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Circular asking students to pay respects to freedom fighters, parents on Feb 14, withdrawn – Hindustan Times

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

A circular issued by Solapur education officer two days back, asking students to observe February 14 to pay gratitude to parents and mark the sacrifice of freedom fighters, has been withdrawn after it triggered a controversy.

Activists alleged that the circular was a move to counter Valentines Day which is celebrated across the world on February 14 and aimed at promoting cultural terrorism being imposed by certain self-proclaimed godmen.

Following the criticism, education officer Tanaji Ghadage withdrew the letter on Thursday.

When we issued the circular, we did not realise that February 14 is a Valentine day. It was mere coincidence, Ghadage said.

The circular claimed that since freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdeo became martyrs on February 14, the day should be observed for their sacrifice by offering floral tributes to their photos. The circular also asked students to pay gratitude to parents by inviting them in the school.

While Valentines Day is celebrated to express love, certain people, including a self-proclaimed godman, has been celebrating it as day of gratitude for parents to oppose what is being celebrated throughout the world. The circular issued by education officer is an attempt to impose the cultural terrorism being spread by these godmen, said Kishor Darak, an activist working in the education field.

Activists also pointed out that Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdeo became martyrs on March 23, while the circular twisted history by claiming that they were hanged to death on February 14.

Circular asking students to pay respects to freedom fighters, parents on Feb 14, withdrawn - Hindustan Times

Freedom hoops teams down Patton to sweep NWC regular-season titles – Morganton News Herald

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

Given the monumental success of the Freedom boys and girls basketball teams over the years, whenever one or both accomplish something they havent in 15 years, it deserves notice.

That was the case Friday at rival Patton, as the Patriots programs completed Northwestern 3A/4A Conference regular-season titles in the same season for the first time since 2001-02.

The FHS squads have won league tournament titles in the same year multiple times since then, most recently in 2009-10 and 2011-12, and even reached regionals together twice in the last three years.

But it had been a while since a night like Friday.

The Patriots (21-2, 13-1) toppled the Panthers for a 20th straight time without a loss to claim the NWC in outright fashion. They had already sealed the No. 1 seed and at least a share of the league crown earlier in the week.

The win was 11th-year FHS coach Casey Rogers 225th of his career.

Any time you win a championship, its a pretty special feeling, Rogers said. This was our second one of the year with the Christmas tournament championship. But conference regular season is special because its a several-month grind. Youve got to show up 14 different times and try to win night in and night out. Hopefully tonight took care of some things where we can play at Freedom for a while.

Im proud of the guys. Theyre very deserving. Its an interesting mix of a team. Theres a lot of experience, but weve got some youth too, and we battled some injuries.

The opening period featured three lead changes and one tie. Freedom surged to a 25-15 edge on a Fletcher Abee transition basket, but Cody Davis did his best to keep the hosts in the game, scoring 15 early points and pulling Patton (12-12, 7-7) back within 27-23 midway through the second quarter.

Freedom finally broke free when seven straight Abee points made it 48-31 midway through the third. Consecutive Michael Ervin assists to Michael Logan for a 3-pointer and to Cam Edmonson in the post gave Freedom its largest lead at 61-37 late in the decisive third period.

Patriots big men Edmonson finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds and Tobias Kanipe with 16 points and eight boards.

Tobias has been playing so well lately, and Cams been giving us good minutes off the bench, Rogers said. Those two are giving us some consistent scoring inside the paint which weve got to have. Were balanced and dangerous behind the 3, but those two guys are adding some stuff for us.

Abee scored 13, Jakari Dula added 12 and senior point guards Ervin (five) and Niguel Moore (six) combined for 11 assists. Davis led Patton with 19 points, Austin Spurlin got hot late to finish with 18 and Tripp Causby scored 12.

The Lady Patriots (22-1, 14-0) won their ninth straight game over the Panthers, 22nd straight game overall and 36th straight over NWC foes on Friday, and now they look to add to a 42-game home win streak.

The teams back-to-back undefeated NWC runs gives them four seasons with either zero of one conference loss in the last eight seasons.

We all knew this team had a chance to be special, and winning conference was a goal, Freedom coach Amber Reddick said. But I think they even exceeded my expectations a little bit by going undefeated again. There are some good teams in this conference, Watauga, Hickory, South Caldwell and St. Stephens, and it speaks to how hard these players have worked and how zeroed in they stay with their focus. They bring it every night.

Fridays game was just 6-5 on a Selby Baughman bucket in the lane for the hosts, giving her four points with three rebounds early.

Then Amaryah Corpening caught fire, scoring 17 by the time her consecutive field goals made it 29-11 in favor of the guests. The rebounding battle between the teams was tied 10-all after eight minutes, but FHS grabbed nine of the first 10 boards of the second period and forced seven Patton turnovers in the next five minutes.

I thought we were being a little lazy the first few minutes on the boards and not playing at the speed we wanted to, Reddick added. We just called timeout and talked about rebounding, offensively and defensively.

The score was 36-13 by halftime, and Corpening and classmate Ariyana Williams combined for all of the next 12 points. The mercy rule came midway through the fourth on a Blaikley Crooks 3 assisted by CC Davenport.

Corpening scored 21 points with game highs of eight rebounds and three steals, and Williams netted 18 with seven rebounds and three assists. Crooks, Davenport, Madison Bailey and Makayla Moore all grabbed five or more rebounds for Freedom.

Baughman led Patton (4-20, 2-12) with seven points and seven rebounds, Makaley Lovelace had five points and five boards and Beth LeCroy provided a team-high three assists.

Freedom hoops teams down Patton to sweep NWC regular-season titles - Morganton News Herald

Ken Starr on shortlist to head Office of International Religious Freedom – National Catholic Reporter

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

Washington

President Trump is reportedly considering naming former Baylor University President Ken Starr to headthe State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom.

The ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom monitors religious persecution and discrimination worldwide and develops programs to promote religious freedom, according to the State Department website.

The reports about possible picks for the position come a week after more than 700 religious leaders, scholars and human rights advocates signed a letter to President Trump, coordinated by the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, that urges him to name an ambassador-at-large in the first 100 days of his presidency.

"By nominating an Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom in your first 100 days you can signal your commitment to people of faith and freedom of conscience, in a way that requires no new taxes and no new legislation while strengthening highly effective offices," it said.

Others rounding outthe short list for the position include Nina Shea and Johnnie Moore, according toForeignPolicy, which first reported the picks on Feb. 9. Rabbi David Saperstein had served as ambassador for the last two years.

Starr is best known for his work investigating President Bill Clinton's extramarital relationship with Monica Lewinsky that led to Clinton's impeachment. The Baylor Board of Regents removed him as president last yearafter an investigation into his mishandling of reports of sexual assault at the private Baptist university in Waco, Texas. He and the university laterannounced a mutual separation.

Not long afterward, he told the student newspaper, the Baylor Lariat, "Im working very hard around the globe on issues of religious liberty for all persons. That was a high priority when I was privileged to serve at Baylor University."

Starr did not return requests for comment by the Dallas Morning News.

Shea is a human rights lawyer at theconservative Hudson Institute. She told Foreign Policy that she was not interested in the position and that, from her discussions,the Trump administration likely willbreak with the Obama administration on religious freedom issues.

Moore is a member of Trump's evangelical advisory board and author of "Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of its Birth and in your own Backyard." He told RNS he has heard "the same thing everybody else is hearing."

"I'm very, very engaged on the issue, and a lot of people have prodded me to be more involved. Almost as quickly as the election happened, a couple people asked me if I would ever be interested in that," he said.

He, too, suspects the Trump administration will approach international religious freedom differently than his predecessor.

"My experience as an advocate for persecuted religious people around the world over the course of the last administration is that the Obama State Department was not very interested in defending those who were persecuted for their religion. They wanted to frame it in different terms," Moore said.

"I think the present administration will take the role of faith in foreign policy, faith in human rights very seriously."

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Ken Starr on shortlist to head Office of International Religious Freedom - National Catholic Reporter

Local journalist wins Freedom of Information Award – Eureka Times Standard

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

When Thadeus Greenson first started investigating a story about the Eureka Police Department, he had no idea what trials hed face when trying to access information through a video of an officer who arrested a minor.

Greenson, whos covered the case since 2013, first as a reporter for the Times-Standard and later as the editor of the North Coast Journal, filed an August 2014 request for the arrest video under the California Public Records Act.

Three and a half years later, Greenson has won the James Madison Freedom of Information Award in the Professional Journalist category from the Society of Professional Journalists.

According to court records, former Eureka police Sgt. Adam Laird was involved in the case in which a minor, during his arrest, was pushed to the ground, fell to the ground, or just gave up and laid on the ground. A complaint was later filed against the officer over the incident.

Greenson said he was initially intrigued by the case because he thought it was unusual for a police department to take the steps to investigate one of their own. The officer was later charged but the case was dismissed.

It seemed unfinished. I then thought watching the video would provide an essential leg of the case so I submitted a California Public Records Act request, Greenson said. The county and the city both denied it.

He said their response was discouraging but that he remained hopeful and continued to pursue the case and challenged them in court through a provision in juvenile law because it involved a minor.

The first handful of months were intense because I didnt have an attorney. I had never done anything like this before. I had written about court proceedings but was never part of one, Greenson said. Then in May 2015, the court granted the petition and the video was released. The city appealed that ruling. I realized then I was in over my head.

Enter Paul Nicholas Boylan, a California-based attorney with an extensive background in public and government records. Boylan said when he first spoke with Greenson on the phone he was impressed with the journalists strategy.

Ive never encountered anyone who accomplished what he did. Thad approached it differently and immediately I was intrigued by the mechanism on how he got the video, Boylan said. This case was not only a clever way to get a document but was also addressing a statewide problem far beyond Eureka and Humboldt County.

Boylan said law enforcement agencies had the tendency to justify withholding videos by classifying them as confidential personnel items to evaluate their performance and thus these videos were considered privileged and private information.

Some public agencies dont like people watching what theyre doing. Often times, we as attorneys wait for the cases that have good facts and will lead to greater transparency. Im fairly confident this is going to make new law in California with more access, more sunshine and less secrecy, Boylan said. His patience and desire to follow this story gave the public and opportunity to examine law enforcement especially when it comes to police brutality.

Matt Drange of the Freedom of Information Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists said Greensons case has the potential to influence reporters and journalists all over the state.

What impressed us the most was his willingness and ability to do a lot of the legal legwork himself, Drange said. His case also reinforced a very strong publics right-to-know argument. It sends a message that transparency is a much better option for agencies when it comes to public information.

Drange also said Greensons work was important for the Humboldt County community because he was able to uncover information for the readers.

Its important for the city government to realize that confiscating and hiding informants is not the best course of action, Drange said.

Natalya Estrada can be reached at 707-441-0510.

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Local journalist wins Freedom of Information Award - Eureka Times Standard

Steve Bannon Wanted Mel Gibson for His Movie About Nazis, Abortion, ‘Mutants’ – Daily Beast

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

In 11 pages, the cautionary tale about arrogant scientists tampering with divine design covers Eden, Hitler, mutants, immortality, and the most radical ideology in history.

More than a decade before Stephen K. Bannon became one of President Donald Trumps closest White House aides, he tried to make an epic documentary-style film about the eugenics movement, Adolf Hitler, blood purity, abortion, contraception, Darwinism, mutants, and cloning. According to his longtime Hollywood writing partner, Bannon even met with controversial Oscar winner Mel Gibson in his effort to get the picture made.

The 11-page outline for Bannons unmade movie, a copy of which was reviewed by The Daily Beast, was written in the spring of 2005 and bears the ominous title The Singularity: Resistance Is Futile. (The projects alternate working title: The Harvest of the Damned.)

The document, which credits Bannon as a writer, producer, and director, divides the movie into 22 segments spread across four sections. A heady, incomplete mix of science, history, religion, and politics, it sketches out a story in which mankinds unquenchable thirst for knowledge and scientific advancement has led to horrific, fascist atrocities and forced sterilization, drawing a direct line between those atrocities and modern bio-technology.

The draft is unfinished, so it is unclear precisely what Bannon's full message and story arc were intended to be. But the theme that genetic and reproductive sciences has led to Nazi horrors and war crimes is a theme seen in a lot of conservative agitprop.

Essentially, Bannons is a Christian right-friendly story of arrogant scientists trying to perfect the human race at the expense of the natural order and Gods vision of humanity.

The acceleration of technological progress is the central feature of the 20th /21st century, the chapter titled The Religion of Technology begins. We are on the edge of change brought about by Mans ability to create Man, the toolmaker, is on the verge of creating greater-than-human intelligence.

The Tree of Knowledgethe garden of the new Eden, fruit of the forbidden tree: clones, mutants, and designer humans, the segment continued.

Subsequent segments riff on the Enlightenment, Christianity, English literature, physics, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and incomprehensible social change, to name a few of the big subjects that piqued Bannons cinematic interest.

[The] most radical ideology in historyMan as the driver of evolution, the creator of the new Adam, Bannons draft reads.

Later, Segment 8 covers in four minutes subjugation of race and class throughout time, including Native Americans, Jews and gypsies, Sunis and Shiites (sic), and also the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia.

The next four minutes cover Darwin, Nietzsche, Wagner, the survival of the fittest, the Ubermensch, and the Aryan Elite.

And things keep getting darker. Segment 12 opens Section III, The Commercial Eugenics Civilization, with two minutes covering Nazi theories and practices of racial purity, and the perfectibility of life through a human-controlled elite race that will bring about a better world.

From there, its a deep dive into Anglo-Saxons and the Aryans, which includes a bullet point on the American Eugenics Movement: Sanger, Rockefellers, Harrimans, abortion, contraception.

That in turn segues into sections on German nationalism and Hitlers fan letter to eugenicist Madison Grant, and how Nazi doctors, gas chambers, and death camps were influenced by American eugenics, including sterilization law in California.

Bannons draft soon leaves behind the Nazi bloodbath and Holocaust to examine Yuppie Science and Bio-technology as big business: Irving Weismann, Hans Kiersted, Ray Kurzweil, Karen Bernstein, Biomark, Amgen, and the darlings of Wall Street.

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The new age super-powers are identified as China, Singapore, Korea, and Japan, and Walt Disney and Ted Williams are categorized as part of the frozen elite.

In its penultimate segment, the film examines post-humanity, the Fountain of Youth, and The New Immortalswho are living happily ever-after, apparently thanks in part to spare body parts for sale. Thats followed by a CODA described only as THE SINGULARITY, and a final four-minute segment, described only as NOVUS ORDO SECULORUMa slight variant of the Latin motto that translates to New Order of the Ages and appears just below the pyramid with an eye on the back of our one-dollar bills.

Bannon did not respond to requests for an interview on this story.

Julia JonesBannons longtime Hollywood writing partner and former close friend who had a falling out with Bannon over his prominent role in Trumps campaign, which disgusted heris credited as Bannons co-writer on The Singularity. When reached by The Daily Beast this week, Jones confirmed that this was an unfinished project the two had worked on together back in the Bush years but said she did not remember contents of the outline.

This was the first thing Steve wanted to do after [our Ronald Reagan movie] In the Face of Evilbut nothing ever came of it, she recalled. I was very involved in researching it.

Jones said she did extensive research for this would-be movie, which included drawing inspirations from books like Edwin Blacks War Against the Weak.

Jones also said Bannon talked about how he was securing financing for the film from at least one Hollywood big name. Jones recalled at least two occasions over the four months that they worked on the film when Bannon said we were getting the money from Mel Gibson, the famous Lethal Weapon star and director of Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ.

At one point, Steve came [into the office] and said he met with MelWere gonna do a cloning documentary with Mel Gibson, he told me, Jones said.

Another source close to Bannon during his days as a conservative filmmaker in Hollywood who asked not to be named due to fear of retribution also told The Daily Beast about hearing Bannon boast about meeting with Gibson for The Singularity.

Yup, he certainly enjoyed name-dropping Gibson, the former Bannon associate said.

There was a time when Bannon was tight with people in close-knit circles of conservative Hollywood, and that included some people who had worked with Gibson. Jim Caviezel, for instance, was a huge fan of Bannons pro-Reagan propaganda doc, and Caviezel would even host exclusive parties with Bannon to promote the film at a mansion in Santa Barbara. (Caviezel played Jesus Christ in Gibsons The Passion of the Christ, the 2004 blockbuster drama dogged by charges of blatant anti-Semitism.)

Bannon and Gibson also overlapped politically, as they were both part of the more outspoken Christian Hollywood right.

Steve was such a good Catholiche didnt approve of abortion, Jones said. Im pro-choice but anti-abortionwe had the anti-abortion part in common.

When reached for comment about Bannons reported claims that he had met with Gibson for the project, Gibsons publicist Alan Nierob quickly and tersely denied it, replying, Fake news is my comment.

Before Bannon headed Breitbart and then became one of the most powerful people in the world via the Trump administration, he operated in the Democratic bastion of liberal Hollywood as a right-wing filmmaker influenced by the filmmaking of Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Some of his projects became films, others did not.

Last week, The Washington Post published excerpts from his draft for a movie that warned about how Muslim extremists could try to turn the U.S. into the Islamic States of America. The document also blamed the American Jewish Community as being one of the enablers of this supposed threat.

As The Daily Beast reported last year, Bannons other unproduced film projects included a script about the Rwandan genocide, a Shakespearean hip-hop musical about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and an adaptation of Titus Andronicus that was set on the moon with creatures from outer space.

Today, he sits at the height of executive power.

The film producer Stephen K. Bannon isnt just on a crusade. Hes on a roll, The New York Times wrote of Bannon in June 2005, in a piece on conservatives working in the movie industry.

The paper might as well have been writing about him now.

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Steve Bannon Wanted Mel Gibson for His Movie About Nazis, Abortion, 'Mutants' - Daily Beast

Webb Street builds greenhouse ecosystem – Gaston Gazette

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

By Eric Wildstein ewildstein@gastongazette.com

Who knew tilapia and lettuce have a symbiotic relationship?

Kids at Webb Street School do.

Theyre both integral parts of a new aquaponics system installed last week at one of two greenhouses at the school, which serves students with intellectual disabilities. Students there are using it as an ecosystem to grow several species of lettuce plants and to mature fish for human consumption.

We want to teach them where food comes from, said Webb Street School Principal Kelli Howe. Its really a farm-to-table atmosphere that were hoping to create.

The aquaponics system was installed last week in the schools renovated greenhouse.

It basically consists of a plastic tank filled with tilapiaa species of freshwater fishand a plant bed filled with freshwater. Overlaying the plant bed is a foam board that has holes with baskets that the plants sit in with water underneath. The baskets are filled with romaine, basil and salanova lettuce plants.

The whole system is connected with pipes.

The feces of the tilapia yields nutrients that are filtered into the plant beds, which help to grow the lettuce plants. A separate tank traps any remaining bacteria and then returns clean water to the fish tank.

In return, the fish grow up healthy and ready to harvest for human consumption. Every several months, a distributor will swap out the mature fish with younger fish to restart the cycle.

Young lettuce plants will be introduced into the plant beds and then harvested about every four weeks. The school plans to install up to 10 plant beds, which would yield about 250 heads of lettuce each cycle.

Its very efficient for growing, said Talia Wucherer, a therapeutic gardener and teacher assistant at the school, of the system. It uses significantly less water, you can grow a lot more plants in a much smaller footprint.

Students like Jarell Carothers, who worked with the system Friday afternoon, say they want to eventually create an economy with the system by selling the lettuce at a local farmers market. Wucherer says thats the plan, and its another piece of this one-of-a-kind learning experience.

We can go ahead and sell the lettuce, they can see where its grown and how they can consume it right away, so the whole concept farm-to-table is being introduced to them and they see all the stages of growth from the beginning to end, said Wucherer. And how to care for the fish and the entire cycle that everything has to go through to be able to produce this.

The system was built by 100 Gardens, a Charlotte-based group that promotes urban agriculture by implementing aquaponics and urban farming programs in schools, institutions and in communities of need.

When completed, the full system will cost around $35,000, according to Howe. The school has already raised almost $4,000 through an online fundraising campaign.

NC Beautiful recently awarded Webb Street School a $1,500 grant to use toward its aquaponics system. The school applied for the competitive grant earlier in the year.

NC Beautiful is a nonprofit organization which is dedicated to raising awareness and appreciation of natural beauty and resources in the state. The organizations executive director Steve Vacendak presented the check to Howe and superintendent of schools Jeff Booker during a ceremony at the school last month.

The school also re-opened for the first time in eight years an adjacent greenhouse where kids are growing plants in soil. Students are also harvesting crops in soil beds in the schools sensory garden, which opened last year.

School garden makes perfect 'sense'

Howe hopes both greenhouses will become a lab of sorts for Webb Street School students to learn alongside their typically developing peers. She also says the greenhouses will help prepare students to possibly work in such an environment upon graduation.

You can reach Eric Wildstein at 704-869-1828 or Twitter.com/TheGazetteEric.

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Webb Street builds greenhouse ecosystem - Gaston Gazette

Fossils fuel knowledge of future ecosystem needs – AgriLife Today

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.eduContact: Dr. Michelle Lawing, 979-845-5033, alawing@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION In todays rapidly changing world, successful conservation programs will need to look at fossils to effectively foster adaptive capacity in both historical and novel ecosystems, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist.

Dr. Michelle Lawing captured a photo of an extinct python from the Eocene of Wyoming, Boavus idelmani, that is housed at Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. The fossil holds important clues about ecosystem stability and response to climate change. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Dr. Michelle Lawing)

Dr. Michelle Lawing, assistant professor in the ecosystem science and management department at Texas A&M University in College Station, was one of 41 experts covering this topic in their research article, Merging paleobiology with conservation biology to guide the future of terrestrial ecosystems, in the Feb. 10 issue of the journal Science.

We use fossils to tell us how species responded to ancient climate change, Lawing said. There are many climate fluctuations in the past we can study to help us understand how species and communities coped with these changes.

That past response helps us understand whether or not the measured modern response to environmental change is within the realm of normal or if it is greater than expected, she said.

For example, based on the fossil record, we know that communities typically reorganize after major environmental events, including extinction.

Lawing joined others from around the world, including ecologists, conservation biologists, paleobiologists, geologists, lawyers, policy makers and nature writers, who do conservation and policy work on all continents, except Antarctica, to contribute to the Science article.

She said their research was based on conversations at a conference at the University of California-Berkeley in September 2015.

That conference was a response to a growing need to get paleontologists, conservation biologists and policy makers in the same room to talk about what our areas of research can really bring to the table, in terms of conserving species in the face of changing climates, Lawing said.

The conference was organized and funded in part by the Integrative Climate Change Biology Group, a subgroup of the International Union of Biological Sciences. Lawing is one of three group leaders of the Integrative Climate Change Biology initiative.

Other contributors included the Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley Initiative for Global Change Biology and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California-Berkeley; the Conservation Paleobiology Group at the department of biology, Stanford University; and the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt, Germany.

At Texas A&M, Lawing specializes in climate change biology, paleobiogeography and morphometrics. She explained she uses methods and models from modern ecology and evolutionary biology combined with evidence from the fossil record to create a better understanding of how species and communities respond to environmental change through time.

Her data was illustrated in the study to show how ecometrics might be used to monitor and measure ecosystem change through time, explaining that body proportions and proportions of certain bones are linked to land cover, land use and topography through locomotor performance.

An ecometric is a measurement used to characterize change across space and through time, from dozens of years to millions of years.

Lawing said in carnivoran communities, locomotor diversity can be measured by examining the limbs and ankles of the animals, which is known to be linked to vegetation cover. With snakes, the same relationship can be measured with the ratio of tail to body length.

Changes in these traits can be assessed for compatibility with changes in community composition and land cover, she said. For example, when land acquired by the University of Kansas was converted from agricultural grassland to forest between 1947 and 2006, turnover in the reptile life changed the overall community measurement of tail-to-body length. This change was also seen in grassland and forest ecosystems elsewhere.

Community snake tails, on average, are longer in forested areas because many snakes in the forest community have prehensile tails, meaning they use their tails like an appendage to grab branches to help stabilize their movement through the canopy.

Conversely, 19th-century deforestation of Indiana completely destroyed many large mammalian carnivores, resulting in a loss of locomotor diversity. She said this loss of locomotor diversity can be mapped to identify other regions that may have been similarly affected.

As a group, we concluded that rapid global change means conservation biology has to be done differently going forward, she said. The fossil record has to be a critical part in guiding our efforts to conserve nature into the future.

As a result of this study, Lawing said conservation biologists and paleobiologists are working together to develop new conservation paradigms for both historical and novel ecosystems.

Instead of conserving ecosystems in their current or recent state, we need a more nuanced approach that involves figuring out which species and ecosystems need human intervention to persist, fostering connectivity of habitats with anticipation of future changes in climate and land use, and determining the compositional and functional variation that is expected within various ecosystems.

Lawing said she will continue to develop ecometric tools to measure ecosystem changes through time and has helped organize another Integrative Climate Change Biology meeting March 6-8 in Nairobi, Kenya.

More information about the conference, Traits Past, Present and Future: Quantitative Approaches to Paleontology, Conservation and Climate Change Biology in Africa, can be found at http://iccbio.org/.

The complete Science journal article can be found at http://science.sciencemag.org/.

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Fossils fuel knowledge of future ecosystem needs - AgriLife Today

Native Plants in the Duwamish River Ecosystem Feb. 18 – Westseattleherald.com

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

Free fun day exploring the relationship between Duwamish culture and native habitat restoration in the Duwamish River ecosystem. Talks, demo, food and useful tips. Stay all day or drop-in.

Free activities. 10am-Restoring Native Habitats; 11:30am-Lunch provided; .12pm-Basket Making Demo; 1:15pm-Restoring the Duwamish River Ecosystem; 2pm-Habitat Restoration in your own Backyard; 2:45 Volunteer Programs & Training Info.

FREE EVENT DAY

Native Plants in the Duwamish River Ecosystem is a free public outreach event of the Duwamish Longhouse Urban Reforestation Project sponsored by a King Conservation District grant.

Get engaged. The day focuses on the environmental health of Seattles only River, the Duwamish River, and the role of habitat restoration in sustaining it. The Duwamish River Clean-up Coalition will be providing an overview. The Duwamish Tribe and Seattle Parks will be sharing the challenges and benefits of their reforestation projects on West Seattle steep slopes above the Duwamish River. Seattle Native Plant Nursery will be providing resource information you can use in your own backyard.

Seattle Parks will be providing information on its volunteer programs and training. A Duwamish member will discuss the cultural use of native plants in textile-making. Lunch will be provided.

The Duwamish Tribe, Seattle Parks and other community partners are all working to restore native habitats that preserve the Duwamish cultural landscape for all to explore.

The Duwamish Tribe is still here and provides a deeper understanding of the indigenous land we all share and the bounty that awaits us as traditional habitats are restored.

Regarding the Duwamish Urban Reforestation Project, invasive plants have been removed and native plants reintroduced. One of them, the Western Red Cedar has been used by our people to make baskets, weave hats and traditional clothing.

Duwamish tribal member, DeAnn Sackman Jacobson, will talk about how our ancestors harvested bark and other materials to make baskets and garments. She will demonstrate the process of preparing and weaving the bark.

AGENDA

10-10:30 Opening. Duwamish Reforestation Project update. Presenter: Nancy Sackman (Duwamish Tribe).

10:30-11:30 Restoring Native Habitats--Steep Slope Planting in West Seattle. Insights into the native habitat restoration of Seattles unique green spaces--cedars, cattails and more.

Presenters: Seattle Parks and Steve Richmond of Garden Cycle. Garden Cycles: http://gardencycles.com/ Explore More: http://www.seattle.gov/parks

11:30-12:00--Brunch (soup, fruit, cookies, coffee/tea)

12:00-1:15--Duwamish Basket & Mat Making Demonstration Presenter: Deanne Jacobs (Duwamish Tribe).

1:15 2:00--Restoring the Duwamish Riverimproving environmental and community health through habitat restoration. A place of historical, cultural and ecological significance for the Duwamish Tribe, it is now a river for all.

Presenter: James Rasmussen (Duwamish), Coordinator, Duwamish River Clean-up Coalition. http://duwamishcleanup.org/

2:00 2:45 Native Habitat Restoration in Your own Backyard. Useful resources.

Presenter: Seattle Native Plants Nursery, Mark Tomkiewicz. http://www.seattlenativeplants.com/seattle-native-plants-about/

2:45 3:00 Volunteer ProgramsSeattle Parks & Recreation. Explore More: http://www.seattle.gov/parks

Duwamish Reforestation Project

This year, the Duwamish Longhouse is reforesting the hillside behind the Longhouse and Seattle Parks Department is restoring 40 acres in the West Seattle Green Belt. Duwamish activities are funded in part by a grant from the King County Conservation District. http://www.kingcd.org/programs-grant.htm

Our project's objectives are: to restore the Longhouse's property's ecosystem by providing a place to sustain native food and medicine, habitat and wildlife in relation to the Duwamish culture, to engage the public and raise educational awareness of the Duwamish native culture and its relationship to the restored ecosystem, and to work with community partners to increase public awareness of urban reforestation stewardship.

WHAT: Native Plants in the Duwamish River Ecosystem. WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017, 10am to 3pm. Free WHERE: Duwamish Longhouse & Cultural Center, 4705 W Marginal Way SW, Seattle, WA 98106, 206-431-1582.

Saturday, February 18, 2017 - 10:00am - 3:00pm

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Native Plants in the Duwamish River Ecosystem Feb. 18 - Westseattleherald.com

UFC president hopeful of ‘Cyborg’ Justino return while USADA … – MMAjunkie.com

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is evaluating a retroactive therapeutic-use exemption requested by Cristiane Justino, and both her attorney and UFC President Dana White are optimistic about a positive resolution.

Justinos legal rep, prominent anti-doping attorney Howard Jacobs, said today theres no concrete timeline for a decision from the UFCs anti-doping partner. But he was encouraged by a recent request for additional information on the TUE application, which would allow Cyborg to avoid a one-year suspension and resume fighting.

Usually when you submit a TUE, its either granted, or its denied, or its denied and incomplete, Jacobs told MMAjunkie. In this case, the specifics of the questions they asked was a little out of the ordinary, and were cautiously optimistic by the types of questions they asked.

According to UFC anti-doping rules, Justino (17-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) and her team will need to prove she needed the medical treatment and that there was insufficient time to submit a TUE due to exceptional circumstances, or if USADA determines fairness requires the grant of a retroactive TUE.

Justino was placed on temporary suspension after an out-of-competition drug test conducted Dec. 22, 2016, revealed the presence of spironolactone, a diuretic that has legitimate medical uses as well as being a banned substance that could potentially mask performance-enhancing drugs.

Then the Invicta FC featherweight champ and a catchweight UFC fighter, Justino denied PED use after news of her positive test, and her reps claimed she took the drug was prescribed to her by her personal doctor to treat complications from a severe weight cut she undertook to fight Lina Lansberg this past September at UFC Fight Night 95.

After the positive test, White implied Justinos refusal of three separate offers to fight for the inaugural UFC womens featherweight title could be linked to the positive test. But speaking today to ESPN.com, he expressed full support for the fearsome Brazilian fighter.

The drug that she had taken, she should have immediately let USADA know about it, he said. But its legit. She legitimately has these three separate issues, and thats what that drug is used for. The doctors are saying it, and its looking good for her. I like it a lot.

With ex-bantamweight champ Holly Holm (10-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) and Germaine de Randamie (7-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) fighting Saturday at UFC 208 for the inaugural featherweight title, White said he could see Justino returning to challenge for the belt in the summer.

And you have (womens bantamweight champ) Amanda Nunes obviously, shes got to defend her title a few times, at least and shes saying shed like to move up and fight for that title, too, he said. Its getting interesting, and its all a work in progress.

Jacobs declined to speculate on the outcome of the application, noting it is generally harder to obtain a retroactive TUE than a regular one. But he said Justinos team has provided as much information as possible to prove she needed the former.

For more on the UFCs upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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UFC president hopeful of 'Cyborg' Justino return while USADA ... - MMAjunkie.com

Justice League director confirms major Cyborg secret – TechnoBuffalo

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

by Danny Zepeda | February 11, 2017

Other than a few rumors about thepossible villain, we dont really know too much about Justice League. But in the slow build up to the movies release this November, were getting more information, and the latest bit of news comes from director Zack Snyder. He confirmed in the latest issue of Total Film that Cyborg is indeed a Mother Box.

The Mother Boxes are mysterious artifacts that are essentially powerful supercomputers and posses incredible powers. From comic book lore, there are three that are used in conjunction to draw their mystical powers.

You might remember in the scene from Batman v. Superman that reveals a few of the meta-humans, including Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman. In the Cyborg scene, you can see his father give Ray Fishera strange morphing box that brings him to life and builds his cyborg suit. Apparently, this is one of the three Mother Boxes.

You might also remember in the deleted scene featuring Steppenwolf, he is holding three mysterious boxes. Those are the three Mother Boxes together.

This isnt completely breaking news. Snyder revealed in the past that the Cyborg scene in Batman v. Superman was the first sighting of a Mother Box.

Cyborg will be one of the Mother Boxes, but what about the other two? No word on the fate of those boxes, but we might learn more once Wonder Woman and Justice Leaguehits theaters later this year.

Rumors of Steppenwolf playing the villain in Justice Leagueconnects nicely with the Mother Boxes. These may very well be the driving force for his arrivalon Earth. There have also been rumors of a possible flashback scene in Justice League showing Darkseids defeat 30,000 years ago, which might allude to why humans are in possession of one of the boxes.

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Justice League director confirms major Cyborg secret - TechnoBuffalo

View from Mars Hill: Astronomy often a hobby and fascination of presidents – Arizona Daily Sun

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

Presidents Day has evolved from a specific salute to the countrys first commander in chief, George Washington, to a broad celebration of all the chief executives and their accomplishments. Most of them have exhibited a wide range of interests and many demonstrated a curiosity about, if not aptitude for, the sciences. In the area of astronomy alone, presidents have looked to the skies for various reasons, from trying to gain a basic understanding of the workings of our universe, to metaphorically explaining the state of the union and establishing the countrys prominence in science and technology.

This interest in celestial matters began with George Washington himself, who as a surveyor became proficient in collecting accurate astronomical data. Perhaps not surprisingly, Washingtons fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, took an active interest in astronomical matters, from directing Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to use celestial navigation in fixing the coordinates of rivers they explored during their perilous Corps of Discovery Expedition, to making his own observations. Once, while suffering through a bout of rheumatism, he passed the time by observing the Sun and calculating the longitude of his residence. On September 17, 1811, he witnessed an annular solar eclipse with a refracting telescope and recorded the timing of each stage of the event. He also observed and commented on Uranus and double stars and even included an observatory in his design for the University of Virginia.

Jefferson is remembered as one of our most learned presidents, a true Renaissance man. President John Kennedy famously commented on this at an April 29, 1962, gathering of Nobel Prize winners at the White House. During his welcoming speech, Kennedy said, I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

Kennedy himself pointed his eyes to the heavens, galvanizing the country to work together in the name of national and ideological pride to send humans to the Moon. Kennedy was one of our more charismatic leaders and, on a sweltering day at Rice University on September 12, 1962, he gave a speech that left no doubt about his view on the importance of this quest.

The most poignant part of Kennedys speech read:

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people...There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the Moon! ... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win

A century before Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln incorporated his memory of a spectacular meteor shower (probably the Leonid Meteor Shower of 1833, which one observer estimated peaked at 100,000 meteors per hour!) into a comment about the troubled nation. The story was later recounted by poet Walt Whitman in his 1882 book, Specimen Days & Collect:

As is well known, story-telling was often with President Lincoln a weapon which he employed with great skill. Very often he could not give a point-blank reply or comment and these indirections, (sometimes funny, but not always so,) were probably the best responses possible. In the gloomiest period of the war, he had a call from a large delegation of bank presidents. In the talk after business was settled, one of the big Dons asked Mr. Lincoln if his confidence in the permanency of the Union was not beginning to be shaken whereupon the homely President told a little story. When I was a young man in Illinois, said he, I boarded for a time with a Deacon of the Presbyterian church. One night I was roused from my sleep by a rap at the door, & I heard the Deacons voice exclaiming Arise, Abraham, the day of judgment has come! I sprang from my bed & rushed to the window, and saw the stars falling in great showers! But looking back of them in the heavens I saw all the grand old constellations with which I was so well acquainted, fixed and true in their places. Gentlemen, the world did not come to an end then, nor will the Union now.

Lincoln also looked to astronomy for respite from the stresses of the crumbling nation. On several occasions, he sneaked away from the White House to peer through a telescope at the United States Naval Observatory (USNO), then located in Washington, D.Cs Foggy Bottom area, just north of where the memorial to Lincoln would one day be built.

The USNO is one of the oldest agencies of scientific research in the United States. Like Percival Lowells observatory here in Flagstaff, the USNO sprouted from the mind of an amateur astronomer from Massachusetts. His name was John Quincy Adams, yet another president who looked to the skies in the name of curiosity, knowledge, and national pride.

Kevin Schindler is the Lowell Observatory historian

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View from Mars Hill: Astronomy often a hobby and fascination of presidents - Arizona Daily Sun

Big celestial event Friday? Local astronomers say it’s more media … – Virginian-Pilot

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

USA Today is touting it as a Triple Treat.

Weather.com saidstargazers are in for a spectacular celestial show Friday night.

But the hype for to nights full moon, penumbral eclipse and passing of a small comet left Chuck Dibbs and other South Hampton Roads astronomy buffs scratching their heads.

When I started here 17 years ago I used to promote things like this, said Dibbs, the director of the Virginia Beach Schools Planetarium. Then people would come and complain to me that they didnt see anything and didnt understand what the big deal was.

This is seriously a nonevent.

Leigh Anne Lagoe, vice president of Back Bay Amateur Astronomers, found herself confused when a neighbor told her how excited she was about todays event.

I had no idea what she was talking about, Lagoe said. I had to Google it and saw all this hype.

The club wont be going out for this one, she said.

The expectations for today begin with the full moon what some media are calling a snow moon.

Theyre giving it a catchy name because its a full moon in February, the month when we get the most snow, Dibbs said. Like we wont ever have another full moon. Believe me, we will.

Then theres the penumbral eclipse, when the full moon darkens as it passes through the earths shadow . The moons journey to night, however, takes it through a very narrow portion of the shadow. The full moon will darken somewhat, Dibbs said, but not dramatically like the full eclipse that will come in August.

Most people wont even be able to notice the difference, Dibbs said.

And the comet? Comet 45P, known to astronomers as Comet Honda Mrkos Pajdusakova, was discovered in 1948 and will make its closest approach to Earth this weekend.

Youre going to need a good pair of high-powered binoculars to see it, and you wont see much, Dibbs said.

While the eclipse will peak at 7:43 tonight, the comet wont until around 3 a.m. Saturday.

Its just going to be a fuzzy patch in the sky, Lagoe said. Its not very impressive. Besides, with a full moon out, you wont be able to see much of anything anyway.

Plus, theres the weather.

According to the National Weather Service, skies will be partly cloudy and will become mostly overcast as the night goes on. So those looking for a triple treat to night might be better off seeking something else like a hot fudge, ice cream and brownie sundae.

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Big celestial event Friday? Local astronomers say it's more media ... - Virginian-Pilot

Wells Fargo sets up artificial intelligence team in tech push – Reuters

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

By Anna Irrera | NEW YORK

NEW YORK Wells Fargo & Co has created a team to develop artificial intelligence-based technology and appointed a lead for its newly combined payments businesses, as part of an ongoing push to strengthen its digital offerings.

Wells Fargo's AI team will work on creating technology that can help the bank provide more personalized customer service through its bankers and online, the bank said on Friday. It will be led by Steve Ellis, head of Wells Fargo's innovation group.

Well Fargos AI focus comes as banks and other large financial institutions increase their investment in the emerging technology which seeks to train computers to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence.

Projects range from systems that can spot payments fraud or misconduct by employees, to technology that can make more personal recommendations on financial products to clients.

The bank also announced that it had appointed Danny Peltz, head of treasury, merchant and payment solutions, to head business development and strategy for its combined payments businesses.

Peltz's group, which comprises of the bank's consumer, small business, commercial and corporate banking payments businesses, will also be tasked with establishing relationship with other companies in the payments landscape. It will also be in charge of the bank's new API (application program interface) services, or technology that allows customers to integrate Wells Fargo products and services into their own applications.

Both teams will report into Avid Modjtabai, head of payments, virtual solutions and innovation. Modjtabai's division was set up in October as part of efforts to enhance the bank's digital products and services by combining its innovation teams with some of the businesses most affected by changes in technology such as payments.

(This version of the story was refiled to correct paragraph 6 typographical error to Peltz instead of Pelz)

(Reporting by Anna Irrera; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Facebook Inc said it would provide information about ads displayed on its platform for an audit, months after the social network admitted to overstating key ad metrics.

WASHINGTON The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said Friday that bidding in the wireless spectrum auction has ended at $19.6 billion, significantly less than many analysts had initially forecast.

SAN FRANCISCO Ford Motor Co plans to invest $1 billion over the next five years in tech startup Argo AI to help the Detroit automaker reach its goal of producing a self-driving vehicle for commercial ride sharing fleets by 2021, the companies announced on Friday.

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Wells Fargo sets up artificial intelligence team in tech push - Reuters

Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Creating Successful Startups – Inc42 Magazine (press release) (blog)

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

People have always signified progress with their relentless endeavours to make life simpler and thanks to the co-operation of technology; the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen a number of advancements that revolutionised the functioning of our daily lives. Industries have, time and again, harnessed the advancements the current one to lead the pack is artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is the most trending term in the business domain, with its major benefits catering to the decision-making process, according to Gartner analysts. The analysts further predict that within the next five years, 50% of the analytical decisions will be made through AI: opting it over simple verbal interactions.

Artificial intelligence is the process of transforming human predictions into a mechanical route with the help of parameters and algorithms, through performing tasks of decision-making, problem-solving and learning by encapsulating intelligent behaviour of computational process. One simply requires a set of pre-defined algorithms with which, pre-determined parameters can be set to act as a deciding factor in business procedures.

Applied AI and advanced machine learning cashes in on intelligent implementations, including physical devices (robots, smart cars, consumer electronics etc.) along with apps and services (virtual personal assistants [VPAs], smart advisors).Many complex intelligent processes and repetitive mundane jobs in startups can be automated using AI. By automation of functions, work hours can be reduced and utilised at more thoughtful and creative aspects such as brainstorming, ideating and so on. There are several AI-based apps and conversational bots that are helping startups to bolster their workflow, allowing owners to spend less time on menial functions and more time on business expansion.

Here are a few focal points where AI can augment the operational aspect of a start-up:

Conversational bots are enhancing sales through better customer interaction. A simple mobile application can be installed by the consumers, through which marketers can directly interact with the help of notifications, chat boxes and so on.

It helps in engaging visitors on the organisations landing page automatically that further generates interests from consumers side. Conversations are more impactful than a page with sidebars, leading to better customer engagement.

AI systems using natural language decoders can provide better insights of user feedback. Small reports, generated by these, are more impactful than going through feedback manually. The purpose of saving time and money is aptly served, through theincorporation of AI. Also, a conversational agent with frequently used question bank can be more feasible than providing with a list of FAQs, introducing symmetry into operations and ensuring customer satisfaction.

AI enlists the help of smart CRMs to upgrade usability, helping organisations to operate better. Smart CRMs can automate data entry for sales professionals, allowing them to focus on other important things, apart from sales, such as building relationships with customers.

The inclusion of AI into the industry has emboldened small enterprises to use tried-and-tested platforms in novel ways. While startups are steadily gaining a competitive edge through capturing the AI market, big enterprises are facilitating the infrastructure to start-ups for building innovative services. Whether serving as a research assistant in a large corporation or acting as a voice-activated resource in difficult medical procedures,AIhas become an intrinsic part of reality.

TheAI revolutionwillpromote newplayers to gather leverage in the market to their advantage.AI is set to be a fundamental predictive enabler helping start-upsto solve large-scale problems, poising them to gain acompetitive edge.

[The author of this post isDigvijay Singh Ponia Product Manger, Hallwaze Inc.]

Note from Inc42: The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views held by Inc42, its creators or employees. Inc42 is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by guest bloggers.

Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Creating Successful Startups - Inc42 Magazine (press release) (blog)

The Peril of Inaction with Artificial Intelligence – Gigaom

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

Business quiz: What do these company name abbreviations stand for: AT&T. 3M. NCR. Geico. Did you know them all? If so, well done. The answers: American Telephone & Telegraph, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, National Cash Register, and Government Employees Insurance Co.

Now, heres the hard question: What do all these names have in common? Answer: None of them accurately express what those companies do today.

Think about that. Each of these companies had the good sense to follow new technologies and new business opportunities even if they were inconsistent with their very name.

Then, on the other hand, ask yourself why Blockbuster doesnt own the streaming video market. How did it lose to upstart Netflix? Why doesnt Kodak, a brand that used to be virtually synonymous with photography, dominate the digital camera market? In both instances, it is because the entrenched leader failed to see that a new technology had transformed the entire industry.

Most of the time, the technology that the big company fails to adopt is isolated to its industry. But every now and then, something comes along that is so transformative, virtually every company must adopt it very quickly, or perish. The replacement of animal power with mechanical power is one example, as is the electrification of industry and the assembly line as a means of manufacturing. Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly be another one, for the implications of this technology are every bit as transformative as electricity.

Can that really be seen with such certainty? Absolutely. A business is simply the product of two factors: decisions and execution. Companies that succeed make better decisions and execute better than their competitors. Thats it.

It is hard to exactly quantify, but most employees at a company make a few hundred business decisions a daywhich emails are most important to answer, which meetings to attend, how to prioritize their time, and so forth. Marketing people figure out what message to deliver to what audience through what channels. Salespeople decide which leads to call on with what offers. Programmers decide how to solve coding problems, product people decide what to bring to market, and so on.

So every person in the company makes, lets call it, 200 business decisions a day. If your company has 1,000 employees, that is 200,000 decisions a day, or a million decisions every week.

And every one of them can be made better using AI.

Let me repeat that: Every business decision employees make can be made better using AI trained on the relevant data.

Imagine if SmallCo aggressively uses AI to make its key business decisions while BigCo doesnt; who do you think wins in the long run? If every week, BigCo makes a million decisions based on their gut and SmallCo makes decisions using AI based on data, which would you bet on? Week after week, the power of better decisions compounds until at some point, BigCos executives will look around and find their products and their company irrelevant. They will wonder how they lost, but the simple truth will be that someone else made better decisions.

AI is still in many regards a nascent technology. Only in the past few years have the tools to implement it across the enterprise come to market. While with many technologies it makes sense to take a wait and see approach, this is not one of them. The power to make better decisions is not something you want to equivocate on. I am sure that when steam power came along, some old-timers thought their animal-powered factories worked just fine. But in the blink of an eye, that whole world changed and those who did not make the transition fast enough did not have the time to recover and catch up.

I hate to say it, but most large companies fail to make the right changes in time. Of the original companies that made up the Dow Jones industrial average, only one remains on the index. And that one is General Electric, another company that transformed beyond the limits of its name. Those other companies had every advantage imaginable, but they failed, because the world changed, and they did not.

Join us next week in San Francisco as we explore how to implement AI in your enterprise today.

Tags ai GigaomAI

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The Peril of Inaction with Artificial Intelligence - Gigaom

Maine’s aerospace exports soared to record $312 million last year – Press Herald

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

Exports of civilian aircraft, aviation engines and parts jumped more than 30 percent last year, becoming Maines second-most valuable export industry after seafood, according to federal trade data.

The total dollar value of Maines aerospace exports was a record $312 million last year, about 11 percent of the states $2.8 billion in foreign exports. Though Maines aviation exports declined between 2012 and 2015, the value has risen dramatically overall in the last decade, jumping more than 700 percent, from $37.8 million in 2006 to last years record.

The increase in exports from the aerospace industry coincides with declining export value in electric machinery, paper and wood products. Trade data can sometimes be misleading or incomplete, said Wade Merritt, vice president of the Maine International Trade Center. In this case, however, the numbers appear to show sustained growth in aviation-related companies.

There is a trend line there for sure, Merritt said.

Though it is unclear what company, or companies, are driving the export increase, industry observers suspect that the Pratt & Whitney manufacturing plant in North Berwick is responsible for a good portion of the growth.

Pratt & Whitney, owned by Connecticut-based United Technologies, employs about 1,700 workers in Maine and its North Berwick plant is the states largest manufacturing facility under one roof, the company says.

Warehouse specialist Corina Glidden picks aviation parts from a huge inventory at C&L Aviation at the Bangor International Airport in Bangor. Staff photo by Kevin Bennett

Ray Hernandez, a Pratt & Whitney spokesman, declined to answer questions about exports from Maine. In a statement, the company said the North Berwick plant manufactures parts for its geared turbofan engine, which is used by more than 80 customers in 30 countries. The technology also is used in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a next-generation military jet under development by Lockheed Martin.

Due to the success of the programs in our portfolio, we anticipate doubling our engine production volumes by the end of the decade, the company said in a statement.

To prepare for this significant increase in production, we are investing more than $1.3 billion in our manufacturing network, which includes more than $125 million in capital investments in our North Berwick, Maine, facility over the last several years.

Pratt & Whitneys turbofan engine is an option on passenger jets manufactured by Frances Airbus and the Russian Irkut Corp. It also is used as the exclusive engine provider for some jets manufactured by Bombardier, headquartered in Montreal; Embraer, from Brazil; and Mitsubishi, in Japan.

Plane wings are stacked from floor to ceiling at C&L Aviations Bangor warehouse at the Bangor International Airport. Staff photo by Kevin Bennett

Germany was the top destination for Maines aviation industry last year, accounting for $177 million, according to federal data. Canada was the second-biggest importer, followed by Japan and the United Kingdom.

Aerospace is the United States third most valuable export industry, providing $134 billion in trade in 2016, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration. U.S. companies could further benefit from worldwide demand for commercial passenger aircraft. A 2013 forecast from PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that between 2013-2032, there would be global demand for 35,000 aircraft with a total value of $4.8 trillion.

Although Pratt & Whitney certainly accounts for much of Maines aerospace exports, other aviation companies also are looking to international markets. Aircraft sales from C&L Aviation Group, based in Bangor, were between $35 million and $45 million last year, and 50-60 percent were international sales, said Pat Lemieux, the companys marketing director. Its biggest foreign customers are Canada, Japan and Australia, but it also sells to a mix of countries in Europe and Asia, and has sales offices in Australia and the Czech Republic. The company also has a services division based at Bangor International Airport. The company completed a $5 million expansion in 2013 and has grown from 20 employees seven years ago to almost 200 today, Lemieux said.

Pat Lemieux, marketing manager for C&L Aviation, stands in the repair hangar at the companys Bangor headquarters at the Bangor International Airport. Staff photo by Kevin Bennett

As we continue to grow, we expect much of our sales business to continue to come from overseas, he said.

Small second- and third-tier manufacturers also may be responsible for rising exports, said Lisa Martin, director of the Manufacturers Association of Maine. In 2009, the association started the Maine Aerospace Alliance to develop an aerospace cluster in the state and grew its membership to more than 80 companies, training 46 of them in areas such as licensing and marketing, according to a 2013 report to the Maine Technology Institute, which provided funding for the project. Many of those companies are contracted to make component parts and manufacture small machine products, Martin said.

According to the national Aerospace Industries Association website, 5,170 Maine workers were directly employed in the aerospace industry in 2015. The industry added $700 million to Maines GDP and accounted for almost 7 percent of the states manufacturing production, the association said.

Maine is certainly not perceived as a place that did aerospace work, but there is a huge amount of activity that is going on in Maine that we dont know about or talk about, Martin said.

Peter McGuire can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:

pmcguire@pressherald.com

Twitter: @PeteL_McGuire

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Maine's aerospace exports soared to record $312 million last year - Press Herald

State’s aerospace companies to head to Australian air show – Journal Inquirer

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

Connecticut aerospace companies, ranging from Vernons 50-employee Soldream Inc. to East Hartford-based jet engine giant Pratt & Whitney, will be promoting their products at Australias Avalon Air Show the week of Feb. 27.

The U.S. Department of Commerce Export Assistance Center in Middletown has organized a delegation of companies from Connecticut and other northeastern states to travel to Australia for the Avalon Air Show, Anne S. Evans, commerce department district director said.

One of Pratts major products, its F135 military engine, will be front and center as the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter makes its first appearance in the Australian air show. The plane, built by Lockheed Martin, uses the Pratt engine exclusively.

Two of the state-of-the-art combat aircraft will be flown there from their U.S. base, where Australian pilots are being trained, the air show website says. The planes will be part of the air shows extensive ground display of military aircraft, the website adds.

The Royal Australian Air Force has ordered 72 of the planes.

Soldream, founded in 1992, is a subcontractor for Pratt and several other aerospace companies as well as the Defense Department. The company in 2010 moved from Tolland to its 25,000-square-foot plant at 129 Reservoir Road, Vernon.

The regional northeastern U.S. delegation also includes Interpro Technologies of Deep River, Specialty Cable Corp. in Wallingford, and Connecticut Coining Inc., of Bethel, Evans said. They will be joined by similar companies from New York to Vermont, she said.

Evans said the last such trade mission to Australia in 2013 paid dividends for the local companies that took part.

That mission had an aerospace/defense component, but also included a number of other companies in the software, medical device, and tourism sectors, Evans said. A number of those companies have been doing business in Australia over the more than three years since the trade show, she said.

Evans said her office is working closely with Australias State of Victoria to arrange for companies from Victoria and other parts of Australia to share exhibit space with the Northeast USA exhibit. There also will be a number of pre-arranged one-on-one meetings for the northeast contingent with potential Australian customers and partners.

U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Courtney, D-2nd District, has worked with the Commerce Department to forge a business relationship with Australia, Evans said.

In September, Courtney hosted a breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C., for the Victoria member of parliament who is head of their business and trade department, she said.

Victoria, in turn, is hosting a luncheon for the U.S. companies on Feb. 27 that will include a session on doing business with the Australian defense forces, Evans said.

Courtney has led several trade trips abroad since 2009, taking Connecticut companies to Belgium, Great Britain, and Israel.

The Connecticut District Export Council is organizing the Australian trip, with each company paying its own costs, Evans said.

There is no government funding for this trip, she added.

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State's aerospace companies to head to Australian air show - Journal Inquirer

Karnataka bets big on defence, aerospace at Make in India conference – YourStory.com

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

Bengaluru is hosting the Make in India Karnataka conference on February 13 and 14 and the state is hoping to help small and medium industries understand their place in a world where automation is fast changing the way businesses are run.

Next weeks Make in India conference is the second outside Delhi, the first having been held in Mumbai last year. The conference will be held on February 13-14 in association with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Karnatakas Medium and Large Industries Minister R.V. Deshpande, spoke to YourStory on what the state is expecting from the conference and the role that the government would play.

The minister said that Karnataka had already taken a number of initiatives to enhance its stature as one of the leading high-tech industrialised states in the country.

The minister said,

The Make in India-Karnataka conference is the perfect platform for Karnataka to showcase its potential and capabilities in manufacturing. The previous Make in India conference outside Delhi was held in Mumbai last year. We hope to do it better and interest more people.

But interestingly, he said Make in India started as a journey for Karnataka way back in 1953, when Bosch (earlier Mico) started its sprawling manufacturing facility in Bengaluru. Since then, the manufacturing sector, in small, medium and large classifications, has come a long way, and the industry has upgraded itself to the latest technologies, which include nano-tech, robotics, 3D printing, space, drone, rocket, military and aircraft technologies, as well as high-end electronics.

The manufacturing industry is fast moving towards automation, and different skill sets are required now. The sector plays a key role in the overall health of the economy and economic prosperity, and small and medium enterprises have to prepare themselves for the challenges ahead. This is a very good opportunity to understand and adapt to the changing times and be on par with the global standards, Deshpande said.

This meet will help companies focus on their strengths, and will aid brand Karnataka and India. It will also help in learning to tackle future challenges, he added.

The state wants to focus on defence and aerospace as it is a major player already. A world-class aerospace park with IT and hardware is coming up at Devanahalli, in addition to an aerospace park at Belagavi.

According to DIPP data, Karnataka had attracted $4.1 billion in FDI only in the year 2015-16, the fourth highest among Indian states.

But inflows in the year 2016 were three times higher than that of Gujarat, according to Deshpande.

The Make in India-Karnataka conference will also help brand and market Karnataka as one of the most progressive and industrialised states in the country. The capital city of Bengaluru is a globally renowned knowledge hub and houses the largest number of R&D centres, technical and medical institutions and startups in Asia.

Deshpande spoke of the states salubrious climate, cosmopolitan culture and investor-friendly ecosystem, and stressed on the government being a very responsive administration.

The summit, on the eve of the biennial Aero India event starting on February 14 at Yelahanka Air Force Station, will be attended by leading industrialists, CEOs of both domestic companies and MNCs, policy makers from across the globe, members of international business and financial houses, trade and industry associations, thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and others who will interact with and aid the small and medium industry in Karnataka.

The conference will create awareness about business and investment opportunities and ease in doing business, showcase Indias inherent strength and visibility, attract major projects and encourage startups to grow in India.

The two-day conference will have a total of 10 sessions while one will be on Make in India, nine others will focus on sectors such as aerospace and defence; biotech and pharma; textiles, apparel and leather; heavy engineering and machine tools; electronics and electricals; agri and food processing; auto and their components; manufacturing startups and plastics and chemicals.

At the sessions, sectoral issues, including regulatory hurdles, will be deliberated on, and an action plan to maintain Karnatakas lead in them will be drawn up.

Consul Generals, Ambassadors and trade consulates from 25 to 30 countries will sit down for B2B and B2G meetings, the minister said.

An exhibition area, with participation from 55 world class companies, is being set up and this will help in showcasing state and nationally competitive organisations. Around 4,000 delegates have already registered, Deshpande added.

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Karnataka bets big on defence, aerospace at Make in India conference - YourStory.com

Aerospace Industry Places Unique Demands on Holemaking … – Advanced Manufacturing

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

The aerospace industry is bigger than ever. As more and more people rely on air transport, the Airbus Global Market Forecast predicts the need for 33,000 new passenger and freighter aircraft in the next 20 years. Between recent space endeavors and increasing air traffic, fabricators are constantly faced with new problems to solve. In aerospace, the parts needed are often unique or newly designed and the deadlines are tight. With materials constantly changing, fabricators must be able to create new ways of safely and effectively drilling through them in as short a time as possible. At Allied Machine & Engineering, engineers deal with these challenges every day and have a long history of success in the aerospace industry.

Aerospace technology relies heavily on specially made parts and new or changing designs. Creating parts for a craft that must regularly survive high-speed, high-altitude, and/or space conditions requires working with specialized materials and unique problems. Parts for air and spacecraft are made ever lighter and longer lasting. As the leaders of the industry come up with new ideas, the fabricators are faced with tight deadlines to create and assemble something that has never been made before.

The aerospace industry calls upon holemaking technology to drill through engine components, hydraulic manifolds, and any interior or exterior material that must be drilled and assembled. While the holemaking industry has been drilling holes through steel for decades, titanium, high-temp alloys, and composite materials are entirely different materials that do not behave well under the usual drilling techniques. Using general purpose drill tools on these newer materials is akin to using a household drill bit on concrete. It wont be terribly effective and it certainly wont last very long. Where a fabricator may be able to drill over 1000 one-inch holes into standard materials without a specialized drill, they might be lucky to get 100 holes into the current composite materials before the drill wears out completely. Therefore, holemaking technology has had to evolve along with the aerospace industry in order to keep up.

Engineers need to work with fabricators to find the best tools for the job. Making new drill bits with specialized coatings and substrates to survive cutting todays materials is an everyday challenge. New and experimental parts sometimes need tools with customized cutting edges, and todays lightweight materials call for new substrates, coatings and edge preps. Other times, more power is called for behind the machines, needing more Z-axis thrust in addition to a better drill to make it through a composite material. In the worst case scenario, if done improperly or with inadequate tools, the material or drill can melt or crack. Otherwise the tool might not be able to complete the hole or will wear out after only a few, wasting time and money in frequent replacement. In order to fabricate exactly what is needed, manufacturers must work closely with the original engineers on the project. To keep up with the industry, blueprints and knowledgeable engineers must be matched with tools and realistic procedures that can get the job done in a timely fashion and on or under budget.

As an example, in a case study at Allied Machine & Engineering, a customer needed to manufacture high-quality precision parts out of stainless steel for commercial, military, and space components. Once production of their order started, they used five different tools in a multistep process to complete the job. Each part took 18 minutes and 41 seconds to complete and mixing different tool operations caused issues with quality. Tooling costs were much higher than expected due to frequent restocking as the tools wore down. Allied recommended one tool that could do the same job in 30 seconds per part and saved the customer $81,684 per year.

In another case, a fabricator machining landing gear was using an ineffective tool that took 15 minutes to drill a hole and only lasted through two parts before the tool needed to be replaced. Each new head cost $5000, simply not feasible within their budget and deadline. The recommended change reduced the drill time to one minute and 20 seconds per part with a tool life of 43 holes before replacement.

The recent acquisition of Wohlhaupter GmbH, a world-renowned German manufacturer of precision boring tools, allows Allied Machine to resolve even more complex applications with their offering of high-precision digital boring heads. Finished goods inventory of Wohlhaupter boring tools has more than doubled in the US as Allied prepares for the increased demand for product by aerospace companies that often comes as a result of those last minute, critical decisions.

This is the kind of knowledge and innovation that is necessary in todays aerospace industry. Fabricators have to be creative and fast, ready to take on whatever the industry can throw at them with a clear head. Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are launching noteworthy and experimental projects using cutting-edge technology and materials. Companies like Boeing and Airbus are pushing the boundaries of current technology to make the most powerful and efficient aircraft. The holemaking technology that is used to cut and assemble these projects must keep up with the leaders of the industry.

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Aerospace Industry Places Unique Demands on Holemaking ... - Advanced Manufacturing

French Aerospace Lobby Calls 2016 A Good Year For Exports – Aviation Week

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Danzig

French Aerospace Lobby Calls 2016 A Good Year For Exports
Aviation Week
LYON, FranceGifas, the lobbying group for France's aerospace industry, has released annual performance numbers earlier than planned, reacting to recent negative comments about the contribution of the industry to France's 2016 balance of .

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French Aerospace Lobby Calls 2016 A Good Year For Exports - Aviation Week

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