If the SSD in your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro is squeezed for space, this clever device sits nearly flush in your SD card slot and adds 128GB of extra storage. Today's $98 price is over $20 less than the previous low.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/seOKpddSxHk/a-great-airplay-speaker-for-40-pny-storedge-game-of-1460211030She just jetted out of LAX Airport and now Miranda Kerr is leaving New York City on Thursday (November 7).
Arriving at JFK Airport, the former Victoria's Secret Angel was all smiles as she made her way to the busy terminal to catch her flight to London.
As previously reported by GossipCenter, the 30-year-old supermodel revealed her latest magazine cover on Instagram Wednesday evening (November 6).
Miss Kerr shared the snapshot of her Japanese ELLE December 2013 cover and wrote, "New #ELLE cover."
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Jeannie Kever
jekever@uh.edu
713-743-0778
University of Houston
The University of Houston will be part of a Texas-based operation established by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to manage the Ocean Energy Safety Institute, according to an announcement Thursday.
The five-year, $5 million agreement will be managed by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station's Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, working with UH, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin.
Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer for the University of Houston, said the goal will be to provide both industry and regulators with reliable knowledge about critical safety issues.
"Safety is going to have to be integrated into rapidly evolving technology to support ultra-deep exploration and production," he said. "Regulators have to be kept in the loop. We can bring the best academic minds to work with industry and government regulators to implement the best available and safest technology in deep water and extreme environments."
The announcement was made today in College Station, where representatives of the bureau gathered with those from the three universities.
"I look forward to working closely with our partners at the Institute on finding ways to improve safety offshore," said Brian Salerno, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). "The Institute will develop a program of research, technical assistance and education that serves as a center of expertise in offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production technology, including frontier areas, such as high temperature/high pressure reservoirs, deep water and Arctic exploration and development."
The Institute stems from a recommendation from the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee, a federal advisory group comprised of representatives from industry, federal government agencies, non-governmental organizations and the academic community.
It won't have regulatory authority over the offshore industry but is intended to be a source of unbiased, independent information.
M. Sam Mannan, chemical engineering professor at Texas A&M and principal investigator for the project, said each of the three universities involved bring something to the institute.
"We applaud BSEE for supporting this major undertaking of national importance that will impact ocean energy safety for the nation and world for years to come," he said.
Krishnamoorti, who heads the UH energy initiative and is a co-principal investigator for the Institute, said the University of Houston's strengths include its proximity to, and relationship with, companies engaged in the offshore industry, many of whom are based in Houston, as well as several of its academic programs.
UH has the nation's only subsea engineering program, and Krishnamoorti said the University's geosciences and seismic programs also will be an advantage for the new Institute, as will its imaging center, the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, which could provide continuous monitoring for leaks or spills.
The Institute, which was first proposed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, will provide recommendations and technical assistance to BSEE related to emerging technologies and the best available and safest technologies. In addition, it will develop and maintain an equipment failure monitoring system and train federal employees to enable them to remain current on state-of-the-art technology.
The Institute will also promote collaboration among federal agencies, industry, standards organizations, academia and the National Academy of Sciences. Information on issues related to offshore research and best practices will be shared with industry, government and the public through Institute-held forums.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Jeannie Kever
jekever@uh.edu
713-743-0778
University of Houston
The University of Houston will be part of a Texas-based operation established by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to manage the Ocean Energy Safety Institute, according to an announcement Thursday.
The five-year, $5 million agreement will be managed by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station's Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, working with UH, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin.
Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer for the University of Houston, said the goal will be to provide both industry and regulators with reliable knowledge about critical safety issues.
"Safety is going to have to be integrated into rapidly evolving technology to support ultra-deep exploration and production," he said. "Regulators have to be kept in the loop. We can bring the best academic minds to work with industry and government regulators to implement the best available and safest technology in deep water and extreme environments."
The announcement was made today in College Station, where representatives of the bureau gathered with those from the three universities.
"I look forward to working closely with our partners at the Institute on finding ways to improve safety offshore," said Brian Salerno, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). "The Institute will develop a program of research, technical assistance and education that serves as a center of expertise in offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production technology, including frontier areas, such as high temperature/high pressure reservoirs, deep water and Arctic exploration and development."
The Institute stems from a recommendation from the Ocean Energy Safety Advisory Committee, a federal advisory group comprised of representatives from industry, federal government agencies, non-governmental organizations and the academic community.
It won't have regulatory authority over the offshore industry but is intended to be a source of unbiased, independent information.
M. Sam Mannan, chemical engineering professor at Texas A&M and principal investigator for the project, said each of the three universities involved bring something to the institute.
"We applaud BSEE for supporting this major undertaking of national importance that will impact ocean energy safety for the nation and world for years to come," he said.
Krishnamoorti, who heads the UH energy initiative and is a co-principal investigator for the Institute, said the University of Houston's strengths include its proximity to, and relationship with, companies engaged in the offshore industry, many of whom are based in Houston, as well as several of its academic programs.
UH has the nation's only subsea engineering program, and Krishnamoorti said the University's geosciences and seismic programs also will be an advantage for the new Institute, as will its imaging center, the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, which could provide continuous monitoring for leaks or spills.
The Institute, which was first proposed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, will provide recommendations and technical assistance to BSEE related to emerging technologies and the best available and safest technologies. In addition, it will develop and maintain an equipment failure monitoring system and train federal employees to enable them to remain current on state-of-the-art technology.
The Institute will also promote collaboration among federal agencies, industry, standards organizations, academia and the National Academy of Sciences. Information on issues related to offshore research and best practices will be shared with industry, government and the public through Institute-held forums.
###
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Michael Bishop
michael.bishop@iop.org
01-179-301-032
Institute of Physics
A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.
Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to future generations of EcoBot a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity.
The device has been tested and the results have been presented today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.
Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.
In the future, it is believed that EcoBots could be deployed as monitors in areas where there may be dangerous levels of pollution, or indeed dangerous predators, so that little human maintenance is needed. It has already been shown that these types of robots can generate their energy from rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water, sludge and human urine.
A video of microbial fuel cells, fed on urine, charging a mobile phone can be viewed here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw
Lead author of the study Peter Walters, from the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, said: "We speculate that in the future, urine-powered EcoBots could perform environmental monitoring tasks such as measuring temperature, humidity and air quality. A number of EcoBots could also function as a mobile, distributed sensor network.
"In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories. In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms."
At the moment conventional motor pumps are used to deliver liquid feedstock to the EcoBot's fuel cells; however, they are prone to mechanical failure and blockages.
The new device, which has an internal volume of 24.5 ml, works in a similar fashion to the human heart by compressing the body of the pump and forcing the liquid out. This was achieved using "artificial muscles" made from shape memory alloys a group of smart materials that are able to 'remember' their original shape.
When heated with an electric current, the artificial muscles compressed a soft region in the centre of the heart-pump causing the fluid to be ejected through an outlet and pumped to a height that would be sufficient to deliver fluid to an EcoBot's fuel cells. The artificial muscles then cooled and returned to their original shape when the electric current was removed, causing the heart-pump to relax and prompting fluid from a reservoir to be drawn in for the next cycle.
A stack of 24 microbial fuel cells fed on urine were able to generate enough electricity to charge a capacitor. The energy stored in the capacitor was then used to start another cycle of pumping from the artificial heart.
"The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibres to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly," continued Walters.
The group's future research will focus on improving the efficiency of the device, and investigating how it might be incorporated into the next generation of MFC-powered robots.
###
From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump
3. The published version of the paper "Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump" Bioinspir. Biomim. 8 046012 will be freely available online from Friday 9 November at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012.
Bioinspiration and Biomimetics
4. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics publishes research which applies principles abstracted from natural systems to engineering and technological design and applications.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, conference proceedings, magazines, websites, books and other services that enable researchers and research organisations to achieve the biggest impact for their work.
We combine the culture of a global learned society with highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. We serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world through our offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia.
IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading international scientific society with over 55 thousand members promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all.
Surplus generated by IOP Publishing is gift aided to the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world.
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 45,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Michael Bishop
michael.bishop@iop.org
01-179-301-032
Institute of Physics
A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.
Modelled on the human heart, the artificial device incorporates smart materials called shape memory alloys and could be used to deliver human urine to future generations of EcoBot a robot that can function completely on its own by collecting waste and converting it into electricity.
The device has been tested and the results have been presented today, 8 November, in IOP Publishing's journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.
Researchers based at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory a joint venture between the University of the West of England and University of Bristol have created four generations of EcoBots in the past 10 years, each of which is powered by electricity-generating microbial fuel cells that employ live microorganisms to digest waste organic matter and generate low-level power.
In the future, it is believed that EcoBots could be deployed as monitors in areas where there may be dangerous levels of pollution, or indeed dangerous predators, so that little human maintenance is needed. It has already been shown that these types of robots can generate their energy from rotten fruit and vegetables, dead flies, waste water, sludge and human urine.
A video of microbial fuel cells, fed on urine, charging a mobile phone can be viewed here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTprRQTKAw
Lead author of the study Peter Walters, from the Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, said: "We speculate that in the future, urine-powered EcoBots could perform environmental monitoring tasks such as measuring temperature, humidity and air quality. A number of EcoBots could also function as a mobile, distributed sensor network.
"In the city environment, they could re-charge using urine from urinals in public lavatories. In rural environments, liquid waste effluent could be collected from farms."
At the moment conventional motor pumps are used to deliver liquid feedstock to the EcoBot's fuel cells; however, they are prone to mechanical failure and blockages.
The new device, which has an internal volume of 24.5 ml, works in a similar fashion to the human heart by compressing the body of the pump and forcing the liquid out. This was achieved using "artificial muscles" made from shape memory alloys a group of smart materials that are able to 'remember' their original shape.
When heated with an electric current, the artificial muscles compressed a soft region in the centre of the heart-pump causing the fluid to be ejected through an outlet and pumped to a height that would be sufficient to deliver fluid to an EcoBot's fuel cells. The artificial muscles then cooled and returned to their original shape when the electric current was removed, causing the heart-pump to relax and prompting fluid from a reservoir to be drawn in for the next cycle.
A stack of 24 microbial fuel cells fed on urine were able to generate enough electricity to charge a capacitor. The energy stored in the capacitor was then used to start another cycle of pumping from the artificial heart.
"The artificial heartbeat is mechanically simpler than a conventional electric motor-driven pump by virtue of the fact that it employs artificial muscle fibres to create the pumping action, rather than an electric motor, which is by comparison a more complex mechanical assembly," continued Walters.
The group's future research will focus on improving the efficiency of the device, and investigating how it might be incorporated into the next generation of MFC-powered robots.
###
From Friday 8 November, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or to contact one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop:
Tel: 0117 930 1032
E-mail: Michael.Bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump
3. The published version of the paper "Artificial heartbeat: Design and fabrication of a biologically-inspired pump" Bioinspir. Biomim. 8 046012 will be freely available online from Friday 9 November at http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/8/4/046012.
Bioinspiration and Biomimetics
4. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics publishes research which applies principles abstracted from natural systems to engineering and technological design and applications.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides a range of journals, conference proceedings, magazines, websites, books and other services that enable researchers and research organisations to achieve the biggest impact for their work.
We combine the culture of a global learned society with highly efficient and effective publishing systems and processes. We serve researchers in the physical and related sciences in all parts of the world through our offices in the UK, US, Germany, China and Japan, and staff in many other locations including Mexico and Russia.
IOP Publishing is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics. The Institute is a leading international scientific society with over 55 thousand members promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all.
Surplus generated by IOP Publishing is gift aided to the Institute to support science and scientists in both the developed and developing world.
The Institute of Physics
6. The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organisation with a worldwide membership of more than 45,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications. Go to http://www.iop.org
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Schildi is not your average turtle. After having been abandoned and losing a leg, some awesome German vets found a way to make him a better, stronger, faster tortoise. Now, fitted with a Lego wheel for a leg, he's a bionic hero in a half shell. And he's stolen my heart.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/xEfXpfZZW_8/@barrettWhat are the most striking features of the new version of Office Web Apps? The ones that aren't there.
It isn't the fact that the Save button has been nixed (shades of Google Docs!) or that multiple users can edit the same document in real time and not stomp all over each other's work. It's how little -- as opposed to how much -- variation there is between OWA and its desktop counterparts.
That small margin makes a big difference.
Better collaborative editing than the desktop
Tony Bradley at PCWorld covers in detail all the new goodies in OWA, which still consists only of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The biggest is simultaneous co-authoring: Many users can log into OWA, open the same document, and work on it simultaneously. Flags within the document tell you where each user is.
One particularly smart touch here is how Microsoft has set different levels of editing granularity for each document type. For Word, it's a paragraph; for Excel, it's a cell; for PowerPoint, it's a slide. They're good commonsense defaults, and in my conversation with Microsoft's people, they hinted at the possibility that it could be made even more fine-grained.
From a practical standpoint, it's unlikely two people will attempt to edit the same sentence at once. But if Microsoft can nudge the line of thinking a smidge further in that direction, it's a sign of how completely Web apps could be able to eclipse their desktop cousins. For one, the desktop versions of these apps don't have anything like the simultaneous-editing features found in OWA -- a case where the Web app actually sports a feature superior to the desktop app.
This brings up the first of two big questions about OWA. Do Web apps need to displace their desktop counterparts?
The answer may be different depending on whether you're asking Microsoft or end-users. End-users may enjoy the convenience of OWA, but there comes a point where OWA simply can't deliver. The longer and more complex the document, the greater the odds OWA -- or your browser -- will simply gag.
There's little question that Microsoft needs to create a product portfolio off the desktop that's as valuable and rich as the one the company has created on it. But I doubt it can move people off desktop editions of Office and into OWA anytime soon, and not just because OWA's feature set is lacking.
Algeria-born Albert Camus poses for a portrait in Paris following the announcement that he is being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957. Camus' views on his birthplace still stoke controversy.
Algeria-born Albert Camus poses for a portrait in Paris following the announcement that he is being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957. Camus' views on his birthplace still stoke controversy.
A hundred years after his birth, French writer-philosopher Albert Camus is perhaps best-remembered for novels like The Stranger and The Plague, and for his philosophy of absurdism.
But it's another aspect of his intellectual body of work that's under scrutiny as France marks the Camus centennial: his views about his native Algeria.
Camus was born on Nov. 7, 1913, to a poor family that had settled generations earlier in French Algeria. His father died a year after his birth, and Camus' illiterate and deaf mother, who worked as a cleaning lady, raised him. His brilliance would deliver him from that world of poverty.
This photo from 1920 shows 7-year-old Albert Camus (center, wearing black suit) in the workshop of his Uncle Etienne in Algiers.
This photo from 1920 shows 7-year-old Albert Camus (center, wearing black suit) in the workshop of his Uncle Etienne in Algiers.
Camus is regarded as a giant of French literature. But according to Smithsonian contributor Joshua Hammer, it's Camus' North African birthplace that permeated his thoughts and shaped his writing.
"His two greatest novels, The Stranger and The Plague, were both set there, in Oran and Algiers. He wrote incredible lyrical essays about his life there," Hammer says. "So he's extraordinarily Algerian ... down to the core."
But Algeria has never reciprocated that love, says Hammer, who recently traced the writer's roots there. That's because Camus' French Algeria, much like apartheid South Africa, was divided into two worlds: an Arab world and the world of the pieds-noirs, or black feet, the name given to the million-plus Europeans who lived there.
"He represents an Algeria that essentially is banished from the map, an Algeria of the pieds-noirs. So this was the world that Camus knew. It was a very segregated society, he really didn't know the Arab world," Hammer says. "So that's what you saw reflected in his work."
During World War II, Camus joined the French Resistance against the Nazis and published an underground newspaper. It was his novel The Stranger, published in 1942, that brought him instant international acclaim. In 1947 came The Plague, a novel seen as a classic of existentialism.
In 1957, at the age of 43, Camus won the Nobel Prize for literature.
But it's Camus' politics, not his philosophy, that still makes waves in France. Though he hailed from the left, today he's embraced by conservatives. In the 1950s, Camus fell out with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and the Paris left bank literary scene after he denounced communism.
Camus' stance on the Algerian war infuriated both the left and right at the time. He supported Arab aspirations for political rights, but he couldn't imagine an independent Algeria.
The topic remains sensitive in France, where 1 million pieds-noirs fled after the war ended in 1962. One Camus exhibit was canceled and two historians fired, reportedly to appease the sensitivities of the local pieds-noirs community.
Biographer Elizabeth Hawes says Camus was always more simple, seen from the U.S.
"Americans in general don't know anything about Algeria and they know very little about French intellectual politics. And so Camus was always just sort of a hero," Hawes says. "There was a lot of the mythic to Camus. He was great looking, and he was heroic, and there was the resistance, he was the outsider."
Camus' life was cut tragically short at the height of his career in a car accident in 1960. He was only 46. France is still grappling with his legacy.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Peter West
pwest@nsf.gov
703-292-7530
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF), in cooperation with interagency and international partners, recently made the first round of awards under a program that supports multi- and interdisciplinary science important to understanding the predictability, resiliency and sustainability of the natural and living environment, built environment, natural resource development and governance of the Arctic.
Six projects have been funded as part of the Arctic Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (ArcSEES) program. The projects are located at 12 institutions, and include collaborative investigators from the United States, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. ArcSEES grants support academic, management, indigenous and industry scientists.
"Twenty years ago, the Arctic Council emphasized the need to engage science for sustainability in the high north," said Erica Key, ArcSEES program manager in the Division of Polar Programs in NSF's Geosciences Directorate. "In that time, the Arctic environment and population has changed considerably. ArcSEES is a timely approach to understanding and mitigating the impacts of environmental change on Arctic people."
NSF's Division of Polar Programs; Geosciences Directorate and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE) contributed funding to the first round of awards, as did the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), an organization within the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
"The participation of CNRS through this new partnership with NSF and other U.S. institutions saw the selection of a project that includes French teams, and I am happy with this result," said Jean-Francois Stephan, director of the National Institute of Earth Sciences and Astronomy at CNRS.
CNRS coordinates the new French Arctic Initiative in which international cooperation occupies a privileged place, he added.
BOEM, in partnership with NSF, will fund two studies in the Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf:
One will measure and assess the long-term cumulative impacts of increases in the oil-and-gas-industry infrastructure in the Prudhoe Bay area of Alaska, with the goal of reducing the impacts of future development in the region.
The other study will examine the vulnerability and resilience of the walrus population off Alaska's North Slope. This will enhance the Bureau's understanding of the complex interplay between climate change; walrus population dynamics and structure; health, habits, feeding ecologies; foraging locations and harvesting by Native-Alaskan subsistence hunters.
"BOEM welcomes the opportunity to partner with NSF and other world-class scientific organizations looking at Arctic sustainability," said Tommy P. Beaudreau, BOEM director.
The premise of ArcSEES is that fundamental research is needed to understand the integrated Arctic system in this era of rapid change, how sustainability is defined the context of rapid change, whether necessary data and statistical techniques are available to make the desired assessment and to understand the stability and predictability of the Arctic system state.
The program recognizes that there are gaps in the scientific understanding of the rapidly changing environmental, social, economic, built and managed systems in the Arctic as well as their complex interactions and, as result, deficiencies in the science that guides policymaking.
The suite of projects supported by the first round of grants reflects the diversity of research necessary to inform sustainability science and co-develop relevant policy, mitigation and adaptation strategies with Arctic residents.
Submissions to NSF's ArcSEES solicitation program drew the interest of more than 250 scientific collaborators from 10 countries as well as management entities from local and multi-national levels.
Established by Congress through the Arctic Research and Policy Act, the U.S. Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) consists of more than 15 agencies, departments and offices across the Federal government. NSF's director chairs IARPC.
The following grants were made in the first round of ArcSEES funding:
Collaborative Research: Water, Energy, and Food Security in the North: Synergies, tradeoffs, and building community capacity for sustainable futures (Sustainable Futures North)
Principal Investigators: Philip Loring, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting, Eagle River, Alaska; Lawrence Hamilton, University of New Hampshire; Shari Gearheard, University of Colorado at Boulder
The Sustainable Futures North project addresses the question of whether synergies can be found among the related goals of food security, water security, energy security and resource development in the North American Arctic. Historically, development in one or more of these areas has presented trade-offs in others.
The North Slope Arctic Scenarios Project (NASP): Envisioning desirable futures and strategizing pathways for sustainable healthy communities
Principal Investigator: Amy Lovecraft, University of Alaska Fairbanks
This proposal for the North Slope Arctic Scenarios Project (NASP) involves multiple organizations and stakeholders in collaboration to explore options for sustainable development in the North. NASP employs proven and advanced approaches to engage North Slope communities in developing and analyzing scenarios visions for the future and plausible pathways--for effective strategic planning and implementation of policy.
WALRUS--Walrus Adaptability and Long-term Responses; Using multi-proxy data to project Sustainability
Principal Investigator: Nicole Misarti, University of Alaska Fairbanks
The Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) is one of many species affected by recent environmental change in the Arctic. This project aims to integrate several disciplines including archaeology, ethnology, biology and ecology using diverse sources of data including DNA, stable isotope, steroid and trace element analysis as well as to ascertain long-term trends of walrus feeding ecology, foraging location and stock genetics over the last two millennia. This time-frame includes large climatic anomalies such as the Medieval Warm and the Little Ice Age, thereby presenting scientists with the possibility of understanding how walruses adapt during times of stress and change. The project is jointly funded by NSF and the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Collaborative Research: Sustainabiity of critical areas for eiders and subsistence hunters in an industrializing nearshore zone
Principal Investigators: Tuula Hollmen, Alaska SeaLife Center; Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting, Eagle River, Alaska; James Lovvorn, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Neesha Stellrecht, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Throughout the Arctic, indigenous people are faced with difficult choices between the cash benefits of industrialization versus potential degradation of subsistence hunting. Subsistence hunting often provides a large fraction of foods and may be more reliable in the long term than a cash economy based on nonrenewable resources. Subsistence hunting for certain species may also have cultural significance that far exceeds their dietary contribution. Researchers will model habitat requirements and map viable prey densities for formerly hunted, but now threatened species, such as Spectacled Eider and a commonly hunted species, King Eider, in the Chukchi near-shore zone and determine long-term variability in the eiders' access to those areas through the ice. They will refine the maps with traditional ecological knowledge on conditions and areas where hunting for King Eider typically occurs. They will also estimate probabilities that different eider feeding areas that are accessible through the ice and conducive to hunting would be eliminated during migration by oil spills from pipelines built along four alternative routes. They will use the information as part of structured decision-making workshops to be held in the native community. These workshops will help create a local vision for sustainability, in terms of potential risks of different pipeline routes to subsistence and cultural values of eiders, relative to cash benefits of local construction projects.
Collaborative Research: Holistic Integration for Arctic Coastal-Marine Sustainability (HIACMS)
Principal Investigators: Lawson Brigham, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Paul Arthur Berkman, University of California-Santa Barbara
This three-year research project will develop and demonstrate an international, interdisciplinatry and inclusive process to enhance the practice of governance for sustainability in Arctic coastal-marine systems, balancing: (a) national interests and common interests, (b) environmental protection, social equity and economic prosperity and (c) the needs of present and future generations. The researchers believe that the sustainability process developed and demonstrated in this project focusing on the Arctic Ocean will have implications everywhere on Earth where resources, human activities and their impacts extend across or beyond the boundaries of sovereign states. The project is jointly funded by NSF and France's National Centre for Scientific Research.
Cumulative effects of Arctic oil development--planning and designing for sustainability
Principal Investigator: Donald Walker, University of Alaska Fairbanks
This project devises a sustainable approach to assess cumulative effects of oil exploration though combining detailed ground studies, local community input, industry involvement and an international perspective. It will use a three-pronged initiative:
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Peter West
pwest@nsf.gov
703-292-7530
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF), in cooperation with interagency and international partners, recently made the first round of awards under a program that supports multi- and interdisciplinary science important to understanding the predictability, resiliency and sustainability of the natural and living environment, built environment, natural resource development and governance of the Arctic.
Six projects have been funded as part of the Arctic Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (ArcSEES) program. The projects are located at 12 institutions, and include collaborative investigators from the United States, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom. ArcSEES grants support academic, management, indigenous and industry scientists.
"Twenty years ago, the Arctic Council emphasized the need to engage science for sustainability in the high north," said Erica Key, ArcSEES program manager in the Division of Polar Programs in NSF's Geosciences Directorate. "In that time, the Arctic environment and population has changed considerably. ArcSEES is a timely approach to understanding and mitigating the impacts of environmental change on Arctic people."
NSF's Division of Polar Programs; Geosciences Directorate and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE) contributed funding to the first round of awards, as did the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), an organization within the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
"The participation of CNRS through this new partnership with NSF and other U.S. institutions saw the selection of a project that includes French teams, and I am happy with this result," said Jean-Francois Stephan, director of the National Institute of Earth Sciences and Astronomy at CNRS.
CNRS coordinates the new French Arctic Initiative in which international cooperation occupies a privileged place, he added.
BOEM, in partnership with NSF, will fund two studies in the Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf:
One will measure and assess the long-term cumulative impacts of increases in the oil-and-gas-industry infrastructure in the Prudhoe Bay area of Alaska, with the goal of reducing the impacts of future development in the region.
The other study will examine the vulnerability and resilience of the walrus population off Alaska's North Slope. This will enhance the Bureau's understanding of the complex interplay between climate change; walrus population dynamics and structure; health, habits, feeding ecologies; foraging locations and harvesting by Native-Alaskan subsistence hunters.
"BOEM welcomes the opportunity to partner with NSF and other world-class scientific organizations looking at Arctic sustainability," said Tommy P. Beaudreau, BOEM director.
The premise of ArcSEES is that fundamental research is needed to understand the integrated Arctic system in this era of rapid change, how sustainability is defined the context of rapid change, whether necessary data and statistical techniques are available to make the desired assessment and to understand the stability and predictability of the Arctic system state.
The program recognizes that there are gaps in the scientific understanding of the rapidly changing environmental, social, economic, built and managed systems in the Arctic as well as their complex interactions and, as result, deficiencies in the science that guides policymaking.
The suite of projects supported by the first round of grants reflects the diversity of research necessary to inform sustainability science and co-develop relevant policy, mitigation and adaptation strategies with Arctic residents.
Submissions to NSF's ArcSEES solicitation program drew the interest of more than 250 scientific collaborators from 10 countries as well as management entities from local and multi-national levels.
Established by Congress through the Arctic Research and Policy Act, the U.S. Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) consists of more than 15 agencies, departments and offices across the Federal government. NSF's director chairs IARPC.
The following grants were made in the first round of ArcSEES funding:
Collaborative Research: Water, Energy, and Food Security in the North: Synergies, tradeoffs, and building community capacity for sustainable futures (Sustainable Futures North)
Principal Investigators: Philip Loring, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting, Eagle River, Alaska; Lawrence Hamilton, University of New Hampshire; Shari Gearheard, University of Colorado at Boulder
The Sustainable Futures North project addresses the question of whether synergies can be found among the related goals of food security, water security, energy security and resource development in the North American Arctic. Historically, development in one or more of these areas has presented trade-offs in others.
The North Slope Arctic Scenarios Project (NASP): Envisioning desirable futures and strategizing pathways for sustainable healthy communities
Principal Investigator: Amy Lovecraft, University of Alaska Fairbanks
This proposal for the North Slope Arctic Scenarios Project (NASP) involves multiple organizations and stakeholders in collaboration to explore options for sustainable development in the North. NASP employs proven and advanced approaches to engage North Slope communities in developing and analyzing scenarios visions for the future and plausible pathways--for effective strategic planning and implementation of policy.
WALRUS--Walrus Adaptability and Long-term Responses; Using multi-proxy data to project Sustainability
Principal Investigator: Nicole Misarti, University of Alaska Fairbanks
The Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) is one of many species affected by recent environmental change in the Arctic. This project aims to integrate several disciplines including archaeology, ethnology, biology and ecology using diverse sources of data including DNA, stable isotope, steroid and trace element analysis as well as to ascertain long-term trends of walrus feeding ecology, foraging location and stock genetics over the last two millennia. This time-frame includes large climatic anomalies such as the Medieval Warm and the Little Ice Age, thereby presenting scientists with the possibility of understanding how walruses adapt during times of stress and change. The project is jointly funded by NSF and the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Collaborative Research: Sustainabiity of critical areas for eiders and subsistence hunters in an industrializing nearshore zone
Principal Investigators: Tuula Hollmen, Alaska SeaLife Center; Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting, Eagle River, Alaska; James Lovvorn, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Neesha Stellrecht, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Throughout the Arctic, indigenous people are faced with difficult choices between the cash benefits of industrialization versus potential degradation of subsistence hunting. Subsistence hunting often provides a large fraction of foods and may be more reliable in the long term than a cash economy based on nonrenewable resources. Subsistence hunting for certain species may also have cultural significance that far exceeds their dietary contribution. Researchers will model habitat requirements and map viable prey densities for formerly hunted, but now threatened species, such as Spectacled Eider and a commonly hunted species, King Eider, in the Chukchi near-shore zone and determine long-term variability in the eiders' access to those areas through the ice. They will refine the maps with traditional ecological knowledge on conditions and areas where hunting for King Eider typically occurs. They will also estimate probabilities that different eider feeding areas that are accessible through the ice and conducive to hunting would be eliminated during migration by oil spills from pipelines built along four alternative routes. They will use the information as part of structured decision-making workshops to be held in the native community. These workshops will help create a local vision for sustainability, in terms of potential risks of different pipeline routes to subsistence and cultural values of eiders, relative to cash benefits of local construction projects.
Collaborative Research: Holistic Integration for Arctic Coastal-Marine Sustainability (HIACMS)
Principal Investigators: Lawson Brigham, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Paul Arthur Berkman, University of California-Santa Barbara
This three-year research project will develop and demonstrate an international, interdisciplinatry and inclusive process to enhance the practice of governance for sustainability in Arctic coastal-marine systems, balancing: (a) national interests and common interests, (b) environmental protection, social equity and economic prosperity and (c) the needs of present and future generations. The researchers believe that the sustainability process developed and demonstrated in this project focusing on the Arctic Ocean will have implications everywhere on Earth where resources, human activities and their impacts extend across or beyond the boundaries of sovereign states. The project is jointly funded by NSF and France's National Centre for Scientific Research.
Cumulative effects of Arctic oil development--planning and designing for sustainability
Principal Investigator: Donald Walker, University of Alaska Fairbanks
This project devises a sustainable approach to assess cumulative effects of oil exploration though combining detailed ground studies, local community input, industry involvement and an international perspective. It will use a three-pronged initiative:
###
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Twitter must have taken a few lessons from Facebook on how to launch its IPO this morning. TWTR's value on the New York Stock Exchange has nearly doubled as of this writing, jumping from the initial $26 price to $46 -- two bucks shy of its social networking rival. The day is still young, so early investors won't want to plan their retirement funds just yet. However, the rush is good news for a company that's constantly searching for new sources of revenue, especially when there may be patent royalty payments in its future.
[Image credit: David Weller, Twitter]
This article was produced in collaboration with NK News—an independent source of news and analysis of North Korea.
For nearly two years, Kenneth Bae, an undercover missionary from Lynnwood, Wash., safely shuttled groups of Christians in and out of North Korea’s Rason Special Economic Zone. In November 2012, Bae’s crusade ended abruptly. The owner of Nations Tour, a China-based front company he formed as a cover to evangelize in the world’s last Stalinist state, Bae was arrested by North Korean agents as he passed through the Wonjong border crossing with a small group of European travelers. The 44-year-old Korean-American was charged with possession of “anti-DPRK literature,” convicted of encouraging foreigners to “perpetrate hostile acts to bring down [the] government,” and sentenced to 15 years hard labor.
It is relatively rare that North Korea arrests a foreign national, even rarer when one considers that a company like Nations Tour is hardly unique. The so-called “Business as Mission” movement, which instructs devout Christians to set up companies as vehicles for spiritual outreach, dates back to the 18th century but found new life at the beginning of the 21st. It’s a missionary model that, by definition, assumes a certain amount of risk for those setting out to reach the “unreached.” But the risks haven’t dissuaded the faithful from taking up the cause. Today, there is an extensive, well-financed network of for-profit missions, using shadowy front companies to evangelize in North Korea. Though precise numbers are impossible to pin down, missionary-businesspeople have set up a staggering breadth of enterprises, including tour agencies, bakeries, factories, farms, even schools and orphanages, all in the name of spreading the Good Word.
Christianity’s roots in what today is known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are deep. The Great Pyongyang Revival of 1907 was touched off by Western missionaries during an evening service on Jan. 14 of that year and planted thousands of churches across Korea. The movement lasted about four decades before the religion was effectively “disappeared” in 1948 by Kim Il-sung. (Kim—=whose parents and grandparents were devout Christians and his uncle a minister—believed the faith would pose a threat to his regime.) Today, North Korea, a country widely regarded as the world’s most hostile toward organized religion, has a strong pull for a certain stripe of evangelical Christians, whose fervent efforts are focused, laser-like, on recapturing lost souls. And the 746-square-kilometer Rason Special Economic Zone—the same northeastern corner of North Korea that attracted Kenneth Bae—is ground zero for these modern apostles.
Generations of central planning and Soviet-style inefficiencies have left North Korea in dire need of food, fuel, and just about everything else. The nation’s largest trading partner is neighboring China, from whom it buys much and sells little. With no rational person likely to accept Pyongyang’s terms for foreign direct investment, Kim Jong-un’s regime has few options.
“The only people willing to do business in North Korea are ones who don’t really care if they make money or not, ones that have other reasons for being there,” says economist and investment strategist Patrick Chovanec, who has visited and analyzed North Korea extensively. “There’s just a certain level of cognitive dissonance there on both sides, which is not uncommon in North Korea.”
Photo courtesy of Eric Lafforgue
Foreigners visiting North Korea are permitted to possess Bibles, but North Koreans caught with them can expect to be jailed, tortured, or put to death. According to an American missionary who once traveled with Nations Tour and spoke on the condition of anonymity, Bae’s group did ferry Bibles into North Korea. In her description of the delicate dance that played out upon their arrival, she said their Bibles were counted by North Korean border guards on the way in and then again on the way out to make sure none had been distributed. A final inspection had the guards flipping through each copy to ensure no pages had been torn out and left behind.
Bae had briefed the 15-member group before leaving China on how to behave inside North Korea. There was to be no overt proselytizing, no discussion of politics, and the two or three pastors who were traveling with them were not to be addressed by their titles. In her recollection, the visitors tested the limits about as much as they could without getting expelled from the country—or worse yet, being forced to stay.
Once inside North Korea, visitors are accompanied by government minders—“tour guides,” euphemistically—at all times. On group hikes with their guides, the missionary said they sang Christian songs, but hummed key verses to avoid saying the word ‘God’ out loud.
“That was our way of worshipping and praising in our hearts, even if we couldn’t say it,” she said. She’s uncertain if their guides and other North Koreans understood the message behind the song’s words.
The North Korean authorities do have red lines. Different groups of Christians—under the constant supervision of their handlers—are kept in different areas of Rason to prevent any collaboration between them. (“We would like very much to meet on a Sunday, they don't want that,” says one longtime clandestine missionary to North Korea.) Preaching to North Korean children is strictly off-limits. And certain topics are simply forbidden.
“Talking about God directly, that would be like, asking for a death sentence,” said the missionary who traveled with Bae.
However, no one ever said talking about God in a language nobody else understands was out of bounds. Bae recounted one such instance in a sermon he delivered in 2009:
One night, I suggested that the team go to karaoke for foreigners to "worship," but there was a blackout so we had to go out and just sit at the beach. There were also around 30 North Koreans who came out because of the blackout. We just worshipped, singing songs about Jesus and playing the guitar like we were playing around. There was one team member from Ghana, so I asked him to pray for us in his language. He came to the front and started repeating, “God is great” for 10 minutes in his language. I was disconcerted but the North Koreans started following this. At the end of the worship, he said, “Amen" and then all of the North Koreans were surprised and his words spread out quickly.”
Having made at least 15 such trips into the country, Bae was seemingly unaware that anything was amiss. Like most things in North Korea, all was well until the day someone decided it wasn’t.
The young woman who traveled with Bae insists he had “no malicious intent” and that Bae’s very public prayers that “the walls” in North Korea would someday come down were not a thinly veiled plot to overthrow the government, but rather a figurative call for “their leadership [to] allow more freedom for their people to freely worship God if that’s what they want.” However, she did concede that “from the North Korean government perspective, I can see why they would say those things about him.”
Photo courtesy of Eric Lafforgue
Bae wasn’t acting alone. Although he had taken up his missionary work as an act of individual devotion, he was also, in some sense, an agent of a larger religious enterprise. In his specific case, it was a Hawaii-based ministry founded in 1960 called Youth With a Mission, or YWAM (pronounced “WHY-wham”), one of the largest mission groups in the world. Bae had been trained and sent on his mission by YWAM. The Christian organization has long been an advocate of the “business as mission” model, with its own School of Business and Entrepreneurship. Its strategic frontiers division—which covers much of Asia, in addition to parts of North Africa and the Middle East—exists “to bring the Kingdom of God to the least reached peoples by creating businesses that operate with biblical principles with the aim of bringing spiritual, social, and physical transformation in and through the business sphere.” The group’s founder, Loren Cunningham, has said that getting Bibles into North Korea is absolutely critical; he is certain the near 75-year absence of scripture in the Communist dictatorship will lead to the people’s moral collapse if the regime ever crumbles.
Missionaries have set up a staggering breadth of enterprises in North Korea, including tour agencies, bakeries, factories, farms, even schools and orphanages.
Krahun Co. is another leader in the race to “save” North Korea. It is a wholly foreign-owned tourism and trade company headquartered in Rason and run by Korean-American Chris Kim. With a branch office in Yanji, China, Krahun Co. planted its flag in North Korea by setting up a goat farm in 1999, immediately following a four-year famine that wiped out, by some estimates, as much as 16 percent of the North Korean population.
Despite the ongoing persecution of Christians in North Korea, Krahun Co. is surprisingly open about its motivation for doing business there. Last year, at a student missionary conference held in St. Louis, Mo., the organization explained its purpose this way:
Krahun Co. seeks to be a bridge between DPRKorea and the outside world to facilitate believers who have been called by the Father to be His representatives by serving its people through short visits or immigrating to DPRK to be their welcomed neighbors.
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