Dirty words? Conservatives, liberals and accurate descriptions when reporting on religious freedom – GetReligion (blog)

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My follow-up post gushed all over Gjelten's piece on the religious freedom debate:

So why do a third post? Because of the excellent discussion generated by a reader's question about Gjelten's story.

The question came from Anton Karidian:

I replied:

And GetReligion editor Terry Mattingly chimed in:

Finally, Gjelten took the time to respond:

Obviously, the conservative vs. liberal terminology did not stand out to me when I read the story originally. Perhaps I am just accustomed to seeing the sides characterized that way. As a reminder, this was the opening on Gjelten's piece:

As I read it,Karidian's criticism is that a label ("conservatives") is applied to one side of the debate but not the other. Gjelten, meanwhile, defends his description of religious conservatives but fails to explain, unless I'm missing it,why he doesn't label LGBT advocates as "liberals."

What might be a possible solution, if one sees a problem? One might be to change "conservatives" to "people of faith" in that second paragraph. Elsewhere in the story, perhaps a more specific identifier such as "evangelicals" might be applied to those pushing religious freedom legislation. Of course, the term "evangelicals" brings its own set of complexities as far as defining exactly who falls under that umbrella.

What do you think, dear reader? Was the original language fair and accurate? Do you see a need for any tweaking in how such labels are applied? Might one's response be tied, to some degree, on whether that person sees "conservatives" or "liberals" or both as dirty words?

By all means, please join the conversation by commenting below or tweeting us at @GetReligion.

Image via Pixabay.com

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Dirty words? Conservatives, liberals and accurate descriptions when reporting on religious freedom - GetReligion (blog)

If the president goes to war against freedom of the press, who wins … – The Boston Globe

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Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, during a news conference at the White House.

President Trump makes no secret of his loathing for the news media. Crude and juvenile attacks on journalists scum, slime, crazy, moron, disgusting, sleaze were a mainstay of his presidential campaign. But the media bashing has grown even more menacing during his first weeks in the White House.

In a bizarre and rambling press conference on Feb. 16, Trump lambasted the press for peddling fake news and trafficking in hatred. In a tweet the next day, he labeled The New York Times and four broadcast networks the enemy of the American people. He repeated the enemy language when he addressed a gathering of conservative activists in Washington a few days later. The president denounced news organizations for reflecting their own agenda and not the countrys agenda, and insisted that they shouldnt be allowed to use unnamed sources in their reporting.

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The fake news doesnt tell the truth, said Trump. He warned: Were going to do something about it.

There is nothing new about presidents venting and worse at the press. The Obama administration harshly attacked Fox News, wiretapped thousands of Associated Press phone calls, and prosecuted James Risen of The New York Times to make him to break a vow of confidentiality. Richard Nixon had a secret enemies list. In the nations early years, John Adamss Federalists indicted editors and publishers of newspapers friendly to Thomas Jefferson. But Trumps assault on the news media is unprecedented in the modern era. No president has come to office after a long campaign in which he so routinely, angrily, and publicly savaged the press; no president has devoted such a large chunk of his first weeks in office to high-profile media bashing; and no president in living memory has used such incendiary language the enemy of the people to characterize American journalists.

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In fairness, Trumps aggression so far has been restricted to rhetoric speeches, tweets, and lashings-out at news conferences. No newspapers have been prosecuted, and no journalists have been rounded up. Apart from barring some disfavored news organizations from briefings, what Trump calls his running war with the press has consisted to date of blistering and slanderous trash talk.

The president made the announcement in a tweet.

But we are only in Week 6 of Trumps administration. If the president is this belligerent toward the media now when no catastrophe has erupted and his White House is not embroiled in scandal what can we expect when a genuine crisis breaks out, and Trump is enraged by media coverage he considers unfair? If the least criticism today, before anything has gone seriously wrong on his watch, can provoke him to such demagoguery, how will he react when stinging headlines reveal serious negligence, corruption, or incompetence in the White House?

The modern First Amendment is very strong, and reporters count on its shelter. But the modern presidency is very strong, too, and the impact of the bully pulpit has never been greater. Who will prevail if the commander in chief, clothed in the immense power of a 21st-century president, sets his mind to whittling back the protections of the First Amendment?

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There is no way to know before it happens. But the last time a US president pushed hard to strip the press of protections it took for granted, it didnt go well for the press.

Exactly a century ago, Woodrow Wilson, having embarked on a foreign war with Germany, embarked on a domestic crusade against dissent and criticism in the media. In a speech to Congress, Wilson declared that American troops abroad would make the world safe for democracy. In the selfsame speech he warned that any disloyalty on the home front will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression.

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Woodrow Wilson delivers a declaration of war to a joint session of Congress.

He was as good as his authoritarian word. Wilson pulled out the stops to whip up public sentiment against antiwar dissenters, especially Socialists, and against vindictive immigrants who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life. He pushed for and signed the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917 and 1918, which made it a crime to utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the federal government. The law empowered the postmaster general to block any publication deemed insufficiently patriotic; dozens of periodicals were put out of business.

No help came from the courts. In 1919, the publisher of a German-language Missouri newspaper was hauled into federal court for printing a series of editorials and articles opposing Wilsons war policies. Jacob Frohwerk was convicted of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Frohwerk appealed to the Supreme Court, pleading his right to publish under the First Amendment. The justices unanimously ruled against him, on the grounds that his writings might prove persuasive to some readers.

Eventually the war ended. Wilson left the White House, and the Supreme Court revived the First Amendment. No president since Wilson has launched a serious jihad against dissent and the free press. Today, the idea of an editor going to prison for merely criticizing the government seems comfortably far-fetched. Then again, until last week, so did the idea of a president, just weeks into his presidency, defaming the national media as the enemy of the American people.

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If the president goes to war against freedom of the press, who wins ... - The Boston Globe

Between the Lines: Freedom And Its Messy Consequences – Vermillion Plain Talk

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Ive been struggling while crafting this weeks column.

I know that no matter how precise I am with my wording, there may be some who will believe after reading this that Im doing a 180 on something I expressed on this page just a little over a month ago.

In a column I typed out shortly after the Womens March was held in downtown Vermillion, I wrote: Freedom of expression is one of the cherished things that distinguishes the United States from the rest of the world. We shouldnt be surprised when happenings in our nation or our community compel people to make their voices heard. Even when we dont agree with the message.

Recent happenings in Pierre, and further north in North Dakota, are requiring a bit of clarity be added to that statement. Ive always been a big believer that the most effective forms of expression are somewhat controlled, non-violent activities, with no looting, no property damage, nothing like that.

I know there are some that will disagree with my assessment. After Michael Brown was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, that community erupted with outrage, compassion and street protests. The response from many corners of the news media included condemnations of bad elements" among the protesters who resorted to property destruction as their demonstration of resistance.

Count me among those who will never understand how wanton property destruction, or looting, or rioting can be justified to make a point. And yes, I realize the Boston Tea Party could be labeled as an early example of protest combined with property loss, but somehow the act of throwing a few crates of tea into a harbor seems pretty mild when compared to watching, for example, rioters slash and burn a business youve spent years building, or having a mob pull you from your truck and smash your head with concrete, as we all remember watching during the Rodney King riots.

Those riots stemmed from the acquittal of four white Los Angeles Police Department officers in the beating of King in 1991. They lasted over five days in the spring of 1992, and left more than 50 people dead and more than 2,000 injured.

I know it sounds like Im saying that "good" protesters march, carry signs and make their voices heard, but anyone who smashes, burns or vandalizes contaminates the otherwise defensible show of democratic expression. I also know that someone may just as easily point out that property destruction as a tactic of resistance has a long history and is frequently effective.

Theres another type of protest-related property damage that we need to talk about: the unintentional damage that can have far-reaching, detrimental effects.

This is what I fear has just occurred at Standing Rock in North Dakota. The nearly year-long Standing Rock protest, which gained steam in the final months of 2016, as thousands of protesters traveled to the site from across the country, achieved its ends for a brief time when the Army Corps of Engineers denied Energy Transfer Products (ETP) a permit to build a portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Standing Rock Sioux allegedly feared the pipeline had the potential to contaminate the Missouri River, the source of the tribe's drinking water. Now they fear a new problem. The garbage left behind by the activists.

Standing Rock protestors, who gathered by the thousands to voice their concerns about an oil pipeline they claimed would contaminate the Missouri River, have left a garbage wasteland behind, which, if not cleaned up in time, will contaminate the Cannonball River and Lake Oahe.

Thousands of protesters moved in and out of the Dakota Access site over the past few months. According to numerous news reports, theyve left behind an estimated 200-plus large truckloads of garbage, an enormous amount of human waste, and dozens of abandoned cars, buses, trucks and other vehicles that had either broken down or run out of gas.

According to recent piece in the Washington Times, the Standing Rock Sioux, private sanitation companies and other volunteers involved in the cleanup estimate that it could take weeks to clear all the abandoned tents, camping gear, supplies and trash now littering the camp.

The looming winter thaw threatens to make the area even more of ecological mess. Without proper remediation, debris, trash, and untreated waste will wash into the Cannonball River and Lake Oahe, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement.

Standing Rock protestors may have been successful in drawing public attention to their cause, but they were not able to stop the pipeline. Earlier this month, Energy Transfer Partners announced that Dakota Access, LLC (Dakota Access) has received an easement from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct the pipeline across land owned by the Army Corps on both sides of Lake Oahe in North Dakota.

The release of this easement by the Army Corps follows a directive from President Donald Trump to the Department of the Army and the Army Corps to take all necessary and appropriate steps that would permit construction and operation of the Dakota Access pipeline, including easements to cross federal lands.

With this action, Dakota Access now has received all federal authorizations necessary to proceed expeditiously to complete construction of the pipeline. A federal judge was scheduled to hear arguments this week about whether to stop the final bit of construction on the pipeline.

The Standing Rock protest also gained the attention of lawmakers in Pierre. Gov. Dennis Daugaard won approval from state senators last week for sweeping additional powers to respond to public protests such as North Dakota has faced over an oil pipeline. The concern is that TransCanada will face protests in South Dakota when the company builds the Keystone XL oil pipeline through the states western half from Montana to Nebraska.

The legislation, SB 176, now goes to the House of Representatives. If it becomes law, it would allow South Dakotas governor to declare public safety zones where entry and exit would be controlled and trespassers would face one year in jail for the first offense and one year in prison for the second and subsequent offenses.

The proposal also would make standing outside a stopped vehicle on a highway an act of crime if it happened in an off-limits area.

Whether or not you agreed with the message that activists at Standing Rock were trying to send, their actions have had substantial consequences. They have caused millions of dollars in property damage, they have threatened the environment of the Missouri River waterway which flows our way, and they are potentially changing the rules to be followed in should similar types of protests ever be planned in South Dakota.

Maybe part of the problem is assuming protest can always be a neat, tidy thing. It clearly cannot, and it clearly, at times, can be messy.

All I can do is once again repeat a snippet from my earlier column: Want to accomplish something? Reach out to those you disagree with. Talk with them. The worst thing we can do is simply dismiss people who think differently as being racist, sexist, privileged, out of touch, ignorant, and so on. Change comes from building relationships, not with people you agree with, but with those whose views are different.

Our best hope is that Standing Rock, despite its unintended consequences, will spark this kind of conversation. Hopefully, the discussions will continue. Hopefully, they will be fruitful, and they wont be destructive.

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Between the Lines: Freedom And Its Messy Consequences - Vermillion Plain Talk

Former President George W. Bush speaks out about freedom of press – KEYT

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George W. Bush speaks out about...

Former President George W. Bush has stayed rather quite since leaving the oval office, but Wednesday night he spoke to a sold out crowd and answered several questions about the current political climate.

Mister Bush was at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley to promote his new book, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chiefs Tribute To Americas Warriors. During the sit down discussion he answered several questions about his book as well as chimed in on some current political hot topics.

One of the first political topics that came up was his stance on freedom of press.

I absolute believe in a free press as should every other American believe in free press because the press holds people to account. Power is very addictive and its corrosive therefore there needs to be an independent group of people that hold you to account, said Mister Bush.

Bush said that when he made those same remarks to another media outlet this week, his statement was taken out of context.

So I answered that question and of course the headlines were Bush criticizes Trump. So of course, I needed to say there should be a free and independent press but it got to be accurate, said Mister Bush.

The Nations 43rd President also went on to say he has no intention to criticize his successors.

Its a hard job, and I think if a former president is out there second guessing it is going to make it harder and I want anybody who is president to succeed we are all in this together, said Bush. People say why. First of all the office of the president is more important than the occupant, and I believe it undermines the office of the presidency. Secondly I understand there is a lot of critiques and I dont want to make the presidents job worse.

The primarily republican audience applauded what mister bush had to say.

It was wonderful to hear the humor in the president and the mission of his heart and why he put it to paper and how he feels about the veterans. I am a big supporter of military as well, said Marissa Couhlan of Malibu.

I think it really was a conversation with the president. Just the tone he was using the verbiage that he chose and it really made everything relatable and I just like the way he connected back with the youth and how there is hope for the country, said Joanne Prociuk of Santa Clarita.

What you got to understand is that our nation goes through divisive and tough times, but there is something unique about us, there is a spirit you cant extinguish and that is why I am so optimistic about the spirit of the country, said Bush.

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Former President George W. Bush speaks out about freedom of press - KEYT

Santos introduces new ecosystem initiative, urges ‘peace with nature’ – Colombia Reports

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President Juan Manuel Santos encouraged fellow Colombians to embrace nature as he introduced the Forest WardensHeart of the World programlast week in northern Colombia, reported El Heraldo.

The indigenousArhuaco people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta were entitled with500 hectares of land, in an initiative thatseeks to preserve and recuperate the local ecosystem through actions that prevent human destruction of forests.

The initiative also aims to prevent the expansion of illicit cultivation and promote the Arhuaco territory as the first area of sustainable peace, whileeradicating malnutrition among Arhuaco children, according to Diaro del Sur.

The peace which we must now build is that of peacewith nature. We must embrace nature and reconcile with it, said Santos.

This was the first time thatPresident Santoshad metwith people from the Sierra Nevada region since signing the peace deal with the FARC.

Many areas of the region had been affected by the decades long internal conflict.

Santos acknowledgedthat the Sierra Nevada ecosystem is one of the most important in the world, while addingthat the program will have the entire support of the international community through its environmental contribution.

The implementation of the peace deal between Colombias government and the FARC rebels which includes the redistribution of land and the replacement of illicit crops will have a knock on effect on the countrys environment.

Rates of deforestation for example have surged since the peace deal was signed with the FARC in November, as loggers have rapily taken advantage of the FARCsabsence.

The leftist guerrillasprovided protection against deforestation and poaching through a quota system that ensured regular forest policing.

The government will have to respond accordingly to both the physical and political landscape as the agreement is implemented in the coming years.

Colombia is one of the most environmentally richcountries in the world, hosting close to 10% of the planets biodiversity, according to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Santos introduces new ecosystem initiative, urges peace with nature was last modified: March 3rd, 2017 by Richard Kelleher

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Santos introduces new ecosystem initiative, urges 'peace with nature' - Colombia Reports

Accountability and Trust in the Ad Ecosystem: How Platforms Can Help – AdAge.com

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Credit: fotosipsak/iStock

The ad ecosystem has always been built on a sense of "cautious trust." This created a system where platforms largely operated in silos and the information shared with advertisers -- whether it be campaign, inventory or audience data -- was guarded. However, that system began to fall apart last year.

Here's why.

Ad fraud and viewability. Last year, a wave of endemic bot fraud cheated advertisers of more than $7 billion dollars. Similarly, viewability -- the degree in which an end-user actually sees an ad -- is a growing concern. Google has said that nearly 60% of its ads are not seen. And viewability can vary wildly among individual media sellers.

Measurement miscalculations. Facebook's recent struggles with measurement have only fueled longstanding concerns. It was, in the words of Unilever's chief marketing officer, as if Facebook was being left to "mark their own homework." As a major player in the media-buying supply chain, a miscalculation on Facebook's part has an industry-wide impact on advertiser perceptions, who risk losing faith in campaign value.

Desire for data. According to eMarketer, although data-driven marketing is "virtually universal," more advertisers are relying on third-party data, and they want greater insight into cross-channel/device measurement to understand campaign success. Data access and openness are fundamental in today's landscape. This is why brands are investing more in data collection and analytics. They are eager to have access to more pipes and sources. This desire for greater transparency is partly why Snapchat, which offers very limited data insight, gives some advertisers pause.

Advertisers want and deserve deeper insight into how agency and technology partners are acting on their behalf; they want to know how their money is being spent. Proctor & Gamble, the world's biggest advertiser, recently announced that it will review all media agency contracts this year. P&G's goal: to extract broader transparency and data from what the company has called "murky" agency and publisher relationships. And other advertisers are following P&G's lead.

So, what can the ecosystem do to course-correct? Technology platforms, given our position as both ad-buying and ad-selling facilitators, are particularly well positioned to deliver on increased calls for transparency and accountability. But that requires shifting away from the traditional "walled garden" model of digital advertising and embracing a more open and flexible approach. Here's how.

Build open technology. Open technology will unlock greater transparency in the advertising ecosystem. According to Gartner, there are more than 2,000 "significant" platforms in the ad tech landscape. Even with consolidation, successful technology services on both the buy and sell-side need to be vendor and media-agnostic. They must be designed to be open and flexible -- capable of integrating with hundreds of popular third-party services and sources that fit into the larger advertising supply chain. The desire to be a "walled garden" will, of course, continue to exist. But the problem for advertisers is that walled gardens allow their partners to "grade their own homework," often obfuscating ROI and data.

Embrace third-party verification. Third-party verification is quickly becoming standard protocol in digital advertising, and technology platforms need to proactively embrace this shift as the cost of doing business. A survey by the Association of Advertisers, for instance, revealed that 97% of advertisers want independent measurement of their media buys from third-party companies like Moat, DoubleVerify and ComScore. Advertisers are now choosing who they work with, based on whether or not they will allow independent verification. This matters not just for viewability and ad fraud, but also for general attribution and campaign success. For years, Facebook has slow-walked these demands. But that changed in 2016, with Facebook's well-publicized ad measurement woes and its recent announcement that it will be audited by the Media Rating Council to verify ad measurement accuracy.

Be transparent (Duh). Programmatic ad tech has quickly become the backbone of internet advertising. Per eMarketer, programmatic ad spend in the U.S. alone has grown more than 72% over the last three-year period. For advertisers, automated buys versus direct sales has allowed for smarter, more efficient data-driven transactions. However, even with its considerable benefits, many advertisers continue to cite transparency challenges across programmatic environments. With programmatic technology so deeply embedded in the ad supply chain, vendors offering solutions need to ensure "well-lit" auctions for their customers. This means delivering greater transparency across the programmatic lifecycle -- being upfront about demand sources, fees, CPMs, bids and attribution. As programmatic technology becomes table stakes, vendors can dramatically influence and raise the degree of transparency and accountability across the overall ecosystem.

The industry's cautious trust has always been fragile, but the crisis of confidence will only generate a new era of transparent and accountable digital advertising, with vendors leading the charge. While the "black box" era is dying, the future is bright.

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Accountability and Trust in the Ad Ecosystem: How Platforms Can Help - AdAge.com

Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda – Columbia Journalism Review

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The 2016 Presidential election shook the foundations of American politics. Media reports immediately looked for external disruption to explain the unanticipated victorywith theories ranging from Russian hacking to fake news.

We have a less exotic, but perhaps more disconcerting explanation: Our own study of over 1.25 million stories published online between April 1, 2015 and Election Day shows that a right-wing media network anchored around Breitbart developed as a distinct and insulated media system, using social media as a backbone to transmit a hyper-partisan perspective to the world. This pro-Trump media sphere appears to have not only successfully set the agenda for the conservative media sphere, but also strongly influenced the broader media agenda, in particular coverage of Hillary Clinton.

While concerns about political and media polarization online are longstanding, our study suggests that polarization was asymmetric. Pro-Clinton audiences were highly attentive to traditional media outlets, which continued to be the most prominent outlets across the public sphere, alongside more left-oriented online sites. But pro-Trump audiences paid the majority of their attention to polarized outlets that have developed recently, many of them only since the 2008 election season.

Attacks on the integrity and professionalism of opposing media were also a central theme of right-wing media. Rather than fake news in the sense of wholly fabricated falsities, many of the most-shared stories can more accurately be understood as disinformation: the purposeful construction of true or partly true bits of information into a message that is, at its core, misleading. Over the course of the election, this turned the right-wing media system into an internally coherent, relatively insulated knowledge community, reinforcing the shared worldview of readers and shielding them from journalism that challenged it. The prevalence of such material has created an environment in which the President can tell supporters about events in Sweden that never happened, or a presidential advisor can reference a non-existent Bowling Green massacre.

RELATED:Breitbart editor slams mainstream media in Pulitzer Hall

We began to study this ecosystem by looking at the landscape of what sites people share. If a person shares a link from Breitbart, is he or she more likely also to share a link from Fox News or from The New York Times? We analyzed hyperlinking patterns, social media sharing patterns on Facebook and Twitter, and topic and language patterns in the content of the 1.25 million stories, published by 25,000 sources over the course of the election, using Media Cloud, an open-source platform for studying media ecosystems developed by Harvards Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and MITs Center for Civic Media.

When we map media sources this way, we see that Breitbart became the center of a distinct right-wing media ecosystem, surrounded by Fox News, the Daily Caller, the Gateway Pundit, the Washington Examiner, Infowars, Conservative Treehouse, and Truthfeed.

Fig. 1: Media sources shared on Twitter during the election (nodes sized in proportion to Twitter shares).

Fig. 2: Media sources shared on Twitter during the election (nodes sized in proportion to Facebook shares).

The most frequently shared media sources for Twitter users that retweeted either Trump or Clinton.

Notes: In the above clouds, the nodes are sized according to how often they were shared on Twitter (Fig. 1) or Facebook (Fig. 2). The location of nodes is determined by whether two sites were shared by the same Twitter user on the same day, representing the extent to which two sites draw similar audiences. The colors assigned to a site in the map reflect the share of that sites stories tweeted by users who also retweeted either Clinton or Trump during the election. These colors therefore reflect the attention patterns of audiences, not analysis of content of the sites. Dark blue sites draw attention in ratios of at least 4:1 from Clinton followers; red sites 4:1 Trump followers. Green sites are retweeted more or less equally by followers of each candidate. Light-blue sites draw 3:2 Clinton followers, and pink draw 3:2 Trump followers.

Our analysis challenges a simple narrative that the internet as a technology is what fragments public discourse and polarizes opinions, by allowing us to inhabit filter bubbles or just read the daily me. If technology were the most important driver towards a post-truth world, we would expect to see symmetric patterns on the left and the right. Instead, different internal political dynamics in the right and the left led to different patterns in the reception and use of the technology by each wing. While Facebook and Twitter certainly enabled right-wing media to circumvent the gatekeeping power of traditional media, the pattern was not symmetric.

The size of the nodes marking traditional professional media like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN, surrounded by the Hill, ABC, and NBC, tell us that these media drew particularly large audiences. Their color tells us that Clinton followers attended to them more than Trump followers, and their proximity on the map to more quintessentially partisan siteslike Huffington Post, MSNBC, or the Daily Beastsuggests that attention to these more partisan outlets on the left was more tightly interwoven with attention to traditional media. The Breitbart-centered wing, by contrast, is farther from the mainstream set and lacks bridging nodes that draw attention and connect it to that mainstream.

RELATED:10 tools to tackle common problems journalists face

Moreover, the fact that these asymmetric patterns of attention were similar on both Twitter and Facebook suggests that human choices and political campaigning, not one companys algorithm, were responsible for the patterns we observe. These patterns might be the result of a coordinated campaign, but they could also be an emergent property of decentralized behavior, or some combination of both. Our data to this point cannot distinguish between these alternatives.

Another way of seeing this asymmetry is to graph how much attention is given to sites that draw attention mostly from one side of the partisan divide. There are very few center-right sites: sites that draw many Trump followers, but also a substantial number of Clinton followers. Between the moderately conservative Wall Street Journal, which draws Clinton and Trump supporters in equal shares, and the starkly partisan sites that draw Trump supporters by ratios of 4:1 or more, there are only a handful of sites. Once a threshold of partisan-only attention is reached, the number of sites in the clearly partisan right increases, and indeed exceeds the number of sites in the clearly partisan left. By contrast, starting at The Wall Street Journal and moving left, attention is spread more evenly across a range of sites whose audience reflects a gradually increasing proportion of Clinton followers as opposed to Trump followers. Unlike on the right, on the left there is no dramatic increase in either the number of sites or levels of attention they receive as we move to more clearly partisan sites.

Sites by partisan attention and Twitter shares.

Sites by partisan attention and Facebook shares.

The primary explanation of such asymmetric polarization is more likely politics and culture than technology.

A remarkable feature of the right-wing media ecosystem is how new it is. Out of all the outlets favored by Trump followers, only the New York Post existed when Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. By the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, only the Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh, and arguably Sean Hannity had joined the fray. Alex Jones of Infowars started his first outlet on the radio in 1996. Fox News was not founded until 1996. Breitbart was founded in 2007, and most of the other major nodes in the right-wing media system were created even later. Outside the right-wing, the map reflects a mixture of high attention to traditional journalistic outlets and dispersed attention to new, online-only, and partisan media.

The pattern of hyper-partisan attack was set during the primary campaign, targeting not only opposing candidates but also media that did not support Trumps candidacy. In our data, looking at the most widely-shared stories during the primary season and at the monthly maps of media during those months, we see that Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Fox News were the targets of attack.

The first and seventh most highly-tweeted stories from Infowars.com, one of the 10 most influential sites in the right-wing media system.

The February map, for example, shows Fox News as a smaller node quite distant from the Breitbart-centered right. It reflects the fact that Fox News received less attention than it did earlier or later in the campaign, and less attention, in particular, from users who also paid attention to the core Breitbart-centered sites and whose attention would have drawn Fox closer to Breitbart. The March map is similar, and only over April and May will Foxs overall attention and attention from Breitbart followers revive.

This sidelining of Fox News in early 2016 coincided with sustained attacks against it by Breitbart. The top-20 stories in the right-wing media ecology during January included, for example, Trump Campaign Manager Reveals Fox News Debate Chief Has Daughter Working for Rubio. More generally, the five most-widely shared stories in which Breitbart refers to Fox are stories aimed to delegitimize Fox as the central arbiter of conservative news, tying it to immigration, terrorism and Muslims, and corruption:

The repeated theme of conspiracy, corruption, and media betrayal is palpable in these highly shared Breitbart headlines linking Fox News, Rubio, and illegal immigration.

As the primaries ended, our maps show that attention to Fox revived and was more closely integrated with Breitbart and the remainder of the right-wing media sphere. The primary target of the right-wing media then became all other traditional media. While the prominence of different media sources in the right-wing sphere vary when viewed by shares on Facebook and Twitter, the content and core structure, with Breitbart at the center, is stable across platforms. Infowars, and similarly radical sites Truthfeed and Ending the Fed, gain in prominence in the Facebook map.

October 2016 by Twitter shares

October 2016 by Facebook shares

These two maps reveal the same pattern. Even in the highly-charged pre-election month, everyone outside the Breitbart-centered universe forms a tightly interconnected attention network, with major traditional mass media and professional sources at the core. The right, by contrast, forms its own insular sphere.

The right-wing media was also able to bring the focus on immigration, Clinton emails, and scandals more generally to the broader media environment. A sentence-level analysis of stories throughout the media environment suggests that Donald Trumps substantive agendaheavily focused on immigration and direct attacks on Hillary Clintoncame to dominate public discussions.

Number of sentences in mainstream media that address Trump and Clinton issues and scandals.

Coverage of Clinton overwhelmingly focused on emails, followed by the Clinton Foundation and Benghazi. Coverage of Trump included some scandal, but the most prevalent topic of Trump-focused stories was his main substantive agenda itemimmigrationand his arguments about jobs and trade also received more attention than his scandals.

Proportion of election coverage that discusses immigration for selected media sources.

While mainstream media coverage was often critical, it nonetheless revolved around the agenda that the right-wing media sphere set: immigration. Right-wing media, in turn, framed immigration in terms of terror, crime, and Islam, as a review of Breitbart and other right-wing media stories about immigration most widely shared on social media exhibits. Immigration is the key topic around which Trump and Breitbart found common cause; just as Trump made this a focal point for his campaign, Breitbart devoted disproportionate attention to the topic.

Top immigration related stories from right wing media shared on Twitter or Facebook.

What we find in our data is a network of mutually-reinforcing hyper-partisan sites that revive what Richard Hofstadter called the paranoid style in American politics, combining decontextualized truths, repeated falsehoods, and leaps of logic to create a fundamentally misleading view of the world. Fake news, which implies made of whole cloth by politically disinterested parties out to make a buck of Facebook advertising dollars, rather than propaganda and disinformation, is not an adequate term. By repetition, variation, and circulation through many associated sites, the network of sites make their claims familiar to readers, and this fluency with the core narrative gives credence to the incredible.

Take a look at Ending the Fed, which, according to Buzzfeeds examination of fake news in November 2016, accounted for five of the top 10 of the top fake stories in the election. In our data, Ending the Fed is indeed prominent by Facebook measures, but not by Twitter shares. In the month before the election, for example, it was one of the three most-shared right-wing sites on Facebook, alongside Breitbart and Truthfeed. While Ending the Fed clearly had great success marketing stories on Facebook, our analysis shows nothing distinctive about the siteit is simply part-and-parcel of the Breitbart-centered sphere.

And the false claims perpetuated in Ending the Feds most-shared posts are well established tropes in right wing media: the leaked Podesta emails, alleged Saudi funding of Clintons campaign, and a lack of credibility in media. The most Facebook-shared story by Ending the Fed in October was ITS OVER: Hillarys ISIS Email Just Leaked & Its Worse Than Anyone Could Have Imagined. See also, Infowars Saudi Arabia has funded 20% of Hillarys Presidential Campaign, Saudi Crown Prince Claims, and Breitbarts Clinton Cash: Khizr Khans Deep Legal, Financial Connections to Saudi Arabia, Hillarys Clinton Foundation Tie Terror, Immigration, Email Scandals Together. This mix of claims and facts, linked through paranoid logic characterizes much of the most shared content linked to Breitbart. It is a mistake to dismiss these stories as fake news; their power stems from a potent mix of verifiable facts (the leaked Podesta emails), familiar repeated falsehoods, paranoid logic, and consistent political orientation within a mutually-reinforcing network of like-minded sites.

Use of disinformation by partisan media sources is neither new nor limited to the right wing, but the insulation of the partisan right-wing media from traditional journalistic media sources, and the vehemence of its attacks on journalism in common cause with a similarly outspoken president, is new and distinctive.

Rebuilding a basis on which Americans can form a shared belief about what is going on is a precondition of democracy, and the most important task confronting the press going forward. Our data strongly suggest that most Americans, including those who access news through social networks, continue to pay attention to traditional media, following professional journalistic practices, and cross-reference what they read on partisan sites with what they read on mass media sites.

To accomplish this, traditional media needs to reorient, not by developing better viral content and clickbait to compete in the social media environment, but by recognizing that it is operating in a propaganda and disinformation-rich environment. This, not Macedonian teenagers or Facebook, is the real challenge of the coming years. Rising to this challenge could usher in a new golden age for the Fourth Estate.

The election study was funded by the Open Society Foundations U.S. Program. Media Cloud has received funding from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Societies Foundations.

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Study: Breitbart-led right-wing media ecosystem altered broader media agenda - Columbia Journalism Review

Daimler Preps for Electric Ecosystem with ChargePoint Investment – Heavy Duty Trucking

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Germany's Daimler AG has become the lead investor in American charging solutions provider ChargePoint as part of a plan to expand its development of electric vehicles.

With the investment, Daimler AG receive a seat on the companys board of directors. Daimler is investing in electric mobility as part of its corporate strategy known as CASE, which stands for Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Service, and Electric Drive.

Daimler says this "ecosystem expansion" will serve as a platform for further electric mobility products and services for commercial vehicles as well as private customers and passenger cars.

While pursuing the systematic expansion of our CASE ecosystem based on our new product brand EQ, we also remain open and ready for partnerships and cooperation at the highest level, said Axel Harries, head of CASE at Daimler AG. Together we will be able to significantly expand the product portfolio in the area of intelligent charging solutions and provide the customer with an all-embracing premium offer for electric mobility.

With the investment, ChargePoint plans to expand business into the European Market. The company currently offers 33,000 charging spots at more than 7,000 sites inNorth America.

The significant investment by our lead investor Daimler and others not only underscores a collective commitment to e-mobility around the world, but will lay the groundwork for Europe's most comprehensive charging network ever, said Pasquale Romano, CEO of ChargePoint.

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Daimler Preps for Electric Ecosystem with ChargePoint Investment - Heavy Duty Trucking

Docker Platform Fills Gaps in Container Ecosystem – EnterpriseTech

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(Tashatuvango/Shutterstock)

Docker rolled out a batch of container services this week aimed squarely at enterprise developers and IT operators looking to leverage containers to push applications into production and scale them across hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Along with a new services platform that includes a container runtime and multi-tenant orchestration along with security and management tools, Docker also announced a certification program described as a framework for its growing list of software partners to integrate their tools with existing enterprise infrastructure.

Addressing many of the early teething problems associated with deploying containers in production, Docker stressed that its "enterprise edition" provides a modular platform for installing, configuring and upgrading Docker on certified infrastructure, including operating systems and cloud services.

The platform seeks to remove "the layers of complexity [while] giving users a more native and tightly integrated experience," Solomon Hykes, Docker's co-founder and CTO noted in a statement. The container leader also is targeting the growing number of hybrid cloud deployments by emphasizing the entire software supply chain and the "seamless workflow" between application developers and IT operators.

The certification program for validating technologies running on the Docker platform also includes a Docker store that provides access to certified infrastructure along with trusted containers, network and storage plugins and other tools.

Docker announced Thursday (March 2) that its enterprise edition comes in basic, standard and advanced subscription tiers. The high-end version includes features such as image security scanning and continuous container vulnerability monitoring. Subscription pricing ranges from $750 for "business day support" to $3,500 for "business critical support."

The company also announced support for the new container service from a growing partner network that includes Alibaba Cloud, Canonical, Cloudera, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). The platform also is available on the Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft Azure cloud marketplaces.

The enterprise edition supports infrastructure ranging from Windows Server 2016 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The certified container component allows partner vendors to distribute their software in Docker containers that have been scanned for vulnerabilities before being posted to the Docker store.

The goal of the latest Docker initiative is an attempt at forging a single platform aimed at enterprise developers and IT managers working with either Linux or Windows. Further, the hybrid cloud initiative looks to address "homegrown" as well as commercial software along with emerging micro-services used to deliver distributed applications.

Hence, Docker is positioning the new container service as a "modern software supply chain framework" billed as making life easier for embattled developers and infrastructure managers. The company also is betting that the availability of a range of available operating systems and cloud infrastructure will appeal to developers.

"This gives developers, DevOps teams and enterprises the freedom to run Docker and Docker apps on their favorite infrastructure without risk of lock-in," Docker product manager Michael Friis noted in a blog post.

About the author: George Leopold

George Leopold has written about science and technology for more than 25 years, focusing on electronics and aerospace technology. He previously served as Executive Editor for Electronic Engineering Times.

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Docker Platform Fills Gaps in Container Ecosystem - EnterpriseTech

Researchers call for protection of Caribbean ‘supersites’ to restore ocean ecosystem – Jamaica Observer

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NORTH CAROLINA, USA (CMC) Researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill have called for the protection of Caribbean coral reefs , known as supersites, in order to restore the environmental and economic setback that has been inflicted by overfishing.

The report, published in the March 1 issue of the journal Science Advances, noted that up to 90 per cent of predatory fish are gone from Caribbean coral reefs, straining the ocean ecosystem and coastal economy.

The research, led by former UNC-Chapel Hill graduate student Abel Valdivia, working with John Bruno, a marine biologist at UNC College of Arts & Sciences, suggests that these supersites reefs with many nooks and crannies on its surface that act as hiding places for prey (and attract predators) should be prioritised for protection and could serve as regional models showcasing the value of biodiversity for tourism and other uses.

Other features that make a supersite are amount of available food, size of reef and proximity to mangroves.

On land, a supersite would be a national park like Yellowstone, which naturally supports an abundance of varied wildlife and has been protected by the federal government, said Bruno.

The team surveyed 39 reefs across The Bahamas, Cuba, Florida, Mexico and Belize, both inside and outside marine reserves, to determine how much fish had been lost by comparing fish biomass on pristine sites to fish biomass on a typical reef. They estimated the biomass in each location and found that 90 per cent of predatory fish were gone due to overfishing.

But the scientists found a ray of hope in that a small number of reef location, if protected, could substantially contribute to the recovery of predatory fish populations and help restore depleted species.

Some features have a surprisingly large effect on how many predators a reef can support, said Courtney Ellen Cox, a co-author and former UNC-Chapel Hill doctoral student now at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

The report states that not long ago, large fishes were plentiful on coral reefs but are now largely absent due to targeted fishing.

Today predators are larger and more abundant within the marine reserves than on unprotected, overfished reefs. But even some of the marine reserves have seen striking declines, largely due to lack of enforcement of fishing regulations.

The bottom line is protection of predatory fish is a win-win from both an environmental and an economical perspective, said Bruno.

A live shark is worth over a million dollars in tourism revenue over its lifespan because sharks live for decades and thousands of people will travel and dive just to see them up close, said Valdivia, now at the Center for Biological Diversity in Oakland, California. There is a massive economic incentive to restore and protect sharks and other top predators on coral reefs.

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Researchers call for protection of Caribbean 'supersites' to restore ocean ecosystem - Jamaica Observer

Note To Congress: Climate Change Is Real, And It’s Expensive – Ecosystem Marketplace

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Last month, a group of prominent Republicans called for a nationwide price on carbon to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and slow climate change. This week, two key subcommittees of the US House of Representatives namely, Environment and Oversight held a hearing to address the issue.

Members of Congress met to discuss the costs of climate change, read the Washington Posts headline of their coverage. They ended up debating its existence.

Story Continues Below

As the hearing was getting underway, Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientistsposted this backgrounderon the social cost of carbon:

The social cost of carbon is metric that helps quantify the costs of climate change related to our carbon emissions, in terms of dollars per ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted. It can also be used to quantify the benefits of reducing carbon emissions. The current value of the social cost of carbon is roughly $36/ton of CO2.

Our global warming emissions are already contributing to climate impacts such as flooding from sea level rise and increased heavy precipitation; longer, more intense wildfire seasons; heat waves; and droughts. The risks of these types of impacts will grow as emissions rise.

In 2016 alone there were 15 extreme weather and climate-related disasters that cost more than a billion dollars apiece (see map). Climate change is contributing to worsening risks of many of these types of events. If you go to this EPA site, you can click on the map to see the impacts of climate change where you live in the nation. (Assuming that webpage is allowed to stay on line of course)

In previous blogposts Ive explained why the social cost of carbon is so important and how we have arrived at the current US government value for the social cost of carbon through an extensive and ongoing interagency process including a public comment period. (Note that the SCC information also used to be available on the Obama administration Office of Management and Budget website).

The social cost of carbon is used in cost-benefit analyses that agencies routinely undertake as part of the regulation-setting process. Cost-benefit analyses, which have been a feature of rulemakings since the Reagan era, are meant to quantify the impacts of a regulation. For regulations that help cut carbon emissions, the benefits of carbon reductions are quantified by applying the dollar per ton estimate of climate damages avoided based on the SCC.

Michael Greenstone, formerly at the Council of Economic Advisors and one of the witnesses at todays hearing, co-authored a recent op-ed in the New York Times together with Cass Sunstein (former Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator at OMB), explaining why the SCC is a necessary and legal component of federal cost-benefit analyses.

As they point out, attempts to do away with the SCC would defy law, science and economics.

One red herring that may come up in todays hearing is the claim that the SCC should not include global damages from our carbon emissions. This type of reasoning fundamentally misstates the challenge of climate change, which is a result of global carbon emissions. No single nation can solve this problem alone. And no nation is immune to the effects of our collective emissions.

Just one manifestation of this is the growing challenge of climate refugees, people around the world displaced by climate factors such as drought and sea level rise.

Solving climate change will require us working together in cooperation with all the nations of the world. Each nation must recognize that their emissions have impacts on everyone and make choices that further our collective good. If, instead, we all retreat to our own corners and act solely out of narrow self-interest, we will fail together to constrain emissions to the levels necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. (This type of problem has been called The Tragedy of the Commons.)

The US also benefits from global reductions in carbon emissions. News that Chinas emissions may have stabilized or fallen for the fourth year in a row is good news for us all. (Even as we know that more action to cut emissions is required by all major emitters). In other words, solving climate change is like the ultimate team sport. With very high stakes if we fail to win.

Theres no doubt that the social cost of carbon must be updated on a regular basis to take account of the latest science and economics. Just as an example, we are seeing unprecedented changes in the Arctic and the Antarctic that could portend significant impacts on weather patterns and sea level rise. A recent article also pointed out the need for better climate and economic modeling to include a wider range of social and economic impacts.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently undertook a project to assess approaches to update the social cost of carbon and released two reports with recommendations. Some of these recommendations were already being implemented by the Obama administration, although more work remains. The methodology has also been extended to methane and nitrous oxide emissions, two other potent global warming gases.

What we should not and cannot afford to do is refuse to accept the facts: climate change is real and it is already having serious and costly effects on people. Therefore our policy choices must appropriately reflect the benefits of cutting global warming emissions.

If the concept of a carbon price is new to you, be sure to check our the very first edition of Bionic Planet oniTunes,TuneIn, Stitcher, or wherever you access podcasts. You can also stream it here:

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Note To Congress: Climate Change Is Real, And It's Expensive - Ecosystem Marketplace

Injustice 2 gameplay video shows Doctor Fate smacking Superman, Cyborg and Atrocitus around – VG247

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Thursday, 2 March 2017 16:08 GMT By Stephany Nunneley

Seems like every Injustice 2 character loves to pound their fists into the Man of Steel, and Doctor Fate is no exception.

Granted, he also beats up on Cyborg and Red Lantern Atrocitus, but in the Injustice 2 video, Superman is his favorite whipping boy.

Announced today, Doctor Fate is the latest addition to the roster, and the sorcerer looks to be a rather formidable opponent, thanks to the powers he inherited via his amulet, cloak and helmet from Nabu, the ancient immortal hailing from the planet Cilia.

Like all comic book characters, Doctor Fates history is a bit convoluted, so if you want to know more about him the DC Database wiki has you covered.

Doctor Fate made a cameo appearance in Injustice: Gods Among Us with his costume appearing in The Hall of Justice.He is also mentioned in Zatannas ending and his Tower of Fate also made an appearance.

Enjoy the gameplay video and screens.

Injustice 2 is out May 16 on PS4 and Xbox One.

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Injustice 2 gameplay video shows Doctor Fate smacking Superman, Cyborg and Atrocitus around - VG247

Imperial Beach Sewage Spill Draws Dozens of Angry Residents to IBWC Meeting – NBC 7 San Diego

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Dozens of angry South Bay residents packed a International Boundaries Water Commission meeting Thursday evening, concerned about the massive sewage spill in Tijuana, Mexico, that contaminated water in the San Diego area.

When our kids cant go and swim at the beach thats right across form us, a state beach, its very upsetting, said meeting attendee Leslie Bell of Coronado Cays. We just want to make sure that somebody is held accountable for it.

The commission agreed to carry out a binational investigation into the more than 143 million gallons of raw sewagespilled in Tijuana. Additionally, officials explained the situation to residents and answered their questions.

Countless residents in the area have felt, and smelled, the aftermath of the spill. In addition to the health concerns and general inconveniences the incident has produced, people nearby are concerned that they're just now hearing about it.

"If it hadn't gotten worse and worse, they would have just gotten away with it if they could have," Bell said as her daughter stood nearby with a sign that read "Mexico must Pay!"

"So how often is this happening?" Bell added. "I feel like I have to go test the water every time my kids go swimming now."

The spill has been described as the worst sewage spill in more than a decade by Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina.

The leak began Feb. 6, according to a report by the commission. The sewage slowly seeped into the Tijuana Riverand made its way up the coast, causing an unusual odor for those people living in Imperial Beach.

The odor has lingered in the community for weeks.

Dedina says the city filed an official complaint on Feb. 15. He wants the U.S. government to investigate what caused the spill and why his city's residents weren't notified of the contamination.

"We expect to get results," Dedina said. "We're here to do that, but more importantly, to get the public to turn outrage into action so that our federal elected officials take action to invest in our border infrastructure."

The commission said the leak was likely caused by sewer construction gone wrong. The State Public Services Commission of Tijuana repaired a sewer line last month and, during the repairs, diverted sewage into the Tijuana River.

Roberto Espinoza, an engineer and representative for Mexico's arm of the International Boundaries Water Commission, spoke at the meeting through an interpreter. He said a pipe in the main line near the Tijuana and Alamar Rivers' intersection failed under pressure from recent storms. He added that the leak was not intentional and happened during an emergency repair.

Espinoza went on to say that there was a breakdown in communication between the commission and operators in Mexico, and that while he can't explain how it happened, he does regret it.

"You should have received that information on time," Espinoza said.

Local leaders believe the spill was preventable.

Weeks later, signs remain on the beach warning people to stay out of the ocean from Imperial Beach to Coronado.

In addition to community leaders, many residents are also furious, saying the sewage should've been recaptured and put back into the treatment system instead of being allowed to travel all the way into the Pacific Ocean.

Plus, they say they were never warned of the activity.

A preliminary U.S. investigation determined the spill released upwards of 143 million gallons of raw sewage, but Mexico disputes that.

Dave Gibson, Executive Officer San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, said that given advances, this should not have happened.

Two-hundred years ago this might have been the state of the science but there's absolutely no question, whatsoever, that the state of the science is you capture the sewage and you keep it in the system," Gibson told NBC 7 on Thursday.

The spill prompted Gibson to write a letter to both U.S. and Mexican commissioners, requesting the need for improved sewer system reliability and interagency communication.

The letter included a list of measures that Gibson said the commission should consider including the detailed investigation into the breakdown in communications that led to the spill, without any apparent attempt at diversion or public notification.

Gibson also suggested developing a binational public notification protocol for all sewage releases into storm water systems, the Tijuana River, or its tributaries. This would include notifying public health agencies, landowners and the media in both countries, in the event that a spill like this happens again.

Gibson also wants the commission to consider utilizing a back-up pump station in San Ysidro that, in his words, would complement the existing station in Tijuana."

Gibson argued it could, under special circumstances, divert emergency flows to the City of San Diegos Point Loma or South Bay wastewater treatment plants, or the commission's wastewater treatment plant.

Other suggestions include:

Construction of a weir across the main channel of the Tijuana River to allow capture, retention, infiltration, or diversion of unexpected flows during the dry season to prevent or minimize impacts to the lower Tijuana River and Estuary and beaches in Tijuana, Imperial Beach, and Coronado.

An enhanced and binationally coordinated watershed and coastal waters monitoring program to develop information that would inform our efforts through Minute 320 to improve environmental quality in both countries.

To read the full letter, click here.

According to adocument released by the commissionThursday, both U.S. and Mexican commissioners have agreed to investigate the transboundary sewage spill.

The investigation will determine when the spill occurred, quantify how much sewage spilled, specify the characteristics of the sewage, and identify problems in procedures to notify the Commission and the public, the document states.

The investigation on the spill and a report must be submitted within 30 days, per an agreement between U.S. Commissioner Edward Drusina and Mexican Commissioner Roberto Salmon. The commissions binational Water Quality Work Group will handle the investigation.

Published at 3:23 PM PST on Mar 2, 2017 | Updated at 9:57 AM PST on Mar 3, 2017

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Imperial Beach Sewage Spill Draws Dozens of Angry Residents to IBWC Meeting - NBC 7 San Diego

Machine Crushes Beer Bottles Into Sand to Save New Zealand Beaches – Geek

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Drink beer, save the environment. Thats the rallying cry of DB Breweries, a New Zealand-based company helping to combat the global sand shortage.

The firm, as reported by AdWeek, built a fleet of machines that crush empty glass bottles into a sand substitute, used to save the nations pristine beaches.

Sand is used in everything from construction to pharmaceuticals; a major ingredient of mortar, plaster, concrete, and asphalt, businesses often collect beach sand in bulk. As a result, according to DB, two-thirds of the worlds beaches are retreating.

Amazingly, the answer to the sand shortage could be to drink beer, the company said in a promotional video (below).

The machineslikely for use in bars and restaurants across the islandrecycle empties right before your drunken eyes. Push the container through a bottle-shaped hole, then watch as a vacuum system removes silica dust and plastic labels, leaving behind pure glass sand. Each bottle produces 200 grams of powder substitute in about five seconds.

DB Breweries

DB Export Beer Bottle Sand will be distributed for roading projects, commercial and residential construction, even golf bunkers. The brewery is currently finalizing a two-year deal with DryMix, New Zealands largest producer of bagged concrete, AdWeek reported.

DB Breweries

Kiwis, we love our beaches, and we love our beer, Sean ODonnell, marketing director at DB Breweries, said in the video. So wouldnt it be great if you could have a beer and do something for the environment? I mean, thats pretty exciting.

Tipplers can look for the Drink DB Export, save our beaches label on the neck of local beer bottlesa reminder to salvage the container.

We cant solve the problem alone, but we knew we could do more to help, ODonnell told AdWeek. Were proud to launch an initiative that can help us do our bit to protect our beaches for future generations.

This recycling program follows 2015s successful Brewtoleum campaign, in which DB turned leftover yeast from the brewing process into clean-burning, conflict-free biofuel.

You can bring recycledflare to your own home too. Why wait?!

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Machine Crushes Beer Bottles Into Sand to Save New Zealand Beaches - Geek

Clearwater Beach prepares for biggest spring break on record … – ABC Action News

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CLEARWATER BEACH, Fla. - Spring break 2017 is likely to see more people heading to Tampa Bay area beaches than ever.

And bay area students are expected to play a role.

Students attending the Hillsborough County and Pinellas County school districts and the University of South Florida all have the same week off for spring break this year.

It's the first time all the schools have been off conjointly in several years.

Clearwater leaders are increasing efforts to make sure your family stays safe on your beach visit.

The biggest change is to the main crosswalks along Clearwater Beach. There used to be four crosswalks around the island's main roundabout. Now there are two.

The city also added median fences to keep people from dashing across the street.

Clearwater police officers will be out issuing tickets to spring breakers who break the rules. Officers will enforce open container laws and give a stern warning to anyone who darts across the street.

With two less crosswalks, visitors will have to walk all the way around the islands main roundabout.Sam Muscatel was one of many tourists confused by the new design.

We were totally confused," Muscatel said. "It looked like you had to do a daredevil move to get across the street. I don't like having to walk all the way around."

The extra walk is meant to keep you safe and traffic moving.

There also are extra lifeguards keeping watch on the sand. Instead of the typical three towers, lifeguards now use six. The number of lifeguards also is expanded from six to 11 for spring break and the summer.

Businesses also are getting ready for a huge influx in visitors.

C.J. Bauer knows he wont have a second of downtime while he assembles umbrellas, chairs and shade tents for tourists.

The pickup during this time of year is crazy and we love it," Bauer said. "We are really busy and there is no time to stand around. There's no shortage of people to help."

Starting this weekend, you will notice extra police officers on Pinellas County beaches.

The busiest beach weekends is expected to be March 11-19, when for the first time in decades, thousands of local students will be on spring break at the same time.

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Going to the Shore? A List of New Jersey Beaches with a Price Tag … – NBC 10 Philadelphia

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Photo of Wildwood entrance in New Jersey.

The weather is warming up and summer months are soon approaching.

Many families will head to New Jerseys best beaches to enjoy the sun.

While a select number of beaches are free, the majority of seaside towns charge for entry.

The Asbury Park Press reported Thursday that Berkeley Township approved a beach badge price hike.

Daily tags have increased from $5 to $8, and weekly badges have increased from $20 to $25.

Mayor Carmen F. Amato suggests the price change indicates rising costs of beach upkeep, trash removal, lifeguards, and police patrols.

Check out this list of NJ beaches, to see which ocean views have a beach tag.

Your Shore Shots: Land and Sea Scapes

Seaside Heights:

Known for its nightlife, Casino Pier and exciting boardwalk Seaside Heights' daily tag is $8, weekly tag is $35 and a seasonal tag starts at $45.

Fun at the Shore

Barnegat Light:

Named for its famous attraction, the Barnegat Lighthouse is one of New Jerseys most famous landmarks. Visitors can experience serenity and history, this Ocean County shores daily tag is $5, a weekly tag is $22, and a seasonal starts at $30.

Surf City Beach:

Most popular for fishing and the Sandcastle Inn Surf City Beach's daily tag is $7, weekly is $17, and seasonal tag starts at $35.

WATCH: Six-Year Old Reels In Giant Striped Bass in LBI

Long Beach Township:

This 12 mile island, mostly known for its Art Foundation has a daily tag of $7, a weekly tag of $20, and a seasonal badge starting at $30.

WATCH: Dolphins Swim at the Jersey Shore

Margate Beach:

Preseason tags start at $7.00 (April-May), after June 1st, prices go up to $15.

Memorial Day at Brigantine

Brigantine Beach:

Brigantine Beach offers surfing, kite flying, four-wheeling, and sport-fishing with a daily tag of $8, weekly tag of $14, and seasonal tag starting at $15.

Atlantic City:

The world famous Atlantic City is known for a big boardwalk, a free beach, and big fun. With endless retail stores, saltwater taffy and five star casinos a weekend in AC one for the books.

Sea Isle City:

Looking for a calm and relaxing ocean view without the hustle and bustle of a boardwalk? Sea Isle City Beach is the perfect getaway. A daily tag is $5, a weekly tag is $10, and a seasonal tag starts at $20.

MOSHPIX: Jaws Youth Fund Run

Stone Harbor & Avalon Beaches

These two beaches make up more than 7 miles of New Jersey's oceanfront. Stone Harbor and Avalon Beaches have a daily tag of $6, a weekly tag of $12, and a seasonal tag of $23.

Cape May Wedding Season

Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood Beaches

Wildwood Beaches offers an amusement park, dog beach, and a water park. These free beaches showcase dance clubs, pubs, and sports bars. Wildwood offers fun for the whole family.

Cape May Wedding Season

Cape May

Cape May is a beach lovers paradise. Visitors can go wine tasting, parasailing, and golfing at the shore. With a daily tag of $6, a weekly tag of $6, and a seasonal tag starting at $20, beach goers can enjoy one of the most beautiful beaches in the country.

Published at 11:21 PM EST on Mar 2, 2017

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Going to the Shore? A List of New Jersey Beaches with a Price Tag ... - NBC 10 Philadelphia

Astronomy Cast Ep. 432: Geoglogic Ages of Mars – From Wet and … – Universe Today

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Universe Today
Astronomy Cast Ep. 432: Geoglogic Ages of Mars - From Wet and ...
Universe Today
Today, Mars is a desolate wasteland, with dusty red rocks and sand stretching out to the horizon. But billions of years ago, it was a vastly different worl.

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Astronomy Cast Ep. 432: Geoglogic Ages of Mars - From Wet and ... - Universe Today

Asteroids are splitting in half and growing tails – Astronomy Magazine

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A big difference between an asteroid and a comet has usually been that icy comets can develop tails while rocky asteroids generally do not. That is, until this recent discovery of some very unique asteroids came to light.

Astronomers are interested in these particular asteroids not just because they split in two, but some are also sprouting tails.

The asteroid pair the astronomers have become most interested in is P/2016 J1. Fernando Moreno, a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics and Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), said in a press release, The results derived from the evolution of the orbit show that the asteroid fragmented approximately six years ago, which makes it the youngest known asteroid pair in the solar system to date.

Besides being the youngest asteroid pair, P2016 J1 has another feature that makes it interesting to astronomers.

Moreno said, Both fragments are activated, i.e., they display dust structures similar to comets. This is the first time we observed an asteroid pair with simultaneous activity.

Studies showed that the asteroid pairs were activated at the point on the orbit closest to the Sun and remained that way for somewhere between six to nine months.

Moreno thinks the dust is likely caused by sublimation of ice that was left exposed after the fragmentation.

Asteroid pairs are a common occurrence in the main asteroid belt. The pairs form when an asteroid breaks in two pieces, either from an impact, excess rotational speed, or, in some cases, two asteroids destabilizing each others initial orbits.

Though the pairs are not gravitationally linked, they do have similar orbits around the Sun. The pairs move in quasi-circular orbits between Mars and Jupiter, so they do not experience the temperature change that causes tails on comets. There have been about 20 documented cases of these asteroid pairs with an increased glow and a dust tail, and the asteroids have sometimes been called main belt comets as a result.

For more information on main belt comets, check out the April 2017 issue of Astronomy magazine.

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Asteroids are splitting in half and growing tails - Astronomy Magazine

See the Moon glide through the Hyades on 4-5 March – Astronomy Now Online

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3 March 2017 Ade Ashford

On the UK night of 4-5March 2017, observers in the British Isles with clear skies can see an occultation bonanza as the 6-day-old waxing crescent Moon passes in front of four prominent members of the Hyades open cluster in the constellation of Taurus. The show starts with the occultation of gamma () Tauri close to 8:44pmGMT for observers in Edinburgh, as depicted above. Some hours later, after the Moon has set in the British Isles, first-magnitude star Aldebaran is occulted across a large swathe of North America. AN graphic by Ade Ashford.If the UK sky is clear on the evening of Saturday 4March, dont miss an opportunity to see a waxing crescent Moon glide slowly through the southern extremity of the Hyades star cluster in the constellation Taurus. This is not a spectacle that requires a large or expensive telescope to view all you need is a typical binocular and a low wall or fence to rest your elbows on to steady the view. Naturally, a telescope will give much better views.

The brightest stars covered by the Moon on the UK night of 4-5March are in order of disappearance magnitude +3.7 gamma () Tauri, magnitude +4.5 71Tauri, magnitude +3.4 theta2 (2) and magnitude +3.8 theta1 (1) Tauri. As seen from London, the times at which these stars disappear behind the Moons advancing dark limb are 8:47pm (), 11:42pm (71), 12:40am (2) and 12:46am (1). As seen from Edinburgh, the corresponding times are 8:44pm, 11:35pm, 12:38am and 12:47am, respectively (all times GMT).

Once darkness falls in North America, observers in much of the United States (but excluding Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine) can see the almost first quarter Moon occult first-magnitude star Aldebaran too.

The usual advice for observing occultations applies inasmuch as you should be ready with your binocular or telescope a few minutes before the appointed time(s) so as not to miss out. Plus, its always fun to see the Moons orbital motion carry it ever closer to the target star until it is almost instantly extinguished.

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See the Moon glide through the Hyades on 4-5 March - Astronomy Now Online

The 17th-Century Lady Astronomer Who Took Measure of the Stars – Smithsonian

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Cunitz was among the few who saw the truth in Johannes Keplers laws of planetary motion, which stated that planets moved in elliptical orbits around the sun. Here, a concept drawing of the Earth and moon in orbit around the sun.

Urania Propitia is a remarkable volume for many reasons. Published in 1650, this work of astronomy demonstrates a command of high-level mathematics and astronomical calculation. It also reveals a deep understanding of Keplerian astronomy; its author both simplified and corrected Kepler's math for locating planetary positions. Finally, the book was written in German as well as Latin, which helped to both establish German as a language of science and make the tables accessible outside of the university.

But Urania Propitia lays claim to yet another impressive quality: It was written by a woman. This fact took me by surprise in 2012, when I was touring the History of Science Collections upon arriving at the University of Oklahoma for my graduate studies in the History of Science. In a long line of books written by famous men, I was taken aback to see one penned by an obscure woman: an astronomer named Maria Cunitz.

I remember thinking: A woman did that.

My surprise stemmed not from my disbelief that women were and are capable of such work, but during the time that Cunitz was working on Urania Propitia, few women were welcomed into the upper echelons of natural philosophy, medicine, astronomy and mathematics. The general cultural atmosphere certainly wasnt conducive to educated women, says historian of science Marilyn Ogilvie, co-author and editor of The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century.

Ogilvie points to influential French philosopher Michel de Montaigne as one example of the pervasive beliefs about womens role during this time period. In his essay collection Of the Education of Children, Ogilvie says that [h]e never mentions girls...but when he speaks of women he speaks of [them] as pretty animals. They should be kept so by being taught those games and bodily exercises which are best calculated to set off their beauty. These types of beliefs kept women out of higher education and perpetuated myths about womens capabilities.

Certainly the culture did not encourage scientific women with attitudes like this, says Ogilvie.

This fact makes Cunitzs work all the more significant. In his article Urania Propitia, the Adaption of the Rudolphine Tables by Maria Cunitz, historian of science N. M. Swerdlow claims Urania Propitia to be the earliest surviving scientific work by a woman on the highest technical level of its age, for it purpose was to provide solutions to difficulties in the most advanced science of the age During my tour, the Collections curator, Kerry Magruder, described her as one of the most accomplished astronomers of her century.

Maria Cunitz was born between 1600 and 1610 (the exact date remains unknown) in Silesia. She had the good fortune of being the child of two educated parents who were interested in her upbringing: Maria Schultz and physician Henrich Cunitz. As a woman, Cunitz was denied a formal education, so she received much of her education from her father.

[i]f a woman was to be a scientist (or natural philosopher) of any type, it was helpful to have a male relative ... take interest in her education, Olgivie says. I wouldnt say that Cunitzs relationship with her father was unusual, but it certainly was not common.

With her fathers guidanceand later her husbandsCunitz mastered the supposedly masculine fields of mathematics and astronomy as well as the traditional feminine skills of music, art and literature. She was fluent in seven languagesGerman, Latin, Polish, Italian, French, Hebrew and Greekwhich would prove key to her achievements in astronomy.

Her education was expansive and ongoing, punctuated by concerns of religious discrimination. In 1629, Cunitz and her Protestant family fled to Liegnitz to escape Ferdinand IIs Catholic persecution of Protestants. In Liegnitz, she met and married physician Elias von Lwen, with whom she continued her studies in mathematics and astronomy. In the midst of the Thirty Years War, however, Cunitz was forced once again to flee. She and her husband settled in Pitschen, Poland, and it was here that Cunitz composed her magnum opus,Urania Propitia.

In 1609, German astronomer Johannes Kepler publishedAstronomia Nova, which laid the groundwork for the revolution that would come to be known as Keplerian astronomy. But at the time, few astronomers embraced his three laws: that planets move in elliptical orbits with the sun as the foci, that the center of the sun and the center of a planet sweep out equal area in equal intervals of time, and that the amount of time a planet takes to orbit is directly related to its distance from the sun.

Cunitz was one of the few that saw the truth in Keplers laws of planetary motion; even Galileo did not accept Keplers law of ellipses. However, Cunitz found flaws in Keplers 1627Rudolphine Tables, a catalogue of stars and planetary tables with complex directions for calculating planetary positions. She set out to correct and simplify Keplers calculations by removing logarithms. Cunitz finished her first and second tables in 1643 and the third in 1645.

Published in 1650 at her and her husbands own financial expense,Urania Propitiawas longer than Keplers originalRudolphine Tablesat 286 pages. She published the book in both Latin and the vernacular German, which made it an accessible work of astronomy outside of university walls and helped to establish German as a scientific language. Ogilvie says that [a]though her contributions to astronomy werent new theoretically, she, by her simplification of Keplers tables demonstrated that she was a competent mathematician and astronomer.

One of the more curious aspects toUrania Propitiais husband Eliass contribution to the book. During this time period, it was quite unusual for a woman to publish such a work on her own, and Ogilvie points out that there were many other cases (e.g. Marie Lavoisier) where a wife certainly was a major contributor to the work where she didnt get credit.

Yet in the book, Elias writes in Latin that he had no part in producing the text or preparing the tables. He adds that although he instructed his wife in calculating planetary movement with advanced mathematics, she mastered it and prepared the new tables on her own. In Swerdlows reading of Eliass Latin, the history of Cunitzs education was laid out in detail lest anyone falsely think the work perhaps not of a woman, pretending to be of a woman, and only thrust upon the world under the name of a woman.

Urania Propitiagained Cunitz recognition across Europe and brought her into correspondence with other prominent European astronomers of her day, like Pierre Gassendi and Johannes Hevelius. Sadly, the majority of her letters have been lost, consumed by a fire in Pitschen in 1656. What letters remain are kept at thesterreichische Nationalbibliothekin Vienna.

Cunitz died on August 22, 1664.Urania Propitiaremains the only work she published. But becauseUrania Propitiawas such a singular accomplishment and Cunitz was as proficient in mathematics and astronomy as any man of her age, her reputation continued after her death; She became known as Silesia Pallas, or Athena of Silesia.

She has also received more modern recognition as well. In 1960, a minor planet was named Mariacunitia in her honor by R. H. van Gent, and later, in 1973 when Richard Goldstein and his team at JPL discovered Venus to be covered in craters, Cunitz Crater received her name.

In a time when culture actively worked against women entering education and science, Maria Cunitz successfully made an inroad for herself. Her intellect was cultivated and encouraged by her father and husband, a privilege few girls and women would have been afforded. Though Cunitzs story is not without struggle, one cannot help but wonder how many more women could have done the same if granted the opportunities afforded to Cunitz.

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The 17th-Century Lady Astronomer Who Took Measure of the Stars - Smithsonian