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[unable to retrieve full-text content]For 29 years Regents College, Americas First Virtual University, has been pioneering alternative, fully accredited, approaches to college. The college offers three services of interest to homeschoolers: Regents ... Your learning will have to be documented via certificates, letters of recommendation, Continuing Education Unit transcripts for training you received through your job or elsewhere, etc. Regents College has their own Flexible Assessment advisors; their ...
Microsoft Research turns Kinect into canny sign language reader (video)
Though early Kinect patents showed its potential for sign language translation, Microsoft quashed any notion early on that this would become a proper feature. However, that hasn't stopped Redmond from continuing development of the idea. Microsoft Research Asia recently showed off software that allows the Kinect to read almost every American Sign Language gesture via hand tracking, even at conversational speeds. In addition to converting signs to text or speech, the software can also let a hearing person input text and "sign" it using an on-screen avatar. All of this is still confined to a lab so far, but the researchers hope that one day it'll open up new lines of communication between the hearing and deaf -- a patent development we could actually get behind. See its alacrity in the video after the break.
Filed under: Cameras, Science, Alt, Microsoft
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Microsoft Research
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More than just a pretty picture: conservation and narrative in the Dzanga Bai
Dzanga Bai (Village of Elephants), Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas, Central African Republic.
The rain had not let up all morning. Rain is typical during a wet season in the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas, Central African Republic. It was getting a bit late to be leaving for a trip to the famous Dzanga Bai to observe the elephants but the weather had delayed our departure. Because of the rain, it was unlikely that we would see the usual number of 50-200 elephants. However, we only had two-and-half months to complete our research, leaving little time for excursions to our favorite forest locations.
Although I had visited the clearing during my doctoral fieldwork, this trip held special significance for me. I was hesitant to pass it up. It was to be my third time to Dzanga Bai since I started conducting research there in 2008. While my work studying hunters and conducting nocturnal census estimates of forest antelope had allowed me a fair share of elephant encounters, I knew nothing could compare to the wet trek ahead of us. It is the famous Dzanga Bai, after all. This time, I would be making the trek with my mentor, Dr. Melissa Remis, who has been studying the role of human-wildlife relationships in the region with colleague Rebecca Hardin for over twenty years. With us were several generations of our local BaAka trackers with whom we had shared countless hours in the forest tracking, discussing and imagining wildlife.
When talking about landscapes across the Congo Basin it is difficult for even the most seasoned researcher to avoid accidentally evoking tropes of the exotic. Such imagery can stir up simultaneous feelings of fear and anticipation commonly associated with what we envision as ?the wildness of Africa.? While such evocative imagery has served to spark interest in this region of the world, it is important not overlook the multitude of layers woven into every image of Africa?s wild places, exotic wildlife and enchanting faces.
No image is more laden with narrative than that of the Dzanga Bai (translation: Village of Elephants). The bai, also called a saline, is an elephant created landscape. Each day upwards of 200 forest elephants (Loxodanta cyclotis) convene here from across the region to drink mineral salts. Similar areas are dotted throughout Congo Basin forests, but none are as famous or as active as the one at Dzanga. Researchers, tourists, photographers and journalist travel thousands of miles by air, truck and foot to make the journey to the clearing where they are guaranteed to see elephants, African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) and forest buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus)?among other wildlife. It was this location that led to the official inception of the Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas (APDS) multiple use reserve in 1990. The RDS region is also one of the last remaining strongholds of the critically endangered western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). RDS, part of the Sangha River Tri-national Protected Area (TNS) was recently identified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is jointly managed by the Central African government and World Wildlife Fund.
Jost Robinson making the wet trek to the clearing in 2008.
When you look at a photo image of Dzanga Bai, you are not just viewing a snapshot of a protected area, tourist destination or research site. Places like Dzanga represent shared spaces where human and animal, global and local, indigenous and expatriate meet. This is the ultimate convergence of wildlife, human communities, conservation, research and eco-tourism. Unfortunately, it is has now attracted the attention of illegal international trades in wildlife.
Due to its geographical location in the southwest corner of the Central African Republic as well as support by World Wildlife Fund and Wildlife Conservation Society, this particular protected area has been buffered from decades of political upheaval.
In the wake of the most recent coup d?etat, which overturned the former government of Francois Bozize, Sundanese poachers, presenting themselves as part of transitional government forces, successfully capitalized on the political upset. These poachers entered the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas for the purposes of obtaining large quantities of ivory from Dzanga Bai.
On May 6, 2013 at least 26 elephants were massacred in the ?Village of Elephants,? after 17 heavily armed suspected poachers entered the bai. As townspeople, research assistants, park staff and expatriate researchers watched with heavy hearts, the demand for ivory took its toll on a place that had managed to survive relatively unscathed for centuries. Local park staff courageously maintained a presence within RDS throughout the difficult weeks prior to and following the attack on Dzanga. Although the elephants are reported to have slowly made their return to the saline, we cannot yet discern the impact this will have for an area reliant on conservation, research and ecotourism.
This first known large scale ivory poaching event at Dzanga may have the potential to open a heretofore-protected area to an unchecked global trade centered on wildlife trafficking. Since 2005 the flow of firearms into this corner of the country has already taken its toll on other wildlife species that are targeted for meat rather than ornamental or medicinal items (Jost Robinson et al. 2011). In APDS, the ivory trade operates separately from what is commonly referred to as the bushmeat trade. The bushmeat trade or ?bushmeat crisis,? defined as the commercial hunting and sale of wildlife, has been one of the most influential factors in the decline of mammal populations. The loss of biodiversity will also have outcomes for human communities who depend upon wildlife for protein and cash income. Swift and persistent support of conservation and research organizations, as well as local human communities, are likely the best hope for remote locations such as Dzanga.
African forest elephants (Loxodanta cyclotis) and forest buffalos (Syncerus caffer nanus) in the clearing.
While in the images of Dzanga Bai the elephants occupy the main-stage, APDS is rich in other biodiversity and home to human communities representing more then 34 lingual and 11 ethnic groups. The periodic presence of an active logging industry has drawn thousands of migrants to the region. The result has been a boom and bust economy in the main town of Bayanga.
The human inhabitants of APDS are locally recognized as BaAka and Bilo. The BaAka of this region are a small subset of Congo Basin hunter-gatherers that have long been referred to in literature as ?pygmies? given their short stature. BaAka foragers have inhabited the region with their agriculturalist counterparts since before colonization. The term Bilo is a colloquial term, which refers to all other human inhabitants (including horticulturalists, fishers, migrants and non migrants) and represents an incredible diversity of ethnic and lingual backgrounds.
If we delve in the migration and environmental histories of the human communities of APDS, once again we observe the emergence of multiple narratives that emerge from the presence of Dzanga Bai. Elephants are targeted to fuel ivory trades and international political conflict, but the global and local trade in wildlife weaves new threads pertaining to biodiversity conservation, food security, human rights and environmental justice. The local people of this region who seek both material and cultural sustenance from the newly threatened forest will face challenges in the years to come. We have already begun to observe the erosion of traditional Aka hunting practices and oral storytelling as a result of overhunting. The continued presence of wildlife, human livelihoods and cultural traditions in landscapes like Dzanga hinges upon our ability to understand their mutually dependent relationships (Remis and Hardin 2009).
By the time we arrived at the guard station, which marks the beginning of the trail leading to Dzanga Bai, the rain had let up. Dr. Remis and I chatted with old friends who were employed as guards and trackers at the research station of Andrea Turkalo (Turkalo, a research scientist with WCS, has been studying the elephants of Dzanga since 1990). They mentioned we should be back from the mirador (research platform that overlooks the clearing) before 1600h, as in recent weeks a bull was often found ?guarding the river? at that time. I smiled as I listened to the trackers describe his behavior in very animated terms. It reminded me how often people take for granted not only the individuality of self-aware species, like elephants and apes, but they also assume that local inhabitants see these species as dollar signs rather than integral aspects of daily life.
As we had anticipated, it was wet, mist was rising off the mud and there were few elephants in the bai that day. Nonetheless, we sat and watched in wonder. When you are watching the wildlife as they congregate and interact at the saline, it is hard not to feel nostalgic for those images of Africa as an unspoiled enviroscape, full of exotic wildness.
But there in the bai, a clearing created by elephants, frequented by all walks of wildlife, and protected by expatriates and local peoples, you cannot deny the multifarious ties and that bind humans and the environment. Walking back to the truck, it was impossible to predict that none of us would ever experience the elephants, and the narratives woven into that single panorama, with the same unblemished peace as we did that day. While news of the elephants? slow but steady return to the bai reminds us of the resilience of ecological systems, we must not take for granted the fragility of these shared landscapes and the lives they represent.
Authors Note: Since May 26 there have been no further attacks on the Dzanga Bai. Continued support of conservation and indigenous organizations, wildlife research and local tourism efforts coupled with an increased awareness of wildlife trafficking will be critical to the futures of the wildlife and people of APDS.
References:
CAROLYN A. JOST ROBINSON, LESLEY L. DASPIT and MELISSA J. REMIS, Multi-faceted approaches to understanding changes in wildlife and livelihoods in a protected area: a conservation case study from the Central African Republic. Environmental Conservation / Volume 38 / Issue 02 / June 2011, pp 247-255. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0376892910000949 (About DOI), Published online: 07 March 2011
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/basic-science/~3/n5To43pbtKQ/post.cfm
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Aaron Hernandez: Two additional men allegedly connected with murder in custody
Aaron?Hernandez: On Thursday and Friday police in Connecticut and Florida arrested two men they say are connected with the murder of Odin Lloyd. Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has been charged with Lloyd's murder.
Pallbearers carry the casket of Odin LLoyd following a funeral ceremony at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Boston Saturday. Hundreds of relatives, friends and well-wishers wept together and hugged at the funeral for LLoyd, a semi-pro football player whose killing led to murder and weapons charges against former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez.
Michael Dwyer/AP
EnlargeA man wanted by Massachusetts in connection with a murder case against former professional football player Aaron Hernandez has surrendered in Miramar, Florida, police said on Friday.
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Ernest Wallace, who is suspected of being an "accessory after the fact" in the killing of?Odin?Lloyd, 27, a semi-pro football player, turned himself in to police in Miramar, Florida, a local police official said.
Hernandez was charged with?Lloyd's murder and fired by the New England Patriots football team on Wednesday.
On Friday, Germany's Puma said it had canceled its two-year sponsorship deal with Hernandez. The world's third-largest sporting goods company had announced the agreement in April.
The Patriots said on Friday that the team's pro shop would allow people to exchange Hernandez jerseys for a new Patriot jersey of comparable value.
"We know that children love wearing their Patriots jerseys, but may not understand why parents don't want them wearing their Hernandez jerseys anymore," New England Patriots spokesman Stacey James said in a statement.
Prosecutors have said that Hernandez shot?Lloyd?execution-style after becoming upset with him days earlier at a Boston nightclub.?Lloyd's body was found June 17 near Hernandez's house in North Attleborough, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Boston.
Miramar Police Officer Gil Bueno said Wallace, who lives in the south Florida town, had turned himself in on an outstanding arrest warrant, and that Massachusetts would have to make arrangements to extradite him.
Massachusetts State Police spokesman Lieutenant Daniel Richard confirmed Wallace's arrest in Florida but declined to discuss any details.
Connecticut prosecutors said on Thursday that they had arrested another man, Carlos Ortiz, in connection with the case and charged him with being a fugitive from justice. He has been transferred to Massachusetts to face additional charges.
Hernandez's lawyer, Michael Fee, has entered a not guilty plea on his client's behalf and has called the prosecution's case circumstantial.
Hernandez was a rising football star who was signed to a $41 million contract as tight end for one of the National Football League's top teams.
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Egypt erupts with protests demanding Morsi ouster
CAIRO (AP) ? Hundreds of thousands thronged the streets of Cairo and cities around the country Sunday and marched on the presidential palace, filling a broad avenue for blocks, in an attempt to force out the Islamist president with the most massive protests Egypt has seen in 2? years of turmoil.
In a sign of the explosive volatility of the country's divisions, a hard core of young opponents broke away from the rallies and attacked the main headquarters of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, pelting it with stones and firebombs until a raging fire erupted in the walled villa. During clashes, Brotherhood supporters opened fire with birdshot on the attackers, who swelled to a crowd of hundreds.
Fears were widespread that the two sides could be heading to a violent collision in coming days. Morsi made clear through a spokesman that he would not step down and his Islamist supporters vowed not to allow protesters to remove one of their own, brought to office in a legitimate vote. Thousands of Islamists massed not far from the presidential palace in support of Morsi, some of them prepared for a fight with makeshift armor and sticks.
At least four people were killed Sunday in shootings at anti-Morsi protesters in southern Egypt.
The protesters aimed to show by sheer numbers that the country has irrevocably turned against Morsi, a year to the day after he was inaugurated as Egypt's first freely elected president. But throughout the day and even up to midnight at the main rallying sites, fears of rampant violence did not materialize.
Instead the mood was largely festive as protesters at giant anti-Morsi rallies in Cairo's central Tahrir Square and outside the Ittihadiya palace spilled into side streets and across boulevards, waving flags, blowing whistles and chanting.
Fireworks went off overhead. Men and women, some with small children on their shoulders, beat drums, danced and sang, "By hook or by crook, we will bring Morsi down." Residents in nearby homes showered water on marchers below ? some carrying tents in preparation to camp outside the palace ? to cool them in the summer heat, and blew whistles and waved flags in support.
"Mubarak took only 18 days although he had behind him the security, intelligence and a large sector of Egyptians," said Amr Tawfeeq, an oil company employee marching toward Ittihadiya with a Christian friend. Morsi "won't take long. We want him out and we are ready to pay the price."
The massive outpouring against Morsi, culminating a year of growing polarization, raises the question of what is next. Protesters have vowed to stay on the streets until he steps down, and organizers called for widespread labor strikes starting Monday. The president, in turn, appears to be hoping protests wane.
For weeks, Morsi's supporters have depicted the planned protest as a plot by Mubarak loyalists. But their claims were undermined by the extent of Sunday's rallies. In Cairo and a string of cities in the Nile Delta and on the Mediterranean coast, the protests topped even the biggest protests of the 2011's 18-day uprising, including the day Mubarak quit, Feb. 11, when giant crowds marched on Ittihadiya.
It is unclear now whether the opposition, which for months has demanded Morsi form a national unity government, would now accept any concessions short of his removal. The anticipated deadlock raises the question of whether the army, already deployed on the outskirts of cities, will intervene. Protesters believe the military would throw its significant weight behind them, tipping the balance against Morsi. The country's police, meanwhile, were hardly to be seen Sunday.
"If the Brothers think that we will give up and leave, they are mistaken," said lawyer Hossam Muhareb as he sat with a friend on a sidewalk near the presidential palace. "They will give up and leave after seeing our numbers."
Violence could send the situation spinning into explosive directions.
In a potentially volatile confrontation after nightfall, several dozen youths attacked the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters on a plateau overlooking the capital. They threw rocks and firebombs at the walled villa, and people inside fired at the attackers with birdshot, according to an Associated Press Television News cameraman at the scene.
Southern Egypt saw deadly attacks on anti-Morsi protests, and four people were killed. A protester was shot to death in Beni Suef outside the offices of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. In the city of Assiut, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a protest, killing one person and wounding four others.
The enraged protesters then marched on the nearby Freedom and Justice offices, where gunmen inside opened fire, killing two more, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the press. Clashes erupted, with protesters and security forces fighting side by side against Morsi's supporters.
At least 400 people were injured nationwide, the Health Ministry said.
Morsi, who has three years left in his term, said street protests cannot be used to overturn the results of a free election.
"There is no room for any talk against this constitutional legitimacy," he told Britain's The Guardian newspaper in an interview published Sunday, rejecting early elections.
If an elected president is forced out, "there will (be) people or opponents opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later, they will ask him to step down," he said.
Morsi was not at Ittihadiya as Sunday's rally took place ? he had moved to another nearby palace.
As the crowds massed, Morsi's spokesman Ihab Fahmi repeated the president's longstanding offer of dialogue with the opposition to resolve the nation's political crisis, calling it "the only framework through which we can reach understandings."
The opposition has repeatedly turned down his offers for dialogue, arguing that they were for show.
Near Ittihadiya palace, thousands of Islamists gathered in a show of support for Morsi outside the Rabia al-Adawiya mosque. Some Morsi backers wore homemade body armor and construction helmets and carried shields and clubs ? precautions, they said, against possible violence.
The demonstrations are the culmination of polarization and instability that have been building since Morsi's June 30, 2012, inauguration. The past year has seen multiple political crises, bouts of bloody clashes and a steadily worsening economy, with power outages, fuel shortages, rising prices and persistent lawlessness and crime.
In one camp are the president and his Islamist allies, including the Muslim Brotherhood and more hard-line groups. Morsi supporters accuse Mubarak loyalists of being behind the protests, aiming to overturn last year's election results, just as they argue that remnants of the old regime have sabotaged Morsi's attempts to deal with the nation's woes and bring reforms.
Hard-liners among them have also given the confrontation a sharply religious tone, denouncing Morsi's opponents as "enemies of God" and infidels.
On the other side is an array of secular and liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, Christians ? and what the opposition says is a broad sector of the general public that has turned against the Islamists. They say the Islamists have negated their election mandate by trying to monopolize power, infusing government with their supporters, forcing through a constitution they largely wrote and giving religious extremists a free hand, all while failing to manage the country.
"The country is only going backward. He's embarrassing us and making people hate Islam," said Donia Rashad, a 24-year-old unemployed woman who wears the conservative Islamic headscarf. "We need someone who can feel the people and is agreeable to the majority."
As they marched toward the presidential palace, some chanted, "You lied to us in the name of religion," and others raised a banner proclaiming, "Morsi=Mubarak. Early presidential elections." The crowds, including women, children and elderly people, hoisted long banners in the colors of the Egyptian flag and raised red cards ? a sign of expulsion in soccer.
In Tahrir, chants of "erhal!", or "leave!" thundered around the square. The crowd, which appeared to number some 300,000, waved Egyptian flags and posters of Morsi with a red X over his face. They whistled and waved when military helicopters swooped close overhead, reflecting their belief that the army favors them over Morsi.
A week ago, with the public sense of worry growing over the upcoming confrontation, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi demanded the president and his opponents reach a compromise. He warned that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel."
Army troops backed by armored vehicles were deployed Sunday in some of Cairo's suburbs, with soldiers at traffic lights and major intersections. In the evening, they deployed near the international airport, state TV said.
Similarly sized crowds turned out in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta cities of Mansoura, Tanta and Damanhour, with sizeable rallies in cities nationwide.
"Today is the Brotherhood's last day in power," Suliman Mohammed, a manager of a seafood company, said in Tahrir.
The opposition protests emerge from a petition campaign by a youth activist group known as Tamarod, Arabic for "Rebel." For several months, the group has been collecting signatures on a call for Morsi to step down.
On Saturday, the group announced it had more than 22 million signatures ? proof, it claims, that a broad sector of the public no longer wants Morsi in office.
It was not possible to verify the claim. If true, it would be nearly twice the some 13 million people who voted for Morsi in last year's presidential run-off election, which he won with around 52 percent of the vote. Tamarod organizers said they discarded about 100,000 signed forms because they were duplicates.
Morsi's supporters have questioned the authenticity and validity of the signatures, but have produced no evidence of fraud.
At the pro-Morsi rally at the Rabia al-Adawiya mosque, the crowd chanted, "God is great," and some held up copies of Islam's holy book, the Quran.
"The people hold the legitimacy and we support Dr. Mohamed Morsi," said Ahmed Ramadan, one of the rally participants. "We would like to tell him not to be affected by the opponents' protests and not to give up his rights. We are here to support and protect him."
One of the world's most prominent Muslim clerics, Sheik Yousef El-Qaradawi, who is close to the Brotherhood, appealed to Egyptians to give Morsi a chance, saying if Morsi goes, "someone who's worse than Morsi" would replace him.
"It's not easy to change a president with another one, but it's better to correct him," el-Qaradawi, an Egyptian who has lived in Qatar for many years, said on Al-Jazeera Mubasher Misr TV.
Ibrahim Ahmed, a 59-year-old retired civil servant who was at Tahrir with his 5-year-old grandson, Yassin, snorted at the idea.
"He wants us to be patient with Morsi? No, thank you. Look at what happened in one year. The Egyptian pound is going down and the country is being Brotherhood-ized," he said.
____
AP reporters Tony G. Gabriel and Mariam Rizk contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-erupts-protests-demanding-morsi-ouster-215829657.html
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University Church holds first ever Soap-A-Thon
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Source: www.northwestohio.com --- Sunday, June 30, 2013
The first ever Soap-A-Thon was held today at University Church, in Toledo today. ...
Source: http://www.northwestohio.com/news/story.aspx?id=916061
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This Ax Is Really Scary And Then You Realize It Has A Slingshot Inside
This week Joerg invited some students from the Technical University of Munich to create general mayhem with him via a steel axe. But an axe by itself isn't menacing/relevant enough. It obviously has to double as a slingshot. And it does! The handle of the axe is hollow . . .
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