PBS News, BBC Click, TED Talks, Elian Silverman and Scientific American

PBS News: November 22-25,2019, How these 2 economists are using randomized trials to solve global poverty, Is the distinction between migrant and refugee meaningful?, and Winslow Homer’s long love affair with the sea,

BBC Click: What’s The Impact Of 5G?

TED Talks: Daniel Bogre Udell How to save a language from extinction?, Jimmy Nelson Gorgeous portraits of the world’s vanishing people,

Elian Silverman: Photo gallery: Stunning images of indigenous peoples in their traditional splendor

Scientific American: Can Scientists Predict Fire Tornadoes?  

PBS NewsHour full episode November 25, 2019

Nov 25, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Monday on the NewsHour, Hong Kong voters deliver a stunning rebuke to Beijing in the first election since protests began months ago. Plus: President Trump clashes with military leadership over a Navy SEAL, Politics Monday with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith, Italy’s falling birthrate drives rising anxiety, David Rubeinstein on America’s story and art brings joy to people with Alzheimer’s disease. WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS: News Wrap: Judge rules McGahn must testify to Congress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlKk5… How will Beijing respond to Hong Kong election results? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r0BC… The fallout from Trump’s intervention in Navy SEAL case https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uiZb… Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on impeachment polls, Bloomberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igLPJ… In Italy, rising anxiety over falling birth rates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYYzT… David Rubenstein on what history can teach our politicians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VNhf… How art can help people with Alzheimer’s enjoy the moment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW-3j… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode November 24, 2019

Nov 24, 2019 BS NewsHour

On this edition for Sunday, November 24, the latest on the impeachment inquiry, Michael Bloomberg officially enters the 2020 presidential race, a look a racial bias in algorithms used by hospitals, and reenacting the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history more than two centuries later. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us: Facebook: https://www.pbs.org/newshour Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/newshour Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newshour Snapchat: @pbsnews Subscribe: PBS NewsHour podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts Newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe

Category   News & Politics

PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode November 23, 2019

Nov 23, 2019  PBS NewsHour

On this edition for Saturday, November 23, a look ahead at the next steps in the impeachment inquiry, Minneapolis eliminates single-family zoning as it searches for a solution to its housing crisis, and the Navy secretary downplays reports he may resign. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 22, 2019

Nov 22, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Friday on the NewsHour, the week’s impeachment hearings are over, but analysis of their impact continues. Plus: The significance of Hong Kong’s upcoming election, countering the dangers of vaping through public policy, political analysis with Mark Shields and David Brooks, a Brief But Spectacular take on women in comedy and a preview of a movie about beloved children’s entertainer Mister Rogers. WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS: News Wrap: DOJ says political bias didn’t alter Russia probe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFr1P… What happens next in the impeachment inquiry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQPFZ… Will Trump take action on medical crisis of youth vaping? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz4Uw… Shields and Brooks on impeachment hearing revelations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkE0F… Amid protests, Hong Kong’s interest in local elections soars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Btj… A Brief But Spectacular take on women in late-night comedy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJrfd… Honoring Mister Rogers with a film starring Tom Hanks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNz-t… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

How these 2 economists are using randomized trials to solve global poverty

Nov 21, 2019  PBS NewsHour

More than 700 million people across the globe live on extremely low wages. This year, a trio of economists won the Nobel Prize for their work on addressing global poverty, using randomized control trials to test and improve social policy. Economics correspondent Paul Solman talks to two of those winners, husband-and-wife duo Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, about their work. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Is the distinction between migrant and refugee meaningful?

Nov 18, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Under President Trump, American immigration policy has been in the spotlight. While Trump may talk the most about stopping illegal entry into the U.S., he is also taking action to reduce the volume of legal migrants the country accepts as refugees. But what makes one immigrant a refugee and another simply a migrant? Writer Dina Nayeri offers her humble opinion questioning that distinction. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Winslow Homer’s long love affair with the sea

Nov 18, 2019   PBS NewsHour

Renowned 19th century American artist Winslow Homer began his journey in marine painting with a trip to Europe, following his well-known work documenting the frontlines of the Civil War as an illustrator. But it was back in the U.S., and specifically on the shores of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where Homer became “enchanted” with land, sea and sky. Jared Bowen of PBS station WGBH in Boston reports. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

What’s The Impact Of 5G? – BBC Click

•Nov 15, 2019  BBC Click

Click investigates whether 5G networks could damage our health as some fear, and whether 5G might take our weather forecasting ability back to the 1980s? Subscribe HERE https://bit.ly/1uNQEWR Find us online at www.bbc.com/click Twitter: @bbcclick Facebook: www.facebook.com/BBCClick

Category   Science & Technology

As many as 3,000 languages could disappear within the next 80 years, all but silencing entire cultures. In this quick talk, language activist Daniel Bögre Udell shows how people around the world are finding new ways to revive ancestral languages and rebuild their traditions — and encourages us all to investigate the tongues of our ancestors. “Reclaiming your language and embracing your culture is a powerful way to be yourself,” he says.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Daniel Bögre Udell · Language activist

Daniel Bögre Udell is the cofounder and director of Wikitongues, working with a global network of grassroots linguists to build a seed bank of every language in the world.

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participate

Contribute a video of your language to the Wikitongues seed bank.

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organize

Donate to Wikitongues and help safeguard linguistic diversity.

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147,311 views

TED Residency | May 2019

When Jimmy Nelson traveled to Siberia to photograph the Chukchi people, elders told him: “You cannot photograph us. You have to wait, you have to wait until you get to know us, you have to wait until you understand us.” In this gorgeously photo-filled talk, join Nelson’s quest to understand — the world, other people, himself — by making astonishing portraits of the world’s vanishing tribes and cultures.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Jimmy Nelson · Last tribes photographer

Jimmy Nelson’s photographs of vanishing tribes illuminate the indigenous cultures of our shared world.

More Resources  book

Before They Pass Away

Jimmy Nelson

teNeues (2013)

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Support the effort to protect the homes of indigenous people who live in the rainforest.

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TEDGlobal 2014 | October 2014

https://www.ted.com/speakers/jimmy_nelson

Jimmy Nelson’s photographs of vanishing tribes illuminate the indigenous cultures of our shared world.

Why you should listen

In his quest to photograph endangered cultures, Jimmy Nelson has endured Kalishnikov-toting Banna tribesmen, subzero reindeer attacks, and thousands of miles of hard travel. With a blend of humility and humor, Nelson won the trust of each of his subjects, using an antique plate camera to create stunning portraits of 35 indigenous tribes.

The result is Before They Pass Away, a photo treasury that Nelson hopes will not only help preserve the lifestyles of people the world over, but also perhaps inspire readers in the developed world to ponder their own connections with their ancestral environments.

What others say

“There is a pure beauty in their goals and family ties, their belief in gods and nature, and their will to do the right thing in order to be taken care of when their time comes. Whether in Papua New Guinea or in Kazakhstan, in Ethiopia or in Siberia, tribes are the last resorts of natural authenticity.” — beforethey.com

Jimmy Nelson’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Jimmy Nelson

Arts + Design

Photo gallery: Stunning images of indigenous peoples in their traditional splendor

December 7, 2018

Jimmy Nelson has gone all over the earth to photograph native peoples at their proudest moments and to show you their soul.

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Live from TEDGlobal

Through the looking glass: A recap of session 8 of TEDGlobal 2014

October 9, 2014

In this session, “Lenses,” speakers look through cameras and new lenses — at subjects from the very, very big to the very, very small to the very, very far away. Wendy Freedman talks about a remote location in the Andes, far from the lights of civilization, where the stars can be seen clearly with the naked eye. In that location, […]

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Live from TEDGlobal

Lenses: A sneak peek of session 8 at TEDGlobal 2014

October 9, 2014

Lenses allow us to look at far away worlds and to examine our own more closely. In this session hidden social and scientific fabrics will be amplified by several orders of magnitude, bringing us a richer and more vibrant experience than the naked eye can see on its own. The speakers who’ll appear in this […]

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Photo gallery: Stunning images of indigenous peoples in their traditional splendor

Dec 7, 2018 / Elian Silverman

Jimmy Nelson has gone all over the earth to photograph native peoples at their proudest moments and to show you their soul.

“This is us at our best” — that’s the caption that could hover over these images from Dutch photographer Jimmy Nelson (TED talk: Gorgeous portraits of the world’s vanishing people), who works to put the world’s peoples and their rich traditions front and center in his pictures.

“I don’t think there’s anyone else in the world who looks like us or does things the way we do,” says Mucathalepa Tchombo, a 32-year-old Muchimba woman from southwestern Africa, and one of the subjects of Nelson’s work. “I’m very proud of my culture, but the world is changing fast, and we’re part of that too.”

Nelson is keenly aware that customs can vanish in a flash. To document them before they do, he spends months immersing himself in remote communities, connecting with people and really learning about their lives. Later, he returns to share the finished pictures with them. “In some cases, I’m not the first person to have photographed them,” he says. “But, in most cases, I’m the first to return and show them the imagery.”

While Nelson’s images are undeniably beautiful, some critics have accused him of perpetuating stereotypes and “othering” his subjects. But he disagrees. “I think a lot of judgement is based on fear,” he says. “And that’s the antithesis of my project — it’s about trying to break down those barriers and bring the people closer to you.”

Nelson’s new book, Jimmy Nelson: Homage to Humanity, is his latest attempt to showcase the pride, strength and resilience of the people he has come to know; all shown, as he puts it, “standing at their most proud.” The book’s smartphone app lets viewers access 360-degree images and videos, letting readers feel as if they are witnessing these rituals firsthand. “The idea is that the whole world can get access to what’s going on behind the pictures, see who these people really are, and dispel myths about them,” he says. “I want to show you the soul of these people.”

The Huli people, Papua New Guinea

The Huli are believed to have laid down roots in Papua New Guinea as far back as 45,000 years ago. The people shown are from the town of Tari, and many still live according to the traditional ways. “The Huli men are famous for their unique custom of creating and wearing impressive wigs decorated with feathers. They also wear bright facial paint in red, yellow and white — colors originally chosen to strike fear into their enemy in times of conflict,” says Nelson. “Nowadays, they usually wear them to sing and dance.”

The so-called Wigmen make their wigs out of their own hair — yes, that’s right — and weave them with feathers from the island’s 700 bird species. Each feather carries its own symbolic meaning (such as strength and courage). The Huli who participated in Nelson’s photographs did so in the hopes that their portraits will inspire their youth to follow in their elders’ footsteps. But they also want their images to reach people outside their community.

“The forest in which we live is essential to us. It provides for all our needs, it is sacred, and I would do anything in my power to protect it,” writes Mundiya Kepanga, a 53-year-old Huli Wigman, in the foreword to Homage to Humanity. “I hope that by helping people to better understand my culture, they will also respect our environment.”

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The Dolgan people, Siberia

The nomadic Dolgans roam one of the coldest regions on earth, the tundra of the northern Anabar Republic of Yakutia in Siberia. On a particularly brutal day, the temperature may drop to -76 degrees Fahrenheit. “Dolgan means ‘people who live close to water’ — or, in this case, ice. They live on icy white plains that stretch out as far as the eye can see,” says Nelson.

The herders move every few days to find enough lichen for their reindeer to eat. For maximum efficiency, the Dolgan put everything they need to carry with them — including their homes, which are called balok — on skis. They travel with more than 1,500 animals, including packs of herding dogs and herds of reindeer.

“We Dolgan have been the envy of many people. During perestroika in the 1990s, the reindeer herders were the only ones who were well-fed because the tundra always keeps providing,” says Roman Dimitruvik Tupirin, a 44-year-old Dolgan who was interviewed by Nelson and his team. “Now we’re fearful of losing our connection to nature because people are coming here to hunt for diamonds and oil.”

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The Ngalop people, Bhutan

Buddhism is the most widely practiced religion in Bhutan — an estimated two-thirds to three-quarters of the population are adherents — so the Ngalop people hold a special place in their country. “Ngalop means ‘the first risen,’ and they are known as the people who brought Tibetan Buddhism to Bhutan when they migrated there in the ninth century,” says Nelson. The Ngalop live mainly in the northwest region of the country.

Shown are a group of Ngalop masked dancers. Symbolizing different deities, demons and animals, the masks are used when the Ngalop act out spiritual stories from their collective past. In this photo, they’re dressed for the annual Tshechu festival. “Religious gatherings such as the Tschechu festival are an important way to promote and share cultural heritage between the people from remote villages,” Nelson says. The temple complex seen on the left-hand side of the image is Paro Takstang or “The Tiger’s Nest.” Located more than 10,000 feet above sea level, it is is one of the most sacred sites in Bhutan.

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The Marquesan people, the Marquesas Islands, Polynesia

When Captain Cook and his crew arrived at the Marquesas Islands — a volcanic chain in the southern Pacific — in the late 1700s, they were struck by the appearance of the inhabitants. A crew member said they were “the most beautiful … people I ever beheld.” Unfortunately, Cook and co. (and subsequent European settlers) ended up bringing disease and conflict to the people they so admired. In a matter of years, the Marquesan population shrunk from 80,000 to 2,000 — today, the population of the 15 islands totals just over 9,000 people.

“The native inhabitants are known in the local language as Enanaa, meaning ‘people,’” says Nelson. “Traditionally, Marquesans wore clothing made of leaves and grasses that were decorated with animal teeth and beads. Today, their skirts are more likely to be made of cloth.”

Historically, Enanaa had no written alphabet, so tattoos are an important part of their identities. Shapes and symbols enable people to communicate their status and their genealogy. After a child is born, parents start saving money — by raising pigs and growing crops — to pay for their child’s tattoos in adulthood. Getting inked isn’t just a young person’s game; it’s a lifelong pursuit. Subsequent tattoos are earned as people accrue wealth and achieve higher status in their community. Today, even though many Marquesans speak and write French, tattoos are still an important part of their culture.


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The Q’ero people, Peru

The Inca empire is believed to be the largest pre-European civilization in the Americas, numbering some 10 million. The Q’ero, shown here, are thought to be direct descendants of the Inca, and their 2,000 members live in and around the community of Qochamoqo, located in eastern Peru and perched over 14,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains.

Considered part of the Quechua population group — with whom they share a language — “the Q’ero are one of the most isolated Andean communities, moving with the seasons to live and work at various altitudes, growing potatoes, corn and bamboo,” says Nelson. “They are known for their weaving techniques, with which they make the colorful unkuña carrying cloths.” The cloth is made from a blend of alpaca, sheep and llama wool, and the fabrics’ designs communicate their people’s history and mythology.

Some of the Q’ero’s other traditions aren’t as visible. “We still believe there should always be equal exchange, a sacred reciprocity we call ayni: I do something for you today; you do something for me tomorrow,” says Fredy Flores Machacca, 30, the youngest-ever president of the Q’ero nation, to Nelson. Added Machacca, “We Q’eros live close to nature and we sleep close to the earth. I want to protect it like it protects us. That is ayni.”

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The Muchimba people, Angola/Namibia

In recent times, the Kaokoveld Plateau in southern Africa has become known for rare minerals such as shattuckite and dioptase. Yet the culture of its native inhabitants — which includes the semi-nomadic Muchimba people — is similarly rich. They spend much of their time along the Cunene River, which is an important resource for them and their herds of cattle and goats, and live in dome-shaped houses made from sticks, clay, straw and cow dung.

Since water is so scarce, the Muchimba reserve it for livestock. To keep clean, says Nelson, “the women cover their skin and hair in a mixture of butterfat and ochre pigment known as otjize, which also protects them from the sun.” Additional bonus: Otjize acts as a moisturizer and insect repellant, too. Only the women wear it — not the men — and they use it in their hair as well. “We rub the wet [ochre] paste into our hair to make long braids. A few times a year, we wash it all out and redo it,” Mucathalepa Tchombo, a Muchimba woman, tells Nelson. “If there’s a special occasion coming up, we put on more ochre. It’s a kind of makeup.



The Kazakh people, Mongolia

Dalaikhan Boskay, the man shown here, is an eagle hunter and one of the Kazakhs, the largest ethnic minority group in Mongolia. The term doesn’t mean that he hunts down eagles; rather, he hunts red foxes, rabbits and wolves withthe assistance of these powerful birds of prey. His thick coat and hat are made from animal hides, fur and felt; whenever a Kazakh hunts and kills an animal, they are careful to use every piece of it — for utility and as a sign of respect to the creature.

The Kazakhs, who live in northwestern Mongolia, rely primarily on golden eagles. And while this kind of falconry was once the domain of men, the thousands-year-old tradition is open to change — women, girls and boys are now taking it up. People start training their eagles as fledglings, so human and bird develop an intense bond. “Hunters usually keep their eagles for around 10 years, which is about a third of their lifespan. We can feel when it’s time to give them back to the wild,” Boskay tells Nelson. “We only use female eagles, and it’s important to release them so they can have offspring and keep the natural balance.”


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The Miao people, China

The mountainous province of Guizhou in southwest China is home to more than 50 minority groups. However, few of them still follow traditional customs, but among those who do are the Miao people (sometimes called the Hmong or Guizhou people). But the 7 million-strong Miao are not all the same — they’re split among distinct groups.

Shown is an 11-year-old girl, who is one of the Longhorn Miao. “They’re named for their impressive headpieces, which were originally made from the hair of their ancestors in order to keep them close,” says Nelson. “Nowadays most headpieces are made of wool. Their shape is derived from the oxen and water buffalo that play such an important part in their agricultural life.” To form that distinctive shape, wool is wrapped around a horn-shaped wooden comb. The headpieces are worn by the Miao during their spiritual rituals. Most Miao people are animists and believe that rocks, trees, rivers and human creations all possess their own spirits.

Watch Jimmy Nelson’s TED talk here:

About the author

Elian Silverman is a writer based in New York City who covers science and technology.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-scientists-predict-fire-tornadoes/

Can Scientists Predict Fire Tornadoes?  

Inside the effort to understand wildfire season’s scariest phenomena

December 1, 2019

AUTHOR   Jason M. Forthofer

Jason M. Forthofer is a firefighter and mechanical engineer at the U.S. Forest Service’s Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory in Montana. His research involves field, laboratory and computational studies of heat transfer and fluid flow related to wildland fires. Credit: Nick Higgins

In Brief

  • Fire tornadoes, vortices of fire with tornadolike wind speeds, are exceedingly rare but deadly. The Carr Fire tornado near Redding, Calif., killed up to four people.
  • Apart from fire itself, generation of a fire tornado requires a source of rotation in the atmosphere. The fire can concentrate this vorticity into a spinning tube of air and stand it up.
  • Scientists understand the physics of fire tornadoes rather well, but they cannot yet predict when and where one might appear.

As the plane began its descent into Medford, we dropped into the blanket of smoke that covered southwestern Oregon and northern California. It was late July 2018, and several major fires were burning in the region. I was en route to join a Cal Fire (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) team investigating a fatal incident that had taken place two days earlier. What the group leader told me over the phone had sent chills up my spine: “A firefighter has been killed in a fire tornado. His vehicle was thrown hundreds of feet across the ground.”

I, perhaps more than anyone, had known that this might happen someday. Ten years earlier I had gotten my first look at the aftermath of a fire tornado. The object, almost 1,000 feet in diameter, had moved out of the Indians Fire in California and overrun a group of firefighters. So strong was the wind that trying to get to safety felt like running through chest-deep water, one of the survivors told me. Fortunately, the men were standing on a paved two-lane highway, which probably saved their lives: had they been even 10 feet away and among the trees and grass, they would have died. When I reached the site, massive oak branches lay all around, and the ground had been scoured of pebbles.

The scene left me impressed and worried. A fire tornado could evidently harm firefighters taking refuge in areas usually thought to be safe. It had been a close call. Many of us had seen fire whirls, dust-devil-sized rotating columns of fire, and did not regard them as particularly dangerous. In contrast, fire tornadoes—which combine the destructive power of fire with that of winds as ferocious as in an actual tornado—were so rare as to be almost mythical. Even I, a firefighter since 1996 and a fire-behavior researcher for eight years, had heard of only one, from a story a veteran firefighter told me.

On returning to my home base at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory in Montana, I conducted a literature survey. It turned up reports, most rather sketchy, of several fire tornadoes that had occurred around the world in the near and distant past. So scant was the information on the subject that scientists did not even agree on what qualified as a fire tornado. Massive forest fires can generate so-called pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds at high altitudes. These are ice-capped thunderclouds that condense from the moisture released above a fire—from the vegetation it consumed, from the water vapor in the atmosphere and as a by-product of combustion itself. A few researchers held that only those fire vortices that connect to overhead pyroCb clouds are true fire tornadoes. By that definition, only one had ever been documented, in a 2003 firestorm near Canberra, Australia. It had left a damage path almost 15 miles long.

That framework seemed far too restrictive to be of much use to firefighters, however. Using the working definition of a fire tornado as a fire whirl with tornadolike wind speeds, my colleague Bret Butler and I had gathered up whatever documentation we could find and consolidated it into firefighter-training manuals and classes. But now I found myself driving south toward the Carr Fire just outside Redding, Calif., to investigate the death of a firefighter in a fire tornado—a tragedy I had long sought to avert.

The Carr Fire Tornado

The site looked like a war zone. Neither the famous tornado researcher Josh Wurman, whom I had recruited for the investigation, nor I had ever seen anything like this. Entire blocks of homes had been leveled, with only the foundations remaining. Roofing and other debris littered the area, and vehicles had been rolled multiple times over the ground. Trees were uprooted or broken off, and flying particles of sand and rock had stripped them of their bark. Three power-line towers built of metal lattice, each roughly 100 feet tall, had been blown down, with one of them having been lifted off its base and carried 1,000 feet through the air. A 40-foot shipping container had been torn apart, and a steel pipe was wrapped around downed power poles.

We estimated that the winds could have reached 165 miles per hour, a speed that occurs in class 3 tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita scale. (This scale rates tornadoes on a scale ranging from 0 to 5, with 5 indicating the fastest and most destructive winds.) In California, only two regular tornadoes of this strength had ever been recorded. Peak temperatures of the burning gases inside the fire tornado may have reached almost 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. The object was more than 1,000 feet wide at its base and, according to radar imagery, three miles high. It lasted for at least 40 minutes, during which time it moved slowly across the ground, leaving a path of destruction nearly a mile long.

Burning boards arranged in a rough triangle allow air to swirl into the central area, where another fire gathers the rotation into a vortex. Forest or urban fires of certain shapes can similarly generate fire tornadoes. Credit: Spencer Lowell

Our team interviewed witnesses and collected video evidence in the hope of learning from the event. The fire tornado occurred on the evening of July 26, 2018, in the course of a forest fire covering thousands of acres northwest of Redding. So extensive and intense was the fire that it generated pyroCb clouds at altitudes higher than three miles. Suddenly, at around 5:30 P.M., the flames raced eastward, killing firefighting bulldozer operator Don Smith, as well as a civilian in his home. As the wildfire neared the outskirts of Redding, it spawned a number of fire whirls and threw embers more than a mile ahead of the fire and across the Sacramento River. These started several “spot,” or small, isolated fires near two subdivisions at the end of a dead-end road. An extremely chaotic scene unfolded as firefighters tried to evacuate homeowners and save houses even as their escape route was being cut off. People were literally running for their lives.

Redding firefighter Jeremy Stoke headed to the scene to help. Just as he was arriving, at about 7:30 P.M., the fire tornado formed over the road, trapping residents and firefighters at the subdivisions. It apparently caught Stoke on the road. He transmitted a mayday call on his radio before powerful winds rolled his truck multiple times; it eventually came to rest against a tree hundreds of feet away. Stoke was found hours later, dead from traumatic injuries.

Two Cal Fire vehicles being driven down the road had most of their windows blown out and were battered by flying debris. Strangely, one of the trucks was damaged mostly on the driver’s side and the other on the passenger side—even though they were only 150 feet apart and facing the same direction—indicating the rotating motion of the air. The occupants huddled on the floorboards to save themselves from projectiles. Three nearby bulldozers also had their windows blown out, with one operator getting glass in his eye and another receiving serious burns to his hands. A retired police officer who was driving out realized his truck bed was on fire and pulled over; he survived but sustained burns to his airways. Most tragically, on the outer edge of the revolving inferno two children and their great-grandmother perished inside their burned home.

In the Laboratory

What can we learn from an event like this? Can we predict when and where a fire tornado will occur so that we can evacuate residents and firefighters? What causes fire tornadoes? A first step toward answering these questions is to look back in history. In 1871 a town in Wisconsin was devastated by what was probably a fire tornado, judging by the massive amount of debris—which included a house—thrown around. In 1964 the Polo Fire in California spawned one that injured four people and destroyed two homes, a barn, three cars and an avocado orchard. One of the most horrific occurred during the World War II incendiary bombing of Hamburg, Germany: the resulting firestorm generated a fire tornado that, according to geographer Charles Ebert, was up to two miles wide and three miles tall. More than 40,000 civilians died in the conflagration.

Credit: Bryan Christie Design

This is what a lethal fire tornado looks like

Nov 21, 2019  Scientific American

Fire tornadoes are terrifying forces of nature. They’re rare, but as wildfires become bigger and more frequent, they may grow more common. Thankfully, scientists are getting closer to predicting when and where these lethal vortices will appear. Read the full story this hellish phenomenon: https://bit.ly/2O4xJIK

Category  Science & Technology

In 1923 a major earthquake sparked an urban fire in Tokyo. As it spread from building to building, residents evacuated to an open area between the structures. A large fire tornado formed over this area, killing an estimated 38,000 people in 15 minutes. For more than half a century the accepted explanation for this terrible event was that a regular tornado happened to form at the exact same time and location as the fire. But in the 1980s and 1990s engineers S. Soma and K. Saito of the University of Kentucky used historical records to construct a small-scale model of the actual fire, painstakingly reproducing its geometry and ambient winds. Their laboratory fire generated a vortex—proving that the original one was not a coincidence but was caused by the fire itself.

This research built on pioneering lab work conducted two decades earlier, when George Byram and Robert Martin of the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station created small fire whirls at their facility in Macon, Ga. Their apparatus consisted of a small circular pool of burning alcohol surrounded by cylindrical walls with vertical slits, which forced drafts into the fire to enter in a rotating motion. Significantly, the resulting fire whirl caused the fuel to burn—and its energy to be released—up to three times faster than in a nonrotating fire. The rotating wind appears to have increased the rate of burning by pushing the flames down toward the surface of the alcohol, heating it up. Subsequent research has found the energy-release rate to be enhanced by up to seven times in such fires.

Something similar occurs in wildfire whirls and fire tornadoes. A heated piece of wood generates hundreds of different flammable gases, the further combustion of which yields flames. The strong horizontal, rotating winds in the fire tornado can force the flames down into the vegetation, causing it to burn more fiercely.

In 1967 Howard Emmons and Shuh-Jing Ying of Harvard University surrounded a stationary lab fire with a cylindrical wire screen that could be spun at various speeds, imparting rotation to the air flowing into the flames. The researchers measured the wind velocity and temperature distribution of the fire whirl thus generated, getting a glimpse into its inner workings. They found that, apart from fire itself, the formation of such a vortex requires a source of rotation and a mechanism to intensify it.

A fire tornado has essentially the same hydrodynamics. Significant vorticity often exists in the atmosphere—generated by wind curling around mountains or dragging along the ground or by variations in density and pressure. The fire itself carries out two other crucial functions: it concentrates the rotation and stands it up, so that a tight tube of air ends up spinning around a vertical axis.

First the hot air rising above the fire pulls in replacement air at the base, thereby gathering rotating air from the surroundings. Some of the vorticity might originally be around a horizontal axis, but once air is sucked up into the fire plume, its hot, buoyant upward stream causes the axis to tilt to a vertical orientation. Second, although the upwardly moving air starts out slow when it is near the ground, it heats up as the gases in it burn. The air pressure all around the vortex forces the hot, light air within the core upward. The accelerating air in the fire plume stretches the fire whirl or fire tornado vertically along its axis, reducing its diameter, much as pulling apart a clump of dough causes a long, thin neck to form. The reduced diameter drives the air to turn faster to conserve its angular momentum—the same effect seen when a spinning ice skater draws in his or her arms.

It appears that when a fire whirl or fire tornado moves over a burning area, it stretches to a considerable height and spins tight and fast, but when it moves over an already burned area, it spreads out and slows down into a diffuse cylinder of smoke. Sometimes the rotating object is so wide and slow that firefighters fail to perceive it. The direction of motion of the vortex across the ground depends on ambient winds and details of terrain in ways that we have yet to understand.

Emmons and Ying also found that fire vortices are remarkably efficient at conserving their rotational energy, which makes them (unfortunately) rather long-lived. The Indians Fire tornado, for example, lasted for about an hour. As the fire tornado spins up, two opposing forces in the radial direction strengthen: centrifugal force pulling a parcel of rotating air outward and, in opposition, low pressure in the core pulling it inward. The resulting balance limits the movement of air in the radial direction and therefore the loss of energy from the vortex. In contrast, nonrotating fires exchange roughly 10 times more energy with the surrounding atmosphere. This mechanism also makes fire whirls thinner and taller than nonrotating fires because with practically no air being drawn in, except at the base, less oxygen is available for combustion. Thus, some of the fuel gases must travel high up the core before they encounter sufficient oxygen to burn.

Just as dangerous, the towering column of hot, low-density gases induces very low pressure at the base of the whirl. Drag near the ground slows the rotation, reducing the centrifugal force pushing the air outward. Because the inward force generated by pressure remains the same, however, the wind near the ground streams into the fire tornado. It ends up acting like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking air and, often, burning debris into the base, forcing it vertically up the core at extreme velocities and spitting it out from high up—unpredictably generating spot fires.

In the Field

Despite all this knowledge about the physics of fire tornadoes, we still cannot predict where and when one will occur. One thing is clear, however: given how rare fire tornadoes are even though a large, intensely burning fire always has the capacity to concentrate rotation, the essential factor for their appearance seems to be the presence of a strong source of rotation.

Corona fire in Yorba Linda, Calif., in November 2008 generated a flaming vortex—possibly a fire tornado—that threatened homes. Credit: David McNew Getty Images

We know from case studies, for example, that one of the likeliest locations for fire tornadoes to form is on the lee side of a mountain. Wind blowing around the mountain causes swirling motions on the downwind side, like water moving around a large rock in a river. A fire burning there can gather and stretch this rotation into a fire tornado. But matters are in fact more complicated: Fiery vortices can also show up on flat ground and in calm wind conditions. For example, a large fire whirl in Kansas was likely generated by a cold front that collided with warm ambient air as it passed over a fire in a field. And a 2007 study by Rui Zhou and Zi-Niu Wu of Tsinghua University in Beijing showed that multiple fires burning in certain specific configurations—which can happen when a fire throws embers ahead of itself, starting new fires—may even generate their own rotation by inducing jets of air to flow along the ground between them.

So where did the rotation that caused the deadly Carr Fire tornado come from? Given the several fire whirls that preceded the fire tornado, an abnormally high amount of rotation obviously existed in the area. On a hunch, I asked Natalie Wagenbrenner, a colleague at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory, to run some specialized computer simulations of the weather that day. Her studies showed that cool, dense air from the Pacific Ocean was being pushed eastward and over the top of a mountain range west of Redding. This cool air was much heavier than the hot air in the Sacramento Valley: the Redding airport reported a peak temperature that day of 113 degrees F, a record. So gravity caused the air to accelerate as it moved down the slopes toward the valley, much like water flowing downhill. Oddly, these strong surface winds stopped abruptly—right where the fire tornado formed.

What happened to the wind? Finally, I realized that a hydraulic jump was occurring—the atmospheric equivalent of what happens to water when it flows down the spillway below a dam. When the fast-moving water hits the low-speed pool below, the surface of the water jumps upward, forming a breaking wave that stays in place and marks the boundary between the two flows. This region contains intense swirling motions. In much the same way, the cold, dense air speeding down the mountainside hit the slow-moving pool of air in the Sacramento Valley, most likely generating the powerful rotation that formed the Carr Fire tornado [see graphic above]. N. P. Lareau of the University of Nevada and his colleagues speculated in a 2018 paper that the pyroCb clouds overhead, which reached altitudes of up to seven miles even as the fire tornado formed, helped to stretch the vortex to a great height, thereby thinning it and spinning it up even more.

If wildfires continue to become more extensive, we may encounter such lethal objects more frequently. The silver lining is that lessons learned from studying them carefully might help prevent future tragedies. I am hopeful that further research into fire tornadoes, combined with advances in weather prediction and computing power, will, in the near future, give us the ability to issue fire tornado warnings—possibly saving lives.

Fire whirl is formed by rotating air drafting into a pan of burning alcohol at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory in Montana. Credit: Spencer Lowell

This article was originally published with the title “Fire Tornadoes” in Scientific American 321, 6, 60-67 (December 2019)

doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1219-60  View This Issue

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PBS News: November 18-21, 2019, WATCH: Democratic counsel Daniel Goldman’s full questioning of Amb. Marie Yovanovitch, What these young journalists wish they could tell Gwen Ifill, and Australia’s efforts to bring koalas back from the brink of extinction

CBS News: Day 2, Part 6: Five-minute rounds of questioning

TED Talks: Melanie Nezer The fundamental right to seek asylum#t-628392, Cady Coleman What it’s like to live on the international space station?, Benjamin Grant What it feels like to see earth from space , and  Yann Arthus  Bertrand Captures fragile earth in wide angle

Pocket Worthy: James ClearThe Weird Strategy Dr. Seuss Used to Create His Greatest Work  and Andrew MerleWhat to Eat to Live to 100

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PBS NewsHour full episode November 21, 2019,

Nov 21, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Thursday on the NewsHour, another packed day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry, including testimony from Dr. Fiona Hill and David Holmes. Plus: The impeachment inquiry in historical context, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted, the fifth Democratic presidential debate, how two Nobel-winning economists are fighting poverty and high honors in the arts and humanities. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 20, 2019

Nov 20, 2019

PBS NewsHour

Wednesday on the NewsHour, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland shares explosive testimony during the fourth day of the impeachment inquiry’s public hearings. Plus: Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway and Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., respond to Sondland’s claims and a preview of the Wednesday night debate among 2020 Democrats. WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS: Why Gordon Sondland’s public testimony was ‘extraordinary’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pk69… Conway says ‘there was no pressure applied’ to Ukraine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR97m… What Rep. Steve Cohen thinks about evidence against Trump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sADQ… News Wrap: Israel likely to face unprecedented 3rd election https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npnk0… Which 2020 Democrats will face new scrutiny in 5th debate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRgJe… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour Live Episode, Nov. 19, 2019

Streamed live 3 hours ago  PBS NewsHour

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PBS NewsHour full episode November 18, 2019

Nov 18, 2019  PBS NewsHour

1.48M subscribers

Monday on the NewsHour, chaos in Hong Kong, as police lay siege to a university campus in which hundreds of protesters are trapped. Plus: A preview of the second week of public impeachment hearings, President Trump’s military pardons, the 2020 Democratic field expands, Politics Monday with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith, Winslow Homer’s love of the sea and distinguishing between migrant and refugee. WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS: How Beijing might respond to escalating Hong Kong violence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RYZm… News Wrap: Iran warns protesters unhappy with gas price hike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVNOz… What we can expect from this week’s impeachment witnesses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErKDD… Trump’s intervention in military legal cases sparks debate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hijt… Obama warns 2020 Democrats not to be too ‘revolutionary’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3hzc… Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Pete Buttigieg’s surge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Jru… Winslow Homer’s long love affair with the sea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mCQu… Is the distinction between migrant and refugee meaningful? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlPIz… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

WATCH: Democratic counsel Daniel Goldman’s full questioning of Amb. Marie Yovanovitch

Nov 15, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Democratic counsel Daniel Goldman questioned Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, on Nov. 15, the second day of public hearings as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Goldman asked Yovanovitch for details about what led up to her ousting, which came after Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, led a smear campaign against her. “When other countries, other actors in other countries, see that private interests, foreign interest can come together and get a U.S. ambassador removed, what is going to stop them from doing that in the future in other countries?” Yovanovitch testified. The impeachment probe centers around a July phone call in which Trump asked the president of Ukraine to investigate former vice president and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. For more on who’s who in the Trump impeachment inquiry, read: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Day 2, Part 6: Five-minute rounds of questioning

Nov 15, 2019  CBS News

The second day of public hearings in the House impeachment inquiry included five-minute rounds of questioning by Intelligence Committee members, which they could yield to colleagues. Watch this portion of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony. Subscribe to the CBS News Channel HERE: https://youtube.com/cbsnews Watch CBSN live HERE: https://cbsn.ws/1PlLpZ7 Follow CBS News on Instagram HERE: https://www.instagram.com/cbsnews/ Like CBS News on Facebook HERE: https://facebook.com/cbsnews Follow CBS News on Twitter HERE: https://twitter.com/cbsnews Get the latest news and best in original reporting from CBS News delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to newsletters HERE: https://cbsn.ws/1RqHw7T Get your news on the go! Download CBS News mobile apps HERE: https://cbsn.ws/1Xb1WC8 Get new episodes of shows you love across devices the next day, stream CBSN and local news live, and watch full seasons of CBS fan favorites like Star Trek Discovery anytime, anywhere with CBS All Access. Try it free! https://bit.ly/1OQA29B — CBSN is the first digital streaming news network that will allow Internet-connected consumers to watch live, anchored news coverage on their connected TV and other devices. At launch, the network is available 24/7 and makes all of the resources of CBS News available directly on digital platforms with live, anchored coverage 15 hours each weekday. CBSN. Always On.

Category   News & Politics

What these young journalists wish they could tell Gwen Ifill

Nov 14, 2019

PBS NewsHour

1.47M subscribers

It has been three years since the NewsHour family lost dear friend and colleague Gwen Ifill. We think of her all the time, and her loss was felt acutely by young journalists in the NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs. Four graduates of that program who went on to be Gwen Ifill fellows at their local PBS stations share the letters they wish they could have shared with Gwen. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Australia’s efforts to bring koalas back from the brink of extinction

Nov 17, 2019  PBS NewsHour

The population of Australia’s iconic koala has been rapidly declining in recent decades, and this year the Australian Koala Foundation declared the marsupials “functionally extinct.” But one Queensland zoo is using proven breeding strategies to protect the animals, and starting a live genome bank to tackle some of the biggest threats to koalas. Special correspondent Kirsty Johansen reports. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Refugee and immigrants rights attorney Melanie Nezer shares an urgently needed historical perspective on the crisis at the southern US border, showing how citizens can hold their governments accountable for protecting the vulnerable. “A country shows strength through compassion and pragmatism, not through force and through fear,” she says.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxMidAtlantic, an independent event. TED’s editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Melanie Nezer · Refugee and immigrants rights attorney

Melanie Nezer is a national leader in efforts to inform and educate individuals, institutions, elected officials and communities about refugees and asylum seekers.

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TEDxMidAtlantic | March 2019

In this quick, fun talk, astronaut Cady Coleman welcomes us aboard the International Space Station, where she spent nearly six months doing experiments that expanded the frontiers of science. Hear what it’s like to fly to work, sleep without gravity and live life hurtling at 17,500 miles per hour around the Earth. “The space station is the place where mission and magic come together,” Coleman says.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

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Cady Coleman · Astronaut

Cady Coleman draws from her time at NASA and her missions on the International Space Station to share insights about team building, leadership and innovation.

TED2019 | April 2019

What the astronauts felt when they saw Earth from space changed them forever. Author and artist Benjamin Grant aims to provoke this same feeling of overwhelming scale and beauty in each of us through a series of stunning satellite images that show the effects human beings are having on the planet. “If we can adopt a more expansive perspective, embrace the truth of what is going on and contemplate the long-term health of our planet, we will create a better, safer and smarter future for our one and only home,” Grant says.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxSkoll, an independent event. TED’s editors chose to feature it for you.

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Benjamin Grant · Artist, author

Through his mesmerizing satellite photographs, Benjamin Grant offers us a new way of seeing of our planet and ourselves.

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Amphoto Books (2016)

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TEDxSkoll | April 2017

In this image-filled talk, Yann Arthus-Bertrand displays his three most recent projects on humanity and our habitat — stunning aerial photographs in his series “The Earth From Above,” personal interviews from around the globe featured in his web project “6 billion Others,” and his soon-to-be-released movie, “Home,” which documents human impact on the environment through breathtaking video.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

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Yann Arthus-Bertrand · Photographer

With photography, Yann Arthus-Bertrand has captured the beauty of the Earth. Through video and film, his latest projects bind together ecology and humanism. For him, it’s all about living together.

TED2009 | February 2009

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-weird-strategy-dr-seuss-used-to-create-his-greatest-work

Pocket Worthy  Stories to fuel your mind.

The Weird Strategy Dr. Seuss Used to Create His Greatest Work

Setting limits for yourself — whether that involves the time you have to work out, the money you have to start a business, or the number of words you can use in a book — often delivers better results than “keeping your options open.”

James Clear

Theodor Geisel. Courtesy of Dr. Seuss Enterprises

In 1960, two men made a bet.

There was only $50 on the line, but millions of people would feel the impact of this little wager.

The first man, Bennett Cerf, was the founder of the publishing firm, Random House. The second man was named Theo Geisel, but you probably know him as Dr. Seuss. Cerf proposed the bet and challenged that Dr. Seuss would not be able to write an entertaining children’s book using only 50 different words.

Dr. Seuss took the bet and won. The result was a little book called Green Eggs and Ham. Since publication, Green Eggs and Ham has sold more than 200 million copies, making it the most popular of Seuss’s works and one of the best-selling children’s books in history.1

At first glance, you might think this was a lucky fluke. A talented author plays a fun game with 50 words and ends up producing a hit. But there is actually more to this story and the lessons in it can help us become more creative and stick to better habits over the long-run.

Here’s what we can learn from Dr. Seuss…

The Power of Constraints

What Dr. Seuss discovered through this little bet was the power of setting constraints.

Setting limits for yourself — whether that involves the time you have to work out, the money you have to start a business, or the number of words you can use in a book — often delivers better results than “keeping your options open.”

In fact, Dr. Seuss found that setting some limits to work within was so useful that he employed this strategy for other books as well. For example, The Cat in the Hat was written using only a first-grade vocabulary list.

In my experience, I’ve seen that constraints can also provide benefits in health, business, and life in general. I’ve noticed two reasons why this occurs.

1. Constraints inspire your creativity.

If you’re five foot five inches tall and you’re playing basketball, you figure out more creative ways to score than the six foot five inch guy.

If you have a one-year-old child that takes up almost every minute of your day, you figure out more creative ways to get some exercise.

If you’re a photographer and you show up to a shoot with just one lens, then you figure out more creative ways to capture the beauty of your subject than you would with all of your gear available.

Limitations drive you to figure out solutions. Your constraints inspire your creativity.

2. Constraints force you to get something done.

Time constraints have forced me to produce some of my best work. This is especially true with my writing. Every Monday and Thursday, I write a new article — even if it’s inconvenient.

This constraint has led me to produce some of my most popular work in unlikely places. When I was sitting in the passenger seat on a road trip through West Virginia, I wrote an article. When I was visiting family for the 4th of July, I wrote an article. When I spent all day flying in and out of airports, I wrote an article.

Without my schedule (the constraint), I would have pushed those articles to a different day. Or never got around to them at all. Constraints force you to get something done and don’t allow you to procrastinate. This is why I believe that professionals set a schedule for their production while amateurs wait until they feel motivated.

What constraints are you setting for yourself? What type of schedule do you have for your goals?

Related note: Sticking to your schedule doesn’t have to be grand or impressive. Just commit to a process you can sustain. And if you have to, reduce the scope.

Constraints are Not the Enemy

So often we spend time complaining about the things that are withheld from us.

  • “I don’t have enough time to work out.”
  • “I don’t have enough money to start a business.”
  • “I can’t eat this food on my diet.”

But constraints are not the enemy. Every artist has a limited set of tools to work with. Every athlete has a limited set of skills to train with. Every entrepreneur has a limited amount of resources to build with. Once you know your constraints, you can start figuring out how to work with them.

The Size of Your Canvas

Dr. Seuss was given 50 words. That was the size of his canvas. His job was to see what kind of picture he could paint with those words.

You and I are given similar constraints in our lives.

You only have 30 minutes to fit a workout into your day? So be it. That’s the size of your canvas. Your job is to see if you can make those 30 minutes a work of art.

You can only spare 15 minutes each day to write? That’s the size of your canvas. Your job is to make each paragraph a work of art.

You only have $100 to start your business? Great. That’s the size of your canvas. Your job is to make each sales call a work of art.

You can only eat whole foods on your diet? That’s the size of your canvas. Your job is to take those ingredients and make each meal a work of art.

There are a lot of authors who would complain about writing a book with only 50 words. But there was one author who decided to take the tools he had available and make a work of art instead.

We all have constraints in our lives. The limitations just determine the size of the canvas you have to work with. What you paint on it is up to you.

More from James Clear

This article was originally published on November 25, 2014, by James Clear, and is republished here with permission.

For more information please visit the following link: //getpocket.com/explore/item/the-weird-strategy-dr-seuss-used-to-create-his-greatest-work

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/what-to-eat-to-live-to-100

Pocket Worthy·  Stories to fuel your mind.

What to Eat to Live to 100

What we can learn from the eating and living habits of the world’s longest-lived people.

Andrew Merle

I aspire to live an incredibly long, happy, and healthy life.

That is why I recently read the The Blue Zones Solution, in which New York Times best-selling author Dan Buettner reveals the eating and living habits of the world’s longest-lived people.

For over a decade, Buettner (along with the National Geographic Society and a team of researchers) studied the 5 locations around the globe that have the highest concentrations of 100-year-olds, as well as exceptionally low rates of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart problems.

In the book, Buettner lays out the specifics for each of these “Blue Zones” locations, analyzes the trends, and then prescribes a plan for people looking achieve the same level of health and longevity.

The book is fantastic and I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking to live a longer, happier life. In case you are short on time, I have tried to summarize my main takeaways below.

Note: Most of the book focuses on food because, as Buettner says, “food may be the best starting point for anyone seeking to emulate the health, longevity, and well-being found in the world’s Blue Zones.” But a significant portion of the book is also devoted to other healthy lifestyle habits commonly found in Blue Zones locations, and I have included some of those key behaviors at the end of this post.

According to The Blue Zones Solution:

The best-of-the-best longevity foods are (Include at least 3 of these daily):

  • Beans (black beans, pinto beans, garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas, lentils)
  • Greens (spinach, kale, chards, beet tops, fennel tops, collards)
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Nuts (almonds, peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, cashews)
  • Olive Oil (green, extra-virgin is best)
  • Oats (slow-cook or Irish steel-cut are best)
  • Barley
  • Fruits (all kinds)
  • Green or Herbal teas
  • Turmeric (spice or tea)

The 4 best beverages are:

  • Water
  • Coffee
  • Green Tea
  • Red Wine (no more than 2 glasses daily)

Foods to Minimize include:

  • Meat (eat meat only 2 times per week or less; meat servings should be 2 oz. cooked or less; fine to eat up to 3 oz. of fish daily)
  • Dairy such as cheese, cream, and butter (limit as much as possible; Goat’s and Sheep’s milk products are ok)
  • Eggs (eat no more than 3 eggs per week)
  • Sugar (limit as much as possible?—?opt for honey and fruit instead)
  • Bread (OK to eat 100% whole wheat and true sourdough bread; look for sprouted grain bread, whole grain rye, or pumpernickel bread)

Foods to Avoid (other than a special treat):

  • Sugary beverages (sodas, boxed juices)
  • Salty snacks (chips, crackers)
  • Processed Meats (sausages, salami, bacon, lunch meats)
  • Packaged sweets (cookies, candy bars)

Food Guidelines to Live By:

  • 95% of your food should be plant-based
  • Eat your largest meal at breakfast, a mid-sized lunch, and small dinner
  • Stop eating when you’re 80% full
  • If you need to snack, make it a piece of fruit or handful of nuts
  • Cook most of your meals at home and eat with friends and family as much as possible

The top longevity foods eaten in each Blue Zone:

Ikaria, Greece:

  • Olive oil
  • Wild Greens
  • Potatoes
  • Legumes (garbanzo beans, black-eyed peas, lentils)
  • Feta and Goat Cheese
  • Sourdough bread
  • Lemons
  • Honey
  • Herbal Tea
  • Coffee
  • Wine

Okinawa, Japan:

  • Tofu
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Brown Rice
  • Shiitake Mushrooms
  • Seaweeds
  • Garlic
  • Turmeric
  • Green Tea

Sardinia, Italy:

  • Olive oil
  • Beans
  • Goat’s Milk and Sheep’s Milk (including sharp pecorino cheese)
  • Flat Bread
  • Barley
  • Sourdough Bread
  • Fennel
  • Fava Beans and Chickpeas
  • Potatoes
  • Greens
  • Tomatoes
  • Onions
  • Zucchini
  • Cabbage
  • Lemons
  • Almonds
  • Wine

Loma Linda, California:

  • Avocados
  • Salmon
  • Nuts
  • Fruits
  • Beans
  • Water (7 glasses per day)
  • Oatmeal
  • Whole Wheat Bread
  • Soy Milk

Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica:

  • Corn Tortillas
  • Black Beans
  • Squash
  • Papayas
  • Yams
  • Bananas

Blue Zones lifestyle lessons to maximize happiness, health, and longevity:

  • Move daily (e.g. walking or other moderate-intensity activity).
  • Socialize more. Research shows that the happiest people socialize at least 8 hours per day, especially with parents and family.
  • Know what gets you up in the morning. Knowing your sense of purpose, or reason for living, has been shown to add up to 7 years of life expectancy.
  • Have faith. Attending faith-based services (it doesn’t matter what faith) 4 times per month has been shown to add 4–14 years to your life.
  • Committing to a life partner can add up to 3 years of life expectancy.
  • Aim to sleep 8 hours per night for maximum health and longevity.
  • Have sex. 80% of people in Ikaria ages 65–100 are still having sex, and sex has been shown to enhance longevity.

In summary, as noted in the book, “Eat well, stress less, move more, and love more.”

Here’s to a long, happy, healthy, and fulfilling life!

Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his e-mail list at andrewmerle.com and follow him on Twitter.

This article was originally published on October 27, 2016, by Andrew Merle, and is republished here with permission.

For more information please visit the following link: getpocket.com/explore/item/what-to-eat-to-live-to-100

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Inspiration Grid: Illustration 

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Illustrations by German Gonzalez

Colombian illustrator and graphic designer German Gonzalez creates unique illustrated portraits with beautiful color palettes. More illustrations via Behance

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Mixed Media Portrait Paintings by Tristan Eaton

Incredible paintings by LA-based artist Tristan Eaton. “One look at Eaton’s work and you can immediately see a collage of influences, and he has always…

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Comic Book Portraits by Sandra Chevrier

Montreal-based artist Sandra Chevrier creates vibrant mixed media artworks by adding comic book collages to watercolored portraits. “Her work takes her traveling over a broad…

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Pop Culture Illustrations by Denis Gonchar

Recent work by the incredibly talented digital artist Denis Gonchar. More illustrations via Fubiz

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Girls & Sweets: Artworks by Michelle Tanguay

Detroid-based artist Michelle Tanguay paints large-scale portraits of females enjoying lollipops, as a metaphor for power and independence. More art on the grid via Design…

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Illustrations by Yanjun Cheng

Yanjun Cheng is a talented digital artist based in New York. More illustrations via ArtStation

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Neo-Pointillist Art by Gavin Rain

Gavin Rain is a contemporary South African artist, working primarily in acrylic. He is best known for his Neo-Pointillist technique, a style that he spent…

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Illustrations by Steven Hughes

Steven Hughes, aka Primary Hughes, is an award-winning illustrator that produces amazing artworks for clients such as The New York Times, Scene Magazine, Threadless.com and…

For more information please visit the following link: /theinspirationgrid.com/category/illustration/

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PBS News, TED Talks, Pocket Worthy, New Small Joys, and Ing’s Peace Project

PBS News: November12-17, 2019, Why Jane Fonda is putting herself on the line to fight climate change, Blockbuster da Vinci exhibition showcases the master’s ‘endless curiosity’, and Why German divisions remain, 30 years after fall of the Berlin Wall

TED Talks: Paul A Kramer Our immigration conversation is broken here’ s how to have a better one?, Juan Enriquez A personal plea for humanity at the us Mexico border, Jon Lowenstein Family hope and resilience on the migrant trail, and Will Hurd A wall won’t solve America’s border problems

Pocket Worthy:  How Einstein Learned Physics

New Small JoysSand Sculptures

Ing’s Peace Project: Peace artwork 2 – The Peace and Art Parade and festival run by the Barat Foundation in Newark on 10.23.2011, organized by Chandri and Gary Barat.  Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode November 17, 2019

Nov 17, 2019  PBS NewsHour

On this edition for Sunday, November 17, public hearings in the ongoing impeachment inquiry enter a second week, a long-awaited project in Italy that could help keep Venice afloat, and how Australia is trying to save the almost-extinct koalas. Karina Mitchell anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode November 16, 2019

Nov 17, 2019  PBS NewsHour

On this edition for Saturday, November 16, key takeaways from hearings in the impeachment inquiry. Also, a look at Kernza, a little-known grain with several environmental benefits. Karina Mitchell anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 15, 2019

Nov 15, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Friday on the NewsHour, a second day of public impeachment hearings, featuring former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Plus: President Trump’s longtime associate Roger Stone is found guilty of witness tampering and lying to Congress, protests in Hong Kong enter a new phrase, analysis of the latest political news with Shields and Brooks and rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 14, 2019

Nov 14, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Thursday on the NewsHour, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi accuses President Trump of committing bribery with his handling of Ukraine policy. Plus: Controversial emails from presidential adviser Stephen Miller, an exclusive look behind Taliban lines, fighting superbugs, businesses try to retain older employees, a book on elitism, artist Delano Dunn and student letters to the late Gwen Ifill. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 13, 2019

Nov 13, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Wednesday on the NewsHour, a historic day in Washington with the first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, featuring witnesses William Taylor and George Kent. Plus: Reaction to the diplomats’ testimonies from House members as well as legal and foreign policy experts, and why Turkish President Erdogan was welcomed at the White House despite U.S.-Turkey tensions over Syria. WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS: What Taylor and Kent said in public impeachment hearings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5BPx… Collins says ‘nothing new’ in 1st public impeachment hearing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqFks… Speier says Mulvaney, Bolton should testify on Ukraine saga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z5fG… Experts analyze testimonies of William Taylor, George Kent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFvj3… Despite Syria tensions, Trump offers Erdogan a warm welcome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXM9t… News Wrap: Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSspQ… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 12, 2019

Nov 12, 2019  PBS NewsHour

1.47M subscribers

Tuesday on the NewsHour, the Supreme Court hears arguments around President Trump’s move to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Plus: Impeachment hearings go public, holding gun manufacturers liable for mass shootings, how we got to impeachment, life on Israel’s Lebanon and Gaza borders, and how media giants are competing for Americans’ streaming entertainment dollars. WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS: Supreme Court considers whether DACA termination was legal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrSdO… News Wrap: Bolivia’s Morales goes into exile in Mexico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyNVV… Democratic and Republican messages as public hearings begin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDuWj… Could Remington lawsuit shape state consumer protections? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrBPT… The key events that led to the Trump impeachment inquiry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6sXq… For Israelis along the border, violence is a constant threat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1QNh… Why more media companies want in on ‘streaming revolution’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=217_t… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Why Jane Fonda is putting herself on the line to fight climate change

Nov 7, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Jane Fonda has been a household name for decades due to her prolific acting career, both on-screen and on stage. She has also drawn sustained attention for her enduring — and sometimes controversial — activism. Judy Woodruff sits down with Fonda to discuss her climate advocacy, what it’s like to spend the night in jail and how young activists like Greta Thuneberg are shaping a new movement. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Blockbuster da Vinci exhibition showcases the master’s ‘endless curiosity’

Nov 8, 2019  PBS NewsHour

The blockbuster exhibit of the year celebrates Leonardo da Vinci, 500 years after his death. People are flocking to the Louvre Museum in Paris to see the work of the master, who was born in Italy, died in France and personified the expression Renaissance man. Jeffrey Brown went to see firsthand why da Vinci’s art is drawing massive crowds. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

Why German divisions remain, 30 years after fall of the Berlin Wall

Nov 8, 2019 

PBS NewsHour

It’s been 30 years since one of the 20th century’s biggest historic events: the fall of the Berlin Wall. Although the East German dictatorship subsequently collapsed, cultural and political divisions remain, more than a generation after reunification. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports on the wall’s legacy, the polarizing issue of immigration and the lingering stain of anti-Semitism. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

How did the US immigration debate get to be so divisive? In this informative talk, historian and writer Paul A. Kramer shows how an “insider vs. outsider” framing has come to dominate the way people in the US talk about immigration — and suggests a set of new questions that could reshape the conversation around whose life, rights and thriving matters.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Paul A. Kramer · Historian, writer

Paul A. Kramer’s work focuses on the changing relationships between the United States and the wider world.

More Resources

The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines

Paul A. Kramer

The University of North Carolina Press (2006)

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762,372 views

TED Salon: Border Stories | September 2019

In this powerful, personal talk, author and academic Juan Enriquez shares stories from inside the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border, bringing this often-abstract debate back down to earth — and showing what you can do every day to create a sense of belonging for immigrants. “This isn’t about kids and borders,” he says. “It’s about us. This is about who we are, who we the people are, as a nation and as individuals.”

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Juan Enriquez · Author, academic, futurist

Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and brain research will bring about in business, technology, politics and society.

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The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future

Juan Enriquez

Crown (2005)

TED Salon: Border Stories | September 2019

For the past 20 years, photographer and TED Fellow Jon Lowenstein has documented the migrant journey from Latin America to the United States, one of the largest transnational migrations in world history. Sharing photos from his decade-long project “Shadow Lives USA,” Lowenstein takes us into the inner worlds of the families escaping poverty and violence in Central America — and pieces together the complex reasons people leave their homes in search of a better life.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Jon Lowenstein · Documentary photographer, filmmaker, visual artist

TED Fellow Jon Lowenstein is a documentary photographer, filmmaker and visual artist whose work reveals what the powers that be are trying to hide.

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Shadow Lives

Jon Lowenstein

PREORDER NOW (2020)

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Learn more about Jon Lowenstein’s work.

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Support Shadow Lives, a decade-long project documenting the experiences and lives of the millions of people along the migrant trail.

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TEDSummit 2019 | July 2019

“Building a 30-foot-high concrete structure from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security,” says Congressman Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas whose district encompasses two times zones and shares an 820-mile border with Mexico. Speaking from Washington, DC in a video interview with former state attorney general Anne Milgram, Hurd discusses the US government’s border policy and its controversial detention and child separation practices — and lays out steps toward a better future at the border. (Recorded at the TED World Theater in New York on September 10, 2019)

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speakers

Will Hurd · Politician

Congressman Will Hurd represents the 23rd District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving constituents across 29 counties and two time zones from San Antonio to El Paso.

Anne Milgram · Criminal justice reformer

Anne Milgram is committed to using data and analytics to fight crime.

TED Salon: Border Stories | September 2019

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-einstein-learned-physics?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Pocket Worthy Stories to fuel your mind.

How Einstein Learned Physics

Einstein was a student long before he became a celebrity. There is a lot to glean from his education and unique approach to learning.

Scott Young

Wanting to understand how Einstein learned physics may, at first, seem as pointless as trying to fly by watching birds and flapping your arms really hard. How do you emulate someone who is synonymous with genius?

However, I think the investigation can still bear fruits, even if you or I might not have the intellectual gifts to revolutionize physics. Whatever Einstein did to learn, he clearly did something right, so there’s merit in trying to figure out what that was.

How Smart Was Einstein? (Did He Really Fail Elementary Mathematics?)

One of the most common stories about Einstein is that he failed grade school math. I think this is one of those ideas that sounds so good it has to get repeated, regardless of whether it is true or not.

Unfortunately, it’s not true. Einstein was a strong math student from a very young age. He himself admits:

“I never failed in mathematics. Before I was fifteen, I had mastered differential and integral calculus.”

While the story about Einstein being an early dullard is certainly false, it’s not the case that he was universally regarded as a genius, either.

Einstein’s grades (highest grade = 6).

In college, Einstein often struggled in math, getting 5s and 6s (out of a possible 6) in physics, but getting only 4s in most of his math courses (barely a passing grade). His mathematics professor, and future collaborator, Hermann Minkowski called him a “lazy dog” and physics professor, Jean Pernet, even flunked Einstein with a score of 1 in an experimental physics course.

At the end of college, Einstein had the dubious distinction of graduating as the second-to-worst student in the class.

The difficulty Einstein had was undoubtedly due in part to his non-conformist streak and rebellious attitude, which didn’t sit well in an academic environment. This would follow him in his future academic career, when he was struggling to find teaching jobs at universities, even after he had already done the work which would later win him the Nobel prize.

Einstein’s discoveries in physics were truly revolutionary, which certainly earns him the title of “genius” by any reasonable standard. However, the early picture of Einstein is more complicated than that. All of this indicates to me, at least, that it can often be very easy to judge the genius of someone after the fact, but perhaps harder to predict in advance.

How Did Einstein Learn Math and Physics?

Given Einstein’s enormous contributions to physics, I think it’s now worthwhile to ask how he learned it.

Throughout the biography, I took notes whenever his methods of learning and discovery were mentioned. Then, I tried to synthesize these observations into several methods or behaviors that appeared to have enabled both Einstein’s revolutionary discoveries and his deep understanding of the subject matter.

1. Learning comes from solving hard problems, not attending classes.

One thing that becomes apparent when looking at Einstein’s early schooling was both his distaste for rote memorization and attending classes. The physics professor that flunked him, did so, in no small part, because Einstein often skipped class. As he claims, “I played hooky a lot and studied the masters of theoretical physics with a holy zeal at home.”

Einstein as a boy.

This habit of skipping classes to focus on solving hard problems in his spare time was one cultivated by his uncle, Jakob Einstein, who first introduced him to algebra. By the time he was 12, Einstein already had a, “predilection for solving complicated problems in arithmetic,” and his parents bought him an advanced mathematical textbook he could study from during the summer.

Einstein learned physics, not by dutifully attending classes, but by obsessively playing with the ideas and equations on his own. Doing, not listening, was the starting point for how he learned physics.

2. You really know something when you can prove it yourself.

How do you know when you really understand something? Einstein’s method was to try prove the proposition himself! This began at an early age, when Uncle Jakob, challenged him to prove Pythagoras’s Theorem:

“After much effort, I succeeded in ‘proving’ this theorem on the basis of the similarity of triangles,” Einstein recalled.

Isaacson explains that Einstein, “tackled new theories by trying to prove them on his own.” This approach to learning physics, which came naturally to Einstein, was driven by a strong curiosity both to know how things actually work, and a belief that, “nature could be understood as a relatively simple mathematical structure.”

What’s important to note here is not only the method of proving propositions to learn physics, but also the drive to do so. It’s clear that Einstein’s curiosity wasn’t merely to perform adequately, but to develop a deep understanding and intuition about physical concepts.

3. Intuition matters more than equations.

Einstein was a better intuitive physicist than he was a mathematician. In fact, it was only when he struggled for years in developing general relativity, that he became more enamored with mathematical formalisms as a way of doing physics.

An early influence which encouraged this intuitive approach to physics was a series of science books by Aaron Bernstein. These books presented imaginative pictures to understand physical phenomenon, such as, “an imaginary trip through space,” to understand an electrical signal and even discussing the constancy of the speed of light, a matter which would later underpin Einstein’s discovery of special relativity.

Swiss education reformer Pestalozzi emphasized learning through images, not by rote.

Einstein’s later education in Aarau, Switzerland, was heavily influenced by the philosophy of Swiss educational reformer, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Pestalozzi claimed, “Visual understanding is the essential and only true means of teaching how to judge things correctly,” adding, “the learning of numbers and language must definitely be subordinated.”

Were these early influences causal factors in Einstein’s later preferred style of visualization to solve physics problems, or were they merely a welcome encouragement for a mind that was already predisposed to reasoning in this way? It’s hard to tell. Whatever the case, I think it can be argued that developing intuitions of ideas, particularly visual intuitions, has an invaluable role in physics.

How does one develop those intuitions? Einstein’s own thoughts were that “intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience.” Einstein’s hard work building understanding through proofs and solving problems undoubtedly supported his ability to visualize as much as it benefited from it.

4. Thinking requires a quiet space and deep focus.

Einstein was a master of deep work. He had an incredible ability to focus, his son reporting:

“Even the loudest baby-crying didn’t seem to disturb Father,” adding, “He could go on with his work completely impervious to noise.”

Although overlooked for academic positions, it was his intellectually unstimulating job at the Bern patent office, which gave him time and privacy to unravel the mysteries of relativity. Einstein remarks:

“I was able to do a full day’s work in only two or three hours. The remaining part of the day, I would work out my own ideas.”

Einstein in his home office.

The obsessive focus Einstein applied to solving problems as a young boy, eventually served him well in cracking general relativity, culminating in an “exhausting four-week frenzy.” This intensity sometimes impacted his health, with him developing stomach problems in his strain to unravel the difficult mathematics of tensor field equations.

Einstein’s ability to focus, combined with a reverence for solitude, allowed him to do some of his best work in physics. Even as he aged, he still spent many hours on his boat, idly pushing the rudder seemingly lost in thought, interrupted by bursts of scribbling equations in his notebook.

5. Understand ideas through thought experiments.

Einstein’s most famous method for learning and discovering physics has to be the thought experiment.

Books such as this were Einstein’s first introduction to the power of thought experiments.

One of his most famous was imagining riding on a beam of light. What would happen to the light beam as he rode alongside it at the same speed? Well, it would have to freeze. This, to Einstein, seemed impossible by his faith in Maxwell’s electromagnetic equations. But if the light doesn’t freeze, what must happen?

These thought experiments were built on his intuitive understanding of physics, which in turn was built on his experience with working through theories and problems. Their strength, however, was to draw attention to contradictions or confusions that may have been missed by a less intuitive physicist.

His ability to engage in thought experiments even served him when he ended up being wrong about the underlying physics. It was exactly this type of thought experiment that he suggested to refute the current understanding of quantum physics in what is now known as the ERP paper, which showed that quantum mechanics could create changes in a system instantaneously, violating the speed of light. In this case, however, Einstein’s intuition was wrong—quantum mechanical systems do behave in such bizarre ways—which is now known as quantum entanglement.

6. Overturn common sense … with more common sense.

Special and general relativity stand out as being some of the most mind-bending scientific discoveries of all time. With special relativity, Einstein discovered that there is no absolute time—that two people moving at different speeds can disagree about the passage of time—with neither being right or wrong. With general relativity, Einstein went further, showing that gravity bends space and time.

Einstein at age 42, the year he won the Nobel prize.

It would be reasonable to assume, therefore, that to overturn such commonsense principles would require some departure from common sense. However, Einstein’s genius was to reconcile two commonsense principles—relativity and the constancy of the speed of light—by discarding a third (the idea of absolute measurements of space and time).

Einstein’s talent, it would seem, lay in his ability to defend what he thought were the most reasonable ideas, even if that meant discarding ones which had a longer tradition of being thought to be correct.

This skill of overturning commonsense with other intuitions may have also eventually been behind his inability to accept quantum mechanics, a very successful theory of physics that he himself helped create. His intuitions about strict determinism, led him to champion an unsuccessful and quixotic quest to overturn the theory for much of his life.

This practice also suggests a method for learning the many, counter-intuitive principles of math and physics—start by building off of a different commonsense premise.

7. Insights come from friendly walks.

While solitude and focus were essential components of how Einstein learned and did physics, it was often conversations with other people that provided his breakthroughs.

Albert Einstein with Michele Besso.

The most famous example of this was a walk with longtime friend Michele Besso. During his struggles with special relativity, he walked with his friend trying to explain his theory. Frustrated, he declared that, “he was going to give up,” working on the theory. Suddenly, however, the correct insight came to him and the next day he told Besso that he had, “completely solved the problem.”

Discussing ideas aloud, sharing them with others, can often put together insights that were previously unconnected. Einstein made great use of this technique of discussing tricky problems with friends and colleagues, even if they were merely a sounding board rather than an active participant in the discussion.

8. Be rebellious.

Einstein was never much of a conformist. While his rebellious streak probably hurt his earlier academic career when he was struggling to find work in physics, it is also probably what enabled his greatest discoveries and accentuated his later celebrity.

This rebelliousness likely helped him in learning physics as he pushed against the traditions and orthodoxy he didn’t agree with. He hated the German educational system, finding in Isaacson’s words, “the style of teaching—rote drills, impatience with questioning—to be repugnant.” This rejection of the common educational method encouraged him to learn physics on his own through textbooks and practice.

Later, the same rebelliousness would be essential in revolutionizing physics. His research on the quantization of light, for instance, had been first discovered by Max Planck. However, unlike the older Planck, Einstein saw the quantization as being a physical reality—photons—rather than a mathematical contrivance. He was less attached to the predominant theory of the time that light was a wave in the ether.

Where many students would have been happy to conform to predominant educational and theoretical orthodoxies, Einstein wasn’t satisfied unless something made sense to him personally.

9. All knowledge starts with curiosity.

“Curiosity has its own reason for existing,” Einstein explains. “One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.”

Einstein, curious until the end.

This curiosity is probably Einstein’s most defining quality, after his intelligence. His love of physics started as a boy when he was given a compass and fascinated by the idea that the needle moved because of an unseen force.

Curiosity was his motivation for learning physics. Einstein, who could be quite lazy and obstinate when a matter didn’t interest him, nonetheless had an intense passion for understanding the things, “the ordinary adult never bothers his head about.” Curiosity was also, in his own mind, the greatest reason for his accomplishments.

Einstein believed that, “love is a better teacher than a sense of duty.” Love of learning and knowledge is, perhaps, a more important skill to cultivate than discipline.

Learning as Einstein Did

Einstein’s approach towards learning cannot be entirely separated from who he was. Was his obsessive focus a result of his intelligence or his curiosity? Did his ability to easily visualize thought experiments come from encouragement in an unusual Swiss education system, extensive practice or natural ability? Was his revolution in physics a product of genius, rebelliousness, luck or maybe all three? I’m not sure there are clear answers to any of those questions.

What is clear, however, was Einstein’s reverence for nature and the humbled attitude to which he approached investigating it. As he wrote:

“A spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe—a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”

And, so even if Einstein’s genius may lay outside the reach of most of us, his curiosity, humility and tenacity are still worth emulating.

For more information please visit the following link:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-einstein-learned-physics?utm_source=pocket-newtab

40+ Amazing Sand Sculptures That Breathes Life Into Sand

If you’re at the beach and done with swimming what can you do? Most will build sand castles and sculptures, but some decide to go ahead and create art.

Sand art, or sand sculptures, in particular, have been quite popular and competitions and exhibitions are regularly held across the world. Of course, sand castles are the most known form of sand sculptures as kids just love building them.

It turns out to create more professional looking and detailed sand sculptures, just sand, and water will suffice – but it’s important that special sculpture sand is being used in order to maintain a stable structure.

Below is a list of 55 most amazing sand sculptures across the world that will probably give you a whole new perspective on using sand to build art.

1) Wonderland

With a beautiful sand castle like this, people would immediately want to jump in and accompany Alice on her journey to Wonderland.

Source: Octopodart

2) Rebel, rebel

Sometimes, statues are just a little bit too mainstream. Sand statues are just so much cooler! Someone made this amazing sculpture in David Bowie’s honor. The king of pop rock would definitely be proud.

Source: mcelliot_travel

3) Sand Dragon

Just look at the details of this wonderfully crafted dragon! Everything has been meticulously created, from his teeth up to his eyes and even the woman standing before the dragon’s very eyes. A true work of art.

Source: See The World With Green Eyes

4) Arabian Nights

This beautiful sculpture of Sheherazade was built in the Netherlands. The story of 1001 Nights or Arabian Nights has been told over many centuries, and this is an amazing representation of that story, created with sand.

Source: Svenpunt

5) Hey Mickey

Every year, the coastal city of Ostend in Belgium organizes a summer sand sculpture festival. One year, the main theme was Disney, so this welcoming Mickey Mouse was standing near the entry to say hello to all visitors!

Source: Happy_Love_Life_24

6) Welcoming hands

There is only one word to describe this sand sculpture: beautiful. The details are incredible, as you can see the ridges of the fingerprints, for example. And who wouldn’t want to welcome a cute baby like this with both hands?

Source: dehaenmichelle

7) Ready to ride

This picture was taken at an Oktoberfest event in Germany. Aside from drinking lots of beer during the festivities, you can apparently also spot great sand sculptures such as this one!

Source: Carl, Flickr

8) Sandglobes

These balls of sand are known as ‘sandglobes’, and putting them in formations such as these makes for a really appealing structure. This particular work of art was created by sand artist Naija Fatima.

Source: Sandglobes

9) For the GoT fans

If you’ve ever watched Game of Thrones, you’ll immediately recognize these two. The sand sculpture version of Daenerys Targaryen and her dragon looks amazing!

Source: Realalexander

10) Miniature city

Not every sand sculpture needs to be humongous and imposing, smaller pieces such as this one manage to capture the finesse of sand art perfectly too. This small and charming sand city in Australia looks like a real-life painting!

Source: georgie_girl_by_sandra

Ing’s Peace Project: Peace artwork 2   

The Peace and Art Parade and festival run by the Barat Foundation in Newark on 10.23.2011, organized by Chandri and Gary Barat.  Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

It took me a while to be able to complete this project.  I spent some time to compose this second finished artwork for the Peace Project.  The writings were the comments from the people on “What does Peace mean to you?” at the Washington Park and some of the people who participated in the Creation Nation Art and Peace Parade on Sunday, October 23, 2011, Newark, New Jersey, USA.

Link to Peace Project and Creation Art Peace Parade Page:

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Ing and John’s and International Street Art, TED Talks, and Digital Photography School

Ing & John’s Street Art Part 5: Kai, The Artist, and Ing and John’s Artwork and International Street Art Part 6: David Zinn

TED Talks: Sydney Jensen How can we support the emotional well being of teachers?, Olympia Della Flora Creative ways to get kids to thrive in school, and Anindya Kundu The boost students need to overcome obstacles

Digital Photography School: How to Create Beautiful Light Painting Images with an Illuminated Hoop

Ing & John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 5

Ing and John’s Street Art, Downtown Newark, New Jersey, USA- Part 5

Kai, The Artist, and Ing and John’s Artwork

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Photographs and Poem by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

Kai, our grandson, who love to do painting.  He volunteers to do artwork in front our shop.

Kai had a helping hand from Grandpa John.

Kai, just turned four years old on Saturday, September 21, 2019.

This is the nature of life.  One minute we are here and the second minute we are gone.  What remains’ is what we did with the minutes before, while we are still alive on earth.

This artist prefers to play, rather than work hard on his painting.

On Tuesday, September 24, 2019, while we were taking our artwork down at night time, a homeless man asked me, “Do you sell the paintings?”.  “No, I said, we put our artwork up for people to see, and it makes the sidewalk more pleasant to walk by.”   Then he pointed to my Gandhi artwork and asked “Who is this man?” I explained to him that “His name is Gandhi.  He helped his country of India to gain independence from the 200-hundred-year rule by the British Empire.  He achieved this by non-violent mean.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who fought for human rights in this country, USA, followed Gandhi’s non-violent philosophy.  I felt very glad that the homeless man asked me the questions. 

I do not think that homeless people or working-class people will have a much of an opportunity to visit art galleries or museums. This is one of the reasons that I love Street Art.  The artwork is in public view.  Some might like the artwork or some might not, but it can create inter action and activate the viewers to think.  This thinking process helps create learning and reasoning about what others show or tell you to believe.   

Left:        Impossible Dreamer – John Watts’ Artwork

Middle: Gandhi Man of Peace and His Words – Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts’ Artwork

Right:    Beneath the Lake – John Watts’ Artwork

There are some people asking us about our artwork that we display in front of our building.  So, we decided to post a sign to let people know who did the artwork along with my Peace Poem.

Little one on mother’s bosoms

Happy to hang along

Where ever she goes

Ride, ride, ride

Happy mother and happy child

I am a lucky one

Ride, ride, ride

Mommy, Daddy I love you

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Sunday, November 10, 2019

I wish some of the homeless children that I saw in the parks or the public library will have comfort and be as well provided for as this child.

This past summer I took our grandson, Kai to Newark Museum, I found out that it is free admissions for Newark residents, for others it cost $15.00 for an adult and $7.00 for a child.  I took Kai to Military park to play.  I met a woman who has seven children and is not a Newark resident, so she can only bring the children to the park and cannot afford to pay for the Museum entrance tickets.  I think the working-class, poor, and homeless children, need as much as education as they can possibly have.  Museums and libraries are good places for children to learn.  They can form good habits of learning and be able to do well in school and have ambition to get higher education, such as college or university.  Education can help people get out of poverty. The cities nearby Newark, such as Irvington, Jersey City, and others cities have poor and working-class children.  These youngsters will be left out of the experience and enjoyment of seeing the fantastic artwork collections that Newark Museum offers to Newark residents, and well to do families out of town that can afford the price of admission.

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Thursday, November 14, 2019

For more information please visit the following link:

Ing and John’s Street Art and International Street Art-Part 6

International Street Art – Part 6

David Zinn

Street Art & Illustration

David Zinn has been creating original artwork in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan since 1987. For more than twenty years, he freelanced for a wide variety of commercial clients while simultaneously sneaking “pointless” art into the world at large. His professional commissions included theatrical posters, business logos, educational cartoons, landfill murals, environmental superheroes, corporate allegories and hand-painted dump trucks, and his less practical creations involved bar coasters, restaurant placemats, cake icing, and snow. Now, thanks to the temptations of a box of sidewalk chalk on an unusually sunny day, Mr. Zinn is known all over the world for the art he creates under his feet.

David’s temporary street drawings are composed entirely of chalk, charcoal and found objects, and are always improvised on location through a process known as “pareidolic anamorphosis” or “anamorphic pareidolia.” Most of his creatures appear on sidewalks in Michigan, but many have surfaced as far away as subway platforms in Manhattan, village squares in Sweden and street corners in Taiwan. He has achieved global notoriety through sharing on the pages of Facebook, Instagram, Huffington Post, Graffiti Art Magazine, Bored Panda, Central China Television, Street Art Utopia, and Archie McPhee’s Endless Geyser of Awesome. His most frequent characters are Sluggo (a bright green monster with stalk eyes and irreverent habits) and Philomena (a phlegmatic flying pig), but the diversity of Mr. Zinn’s menagerie seems to be limited only by the size of the sidewalk and the spirit of the day

For more information please visit the following link:

Sluggo on the Street, Vol. 1

will be food for art

tangled sluggo

tempting the gerbilsaurus

sluggo and reluctant steed

sky beneath feet

save water sluggo and friend

rockband sluggo

returned from sender

occupy imagination rochester

music feeds the beast

join the crowd

impossibility on a stick

impossibility fishing 2012

fifth avenue billiards

feeding the flying turtles

drinking with sluggo

chocolate gifting sluggo

carpooling with sluggo

birthday cake

artistic license

Categories: Chalk Art

For more information please visit the following link:

The new book has arrived! “Underfoot Menagerie” is the best way to keep David Zinn’s temporary street art creatures from running away in the rain: put them on your coffee table! More than 100 pages of cheerful creatures to brighten your day, plus explanations and inspirations from the artist himself. Click on the “shop” link or the image above to order!

Contact David Zinn: info@zinnart.com

David Zinn: Chalk Art Brought to Life

Dec 1, 2014   VideoVision360

David Zinn is an Ann Arbor artist known for his temporary street art composed entirely of chalk, charcoal and found objects that is entirely improvised on location. Most of these drawings (most notably “Sluggo”) have appeared on sidewalks in Ann Arbor and elsewhere in Michigan, but some have surfaced as far away as subway platforms in Manhattan and construction debris in the Sonoran Desert. Zinn’s chalk work began in 2001 as an excuse to linger outdoors and pursue his inner-child, but has since achieved global notoriety. Give his temporary chalk-based creatures a safe haven away from rain, by taking his art home with you: https://igg.me/at/davidzinn. David Zinn MUSIC VIDEO: https://youtu.be/ta5cXcCGWsk Video Production: https://www.facebook.com/VideoVision360

Category    People & Blogs

David Zinn Art

Sep 11, 2014  Create Michigan

Watch Ann Arbor artist David Zinn as he creates one of his popular chalk art drawings on the street in Dexter, Michigan.

Category   Entertainment

For more information please visit the following link:

Teachers emotionally support our kids — but who’s supporting our teachers? In this eye-opening talk, educator Sydney Jensen explores how teachers are at risk of “secondary trauma” — the idea that they absorb the emotional weight of their students’ experiences — and shows how schools can get creative in supporting everyone’s mental health and wellness.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Sydney Jensen · Educator

Sydney Jensen wants to shine a light on the emotional and mental impact of teaching students who have experienced trauma.

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Contact your representatives to urge them to support Teacher Health and Wellness Act, H.R.2544.

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Teachers: share your story with brave vulnerability here.

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TED Masterclass | October 2019

To get young kids to thrive in school, we need to do more than teach them how to read and write — we need to teach them how to manage their emotions, says educator Olympia Della Flora. In this practical talk, she shares creative tactics she used to help struggling, sometimes disruptive students — things like stopping for brain breaks, singing songs and even doing yoga poses — all with her existing budget and resources. “Small changes make huge differences, and it’s possible to start right now … You simply need smarter ways to think about using what you have, where you have it,” she says.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Olympia Della Flora · Educator

Olympia Della Flora wants schools to think differently about educating students — by helping them manage their emotions.

1,884,173 views

TED Salon: Education Everywhere | January 2019

How can disadvantaged students succeed in school? For sociologist Anindya Kundu, grit and stick-to-itiveness aren’t enough; students also need to develop their agency, or their capacity to overcome obstacles and navigate the system. He shares hopeful stories of students who have defied expectations in the face of personal, social and institutional challenges.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Anindya Kundu · Sociologist, educator, writer

Anindya Kundu suggests all students can succeed if provided collective support systems and opportunities.

More Resources

TED Residency

The TED Residency is an incubator for breakthrough ideas. It’s free and open to all via a semiannual competitive application. Residents spend four months at TED headquarters in New York City collaborating on projects and ideas, which they then share in a TED Talk.

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1,749,407 views

TED Residency | June 2017

How to Create Beautiful Light Painting Images With an Illuminated Hoop

A Post By: Andrew S. Gibson

Early last year I collaborated with a friend who is a professional circus performer and hula hooper to create the unique images that you see in this article.

There are lots of good light painting photos around, but the factor that sets these ones apart is that my friend Tess used something called a FutureHoop – a transparent hula hoop that has built-in lights that can be programmed to flash in different colors and patterns. It helps that Tess is a trained dancer and hooper, so she was able to create some beautiful patterns with the FutureHoop.

You can try this technique yourself – if not with a FutureHoop then with any number of colored light tubes or similar devices that are available (or make your own). Do a search on Amazon to see what you can find, and use your imagination to reveal their potential.

Whatever you end up using for your painting with light experiments, there are a number of things you need to consider to get the best results. Take care of these and you should be able to create some strong images.

Choose a Location

Pick a good location. You need a dramatic background that complements the painting with light technique you choose to use. For these photos we went to Massey Memorial, built in remembrance of a past New Zealand Prime Minister on a hill in Wellington. I knew it would be a great place to take the photos because the marble pillars form a dramatic background. There was also plenty of room for Tess to move and dance with the FutureHoop.

Take the practicalities into consideration when choosing a background. For example, beaches often make good locations for painting with light photos, but you need to make sure your model can walk around safely in the near dark without tripping over rocks (or falling into the sea). Incidentally, isolated beaches are also a great place to try steel wool spinning, another form of painting with light.

Pick a model

Pick the right model. Tess is a professional performer and I couldn’t have created these photos without her. She had the appropriate costume, including an illuminated bra that can also be programmed to give different color displays.

Her training also meant that she could strike professional poses. The following photo demonstrates this perfectly. Look at the arch of her back, the way her feet are positioned, and how the toes on her left foot are pointed. You can even see the flashing bra.

The other thing that helped is that Tess thought about the patterns she would use on FutureHoop, and how she would move the hoop before the shoot. That helped us nail the shoot the first time.

Ask your model to practice, and be prepared to reshoot if necessary. It is possible that you won’t create your best images during the first attempt. During the shoot, look at the photos on the camera’s LCD screen and see what works and what doesn’t. Then you can suggest things that your model can try, or ask her to do something again if you didn’t quite time the photo correctly. Use feedback to refine the images and work towards something beautiful.

Time of Day

Choose the right time of day. The best time for painting with light is twilight, as it is dark enough for the lights to show, but there is still enough ambient light to subtly illuminate the background, and maintain some color in the sky.

The only difficulty with twilight is that the light fades rapidly, so you have to keep up by changing the exposure settings as you go along. The photos you take earlier on in the shoot, will be different from the ones you take later, as the light is fading. The ratio between the light from the FutureHoop (or whatever devices you are using), which stays constant, and the ambient light, which is fading, changes.

The two photos above show the difference. The first was taken early in the evening, the second one when it was nearly dark. The pillars in the background in the first are lit by the light of the setting sun. The FutureHoop seems much brighter in the second because the ambient light levels are lower. Note that I darkened the background of the first image in Lightroom to match that of the second one.

This photo shows Tess warming up at the start of the shoot. It was still too bright as this stage for the painting with light photos – you can barely see the light of the FutureHoop.

If you shoot at night the exposure should remain constant, but the sky will lack color. On the other hand, the light from the device your model is using could light up the background beautifully if it is close enough. So there may be advantages to working at night, rather than twilight, but in most cases the light during twilight will be better.

Technique and Camera Settings

Get your technique right. You need slow shutter speeds to take this type of photo, so a good tripod to support the camera and a cable release are necessities. I used shutter speeds between two and four seconds for these photos – you may need longer exposures depending on how long it takes your model to move the device you are using through the air. Tess moved quite fast, so the shorter shutter speeds we used worked better.

Set your camera to Manual mode so that the exposure remains constant throughout the series (the moving lights will confuse your camera’s light meter in an automatic exposure mode). It is easy enough to open the aperture, or raise the ISO, if you need to as the light fades.

Use the Raw format to give you maximum leeway in post-processing. Shooting Raw simplifies the shoot greatly as you don’t have to worry about settings such as color profile until you sit down to process the photos.

In this shoot, once the camera was set up, I kept the aperture at f/8 or f/11 and raised the ISO as the light faded. I set the White Balance to Daylight so I could see the natural colors of the FutureHoop and the ambient light. Using auto White Balance may result in some strange color casts as the camera tries to compensate for the colored lights.

Above all, have fun. If you both enjoy the process you create better images. If your model enjoys it she will want to collaborate with you on future ideas. Below are a few more images from our shoot – enjoy and hopefully they give you some ideas.

Any questions? Let us know in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer.

And if you’d like to learn more about the basics of photography, then please check out my ebook Mastering Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Using Digital Cameras.

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PBS News, BBC News, TED Talks, Unexplained Mysteries, My Modern Met, and Ing’s Peace Project

PBS News: November 5-11, 2019

BBC News: Vaping nearly killed me, says British teenager, and Zimbabwean Manners Mukuwiri recycles rubbish into art

TED Talks: Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck the price of a clean internet, Claire Wardle How you can help transform the internet into a place of trust, and Misha Glenny Hire the hackers,

Unexplained Mysteries: 5 Mind Blowing NASA Discoveries Made In 2019

My Modern Met: Striking Winners of the 2019 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition Show the Artistry of Science

Ing’s Peace Project: Shadow of Peace and the International CranioSacral Therapists 2014, Iceland

PBS NewsHour full episode November 11, 2019

Nov 11, 2019  PBS NewsHour

1.47M subscribers

Monday on the NewsHour, embattled Bolivian President Evo Morales resigns, leaving the country with a vacuum of power. Plus: Violence grips Hong Kong protests, an impeachment inquiry update, how Rudy Giuliani became involved with Ukraine, Politics Monday with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith, the Supreme Court takes up DACA “Dreamers,” rural arts in Minnesota and a Veterans Day commemoration. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us: Facebook: https://www.pbs.org/newshour Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/newshour Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newshour Snapchat: @pbsnews Subscribe: PBS NewsHour podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts Newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe

Category   News & Politics

PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode November 10, 2019

Nov 10, 2019  PBS NewsHour

On this edition for Sunday, November 10, three officials will testify in public hearings this week as part of the impeachment inquiry, and humanitarian workers along the U.S.-Mexico border face prosecution under federal law for helping undocumented migrants. Megan Thompson anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode November 9, 2019

Nov 9, 2019  PBS NewsHour

On this edition for Saturday, November 9, Republicans release their witness wishlist, why Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Graham Nash is performing his lesser-known tracks, and Marie Kondo’s tidying tricks for kids. Megan Thompson anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 8, 2019

Nov 8, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Friday on the NewsHour, House committees release transcripts from two more witnesses in the impeachment inquiry — and President Trump expresses anger toward the whistleblower. Plus: The 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s collapse, Mark Shields and David Brooks on the week’s political news, a brief but spectacular take on comedy and the year’s blockbuster Leonardo da Vinci exhibition. WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS: How depositions link Mulvaney to Ukraine impeachment saga https://youtu.be/Km8TDlhoUGg News Wrap: Anonymous staffer’s book says Trump unfit to lead https://youtu.be/0qQHD_IvDEk 30 years after Berlin Wall, why German divisions remain https://youtu.be/zdif8sKubJM Shields and Brooks on impeachment hearings, state elections https://youtu.be/e664ih4ByQ8 Scott Aukerman on the origins of ‘Between Two Ferns’ https://youtu.be/UQQGS7TJCIg Louvre exhibition showcases da Vinci’s ‘endless curiosity’ https://youtu.be/eblCEzB0M0c Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 7, 2019

Nov 7, 2019  PBS NewsHour

1.46M subscribers

Thursday on the NewsHour, how far did President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, go to circumvent normal U.S. diplomatic channels with Ukraine? Plus: Saudi Arabia uses Twitter to target dissent, California fire fallout for utility PG&E, the latest on the health care marketplace, privacy issues around DNA testing, toxic pollution over India and Jane Fonda’s climate change crusade. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 6, 2019

Nov 6, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Wednesday on the NewsHour, election results from high-profile races in Kentucky, Mississippi and Virginia. Plus: The latest revelations from the impeachment inquiry, a conversation with Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the risks and benefits of genetic genealogy in solving crimes, the launch of NewsHour’s Broken Justice podcast and Ben Crump’s new book about the racist flaws of American criminal justice. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode November 5, 2019

Nov 5, 2019  PBS NewsHour   

Tuesday on the NewsHour, transcripts are released from the testimonies of two figures central to the impeachment inquiry. Plus: Analysis of and reaction to the newly released transcripts, U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate deal, criminal justice reform in Oklahoma, standardized tests in higher education admissions, rejecting white supremacy and a new film from actor and director Edward Norton. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50377256

Vaping nearly killed me, says British teenager

By James Gallagher Health and science correspondent

Image copyright Ewan Fisher

A teenage boy nearly died after vaping caused a catastrophic reaction in his lungs, doctors in Nottingham say.

Ewan Fisher was connected to an artificial lung to keep him alive after his own lungs failed and he could not breathe.

Ewan told BBC News e-cigarettes had “basically ruined me” and urged other young people not to vape.

His doctors say vaping is “not safe”, although health bodies in the UK say it is 95% safer than tobacco.

Listen: Beyond Today – Can vaping kill you?

What happened?

Ewan started vaping in early 2017. He was 16 at the time and wanted to quit smoking to improve his boxing.

Despite being under age, he said, “it was easy” to buy either cigarettes or e-cigarettes.

In May that year, Ewan was finding it harder and harder to breathe.

His mother took Ewan to accident and emergency on the night before his GCSE exams, because he was coughing and choking in his sleep.

His lungs were failing and he very quickly ended up on life-support in intensive care in Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.

“I thought I was going to die,” Ewan told BBC News.

Ewan was getting worse. Even ventilation could not get enough oxygen into his body and his life was in the balance.

Image copyright Ewan Fisher Image caption Ewan was attached to an ECMO machine to keep him alive

He was taken to Leicester and attached to an artificial lung or ECMO (extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation) machine.

“This machine saved my life,” he said.

Large tubes took blood out of Ewan, removed the carbon dioxide, added oxygen and pumped the blood back into his body.

“He had very serious respiratory failure, he had to go to ECMO and that is a very big deal,” Dr Jayesh Bhatt, a consultant at Nottingham University Hospitals, told BBC News.

“He got as ill as anyone can get.”

The case – from May 2017 – has just come to light in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

How is Ewan now?

Ewan, who is 19 on Tuesday, had a long recovery. It was six months before he was properly up and, on his feet, again.

“I’m still not back to normal, I’d say 75-80%, it’s in the last six months that I’m feeling a bit stronger in myself,” he said.

“Vaping has basically ruined me, I try to tell everyone and they think I’m being stupid, I tell my mates and they don’t listen.

“They still do it, they all still vape, but they’ve seen what I’ve been through.

“Is it worth risking your life for smoking e-cigs?

“I don’t want you to end up like me and I don’t want you to be dead, I wouldn’t wish [that] on anyone.”

Ewan also fears being around other vapers – everywhere from the pub to High Street – could damage his lungs again.

For more information please visit the following link:

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50377256

Millions of images and videos are uploaded to the internet each day, yet we rarely see shocking and disturbing content in our social media feeds. Who’s keeping the internet “clean” for us? In this eye-opening talk, documentarians Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck take us inside the shadowy world of online content moderators — the people contracted by major platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google to rid the internet of toxic material. Learn more about the psychological impact of this kind of work — and how “digital cleaning” influences what all of us see and think.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCERN, an independent event. TED’s editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speakers

Hans Block · Filmmaker, theater director, musician

Under the label Laokoon, Hans Block develops films, theatre productions, essays, lecture performances and radio plays that deal with the question of how our idea of humans and society change or can be transformed in the digital era.

Moritz Riesewieck · Author, scriptwriter, theater and film director

Under the label Laokoon, Moritz Riesewieck develops films, theatre productions, essays, lecture performances and radio plays that deal with the question of how our idea of humans and society change or can be transformed in the digital era.

More Resources

The Cleaners

Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck

Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion (2018)

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Support the BPO Industry Employees Network, which advocates for the rights of Filipino clickworkers.

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About TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

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TEDxCERN | November 2018

How can we stop the spread of misleading, sometimes dangerous content while maintaining an internet with freedom of expression at its core? Misinformation expert Claire Wardle explores the new challenges of our polluted online environment and maps out a plan to transform the internet into a place of trust — with the help everyday users. “Together, let’s rebuild our information commons,” she says.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Claire Wardle · Misinformation expert

Claire Wardle is an expert on user-generated content and verification working to help improve the quality of information online.

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Subscribe to First Draft’s daily or weekly briefing to keep up to date with news and information about this topic.

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Learn more skills to help you navigate the online world.

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TED2019 | April 2019

Journalist Andrew Marantz spent three years embedded in the world of internet trolls and social media propagandists, seeking out the people who are propelling fringe talking points into the heart of conversation online and trying to understand how they’re making their ideas spread. Go down the rabbit hole of online propaganda and misinformation — and learn we can start to make the internet less toxic.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Andrew Marantz · Writer

Andrew Marantz writes narrative journalism about politics, the internet and the way we understand our world.

More Resources

Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation

Andrew Marantz

Viking (2019)

Despite multibillion-dollar investments in cybersecurity, one of its root problems has been largely ignored: who are the people who write malicious code? Underworld investigator Misha Glenny profiles several convicted coders from around the world and reaches a startling conclusion.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Misha Glenny · Underworld investigator

Journalist Misha Glenny leaves no stone unturned (and no failed state unexamined) in his excavation of criminal globalization.

TEDGlobal 2011 | July 2011

5 Mind Blowing NASA Discoveries Made In 2019

May 30, 2019

Unexplained Mysteries

5 mind blowing NASA discoveries made in 2019. We take a look at these 5 mind blowing NASA discoveries made in 2019. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been at the center of a number of public discoveries. So today, here at unexplained mysteries, we will be highlighting the incredible breakthroughs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to help show the overwhelming support the agency has provided for the fields of science and technology. Thank you for watching! Thank you to CO.AG for the background music!

BBC News: “If I see someone with the same disability as I have, I encourage them to show the world what you can do.”

Manners from Zimbabwe makes artwork using thrown away cans.

bbc.in/36NEaqZ (via BBC News Africa

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-47975425/zimbabwean-manners-mukuwiri-recycles-rubbish-into-art?fbclid=IwAR3UQdowWVDz-5Lp6g_06dVFUJUpMb90OBjsIVAgTEVMFFfttoPPA2CeZgU

Zimbabwean Manners Mukuwiri recycles rubbish into art

Zimbabwean Manners Mukuwiri was struggling to earn a living until he started turning rubbish into art.

People with disabilities can often find it difficult to find work in the country, but his creations sell for up to $800 (£615) and Manners is hoping to turn his hobby into a full-time career.

Video journalists: Ashley Ogonda and Anthony Irungu.  22 Apr 2019

Striking Winners of the 2019 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition Show the Artistry of Science

By Jessica Stewart on October 23, 2019

Fluorescent turtle embryo. Teresa Zgoda & Teresa Kugler (Campbell Hall, New York, USA). First Place. Stereomicroscopy, Fluorescence. 5x (Objective Lens Magnification).

For forty-five years, the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition has celebrated the microscopic world and, in the process, allowed scientists and enthusiasts to show off the artistry of scientific imagery. Passionate micro-photographers from nearly 100 countries submitted over 2000 stunning pieces of microphotography to the competition. In the end, the expert judging panel narrowed the field to the top 20 images with a photo of a turtle embryo taking the top prize.

The colorful image, taken by microscopy technician Teresa Zgoda and recent university graduate Teresa Kugler, is the result of painstaking work done with precision and skill. Extensive image-stitching was necessary to create the final photograph, as the size and thickness of the turtle embryo meant that only a small portion of the turtle could be photographed at one time. By stacking and stitching together hundreds of photographs, the duo was able to create an image that is both scientifically and artistically satisfying.

“Microscopy lets us zoom in on the smallest organisms and building blocks that comprise our world–giving us a profound appreciation for the small things in life that far too often go unnoticed,” shared Kugler, “It allows me to do science with a purpose.”

The turtle wasn’t the only embryo in the winning selection. Reproduction was a topic for many photographers. An alligator and a California two-spot octopus embryo, as well as a pregnant planktonic crustacean and mosquito larva also joined the top twenty. Away from the animal kingdom, something as simple as a frozen drop of water was transformed into a mesmerizing, abstract photograph. At the same time, a close view of different flora helps us marvel at the beauty and precision of how nature develops.

Whether using focus stacking, image stacking, or confocal microscopy, the techniques employed help these scientists bring their vision to life. And as technology continues to grow and evolve, we can only expect even richer results. Take a look at the rest of the top 20 photos from the 2019 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition below and view more finalists via their online gallery.

For 45 years, the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition has celebrated the artistry of scientific imagery.

Alligator embryo developing nerves and skeleton. Daniel Smith Paredes & Dr. Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar (Yale University, Department of Geology and Geophysics, New Haven, Connecticut, USA). Third Place. Immunofluorescence. 10x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Small white hair spider. Javier Rupérez (Almáchar, Málaga, Spain). Sixth Place. Reflected Light, Image Stacking. 20x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Housefly compound eye pattern. Dr. Razvan Cornel Constantin (Bucharest, Romania). 16th Place. Focus Stacking, Reflected Light. 50x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Tulip bud cross section. Andrei Savitsky (Cherkassy, Ukraine). Ninth Place. Reflected Light. 1x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Female Oxyopes dumonti (lynx) spider. Antoine Franck (CIRAD – Agricultural Research for Development, Saint Pierre, Réunion). 14th Place. Focus Stacking. 1x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Male mosquito. Jan Rosenboom (Universität Rostock, Rostock, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Germany). Fourth Place. Focus Stacking. 6.3x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Octopus bimaculoides embryo. Martyna Lukoseviciute & Dr. Carrie Albertin (University of Oxford, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom). 19th Place. Confocal, Image Stitching. 5x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Snowflake. Caleb Foster (Caleb Foster Photography, Jericho, Vermont, USA). Fifth Place. Transmitted Light. 4x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Chinese red carnation stamen. Dr. Guillermo López López (Alicante, Spain). Seventh Place. Focus Stacking. 3x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Cuprite (mineral composed of copper oxide). Dr. Emilio Carabajal Márquez (Madrid, Spain). Focus Stacking. 20x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Vitamin C. Karl Deckart (Eckental, Bavaria, Germany). 17th Place. Brightfield, Polarized Light. 4x (Objective Lens Magnification)

Depth-color coded projections of three stentors (single-cell freshwater protozoans). Dr. Igor Siwanowicz (Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia, USA). Second place. Confocal. 40x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Frozen water droplet. Garzon Christian (Quintin, Cotes-d’Armor, France). Eighth Place. Incident Light. 8x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Pregnant Daphnia magna (small planktonic crustacean). Marek Mi? (Marek Mi? Photography, Suwalki, Podlaskie, Poland). 15th Place. Modified Darkfield, Polarized Light, Image Stacking. 4x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Cristobalite crystal suspended in its quartz mineral host. E. Billie Hughes (Lotus Gemology, Bangkok, Thailand). 18th Place. Darkfield. 40x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Mosquito larva. Anne Algar (Hounslow, Middlesex, United Kingdom). 12th Place. Darkfield, Polarizing Light, Image Stacking. 4x (Objective Lens Magnification).

A pair of ovaries from an adult Drosophila female stained for F-actin (yellow) and nuclei (green); follicle cells are marked by GFP (magenta). Dr. Yujun Chen & Dr. Jocelyn McDonald (Kansas State University, Department of Biology, Manhattan, Kansas, USA). 11th Place. Confocal. 10x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Blood vessels of a murine (mouse) heart following myocardial infarction (heart attack). Simon Merz, Lea Bornemann & Sebastian Korste (University Hospital Essen, Institute for Experimental Immunology & Imaging, Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany). 20th Place. Tissue Clearing, Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy. 2x (Objective Lens Magnification).

BPAE cells in telophase stage of mitosis. Jason M. Kirk (Baylor College of Medicine, Optical Imaging & Vital Microscopy Core, Houston, Texas, USA). 10th Place. Confocal with Enhanced Resolution. 63x (Objective Lens Magnification).

Nikon Small World: Website | Facebook | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Nikon Small World.

Finished “Peace” artwork 13

Shadow of Peace and the International CranioSacral Therapists 2014, Iceland, comments on “What does Peace mean to you?” on during May and June 2014, organized by Joseph Giacalone Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

Links to the finished Peace Project of the International CranioSacral Therapists 2014, Iceland artwork page:

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PBS News, TED Talks, Scientific America, Bright Side, Inspiration Grid, and Thisiscolossal

PBS News: November1-4, 2019, How GOP efforts to reshape federal courts could affect the 2020 race, Why Cambodian orphanages house so many children whose parents are still alive, and George Takei on challenging the ‘mindless inhumanity’ of U.S. history’s darker chapters

TED Talks: Why I love a country that once betrayed me – George Takei,

Scientific America: Zombie Cells, Creepy Crawlers and a Deep-Sea Ghost: Halloween Science GIFs

BRIGHT SIDE: 10 Unique Animals You Won’t Believe Exist

Inspiration Grid: Pop Portraits: Illustration Series by Alessandro Pautasso

Thisiscolossal: Meticulously Painted Portraits by Miho Hirano Fuse Introspective Women with Plants and Animals

November 4, 2019 – PBS NewsHour full episode

Nov 4, 2019  PBS NewsHour

1.46M subscribers

Monday on the NewsHour, transcripts of some closed-door impeachment inquiry depositions are publicly released. Plus: Rep. Jamie Raskin on the latest developments in the impeachment inquiry, what Kentucky’s gubernatorial race means for President Trump, Politics Monday with Amy Walter and Tamara Keith, how wavering U.S. support has affected the war in Ukraine and music for Nashville seniors. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode November 3, 2019

Nov 3, 2019  PBS NewsHour

1.46M subscribers

On this edition for Sunday, November 3, the impeachment inquiry goes public this week, why protests have erupted across the globe, and a first-of-its- kind campaign finance experiment in Seattle. Megan Thompson anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode November 2, 2019

Nov 2, 2019  PBS NewsHour

On this edition for Saturday, November 2, the president fires back at the impeachment inquiry, fire warnings continue in California, the Democratic presidential candidates stump in Iowa, a Massachusetts state law puts men with addictions in jail for rehab, and a Washington Post writer criticizes a small Minnesota community, then moves there. Megan Thompson anchors from New York. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour live episode November 1, 2019

Streamed live on Nov 1, 2019

PBS NewsHour

Category   News & Politics

How GOP efforts to reshape federal courts could affect the 2020 race

Oct 25, 2019  PBS NewsHour

President Trump has made plenty of headlines for his policies and personality. But in the background, he is cementing a long-lasting legacy through his judicial nominations to federal appeals courts. Lisa Desjardins reports on how this little-noticed effort could influence the 2020 presidential election — and federal courts for decades to come. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us: Facebook: https://www.pbs.org/newshour Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/newshour Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newshour Snapchat: @pbsnews

Why Cambodian orphanages house so many children whose parents are still alive

Oct 24, 2019  PBS NewsHour

The concept of orphanages has long been considered outdated in developed countries. In the developing world, however, these institutions still house hundreds of thousands of children. But the surprising reality is that the parents of most of these children are actually still alive. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Cambodia as part of his series Agents for Change. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

George Takei on challenging the ‘mindless inhumanity’ of U.S. history’s darker chapters

Oct 23, 2019 

PBS NewsHour

“Star Trek” actor, civil rights activist and social media maven George Takei has now written a graphic novel, “They Called Us Enemy,” about the trauma of his family’s being rounded up by the U.S. government and sent to internment camps during World War II. Takei talks to William Brangham about why his story still resonates today. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us: Facebook: https://www.pbs.org/newshour Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/newshour Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newshour Snapchat: @pbsnews Subscribe: PBS NewsHour podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts Newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe

Category News & Politics

Why I love a country that once betrayed me | George Takei

Jul 4, 2014  TED

When he was a child, George Takei and his family were forced into an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, as a “security” measure during World War II. 70 years later, Takei looks back at how the camp shaped his surprising, personal definition of patriotism and democracy. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at https://www.ted.com/translate Follow TED news on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksD…

Category  People & Blogs

Scientific America

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/undying-cells-speedy-ants-and-a-deep-sea-ghost-science-gifs-to-start-your-halloween-week/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sciences&utm_content=link&utm_term=2019-11-01_top-stories&spMailingID=60882351&spUserID=NDQwNDA3NDcwNDMzS0&spJobID=1760136422&spReportId=MTc2MDEzNjQyMgS2

Zombie Cells, Creepy Crawlers and a Deep-Sea Ghost: Halloween Science GIFs

Enjoy and spooky loop on

By Kelso Harper on October 28, 2019

Credit: Nautilus Live, Ocean Exploration Trust

You probably know the GIF as the perfect vehicle for sharing memes and reactions. We believe the format can go further, that it has real power to capture science and explain research in short, digestible loops.

Here is your special Halloween edition of GIF-able science. Enjoy and spooky loop on.

Terrifyingly Fast Ants

Credit: Sarah Pfeffer and Harald Wolf

Not many organisms can survive the harsh climate of the Sahara, where daytime temperatures can reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit. And yet Saharan silver ants thrive, feasting on carcasses of less fortunate, sun-cooked insects. But how do they avoid suffering the same fate as their lunch? Speed.

Credit: Bo Cheng and Pan Liu Pennsylvania State University

When chasing after pesky flies, we may wonder how they manage to land on the ceiling just out of reach. As it turns out, upside-down landings require complex acrobatics. Researchers studied how these tiny creatures pull off the maneuver, hoping it will help roboticists program a tiny robot to do the same.

The scientists expected flies to slow down and reach out to the surface but found that they speed up, complete a split-second cartwheel, extend their legs and pull their body into a firm plant on the ceiling. Such actions require rapid computation of visual cues and a perfectly timed physical response—an impressive feat for a very small nervous system. And yet flies do it effortlessly (though clearly not every time). 

It’s ALIVE! Still.

Credit: Matthew J. Tyska

This cell is immortal. Well, sort of. Unlike most types, the HeLa cell has no off switch for reproduction—it can continue to divide indefinitely. In fact, its line is so resilient, it has lived since the 1950s, when the first such cells were taken from the cancerous tumor of Henrietta Lacks (hence the name HeLa). The cells have a long and controversial history but have been crucial to many medical advancements, from vaccines to genome mapping.

Sadly, they aren’t actually rainbow-colored. Cell biologist Matthew J. Tyska added the hues to illustrate depth: warmer colors show parts farther from the viewer, and cooler ones show nearer bits. The scraggly arms reaching out from the cell, called filopodia, help it sense the physical and chemical properties of its environment. In reality, they don’t squirm around quite so quickly; Tyska sped up the video to be 200 times quicker. Makes for a lovely GIF, though, doesn’t it?

One Spooky Jellyfish

Credit: Nautilus Live, Ocean Exploration Trust

No, it’s not a ghost. You’re witnessing the undulation of a Deepstaria jelly filmed by the E/V Nautilus just in time for #spookyseason. The team spotted this deep-sea specter near Baker Island, a half-mile below sea level.

This jelly may look a bit different than what you would expect. Instead of a fringe of tentacles, it sports an oversize bell that can flexibly stretch and contract. The bell passively captures critters floating by, trapping them inside by cinching closed like a gelatinous trash bag. Stinging cells on the inside of the bell then stun the prey, and hairlike structures called cilia shuttle it to Deepstaria’s stomach.

Scientists don’t spot these deep-dwelling jellies often, but whenever they do, they find other critters, too: pill-bug-like crustaceans called isopods. These typically parasitic animals latch onto the inside of the jelly for a free ride, protection and a portion of its food. They may even munch on Deepstaria itself, but scientists don’t yet fully understand the isopod-jelly relationship.

From this ghoulish jelly and all of us at Scientific American: happy Halloween!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Kelso Harper  Recent Articles

10 Unique Animals You Won’t Believe Exist

Sep 24, 2017  BRIGHT SIDE

10 strange and amazing animals that you have probably never heard of. Nature is truly full of surprises! We live in the twenty-first century, and all continents have already been discovered, all secrets of our planet revealed, all mountain peaks conquered. Just when you think you have seen it all, some new bizarre creature makes an appearance instantly restoring your faith in the impossible! TIMESTAMPS Mangalitsa Pig, a.k.a. “a pig in sheep’s clothing” 0:50 Rhinopithecus or golden snub-nosed monkey 1:33 Emperor tamarin 2:13 Patagonian Mara 3:04 Fluffy cow 3:52 Markhor Goat 4:44 Raccoon dog 5:23 Blue Footed Booby 6:25 Malayan Colugo 7:13 Venezuelan Poodle Moth 8:09 BONUS 8:56 SUMMARY – The birthplace of this curly-haired pig is Hungary where it was discovered in the mid-19th century. Due to the fleece covering this animal, it resembles a sheep, therefore, such a name! – The name of this species is roxellana, and there is a story behind it. It is believed that they were called this way after the supposedly snub-nosed courtesan of Suleiman the Magnificent (a 16th century Sultan of the Ottoman Empire). – They were called like this because of the resemblance of their mustache to that of German Emperor Wilhelm II. – Patagonia Mara is the fourth largest rodent on our planet. There are several interesting facts about them. Females often put offsprings into crèches for safety. – Fluffy cows are looked after by people whose work is to wash, dry and use products to style these animals, so they look as fluffy as they do! It is necessary to maintain them daily, and it will take months of regular grooming until they get this lovely look of kids toys. – If you see a creature which looks as if it’s trying to catch an alien radio signal from space, it’s most likely Markhor Goat. They can grow as long as 6 ft from head to tail! – If you can’t decide if you want to have a dog or a raccoon as a pet, we have just the thing for you – raccoon dog! Despite having raccoon-like markings on their fur, they are not very closely related to the North American raccoon. – Blue Footed Booby are to catch your eye if you ever visit the Galapagos Islands. They can look a bit clumsy and comical on land, but they are excellent at flying and swimming. – Colugo has a large gliding membrane (like a flying squirrel), and they can glide for long distances between trees standing far apart. – Even if the Poodle Moth may look as if it lives in Antarctica with all this fur, in fact, it comes from Venezuela, a tropical country. Its hairs don’t serve for heating. BONUS Cloud Antelope! This species lives in the clouds (that’s why such a name)! Its bright blue fur is the reflection of cloudless blue skies in the area of its habitat. Its diet consists of sun rays and candies… Subscribe to Bright Side : https://goo.gl/rQTJZz

Inspiration Grid

https://theinspirationgrid.com/pop-portraits-illustration-series-by-alessandro-pautasso/

ArtIllustrationPop Culture

Pop Portraits: Illustration Series by Alessandro Pautasso

Published Oct 14, 2019

Created by Italian artist and graphic designer Alessandro Pautasso, ‘Pop Portraits’ is a fantastic ongoing series of digital collage portraits of celebrities, combining vivid colors, geometric shapes and interesting patterns.

You can view more of Alessandro’s work here.

More illustrations via Behance




Meticulously Painted Portraits by Miho Hirano Fuse Introspective Women with Plants and Animals

October 21, 2019  Laura Staugaitis

Solitary female figures command the canvas in oil paintings by artist Miho Hirano. The Japanese artist creates detailed portraits of her human protagonists, who avoid direct eye contact with the viewer. Hirano’s women stare off into the distance as fish and butterflies swarm and flower blossoms and vines seem to grow from the figures’ hair. In a statement on Gallery Sumire’s website, Hirano describes the mission of her work as “to express the changing situation of life’s ugliness and maturity.”

Hirano draws inspiration from her upbringing, noting that her mother cared for plants and animals, and those motifs have continued in her work even though she does not currently reside in a nature-filled place. She also explained to WOW x WOW that she has long found painting a resonant medium to express her thoughts, explore ideas, and escape reality.

Hirano graduated from Musashino Art University’s department of Oil Painting and currently resides in Chiba, Japan. The artist had her first solo show in the U.S. at Corey Helford Gallery in 2017. Hirano’s newest body of work, Recollection, is on view in a two-person show at Corey Helford in Los Angeles from November 2 to December 9, 2019. See more of Hirano’s ethereal paintings on Instagram.

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How We Need To Take Care Of Our Oceans and Coral Reefs

Wikipedia: Coral Reef

TED Talks: Laura Robinson – Mysterious ocean floor,

Kristen Marhaver – Re growing baby corals to rebuild reefs, David Gallo –   Shows underwater astonishments and Margaret Wertheim – Crochets the coral reef

Gallery: Rebekah Barnett What happens when you mix math, coral and crochet? It’s mind-blowing

Biodiversity of a coral reef

A Blue Starfish (Linckia laevigata) resting on hard Acropora and Porites corals (one can also see Anthiinae fish and crinoids). Lighthouse, Ribbon Reefs, Great Barrier Reef.

Copyright (c) 2004 Richard Ling

Coral reef  Marine habitats

A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.

Coral belongs to the class Anthozoa in the animal phylum Cnidaria, which includes sea anemones and jellyfish. Unlike sea anemones, corals secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons that support and protect the coral. Most reefs grow best in warm, shallow, clear, sunny and agitated water.

Often called “rainforests of the sea”, shallow coral reefs form some of Earth’s most diverse ecosystems. They occupy less than 0.1% of the world’s ocean area, about half the area of France, yet they provide a home for at least 25% of all marine species,[1][2][3][4] including fish, mollusks, worms, crustaceans, echinoderms, sponges, tunicates and other cnidarians.[5] Coral reefs flourish in ocean waters that provide few nutrients. They are most commonly found at shallow depths in tropical waters, but deep water and cold water coral reefs exist on smaller scales in other areas.

Coral reefs deliver ecosystem services for tourism, fisheries and shoreline protection. The annual global economic value of coral reefs is estimated between US$30–375 billion[6][7] and 9.9 trillion USD.[8] Coral reefs are fragile, partly because they are sensitive to water conditions. They are under threat from excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), rising temperatures, oceanic acidification, overfishing (e.g., from blast fishing, cyanide fishing, spearfishing on scuba), sunscreen use,[9] and harmful land-use practices, including runoff and seeps (e.g., from injection wells and cesspools).[10][11][12]

Coral

Close up of polyps arrayed on a coral, waving their tentacles. There can be thousands of polyps on a single coral branch.

pakmat – [1]

Coral detail

Diagram of a coral polyp anatomy.

NOAA – NOAA website

Anatomy of a coral polyp.

When alive, corals are colonies of small animals embedded in calcium carbonate shells. Coral heads consist of accumulations of individual animals called polyps, arranged in diverse shapes.[57] Polyps are usually tiny, but they can range in size from a pinhead to 12 inches (30 cm) across.

Reef-building or hermatypic corals live only in the photic zone (above 50 m), the depth to which sufficient sunlight penetrates the water.

Table coral.

Yumi Yasutake, NOAA – https://www.hawaiianatolls.org/research/Sept_Oct2007/FFS.php

Table coral of genus Acropora (Acroporidae) at French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

Typical shapes for coral species are named by their resemblance to terrestrial objects such as wrinkled brains, cabbages, table tops, antlers, wire strands and pillars. These shapes can depend on the life history of the coral, like light exposure and wave action,[64] and events such as breakages.[65]

Reproduction

Corals reproduce both sexually and asexually. An individual polyp uses both reproductive modes within its lifetime. Corals reproduce sexually by either internal or external fertilization. The reproductive cells are found on the mesenteries, membranes that radiate inward from the layer of tissue that lines the stomach cavity. Some mature adult corals are hermaphroditic; others are exclusively male or female. A few species change sex as they grow.

Internally fertilized eggs develop in the polyp for a period ranging from days to weeks. Subsequent development produces a tiny larva, known as a planula. Externally fertilized eggs develop during synchronized spawning. Polyps across a reef simultaneously release eggs and sperm into the water en masse. Spawn disperse over a large area. The timing of spawning depends on time of year, water temperature, and tidal and lunar cycles. Spawning is most successful given little variation between high and low tide. The less water movement, the better the chance for fertilization. Ideal timing occurs in the spring. Release of eggs or planula usually occurs at night, and is sometimes in phase with the lunar cycle (three to six days after a full moon). The period from release to settlement lasts only a few days, but some planulae can survive afloat for several weeks. They are vulnerable to predation and environmental conditions. The lucky few planulae that successfully attach to substrate then compete for food and space.[citation needed]

Other reef builders

Corals are the most prodigious reef-builders. However many other organisms living in the reef community contribute skeletal calcium carbonate in the same manner as corals. These include coralline algae and some sponges.[66] Reefs are always built by the combined efforts of these different phyla, with different organisms leading reef-building in different geological periods.[citation needed]

Coralline algae

Corraline algae Lithothamnion sp.

Philippe Bourjon – The uploader on Wikimedia Commons received this from the author/copyright holder.

Une algue corallinale Lithothamnion sp. à la Réunion.

Coralline algae are important contributors to reef structure. Although their mineral deposition-rates are much slower than corals, they are more tolerant of rough wave-action, and so help to create a protective crust over those parts of the reef subjected to the greatest forces by waves, such as the reef front facing the open ocean. They also strengthen the reef structure by depositing limestone in sheets over the reef surface.[citation needed]

Sponges

Deep-water cloud sponge

Deep-water cloud sponge

Caption:Aphrocallistes vastus. Cloud sponges are found down around 100′ in areas with little or no current. They are very fragile, as they are made out of tiny glass crystals (hydrated silica dioxide).

Sclerosponge” is the descriptive name for all Porifera that build reefs. In the early Cambrian period, Archaeocyatha sponges were the world’s first reef-building organisms, and sponges were the only reef-builders until the Ordovician. Sclerosponges still assist corals building modern reefs, but like coralline algae are much slower-growing than corals and their contribution is (usually) minor.[citation needed]

In the northern Pacific Ocean cloud sponges still create deep-water mineral-structures without corals, although the structures are not recognizable from the surface like tropical reefs. They are the only extant organisms known to build reef-like structures in cold water.[citation needed]

Gallery of reef-building corals and their reef-building assistants

Brain coral

Staghorn Coral (Acropora cervicornis), possibly affected by White-Band disease, at Red Beryl

Staghorn coral

Adona9 at the English Wikipedia

Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis)

Spiral wire coral

Spiral wire coral

Nhobgood Nick Hobgood – Own work

Cirripathes sp. Spiral wire coral – Black coral

Pillar coral

Mushroom coral

Brocken Inaglory – Own work

Plate coral (Fungia sp.). The picture was taken in Papua New Guinea

Maze coral

Nhobgood Nick Hobgood – Own work

English: Meandrina meandrites (Maze Coral

Black coral

Aaron from Washington, DC, United States – black coral

it’s white underwater, but turns black when dried. used for jewelry

Fluorescent coral[67]

Daderot – Own work

Exhibit in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey County, California, USA

Corraline algae Mesophyllum sp.

Philippe Bourjon – The uploader on Wikimedia Commons received this from the author/copyright holder.

Une algue coralline du genre Mesophyllum à la Réunion.

Encrusting corraline algae

Philippe Bourjon – Don de l’auteur

Une algue encroûtante de la famille des Corallinaceae à la Réunion.

coralline algae Corallina officinalis

Gabriele Kothe-Heinrich – Own work

Corallina officinalis L., herbarium sheet. Collected 1985-09-10, Heligoland (Germany)

Coral reefs often depend on surrounding habitats, such as seagrass meadows and mangrove forests, for nutrients. Seagrass and mangroves supply dead plants and animals that are rich in nitrogen and serve to feed fish and animals from the reef by supplying wood and vegetation. Reefs, in turn, protect mangroves and seagrass from waves and produce sediment in which the mangroves and seagrass can root.[49]

Biodiversity

Tube sponges attracting cardinal fishesglassfishes and wrasses

Nhobgood Nick Hobgood – Own work

Callyspongia sp. (Tube sponge) attracting cardinal fishes, golden sweepers and wrasses.

Over 4,000 species of fish inhabit coral reefs.

Fascinating Universe – Own work

Coral Reef

C Organisms can cover every square inch of a coral reef.

Photo courtesy of Terry Hughes. – Beyond Neutrality—Ecology Finds Its Niche. Gewin V, PLoS Biology Vol. 4/8/2006, e278 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0040278

Diverse Coral Reef Systems Serve As Ideal Experiments for Niche and Neutral Theories. Organisms cover every square inch of coral reef, which led many to believe that their limited potential to partition resources into niches would make them a prime example of neutral dynamics. In fact, species diversity was more variable than would be assumed by neutral theory.

oral reefs form some of the world’s most productive ecosystems, providing complex and varied marine habitats that support a wide range of other organisms.[103][104] Fringing reefs just below low tide level have a mutually beneficial relationship with mangrove forests at high tide level and sea grass meadows in between: the reefs protect the mangroves and seagrass from strong currents and waves that would damage them or erode the sediments in which they are rooted, while the mangroves and sea grass protect the coral from large influxes of silt, fresh water and pollutants. This level of variety in the environment benefits many coral reef animals, which, for example, may feed in the sea grass and use the reefs for protection or breeding.[105]

Threats

Island with fringing reef off YapMicronesia[134]

Mr. Ben Mieremet, Senior Advisor OSD, NOAA – Taken from https://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/mvey0290.htm

Portion of a Pacific atoll (Yap) showing two islets on the ribbon or barrier reef separated by a deep pass between the ocean and the lagoon.

See also: Environmental issues with coral reefs and Coral bleaching

Coral reefs are dying around the world.[134] In particular, runoff, pollution, overfishing, blast fishing, disease, invasive species, overuse by humans and coral mining and the digging of canals and access into islands and bays are localized threats to coral ecosystems. Broader threats are sea temperature rise, sea level rise and ocean acidification, all associated with greenhouse gas emissions.[135] Other threats include the ocean’s role as a carbon dioxide sink, atmospheric changes, ultraviolet light, ocean acidification, viruses, impacts of dust storms carrying agents to far-flung reefs, and algal blooms.

Air pollution can stunt the growth of coral reefs; including coal-burning and volcanic eruptions.[136] Pollutants, such as Tributyltin, a biocide released into water from anti-fouling paint can be toxic to corals.

Protection

A diversity of corals

Toby Hudson – Own work

A variety of corals form an outcrop on Flynn Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are designated areas that provide various kinds of protection to ocean and/or estuarine areas. They are intended to promote responsible fishery management and habitat protection. MPAs can encompass both social and biological objectives, including reef restoration, aesthetics, biodiversity and economic benefits.

For more information please visit the following link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef

Hundreds of meters below the surface of the ocean, Laura Robinson probes the steep slopes of massive undersea mountains. She’s on the hunt for thousand-year-old corals that she can test in a nuclear reactor to discover how the ocean changes over time. By studying the history of the earth, Robinson hopes to find clues of what might happen in the future.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxBrussels, an independent event. TED’s editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Laura Robinson · Ocean scientist

Dr. Laura Robinson’s scientific mission is to document and understand the processes that govern climate.

About TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

Find a TEDx event near you ?

1,731,991 views

TEDxBrussels | December 2014

Kristen Marhaver studies corals, tiny creatures the size of a poppyseed that, over hundreds of slow years, create beautiful, life-sustaining ocean structures hundreds of miles long. As she admits, it’s easy to get sad about the state of coral reefs; they’re in the news lately because of how quickly they’re bleaching, dying and turning to slime. But the good news is that we’re learning more and more about these amazing marine invertebrates — including how to help them (and help them help us). This biologist and TED Senior Fellow offers a glimpse into the wonderful and mysterious lives of these hard-working and fragile creatures.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Kristen Marhaver · Coral reef biologist

TED Senior Fellow Kristen Marhaver is a marine biologist studying the ecology, behavior and reproduction of reef corals.

More Resources

Further reading

Mission Blue II

Learn more about the TED-at-sea hosted by TED Prize winner Sylvia Earle.

More at www.ted.com ?

Under the sea

Watch more TED Talks about the wonder of our oceans — and the threats facing them.

More at www.ted.com ?

885,450 views

Mission Blue II | October 2015

David Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a color-shifting cuttlefish, a perfectly camouflaged octopus, and a Times Square’s worth of neon light displays from fish who live in the blackest depths of the ocean. This short talk celebrates the pioneering work of ocean explorers like Edith Widder and Roger Hanlon.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

David Gallo · Oceanographer

A pioneer in ocean exploration, David Gallo is an enthusiastic ambassador between the sea and those of us on dry land.

TED2007 | March 2007

Margaret Wertheim leads a project to re-create the creatures of the coral reefs using a crochet technique invented by a mathematician — celebrating the amazements of the reef, and deep-diving into the hyperbolic geometry underlying coral creation.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Margaret Wertheim · Figurer

By masterminding a project to model a coral reef armed only with crochet hooks, Margaret Wertheim hopes to bring some of the most complicated mathematical models embodied in our universe into the minds (and hands) of the masses.

https://www.ted.com/speakers/margaret_wertheim

Margaret Wertheim

By masterminding a project to model a coral reef armed only with crochet hooks, Margaret Wertheim hopes to bring some of the most complicated mathematical models embodied in our universe into the minds (and hands) of the masses.

Why you should listen

Snowflakes, fractals, the patterns on a leaf — there’s beauty to be found at the intersection of nature and physics, beauty and math. Science writer Margaret Wertheim (along with her twin sister, Christine) founded the Institute for Figuring to advance the aesthetic appreciation of scientific concepts, from the natural physics of snowflakes and fractals to human constructs such as Islamic mosaics, string figures and weaving.

The IFF’s latest project is perhaps its most beguilingly strange — a coral reef constructed entirely by crochet hook, a project that takes advantage of the happy congruence between the mathematical phenomena modeled perfectly by the creatures of the reef,  and repetitive tasks such as crocheting — which, as it turns out, is perfectly adapted to model hyperbolic space. It is easy to sink into the kaleidoscopic, dripping beauty of the yarn-modeled reef, but the aim of the reef project is twofold: to draw attention to distressed coral reefs around the world, dying in droves from changing ocean saline levels, overfishing, and a myriad of threats; and to display a flavor of math that was previously almost impossible to picture. By modeling these complex equations in physical space, this technique can help mathematicians see patterns and make breakthroughs.

Wertheim is now working on a book about maverick scientist James Carter.

What others say

“Margaret Wertheim might technically fall under the oh-so-banal title of a science communicator. But this fiery Australian native has roamed far beyond the standard definition of one who just talks about science.” — Kristin Abkemeier, Inkling Magazine

Gallery: Rebekah BarnettWhat happens when you mix math, coral and crochet? It’s mind-blowing

Gallery: What happens when you mix math, coral and crochet? It’s mind-blowing

Jan 31, 2017 / Rebekah Barnett

How two Australian sisters channeled their love of STEM and coral reefs into the most glorious participatory art project.

“We’re used to thinking about math as something you have to learn through textbooks and equations,” says science writer Margaret Wertheim. But through their Institute for Figuring, she and her sister, Christine, have made it their mission to help people see math and science differently by finding hands-on ways to engage them with abstract concepts. Among their efforts: the mesmerizing Crochet Coral Reef. Why crochet and coral? Many reef organisms are living examples of a complicated form of geometry, and crocheting their shapes allows people to work with geometric principles in a tactile way.

Started in 2007, the Wertheims’ reef grew out of the Australian sisters’ many interests: their passion for math and science; shared fondness for crochet; love of their country’s Great Barrier Reef and desire to highlight global warming’s impact on coral reefs and oceans in general. Today the Crochet Coral Reef is made up of thousands of handcrafted corals and reef organisms — created by a network of contributors — that Margaret and Christine, an artist and professor, have curated into displays that have been exhibited worldwide. Here, Margaret Wertheim shares some of the amazing organisms created for their project and shows how their crocheted reef has grown and evolved over the years.

Photo: Institute For Figuring.

Math like you’ve never seen it before

Many reef organisms, like nudibranches, sponges and kelps, possess structures that embody a head-scratching form of geometry called hyperbolic geometry. Hyperbolic geometry was discovered in the 19th century, revolutionizing the field of mathematics and eventually paving the way for Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Yet physical and durable hyperbolic models that would allow people to explore hyperbolic geometry in a tactile way did not exist until 1997 when Dr. Daina Taimina, a mathematician at Cornell, realized forms could be made using crochet. To create this 18-inch-long hyperbolic shape, artist Siew Chu Kerk followed Taimina’s formula pretty exactly, says Wertheim, “which is crochet n stitches, increase one and then repeat that ad infinitum.”

Photo: Institute for Figuring.

They’re more than hyperbolic 

The Wertheim sisters first called their project the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, but they quickly realized that in order to capture the full beauty of this special ecosystem, they’d need to include organisms that lacked hyperbolic features. Some reef creatures have only a few hyperbolic parts (and some display no hyperbolic geometry at all).  For example, the curlicues at the end of this octopus-like creature’s tentacles and its center are hyperbolic shapes, Wertheim says, but other elements of this organism, like the long parts of the tentacles, are not. Helen Bernasconi, an early contributor to the project and a rug weaver by trade, sheared, spun and dyed wool from her own sheep to make this piece.

Photo: Institute for Figuring.

Bringing art into the equation

While this delightful pastel creation, made by Vonda N. McIntyre, is a crocheted replica of fingerling coral, not all contributors hew so closely to reality. This was a deliberate artistic choice on the part of the Wertheim sisters. “Just as a painter is painting a landscape and doesn’t want to produce a photocopy of it, we want to be like Van Gogh, Cézanne or Monet,” says Wertheim. “We’re trying to look at the world and produce a beautiful aesthetic version.”

Photo: Institute for Figuring.

A branching network of makers

This kelp piece shows the technical skill of Ildiko Szabo, a theater costume designer and another of the project’s earliest contributors. After she and Christine came up with the idea of such a reef, Wertheim recalls, “I put something up on [the Institute of Figuring’s] website saying: Is there anyone else who’d like to join us in this quixotic project at the intersection of handicraft, mathematics and environmentalism?” To their surprise and delight, they began receiving crocheted objects in the mail from people they’d never met. Years later, Szabo remains one of the reef’s 40 to 50 core contributors. Altogether, nearly 100 people — whose ranks include sci-fi writers and computer programmers — are behind the roughly 10,000 pieces that make up the reef.

Photo: Institute for Figuring.

Small pieces, major work

Rebecca Peapples created this beaded piece (which is attached to the center of the white star in the next photo) using a traditional beading stitch called the herringbone. While only around three inches in length, Wertheim estimates that Peapples spent around 10 to 15 hours to produce it (pieces in the reef range in size from a few inches to a few feet). The white star, about the size of a human hand, probably took up to 30 hours to make; some pieces have taken hundreds of hours. “One reason why I think the reef is powerful is because everybody can tell when they walk in the door there has been a huge commitment of time,” she says.

Photo: Institute for Figuring.

The delicate fusion of craft and science

This piece, knitted by Anita Bruce using a fine coated wire, was her attempt at using handicraft to mimic the evolutionary process. Bruce began with a simple shape, like the thin pods sticking out from the angles of the star, and then let a random number generator determine how to continue to create the shape. This Darwinian echo is something that Wertheim sees across the Crochet Coral Reef as a whole. “Every

[contributor]

starts by learning how to do a simple hyperbolic structure,” she explains, a shape she compares to a simple cell. But just like evolution, crocheters go from the simple to ever-more complicated structures.

Photo: Institute for Figuring.

Our future is plastic

In addition to warming ocean temperatures, another major threat facing marine ecosystems is plastic. After starting the reef, the Wertheim sisters learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and they responded with the Toxic Reef, a collection of organisms — like this jellyfish — that were crocheted or knitted out of plastic. Learning about the garbage patch also inspired the Wertheims to keep all of their domestic plastic trash for four years, accumulating a total of 440 pounds. They contained this trash in a net, and it’s now displayed as part of the reef under the name “The Midden.” Common reactions from visitors are amazement and disgust. To the latter group, Wertheim says, “If you don’t like it, think about it — the yarn reefs represent the natural beauty of nature that’s rapidly disappearing, and the plastic represents the future of what humanity is creating.” This jellyfish was crocheted from plastic bin-liners by Wertheim.

Photo: Institute for Figuring.

Death’s white beauty

These stunning pale pieces were made by Evelyn Hardin, which Ann, another Wertheim sister, organized into a long grove. While the monochromatic grove is enchanting to look at, it illustrates a deadly ocean phenomenon: coral bleaching. When corals become stressed by factors like acidification and rising temperatures, they expel the symbiotic zooxanthellae algae that gives them their bright color and turn bone-white. The algae also help provide food for corals, so without them, they become more and more vulnerable and can die. The Wertheim sisters have curated two reefs, the Bleached Reef and the Bleached Bone Reef, to spotlight this increasingly urgent problem (in November, scientists announced the largest coral die-off in the Great Barrier Reef ever recorded). Should coral reefs perish altogether, Wertheim believes the crocheted reef would stand as an extraordinary testament to the beauty of the reefs — and an extraordinary indictment of humanity for destroying them. “It would become like a museum artifact of yet another thing that humans, with our inability to limit ourselves, have wiped off the face of the Earth,” she says.

Photo: Institute for Figuring.

A playful, pastel reef

While the Crochet Coral Reef conveys serious messages about the degradation of the marine ecosystem, the sisters also want the reef to be playful and engaging. One example: these tube worms, crafted by Szabo in a vibrant mix of pastels and neons. The sisters hope to raise awareness about climate change through positive means rather than messages of doom and gloom. Upon seeing their reef, Wertheim says, “people’s first reaction is usually to laugh, and we want that.” That playful spirit helps bring visitors and crocheters into a conversation “about these very difficult, destructive processes going on where reefs are in danger of being wiped out.”

Photo: Institute for Figuring.

The power of the people

Besides the reefs curated by the sisters, their project has expanded to encompass dozens of community reefs in 40 cities around the world from Oslo to Adelaide, from Fukuoka to San Antonio. They are in a number of different of places, including the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, prisons, and homes for the disabled. This collection of organisms, all created by Dagnija Griezne, is just one section of a Latvian community reef, a project spearheaded by artist Tija Viksna. Women from all over the country contributed, as well as more than 600 schoolchildren. One common thread that links all the reefs in the project — whether it’s the Wertheims’ curated displays or the community reefs — has been their collective nature. “You get an artwork that’s much, much greater than any individual artist could’ve achieved by themselves,” says Wertheim. Students, faculty and staff at the University of California Santa Cruz are crafting the latest community reef, and these human-made ecosystems keep spreading. “We never quite know who’s going to do it next,” adds Wertheim.

All photos are from the Crochet Coral Reef project by Margaret and Christine Wertheim and the Institute for Figuring. To learn more about exhibitions, satellite reefs and contributors, go to crochetcoralreef.org

About the author

Rebekah Barnett is the community speaker coordinator at TED, and knows a good flag when she sees one.

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Music and Children playing in Washington Park

 Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Photographs by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

I took my grandson, Kai to Washington Park for his outdoor activity on Wednesday, September 11, 2019.  I thought Kai was eager to see his little friend, named London that he played with last time.  We did not see her, but we saw a music band performing at one end of the park.  I suggested to kai that we go to the Library because she might be there, and if not, we can come back to the park because she might be here later.  Kai agreed, and we walked to the library which took about five minutes.  We stayed in the children room of library for an hour or so, then kai and I headed back to the park.    

Kai and I walked past the music band that was still performing. 

We saw the Ballantine House and Newark Museum on Washington Street, opposite the park.

The musicians had stopped playing, and were ready to end their performance for the day.

Kai was searching for his little friend, London.  He carried his blue ball intending to play with her.

He saw her little body standing behind the red bush.  He ran as fast as he could to meet her.

She seemed to be as eager to see Kai as Kai was to see her.

Kai played ball with London.

London and Kai enjoyed playing football together.  London was so glad to see us as she told us about what was she doing before we arrived. 

Kai was teasing London by stealing the ball from her hand and letting London chasing him.

He sat on the ball so that London could not get the ball.  I told London “Take the ball out from the back of Kai!”  So, London tried to pull the ball out.

Kai still teasing London.  Then London said nicely to Kai “May I have the ball?”

Kai tossed the ball so that London could run and get it.  Then Kai went to played with the pole.

London tossed the ball up high and Kai tried to catch it.

Little London showed her cleaver foot work with the ball like an experienced athlete.

“Grandma look at this!”, Kai said to me loudly.  He knows that Grandma loves Butterflies.

They both enjoyed playing with the poles.

Kai and London ran to the lady who brought her dog to walk in the park.  She was nice enough to let the kids play with the little cute dog.

Kai and London had a good time playing and jumping between the round seating stands.

Kai showed me the artwork at the base of the pole.

London went to the other pole and showed me the bird design.

Kai and London were having very good time playing with each other.

They ran to under the tree and tried to catch the lower leaves.

Then they played hide and seek.

They played and ran all over the park until they both fell down on the grass.

Now they found some wood and played with the dusty earth.

Kai used a twig to write his name.

Kai tried to exchange his sticks with London’s piece of wood and a brick.  Kai took London things without her agreeing.  I told Kai to return London’s belongings.

I gave Kai a little book that I brought with me for Kai to read to London.  Kai gave the book to London to see and then he took it back.  He went to sit at the base of the tree and looked at the book by himself.

Kai and London went to see the line of students that came out of the North Star Academy Charter school of Newark, located opposite one end of the park.

I told Kai that we had to leave because Mommy will come to pick you up soon.  We walked London back to where her mother and family were sitting.  They seemed to be sad to say good bye.

After we left London, Kai asked me to go back.  He said he want to say something to London.  I took Kai back to see London again.  Then Kai and I walked back home.  While we were walking, I asked Kai “What did you say to London?”  Kai said I forget to tell her, “Thank you for playing with me.  I really had a good time.”

I also felt a bit sad that I had to take Kai away.  They had a very good time and got along with each other quite well.  This occasion reminded me of when I was young playing with my sisters.  Everything seemed to be bright and nice, with no worries and nothing to be afraid of, as the world happily belonged to us. We did not know much how our parents or other adults had to go though in their lives to survive day by day.  This innocence and ignorance of the future gave us a simple happiness that I long for once again.

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Saturday, November 2, 2019

North Star Academy Charter school of Newark, New Jersey

Some more of Kai and London’s photographs that I took the previous days.

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PBS News, PBS Eons, TED Talks, I.S.S., Thisiscolossal, and Ing’s Peace Project

PBS News: October 29 – 31, 2019, How a proposed rule change could affect free lunch for some kids in need,

PBS Eons: When Giant Fungi Ruled

TED Talks: Toby Kiers Lessons from fungi on markets and economics?, and Suzanne Simard  How trees talk to each other

I.S.S.: Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies | I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)

Thisiscolossal: Lightning Scribbles Across the Sky in Dramatic Footage of Extreme Storms Around the U.S.

Ing’s Peace Project: Finished “Peace” artwork 6, 4-H Youth Development RCE of EssexCounty 162 Washington Street, Newark, NJ during May and June, 2012, Organized by Marissa Boldnik Project Coordinator RCE of EssexCounty, Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

PBS NewsHour full episode October 31, 2019

Oct 31, 2019  PBS NewsHour

1.45M subscribers

Thursday on the NewsHour, the House approves rules for the impeachment process. Plus: New wildfires burn in California, impeachment discussions with Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican strategist Michael Steel, Twitter decides to ban political ads, how 39 migrants died in a British truck, pursuing entrepreneurship as an older adult and the Washington Nationals win the World Series. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode October 30, 2019

Oct 30, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Wednesday on the NewsHour, fires burn in multiple regions of California, as dry, windy conditions keep the risk of new blazes high. Plus: The factors making wildfires worse, the record number of child migrants detained at the U.S.-Mexico border, a conversation with Julián Castro, mass protests in Lebanon and Iraq, racial and ethnic inequity in clinical medical trials and author Adam Winkler. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

PBS NewsHour full episode October 29, 2019

Oct 29, 2019  PBS NewsHour

Tuesday on the NewsHour, a witness to President Trump’s controversial Ukraine phone call testifies as part of the impeachment inquiry. Plus: Wildfires and power outages continue in California, Boeing faces criticism for deadly 737 Max mistakes, an American TV show revives interest in Chernobyl, Baltimore students challenge educational expectations, paying college athletes and Twyla Tharp. WATCH TODAY’S SEGMENTS: House releases impeachment inquiry rules amid new testimony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHw0W… Windy conditions keep California burning–and its power out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHJPh… News Wrap: Protests, deadly violence continue in Iraq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Vrs… Boeing CEO faces tough questioning in hearing on 737 Max https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T86JI… Why Chernobyl is suddenly a hotspot for global tourists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVaqe… How this Baltimore charter school puts students to work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FH4c… NCAA takes ‘small first step’ toward pay for its athletes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnA2T… Why Twyla Tharp wants us to ‘shut up’ and do what we love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJ4J… Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-a-proposed-rule-change-could-affect-free-lunch-for-some-kids-in-need

How a proposed rule change could affect free lunch for some kids in need

Health Oct 31, 2019 6:02 PM EDT

For years, the Trump administration has prioritized efforts to scale back food stamp benefits to combat alleged fraud and abuse, despite a “historic high” in pay accuracy, according to the federal government’s own assessment. But after tremendous public pushback, the Trump administration reopened the comment period for a proposed rule that could alter categorical eligibility for food stamp benefits and cut off aid for an estimated 3 million Americans.

The revised comment period ends Nov. 1, after which federal officials will review the public’s input before issuing a final rule. If these potential cuts go into effect, as many as 1 million children could lose access to free or reduced price school lunch as a result.

An estimated 40 million Americans, including 12.5 million children, have trouble paying for enough nutritious food to eat. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is the nation’s largest federal food insecurity program and feeds more than 37 million people in the U.S. — not all of whom are citizens. Enrollees receive a monthly average benefit of $127, or $1.39 per meal, according to calculations from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Two-thirds of SNAP recipients are children, people who are elderly and those who live with disabilities, said Colleen Heflin, senior research associate at Syracuse University’s Center for Policy Research. According to a recent county-level analysis from the Urban Institute, higher concentrations of food insecurity are found across southern and western states.

The PBS NewsHour asked policy experts about the Trump administration’s aim in proposing this change, and the consequences of these actions on schoolchildren’s access to food.

How the Trump administration wants to tighten limits on SNAP

Nationwide, 39 states and the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands use “broad-based categorical eligibility” to offer SNAP benefits to residents. That means states and territories have discretion to offer food stamps to people even if their household income or asset value surpasses congressionally defined limits. For example, a low-income family may earn money but not enough to cover high rent or child care costs. Some states can take those expenses into consideration and decide that household qualifies for food assistance.

The Trump administration says states have become too lax in doling out food stamp benefits, and wants to put an end to that practice.

Instead of using categorical eligibility, a more “principled approach” is necessary to maintain the system’s integrity, said Angela Rachidi, a research fellow in poverty studies for the American Enterprise Institute.

“States shouldn’t be allowed to go around the intent of Congress,” Rachidi said. “If Congress wants to expand income eligibility, they should legislate that.”

Congress did weigh in on these issues in December, said Elaine Waxman, who studies food insecurity as a senior fellow with the Urban Institute’s Income and Benefits Policy Center. That’s when lawmakers rejected similar legislation to Trump’s proposed rule in the farm bill. The rules proposed by the administration, she said, are “the opposite of congressional intent.”

How might these changes affect free and reduced price school lunch?

Established in 1946, the National School Lunch Program served 30.4 million children free or reduced-price meals in 2016. Children qualify to receive these meals if their household earnings amount to or are less than 185 percent of the federal poverty line. They also can receive these meals if they benefit from federal assistance programs, such as SNAP, or if they are homeless, migrants or in the foster care system.

Food policy advocates pushed back on the Trump administration’s proposed rule, saying it would undermine children’s access to food. The criticism was so forceful, the federal government reopened the comment period for this rule change, giving the public a chance to weigh in. The last day to comment is Friday.

If the proposed rule goes into effect, USDA analysis says 982,000 school children could see disruption in their access to free-or-reduced school meals. When it revised its proposal due to pushback, the federal government pointed out that most children would still have access to free-or-reduced school breakfast and lunch under the change. However, the government said an estimated 40,000 children — roughly the size of all public school children enrolled in Lincoln, Nebraska, would lose those meals because they lived in homes that reported too much in income and assets.

This proposal is “not taking benefits away from the most needy families,” Rachidi said, stressing that “there’s a debate to be had about whether those levels of income eligibility are the right level. Allowing states to determine how to give federally funded food benefits, she said, “is not the way to address that.”

Waxman warned that changing one intertwined social policy can send unintended shockwaves through others. Over the years, policymakers during both Republican and Democratic administrations have carved out different paths to open access to SNAP benefits in an effort to reduce hunger with categorical eligibility being used as a way to lower administration paperwork. Shutting down one route to food stamps could expose adults and children in vulnerable households to other consequences, Waxman said.

“It’s really, really important for all these things to come together, and unfortunately they come in pieces,” she said. “It’s hard for us to know what’s happening to the SNAP program if we’re not talking about the ways these things interact.”

Left: Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters

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Laura Santhanam is the Data Producer for the PBS NewsHour. Follow @LauraSanthanam

When Giant Fungi Ruled

Dec 18, 2017  PBS Eons

Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you ?) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/DonateEONS 420 million years ago, a giant feasted on the dead, growing slowly into the largest living thing on land. It belonged to an unlikely group of pioneers that ultimately made life on land possible — the fungi. Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: https://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios Thanks to Franz Anthony of 252mya.com and Jon Hughes of jfhdigital.com for their tremendous reconstructions of Prototaxites. Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet? Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/eonsshow Twitter – https://twitter.com/eonsshow Instagram –

Resource inequality is one of our greatest challenges, but it’s not unique to humans. Like us, mycorrhizal fungi that live in plant and tree roots strategically trade, steal and withhold resources, displaying remarkable parallels to humans in their capacity to be opportunistic (and sometimes ruthless) — all in the absence of cognition. In a mind-blowing talk, evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers shares what fungi networks and relationships reveal about human economies, and what they can tell us about inequality.

This talk was presented at a TED Institute event given in partnership with BCG. TED editors featured it among our selections on the home page. Read more about the TED Institute.

About the speaker

Toby Kiers · Evolutionary biologist

Toby Kiers investigates cooperation and punishment in nature.

“A forest is much more than what you see,” says ecologist Suzanne Simard. Her 30 years of research in Canadian forests have led to an astounding discovery — trees talk, often and over vast distances. Learn more about the harmonious yet complicated social lives of trees and prepare to see the natural world with new eyes.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

About the speaker

Suzanne Simard · Forest ecologist

Suzanne Simard studies the complex, symbiotic networks in our forests.

3,907,664 views

TEDSummit | June 2016

Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies | I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)

Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies | I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)

•Feb 12, 2013

I.S.S. Commander Chris Hadfield joins The Barenaked Ladies and the Wexford Gleeks in the first space-to-earth musical collaboration. The song, “I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) was commissioned by CBCMusic.ca and The Coalition for Music Education with the Canadian Space Agency to celebrate music education in schools across Canada. Subscribe to our channel! https://youtube.com/cbcmusic CBC Music is your hub for coast-to-coast-to-coast Canadian music. Watch exclusive performances, candid interviews, and behind-the-scenes content featuring your favourite artists. Visit https://cbcmusic.ca for the full story! Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/CBCMusic Or Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbcmusic Or Instagram: https://instagram.com/cbc_music ————————————————– Get more music, film and arts interviews at CBC’s q: https://youtube.com/Qtv And learn a thing or two about music at: https://youtube.com/cbcmusiclab

Caption authors (French)  LéonLeon192   Category  Music

Lightning Scribbles Across the Sky in Dramatic Footage of Extreme Storms Around the U.S.

September 23, 2019  Laura Staugaitis

Arizona-based storm chaser and videographer Dustin Farrell just released “Transient 2”, the sequel to his 2017 film. For roughly three and a half minutes, the skies open up to reveal flashes of lightning and billowing clouds rolling across open plains. Farrell shares that he traveled 35,000 miles over two years to shoot the raw footage, and spent about 300 hours editing. To capture the brief but powerful flashes of lightning, Farrell relied on his Phantom Flex 4K, shooting at very high speeds. The short film’s music is by Harry Lightfoot. You can tag along with Farrell’s travels from the safety of your couch via Instagram and YouTube.

Lightning Scribbles Across the Sky in Dramatic Footage of Extreme Storms Around the U.S.

Ing’s Peace Project: Finished “Peace” artwork 6

4-H Youth Development RCE of EssexCounty 162 Washington Street, Newark, NJ during May and June, 2012, Organized by Marissa Boldnik Project Coordinator RCE of EssexCounty, Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts

Link to 4-H Youth Development RCE of Essex County page:

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