Freedom Fest in La Crosse unveils musical lineup

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LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) -

Organizers of Freedom Fest unveiled the musical lineups for this years event.

Heart and Phillip Phillips, the winner of the 11th season of American Idol, will perform on Saturday, July 18 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex. "The Remainders" will also perform.

This will be the eighth year of the event, which benefits veterans causes in Wisconsin, including raising money for area veterans attending college.

Organizers said they are happy with the size of Freedom Fest.

I don't want to get it where it's so large where you really lose the meaning of the event," said LHI Founder and CEO Don Weber. "It's a special festival to honor special families and people."

In between the headline acts, scholarship recipients will be recognized and Weber will give a moving tribute to Wisconsins Fallen Heroes, the men and women who have given their lives in service to the U.S. Military.

So far the event has raised nearly $400,000 and awarded $118,000 in scholarships for returning service members pursuing an education at a University of Wisconsin System institution.

Organizers hope to avoid any inclement weather this year. Last year's event, which was held on Father's Day weekend, was stopped halfway because of storms in the area.

Tickers will be available starting May 1 at area Festival Foods stores and on the Freedom Fest website, http://www.freedomfestlacrosse.com.

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Freedom Fest in La Crosse unveils musical lineup

How These 3,000-Plus Invasive Goldfish Are Threatening a …

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Colorado wildlife officials say they believe someone dumped four to five pet goldfish in a Boulder lake about two years ago, and they have now multiplied to over 3,000 to 4,000 fish.

Because the goldfish are a non-native species, they threaten Teller Lake #5's entire aquatic ecosystem, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill told ABC News today.

"Dumping your pets into a lake could bring diseases to native animals and plants as well as out-compete them for resources," Churchill said. "Everything can be affected. Non-native species can potentially wipe out the fishery as we've put it together."

Fish that are native to the lake that are now being threatened by the invasive goldfish include channel catfish, blue gill fish and sun fish, Churchill said.

KMGH

PHOTO: Wildlife officials say an invasive goldfish species that was dumped in Teller Lake #5 in Boulder, Colo. has multiplied and is threatening the lake's natural aquatic ecosystem.

Wildlife officials are seeking information on anyone who may have released the goldfish into the lake, she said.

CPW is currently considering two solutions -- electroshocking the fish or draining the lake.

"With electroshocking, you go in the boat and stun the fish to paralyze and collect them," Churchill said, adding that the shock doesn't kill the fish. "The fish could also be collected if the lake is drained."

KMGH

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Eco-friendly SatNav option gives the greenest route

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Since driving in a straight line is rarely possible (and hasnt really been done since the early century), most satellite navigation systems will opt for either the fastest or the easiest route. A new system for SatNav devices goes for the route which uses the least amount of petroleum for your vehicle.

Its the brainchild of the Lund Institute of Technology, who have crunched a lot of numbers in their quest to respect the environment by pumping fewer carbon emissions into it. Test runs of this impressive-sounding protocol have cut gasoline consumption by an average of 8.2 percent.

That numberand, indeed, the whole lot of the testingare dependent on such things as street quality and traffic flow, both of which can play havoc with the most well-intentioned directions. Still, its an option that is not only worth talking about because of its dedication to saving the environment one commute at a time, but also because of what could be the vanguard of a revolution in satellite navigation.

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Around the Region: Lighthouse Indiegogo restoration and more

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BEACHES Beaches Museum and History Park Community Survey

Beaches Museum and History Park launch a community survey to gauge the publics input on current events and exhibits. Answers will help craft programs, events and exhibits at the museum in the future. To take the survey, http://beachesmuseum.org.

BEACHES Beaches Watch Candidate Forums

Beaches Watch hosts two candidate forums before the May 19 Jacksonville general election. A Mayor and Sheriff Candidtate Forum will be 7 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at Fletcher High School Auditorium, 700 Seagate Ave., Neptune Beach. An At- Large Candidate Forum will be held 7 p.m. Thursday, April 30, at Jacksonville Beach Elementary School Cafetorium, 315 10th St., Jacksonville Beach. Residents can submit questions for the mayor and sheriffs candidates to info@beacheswatch.com no later than Wednesday, April 8.

CLAY Soil and Water District meeting

The Clay County Soil and Water Conservation District will meet at 9 a.m. Friday, April 10, at the Clay County Extension office, 2463 Florida 16 West, Green Cove Springs. For more, (904) 269-6355.

CLAY Butterfly event

A Special event will be held 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Saturday, April 11th, at Camp Chowenwaw, 1517 Ball Rd., Green Cove Springs. Carolyn Warren will be at the Butterfly Garden discussing and displaying information on the Monarch Butterfly. Another Monarch Butterfly event, featuring Carolyn Warren and Patty Woods, will be 1 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the Orange Park Library, 2054 Plainfield Ave. For more, (904) 298-1815

AMELIA ISLAND Inherit the Wind

Amelia Community Theatre presents the classic drama Inherit the Wind 8 p.m. April 9-11, 16-18, 23-25 and 2 p.m. April 19 at 207 Cedar Street, Fernandina Beach. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students through college. For tickets or more, ameliacommunitytheatre.org or (904) 261-6749.

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Cottesloe beach ban for smokers

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Smoke-free by summer: Cottesloe beach. Picture: Michael Wilson/The West Australian

Cottesloe beach could join Sydney beaches such as Bondi and Manly in banning smoking in time for next summer.

If the Town of Cottesloe's ban goes ahead, it would become the third WA council to make smoking on the sand an offence.

The Town of Cottesloe has yet to decide how the bans would be enforced and what the fines should be.

Under State Government laws introduced in 2009, smoking between the flags at patrolled beaches, including Cottesloe, is an offence but no wider blanket ban exists.

The cities of Joondalup and Cockburn have banned smoking on beaches since 2007 and 2008 respectively.

The City of Nedlands considered a smoking ban at Swanbourne in 2008 but did not pursue it.

Cottesloe wants a permanent ban on smoking at all the town's beaches, citing environmental, health and amenity benefits. A ban would require amending a local law, which it hopes to do in time for the 2015-16 summer season.

Cottesloe chief executive Carl Askew said exactly where the proposed ban would apply had not been determined.

He said council still had to decide how such a ban would be implemented and enforced but it was likely to be a combination of community education, warnings and fines.

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Astronomers battle plague of BLADE-WIELDING ROBOTS

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Updated Radio astronomers have moved to block the roll-out of an army of robotic lawnmowers in a submission to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The boffins claim that iRobot's deployment of the machines will interfere with their federally-funded radio astronomy.

iRobot, well known for the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner but also a producer of military and policing robots, filed a request in January for the FCC to waive a prohibition on the outdoor use of a particular frequency range, so that iRobot could take its robotic lawnmowers (RLMs) to market.

In the filing, iRobot described its RLMs as "battery-operated, self-propelling lawnmowers that rely on portable beacons placed in multiple locations on a lawn. The beacons transmit information to the RLM that enables the RLM to map out and stay within a designated mowing area".

The robots are designed to operate in the 6240-6740 MHz frequency range. However, the FCC has a blanket prohibition on unlicensed operations of wideband systems within the 5925-7250 MHZ band.

The FCC noted that "Section 15.250(c) states that '[e]xcept for operation onboard a ship or a terrestrial transportation vehicle, the use of a fixed outdoor infrastructure is prohibited' for such systems, and that '[a] fixed infrastructure includes antennas mounted on outdoor structures, e.g., antennas mounted on the outside of a building or on a telephone pole'."

The FCC acknowledged that its Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) was reviewing the request that the clause be waived, and that it was also allowing "interested parties" to submit comments on the issue as per protocol.

Scientists from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have filed a comment and explained: "The purpose of singling out this frequency band is to allow interference-free observation of the 6.66852 GHz spectral line of methanol (CH3OH), that is abundant in star-forming regions and serves as a galactic beacon of star-forming activity owing to its maser-like qualities."

Adding that this "also allows the Observatorys telescopes to do a kind of celestial cartography that measures distances to star-forming regions with high precision, charting the course of galactic evolution".

In its waiver request, iRobot states that while Section 15.250(c) prohibits "fixed outdoor infrastructure" the use of the portable beacons does not fall under the rule as it would not "establish a wide area communications system or network".

This is disputed by the NRAO. The astromers are not opposed to RLM operations in general, but have objected to the robots' potential capacity to degrade the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) in West Virginia.

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Artificial intelligence (video games) – Wikipedia, the …

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In video games, artificial intelligence is used to generate intelligent behaviors primarily in non-player characters (NPCs), often simulating human-like intelligence. The techniques used typically draw upon existing methods from the field of artificial intelligence (AI). However, the term game AI is often used to refer to a broad set of algorithms that also include techniques from control theory, robotics, computer graphics and computer science in general.

Since game AI for NPCs is centered on appearance of intelligence and good gameplay within environment restrictions, its approach is very different from that of traditional AI; workarounds and cheats are acceptable and, in many cases, the computer abilities must be toned down to give human players a sense of fairness. This, for example, is true in first-person shooter games, where NPCs' otherwise perfect aiming would be beyond human skill.

Game playing was an area of research in AI from its inception. One of the first examples of AI is the computerised game of Nim made in 1951 and published in 1952. Despite being advanced technology in the year it was made, 20 years before Pong, the game took the form of a relatively small box and was able to regularly win games even against highly skilled players of the game.[1] In 1951, using the Ferranti Mark 1 machine of the University of Manchester, Christopher Strachey wrote a checkers program and Dietrich Prinz wrote one for chess.[2] These were among the first computer programs ever written. Arthur Samuel's checkers program, developed in the middle 50s and early 60s, eventually achieved sufficient skill to challenge a respectable amateur.[3] Work on checkers and chess would culminate in the defeat of Garry Kasparov by IBM's Deep Blue computer in 1997.[4] The first video games developed in the 1960s and early 1970s, like Spacewar!, Pong, and Gotcha (1973), were games implemented on discrete logic and strictly based on the competition of two players, without AI.

Games that featured a single player mode with enemies started appearing in the 1970s. The first notable ones for the arcade appeared in 1974: the Taito game Speed Race (racing video game) and the Atari games Qwak (duck hunting light gun shooter) and Pursuit (fighter aircraft dogfighting simulator). Two text-based computer games from 1972, Hunt the Wumpus and Star Trek, also had enemies. Enemy movement was based on stored patterns. The incorporation of microprocessors would allow more computation and random elements overlaid into movement patterns.

It was during the golden age of video arcade games that the idea of AI opponents was largely popularized, due to the success of Space Invaders (1978), which sported an increasing difficulty level, distinct movement patterns, and in-game events dependent on hash functions based on the player's input. Galaxian (1979) added more complex and varied enemy movements, including maneuvers by individual enemies who break out of formation. Pac-Man (1980) introduced AI patterns to maze games, with the added quirk of different personalities for each enemy. Karate Champ (1984) later introduced AI patterns to fighting games, although the poor AI prompted the release of a second version. First Queen (1988) was a tactical action RPG which featured characters that can be controlled by the computer's AI in following the leader.[5][6] The role-playing video game Dragon Quest IV (1990) introduced a "Tactics" system, where the user can adjust the AI routines of non-player characters during battle, a concept later introduced to the action role-playing game genre by Secret of Mana (1993).

Games like Madden Football, Earl Weaver Baseball and Tony La Russa Baseball all based their AI on an attempt to duplicate on the computer the coaching or managerial style of the selected celebrity. Madden, Weaver and La Russa all did extensive work with these game development teams to maximize the accuracy of the games.[citation needed] Later sports titles allowed users to "tune" variables in the AI to produce a player-defined managerial or coaching strategy.

The emergence of new game genres in the 1990s prompted the use of formal AI tools like finite state machines. Real-time strategy games taxed the AI with many objects, incomplete information, pathfinding problems, real-time decisions and economic planning, among other things.[7] The first games of the genre had notorious problems. Herzog Zwei (1989), for example, had almost broken pathfinding and very basic three-state state machines for unit control, and Dune II (1992) attacked the players' base in a beeline and used numerous cheats.[8] Later games in the genre exhibited more sophisticated AI.

Later games have used bottom-up AI methods, such as the emergent behaviour and evaluation of player actions in games like Creatures or Black & White. Faade (interactive story) was released in 2005 and used interactive multiple way dialogs and AI as the main aspect of game.

Games have provided an environment for developing artificial intelligence with potential applications beyond gameplay. Examples include Watson, a Jeopardy-playing computer; and the RoboCup tournament, where robots are trained to compete in soccer.[9]

Purists complain that the "AI" in the term "game AI" overstates its worth, as game AI is not about intelligence, and shares few of the objectives of the academic field of AI. Whereas "real" AI addresses fields of machine learning, decision making based on arbitrary data input, and even the ultimate goal of strong AI that can reason, "game AI" often consists of a half-dozen rules of thumb, or heuristics, that are just enough to give a good gameplay experience.[citation needed] Historically, academic game-AI projects have been relatively separate from commercial products because the academic approaches tended to be simple and non-scalable. Commercial game AI has developed its own set of tools, which have been sufficient to give good performance in many cases.[10]

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The future of artificial intelligence Part II: Smarter and smarter

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John Hopton for redOrbit.com @Johnfinitum

In part one of our look at the future of artificial intelligence, expert Charlie Ortiz told us that to envision a future in which machines transcend their programming and become a problem is too negative a view to take, despite such suggestions from high profile figures like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk.

Ortiz also said that machines with intelligence to rival our own were nowhere near being a reality. In this follow-up piece, well find out what the more realistic, short-term future of AI will look like, and what sort of exciting new uses we can look forward to.

In terms of the near future what youll see are intelligent assistants becoming smarter and smarter, said Ortiz, who is Senior Principal Manager of the Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Group within Nuances Natural Language and AI Laboratory. They will help us in everyday tasks, making our lives less stressful and getting rid of the drudgery of day-to-day life.

An assistant could efficiently direct our chores around town during a Saturday, leaving more free time for ourselves, and then plan a night out thats going to go smoothly instead of being wasted through poor organization (so we can get wasted through efficient organization).

One of the major steps will be to improve the way in which AI systems understand language. Up to now they have learned to recognize sounds, but they dont necessarily understand meaning.

For instance, says Ortiz: You might want to tell your self-driving car take me to the park near the grocery store without having to give it a specific address. That ability to refer to things in the world and what you want a device to do in abstract terms, like we do as humans, is something that a lot of people are working on.

Testing the common sense of AI

Some of those people might take Nuances Winograd Schema Challenge. The test aims to measure the common sense knowledge of new technology, which really is essential for true AI.

Ortiz explains: If I tell my personal assistant Id like you to book a reservation for dinner after my meeting and it goes and makes a reservation for next week, technically it is not incorrect because next week is after my meeting, but its not what you meant. But, he continues, If I tell my son make sure you do your homework after you get home from school and he later says Yeah, I was gonna do it next week Id get very angry! We want our machines to have that kind of common sense (without that kind of childhood sneakiness).

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The future of artificial intelligence Part II: Smarter and smarter

PPG Aerospace Solar-Control Coatings Use Eggplant-like Technology for Cooler Plane

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SYLMAR, Calif., April 7, 2015 A new solar-heat-management coating system by PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG) aerospace business helps keep aircraft passenger cabins cooler.

A novel PPG Aerospace solar-heat-management coating system can reduce external aircraft skin temperatures up to 25 degrees F, helping keep interior cabin temperatures cooler by 5 to 7 degrees.

Airlines often avoid dark colors for airplane liveries because they can absorb as much as 90 percent of solar energy, which in turn heats the interior while a plane is on the ground, said Mark Cancilla, PPG global director for aerospace coatings. Our innovative paint technology means airlines no longer have to avoid dark colors. In fact, the darker the color, the greater the difference there is in total solar reflectance. There is no compromise of other coating properties.

PPG solar-heat-management coatings technology is based on development of novel pigment dispersions, or stainers, that increase transmittance of near-infrared energy, or heat, through a dark coating and increase the subsequent reflection from a white underlayer. Cancilla said the technology is modeled after the eggplant, which naturally remains cool to the touch even when exposed to intense sunshine. The eggplants dark purple skin does not absorb near-IR radiation but transmits it to the white interior flesh, where it is reflected and transmitted out through the skin.

PPGs technology works in the same way. Cancilla said PPGs solar-heat-management coating system is being evaluated by several airlines and aircraft manufacturers.

PPG Aerospace is the aerospace products and services business of PPG Industries. PPG Aerospace PRC-DeSoto is the leading global producer of aerospace sealants, coatings, and packaging and application systems. PPG Aerospace Transparencies is the worlds largest supplier of aircraft windshields, windows and canopies. For more information, visit http://www.ppgaerospace.com.

PPG: BRINGING INNOVATION TO THE SURFACE.(TM)

PPG Industries vision is to be the worlds leading coatings company by consistently delivering high-quality, innovative and sustainable solutions that customers trust to protect and beautify their products and surroundings. Through leadership in innovation, sustainability and color, PPG provides added value to customers in construction, consumer products, industrial and transportation markets and aftermarkets to enhance more surfaces in more ways than does any other company. Founded in 1883, PPG has global headquarters in Pittsburgh and operates in nearly 70 countries around the world. Reported net sales in 2014 were $15.4 billion. PPG shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: PPG). For more information, visit http://www.ppg.com and follow @PPGIndustries on Twitter.

Bringing innovation to the surface is a trademark and the PPG Logo is a registered trademark of PPG Industries Ohio, Inc.

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PPG Aerospace Solar-Control Coatings Use Eggplant-like Technology for Cooler Plane

Aircraft Systems Division Becomes Advent Aircraft Systems Inc

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Rye, New Hampshire, April 7, 2015... The board of directors of Advent Aerospace, Inc. after a review spanning several months, recently determined that the Aircraft Systems division of Advent Aerospace would be spun off and operated as a separate company. The new company will be known as Advent Aircraft Systems, Inc, and began operations as such on April 1, 2015. The remaining Advent Aerospace divisions Jormac Aerospace and Cabin Innovations will continue to operate under the Advent Aerospace, Inc. banner.

Aircraft Systems, founded in 2010, was formed to certify and produce components and systems for air vehicles, beginning with a proprietary internally-developed anti-skid braking system (Advent ABS) for light turbine aircraft. The Advent ABS was initially certified in December 2013 on the Eclipse EA500 and is available as a retrofit. It is standard equipment on new EA550 aircraft. Advent has other applications in development and certification for business and military aircraft, including the Beechcraft King Air B200/300 series, Pilatus PC-12, Beechcraft T-6C and various other military aircraft.

Advent Aircraft Systems, Inc. is located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Advent Aerospace, Inc. is headquartered in Rye, New Hampshire, with divisions in Florida and Texas. Each company is owned by employees and equity partners Yankee Pacific, LLC and Hancock Park Associates.

The spin off is a strategic move to optimize operations, marketing and investment in the different product lines and markets of Aircraft Systems and the Advent Aerospace Interiors Group represented by Jormac Aerospace and Cabin Innovations, said Ken Goldsmith, Advent managing director and president and CEO of Yankee Pacific. We look forward to continued, aggressive growth in both companies.

About Advent Aircraft Systems

Advent Aircraft Systems, Inc. designs, manufactures, certifies and supports components and systems for air vehicles, including its proprietary anti-skid braking systems for light turbine aircraft. About Advent Aerospace

Advent Aerospace, Inc. designs, manufactures, certifies and supports custom interior products for Airbus and Boeing VVIP aircraft. Through divisions located in Florida and Texas, the company serves major interior completion centers worldwide.

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Aircraft Systems Division Becomes Advent Aircraft Systems Inc

Milbank: Climate-change deniers are in retreat

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There is no denying it: Climate-change deniers are in retreat.

What began as a subtle shift away from the claim that man-made global warming is not a threat to the planet has lately turned into a stampede. The latest attempt to deny denial comes from the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, a powerful group that pushes for states to pass laws that are often drafted by industry. As my Post colleagues Tom Hamburger, Joby Warrick and Chris Mooney report, ALEC is not only insisting that it doesnt deny climate change its threatening to sue those who suggest otherwise.

The group, which suffered the highly visible defection of Google because of its global-warming stance and an exodus of other top corporate members, sent letters to Common Cause and the League of Conservation Voters instructing them to remove all false or misleading material alleging ALEC questions global-warming theory.

The problem for ALEC is that as recently as 2013, it was still reaffirming model legislation calling on states to consider legitimate and scientifically defensible alternative hypotheses to the mainstream scientific positions on climate. The proposed legislation states that there is a great deal of scientific uncertainty about the matter and suggests states treat possible beneficial effects of carbon in an evenhanded manner.

The turnabout at ALEC follows an about-face at the Heartland Institute, a libertarian outfit that embraces a description of it as the worlds most prominent think tank promoting skepticism about man-made climate change.

But on Christmas Eve, Justin Haskins, a blogger and editor at Heartland, penned an article for the conservative journal Human Events declaring: The real debate is not whether man is, in some way, contributing to climate change; its true that the science is settled on that point in favor of the alarmists.

Haskins called it a rather extreme position to say that we ought to allow dangerous pollutants to destroy the only planet we know of that can completely sustain human life, and he suggested work on technologies that can reduce CO2 emissions without destroying whole economies.

To be sure, this is a tactical retreat, and you shouldnt expect conservative groups to start lining up in favor of a carbon tax. Rather, theyre resorting to more defensible arguments that dont make them sound like flat-earthers. My Post colleagues quoted energy lobbyist Scott Segal saying that the science issue just isnt as salient as it once was. Instead, Segal talks about the cost and viability of proposed regulations.

Its likely no coincidence that the shift is occurring as the Obama administration approaches a June target to finalize rules on power-plant emissions. Those who oppose regulation are wise to abandon a position that holds little public appeal; a healthy majority of Americans accept that global warming is real, and a New York Times poll earlier this year found that even half of Republicans support government action to address it.

More and more conservative officeholders are embracing the I am not a scientist agnosticism on climate change rather than skepticism. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and presidential candidates Bobby Jindal and Marco Rubio have adopted this response, and Rubio has joined Mitt Romney and Chuck Grassley in embracing the less assailable position that U.S. efforts to restrict carbon are pointless without similar efforts across the globe.

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A Water Data Startup That Helps To Fight Drought Raises $7M

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WaterSmart, a software startup that uses meter data and behavioral science to nudge consumers to conserve water, has raised $7 million in equity, the company said Tuesday.

The San Francisco company creates a monthly or bi-monthly report that shows each water customer who much water he or she used in the previous billing period and compares that to prior months and years as well as to similar homes in the neighborhood. Research has shown that such comparison can effective modify behavior because people like to think they can use energy as efficiently as their friends and neighbors. The report also comes with water-saving tips.

A water bill historically tells people their water use, of course. But those numbers often dont come with context or language that helps to explain their significance and grabs consumers attention.

A pie chart that shows where your water is going helps to educate consumers and make them feel more informed, said Jeff Lipton, director of marketing at WaterSmart, explaining one of the ways to present data more effectively. That raises the level of engagement that leads to greater savings.

In a pilot project at the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Northern California, WaterSmart demonstrated that its home report could reduce consumption by an average of 5%. That result and the persistent drought in southwestern United States has helped WaterSmart lining up other utility customers. Its other customers include the California cities of Sacramento and Glendale and Park City, Utah.

For Park City, WaterSmart added a leak detection service. The company uses meter and property data, such as the size of the home, its occupancy and the number of bathrooms, to figure out a certain period of unusual or excessive use of water; from there it could surmise whether there might be a leak. The service includes tracking whether those who received leak alerts followed up to fix the problems.

WaterSmart has about 40 customers, though not all of them have rolled out the home report service across their territories. Its service covers 2 million water meters in North America, which has over 100 million water meters. The company and others like it will likely win more attention from water utilities in states such as California, where state regulators are instituting a mandatory water use cut of 25% (compared to the 2013 levels) and funding technology that could help water districts to cut wasteful consumption.

The startup has raised $13.5 million in equity total since inception in 2009. Its investors include the Westly Group, Apsara Capital, Physic Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

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A Water Data Startup That Helps To Fight Drought Raises $7M

Power poses might not be so powerful after all

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The Superman stance probably won't boost your testosterone.

In 2010, researchers at Harvard Business School claimed to have found(PDF) that striking powerful poses caused hormonal and behavioral changes. "Power poses" seemed to raise testosterone, lower cortisol, and increase risk-taking behavior.

As with all research, replication was needed to check the validity of the results. An attempt at replication using additional controls, published recently in Psychological Science, found no behavioral or hormonal effects of power poses," although they did result in a boost in subjective perception of power. In other words, the original research did not hold up.

The idea that powerful poses could have hormonal effects ties in with a prominent idea in behavioral science: the hypothesis that physical interaction with the environment affects cognitive behavior. It would make sense that there should be a physiological vehicle (such as hormonal changes) for this effect.

A team of researchers led by Eva Ranehill at the University of Zurich tried to replicatethe original Harvard Business School study with some important tweaks. First, they used a bigger sample size. The original study used 42 participants; the replication used 200. Secondly, they controlled for experimenters bias, which is the possibility that subtle cues from the researchers could be affecting the results.

The basic methods of the study were the same. Each participant started out by providing a saliva sample. They then performed a filler task while in a series of two different poses, either powerful or powerless. The powerful poses took up space, like leaning back in a chair with feet up on a table or leaning across a desk. In contrast, the powerless poses were closed in, like having someone hold theirhands in their lap while hunched forward. The poses were the same as in the original study but were held for three minutes instead of the original one minute.

The replication deviated from the original study at this stage by giving the pose instructions via computer, which should prevent the researchers from subtly biasing their subjects. The experimenters' own biases were also handled because they didnt witness this stage, so they wouldnt know later on which poses the participants had taken. But, after the experiment was concluded, they reviewed footage of this step to ensure that participants had complied with the instructions.

Next, the participants played games that assessed their willingness to take risksgambling a sure payment on the chance of a higher paymentand their inclination to be competitive in a math task. They provided a second saliva sample, allowing the researchers to compare their hormone levels before and after the power stances. Finally, theyfilled in a questionnaire that asked about their feelings of powerand checked whether they had found their stances physically uncomfortable.

The results were very different from the original experiment. Participants who had taken powerful poses reported feeling more powerful, but there was no trace of this feeling in the behavioral tasks. Of course, its possible that these were just the wrong kinds of tasks and that a subjective feeling of power could influence behavior in circumstances other than risk-taking or competitiveness. Nonetheless, it representeda failure to replicatethe result seen in the original study.

There was also no difference in hormone levels between the powerful group and the powerless group. The researchers also analyzed the effect on each gender and checked whether it made any difference to exclude participants who had found the positions physically uncomfortable. There were still no significant differences in hormone levels.

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Power poses might not be so powerful after all

Corporations cannot muzzle whistleblowers with secrecy agreements any longer

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Big corporations have a history of bullying whistleblowers into submission. Photograph: Grant Faint/Getty Images

Corporations intent on blunting the whistleblower reforms embodied in the Dodd-Frank Act have long been muzzling their employees with non-disclosure agreements. Restrictive confidentiality agreements are nothing but corporate censorship - and it needs to end.

People working in big financial services industries need to be able to alert the public and the courts of questionable practices. Thats why President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act into law in July 2010: it was designed to address the fraud that contributed to the massive financial meltdown experienced in Europe, the United States and the rest of the world.

Its thanks to whistleblowers that we learned about illegal activity at Enron, Bernie Madoffs offices and Swiss banks like UBS and HSBC, resulting in the collection of billions of dollars in sanctions. Any doubt as to the importance of whistleblower protections in exposing corporate fraud was laid to rest in 2012 by the US Attorney General Eric Holder who described them as nothing short of profound.

No wonder that companies tried to undermine Dodd-Frank from the get go.

Numerous companies have developed broadly worded non-disclosure agreements that restrict the release of confidential information to the companys legal department as a condition of employment though the exact number is unknown. When leaving the company, employees who have threatened to file a whistleblower claims were also forced to accept non-disclosure requirements as a condition of a settlement or before they could obtain a severance payment after they were fired or laid off.

These agreements explicitly prohibit employees from communicating with anyone, except attorneys hired by the company. Some go as far as explicitly barring communication with regulators, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

We have seen numerous companies require employees questioned by the government to secretly provide them with insights into the scope of the investigation. These employees can then be effectively turned into informers against the government itself.

Whats even more Kafkaesque is that almost every non-disclosure agreement strictly prohibits the employee from telling the government of the existence of these secrecy agreements, and the restrictions placed upon them.

But thats about to change. On 1 April, the US Securities and Exchange Commission fined the mammoth defense contractor, KBR, Inc. (formerly Kellogg, Brown & Root), for requiring employees to sign restrictive non-disclosure agreements. It took the courage of a single whistleblower, Harry Barko, to get us to this point.

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Corporations cannot muzzle whistleblowers with secrecy agreements any longer

Student: University presidents should take stronger stances against racism

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How should a university president balance the Constitutional right to free speech against the responsibility to ensure students feel safe on campus after finding something as shocking as a noose, for example, hung by an undergraduate at Duke University?

Many students have demanded a strong response to show the university will not tolerate bigotry, while others caution that the First Amendment protects even the most hateful of speech. In every recent case, university leaders have unequivocally condemned the speech in question. But their other actions have varied.

Riley Brands, the editor-in-chief ofThe Daily Texan, the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin, has this take:

Just this semester, several racially-charged incidents have shaken universities. These incidents have tested university leaders resolve to promote an inclusive learning environment on their campuses.

In at least one case, a university president has been bold and stated unequivocally his intolerance for intolerance.

In others, however, fear or weakness has held university presidents back.

Last week, University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh announced that a vile e-mail sent by a fraternity member violated no university rules and was protected by the First Amendment. The e-mail contained racial slurs and dismissed the idea of sexual consent.

Read more about the e-mail here.

In early February, my paper,The Daily Texan, broke the story of a racially insensitive party at the Phi Gamma Delta, or Fiji, fraternity house just off campus. The theme party, which the president of the fraternity told us was western, saw attendees in hard hats with the names Jefe and Pablo Sanchez written on them as well as reflective vests and work gloves. Some at the party said the theme was border control.

The uproar online was swift and vigorous. Many called for severe action against the fraternity.

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Student: University presidents should take stronger stances against racism