Michronicleonline | Patricia Maryland, Dr.PH, to Become President and CEO of Ascension Healthcare Michronicleonline Ascension announced that Patricia Maryland, Dr.PH, will become Executive Vice President and President and CEO of Ascension Healthcare, effective July 1, 2017. The change will take effect following the retirement of Robert J. Henkel, FACHE on June 30, ... |
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Patricia Maryland, Dr.PH, to Become President and CEO of Ascension Healthcare - Michronicleonline
Angels tell the gaping disciples that this Jesus has been taken into Heaven.St. Augustine says that the angels are emphasizing that it is the very same Jesus whose body they saw broken on the Cross and buried in the tombthe same Jesus who will come again, but who, even in Heaven, is always with them.
God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet (Ps. 46:5).
The disciples wondered in joy, seeing him whose death they had mourned going up into Heaven.
Angels preached the Ascension of the Lord. They saw the disciples when their Lord ascended, lingering in wonder, confused, saying nothing but rejoicing in their hearts, and then came the sound of the trumpet, the clear voice of the angels: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into Heaven? This Jesus (Acts 1:11)as if they didnt know it was the same Jesus. Hadnt they just seen him in front of them? Hadnt they heard him speaking with them? In fact, they didnt just see him with them: they had touched his arms. So didnt they know by themselves that it was the same Jesus?
But they were out of their minds with wonder and joyous celebration; and thats why the angels specifically said this Jesus. It was as if they were saying, If you believe him, this is the same Jesus who was crucified, and your feet stum- bledwho was dead and buried, and you thought your hope was lost. This is the same Jesus. He has gone up before you. He will come in the same way you have seen him go into Heaven. His body is taken away from your sight, its true, but God is not separated from your hearts. See him going up. Believe in him when he isnt here. Hope for his coming. But yet, through his secret mercy, feel him present. For although he ascended into Heaven and was taken away from your sight, yet he promised you, Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matt. 28:20). St. Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 47, 6
IN GODS PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Do I go to the angels for help in understanding the mysteries of Christs life? Do I ask my guardian angel to accompany me as I pray the rosary or read the Scriptures?
CLOSING PRAYER
Angel of God, open my eyes, that I may see the Lords mysteries as you do.
__________________________________________________________________________________________ Remember to subscribe to my feed so you will not miss a day! This recurring feature at The Catholic Blogger is possible through the cooperation of author Mike Aquilina and publisher Saint Benedict Press. To get your own copy of this book, click below.
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The angels announce the Ascension; Angels: Day 203 - Patheos (blog)
Toftwood Infant School pupil Arthur inside the mobile planetarium at Toftwood Junior School. Picture: Ian Burt
Archant 2017
The exciting world of space exploration has been brought to life for pupils of a Norfolk infant school.
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The company StarLincs brought a mobile planetarium to Toftwood Junior School, in Dereham, for Toftwood Infant School to explore.
Fridays event tied in with the infant schools book week and pupils dressed in costumes related to Lost in Space.
Toftwood Infant School class teacher Kelsey Hooper said: The children have loved learning about the topic of space and this event really brought it to life.
We like to do things like this to give a real wow factor and to engage the children in a subject and they have really loved it.
Ninety year one pupils, aged five and six, from Toftwood Infant School went over to Toftwood Junior School for the event.
It was held at the venue because the junior school has more space to accommodate the mobile planetarium.
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Space exploration brought to life for pupils - Norfolk Eastern Daily Press
Today, a new generation of Americans looks to space and wonders where America will go next. Over the past eight years, NASA has laid the foundation for renewed American space exploration leadership under Charles Bolden, who stepped down as the agencys administrator on January 20. Although the space shuttle fleet has been retired, NASA has begun to field new capabilities that will take Americans back to Earth orbit, the moon, and beyond.
Bolden leaves his successor at NASA a full range of capabilities and policy options. Americas space agency has also reached out to private-sector entrepreneurs to develop commercial space capabilities to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. And along with investing in the future of human space exploration, the United States has maintained a robust robotic space exploration program as well.
Indeed, America is better positioned today to embark on a big and bold program of human and robotic exploration than at any time since the end of the Apollo program. Despite tight budgets, NASA has invested in key building blockssuch as the Space Launch System, or SLS, and the Orion crew vehiclethat will come online during the current presidential administration. But these investments will only pay off if America sticks to the plan that NASA, Congress, and the Obama administration had collectively put together.
This hard-forged consensus will unravel, however, if the Trump administration changes course by initiating another high-level review of space exploration policy. Instead of commissioning another blue-ribbon panel, the current administrations NASA team should build on the progress made under Bolden. There is no need for the new NASA team to throw away eight years of hard work and investment just as America develops the capabilities necessary to send astronauts where they have never gone before.
NASA is ready for an ambitious, next generation program of space exploration. Even as the United States prepares to once again launch astronauts into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, American astronautstwo as of January 2017still remain on the International Space Station. Astronaut Scott Kellys year on board the station, which ended when he returned to Earth in March 2016, will help NASA better understand the physiological and psychological stresses of long-term spaceflight. Moreover, the Hubble Space Telescope continues to beam down breathtaking images of the cosmos after a quarter-centuryand four repair missionsin orbit. Finally, 10 robotic explorers plumb the depths of the solar system, from Mars to Pluto and beyond.
These accomplishments are impressive, but NASA has not rested on its laurels over the past eight years. Despite a difficult transition period and tight budgets below those of previous decades when adjusted for inflation, NASA has made significant progress toward human exploration missions beyond the moon. Building on the solid bedrock of President Barack Obamas 2010 National Space Policy directive, Congress NASA Authorization Act of 2010, and NASAs own 2015 Journey to Mars report, the space agency has made investments in new capabilities such as the Space Launch System, the Orion crew vehicle, and the Commercial Crew Program. With support and encouragement from NASA, new space entrepreneurs such as SpaceX, Bigelow Aerospace, and Blue Origin will soon bring their own capabilities and systems to the aerospace market. These investments will bear fruit in the coming yearsbut only if the Trump administration sticks to existing plans.
In recent years, and with the solid support of Congress, NASA has made slow but steady progress on the two main components of any human exploration beyond the moon: the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion crew vehicle. Already, Orion has had a successful uncrewed test flightExploration Flight Test-1in December 2014. Work is well underway on the next Orion vehicle, slated to be on the first SLS launch in late 2018. In another uncrewed flight dubbed Exploration Mission-1, or EM-1, Orion will spend six days in lunar orbit to test capabilities critical to future missions with astronauts.
Development of the SLS rocket that will send Orion on EM-1 has also proceeded apace. Testing is well under way on key SLS components such as the solid rocket boosters and the RS-25 engines that will power the rocket. Moreover, NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama has finished construction of the test stand for the largest SLS fuel tank. If all goes well, an SLS rocket will launch for the first time in fall 2018with an uncrewed Orion on top.
According to the current plan, astronauts will fly on Orion and SLS for the first time during Exploration Mission-2, or EM-2, as early as August 2021. Indeed, NASA has already outlined the mission profile for EM-2: Four astronauts will travel in an elliptical orbit before heading for a slingshot around the moon and returning to Earth. When they swing around the moon, the EM-2 astronauts will travel farther into space than anyone since the final Apollo mission in 1972.
At the same time, work on the Commercial Crew Program intended to return the launch of astronauts to American soil has proceeded apace. NASA has already awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station. But human spaceflight remains a difficult and challenging endeavor, and spacecraft development delays mean the United States is likely to launch astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center by May 2018 at the earliest. Despite these delays, real progress has been made toward returning astronaut launches to the United States early on in the new administration.
However, these delays also mean the United States will have to rely on Russia to send astronauts to and from the International Space Station for at least another year. The United States and its international partners will continue to operate the station until at least 2024 thanks to the Obama administrations 2014 decision to extend its lifespan. By the end of 2016, Americas International Space Station partnersRussia, Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agencyhad all agreed to extend the stations time in orbit. Maintaining the International Space Station well after its designed 15-year service life will be a challenge, but it will keep Americans in orbit as Orion and the SLS come online. It will also give NASA the opportunity to test new technologies and conduct further research on the psychological and physiological effects of long-duration spaceflight.
Despite this progress toward new human spaceflight capabilities, NASA faces lingering questions about critical components of Americas space exploration program. Amid heavy skepticism from Congress, NASA has started work on a two-phase Asteroid Redirect Mission, or ARM. By 2021, NASA plans to launch a robotic mission to retrieve a boulder from a nearby asteroid and redirect it into orbit around the moon. Sometime around 2026, astronauts aboard an Orion spacecraft will rendezvous with and explore this boulder. NASA argues that ARM is necessary to develop and test new technologies such as solar-electric propulsion that are necessary to send astronauts beyond the moon. But critics argue that these technologies can be developed without adding the cost and complexity of asteroid retrieval. The debate over ARM remains open, and its fate will be one of the first major decisions facing the new administrations NASA team.
Moreover, NASAs robotic exploration program has suffered from limited funding in recent years. Given the long lead times required to pull together robotic exploration missionsthe Juno mission to Jupiter, for instance, was selected in 2005, launched in 2011, and arrived at its destination in 2016lower budgets ensure that NASA starts work on fewer of these missions. The decline in robotic exploration missions also jeopardizes NASAs ability to adequately prepare for human expeditions to Mars and other destinations beyond the moon. Without adequate robotic infrastructure to relay communications back to Earth and survey the Martian environment, NASA will be forced to either delay current plans for a 2030s Mars mission or take greater than necessary risks with astronaut safety.
Finally, tight and uncertain budgets have limited NASAs ability to plan effectively for the future. Thanks to sequestration and other fiscal fights, NASAs budget declined from just more than $18.7 billion in 2010 to less than $16.9 billion in 2013a cut of more than $3.1 billion when adjusted for inflation. Budgetary pressure contributed to the Obama administrations decision to back out of cooperation with the European Space Agencys ExoMars robotic exploration program. The Europeans, in turn, went to Russia to help build and launch their spacecraft. Despite general public and congressional support for NASA and its mission, the stability and sustainability of its budgets remains an open question as the new administrations NASA team takes charge.
In spite of these lingering questions, the next NASA team will inherit a solid foundation for space exploration from former administrator Bolden. Orion and the Space Launch System will give NASA the ability to send astronauts farther than any human has ever gone before, while the Commercial Crew Program will return astronaut launches to American soil. America and its partners will maintain the International Space Station in orbit until at least 2024, and NASAs robotic exploration budget has recovered from deep cuts in recent years. In short, Americas space program no longer stands at an uncertain crossroads and is poised to reassert American leadership in space.
But this foundation will crumble if the new administration hits the reset button on Americas space exploration program. Instead of commissioning yet another time consuming, high-level study of Americas human spaceflight program that forces NASA to change direction, the Trump administration should build on the bipartisan consensus achieved by Congress and the Obama administration in 2010. This consensus set Mars as Americas long-run human space exploration goal and provides a solid space policy framework for the United States.
This framework leaves plenty of room for the new administration to put its mark on Americas human space exploration programwithout ripping it up at the roots. NASAs report, titled Journey to Mars, for instance, provides a flexible, three-phase concept for progress. The first phase, which includes Scott Kellys recent year-long mission on the International Space Station, tests the capabilities necessary for deep space exploration in low-Earth orbit. Next comes what NASA calls the Proving Ground phase, in which astronauts will learn how to live and work in the deep space around the moon. Finally, the Earth Independent phase will culminate in a human voyage to Mars.
Fortunately, Congress appears to understand the importance of continuity in space exploration policy. Before the 2016 election, for instance, Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced legislation that reaffirmed the bipartisan consensus on Mars as the next goal for Americas human space exploration program. This bill shows that members of Congress can work across party and ideological lines to ensure that the United States sticks to its own space exploration plan.
Cooperation across party and ideological lines will also be necessary to ensure that NASA receives sufficient and stable support moving forward. In particular, NASA should receive additional funding for the Orion and SLS programs, which are critical parts of any deep space exploration mission. This financial cushion can reduce the risk of budget-driven delays to both programs and help make sure that Exploration Mission-1 and Exploration Mission-2 launch according to NASAs current plans. In addition, robotic explorationfunded through NASAs Planetary Science Divisionshould be increased modestly to levels necessary to maintain the robotic infrastructure on and around Mars while meeting the congressionally mandated goal of launching a mission to Europa by 2023. Without the infrastructure and information these robotic explorers provide, future human expeditions beyond the moon will be more hazardous than necessary.
At the same time, the new NASA team should identify and reach out to potential international partners for missions in the Proving Ground around the moon. This outreach should include traditional NASA partners such as Japan, Canada, and Europe while expanding to new players, including South Korea and India. By working with international partners, NASA maintains and strengthens the global network of international scientific and engineering relationships it painstakingly forged over decades. Since the United States remains the only nation with the financial capacity and technical capability to carry out a robust program of space exploration, this network also ensures that the United States remains the global leader in space.
While NASA invites new and traditional partners to join Proving Ground missions, it should maintain the dialogue with China that has been established in recent years. Right now, the prospect of full-blown cooperation with Beijing on space exploration remains remote. But the recent cooperation agreement on air traffic control between NASA and the Chinese Aeronautical Establishment shows how incremental progress toward a more cooperative relationship in space could be made.
However, numerous political obstacles prevent cooperation with China in space. Here in the United States, Congress restricts NASAs ability to cooperate with China for a variety of valid reasons. Even without legislative restrictions, the absence of a clear division between Chinas military and civil space programs would likely inhibit cooperation with NASA. Nonetheless, the United States has a significant national security interest in gaining insight into Chinas aerospace industryinsight that could be gained through incremental cooperation on space exploration.
The primary goal of any cooperation between NASA and Chinas space agencies should be to encourage China to clearly separate its civil space activities from its military space programas the United States did with great success when President Dwight Eisenhower established NASA in 1958. There are two potential avenues for cooperation the United States could offer to induce these changes in Chinese behavior. First, the United States could invite Chinese scientists to contribute a scientific instrument to an upcoming robotic exploration mission. This sort of limited collaboration would allow the United States and China to work together on scientific and engineering processes.
Second, the United States should hold open the prospect of a Chinese spacecraft visiting the International Space Station. Such a visit has already been suggested by the European Space Agency and would require American and Chinese engineers to work together on the development of a common docking system. This sort of limited cooperation would allow the United States and China to build confidence and trust in one another and work with other International Space Station partners. While the national security risks of a Chinese visit to the International Space Station are minimal, the gainsa look into Chinas aerospace industry and the separation of Chinas civil and military space programscould prove substantial.
After eight years in office, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden leaves his successor the foundation for a rejuvenatedand realisticspace exploration program. Investments in new capabilities such as Orion and the Space Launch System will bear fruit in the coming years, allowing NASA to send astronauts farther than has been possible since the end of Apollo. Equally important, a new consensus on Americas next human spaceflight goalMarshas emerged and solidified.
But American astronauts are not likely to reach Mars unless the new administration and its NASA team resist the temptation to hit the reset button on Americas space exploration program. Instead of commissioning yet another time consuming, high-level study of Americas space exploration program that forces NASA to change direction, the Trump administration should build on the bipartisan foundation thats been laid since 2010. Another disruptive shift in NASAs goals would jeopardize both this foundation and Americas leadership in space exploration.
For its part, Congress should reaffirm this consensus and provide NASA the resources necessary to build on the progress of the past eight years. Thanks to Bolden and his teams leadership and bipartisan cooperation in Congress, the new administration and its NASA team will inherit a solid space exploration foundation on which it can build.
Rudy deLeon is a Senior Fellow with the National Security and International Policy team at American Progress. Peter Juul is a Policy Analyst at American Progress. Stefanie Merchant is a Special Assistant at American Progress.
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So the return to glory trance is experiencing the past year is absolutely incredible. Some of the best artists who decided to leave the legendary genre for greener pastures are returning to the euphoric fan favorite to enjoy the new popularity. Most under new aliases. We could mention quite a few artists who have followed this trend but most recently people have been gossiping about W&W possibly jumping on the band wagon.
Ultra dropped phase 2 and people were freaking out about why W&W were not listed on the line up. Well Ultra helped us all out and responded to a fans concerned comment with look closer. So we did and we noticed NWYR (New Year?).
Now I know what you are thinking who the hell is NWYR. Well from Ultras not very subtle hint, and the easy to notice the two Ws in the new logo. I think it is safe to say that this is in fact W&W returning to Trance. Most people are super happy about this possibility but some pure trance artists have thrown some low key shade. Like Artic Moon who tweeted this out earlier today:
He was quick to mention that he wished his music got as much attention as the shade he threw but his message is clear, it is a bit disrespectful to jump on the bandwagon after abandoning it. As a Philadelphia Eagles fan I know the feeling all to well for the first 4 games of every NFL season until they start to suck again. We hope W&W will bring it and show all the doubters that they are ready to return to their former trance glory.
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W&W Looks to be Returning to Trance for Ultra Miami - Some Shade ... - EDM Sauce
Phone cloning is the transfer of identity from one cellular device to another.
Analogue mobile telephones were notorious for their lack of security. Casual listeners easily heard conversations as plain narrowband FM; eavesdroppers with specialized equipment readily intercepted handset Electronic Serial Numbers (ESN) and Mobile Directory Numbers (MDN or CTN, the Cellular Telephone Number) over the air. The intercepted ESN/MDN pairs would be cloned onto another handset and used in other regions for making calls. Due to widespread fraud, some carriers required a PIN before making calls or used a system of radio fingerprinting to detect the clones.
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile telephone cloning involves gaining access to the device's embedded file system /nvm/num directory via specialized software or placing a modified EEPROM into the target mobile telephone, allowing the Electronic serial number (ESN) and/or Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID) of the mobile phone to be changed. The ESN or MEID is typically transmitted to the cellular company's Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) in order to authenticate a device onto the mobile network. Modifying these, as well as the phone's Preferred Roaming List (PRL) and the mobile identification number, or MIN, can pave the way for fraudulent calls, as the target telephone is now a clone of the telephone from which the original ESN and MIN data were obtained.
Cloning has been shown to be successful on CDMA, but rare on GSM. However, cloning of a GSM phone is achieved by cloning the SIM card contained within, but not necessarily any of the phone's internal data. GSM phones do not have ESN or MIN, only an International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. There are various methods used to obtain the IMEI. The most common methods are to hack into the cellular company, or to eavesdrop on the cellular network.
A GSM SIM card is copied by removing the SIM card and placing a device between the handset and the SIM card and allowing it to operate for a few days and extracting the KI, or secret code.[citation needed] This is normally done with handsets that have the option of an "extended battery" by placing the normal size battery in the handset and the KI[clarification needed] in the now vacant extra space. This is done by allowing the device to log the interaction between the mobile telephone switching office and the handset.
Phone cloning is outlawed in the United States by the Wireless Telephone Protection Act of 1998, which prohibits "knowingly using, producing, trafficking in, having control or custody of, or possessing hardware or software knowing that it has been configured to insert or modify telecommunication identifying information associated with or contained in a telecommunications instrument so that such instrument may be used to obtain telecommunications service without authorization."[1]
The effectiveness of phone cloning is limited. Every mobile phone contains a radio fingerprint in its transmission signal which remains unique to that mobile despite changes to the phone's ESN, IMEI, or MIN. Thus, cellular companies are often able to catch cloned phones when there are discrepancies between the fingerprint and the ESN, IMEI, or MIN.[citation needed]
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The East division police have busted a gang of African nationals who used a magnetic card reader to clone debit and credit cards and swipe them to withdraw huge amounts of money illegally. The police have also recovered Rs. 21 lakh from them.
Police said the HDFC debit card of a woman, Payal Mandal, was used for withdrawal of Rs. 94,318. She made a police complaint. Within a span of one week, 11 cases of fraudulent transactions of debit cards of different banks were reported in Banaswadi Police Station. On analysing the statement of accounts of all the complainants, some similarities were found pertaining to the last transaction prior to fraudulent transactions. These lead the investigation team to an ATM in Kammanahalli where the data of all these complainants was suspected to have been compromised (skimming). Further scrutiny showed that the accounts were used by some unknown person through an agent and fake cards were generated and swiped in a travel agency by name VIA.COM
The investigative officer approached VIA.COM located in Bengaluru and collected incriminating evidence which lead to the arrest of Eremhen Smart, a Nigerian national, on January 16 in Bengaluru. The officer recovered Rs. 2.64 lakh and freezed Rs. 2.40 lakh which was in the account of the agent of Smart.
The others arrested are Martin Nsamba of Uganda; Nambooze Jollly; Tinah of Uganda; Kenny of Nigeria; Oloadeji Olayem of Nigeria; and Vikram Rao Nikkam of Bengaluru.
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Gang arrested for cloning debit cards, stealing money - The Hindu - The Hindu
NEW DELHI: CDs are medieval and cassette players have become outrightly ancient the world over. Once considered a statement, music players on the move have evolved into miniscule devices with humungous storage. Little wonder then that in-car audio too has come a long way since bulky sets mounted onto dashboards. And even the current technology may soon become obsolete.
Automotive giants around the globe are increasingly looking to give drivers and passengers not just a comfortable and luxurious ride but one that is entertaining. In an age of wireless streaming and cloud storage, new-age vehicles are also increasingly becoming 'stay connected' machines.
USB and Aux ports now come as a standard in cars, with only a handful offering CD player options.
Sale of aftermarket audio equipment, therefore, has seen a sharp decline as well. "We have seen a steady fall in people coming in for music players. So, we have reduced stocking these and instead focus on audio enhancers like bass tubes, amplifiers and woofers," says Ajit Tokas, owner of a car equipment shop in Delhi's Karol Bagh. "But even audio enhancers are seeing a fall in demand because not many want to take a chance with a car's electrical which usually come with a warranty," adds the 35-year-old.
Although sale of a plethora of accessories - alloys, sunshades, customised decals etc - have seen a rise, the rapidly-changing in-car audio technology means the onus of entertainment is now increasingly dependent on manufacturers in factories - Apple CarPlay, Android Auto et all.
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Apple: Evolution of in-car audio tech moving at 'speed of sound ... - Times of India
Sunday is International Darwin Day the 208th anniversary of the birth of naturalist Charles Robert Darwin, whose 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, began a controversy that exists to this day.
Sunday also is being proclaimed as Take Darwin to Church Day in various parts of the world. Leaders of the movement, which was initiated by the Council for Secular Humanism, suggest that churches invite science advocates to speak to their congregations.
Darwin has been lauded and maligned over the past 150 years, depending on ones point of view.
Although some religious organizations stridently oppose biological evolution, other groups accept evolution with a twist: they allow for theological considerations.
Theistic evolution, also known as theistic evolutionism or evolutionary creation, allows for the belief that God is the creator of the universe and all life and that evolution is a tool that God used to create human life. That includes astronomical, geological, chemical and biological evolution.
In 2014, Pope Francis suggested a link between evolution and creation. Said Francis: God is not a demiurge or a conjurer, but the Creator who gives being to all things. The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes its origin to another, but derives directly from a supreme Origin that creates out of love. The Big Bang, which nowadays is posited as the origin of the world, does not contradict the divine act of creating, but rather requires it. The evolution of nature does not contrast with the notion of Creation, as evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.
A survey conducted by Pew Research last year found that while 98 percent of scientists associated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science believe humans evolved over time, only 62 percent of Americans overall believe that to be the case.
Among those least likely to believe in human evolution, according to the survey, were evangelical Protestants (57 percent) and Mormons (52 percent.)
In 2008, the Church of England acknowledged it was overly defensive when it dismissed Darwins ideas. In its public apology, the church compared its dismissiveness of Darwins theories to its rejection of Galileos astronomical observations in the 17th century.
Over time, a number of myths about Darwin have cropped up. In response to a request by LNP, Josh Fischel, who teaches religion in the philosophy department at Millersville University, debunked five myths about Charles Darwin.
1. Charles Darwin was an atheist.
While he despised the orthodoxy of traditional religious practices, his writings suggest that he was a deist not an atheist.
2. Charles Darwin had a deathbed conversion to religion.
Its untrue. This myth was started by a woman who never had met Darwin, but who sought to profit from telling a story about this end-of-life conversion experience.
3. The existence of humans is the goal of evolution.
Not true. The purpose of evolution, if you will, is more evolution.
4. The common claim that its just a theory implies that its some kind of speculation.
In fact it is a scientific theory. But scientific theories explain, through the gathering of evidence (in this case, from embryology, archaeology, genetics, etc.) observations we make about the natural world.
In fact, evolution is a descriptive scientific theory that helps us to better understand and predicate the nature and origin of life, but makes no pretensions to how we ought to act or what we should strive for as individuals and as a society.
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A primer on Darwin Day: Some religious groups embrace 'Theistic evolution' - LancasterOnline
For 600m years, life has been responding to our changing world. Virtually every conceivable environment in every corner of the planet has been occupied as animals and plants have diversified. Environmental shifts and mass extinctions produce new evolutionary opportunities for organisms to exploit as they compete for survival.
But how do organisms grasp these opportunities? Do they evolve new traits in response to the pressures of new environments, or are they able to move into new habitats because they have already evolved the right adaptations? Much of evolutionary study rests on the the former idea being right. Yet a new study of the development of horses is the latest in a growing body of research that suggests the answer to this chicken-egg situation may be more complicated.
The chances of an organisms survival in a new habitat are governed by the areas biological and environmental conditions and whether these are compatible with the organisms basic requirements (its ecological niche). If they are compatible, the organism may be able to persist, adapt and thrive. The more specialised an organisms ecological niche, the harder it may be to move into a new environment.
For example, the caterpillars of the monarch butterfly feed almost exclusively on milkweed. Its hard to imagine the caterpillars successfully colonising a new habitat that doesnt have this vital food source. Another point to consider is that just because an organism can survive in a new environment doesnt necessarily mean it will be able to get there. For example, it would be practically impossible for polar bears to naturally spread from the North Pole to Antarctica.
Much of our understanding of how organisms evolve new traits to occupy new environments and ecological niches comes from the study of adaptive radiations. An adaptive radiation is the evolutionary process by which organisms rapidly diverge from a common ancestor into multiple different forms. There are numerous charismatic examples documented, including: Darwins finches on the Galapogos Islands, cichlid fish in the lakes of East Africa, and Anolis lizards on the Caribbean islands.
From this kind of research it has been shown that adaptive radiations are primarily driven by ecological opportunity, the chance for a species to thrive when its environmental circumstances change. Examples of these opportunities include filling a vacant niche after a mass extinction event when it has fewer competitors or predators, or taking advantage of a newly available resource.
As animals and plants exploit these ecological opportunities, we would expect them to go through rapid physical changes as they adapt to their new environments. The pace of change would then slow over time as the opportunities run out. This prediction has formed the basis of much of evolutionary research, although studies are beginning to question the validity of our assumptions.
The evolution of horses is remarkably well documented in the fossil record and is a textbook example of how evolutionary success is linked to trait evolution. Over the past 50m years, horses have evolved from dog-sized forest dwellers into the modern animals we know.
Along the way they have accumulated numerous environmental advantages, such as teeth adapted for grazing and modified hooves for speed. Although there are only seven species from this adaptive radiation alive today (the horse, donkey, plains zebra, mountain zebra, Grvys zebra, kiang, and onager), fossils of hundreds of extinct species have been unearthed.
Now a new study published in Science has looked at the last 18m years of horse evolution to ask whether the origin of new horse species was linked with rapid physical changes. As you would expect, horse evolution has seen bursts of diversification when there have been new ecological opportunities. These opportunities included increased food availability, which meant larger and more varied populations of horses could be sustained.
Another ecological opportunity horses exploited was being able to migrate from America to Siberia across the Bering land bridge. From there they were able to colonise Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.
But the fossil record shows these bursts of horse diversification didnt follow the rapid evolution of new physical traits such as body size and teeth shape. Horses didnt need to change to be able to colonise the Old World, presumably because they were already adapted to similar grassland habitats in America.
The physical features that distinguish modern horse species in different locations evolved later. They are likely to be a result of short-term responses to extreme environmental conditions and shifts in resource availability.
The results of this latest study not only increase our understanding of the evolutionary history of one of the most successful lineages of mammals on earth, but also adds to our broader knowledge of when and why organisms adapt to their environment. When it comes to evolutions which comes first? question, the answer is probably both.
Luke Dunning, Postdoctoral research associate, University of Sheffield
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
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How the horse can help us answer one of evolution's biggest questions - Raw Story
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) When a forest fire threatens your house and you have minutes to run, do you know what you plan to grab besides your family?
The photo albums? Computer hard drive? Tax records? Gun collection? Clean underwear?
The U.S. Forest Service faces a much bigger version of that question, reported the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/2kn0Aa2). When wildfire starts, does it deploy its army of yellow-shirted initial attack forces, or let trees burn? Does it chase every smoke on the horizon or concentrate on defending homes? And who gets a say in the decision?
Jim Hubbard spent years in the Forest Service pondering those questions. During a visit to Missoula, he said we need to start thinking about some new answers - fast.
"We have 17 Type I incident commanders (the most experienced, big-fire team leaders), and every year they say 'I've never seen that before,'" Hubbard said during a presentation at the University of Montana. "Each one of these guys has 25 years-plus experience. That gets our attention."
Part of those debriefings dwell on how wildfires have changed in longer summers, drier landscapes and beetle-killed tree stands. But they also consider how the Forest Service has (or hasn't) been able to get to its year-round land-management duties while the agency's budget has been drained by firefighting costs. They look at how county commissions have guided home-building in fire-prone areas, and what kinds of support might be available from state or local firefighters. And they wonder what the long-term vision of all this work should look like.
Hubbard spent 11 years as deputy chief of the Forest Service in charge of fire and aviation as well as relations with state and private foresters. He also was Colorado's state forester for 20 years.
"We haven't defined our performance-based outcomes yet," Hubbard told the audience at the annual Mike and Mabelle Hardy Fire Management Lecture. That doesn't mean picking a number of acres cleared of hazardous fuels or logged each year. It does mean setting out bigger goals for what risks are worth taking, whose interests are at stake, and what actions are even possible.
That involves things as basic as having up-to-date maps showing where houses have been built, where old-growth tree stands remain and where forest activities are planned.
"We need to know what areas to protect, what places are less important," Hubbard said. "If everything is wildland-urban interface, you can't make suppression decisions. You need to hear from the community, the county commissioners, the sheriff. Because we don't want to use unnecessary exposure (of firefighters) that won't get the results we're after."
Hubbard authored what's known as the "Hubbard Letter" in 2012, telling federal fire bosses to launch initial attacks on all public-land fires that summer, including those in designated wilderness
"We expect above-normal, significant fire potential for many areas of the country to result in suppression costs that exceed the 10-year average appropriation," Hubbard wrote at the time.
"Given the unique circumstances we face in 2012, I expect regional forester approval of any suppression strategy that includes restoration objectives. I acknowledge this is not a desirable approach in the long-run."
And five years later, Hubbard confirmed that final opinion before a ballroom full of firefighters.
"Maybe some of that fire needed to run its course," Hubbard said in Missoula. "Let's tear up that Hubbard letter."
Retired Montana State Forester Don Artley was one of those in the room with Hubbard. He echoed the need to be clear about what the big-picture goals should be. Part of that means understanding how fragile those goals are.
"We are making great plans about how we want the landscape to look, and they can all be for naught once a fire starts," Artley said. "If it starts under hot, dry and windy conditions, we can't risk direct action. Other times, it might be best to just monitor the fire's progress. And we need more public acceptance of that process. We used to call it 'let-burn,' and everyone understood that. But the Forest Service was uncomfortable with that wording - it thought it meant we weren't doing anything. Now they talk about 'prescribed natural fire,' and the public says 'What are you talking about?' "
One thing Hubbard was talking about was "unplanned wildfire management." That seemingly self-contradictory phrase grows out of the Forest Service's falling budgets, where district rangers with land treatment projects in the works calculate the probability that a fire might burn something productively. For example, if a low-intensity wildfire runs through a hillside slated for a hazardous-fuels reduction burn, that's one less project the district has to pay for.
"Our scientific ability to predict fire behavior has increased by orders of magnitude every year," said Jeff Jahnke, a retired state forester with experience in Alaska, Colorado and Montana. "So the challenge is, can an incident commander plan the best way to suppress a fire and get resource benefits out of it at the same time?"
Nobody wants to appear to gamble with public safety, even though Hubbard pointed out every time someone drives a car, they gamble on avoiding wrecks. Allowing more prescribed burns might mean days of smoke in a city's airshed during the spring or fall. But it might also mean fewer months of smoke during the summer if those small burns lessen the risk of bigger wildfires.
"If we don't manage unplanned wildfires, we can't get ahead of land treatment," Hubbard said. "You're going to fight fire a little differently in the future. You have to have buy-in."
___
Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com
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Wildfire evolution forces Forest Service into new thinking - The Daily Progress
As an article at The Conversation by Professors Ian Godwin and Yuri Trusov observes, "The tragic story of Soviet genetics shows the folly of political meddling in science."
There is much truth in the article, but its authors assume that during the era of Trofim Lysenko the Soviet government persecuted people who "embraced evolution and genetics." On this point, they quote "Australia's Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, [who] mentioned him [that is, Lysenko] during a speech at a meeting of chief scientists in Canberra."
They continue:
The emerging ideology of Lysenkoism was effectively a jumble of pseudoscience, based predominantly on his rejection of Mendelian genetics and everything else that underpinned [Nikolai] Vavilov's science. He was a product of his time and political situation in the young USSR.
In reality, Lysenko was what we might today call a crackpot. Among other things, he denied the existence of DNA and genes, he claimed that plants selected their mates, and argued that they could acquire characteristics during their lifetime and pass them on. He also espoused the theory that some plants choose to sacrifice themselves for the good of the remaining plants -- another notion that runs against the grain of evolutionary understanding.
In fact, the Soviet government embraced Darwinian evolution (which according to Darwin's own writings contained Lamarckian elements), and persecuted Mendelian genetics, which was considered to be a threat to Darwinism. For more, see the abridged excerpt below from Chapter 16 of my 2006 book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design:
American Lysenkoism
When Mendelian biologists criticized Trofim Lysenko, he simply evaded their arguments and declared that Mendelian genetics was unacceptable because it contradicted Darwinian evolution.1 By then, many Western biologists were accepting the "modern synthesis" of Darwinian evolution and Mendelian genetics, but Soviet Minister of Agriculture Jakov Jakovlev supported Lysenko by declaring Mendelism to be incompatible with true Darwinism. In 1937, Prezent praised Lysenko for "marching under the banner of reconstruction of biological science on the basis of Darwinism raised to the level of Marxism," while he demonized the Mendelians as "powers of darkness."2
If government officials and Darwinist ideologues had not come to Lysenko's rescue, the Mendelians would probably have prevailed -- as they did outside the Soviet Union -- because they had better science on their side. Lysenko's Stalinist suppression of Mendelians in the 1940s made matters much worse, but the underlying problem was that the government-supported scientific establishment had chosen to support one side in a scientific dispute. For many years, biologists in the Soviet Union were persecuted by the government if they challenged the official view of Darwinian orthodoxy or defended Mendelian genetics.3
So, contrary to the claims of [American Darwinists], the scientific conflict underlying Lysenkoism was not Lamarckism against Darwinism, but classical Darwinism (which had undeniably Lamarckian elements) against the new Mendelian genetics. The present conflict between neo-Darwinism and intelligent design resembles Lysenkoism in the sense that the Darwinists are still opposing new ideas.
Darwinists would like us to believe that ID proponents -- like Lysenko -- want to use the government to oppose evolution. But as often happens, Darwinists have things exactly upside-down. Stalin and Lysenko were Darwinists who persecuted Mendelians, just as modern Darwinists persecute IDers (though, thank God, they haven't imprisoned us). In fact, Darwinism is at the root of the persecution in both cases. And like Mendelism, ID is better science than Darwinism.
So the lesson is legitimate: Don't allow the government to use its power to enforce a particular view on a scientific question. If only the government would stay out of the evolution-ID controversy!
Notes:
(1) Nils Roll-Hansen, The Lysenko Effect: The Politics of Science (Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 2005), 86-89. Valery N. Soyfer, Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994), 63. David Joravsky, The Lysenko Affair (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), 208, 238-239. Zhores Medvedev, The Rise and Fall of T. D. Lysenko (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), Chapter 3.
(2) Roll-Hansen, 218-220. Medvedev, 46-49.
(3) Medvedev, Chapter 11. Loren R. Graham, What Have We Learned about Science and Technology from the Russian Experience? (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998), Chapter 1 and Conclusions. Roll-Hansen, Chapter 10.
Photo: Trofim Lysenko (left) at the Kremlin, with Stalin (far right), via Wikicommons.
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Update: Darwin Day is also Academic Freedom Day. Be sure to check back in here after midnight to find out who our 2017 Censor of the Year will be!
This year, Darwin Day falls on a Sunday -- tomorrow, February 12. Of all the Darwinist talking points, the most transparently false may be the claim that this 19th-century materialist theory of origins poses no challenge whatsoever to serious, sincere religious belief.
Oh, please! Do they really think we're that gullible? Well, maybe they are not wrong about that anyway.
As Tom Bethell (that's him in the video above) points out over at The American Spectator, many churches and synagogues, pastors, priests, and rabbis, have been captivated by the idea that they can have their cake and eat it too: enjoy the prestige and regard that come with assenting to evolutionary theory, while retaining the authority and regard that come with their clerical position.
February 12 is Darwin Day, and this year the international celebration falls on a Sunday. Look for theistic Darwinists to reassure churches that Charles Darwin believed in God, or at least that his theory of evolution harmonizes beautifully with Christian theology.
The reality is more complex.
In The Origin of Species, Darwin suggested the idea of a God who created a few original forms and then let the "laws" of nature govern the outcome. "It is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms," he wrote, "as to believe that he required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of his laws."
But later he wrote privately to friend Joseph Hooker, "I have long regretted that I truckled to public opinion, and used the Pentateuchal term of creation." And in 1862, he told Harvard botanist Asa Gray there seemed to be "too much misery in the world." He could not accept, for example, "that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created [digger wasps] with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice."
Darwin was careful to conceal his own loss of faith, and his surviving family members kept up the tradition.
[R]ealizing that a thoroughgoing materialism wasn't an easy sell, [Darwin] actively concealed this aspect of his thinking. In one notebook he reminded himself to "avoid stating how far, I believe, in Materialism."
...
One doesn't hear much about the materialism of Darwin and Darwinism, likely because there has been a longstanding effort to ignore and suppress it. Many of today's theistic Darwinists play this game, but they are hardly the first. So, for instance, Darwin's mounting hostility to Christianity was suppressed by his widow, who removed some inflammatory comments from his Autobiography.
Read the rest here. Veteran journalist Bethell's new book is Darwin's House of Cards: A Journalist's Odyssey Through the Darwin Debates. As a writer, he is a delight, praised by Tom Wolfe as "one of our most brilliant essayists." The tragedy of the clergy and their mass surrender to evolutionary thinking is that it is so unnecessary.
Yes, it requires some homework and independent thinking to realize this, but the cogency of evolution's main claim -- that blind churning produces brilliant novelties -- rests on remarkably little evidence. Bethell, as I've pointed out, has put to the rest "I'm not a scientist" dodge beloved by clergy, journalists, and other professionals unwilling to do that homework for themselves.
I'm on Twitter. Follow me @d_klinghoffer.
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With Darwin Day Coming Tomorrow, Here's Tom Bethell on Darwin's ... - Discovery Institute
Bipedal robots have been a tough ask for engineers. Creating a bot thats steady, self-balancing, and able to adapt to uneven terrain (one of the main advantages of going bipedal in the first place!) is a tough ask. But, as this newly unveiled bot from Agility Robotics proves, were getting good at it.
The bots name is Cassie, and, as reported by IEEE Spectrum, it comes from a fine lineage of bipedal robots. Agility Robotics is a spinoff company from Oregon State University, and the firms researchers previously created the ATRIAS robot. (You may remember ATRIAS from a video of it playing a slightly one-sided game of dodgeball.)
ATRIAS was the first machine to demonstrate human-like gait dynamics and implement spring-mass walking, but it was not a practical machine for any use other than science demonstration. Agility Robotics co-founder Jonathan Hurst told Spectrum. (Spring-mass walking basically uses the elasticity of springs to create a passive mechanism mimicking human muscles.)
As well as improving this mechanism, Cassie also adds a 3-degrees-of-freedom hip joint that allows it to be steered more easily, and powered ankles that mean it doesnt have to jig from foot to foot to stand still. (It can just... stand.) A possible final design for a consumer model of Cassie is mocked up below:
But what could such a bipedal bot be used for? Well, walking around on two feet may be complex in engineering terms compared to, say, a wheeled robot, but it means the bot can go pretty much anywhere humans can. Rocky ground? No problem! Stairs? Taking em one by one. Agility Robotics suggests their tech could be used to make search-and-rescue bots; to help improve prosthetic limbs or exoskeletons; and, presumably if the bots become cheap enough, delivering packages. They just need to remember to give it a telescoping stick so it can poke doorbells.
Oh, and because the video above shows a self-balancing robot, heres the traditional kick-to-the-abdomen all such bots seem to be subjected, too:
Just wait till it learns to kick back.
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This bipedal robot could deliver your packages one day - The Verge - The Verge
SINGAPORE:Much like how personal computers transformed the way people saw and used technology, Minister-in-charge of the Smart Nation Programme Office Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said the personal, general-purpose robots would revolutionise the way such technologies feature in people's lives.
He was speaking on Friday (Feb 10), at the opening panel discussion of this years Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Hacking Medicine a weekend-long hackathon aimed at finding solutions to improve healthcare and eldercare through the use of personal robotics.
"This revolution of the personal general-purpose robot - capable of sensing, processing and doing things, would be even bigger than the revolution that was brought about in the last 30 years by the personal computer, said Dr Balakrishnan, to an audience of around 160 participants including engineers, clinicians, designers, developers, researchers and business people.
We want Singapore to be one of these nodes where new ideas, crazy ideas, will change the world. Will liberate human beings from the burdens of age. Will help us remain masters of our lives and still retain our humanity, still retain our connections with other human beings and make life better.
Participants will develop software and hardware applications on Loomo a Segway robotic platform, in focus areas of mental health, rehabilitation and recovery, community care or long-term care. These would allow the robots to become robot assistants capable of understanding and engaging with elderly, as well as patients with conditions such as Alzheimer's and others. Participants may also define a suitable challenge statement based around the theme of Social Robotics for Eldercare.
Dr Balakrishnan reminded participants that such solutions had to address real human needs and remain safer than existing technology or treatments. They also had to be more cost effective and financially accessible to all, while remaining acceptable and resonate with human beings on a psychological and emotional level.
When youre dealing with physical devices capable of sensing and responding in a very sophisticated way, that whole usability and human-robot interface is going to be a very rich field for research and development, said Dr Balakrishnan.
Winners of the hackathon will be announced on Sunday, with a top prize of US$5,000. Their projects will also be featured on a panel at EmTech Asia on Feb 15, while selected teams will be supported by agencies such as government-owned private innovation entity SGInnovate to further refine and scale-up solutions.
At the end of that well put some money behind those with real potential, because wed also like to build not only for Singapore, but for other countries as well, said SGInnovates Founding CEO Steve Leonard.
Healthcare is a really big challenge for us. And we think about providing care for people in that age they need more help physically, they need more help mentally, and thats why we think this robotics platform allows us to find new ways to provide that care. Again, the key is how do we keep people living independently as long as we can.
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Personal robotics the next technological revolution: Dr Vivian Balakrishnan - Channel NewsAsia
Team members from left: Aaron Doull, Enapay Croy, Kaylie Prieur, Kaden Smith, Evan Smith, Markay Williams and mentor Arpad Depaszthory JOE PRIEUR | FISHY BUSINESS INC.
Ont Saturday, Feb. 4, the South Beach robotics team Fishy Business Inc. qualified for the FIRST Technology Challenge West Super Regional Championship set for March 9-12. That competition will pit the top 74 teams across 14 western states against one another in Tacoma. Top placers in that event will advance to the world championships in Houston in mid-April.
The local team took fourth place in qualifications at the state championships in Kent and won the Control Award for its documentation of robot control components. In the competition, teams composed of students and adult mentors build game-playing robots they operate in head-to-head challenges in an alliance format with other teams.
South Beach-area students involved were Ocosta High seniors Enapay Croy, Aaron Doull and Kaylie Prieur, junior Kaden Smith, freshmen Evan Smith, Samatha Starkey and Markay Williams, along with seventh-graderr Jayson Davidson, have put in thousands of hours as a team since the season began in September to design and build a robot that will perform prescribed tasks in the competition setting.
With their performances at their past four events, including first place at the interleague event, there is a high likelihood that they will also qualify for world championships, said mentor Joe Prieur.
The team has been meeting several evenings during the week and long days on weekends. Their hard work and determination is paying off, but they need help getting to the next competition. Up to this point, the team has relied primarily on grants received earlier in the season from Boeing, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and FIRST. Further progression requires funds to be raised to cover necessities like travel, lodging, meals, registration fees and replacement robot parts, he said.
GoFundMe
Toward that end, Fishy Business Inc. has established a GoFundMe account, with the goal of reaching $6,000 within a month to help defray expenses for air travel, overnight stays, meals, ground transportation and robot parts.
4H Ocosta Robotics is a registered non-profit under 4H. Donations may be tax-deductible and donors are advised to see a tax professional for further details.
You can follow the teams progress on Facebook at fb.me/FTC11121 or search Facebook for FTC11121.
Their Facebook page includes a link to the GoFundMe site.
If a local business is interested in sponsoring the team or having the students do a presentation to better understand the skills learned and developed by the team, they may be reached by email at: FRC3787@gmail.com
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South Beach robotics squad advances to super regionals - The Daily World
Wichita Eagle | Wichita-created virtual reality could take jurors into crime scenes ... Wichita Eagle A former KBI agent and scientists at Wichita State worked together to create a way to make large-scale virtual re-creations of crime scenes that people, including ... |
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Wichita-created virtual reality could take jurors into crime scenes ... - Wichita Eagle
Forbes | 'JAEPO 2017' Shows That Japanese Arcade Gaming Is Beginning To Incorporate Virtual Reality Forbes One of the more interesting developments in the arcade gaming scene in Japan is how publishers have started to experiment with virtual reality, or VR, for new games. The latest JAEPO in Tokyo has shown that this experimentation phase is over, as arcade ... |
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'JAEPO 2017' Shows That Japanese Arcade Gaming Is Beginning To Incorporate Virtual Reality - Forbes
Opening night red carpet gala
When: 8 p.m. March 2
Where: Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St.
Cost: $50, free for passholders
Pre-party: 5:30-7:30 p.m.at Hotel Boulderado and Rembrandt Yard
Screening: "Their Finest" (2016, United Kingdom, 116 minutes), a rousing romantic comedy following a female screenwriter during World War II, starring Gemma Arterton, Sam Clatlin and Bill Nighy.
Closing night
When: 7:30 p.m. March 5
Where: Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St.
Cost: $30, free for passholders
Screening: "Chasing Coral" (2017, Boulder 93 minutes), fresh from winning an audience award at Sundance, BIFF's closing night film follows a team of divers, photographers and scientists on an ocean adventure to discover why coral reefs are vanishing around the world. Directed by Boulder's Jeff Orlowski; produced by Longmont's Larissa Rhodes
More information at biff1.com
A truck delivering the Boulder International Film Festival's programs may have severed the power to the festival's office on Friday, but co-founder and director Kathy Beeck's excitement in sharing the 2017 lineup and details for the March festival far outweighed her tinge of concern.
New this year, BIFF will expand its boundaries beyond the real world with its Virtual Reality Pavilion.
"It is going to be pretty cool," Beeck said. "We'll have eight virtual reality films screening at Galvanize, and we'll have a whole variety of different headsets from very high tech to cardboard ones."
Boulder technical school and co-working space Galvanize, 1023 Walnut St., will be one venue the festival will utilize for its programming. Over the long weekend, films will be screened at various spots in Boulder and Longmont.
The Virtual Reality Pavilion will be free and open to the public March 3 and 4, and will have Google's Nicholas Whitaker on hand to moderate a few of the talks, Beeck said.
"Swing by, put on a headset and learn about the future of storytelling," Beeck said.
BIFF will screen 58 films, three of which are Sundance Film Festival award-winning films and four are nominated for Academy Awards. And 23 of these films were directed by females, Beeck said. The popular shorts programs, which Beeck said are always the first to sell out, expanded to include four different programs this year.
"We are so excited about this year's program," said BIFF executive director Robin Beeck, Kathy's sister, in a news release. "This is a stellar lineup with award-winning films from the world's greatest directors and from fresh, new filmmakers just hitting the scene. We're thrilled to be able to present a feast of the best films today."
Robin and Kathy Beeck, the two sisters who run and founded the Boulder International Film Festival. (Courtesy photo)
Kathy Beeck said there will be eight Colorado films screened and she realized during the interview that all eight of those local filmmakers are from Boulder.
"That just tells us something about how much is happening in film in Boulder," Kathy Beeck said. "We are so proud of the major filmmakers in this town."
Among Boulder highlights is the closing night film "Chasing Coral," a documentary produced by a local company that just won the Audience Award for best U.S. documentary at Sundance.
Boulder filmmaker Jeff Orlowski and Longmont producer Larissa Rhodes, the team behind "Chasing Coral," also produced "Chasing Ice," the 2012 Emmy award-winning documentary on climate change.
"Chasing Coral" explores the danger the world's coral reefs face amid global warming. A local team of filmmakers (with many University of Colorado graduates, Rhodes said in an interview last month) from Boulder's Exposure Labs created the documentary.
Kathy Beeck said festival-goers can also see "Chasing Coral, the Virtual Reality Experience" premiere at Galvanize.
Other highlights:
"Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back," (4:30 p.m. March 3) produced by Boulderite Maura Axelrod, about contemporary pop artist Maurizio Cattelan, which Kathy Beeck said is "a fabulous movie, really well done."
"Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World" (7 p.m. March 3), is a film about the role of Native Americans and indigenous influence in popular music history. "It goes back into history in the film, and it's so stunning to realize that Jimi Hendrix and Robbie Robertson (The Band) have Native American heritage," Beeck said. "Tony Bennett is in the film talking about his early influences."
Cinechef 2017 (5-7 p.m. March 3) at Rembrandt Yard Art Gallery and Event Center, 1301 Spruce St., is in its third year as a part of BIFF and will feature eight of the best chefs in town, Kathy Beeck said. "It's a foodie event that highlights the spectacular food scene in Boulder while we highlight Boulder filmmakers," she said. "I'm loving this event."
The festival runs March 2 through 5 and tickets are on sale at biff1.com.
Christy Fantz: 303-473-1107, fantz@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/fantzypants
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Sun-News Reports , . 10:29 p.m. MT Feb. 10, 2017
Dona Ana Community College virtual reality faculty and students unpack virtual reality equipment from VR First(Photo: Stephen Osborne)
LAS CRUCES This spring DACC students will take a space flight and learn aerospace fundamentals in a Virtual Reality environment.
Doa Ana Community College and Aerospace innovators Virgin Galactic have announced an exciting collaborative education and outreach research project. The core idea will be to work and learn together, exploring the newest technologies and possible uses of VR in research, education, business, and career technical education.
Our students and instructors are pleased and honored to work with Virgin Galactic on this exciting initiative, said Matt Byrnes, DACC Creative Media Technology Director. Thanks to Dr. Kevin Boberg, Vice President of Economic Development for the New Mexico State University Arrowhead Business and Research Park and Wayne Savage of Arrowhead Center for helping this collaboration take place.
The program will start with a VR simulation that explains core concepts of aerospace fundamentals and gives students, particularly at the Las Cruces Public Schools Challenger Center, an immersive virtual spaceflight experience.
Many people are familiar with the term virtual reality but are unsure about the uses of this technology, Byrnes said. Gaming is an obvious virtual reality application, but there are many different uses, some you might expect and others not so much.
Irrespective of the use, virtual reality produces a set of data which could then be used to develop new models, training methods, communication and interaction, said Mark Butler of Virgin Galactic. In many ways the possibilities are endless.
In September, 2016 DACC became one of only 24 VR First partner institutions worldwide, sponsored by the German game engine development firm Crytek and was awarded several thousand dollars of the newest hardware and software giving DACC students access to the latest VR development tools.
According to Byrnes, This kind of collaboration between the private and public sectors and between technology companies and the creative media arts is central to efforts to develop the larger Creative Campus efforts at Arrowhead Park and build a larger toolset to positively impact not only Aerospace but Healthcare, Agricultural Technology and other industries growing in our community.
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DACC & Virgin Galactic team up to explore virtual reality - Las Cruces Sun-News