficult to understand and evaluate. Establishing the self-consciousness of non-biological intelligent artifacts may not happen any time soon.

What almost certainly will happen in the next decade or so is that people will try to make AIs that can fool us into thinking that they are self-conscious. The Turing Test, which has now achieved near mythological status, is based on the idea that someday a computer will be able to fool a human into believing it is another human is a goal of AI developers.

When we are finally unable to distinguish a human person from an intelligent artifact, should that change how we think of and treat the artifact? This is a very difficult question, because in one sense it should and in another it shouldnt. It should because if we dismiss the person-like AI as merely simulating personhood then perhaps we are training ourselves towards callousness, or even potentially wrongly dismissing something that ought to be treated as a person because if it was a really strong imitation we could never know if it had somehow attained self-consciousness or not.

On the other hand, I think there are good reasons to assume that such an artefactual person simply is not a self-conscious person precisely because it is designed as an imitation. Simulations are not the real thing. It is not alive, it would not metabolize, it probably could be turned on and off and still work the same as any computer, and so on.

In the end, we have very little ability to define what life and mind are in a precise and meaningful sense, so trying to imitate those traits in artifacts, when we dont really know what they are, will be a confusing and problematic endeavor.

Speaking specifically as a Catholic moral theologian, are there well-grounded moral worries about the development of AI?

The greatest worry for AI, I think, is not that it will become sentient and then try to kill us (as in various science fiction movies), or raise questions of personhood and human uniqueness (whether we should baptize an AI wont be a question just yet), but rather whether this very powerful technology will be used by humans for good or for evil.

Right now machine learning is focused on making money (which can itself be morally questionable), but other applications are growing. For example, if a nation runs a military simulation which tells them to use barbaric tactics as the most efficient way to win a war, then it will become tempting for them to use barbaric tactics, as the AI instructed. In fact it might seem illogical to not do that, as it would be less efficient. But as human beings, we should not be so much thinking about efficiency as morality. Doing the right thing is sometimes inefficient (whatever efficiency might mean in a certain context). Respecting human dignity is sometimes inefficient. And yet we should do the right thing and respect human dignity anyway, because those moral values are higher than mere efficiency.

As our tools make us capable of doing more and more things faster and faster we need to pause and ask ourselves if the things we want to do are actually good.

If our desires are evil, then efficiently achieving them will cause immense harm, perhaps up to and including the extinction of humanity (for example, to recall the movie War Games, if we decide to play the game of nuclear war, or biological, or nanotechnological, or another kind of warfare). Short of extinction, malicious use of AI could cause immense harm (e.g. overloading the power-grid to cause months-long nation-sized blackouts, or causing all self-driving cars to crash simultaneously). Mere accidental AI errors can also cause vast harm, for example, if a machine learning algorithm is fed racially biased data then it will give racially biased results (as hasalready happened).

The tradition of the Church is thattechnology should always be judged by morality. Pure efficiency is never the only priority; the priorities should always be loving God and loving neighbor. Insofar as AI might facilitate that (reminding us to pray, or helping reduce poverty), then it is a good thing and should be pursued with zeal. Insofar as AI facilitates the opposite (distracting us from God, or exploiting others) then it should be considered warily and carefully regulated or even banned. Nuclear weapons should probably never be under AI control, for example; such a use of AI should be banned.

Ultimately, AI gives us just what all technology does better tools for achieving what we want. The deeper question then becomes what do we want? and even more so what should we want? If we want evil, then evil we shall have, with great efficiency and abundance. If instead we want goodness, then through diligent pursuit we might be able to achieve it. As inDeuteronomy 30, God has laid before us life and death, blessings and curses. We should choose life, if we want to live.

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Artificial intelligence ethics the same as other new technology - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Artificial Intelligence Develops Its Own Language – IGN

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We haven't quite reached the terrifying sci-fi hellscape described by the Terminator franchise, but researchers at Facebook have brought us just a bit closer to the age of the machines. Recently, they pulled the plug on an artificial intelligence system after it developed its own language.

The AI in question was actually designed to maximize efficiency in language, but according to Fast Co. Design, the researchers forgot to add a crucial rule in its programming: the language had to be English. So the "two AI agents" moved on with their programming to communicate as efficiently as their programming would allow, putting the conversation between the two outside the understanding of humans.

"Agents will drift off understandable language and invent codewords for themselves," Georgia Tech research scientist Dhruv Batra said. This isn't anything new, either. It's something that keeps cropping up when researchers experiment with this type of AI.

The purpose of these particular Facebook AI agents is to communicate in English, so programmers reworked the code to get the AI back on track. But if AI is allowed to keep to its own devices, Fast Co. Design said, it eventually creates a language all its own. One that can't be understood by human beings.

Now is the perfect time to prepare yourself for the end of humanity's reign over Earth by watching the new 4K Blu-ray of Terminator 2. It seems less a blockbuster action film from the '90s and more of a dark fortelling of our grim future under the emotionless rule of the machines. Regardless of our impending doom, it's a great movie.

Seth Macy is IGN's weekend web producer and just wants to be your friend. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy, or subscribe to Seth Macy's YouTube channel.

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Artificial Intelligence-enabled Cloud solutions set to win the race: IBM India – Economic Times

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NEW DELHI: When it comes to delivering intelligent Cloud experience, robust artificial intelligence (AI)-driven solutions are going to decide who is better equipped to provide enterprises with extended capabilities, says a key IBM executive.

Among all future technologies, AI has been hailed as the next big thing and is steadily becoming the driving force behind tech innovations and existing product lines across industries -- going further from just being part of Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled home appliances and smartphones.

Market research firm Tractica forecasts that the revenue generated from the direct and indirect application of AI software will grow from $1.38 billion in 2016 to $59.75 billion by 2025. According to IDC, the cognitive systems and AI market (including hardware and services) will grow to $47 billion in 2020.

To make sense of data on Cloud, data miners need to decode and align it in order to deliver enhanced experiences to customers and they can't do this mammoth task alone.

Here is where AI -- their "virtual colleagues" -- steps in to help them deliver "enterprise-grade" Cloud that scales to the requirements of the market and benefits all industries.

"When I say an 'enterprise-grade' Cloud, I mean that we have a global network of data centres. We have about 252 data centres worldwide, offering a full range of services that includes virtualised infrastructure," Vikas Arora, Country Manager, Cloud Business, IBM India and South Asia, told IANS.

Present in India since 1951, IBM India has expanded its operations with regional headquarters in Bengaluru and offices across 20 cities.

IBM has research centres in Delhi and Bengaluru; software labs in Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai; India Systems Development Labs (ISDL) in Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad; a Cloud data centre in Chennai; and eight delivery centres across the country.

With over 55 Cloud centres in 19 countries, IBM Cloud is the leader in Enterprise Cloud. IBM's $14.6 billion cloud business grew 35 per cent in the first quarter this year.

With a market capitalisation of over $135 billion, IBM, which traditionally has been manufacturing and selling computer hardware and software, has now forayed into areas like AI and cognitive analytics.

The company now provides tools for data management that are able to analyse the data -- be it on public or private Cloud -- so as to translate it into useful insights.

"What makes us different is that our Cloud is built for the cognitive era. There are many robust artificial intelligence capabilities with us, led by 'IBM Watson'," Arora told IANS.

IBM Watson is an intelligent cognitive system. With it, people can analyse and interpret data, including unstructured text, images, audio and video, and develop personalised solutions.

Watson now has a new cognitive assistant, the "MaaS360 Advisor" that leverages its capabilities to help IT professionals effectively manage and protect networks of smartphones, tablets, laptops, IoT devices and other endpoints.

"We believe that at some point, everyone would be able to provide Cloud; but I think the solutions that are going to win are those that are able to provide customers with extended capabilities, which they are going to need for the future and AI is a big part of that," Arora noted.

When it comes to the Indian Cloud ecosystem, CTOs and CEOs want to control their data on-premises.

"I think it's not as much about control. It is basically about trying to get the most out of whatever investments have already been made. So we don't see control other than, of course, in industries that are heavily regulated where they need control," Arora explained.

More than control, added the IBM executive, it's efficiency and return-on-investments that drive large enterprises -- but it is different for mid-sized organisations.

"For them, it's more about reducing the headache of handling an IT department, building an infrastructure and having someone managing it. Mid-sized organisations tend to struggle on this point as this isn't their core business," Arora said.

When it comes to working with the government in the country, IBM sees a positive trend emerging. "Today, government departments have a clear set of guidelines as to what a Cloud environment should deliver in terms of capabilities, operational management, security and sovereignty," the IBM executive maintained.

Among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), new IT spend is giving Cloud a big push.

"SMEs are not hesitant any longer to go for New-Age IT initiatives because they are not relying on a hardware vendor or a small system integrator and aim to have a world-class IT environment in Cloud, without having to have a particular IT department around it," Arora told IANS.

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Need a new ball bearing for your 737? Call KLX Aerospace – Miami Herald

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When you fly in a commercial jet or private plane, it's likely that some parts on the aircraft rivets and high-tech screws, landing gear lamps or ball bearings have been supplied by Miami-based KLX Aerospace Solutions. We are the world's leader ...
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Aerospace body: UK should stay in EU during transition – BBC News

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The UK must remain an EU member during a transition period from March 2019, according to the head of aerospace body ADS. Paul Everitt said the UK would struggle to sign the necessary agreements with global safety regulators before then, risking ...

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Around Ascension for July 27. 2017 – The Advocate

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Summer reading

Summer reading programs at Ascension Parish Library continue to wind down as the new school year approaches.

A construction zone party to celebrate the programs' end begins at 2 p.m. Friday in Gonzales for children of all ages.

Gonzales also is holding a space exploration program for children of all ages at 2 p.m. Monday. Learn how and why planets orbit the sun, and create a solar system model.

Teens will end their summer program with a Harry Potter-themed Yule Ball at 4 p.m. Monday in Galvez. Enjoy being sorted into Hogwarts houses, wand making, snitch decorating and dancing. Chocolate frogs and nonalcoholic butterbeer will be served. Wizardly and formal attire is welcome.

2ROW2 Autospa Kutz & More presents the Cars for Kids Back 2 School Car Show on Sunday at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center.

Registration is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with judging at 4 p.m. and trophy presentation at 6 p.m. Categories are best of show, new and old school, street bike, chopper, SUV, truck, original and modified. Vehicle registration is $20 outside and $30 inside.

A book sack and school supply giveaway for students will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Door prize giveaways are on the hour every hour during the show.

The Ascension Chamber of Commerce is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of Highway 61 Express Wash at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The business is located at 1126 N. Airline Highway, Gonzales.

The Arc of East Ascension is in need of donations for its Cram the Van drive. Donations can be dropped off at the Gonzales Walmart, 308 N. Airline Highway, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 5.

Needed items include Depends adult underwear (male or female XL/XXL), large and small towels, bedding (comforters, sheets, pillows and full/queen pillow cases), detergent soap, body wash, oral hygiene products (toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc.), paper towels, dishwashing liquid, baby wipes, tissue paper, bandages and first aid supplies, cleaning supplies, deodorant, flushable wipes, bottled water and paper tissues.

Items go to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Ascension Parish and surrounding areas.

Anointed Hands Trichology Centers ninth annual Back to School N Style is slated for noon to 5 p.m. Aug. 6 at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Centers YMCA Building. Service cutoff time is 3 p.m.

The event for children ages 5 to 15 includes complimentary shampoos and styles or blow-drys for girls and haircuts for boys, as well as activities, breakout sessions, door prizes and more.

Sponsorship opportunities are available and donations are welcome. Call Ynohtna Tona Tureau or Marcia Pierre at (225) 622-4357 for details.

An open house public meeting regarding the proposed La. 44 corridor from Interstate 10 to La. 22 in Gonzales is scheduled Aug. 7 at the Ascension Parish Governmental Complex, 615 E. Worthey Road, Gonzales.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is conducting the meeting, which will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the large conference room.

Written comments also can be mailed with a postmark no later than Aug. 21 to Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, Compliance Programs, Section 37, Program Director, P.O. Box 94245, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9245.

Contact Darlene Denstorff by phone, (225) 388-0215 or (225) 603-1996; or email, ascension@theadvocate.com or ddenstorff@theadvocate.com. Deadline: noon Monday.

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Second shark attack in three months on Ascension Island – Telegraph.co.uk

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He said he was amazed at the support and love from around the world.

Daniel Schempp, commander of the US Air Force unit on Ascension, set up an appeal fund for Mr Matsu, who he said was like the water god he seems invincible in the sea.It was close to reaching its $5,000 (3,800) target within 24 hours.

Major Schempp said: "He sustained critical bite wounds to his torso and is lucky to be alive, only kept so by the heroics of the small US and UK medical teams on island, and because of the donated blood supplies of volunteers."

The island government warned swimmers to be careful after the April attack, but now says: "Entering the sea on Ascension must be avoided until further notice."

The attack is a further blow to Ascensions 800-strong community following the partial closure of its military runway in April. Tourists may be put off visiting when UK flights resume.

Frankie Gonsalves suffered injuries to her foot but has largely recovered. She is shortly to return to her child safeguarding job on St Helena.

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