Monthly Archives: March 2017

What Do Offshore Wind Farms Mean For The Oceans? | Weather … – Wunderground.com (blog)

Posted: March 17, 2017 at 7:39 am

Sami Grover Published: March 16, 2017

In the last decade or two, offshore wind farms have gone from a rare sight to a major player in the worlds energy mix. In the U.K., in particular, the coastline is now dotted with vast arrays of turbines which make up a whopping 5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in total. Theres another 6GW or so of capacity in the rest of Europe. And recent developments suggest the industry is hitting record low prices well ahead of its stated goals, suggesting that further rapid expansion may be on the cards.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has just five operational offshore turbines, totaling 30 megawatts (MW) of capacity.

While clean energy advocates and activists have welcomed the spread of large-scale offshore wind and they continue to hold out hope for a similar expansion in the U.S. eventually there are still question marks about what, exactly, the impacts of offshore wind farms are on the oceans in which they are located.

One article in Gizmodo, for example, highlighted new satellite imagery from NASA showing a surprising and unexpected consequence of offshore wind vast plumes of sediment stretching for many miles from the base of offshore turbines. While the article suggested that the impact of such plumes on fish nurseries and marine life is currently unclear, the very fact that the effect is visible from space suggests that further study is warranted.

Similarly, the impact of large-scale wind farms on wind patterns and localized climate has been a topic of much discussion. While anti-wind energy lobby groups have suggested that widespread deployment could disrupt regional climates and cause unintended consequences, research has largely dispelled these myths and found only minimal, localized changes to temperature or airflow.

But what about more localized impact on marine life? A 2014 paper by University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science researcher Helen Bailey called for ongoing monitoring of potential offshore wind development sites, with a view to both more careful siting of projects, and also identifying ways to minimize harm during construction and operation. Heres how Bailey described the challenge in a press release:

As the number and size of offshore wind developments increases, there is a growing need to consider the consequences and cumulative impacts of these activities on marine species. It is essential to identify where whales, dolphins and other species occur to help avoid adverse impacts and to continue to monitor their response to the construction and operation of wind turbines.

Since the publication of that paper, industry groups and environmentalists alike have been working hard to solve this puzzle. A recent study by the World Wildlife Fund suggests there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful. By deploying a wide range of methods including altering piling schedules, air-filled tubes, hydro-sound dampeners, and even utilizing bubbles as a barrier against underwater sound waves, the research suggested that a drop of even 8 decibels in construction noise could significantly reduce the chance of a decline in North Sea porpoise populations.

Of course, its foolish to talk about the potential negative of impact offshore wind turbines without acknowledging the huge upsides. Given the devastating losses to marine life that we are already seeing due to climate change and ocean acidification, any localized damage caused by wind turbine production should be weighed against the reductions in carbon emissions and other pollutants that are achieved by switching to renewables.

Similarly, its worth noting that some research has suggested that, much like offshore oil rigs, wind turbines also serve as artificial reefs. Whether or not this creates a net positive for marine life or as one long-term study into Swedens largest wind farm has suggested merely means that turbines have a largely neutral localized impact, is another factor worthy of further study.

Given that offshore wind has only really taken off since the turn of the millennium, its perhaps no surprise that there are as many questions as there are answers about the eventual impact on marine life. One thing is certain, however, the longer we allow carbon emissions to grow unchecked, the more trouble we will find our oceans in. So far, offshore wind has proven to be a powerful tool in curbing such emissions, not to mention the mercury that starts out in coal-fired power plants and ends up in our tuna. Making sure that this promising technology meets its full potential will require keeping an eye on its impacts, and continuing to ensure that wind farms are developed as cleanly and responsibly as possible.

Sami Grover is a writer, and creative director at The Change Creation, a brand creation agency that works with entities who make the world better, fairer or truer. Clients include Larrys Beans, Burt's Bees, Canaan Fair Trade and Jada Pinkett Smith/Overbrook Entertainment.

The Weather Companys primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

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Sailing: Offshore racing continues its resurgence – Irish Times

Posted: at 7:39 am

Tim Goodhews Persephone of London passing Fastnet Rock lighthouse off the West Cork coast in the Fastnet Race 2015. Photograph: David Branigan/Oceansport

Evidence of a continued resurgence in offshore racing will not be in short supply this season as a new trend appears to suggest a trend away from short inshore races and regattas.

Fixture list congestion could also be linked to the dropping numbers in the latter.

Offshore races involving overnight and sometimes weekend commitments seem to be returning to vogue having previously been dismissed as too time-consuming for crews with limited free time.

Long legs up sections of coast requiring crews to sit-out were often seen as pointless compared to technically pure windward-leeward type courses.

Arguments that offshore racing involved more seamanship as well as valuable delivery miles gained little popular support.

More recently however, the biennial Royal Ocean Racing Clubs (RORC) Rolex Fastnet Race has seen a capacity entry received in record time.

The online booking system sold-out 340 boats in just under five minutes in January.

This fleet is in addition to the other non-IRC handicap boats that are expected to bring the fleet up to almost 400 entries departing from Cowes on Sunday, August 6th.

Included in the safety requirements are mileage quotas for crew-members to complete in addition to sea survival courses.

Demand for the Fastnet Race is serving as a boost for other offshore races and this years Volvo Dn Laoghaire to Dingle Race has now been accepted by the RORC as counting towards requirements and has led the RORC and the National Yacht Club (NYC) to seek a closer partnership.

They will act in an observer capacity this year to look at the Sailing Instructions and Safety aspects and then in 2019, it may well be a RORC race, commented Adam Winkelmann of the NYCs organising committee. Its a couple of months ahead of the Fastnet so we think its an ideal race as a qualifier.

Wicklow Sailing Clubs Volvo Round Ireland Race is already a starred RORC race and entries last year were boosted to 52 boats with strong indications that the fleet will grow significantly towards a supposed maximum entry of 100 boats.

The D2D race is also expecting a bigger turnout this year with Winkelmann predicting at least 30 boats, possibly 35 or more for the race that starts on the evening of Wednesday, June 14th, a new development aimed at limiting the race to two working days off for most crews.

The Race to Dingle is also boosted by the support of the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association that has nominated the race as its highlight for the season.

However, ISORA chairman Peter Ryan points the finger squarely at congestion in the Irish fixtures list as being the main culprit for the fall off in numbers at local and regional events and regattas.

Theres simply no co-ordination between everyone, unlike many years ago when the ISA held the East Coast conference to decide the following years fixtures list, he told The Irish Times.

Its a point echoed by Winkelmann as well.

I can already see the impact of that congestion, theres just too much on theyre (events) happening in an uncoordinated fashion and the geography is all wrong, said Winkelmann, pointing to the need to move boats from one end of the country to the other in the space of one or two weekends.

branigandavid@gmail.com

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High Seas Adventure With Bunn And Molina’s ‘X-Men: Blue’ – ComicsAlliance

Posted: at 7:39 am

Cover by Art Adams

The ResurrXion is less than a month away, and weve got a look inside the first issue of X-Men Blue, the new book about the time-displaced founding X-Men, written by Cullen Bunn with art by Jorge Molina. All the press around ResurrXion has been about taking the X-Men back to their roots as supheroes, and thats definitely going on here, with the team leaping out of a Blackbird jet to stop a robbery on board a luxury yacht. And the thief turns out to bea classic X-Men villain, to boot.

Molinas art is just perfect, with each X-Man having their own distinctive look (aided by Jamie McKelvies costume designs), and no less than two heroic group shots in just this four-page preview.

X-Men Blue #1 is out April 12, and features variant covers by Billy Martin, Leonard Kirk, Ramon Villalobos, as well as two featuring revamped art by Jack Kirby and Jim Lee.

Heres the official word from Marvel:

This April, the original X-Men unite once more to protect a world that hates and fears them. Today, Marvel is pleased to present your new look inside X-MEN BLUE #1 the highly anticipated new ongoing series from blockbuster creators Cullen Bunn and Jorge Molina! With Jean Grey at the helm, Cyclops, Beast, Iceman and Angel will set out to embody their mentor Charles Xaviers dream. Friendly faces and familiar foes abound as the original Children of the Atom set out on a new journey. But how long will their adventures last before they come face-to-face with their one of their greatest enemies?

Without these original five there would be no X-Men, says Senior Editor Mark Paniccia. The adventures Cullen Bunn and company have in store for them will excite fans of any X-Men team, touching on familiar themes and fresh twists on classic villains.

Plus dont miss a special backup tale from Cullen Bunn and Matteo Buffagni that features the shocking return of an ultimate fan-favorite X-character! Its all happening on April 12th in X-MEN BLUE #1!

The Best Original X-Men Cosplay Ever

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A Huntington Couple Plan to Turn Their Land into a Cohousing Community – Seven Days

Posted: at 7:37 am

Marijke and Mark Smith first met in the Peace Corps a half century ago, each trying to make the world a better place. So it's only fitting that, as they enter their twilight years, they're working to leave behind a cohousing community that perpetuates those values after they're gone.

The Smiths are co-owners of Windekind Farm, a 225-acre property on a south-facing slope of Camel's Hump in Huntington. This stunningly picturesque landscape, which they named after a character in a Dutch fairy tale Marijke was born in the Netherlands features mountain meadows, woodlands, ponds, streams, gardens and pastures. Currently, the Smiths operate a wedding and vacation cottage business on the land. There's even a one-fifth-scale model railroad that Mark built, which visitors can ride through the woods in warm weather.

But the Smiths' latest project is their boldest yet. Their goal is to create what they've dubbed the Commons at Windekind, a cohousing community of nine privately owned, single-family homes that share common resources and the values of community, collaborative decision making, energy efficiency and sustainable living. Launched three years ago, the project is halfway through the permitting process; construction of the first homes is expected to begin this summer.

The Commons at Windekind is the latest "intentional community" to pop up in Vermont, one of 22 such communities statewide, according to the Fellowship for Intentional Community, an international nonprofit. While a few are religiously oriented, most are secular and based upon a philosophy of sustainability and resiliency in the age of global warming. Ted Montgomery, founder of the Ten Stones cohousing community in Charlotte, once described his community as "a subdivision with a soul."

Although cohousing communities may seem like relatively new additions to the landscape, Mark points out that they actually hark back to Vermont's traditional land development patterns.

"The basic premise is, a shared economy is a stronger economy," he explains. "It all goes back to the basic principles of what Vermont is all about our town meeting tradition, our village green, our common schools. It's a marvelous concept."

Marijke, who retains her Dutch accent, recalls how she and Mark met on horseback in northeast Brazil in 1963. Mark was serving in the American Peace Corps, she in the Dutch equivalent. When Mark's two-year stint was nearly over, the two realized they'd never be able to stay in touch, so Mark asked Marijke to marry him.

The couple left Brazil to "wander the world together," he says, first to the United States, then to Holland to marry, then back to the U.S. and on to British Columbia. During a stint at Outward Bound in Colorado, they learned about a farm for sale in rural Vermont. So, in 1967, the couple bought the Huntington property, a defunct dairy farm, for $30,000.

For many years, Marijke worked as a counselor in local public schools while Mark taught developmental psychology at the University of Vermont. By 2000, the Smiths were facing retirement and the challenge of how to preserve their land despite its enormous tax burden. Recalls Mark, "We just didn't have the financial wherewithal to take that on."

To make ends meet, the pair launched their current lodging business, offering three rustic post-and-beam cottages to vacationers. They then expanded into the wedding business because of the location's gorgeous panoramic views.

But about three years ago, the Smiths, now in their seventies, realized they wouldn't be able to indefinitely sustain the housekeeping and routine maintenance by themselves. So they began work on a succession plan.

Initially, Mark says, they assumed one of their three grown children would take over the business. But because their kids' families and employment are diverse and mostly based elsewhere, he and Marijke began exploring other options.

After mulling a conventional development that is, a standard subdivision that involves selling off parcels of the land piecemeal Mark says he became keenly interested in the literature on cohousing and permaculture.

"That whole body of knowledge spoke to a much more integrated and community-based mechanism to sustain the land," he says. "It's really a design approach that does a lot of things for the landscape and the people that traditional development patterns don't do."

Diving into the process wasn't difficult for Mark, who served for years on various municipal bodies, including Huntington's Development Review Board, selectboard, school board and planning commission, the last of which he chaired twice. Such involvement gave him the expertise to navigate the various bureaucratic hoops necessary to bring the project to fruition.

Due to its topography, the Commons will be considerably less dense than many traditional cohousing developments.

"We value the idea of a home and not crowding people together," Marijke says. That's resulted in some "pushback" from Vermont's cohousing community, which prefers denser development. But the Smiths hope to retain the "rural village concept" that makes this spot so enticing.

They have also invested considerable time into creating a mission statement, bylaws, design standards and the like for example, they've mapped out common land for use as future gardens, orchards, pastures, even a community center. That said, much of what the community will ultimately look like will be up to its future residents.

They'll include Steve Hood, 65, one of the Commons' first investors. He and his wife had been looking for a home or property to build on in Huntington for the last five years when they chanced upon the Smiths.

"Initially we had no interest or intention of joining a structured cohousing community," Hood admits. "But this appeals to us on a bunch of levels."

Hood, who's already had a hand in shaping the orientation of his lot and the design standards, says he's surprised these lots haven't sold out already.

"We were looking for real value," he adds both in community and real estate. "If you read the bylaws and mission statement, you can really see the values that Mark and Marijke bring to this project."

For his part, Mark expects interest will grow once more potential investors learn about their plans.

"I've lived a long time and done a lot of things, but nothing has captured my imagination like this project," he says, as he surveys the land from a vantage point high above the valley. "It gets to the heart of my values about community and preserving open space for future generations."

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The Art of Paying Attention – Sojourners

Posted: at 7:37 am

Truth, naked and cold, had been turned away from every door in the village. Her nakedness frightened the people. When Parable found her she was huddled in a corner, shivering and hungry. Taking pity on her, Parable gathered her up and took her home. There, she dressed Truth in story, warmed her and sent her out again. Clothed in story, Truth knocked again at the doors and was readily welcomed into the villagers houses. They invited her to eat at their tables and warm herself by their fires. Jewish Teaching Story

The parable above demonstrates the very reason why I tell stories the way that I do. In my youth, I experienced firsthand the varied but often very limited effects of getting on ones soapbox and preaching to the masses. All may hear, but who will listen? This lesson occurred during my early 20s and I found myself having more than a few conversations around beauty and identity for ethnic minorities and women. Most of those conversations ended with me trying to patiently explain (though alternately fuming or saddened on the inside) why some particular harmful standard, judgement, or idea was not helpful for humanity and the crowd on the other end was either disinterested or silently staring at me with glazed eyes.

And then I began to make art.

My primary medium is portrait photography, and during my sessions I draw people out by asking questions about their very literal story. What is delightful for you in this season? What is hard? What Ive found happen in these conversations is that decades of untended pain or suppressed pleasures begin to break forth, find air, and heal as needed or grow.

The resulting photographs were much less Instagram-able but a lot more beautiful and real.

Ive seen this beautiful realness reflected in these initially nervous portrait sitters, now become ambassadors of authenticity and courage in their own communities. This has been true for my 68-year-old shut-in neighbor who never saw her dark skin or the story that came with it as beautiful but is now going door to door to other neighbors and caring for them, asking for their own stories. It has been true for an anxiety-prone working majority culture mother of three who was too unsure of what she had to offer her community, but now proclaims everything matters to the young adults she mentors into their own safety and peace.

And everything does matter. What we look at and how we give attention to it matters. How we see ourselves matters because it influences how we see others, and how we see others also matters.

Addressing how we see others is the other prong of how I tell stories.

I am often celebrated for how I photograph people of color. I am told that there is so much light, so much energy, and rich insight in how these individuals and communities are portrayed. That has been intentional.

For years I have been working with a group called The Voices Project, which sponsors a tour to a variety of historically black colleges and universities in the spring. I photograph this tour with a specific goal to showcase the life and humanity that is in black gatherings. By showcasing scores and scores of little tastes of what it looks like for black people to eat out in restaurants together, to share a laugh, to be a little tired after a show, to sit pensively while listening to a speaker, it allows one who starts out as simply a looker to one who can suddenly see.

This seeing has its effect on people of every side of a particular perceptual divide. The person who has two black friends from church gets a little more clarity and kinship in the way those gatherings remind them of their own families or the palpable emotions that run through their own friendship hang outs. The young student follows yet another Facebook page on leadership development and suddenly is immersed in a story rich with images that emphatically exclaim yes! and you too! Its a surreptitious way to subvert a prevailing idea and introduce an additional but oft ignored other narrative: a narrative that says that these people also matter.

These are the stories that I tell: yes and you too and yes and they too stories. They are stories that open the heart to the similarity in the other and stories that open us up to the yes and amen in ourselves. When these stories are embraced and emphatically proclaimed one by one, each community and eventually, the world is changed.

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Why Restore Kellogg Beach? A Look at Its Inheritance and Legacy – OB Rag

Posted: at 7:37 am

Architects rendering of proposed San Antonio Condos & Kellogg Condos

By Michael Winn

A real estate speculator has proposed to replace a single family home on Kellogg Street in La Playa with a concrete sea wall and 9 condominiums, where there is now a beach.

How can the community assess this proposed development without consensus about the fate of this beach? Colloquially called, Kellogg Beach its actually the last remaining part of the beach for which this community was originally named, La Playa, perhaps, in the 17th century.

La Playa (translated: the beach) is one of just four places shown on an 1851 U.S. survey of San Diego Bay. Other places are Ballast Point, [Old Town] San Diego and New San Diego. A trail is shown on the 1851 chart that connects these places. Today, my Google navigation shows La Playa across the Peninsula (not Pt. Loma).

My neighbor in Tunaville tells me his ancestors beached their fishing boats at La Playa in 1915. A 1950 aerial image of La Playa, before the sandbar was connected to develop Shelter Island, shows a hundred boats moored off a beach, extending from [Shelter Island Drive] to Ballast Point.

Following constructions by the U.S. Navy on the western end of La Playa, the remaining part of the beach, from which the area takes its name, began to quickly erode. Rising sea levels guaranty that, unless we take action to prevent it, there will be no beach in La PlayaUnless we take steps to restore and preserve Kellogg beach now, the current real estate speculators proposal eliminates the possibility.

Caption reads: 1950 and view of sandbar, soon to become Shelter Island.

If loss of this valuable and important topographic feature was intentional, Id feel differently. I dont lament the absence of the sand bar now called, Shelter Island, because I feel this trade-off was conscious and intentional and still provided shelter for boats and beaches. (Albeit I so lament the loss of habitat for aquatic species.)

Erosion of the last remaining beach of La Playa was not intentional: It was the unintended result, when Point Loma Naval Command altered tidal currents by building a rock jetty to protect the Scripps/Spawar docks, coincidentally changing hydraulic dynamics in the bay protected by Shelter Island.

The beaches that gave La Playa its name and prominence were inherited. We have a choice to pass this inheritance on to our grand children. If we dont, this community will bear the resulting weight of ultra-high-density development, examples of which we neednt look far to see.

Communities are empowered by state laws to draw the lineto choose urban developments that nurture and serve our families, especially regarding coastal access. But the economics of speculative real estate development make it necessary for communities to be proactive about this or lose their heritage.

Restoration of our public beaches is less difficult than building Shelter Island or the new fuel import docks the Navy recently developed east of the submarine base.

San Diego Bay beaches are the political responsibility of the San Diego Unified Port Commission, which is appointed by our Mayor and City Council members of San Diego and other S.D. Bay cities.

The Navy has previously restored beaches, where its construction and/or operations caused environmental damage, for example, at Los Alamitos, (Seal Beach and Surfside, CA) and the San Diego Port has also been obligated to restore and preserve environmental features in the bay.

Michael Winn is a scholar, composer, writer and filmmaker who resides in Tunaville. He claims to be an ardent kayaker in San Diego Bay, where during the last four years, hes paddled from Bessemer to the end of the point, and is a keen observer of local natural and human phenomena in the bay.

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Bill Nye issues open letter to President Trump about the future of space travel – AOL

Posted: at 7:35 am

Carrie Healey, AOL.com

Mar 14th 2017 1:36PM

Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society, issued an open letter to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, stating his recommendations for the government's investments in NASA.

The scientist offered the president five recommendations for the U.S. space program in a letter and video, urging Trump to use the bipartisan support for NASA to advance space exploration.

NASA's best photos of 2016

21 PHOTOS

NASA's best photos of 2016

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Sunset From the International Space Station

Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA captured a series of photos for this composite image of the setting sun reflected by the ocean.

Photo Credit: NASA

Space Station Flight Over the Southern Tip of Italy

The southern tip of Italy is visible in this image taken by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station on Sept. 17, 2016. The brightly lit city of Naples can be seen in the bottom section of the image. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft can be seen in the foreground.

Photo Credit: NASA

Star Trails Seen From Low Earth Orbit

Astronauts on the International Space Station captured a series of incredible star trail images on Oct. 3, 2016, as they orbited at 17,500 miles per hour. The station orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, and astronauts aboard see an average of 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours.

Photo Credit: NASA

Many Fantastic Colors

The Nili Fossae region, located on the northwest rim of Isidis impact basin, is one of the most colorful regions of Mars. This region is ancient and has had a complicated geologic history, leading to interesting structures like layered bedrock, as well as other compositions.

Photo Credit: NASA

Wind Carved Rock on Mars

The distinctively fluted surface and elongated hills in this image in Medusae Fossae are caused by wind erosion of a soft fine-grained rock. Called yardangs, these features are aligned with the prevailing wind direction. This wind direction would have dominated for a very long time to carve these large-scale features into the exposed rock.

Photo Credit: NASA

Rains of Terror on Exoplanet HD 189733b

This Halloween, take a tour with NASA's Exoplanet Exploration site of some of the most terrifying destinations in our galaxy. The nightmare world of HD 189733 b is the killer you never see coming. To the human eye, this far-off planet looks bright blue. But any space traveler confusing it with the friendly skies of Earth would be badly mistaken.

Photo Credit: NASA

Aurora and Manicouagan Crater

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station adjusted the camera for night imaging and captured the green veils and curtains of an aurora that spanned thousands of kilometers over Quebec, Canada.

Photo Credit: NASA

Paris at Night

Around local midnight time on April 8, 2015, astronauts aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Paris, often referred to as the City of Light. The pattern of the street grid dominates at night, providing a completely different set of visual features from those visible during the day.

Photo Credit: NASA

Stargazing From the International Space Station

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) see the world at night on every orbit thats 16 times each crew day. An astronaut took this broad, short-lens photograph of Earths night lights while looking out over the remote reaches of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Photo Credit: NASA

Election Day 2016

Thanks to a bill passed by Texas legislators that put in place technical voting procedure for astronauts, they have the ability to vote from space through specially designed absentee ballots. To preserve the integrity of the secret vote, the ballot is encrypted and only accessible by the astronaut and the county clerk responsible for casting it.

Photo Credit: NASA

Fiery South Atlantic Sunset

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed a sunset that looks like a vast sheet of flame. With Earths surface already in darkness, the setting sun, the cloud masses, and the sideways viewing angle make a powerful image of the kind that astronauts use to commemorate their flights.

Photo Credit: NASA

Ring Details on Display

This view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft showcases some of the amazingly detailed structure of Saturn's rings.

Photo Credit: NASA

Hubble Takes Flight with the Toucan and the Cluster

NGC 299 is an open star cluster located within the Small Magellanic Cloud just under 200,000 light-years away.

Photo Credit: NASA

Hubble Spies Spiral Galaxy

Spiral galaxy NGC 3274 is a relatively faint galaxy located over 20 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion).

Photo Credit: NASA

Practicing Orion Spacecraft Recovery After Splashdown

A group of U.S. Navy divers, Air Force pararescuemen and Coast Guard rescue swimmers practice Orion underway recovery techniques in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASAs Johnson Space Center to prepare for the first test flight of an uncrewed Orion spacecraft with the agencys Space Launch System rocket during Exploration Mission (EM-1).

Photo Credit: NASA

A Trio of Plumes in the South Sandwich Islands

On September 29, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite captured this false-color image (MODIS bands 7-2-1) showing volcanic activity in the South Sandwich Islands. Located in the South Atlantic Ocean, the uninhabited South Sandwich Islands include several active stratovolcanoes.

Photo Credit: NASA

Infrared Echoes of a Black Hole Eating a Star

This illustration shows a glowing stream of material from a star, disrupted as it was being devoured by a supermassive black hole. The feeding black hole is surrounded by a ring of dust. This dust was previously illuminated by flares of high-energy radiation from the feeding black hole, and is now shown re-radiating some of that energy.

Photo Credit: NASA

Hubble Views a Colorful Demise of a Sun-like Star

This star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core.

Credit: NASA

Infrared Saturn Clouds

This false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows clouds in Saturn's northern hemisphere. The view was made using images taken by Cassini's wide-angle camera on July 20, 2016, using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to infrared light at 750, 727 and 619 nanometers.

Photo credit: NASA

Moonset Viewed From the International Space Station

Expedition 47 Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA took this striking photograph of the moon from his vantage point aboard the International Space Station on March 28, 2016. Peake shared the image on March 30 and wrote to his social media followers, "I was looking for #Antarctica hard to spot from our orbit. Settled for a moonset instead."

Photo credit: NASA

HIDE CAPTION

SHOW CAPTION

"You have the opportunity to provide clear direction to our nation's space program," Nye said. "The advances and discoveries made on your watch could be historic."

Nye emphasized that the country should maintain its focus on Mars, saying that the U.S. could have humans on the red planet in 15 years.

"We strongly recommend," Nye said. "Let's maintain all of the existing programs: Robotic missions, crew capsules and rocket programs."

SEE ALSO: Something terrifying is happening at the North Pole

Nye urged the president to embrace NASA and all the different jobs the agency provides and said his organization feels the government should increase spending on NASA by five percent each year for the next five years.

Nye's non-governmental space advocacy group previously provided Trump's transition team with a 16-page document on the future of the country's space programs. It is still unclear where the president stands on space exploration and NASA.

The Trump administration has expressed interest in a "rapid" return to the moon and a return to manned missions.

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Back to the moon? Austin astronaut Richard Garriott talks space travel with FOX 7 – FOX 7 Austin

Posted: at 7:35 am

Richard "Lord British" Garriott is an Austin icon: Creator of the classic video game "Ultima" and pioneer of the commercial space flight industry.

Garriott wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps, Astronaut Dr. Owen Garriott. But when he was still just a kid, a NASA doctor told him because he needed glasses he wouldn't be eligible.

"You know after going through the 7 stages of grief, I kind of put my mind to it and said 'Hey if I can't go through the rules of NASA I'm going to have to make my own space program," Garriott said.

And that's what he did. Garriott has been to all 7 continents and even down to the Titanic shipwreck. But getting to space was the goal. He started a company called Space Adventures that began to book seats into orbit. In 2008 it was his turn.

2 weeks on the International Space Station. The price tag: $30 million.

"It only takes 8 1/2 minutes to go from sitting still on the ground to burning all the fuel in the vehicle and engines cut off and you're in orbit in space. That's obviously a pinnacle life experience as you might expect," Garriott said. "You see a place you knew well like for me: Austin, Texas. You go like 'Wow there's Lake Travis, there's downtown, there's my house.'"

Elon Musk's company SpaceX recently announced that 2 tourists will be hitching a ride with them and orbiting the moon in late 2018. The company won't say how much the private astronauts are spending but Garriott guesses it's more than $100 million per seat.

"I personally think this is the best thing you can imagine. I think there is nothing at all bad about this," Garriott said.

On the other hand, he's hoping NASA won't decide to land on the moon and spend any time there.

"What NASA does best and what we should always challenge NASA to do is go to new places first," he said.

Garriott says there are good arguments for it. It's practice for setting up a base on Mars...when you're just 3 days away from Earth instead of 9 months. But in this astronaut's opinion, not if we're hoping to get to Mars in this lifetime.

"Is the delay of stopping off at the moon worth it? Is the gain that we would have for increased safety or proving grounds worth the delay that in my mind likely would push getting to Mars outside of our lifetimes and I'm going 'I don't see that much benefit,'" Garriott said.

Garriott says because people like himself and these 2 un-named SpaceX travelers are investing in commercial space-flight, the cost per seat for a trip to the stars will start to go way down.

"I think that we should all be very pleased and happy that we're now to the point where we can put government expeditions to Mars to go to science and commercial expeditions to Mars to bring back value or go start settlements," Garriott said.

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The AstroRad Radiation Shield: The New Protective Vest for Deep Space – TrendinTech

Posted: at 7:35 am

Exposure to radiation has always been a concern for those traveling in deep space. However, with thanks to a new type of vest called AstroRad, those concerns may soon be a thing of the past. Its been designed by a team over in Israel and is now ready for use on any manned mission to Mars.

The company behind the AstroRad Radiation Shield is StemRad. Based in Tel Aviv, the company has already produced a belt that protects rescue workers from radiation during nuclear disasters like Fukushima and Chernobyl should one ever occur again. Add that to the newly designed vest, and everyones a winner. Mars offers no protection in its sparse atmosphere, so this kind of invention is vital if were really serious about putting people on Mars in the next few years.

The AstroRad consists of several layers of non-metallic materials to shield vital organs, and everyone will be tailor-made for each astronaut. StemRads CEO, Oren Milstein, said, This product will enable human deep space exploration. Our breakthrough has come in creating the architecture of the multi-layered shield to cover the most important organs accurately. Although the vest has already proven itself in simulations and the laboratory, StemRad will also be testing the product out onboard the Orion spacecraft in a joint venture between Lockheed Martin, NASA, and the European Space Agency.

Orion is due to launch late 2018 as an unmanned mission, but NASA is also considering sending two astronauts up on the same mission. During the flight, a dummy will be wearing one of the vests as well as a device to record the amount of radiation the dummy absorbs. Another dummy will travel alongside the one wearing a vest, but this one bare. The pair will be analyzed again upon returning to Earth. StemRads first example of the vest is to start being produced later thus year according to Milstein. He said, Based on our simulations, were sure it works but to be 100 percent sure, were sending it up on EM-1.

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The singularity: AI will make humans sexier and funnier, says … – The Independent

Posted: at 7:34 am

The much-heralded technological singularity will happen in 2029, according to Googles director of engineering.

Ray Kurzweil, a futurist who has made a name for himself through his predictions, shared his thoughts about whats in store for humans and machines in an interview with SXSW in Texas.

He believes that the so-called singularity the moment when artificial intelligence exceeds man's intellectual capacity and creates a runaway effect, which many believe will lead to the demise of the human race is little over a decade away.

By 2029, computers will have human-level intelligence, said Mr Kurzweil. That leads to computers having human intelligence, our putting them inside our brains, connecting them to the cloud, expanding who we are.

Today, thats not just a future scenario. Its here, in part, and its going to accelerate.

However, unlike a number of famous experts, Mr Kurzweil isnt worried about artificial intelligence.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently warned that AI could make humans irrelevant, and called for humans to merge with machines in order to continue serving a purpose.

Mr Kurzweil, meanwhile, believes that machines will improve us, and even help us become better humans.

Whats actually happening is [machines] are powering all of us. Theyre making us smarter. They may not yet be inside our bodies, but, by the 2030s, we will connect our neocortex, the part of our brain where we do our thinking, to the cloud.

Were going to get more neocortex, were going to be funnier, were going to be better at music. Were going to be sexier. Were really going to exemplify all the things that we value in humans to a greater degree.

Stephen Hawking has gone further than Mr Musk, saying, You're probably not an evil ant-hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if you're in charge of a hydroelectric green energy project and there's an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants. Let's not place humanity in the position of those ants.

He has also suggested that a world government could be used to control technological advancements.

Ultimately, it will affect everything, Mr Kurzweil continued. Were going to be able to meet the physical needs of all humans. Were going to expand our minds and exemplify these artistic qualities that we value.

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