Around the Region: Amelia Island Big Band Bash and more

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BEACHES 40th Winter Beach Run

The 40th annual Winter Beach Run will be 12 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Sea Walk Pavilion, 1st Street North and 1st Avenue North, Jacksonville Beach. For more, 1stplacesports.com

BEACHES Wine Preview Party and Trash and Treasure Sale

The Ribault Garden Club will hold its annual Trash and Treasure Sale on Saturday, Feb. 7th, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Garden Club, 705 Second Ave. North, Jacksonville Beach. There will also be a Wine Preview Party on Friday, Feb. 6, 5 pm.-8 p.m. for a $10 donation. There will also be a plant sale. For more, (904) 223-3933, (904) 424-2684 or ribaultgardenclub.org.

BEACHES Leigh Murphy exhibit extended

Due to high interest, Beaches Art Museums exhibit of Leigh Murphys work will continue to be displayed until Sunday, Feb. 8. For more, (904) 241-5657 or BeachesMuseum.org.

CLAY Sen. Rob Bradley honored

State Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, was named 2014 Legislator of the Year by the Florida Police Chiefs Association. He spearheaded an effort to increase law enforcement training funding from $40 per officer to $67 per officer last year.

GREEN COVE SPRINGS Dead in Deadwood

A Mystery Dinner Theater and Fundraiser, Dead in Deadwood, will be presented by The Village Improvement Association, in cooperation with The Friends of the Green Cove Springs Library, 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, and Saturday, Jan. 31, at the VIA Clubhouse, 17 N. Palmetto Avenue, Green Cove Springs. Tickets cost $15. For tickets or more, (904) 806-0397.

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Around the Region: Amelia Island Big Band Bash and more

Airport preparing for new service

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WEST BAY Discussion at a Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP) board meeting Wednesday centered on good problems as the facility prepares to welcome new airlines and routes this spring.

All of our conversation has been about expansion, new service, said Chairman Till Bruett. It couldnt be a better conversation.

After reporting a passenger decline of about 7 percent for December, board members said they hope new year-round service on United Airlines and Silver Airways will help reverse the trend.

Both airlines will launch service in March, with United providing twice-daily service to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Silver Airways providing three daily flights, two to Orlando and one to Tampa.

Although December traffic was down, the number of passengers traveling through the Beaches Airport remained roughly flat in 2014. Airport Director Parker McClellan said the decrease was expected because Southwest Airlines dropped to just two daily flights for the winter this year.

I think the real positive note is the total passengers for the year was down 0.16 [percent]; earlier in the year I believe we were in double-digits, McClellan said. Overall, weve seen good performance, and its relatively flat year over year.

With the arrival of new airlines on the horizon, the board also discussed future growth plans for the facility, which will celebrate its fifth anniversary this spring.

Paul Puckli, a consultant crafting a 20-year master plan for the airport, said the most pressing projects include expansions of the terminal buildings baggage make-up room and security screening area.

With the fact that youve got some new service coming in, theres going to need to be some improvements to this terminal facility, Puckli said. Thats a good problem to have.

The master plan, which is currently under review by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Florida Department of Transportation, projects passenger activity will double over the next 20 years, an estimate Puckli believes is still on target.

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Airport preparing for new service

Astronomy – Ch. 17: The Nature of Stars (36 of 37) Determining the Mass of of a Binary Star: Example – Video

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Astronomy - Ch. 17: The Nature of Stars (36 of 37) Determining the Mass of of a Binary Star: Example
Visit http://ilectureonline.com for more math and science lectures! In this video I will calculate the masses of the binary stars. Next video can be seen at:...

By: Michel van Biezen

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Astronomy - Ch. 17: The Nature of Stars (36 of 37) Determining the Mass of of a Binary Star: Example - Video

Astronomy – Ch. 17: The Nature of Stars (37 of 37) Mass-Luminosity Relationship – Video

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Astronomy - Ch. 17: The Nature of Stars (37 of 37) Mass-Luminosity Relationship
Visit http://ilectureonline.com for more math and science lectures! In this video I will graphically examine the mass-luminosity relationship. First video in...

By: Michel van Biezen

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Astronomy - Ch. 17: The Nature of Stars (37 of 37) Mass-Luminosity Relationship - Video

Astronomy first: 'Super Saturn' rings

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In 1610, after he built his telescope, Galileo Galilei first spotted enormous Saturn's gigantic rings. More than 400 years later, astronomers have in a sense dwarfed that discovery with a similar first.

Using powerful optics, they have found a much larger planet-like body, J1407b, with rings 200 times the size of Saturn's, U.S. and Dutch astronomers said.

It lies some 400 light-years away from Earth.

For decades, scientists have believed that many moons around large planets formed out of such ring systems. But this is the first one astronomers have observed outside of our solar system, they said.

It was discovered in 2012, but a detailed analysis of its data was recently completed and published.

Dominating the sky

If J1407b were in our solar system, it would dominate Earth's nightly sky.

"If we could replace Saturn's rings with the rings around J1407b, they would be easily visible at night and be many times larger than the full moon," said Matthew Kenworthy from the Netherlands' Leiden Observatory.

Unlike Galileo peering a relatively short distance through his simple telescope, today's astronomers can't eyeball the rings hundreds of light-years away.

But using two very powerful optical devices with eight cameras each, they can observe the effect the rings have as they pass across nearby star J1407 -- written without a 'b' at the end.

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Astronomy first: 'Super Saturn' rings

Nobel Laureate and Laser Inventor Charles Townes Does at 99

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Charles Hard Townes, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, who shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for invention of the laser and subsequently pioneered the use of lasers in astronomy, died early Tuesday, Jan. 27. He was 99 and in failing health, and died on his way to the hospital.

Charles Townes embodies the best of Berkeley; hes a great teacher, great researcher and great public servant, said UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks on the occasion of a campus-wide celebration of Townes 99th birthday last July 28. As we celebrate this 99-year milestone and a career spanning nearly 80 years, we can only be impressed by the range of his intellectual curiosity, his persistence and his pioneering spirit.

Until last year, Townes visited the campus daily, working either in his office in the physics department or at the Space Sciences Laboratory.

Charlie was a cornerstone of the Space Sciences Laboratory for almost 50 years, said Stuart Bale, director of the lab and a UC Berkeley professor of physics. He trained a great number of excellent students in experimental astrophysics and pioneered a program to develop interferometry at short wavelengths. He was a truly inspiring man and a nice guy. Well miss him.

Charlie Townes had an enormous impact on physics and society in general, said Steven Boggs, professor and chair of the UC Berkeley Department of Physics. Our department and all of UC Berkeley benefited from his wisdom and vision for nearly half a century. His overwhelming dedication to science and personal commitment to remaining active in research was inspirational to all of us. Berkeley physics has lost a true icon and our deepest sympathies go out to his wife, Frances, and the entire Townes family.

The passing away of Professor Charles Townes today marks the end of an era, said astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel, a professor of physics at UC Berkeley and director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. He was one of the most important experimental physicists of the last century. To those who knew him as colleagues or students, he was a role model, a wonderful mentor and a deeply admired person. His strength was his curiosity and his unshakable optimism, based on his deep Christian spirituality.

Townes, a longtime member of the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, often emphasized the importance of faith in his life, and was honored with the 2005 Templeton Prize for contributions to affirming lifes spiritual dimension.

Revelation

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Nobel Laureate and Laser Inventor Charles Townes Does at 99

An Astro-archaeological find from the dawn of time

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Scientists led by University of Birmingham asteroseismologists have discovered a solar system with 5 Earth-sized planets dating back to the dawn of the Galaxy.

Thanks to the NASA Kepler mission, the scientists announced today (Tuesday 27 January 2015) in The Astrophysical Journal the observation of a Sun-like star (Kepler-444) hosting 5 planets with sizes between Mercury and Venus.

Kepler-444 was formed 11.2 billion years ago, when the Universe was less than 20% its current age. This is the oldest known system of terrestrial-sized planets in our Galaxy - 2 and a half times older than the Earth.

The team carried out the research using asteroseismology - listening to the natural resonances of the host star which are caused by sound trapped within it. These oscillations lead to miniscule changes or pulses in its brightness which allow the researchers to measure its diameter, mass and age.

The planets were then detected from the dimming that occurs when the planets transited, or passed across, the stellar disc. This fractional fading in the intensity of the light received from the star enables scientists to accurately measure the size of the planets relative to the size of the star.

Dr Tiago Campante, from the University of Birmingham's School of Physics and Astronomy, who led the research, said: 'There are far-reaching implications for this discovery. We now know that Earth-sized planets have formed throughout most of the Universe's 13.8 billion year history, which could provide scope for the existence of ancient life in the Galaxy.

'By the time the Earth formed, the planets in this system were already older than our planet is today. This discovery may now help to pinpoint the beginning of what we might call the "era of planet formation".'

Professor Bill Chaplin, from the University of Birmingham's School of Physics and Astronomy, who has been leading the team studying solar-type stars using asteroseismology for the Kepler Mission, said: 'The first discoveries of exoplanets around other Sun-like stars in our Galaxy have fuelled efforts to find other worlds like Earth and other terrestrial planets outside our Solar System.

'We are now getting first glimpses of the variety of Galactic environments conducive to the formation of these small worlds. As a result, the path towards a more complete understanding of early planet formation in the Galaxy is now unfolding before us.'

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An Astro-archaeological find from the dawn of time

Vulcan Planets – Inside-Out Formation of Super-Earths

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NASAs Kepler telescope has discovered many strange, new worlds. None are stranger than the planetary systems that are commonly seen orbiting very close to their host star. These planets are typically Earth to super-Earth-size. Some of these planets are almost 100 times closer to their star than the Earth is to the Sun, and many of these orbits are much smaller than those of Mercury. The relative inclination between the orbits in these systems is even lower than our solar system making these systems very flat. Understanding the origin of these close-in super-Earths is a major challenge for astronomers.In a recent paper by Sourav Chatterjee and Jonathan C. Tan, appearing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a new model of planet formation is tested against the properties of the innermost of these planets, nicknamed Vulcan planets by the authors. Vulcan was the name given to the once-sought innermost planet of our solar system that was thought might exist inside Mercurys orbit, but was never found. The new study finds extrasolar Vulcan planets have a property that the larger their distance from their parent star, the larger their mass.This property is a prediction of a theory of inside-out planet formation proposed last year by Chatterjee and Tan in the Astrophysical Journal, which involves planets forming at their current locations from a ring of pebbles and small rocks delivered there after spiraling in from an extended gas and dust disk. Such in situ formation of planets at very close distances to the star using material that may come from large regions of the planet-forming disk is a radical departure from most previous theories of the formation of these planets, which involved formation in the outer regions of disks followed by planetary migration to the current orbits. Proving the existence of different modes of planet formation would be a key breakthrough for understanding the diversity of worlds that are now being discovered by planet hunters.PIO Contact:Megan FellmanScience and Engineering Editor+1 (847) 491-3115fellman@northwestern.eduScience Contacts:Sourav ChatterjeePostdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern UniversityCenter for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA)sourav.chatterjee@northwestern.eduJonathan C. TanAssociate Professor of Astronomy and Physics, University of Floridajctan@astro.ufl.eduReference:Vulcan Planets: Inside-Out Formation of the Innermost Super-Earths, Sourav Chatterjee and Jonathan C. Tan, 2015, Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 798, No. 2, Let. 32 [http://iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/798/2/L32, preprint:http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.2629%5D.

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Vulcan Planets - Inside-Out Formation of Super-Earths

Bill Gates Sees Super Artificial Intelligence as a Threat …

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Share.

Bill Gates expressed in his Reddit "AmA" Q&A session today that humanity needs to be more cautious with the future of artificial intelligence development.

I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence, Gates wrote in response to a Redditors question to how much of an existential threat he thinks machine superintelligence will be.

First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent, Gates adds. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though, the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not concerned.

Gates stated in a recent interview with Backchannel that hes not trying to limit progress in the field but is trying to raise awareness for the possibilities of AI replacing jobs and that advanced AI that may conflict with the goals of human systems."

Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and founder of SpaceX and Tesla, has often expressed his concerns over super intelligent AI in the past, contributing $10 million towards cautious AI research. Musk revealed a project earlier this month for a space Internet that connects everyone on Earth, and eventually Mars, to a low cost internet network.

Jenna Pitcher is a freelance journalist writing for IGN. You can follow her onTwitter.

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Bill Gates Sees Super Artificial Intelligence as a Threat ...

Bill Gates is worried about artificial intelligence too – CNET

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Microsoft's co-founder and former CEO is the latest luminary from the world of technology and science to warn against the threat of smart machines.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates joins entrepreneur Elon Musk and physicist Stephen Hawking with a warning about machine intelligence. Getty Images

Bill Gates has a warning for humanity: Beware of artificial intelligence in the coming decades, before it's too late.

Microsoft's co-founder joins a list of science and industry notables, including famed physicist Stephen Hawking and Internet innovator Elon Musk, in calling out the potential threat from machines that can think for themselves. Gates shared his thoughts on AI on Wednesday in a Reddit "AskMeAnything" thread, a Q&A session conducted live on the social news site that has also featured President Barack Obama and World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee.

"I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," Gates said in response to a question about the existential threat posed by AI. "First, the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that, though, the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern."

Gates, who is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, isn't the only one worried. Musk, the billionaire inventor and founder of SpaceX and CEO of electric car maker Tesla Motors, is not an expert in AI. But he did join a growing list of hundreds of researchers and professors in the field who signed an open letter earlier this month that proposed proper safeguards be put in place to research and develop such intelligence without humans losing control.

"I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not concerned," Gates said.

The reason they're worried is that AI isn't science fiction anymore. In stories and movies, AI is often presented as a good idea gone horribly wrong. In "The Matrix" movie trilogy, machines deem humanity a threat and enslave people in a virtual existence so they can feed off the electricity generated by the human body. When the Skynet computer system in "The Terminator" movie series becomes sentient, it wages a multiyear war using human-like robots designed to kill. HAL 9000, the socio-pathic supercomputer from "2001: A Space Odyssey," is now a cinematic icon -- HAL's robotic tone and malevolent quotes have become pop culture tropes.

Back in the real world, Apple's voice-based personal assistant Siri may seem a little dumb now, but AI is getting smarter as researchers develop ways to let machines teach themselves and mine the deep trove of data produced by our many connected gadgets. IBM's Watson supercomputer has moved on from besting Jeopardy contestants to conducting medical research and diagnosis, and researchers earlier this month detailed a new computer program that can beat anyone at poker. A need to worry? Of course not, but Gates and others are trying to imagine the worst.

Musk in October called AI development "summoning the demon," and has invested in the space to keep his eye on it. Hawking, writing for The Independent in May 2014, also expressed his concerns. "Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all," Hawking wrote.

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