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The following Ted Talk, Gene editing can now change an entire species -- forever, by Jennifer Kahn discusses a trending controversial topic about the use of gene editing. Since Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, gene editing has been a growing field. Kahn uses an experiment with mosquitoes as a prime example of gene editing. She explains how mosquitos were experimented with in hopes of removing their ability to transmit malaria, however the testing does not begin to see results until 20 years later when CRISPR is used to aid in the progress. CRISPR is a tool that allows precise gene editing. By using CRISPR, they were able to create malaria-resistant bacteria- all that was left was to figure out a way to spread it. CRISPR is a large step in the world of human DNA, and for some it may be a good thing, and others it may not be. Kahn concludes her discussion by giving a view to each side but admitting that although there are dangers in using gene editing, the possibilities it can create are far greater.

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Jennifer Kahn: Gene editing can now change an entire species -- forever

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CRISPR gene drives allow scientists to change sequences of DNA and guarantee that the resulting edited genetic trait is inherited by future generations, opening up the possibility of altering entire species forever. More than anything, the technology has led to questions: How will this new power affect humanity?

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In this article "Teach to the Test? Just say No" by Craig Jerald explains the importance of how teaching to the test can cause educational problems for students by looking at both the positive and negative sides of this issue. He discusses the difference between curriculm teaching and item teaching and how item teaching can cause teachers to do the "drill to kill" method and how curriculm teaching can insure that the students learn the material.He then ends the article with suggestions to educators on making better teaching styles so that students can master the material and not just the assessments.

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Every spring, education-related newspaper and magazine stories raise the alarm that schools are teaching to the test. Scores of articles and editorials paint a disheartening picture of frustrated teachers forced to abandon good instructional practices for a relentless stream of worksheets based on boring, repetitive test-preparation materials. Even Hollywood actors are chiming in. Actress Alfre Woodard recently told a Louisiana newspaper, "My sister-in-law is left standing in front of her class with a pamphlet, teaching to the test because everyone must pass." ¹

Although the phrase - and the concern - are hardly new, many observers blame the No Child Left Behind (NClB) act for escalating teaching to the test from a problem into an epidemic. The law "virtually transformed the concept of education," according to a recent editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle, "turning teaching and learning into a mere exercise in prepping students to test well." ²

According to that logic, teaching to the test is as unavoidable as a force of nature, as inevitable as gravity. And the choice between good instructional practice and good test scores is really no choice at all, since those who opt not to bow to the pressure will reap harsh consequences under tough accountability systems.

Such claims often are taken at face value. But what do we really know about the phenomenon? Does high stakes testing always force educators to "dumb down" instruction to focus on rote skills and memorization? Do schools that spend a lot of time on test preparation and "drill and kill" instruction actually perform better on standardized tests than those that do not? Those might sound like easy-to-answer questions, but the answers to those questions are surprising. Many forms of teaching to the test are as unnecessary as they are harmful.

What's wrong with teaching to the test?

The phrase "teaching to the test" is used widely but seldom defined, causing much confusion about what it means and whether it is bad or good. Indeed, in a recent editorial in the Washington Post, the respected education reporter Jay Matthews claimed that teaching to the test simply means aligning classroom instruction and curriculum to standards; the practice is a good one that should be supported. ³ Teachers rushed to tell Matthews that what he described was not the kind of teaching to the test that they and their colleagues are worried about.

Assessment expert W. James Popham helps to clarify the difference. He defines two kinds of assessment-aware instruction: "curriculum teaching" and "item-teaching." ⁴ Curriculum teachers focus on the full body of knowledge and skills represented by test questions even though tests can employ only a sample of questions to assess students' knowledge about a topic. For example, if students will be tested on fractions, curriculum teachers will cover range of knowledge and skills related to fractions so students understand what fractions are, know how to manipulate them mathematically, understand how to use them to solve more complex problems, and are able to communicate with and about them. Item teachers narrow their instruction, organizing their teaching around clones of the particular questions most likely to be found on the test - and thus teach only the bits of knowledge students are most likely to encounter on exams. For example, item teachers might drill students on a small set of vocabulary words expected to be assessed rather than employing instructional strategies that help students develop the kind of rich and broad vocabulary that best contributes to strong reading comprehension.

The latter kind of teaching to the test is unethical. For one reason, it misrepresents how much students really have learned about a topic. in the example, students who learned only the 10 words on the vocabulary portion of the reading test will score well even though they have not developed a broad vocabulary, which is supposed to be the goal. in mathematics, students who have been drilled only on test-like questions do not havethe opportunity to master a particular skill or concept and often cannot correctly answer questions that assess the same skill or concept in a different way. For example, one study found that in a district that relied heavily on item drilling, 83 percent of students selected the correct answer to a multiple choice item written as "87 - 24 =." However, only 66 percent could provide the correct answer to the open ended item "Subtract 24 from 87." ⁵

Popham also contends that "because teaching either to test items or to clones of those items eviscerates the validity of [tests]... item-teaching is reprehensible. it should be stopped." ⁶ But the problems with teaching to the test go beyond the fact that it interferes with test validity. Parents and educators are much more concerned with how it affects the curriculum and classroom instruction itself.

For example, some worry that item teaching and other test-preparation strategies are taking over more of the weeks and months prior to testing. "They are losing a week of instruction to testing, which is bad enough," lamented a commentator in the Chicago Sun-Timeslast March. "But the test week comes on top of two or more weeks spent teaching kids how to take the test effectively." ⁷ Others worry that the negative effect on instruction stretches back to august and September, with "drill and kill" strategies that substitute memorization for understanding and strangle good instruction all year long.

According to Lauren Resnick and Chris Zurawsky, the combination of accountability, the lack of a clear curriculum, and cheaper off-the-shelf tests is a recipe for bad teaching. "When teachers match their teaching to what they expect to appear on state tests of this sort," they write, "students are likely to experience far more facts and routines than conceptual understanding and problem-solving in their curriculum.... Narrow tests...can become the de facto curriculum." ⁸ Resnick and Zurawsky do not object to accountability per se, but warn that it can lead to inappropriate instruction if it is not backed up with strong curricula and aligned assessments.

Like Resnick and Zurawsky, many observers worry that drill-focused forms of teaching to the test can crowd out opportunities to teach students more advanced cognitive skills, such as how to solve problems and communicate effectively. They point to the work of economists, such as Frank Levy and Richard Murnane, who warn that all kinds of jobs, but particularly higher paying jobs, increasingly require fewer rote and routine skills and ever more complex skills. Analyzing tasks performed in jobs across the economy between 1969 and 1999, for example, Levy and Murnane found a big decline in rote tasks and routine work along with a skyrocketing demand for "expert thinking" skills (the ability to solve problems that require more than simply following rules or applying knowledge to new situations) and "complex communication" skills. ⁹

Levy, Murnane, and other economists argue that young people who are denied the opportunity to develop such advanced skills will be at an increasing disadvantage in the changing economy of the 21st century. ¹⁰ That means educators who settle for "drill and kill" instruction - or who do not at least balance such instruction with more complex assignments - will be trading long-term benefits to students for short-term gains on standardized tests.

Fool's gold and false choices

The decision to narrowly teach to the test might be bad for students in the long run, but is it really inevitable? Is there an unavoidable trade-off between helping students develop advanced problem-solving and communication skills they will need later in life and helping them perform better on standardized tests while they are in school? More to the point, do "drill and kill" strategies for teaching to the test actually produce higher test scores than other forms of instruction?

During the 1990s, Chicago instituted a number of accountability policies requiring students and schools to meet performance standards on nationally norm-referenced standardized assessments. Some educators and reformers worried that the policies would force teachers to abandon assignments that ask students to engage in critical thinking in favor of strategies focused on memorization, drill, and repetitive practice. A trio of widely respected researchers - Newmann, Bryk, and Nagaoka - then affiliated with the Chicago Consortium on School Research, decided to investigate that assumption, asking "What happens to students' scores on standardized tests of basic skills when urban teachers...assign work that demands complex thinking and elaborated communication...?" ¹¹

The researchers conducted a three-year study analyzing classroom assignments and student gains on standardized tests across more than 400 Chicago classrooms in almost 20 elementary schools. Nearly 2,000 classroom assignments were scored based on a rubric that evaluated the extent to which the assignments called for "authentic intellectual work" from students - applying basic skills and knowledge to solve new problems; expressing ideas and solutions using elaborated communication; and producing work related to the real world beyond the classroom. Note that the definition of authentic instruction does not simply mean "creative" assignments that ask students to use their imaginations but rather "disciplined inquiry," in which students apply imagination and logic, as well as "the basics" - vocabulary words, facts, algorithms - to complete tasks that go beyond answering multiple-choice questions.

For example, one sixth-grade mathematics assignment that scored high on the researchers' rubric asked students to assume they had $10,000 to invest in a stock. Students selected and tracked their own stocks, reading the newspaper and using their knowledge of fractions to calculate gains and losses. At the end of 10 weeks, students decided whether to buy more of the stock or to sell it, and they presented an oral report describing the results of their investment and their decision to unload or reinvest. In contrast, a low-scoring assignment asked sixth graders to complete a worksheet adding or subtracting pairs of simple fractions, such as 4/5 - 2/5.

The researchers called the more advanced assignments "authentic" precisely because they were thought to more closely mimic the kinds of tasks adults perform in their jobs. And, indeed, although the rubrics were developed well before Levy and Murnane conducted the economic study described earlier, their criteria for evaluating classroom assignments seem to closely parallel the kinds of "expert thinking" and "complex communication" skills the two economists found to be in ever greater demand in today's workplace.

Newmann, Bryk, and Nagaoka then analyzed student test-score gains on the commercially developed, nationally norm-referenced Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) assessment and the state-developed Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) exams. The results were startling. In classrooms where teachers employed more authentic intellectual instruction, students logged test-score gains on the ITBS that exceeded the national average by 20 percent. However, students who were given few authentic assignments gained much less than the national average. A similar pattern emerged when researchers examined results on the IGAP assessments.

To be sure of their findings, the researchers took into account cross-classroom differences in students' prior-year test scores as well as race, gender, and poverty levels. They also conducted a check to examine whether more advanced students disproportionately were getting the more demanding assignments. Surprisingly, the answer was no - the distribution of highly authentic assignments was determined by teachers' own "dispositions and individual choices" rather than by the designated level of students they taught. Moreover, both high- and low-achieving students benefited from the more demanding, authentic assignments.

Those results strongly suggest that accountability and standardized tests need not be in conflict with good instruction, and that Resnick and others are wrong to assume that off-the-shelf tests require teachers to give up teaching higher level skills. "Fears that students will score lower on conventional tests due to teacher demands for more authentic intellectual work appear unwarranted," the researchers concluded. "To the contrary, the evidence indicates that assignments calling for more authentic intellectual work actually improve student scores on conventional [standardized] tests." ¹² in other words, teaching to the test by "dumbing down" instruction offers only a kind of fool's gold, promising a payoff that it does not deliver. The choice between good instruction and good test scores is a false one.

The researchers hypothesized that using basic skills to perform complex intellectual tasks actually helps students better internalize such skills and apply them across a wide range of tasks, including standardized tests. However, they also cautioned that no one instructional strategy can serve all purposes. For example, some students might need to practice basic fraction problems before moving on to the more complex project involving stocks. Thoughtful teachers employ a variety of strategies to ensure that students develop basic skills and can apply those skills to complex tasks grounded in real-world challenges.

Many experts also agree that some forms of direct test preparation can be healthy in small doses, and it might even be necessary for tests to provide valid results. For example, students unfamiliar with the test-question format might need help understanding how to answer certain kinds of items so they truly can show what they know. However, a little teaching about test format goes a long way, and engaging in more test preparation than absolutely necessary can depress scores, since it takes time away from the kinds of classroom assignments that help students master the content the test will assess.

Making better choices

Clearly, it is possible for educators to make better choices about how and when to teach to the test than the alarmist newspaper articles and editorials would seem to suggest. Cynthia Kuhlman, principal of Atlanta's high-poverty, high-minority Centennial Place Elementary School, where nearly all students consistently meet state standards on Georgia's assessments, says, "We don't teach to the test here at all. We have a curriculum that is mapped to the state's standards, and we teach almost entirely through theme-based projects. You would be hard pressed to find a worksheet at Centennial Place." ¹³

At University Park Campus School, a high-poverty secondary school in Worcester, Massachusetts, not only did all 10th graders pass the state exit exam last year, four out of five scored at the advanced or proficient level on it, compared with only about a third of students statewide. Yet the school has no pre-packaged instructional reading program, and teachers push students to think critically about what they read, using quotes from the text to support their opinions. "So, despite the evidence of their testing success, University Park is not training test-takers," a columnist for The Providence Journal recently concluded. One teacher told her that reason was simple stubbornness. ¹⁴

But some schools will need more than simple stubbornness to resist the lure of teaching to the test. Many teachers and administrators clearly do feel pressure to engage in "item teaching" and rote instruction; and, especially in states that use off-the-shelf norm-referenced exams, educators increasingly worry that they might be sacrificing higher scores if they do not. It is time to overturn the common assumption that teaching to the test is the only option schools have when faced with high-stakes testing. Over-reliance on "drill and kill" and test-preparation materials is not only unethical in the long-term but ineffective in the short-term. Because there really is no trade-off between good instruction and good test scores, this is that rare case when educators can have their cake and eat it, too.

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Every spring, education-related newspaper and magazine stories raise the alarm that schools are teaching to the test. Scores of articles and editorials paint a disheartening picture of frustrated teachers forced to abandon good instructional practices for a relentless stream of worksheets based on boring, repetitive test-preparation materials. Even Hollywood actors are chiming in.

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The following article discusses the controversy behind the actions of Edward Snowden, a man that leaked classified information exposing some of the action of the National Security Administration and the CIA. It brings into question whether he truly was a villain for exposing his country’s secrets or if he is a hero for bringing this information to light. A focus on the recent movie release is placed as well, detailing the possible social effects the movie will have as well as the effects it may have on political opinion.  The film aims to make the American people look at Snowden and American history in a radically different manner from how the government has been allowed to go on in secret. In a way, the Snowden conflict cracks the door open on a world of secrets that have been hidden from the American people.

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Oliver Stone's new film, Snowden, offers a fresh look at the US intelligence leaker. It could make some people change their minds about him.

Washington is a town of secrets.

The intelligence community, a constellation of agencies known only by their acronyms (CIA, NSA and others), is located in this area.

And Georgetown, an upmarket neighbourhood in the northwest section, is the place where its operatives go to have a beer and share hush-hush tidbits - or to say nothing, depending on their mood.

When Edward Snowden smuggled out classified documents and revealed the government's activities, he upended things dramatically - and pierced the heart of the nation's intelligence-gathering establishment.

It was fitting, then, that a screening of Snowden, the film - and an after-party - was held in this neighourhood last week.

The haters weren't there.
Snowden hits out at critical report
But those who are suspicious of secret government activities - including some who once specialised in them - were.

Director Oliver Stone stood near the doorway of a French restaurant, greeting people as they arrived.

Bartenders served French wine and fancy cocktails - like at a Hollywood cocktail party.

Instead of celebrities, though, the room was filled with DC's elite, a group of political operatives, defence analysts and others.

They'd come from a screening of Stone's film in a theatre down the street. The movie opens on 16 September.

Snowden, who lives in Moscow, has been charged with violating the Espionage Act, and he would face decades in prison if convicted.

In Washington, he is persona non grata - and is vilified by an array of powerful people.

His haters did not attend the party - but they made themselves heard this week.

A group of lawmakers denounced Snowden, releasing a report that said he "betrayed his colleagues and his country".

Henry Crumpton, who's served as deputy chief of the CIA's counterterrorism centre, agreed, saying: "He's a traitor."

Those at the White House felt the same way.

"Snowden is accused of leaking classified information and faces felony charges," said National Security Council spokesman Ned Price.

"He should be returned to the US as soon as possible."

The controversy surrounding Snowden reflects a deeper issue, dating back to the al-Qaeda attacks of 2001. Americans are divided in how they feel about the role of the government in preventing another attack, underscoring a tension between civil liberties and national security.

According to a KRC Research poll conducted last year, 64% of Americans have a negative opinion of him.

More than half of Britons said they viewed him in a positive light, however.

The film could sway public opinion, convincing more Americans to see him in a favourable manner.

With that goal in mind, activists started a campaign this week called Pardon Snowden. The party guests were open to the idea.

The anti-Snowden people were not at the after-party, a lively event that spilled out onto the street.

Here a journalist smoked cigarettes with a CIA contractor, and people talked about how much money could be made through cyber-security gigs.

The guests ranged from Tea Party activists to anti-war campaigners.

Stone, who has bushy eyebrows and a gravelly voice, looked around the room and described them all as "a group of friends".

He posed for a picture with "American heroes", as a guest called them.

Alongside Stone were William Binney, a former NSA technical director; Thomas Drake, another former NSA official who became a leaker (and inspired Snowden); and James Bamford, author of The Puzzle Palace, and other books.

Lawrence Wilkerson, a former Army colonel, was standing near the bar.

Snowden, he told me, is "a truth teller".

The hope is that the film - and Stone's attention - will change how Snowden is perceived, if not in the elite circles of Washington, then in the rest of the country.

The more information people have about the NSA, said Binney, the more they'll understand why Snowden exposed the government's operations.

The film, Binney said, "totally brings out the points so that people will know what's going on".

Through his previous movies, blockbusters such as Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, Stone raised the American public's awareness of governmental failings.

After his film, JFK, was released in 1991, it received scorn from some historians - but officials sped up the declassification of millions of records relating to Kennedy's death.

His new film aims to make people think about Snowden and US history in a radically different fashion.

"He is an unreliable narrator," said the Federation of American Scientists' Steven Aftergood, who heads up their project on government secrecy, describing Stone.

"But his films can be tremendously potent on a political level."

When the film starts, Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a skinny guy in glasses sliding through mud during special-forces training in the Georgia woods.

One of the trainers makes it clear that he needs to try harder.

The officer shouts at Snowden, telling him to show where his heart is - inside his chest. Then the trainer yells: "I want you to rip it out."

At the party, Stone seemed nervous about the reception of his film - and a little paranoid.

"Don't give away anything," he told me, asking me not to reveal the plot.

Meanwhile, a Tea Party activist, Tom Whitmore, was chatting with a friend.

The movie "was fantastic", Whitmore said, adding: "The NSA - they do this big dragnet. It gets out of control."

"It makes it all more real," said activist Medea Benjamin about the film.

"You can identify with it. 'Oh, somebody's watching.' That's creepy."

Derek Leebaert, a party guest who creates CIA software, said the film shows how intrusive the surveillance programmes were.

"If this is playing in Kansas City's Cineplex 12," he said, "people are going to be worried."

However ham-fisted, the film raises important questions about government activities.

At the end of the evening, Binney leaned on his cane and talked about the men and women who created the surveillance programmes.

For Binney, these individuals - not Snowden - are the villains.

He said: "The people who did this belong in jail."
Follow @Tara_Mckelvey on Twitter.

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Oliver Stone tries to sell Snowden to DC

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Oliver Stone's new film, Snowden, offers a fresh look at the US intelligence leaker. It could make some people change their minds about him. Washington is a town of secrets. The intelligence community, a constellation of agencies known only by their acronyms (CIA, NSA and others), is located in this area.

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Planetary scientist Dave Brian in the TED Talk describes that there are three things needed for life to occur. Those three things being water, energy, and nourishment. He explains that Earth is located in the goldilock's zone, not too hot like Venus nor too cold like Mars but interjects the idea that maybe there was a time when long ago that Mars might have had been a habitable planet with an atmosphere. Brian states that one key element is a magnetic field. A magnetic field provides a cushion for the planet from the solar radiation and solar flares from the sun (charged particles coming from the sun). Having his research team sent satellites to Mars, and Venus which will study the atmospheres of the planets enabling planetary scientists to universally apply this concept to be able to discover habitable planets for settlement.He finishes his speech by indicating that earth so far far is our most precious habitat giving it a sense of value.

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"Venus is too hot, Mars is too cold, and Earth is just right," says planetary scientist Dave Brain. But why? In this pleasantly humorous talk, Brain explores the fascinating science behind what it takes for a planet to host life -- and why humanity may just be in the right place at the right time when it comes to the timeline of life-sustaining planets.

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In the article linked below Hong Kong continues to advocate and protest their freedom from the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. China is having a hard time against Hong Kong's fight for separatism. Recently elections for congress, "6 of the 70 people who won seats in the territory’s Legislative Council, known as Legco, were people who want Hong Kong to be more independent from China." Even though 6 seats is a small number of seats representing Hong Kong it gives a strong statement to China especially by the fact that these seats to the council have increased dramatically from years prior. The Communist Party in Beijing sees it as a legitimate challenge to annex Hong Kong. Not only do Citizens of Hong Kong speak of independence but also formed the Umbrella movement campaign in 2014, which was partly unsuccessful due to being deterred by the Chinese police. Now China may consider granting them the most unlikely option giving them independence, but the problem comes when others not just in the restless Hong Kong city ask why are they not allowed democracy too

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CHINA'S leaders wince at the merest hint of support for the separation of any part of their country from the "motherland". Gun-toting police officers and armies of secret ones ensure that few dare openly to express support for the notion in Tibet and Xinjiang, traditionally restive regions in the west of the country. China's rapid military modernisation in recent years has been aimed in part at deterring Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Communist Party, from making its de facto independence a formal one.

Imagine, then, their horror at the outcome of elections held in Hong Kong on September 4th. Six of the 70 people who won seats in the territory's Legislative Council, known as Legco, were people who want Hong Kong to be more independent from China. Though their numbers are small, the emergence of such "localists" could change the way the party views the former British colony. It is no longer merely troubling for its endless calls for democracy. Now it looms as a new front in China's struggle against separatism.
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Thanks to a system that China (gladly) inherited from the British, the outcome of elections to Legco is skewed in favour of pro-establishment politicians. That is ensured by the reservation of 30 seats for "functional" constituencies, namely professions, industries and other groups whose members tend to support the government (another five seats also technically belong to such constituencies, but they allow almost every adult to vote, unlike the others, which have small electorates). It was no surprise, then, that the government's backers were able to take 40 seats, a majority that will ensure most of its bills will be passed. In the previous Legco elections in 2012 they took 43.

As the Communist Party in Beijing sees it, it is the composition of the opposing camp, not its slightly bigger size, that is a cause for much anxiety. Gone from Legco are several veterans who have been vocal critics of the party (which operates only covertly in Hong Kong). But localists have now gained seats for the first time. Not only do such people flirt with the idea of independence, but they are also more ready than old-guard democrats to engage in civil disobedience. Several were leaders of the "Umbrella movement" of 2014, which involved weeks of demonstrations and sit-ins on busy roads by student-led protesters demanding more democracy.

The umbrellas' shadow

In the race for 35 seats in "geographical" constituencies (ie, those filled by proper elections), pro-democracy politicians took nearly 55% of the vote in a record turnout. But a big share of this-nearly 20% of the vote-was for localists belonging to parties formed in the wake of the failed Umbrella campaign. Such groups seem to like portmanteau or hybrid names. One of the more radical of them, Youngspiration, now has two legislators. Nathan Law of a party called Demosisto, who was a student leader during the Umbrella movement, has become the youngest ever to win a Legco seat. He calls himself a "23-year-old kid". In August Mr Law (pictured in front of a group of supporters after winning his seat with 50,818 votes) was sentenced to 120 hours of community service for inciting people to enter a fenced-off area at the start of the Umbrella protests.

Hong Kong's government, doubtless with prodding from Beijing, tried to keep supporters of independence from running. It introduced a rule requiring candidates to sign a declaration that they agree Hong Kong is an "inalienable part" of China, threatening criminal prosecution for doing so falsely. Six of the more outspoken hopefuls were thus excluded (they want to challenge this in court). But some of those now elected have expressed support for independence. All have called for "self-determination", meaning the right of Hong Kong people to decide for themselves what sort of relationship they have with China. Youngspiration wants a referendum on this within five years. Its members believe it is necessary to decide as soon as possible what will happen after 2047; Hong Kong's constitution gives no guarantee that China's "one country, two systems" deal will continue beyond that date.

China's refusal to make concessions to the Umbrella protesters has fuelled the growth of such groups, despite efforts by the government in Hong Kong to undermine support for them (recently, for example, by banning teachers from expressing support for independence in schools). It refused to budge on their demands that the chief executive, as Hong Kong's leader is known, be freely elected. China insists that candidates for the post be screened by a committee packed with loyal Hong Kongers, who can be counted on to exclude Communist Party-baiting democrats.

Support for more radical political views has also been fuelled by China's detention a few months ago of five Hong Kong booksellers for selling gossipy works on China's leaders. One of them disappeared from Hong Kong, apparently snatched by mainland agents. Some Hong Kongers also resent an influx of people from the mainland, blaming them for pushing up house prices, taking good jobs and stripping shelves bare on shopping trips. Localists have been at the forefront of protests against the "locusts", as some call the hordes of mainland day-trippers.

China's initial reaction to the results in Hong Kong has been guarded (beyond trying, as usual, to scrub the internet clean of any comment on the territory's democratic endeavours). Its media have barely mentioned them. But the leadership's worries are clear. A government statement said that advocating independence for Hong Kong was "a threat to China's sovereignty and security" and would damage the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong. It expressed support for any legal action taken by Hong Kong's government to stop it.

One option that China may consider is pushing Hong Kong to revive its long-shelved plans to introduce a new law against subversion. That, however, would risk a public backlash, such as occurred in 2003 when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in protest against the government's previous attempt to do so. It may also think about backing Leung Chun-ying, the current chief executive, for another term when elections are held next March for the post (without public input). Mr Leung is implacably anti-localist, but is also hugely unpopular. Keeping him would also risk triggering more unrest on the streets. The least likely option is that China will grant Hong Kong the democracy many of its people want. Among its many fears is that others in China, not least in its restless west, may ask why they are not allowed it, too.

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CHINA'S leaders wince at the merest hint of support for the separation of any part of their country from the "motherland". Gun-toting police officers and armies of secret ones ensure that few dare openly to express support for the notion in Tibet and Xinjiang, traditionally restive regions in the west of the country.

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In this TED talk, peacemaker Jamila Raqib explains the importance and usefulness of nonviolent protests. One of her fellow colleagues has recently created a list of over 198 nonviolent actions. These actions have proved to influence society for hundreds of years and even still to this day. Non-violence is just equally as powerful and effective as any other type of violence in the world. Its time that we challenge the way we think about conflict and the choices we have when facing it. Maybe then violent actions as a tool of conflict can be abandoned.

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Jamila Raqib: The secret to effective nonviolent resistance

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We're not going to end violence by telling people that it's morally wrong, says Jamila Raqib, executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution. Instead, we must find alternative ways to conduct conflict that are equally powerful and effective. Raqib promotes nonviolent resistance to people living under tyranny -- and there's a lot more to it than street protests.

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This article by Scientific American covers the upcoming international summit regarding the worlds oceans and how they are being impacted by humans. Over 90 countries will be attending the summit held by the State Department. In order for the resolution/ plans of the summit to be put into effect, 55 countries accounting for 55 percent of the worlds emissions will have to join the resolution to implement major changes in order to protect and better the worlds oceans. The current tally is 27 countries, accounting for 40 percent of emissions, but more than 30 countries are expected to join by the end of the summit.

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The foreign secretaries from more than 90 countries will converge on the State Department today for the Obama administration's third and final summit on the health of the world's oceans.

The Our Ocean summit will focus on the nexus of climate change and ocean issues-a link U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Jonathan Pershing told reporters yesterday is not well-understood.

"While climate change is a huge issue, in many ways we should think about it as an exacerbating factor for things that are already problematic," said Pershing.

The world's oceans are already threatened by overfishing and pollution from industry and agriculture. But they have also absorbed 40 percent of the man-made carbon dioxide that has entered Earth's atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, leading to higher levels of acidification that have damaged coral reefs and shellfish populations. The seas have also absorbed heat, sometimes causing fisheries to migrate out of their traditional range and away from fishermen that rely on them.

Secretary of State John Kerry launched the summit two years ago to shine a light on what he considers to be the foreign policy and national security priorities related to oceans management. Last year's gathering was hosted by Chile. Kerry will open the conference today, with President Obama giving a keynote address in the morning.

The two-day summit at State Department headquarters will include more than 100 new commitments by a variety of stakeholders, organizers said. They include new marine protected zones and a proposed ban on disposable plastic bags put forward by France. Countries will also discuss ways to incorporate ocean health issues into the commitments they made in last year's Paris climate agreement.

Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Catherine Novelli told reporters yesterday that one way to compensate for the stress being placed on marine environments by climate change is to remove other pressures on the system, by scaling back pollution and creating more marine protected areas.

Countries around the world have introduced protected areas in recent years, and "we're going to have many more that will be announced at this conference," she said. "We're trying to lead by example in doing that."

Obama last month expanded the Papahnaumokukea marine protected area in Hawaii, making it the world's largest ecologically protected area. And yesterday, the White House announced the designation of another marine national monument off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts that will protect an additional 4,913 square miles.

It will preclude activities like commercial fishing and deep-sea mining. A small number of lobstermen and red crab fishermen operate in the area, though the White House claimed it had not included the most active areas in the monument.

Republicans say the administration has prioritized environmental aims over economic development. House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) described the Hawaii designation as "a sweeping expansion" in an op-ed in The Hill yesterday.

Oceans are 'in trouble'

In addition to protecting ocean ecosystems, these sanctuaries boost the role oceans can play in regulating the climate by contributing to the health of marine vegetation that sequesters carbon, Novelli said. Mangrove forests do more to sequester carbon than rainforests.

"We know that the ocean is in trouble, but we also know that the ocean is resilient," she said. "And if we do the right thing, it can come back."

International climate leaders and technical experts met yesterday at National Geographic 's headquarters to begin work on recommendations for how countries can integrate ocean concerns into their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement.

A handful of countries already refer to ocean issues in their submissions, but most don't. Climate advocates hope the summit can help persuade countries to increase the ambition of their commitments early.

The Moroccan presidency of the next round of climate talks in Marrakech has designated an Oceans Day during the November conference. The recommendations will be introduced then.

French Ambassador Laurence Tubiana and Moroccan Ambassador Hakima El Haite, who together lead the Global Climate Action Agenda heading into this year's talks, said they hope that businesses, cities and other non-state actors will make voluntary commitments to reduce the impact of climate change on the seas. Tubiana said yesterday that Marrakech would "put the ocean in the right place in the agenda."

El Haite said oceans should be "put in the heart of the development and human rights agenda" of Paris, including both mitigation and adaptation plans.

"Including oceans in NDCs would be a clear political signal and commitment and would encourage more programs and initiatives from the private sector, the financial community and all the non-state actors," she said.

In addition to increased acidification and changing ecosystems, climate change is projected to contribute as much as 4 feet to sea-level rise by the end of the century.

Solutions to both climate change and ocean ecosystem degradation include protection of mangrove forests and other so-called "blue sinks" that sequester carbon, better monitoring and investments in research, and the speedy implementation of Paris. The global climate deal takes effect when 55 countries totaling 55 percent of the world's emissions join. The current tally is 27 countries totaling 40 percent of emissions. But more than 30 additional countries are expected to become parties next week at a Sept. 21 summit at U.N. headquarters in New York City.

Warming reduces access to protein in Africa

A global oceans summit that draws foreign ministers rather than environmental secretaries is part of Kerry's legacy at State. In remarks at the first conference in 2014, Kerry recounted how, as a child growing up in Massachusetts, "I first dipped my toes into the mud off Woods Hole Oceanographic in that area of Buzzards Bay and the Cape and was introduced to clamming and to fishing and all of those great joys of the ocean."

"I have had this enormous love and respect for what the ocean means to us," he said then.

He continued to focus on ocean issues as a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and chairman of its Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee.

Pershing said on yesterday's call that during his recent trip to Senegal, he was told that fisheries supplying 90 percent of that country's protein are migrating out of reach of its fishermen as the ocean warms.

"And if you start to think about that magnified by the extent of those coastal nations, which, in many poor countries, rely on their fishing capacity to provide a substantial share of their people's food supply, you get one window into the extent of the damages," he said.

Tubiana, who was one of the architects of last year's climate deal, pointed to the summit as another part of Obama's legacy.

"I think all of us will have a big debt to President Obama and his legacy, on his capacity to really have focused the global agenda to these key issues and make the link," she said. "I think he's using his last days and even the last minute to do that.

"Whatever the result of your election is, you will have provided an enormous advance in the global agenda," she said.

Europe will host next year's summit, and countries in other regions are lined up to do so in coming years-so its continued existence does not depend on who wins the U.S. presidential election. But if Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wins the election, it is likely he'll be less invested in climate issues, both domestically and internationally.

But Pershing said on the call that international momentum would continue on climate change regardless of the outcome. Escalating damage from climate change and cheaper low-carbon solutions will continue to drive progress, he said.

"And it's independent, quite frankly, of whether we are able in the next administration to take a president who likes it or doesn't like it," he said, adding, "And I'm not seeing any backing down from that, independent of what happens here in the United States."
Reprinted from ClimateWire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environmental news at www.eenews.net. Click here for the original story.

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The foreign secretaries from more than 90 countries will converge on the State Department today for the Obama administration's third and final summit on the health of the world's oceans. The Our Ocean summit will focus on the nexus of climate change and ocean issues-a link U.S.

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In this Ted Talk, Anthony Goldbloom discusses the not so shocking prediction of "The jobs we'll lose to machines--and the ones we won't". Machines based technology started out in 1990. He analyzed that soon there will be no chance of competing with the machines and sooner rather then later there will be a loss for jobs considering that 1 in every 2 jobs is at risk. Machine learning is most powerful and mimics some of what humans can do. As he stated in the Ted talks.

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The jobs we’ll lose to machines -- and the ones we won’t

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Machine learning isn’t just for simple tasks like assessing credit risk and sorting mail anymore -- today, it’s capable of far more complex applications, like grading essays and diagnosing diseases. With these advances comes an uneasy question: Will a robot do your job in the future?

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In this TED Talk, journalist Andrew Mwenda argues that providing aid to Africa is counterproductive in allowing Africa to grow and flourish on its own. Being from Uganda, he explains that African countries receiving aid become passive and accept what is given to them instead of becoming active in their own economy. Mwenda instead proposes that directly funding research institutions and investing in African businesses (both privately and publicly) will allow Africa to make the economic and political gains it really needs.

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Andrew Mwenda: Aid for Africa? No thanks.

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In this provocative talk, journalist Andrew Mwenda asks us to reframe the "African question" -- to look beyond the media's stories of poverty, civil war and helplessness and see the opportunities for creating wealth and happiness throughout the continent.

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The Hunger in our minds is a compelling article written for the New York Times but Gretchen Reynolds on the 12th of September. The purpose of the article to inform the population about the effects of a bust brain on a tired body. I found this piece compelling due to the fact that I am a freshmen in fear of gain the infamous freshmen 15. I think it’s really interesting because a lot of people tend to believe that they are hungrier after a physical work out instead of a mental one. The article has relevant facts concerning the issue of our need to eat after mental activity. The author also has research to support their side. The article makes some great points involving how the brain feels energy deprived so it sends the body out to collect calories for it. Though I did not agree with the fact that the brain fuels on lactate and sugar so the body does not require as many calories. I really do connect with this article on a deep level because I am really concerned about gaining the freshmen 15. This really does give me a new idea of how to prevent the weight gain and how to combat it. I do wonder that if you chose unhealthy individuals for the study would the results change? I feel like many factors are in play especially metabolism. To answer my questions I could further my research and conduct my own study with my fellow biology and chemistry majors.

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A busy brain can mean a hungry body. We often seek food after focused mental activity, like preparing for an exam or poring over spreadsheets. Researchers speculate that heavy bouts of thinking drain energy from the brain, whose capacity to store fuel is very limited. So the brain, sensing that it may soon require more calories to keep going, apparently stimulates bodily hunger, and even though there has been little in the way of physical movement or caloric expenditure, we eat. This process may partly account for the weight gain so commonly seen in college students.

Scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and another institution recently experimented with exercise to counter such post-study food binges. Gary Hunter, an exercise physiologist at U.A.B., oversaw the study, which was published this month in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Hunter notes that strenuous activity both increases the amount of blood sugar and lactate - a byproduct of intense muscle contractions - circulating in the blood and augments blood flow to the head. Because the brain uses sugar and lactate as fuel, researchers wondered if the increased flow of fuel-rich blood during exercise could feed an exhausted brain and reduce the urge to overeat.

Thirty-eight healthy college students were invited to U.A.B.'s exercise lab to determine their fitness and metabolic rates - and to report what their favorite pizza was. Afterward, they sat quietly for 35 minutes before being given as much of their favorite pizza as they wanted, which established a baseline measure of self-indulgence. At a later date, the volunteers returned and spent 20 minutes tackling selections from college and graduate-school entrance exams. Hunter says this work has been used in other studies "to induce mental fatigue and hunger." Next, half the students sat quietly for 15 minutes, before being given pizza. The rest of the volunteers spent those 15 minutes doing intervals on a treadmill: two minutes of hard running followed by about one minute of walking, repeated five times. This is the sort of brief but intensive routine, Hunter says, that should prompt the release of sugar and lactate into the bloodstream. These students were then allowed to gorge on pizza, too. But by and large, they did not overeat. In fact, the researchers calculated that the exercisers consumed about 25 fewer calories than they did during their baseline session. The nonexercisers, however, consumed about 100 calories more. When the researchers factored in the calories expended on running, they determined that those students actually consumed 200 fewer total calories after their brain workouts than the resting students.

The study has limitations, of course. "We only looked at lunch," Hunter says; the researchers do not know if the runners consumed extra calories at dinner. They also cannot tell whether other types of exercise would have the same effect as running, although Hunter says they suspect that if an activity causes someone to break into a sweat, it should also increase blood sugar and lactate, feeding the brain and weakening hunger's call.

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A busy brain can mean a hungry body. We often seek food after focused mental activity, like preparing for an exam or poring over spreadsheets. Researchers speculate that heavy bouts of thinking drain energy from the brain, whose capacity to store fuel is very limited.

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In this Ted Talk, Neha Narula addresses the current problems with commercial banks, regarding security and mis- transactions. She then introduces the new concept of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin that allows us to control our own money and record transactions digitally to become more aware of our spending. Her speech exposes the potential future of how the world will efficiently interact with money, invent new technology skills and employment opportunities.

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What happens when the way we buy, sell and pay for things changes, perhaps even removing the need for banks or currency exchange bureaus? That’s the radical promise of a world powered by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. We’re not there yet, but in this sparky talk, digital currency researcher Neha Narula describes the collective fiction of money -- and paints a picture of a very different looking future.

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The Vice industry covered a controversial issue about euthanizing 45,000 wild horses in order to preserve land and increase livestock, specifically cattle, to graze the land. This plan was formulated at a board meeting in Nevada, where they discovered that there were a surplus of wild horses across America. This overpopulation is causing a dilemma not only to the land and future effects, but debates about whether we should euthanize horses or not.

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What image could be more evocative of freedom than that of wild horses, galloping over the plains, their manes elegantly flowing in the breeze? It's a 90s screensaver-worthy image-but one that couldn't be farther from the truth for some 45,000 wild horses now in holding facilities across the US.

You may have heard that the Bureau of Land Management has voted to euthanize an ungodly number of wild horses, all so that livestock can graze on the land they once occupied. That, however, is not exactly the case, although it's not very far off.

What really happened is this. Last week, in Elko, Nevada, at a board meeting of the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board-a nine-member group that makes recommendations to the US Bureau of Land Management-a vote was taken about a surplus of wild horses that were relocated to holding facilities to make way for additional grazing land for cattle. The advisory board voted, eight-to-one, to recommend that the horses be euthanized. Now that recommendation will be made to the Bureau of Land Management, which has been burdened with a whopping $50 million bill for caring for the horses. The vote, however, is just a recommendation to the Bureau of Land Management. If they approve it-which they haven't done yet-the proposal then would go to Congress. If passed by Congress, the horses could be history sometime in 2017.

As you might imagine, some people are none too pleased at the prospect of the US government killing wild horses to make way for livestock. We spoke with Gillian Lyons, the Wild Horse and Burro Program Manager of the Wildlife Protection Department at the Humane Society, who told MUNCHIES that although the Humane Society is not opposed to livestock grazing on public lands, "The agency has a responsibility to humanely manage our nation's wild horses-they do not deserve to be sacrificed to make room for additional livestock grazing."

Lisa Lange, PETA's Senior Vice President, agrees. "The Bureau of Land Management betrayed wild horses the moment that it started rounding them up in order to free up federally protected land, which it then leased to the meat industry for grazing millions of cattle." Lange continued, "Animals raised and slaughtered by the meat industry vastly outnumber wild horses and burros, consume an exponentially greater amount of feed and water, and destroy the environment in the process. Rather than rounding up, corralling, and killing wild herds, the BLM should allow wild horses to remain wild and go after the industry that is actually depleting resources."

On the other hand, California Congressman Tom McClintock, a Republican who is on the House Subcommittee on Federal Lands-who has previously voted no on a bill that would have ensured acreage for wild horses-told MUNCHIES, "It is heartbreaking, but we're out of options. Without population control, the herds double every five years until they overwhelm the land, destroy critical habitats and ultimately starve." He points out the adoption market for wild horses is saturated and that sterilization programs have been blocked by animal rights groups. "So we're down to a brutal choice: watch these animals die gruesome deaths by starvation, dehydration and disease, or to provide for unrestricted sale or euthanasia. If there's a realistic alternative, I'd be grateful to hear it."

The one advisory board member who voted against the euthanasia recommendation, Ginger Kathrens of The Cloud Foundation, disagrees with McClintock's view. She told us that the wild horse population is overestimated; she believes it is "about the same as it was when BLM did their original censusing back in the mid 1970s. So this 'wildly out-of-kilter population' isn't that big, but what is big is the millions of livestock that these animals compete with."

Kathrens also believes the cost to the government of maintaining the wild horses has been exaggerated. "The BLM has screamed, 'This is awful, look at all those wild horses out there. We don't have a place to put them and they are costing so much money.' But do you know that the Bureau of Land Management asked for less money in their budget this year than they did last year?" In short, she says, "This is not a crisis at the current point in time, if they do what we have been challenging them to do, which is to go out onto the range and use the tools available to limit reproduction." But not the previously proposed sterilization methods, which Kathrens says were "horrific" and dangerous to the animals.

It's pretty clear that an answer that will please all parties seems nowhere in sight. In the meantime, 45,000 wild horses are anything but free, and their lives hang in the balance.

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national wild horse and burro advisory board

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The Controversial Plan to Kill 45,000 Wild Horses to Make Room for Cattle Farming

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What image could be more evocative of freedom than that of wild horses, galloping over the plains, their manes elegantly flowing in the breeze? It's a 90s screensaver-worthy image-but one that couldn't be farther from the truth for some 45,000 wild horses now in holding facilities across the US.

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In the BBC article "What is the point of saving endangered species," author Michael Marshall goes over the importance of protecting endangered species while also talking about the common debates in endangered conservation. The author discusses how expensive it is to provide protection for certain endangered species which is a major reason why many countries are not as willing to help save a species. HE also mentions how people are unwilling to save endangered species because they find it more important to help people first. Marshall also brings up the very vital points as to why endangered species do need protection such as their key roles in ecosystem balance, global economic outputs, and in essence protecting the ecosystem that they thrive in, additionally. These species all play a part in the big picture of our Earth and this article was a good source of information on the subject.

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Welcome to BBC Earth, a place to explore the natural world through awe-inspiring documentaries, podcasts, stories and more.

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This New York Times article is about the chief of criminal investigations in Mexico has stepped down. He stepped down in hopes to re open some things about a investigation of 43 college students who randomly vanished almost 2 years ago. The families believe that the ex chief was hiding some evidence and they were trying to get him fired. They were received when they found out that he was stepping down.

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MEXICO CITY - The chief of criminal investigations for Mexico's attorney general resigned late Wednesday amid an internal affairs inquiry into his office's handling of the case of 43 college students who vanished nearly two years ago.

A brief government statement said the attorney general, Arely Gómez González, had accepted the resignation of Tomás Zerón de Lucio from his post as head of criminal investigations, and "wished him success in his personal and professional projects."

The statement did not explain the reasons for the resignation, but an official in the attorney general's office said it was intended to repair relations with the students' families, who have maintained relentless pressure on the government to solve the case and had demanded Mr. Zerón's removal.

But Mr. Zerón was not leaving government entirely. Hours after his resignation, President Enrique Peña Nieto named him as the "technical secretary" of Mexico's National Security Council. Mr. Zerón could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mr. Zerón was deeply involved in some of the country's highest-profile criminal cases, though arguably none were as big as that of the 43 young men. The students, undergraduates from a teachers college in Ayotzinapa, in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, disappeared in September 2014 during a night of violence involving Mexican security forces in the city of Iguala.

The remains of only one student have been found. The case has become an albatross for Mr. Peńa Nieto, who took office in 2012 promising to reduce violence, and it has contributed to his plunging approval ratings.

The government has been widely criticized for its adherence to its preferred narrative that the students were killed by a drug gang that incinerated their bodies and dumped the ashes in a river. The former attorney general declared that conclusion "the historic truth," yet independent investigators have systematically dismantled it.

In two voluminous reports, a panel of foreign human rights and legal experts who spent a year examining the case at the invitation of the Mexican government questioned the authorities' ability and intentions to thoroughly investigate the disappearances, and raised doubts about the integrity of the Mexican judicial system.

Mr. Zerón's behavior was singled out for criticism in the panel's final report, and at an accompanying news conference in April, just as the group's mandate ended.

The panel highlighted events that took place on Oct. 28 and 29, 2014, along the banks of the San Juan River near the town of Cocula, where the government said it believed the students' ashes had been dumped.

At the news conference, the experts showed video clips of Mr. Zerón accompanying a detained suspect to the scene on Oct. 28, and of plastic bags that resembled one recovered from the river the next day and that contained incinerated bones, including a fragment that provided the only known DNA link to one of the missing students.

Yet none of that day's investigative activities were recorded in the case file, the panelists said, raising the possibility that investigators had manipulated or planted evidence.

Mr. Zerón defended his actions, declaring them legal and transparent. Nonetheless, the attorney general's office opened the internal affairs inquiry. Mr. Zerón remained in his post but was reportedly quarantined from the investigation into the missing students.

It was unclear whether Mr. Zerón's resignation was prompted by findings in the internal affairs investigation, which, officials said Wednesday, was continuing.

Several weeks ago, the missing students's relatives, who had been meeting regularly with the attorney general or members of her staff, suspended those meetings in protest over the administration's refusal to fire Mr. Zerón.

An official at the attorney general's office, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the issue, said Wednesday that the resignation was intended "to reactivate the dialogue with the parents."

The news was welcomed by the students' relatives and their advocates, who have been clamoring for months for Mr. Zerón's removal from the case.

"We hope this resignation can make possible a greater deepening and transparency in the investigation," said Mario Patrón, director of Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, an organization in Mexico City.

"The Mexican state is still in debt to the students' families and relatives," he added.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Investigator in 2014 Case That Shook Mexico Quits. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Top Investigator in Case of Missing Students in Mexico Resigns

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MEXICO CITY - The chief of criminal investigations for Mexico's attorney general resigned late Wednesday amid an internal affairs inquiry into his office's handling of the case of 43 college students who vanished nearly two years ago.

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This TedTalks is a presentation to introduce the idea that the department of correctional facilities is in need of reformation in order to build productive inmates and possible freed citizens. He goes on to explain the issues he has a problem with and his methods in fixing them as well as his current progress. There is a surplus of factual evidence and a decent measure of hope behind his words.

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Dan Pacholke: How prisons can help inmates live meaningful lives

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In the United States, the agencies that govern prisons are often called 'Department of Corrections.' And yet, their focus is on containing and controlling inmates. Dan Pacholke, Deputy Secretary for the Washington State Department of Corrections, shares a different vision: of prisons that provide humane living conditions as well as opportunities for meaningful work and learning.

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Mcklain talks about the advancement of robots and how they will be taking over the restaurant industry. With the use of these robots, humans will not need to continue working in restaurants serving those who want food. Cooks and waiters will no longer be needed because the robots themselves will prepare the food and serve it. MIT has already began the use of these robots in the university to serve students there. This brings up several questions because restaurant owners and their employees have been fighting over salary numbers over the past years and the use of robots may end it all. In addition, will this mean the education level of the people around the world will increase/decrease? People may become motivated to go into various other fields since one of the most commonly worked jobs as a waiter will be taken away by robots.

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We like robots and we love to eat. When it comes down to having our food cooked, this task is done by a human. However, such might not be the case for very long as robots are getting in on the action. We envision a future where most restaurants are tricked out with robot chefs instead of humans, something that could pose a problem.

Restaurant owners and their employees over the years haven't always been the best of friends. Currently, employees are fighting for a $15 minimum wage, and with this being an alleged issue for many restaurants, we can now see where robots will get an opening to enter the workforce.

Silicon Valley's Momentum Machines, a small group in the United States, is all about automated restaurant systems. This system is pretty powerful as it can create and serve 400 burgers in a single hour. There are also several restaurants in China and Japan where robots cook and serve food, a clear sign of things to come.

Another sign of robots taking over can be seen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dining room. Students can now eat meals prepared by robots. According to Tech Insider, this system is known as Spyce Kitchen, and can prepare a meal in 5 minutes.

Humans are needed to restock the robot with ingredients, but from there, it takes over and gets the job done all by itself. It's an interesting concept that has become a reality, but only time will tell if it will find a home outside of the university.

There's hope yet for humans in the restaurant workplace. Some companies in China decided to get rid of their robot workers because they find them inefficient compared to human workers, says a report from Shanghaiist.

We're guessing as time goes by, minds might change, but for now, restaurant employees in some parts of China can rest easy.

As it stands now in the west, especially in the United States of America, we seem to be getting closer to the end of human cooks and waitresses in the workplace. The protest and demand for increased minimum wage have several companies on edge, and according to some, will likely force the robot in the workplace revolution.

We're not sure what can be done to protect the livelihood of workers. What we do believe, however, is that robots and human workers should be able to work alongside each other instead of the machines becoming a replacement tool.

See Now: 30 Gadgets And Tech Gifts For Father's Day 2018 That Dad Will Think Are Rad

ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

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Could Robots Ultimately Replace Restaurant Workers In The Future?

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We like robots and we love to eat. When it comes down to having our food cooked, this task is done by a human. However, such might not be the case for very long as robots are getting in on the action.

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For the last 200+ years humanity has been defined by a series of massive and pivotal technological developments that immensely impact productivity and growth. Olivier Scalabre believes that the next one is here and that advancement in technologies can bring about a global economic overhaul. The constant progress in technological fields will facilitate industry unlike anything in human history and has the capacity to bring about the next "manufactering revolution."

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Olivier Scalabre: The next manufacturing revolution is here | TED Talk

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Economic growth has been slowing for the past 50 years, but relief might come from an unexpected place -- a new form of manufacturing that is neither what you thought it was nor where you thought it was. Industrial systems thinker Olivier Scalabre details how a fourth manufacturing revolution will p…

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Robots will take over most jobs within 30 years, experts warn, by Sarah Knapton is warning the public that robots and machines could take jobs that will result in a predicted unemployment rate of 50% within the next 30 years. Knapton talks to experts that say companies will start to outsource jobs to machines and robots, because they will be able to do more work, and more dangerous jobs without the fear of being injured. There is even a robot that works as a receptionist on a Singapore campus that meets and greets students, and can even hold a conversation.

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"Robots are doing more and more jobs that people used to do. Pharmacists, prison guards, boning chicken, bartending, more and more jobs we're able to mechanise them.

"I believe that society needs to confront this question before it is upon us: If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?

"The question I want to put forward is, 'Does the technology we are developing ultimately benefit mankind?'

Prof Vardi, said existing robotic and AI technologies were already eliminating a growing number of middle-class jobs and claims that pace of advancement in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing.

In December, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore unveiled the most humanlike robot ever created, which will work as a receptionist on campus.

With her soft skin and flowing brunette hair, Nadine does not only meet and greet visitors, smile, make eye contact and shake hands, but she can even recognise past guests and spark up conversation based on previous chats.

Today Airbus and the Joint Robotics Laboratory at the University of Frankfurt, also announced it was developing humanoid robotic technology to perform difficult tasks in aircraft manufacturing.

The company said it would relieve workers of the most dangerous and laborious tasks, allowing them to concentrate on 'higher value tasks.'

The robots in development can climb ladders and crawl into small spaces and are expected to join the workforce within the next decade.

* Human mini-brains to speed up Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research

But Prof Vardi is unconvinced that a workforce of humanlike robots will be good for mankind.

"A typical answer is that if machines will do all our work, we will be free to pursue leisure activities," he said.

"I do not find this a promising future, as I do not find the prospect of leisure-only life appealing. That seems to me a dystopia. I believe that work is essential to human well-being.

"Humanity is about to face perhaps its greatest challenge ever, which is finding meaning in life after the end of 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.

"We need to rise to the occasion and meet this challenge before human labor becomes obsolete."

"What's different this time is computer scientists are working on building machines that can out compete us in everything we can do. If machines can do all the work or even 50 per cent of the jobs that we used to do, what will people do?"

* 'Neurostatins' may beat dementia if drugs taken in your 30s

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Robots will take over most jobs within 30 years, experts warn

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"Robots are doing more and more jobs that people used to do. Pharmacists, prison guards, boning chicken, bartending, more and more jobs we're able to mechanise them. "I believe that society needs to confront this question before it is upon us: If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?

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McSpadden discusses the issue that our new generation has with technology impacting our attention span. It has been concluded that our attention span is shorter than a goldfish and the reason is due to our use of technology. Although it has impacted our attention span, technology has increased our multitasking ability. This psychological change has both a positive and negative outlook on technology and it's impression on us.

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You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than a Goldfish

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A new study from Microsoft Corp. a human attention span is 8 seconds, showing the affect of increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain

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North Korea has recently conducted their fifth and largest Nuclear Test. It was said to have caused a surface-level seismic tremor near the test site. The test on the seismic magnitude conducted by South Korea confirmed that it could be larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and maybe even the one used to strike Nagasaki. Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies, recently stated that "The important thing is that five tests in, they now have a lot of nuclear test experience. They aren't a backwards state any more," he said.

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Anthony Goldbloom essentially discusses the future by recognizing the importance of machines and how they will eventually out perform the work of humans. He makes it a firm point to say many times that we will not be able to compete against these machines--meaning jobs will start to be hard to find. Diagnosing diseases and grading essays is what machines are able to do today, however in the future machines will be able to do much more. Despite the advancement of machines, for novel situations, such as business strategies, will only be the work of humans.

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Anthony Goldbloom: The jobs we'll lose to machines -- and the ones we won't

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Machine learning isn't just for simple tasks like assessing credit risk and sorting mail anymore -- today, it's capable of far more complex applications, like grading essays and diagnosing diseases. With these advances comes an uneasy question: Will a robot do your job in the future?

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Sal Khan discusses the issue of teaching students for testing vs. teaching students for mastery. He talks about how mastery used learning will help students improve due to the fact they will have to mastery a topic 100% before teaching for testing can moving on to the next lesson. He gives many examples on how this can leave gaps in the students learning and when it is time to build off the lesson it will result in failure. If a student gets a 75 on a test they have not mastered the information; when it is time to move on they will not be able to fully understand. Even though it rises the concern of having a class of students where everyone is learning at a completely different pace.

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Let’s teach for mastery -- not test scores

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Would you choose to build a house on top of an unfinished foundation? Of course not. Why, then, do we rush students through education when they haven’t always grasped the basics? Yes, it’s complicated, but educator Sal Khan shares his plan to turn struggling students into scholars by helping them master concepts at their own pace.

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Ben Goldacre discusses a major moral flaw in the pharmaceutical area of research regarding unpublished studies. Goldacre gives two very specific examples of how a lack of published information on certain pharmaceuticals has ended lives during drug trials due to researchers and publishing companies declining to report these studies. He calls upon listeners, the government, and the researchers conducting these studies to fix the moral dilemma that exists in the scientific field.

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What doctors don’t know about the drugs they prescribe

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When a new drug gets tested, the results of the trials should be published for the rest of the medical world -- except much of the time, negative or inconclusive findings go unreported, leaving doctors and researchers in the dark. In this impassioned talk, Ben Goldacre explains why these unreported instances of negative data are especially misleading and dangerous.

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A young writer travels to a small village by the name of Naime, southeast of the Aegean, located in Turkey in hopes of learning about the Afro-Turk minority that resides in those old lands. He delves into the lost history of a unique group of people and tries to discover what it is that made them lose their sense of self culturally and relates it to the larger issue of the acceptance of diversity in the world. He finds out what it is that prevents the generations from delving into their own pasts and forcing themselves to assimilate and "lose their language". He speaks of progress and the future of minority communities trying to prosper.

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In the sleepy village of Naime, 60km southeast of the Aegean port of Izmir, a woman who claims to be 106 years old was trying to remember the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923.

Dressed in baggy shalvar trousers, Hatice was huddled on a bench under the vine-covered veranda of her tiny house, her movements slow in the intense June heat. She squinted into the middle distance: "Yes, lots of drumming and trumpets."

Hatice's 93-year-old memories were understandably vague, but then, something else occurred to her.

"Atatürk freed my father. He was a free man after the Republic."

Hatice is the proud possessor of a Turkish ID card, but her parents were not. She knows very little about her family's roots, only that her ancestors were among the hundreds of thousands of slaves brought from the East African coast to the Ottoman Empire in the late 1800s. Little knowledge of this African heritage remains; Hatice speaks only Turkish, and seemed irritated by my questions about her family history, most of which she could not answer. She could tell me that her parents were only freed in 1924 after the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, established laws of equal citizenship in the new republic's constitution.

Hatice, in common with many rural Turkish women of her generation, never went to school, married at 16 and had nine children. Although free, her life has been particularly hard as a black woman in a country defined by fierce nationalism and forced assimilation of minorities.

"After he was freed, my father found himself some cows and a patch of land. Then he was murdered by bandits. We somehow survived," she told me.

While Turkey is home to many ethnic and religious minorities, members of the Afro-Turk community attract immediate attention in big cities, particularly in the wake of the recent refugee crisis, when they have often been mistaken for Eritrean or Somalian refugees trying to get to Europe.

Although some estimates put the number of Afro Turks as high as 100,000, the community remains relatively unknown, especially outside of the Aegean area where many slave families were sent to work on the cotton fields near the port of old Smyrna (modern day Izmir) in the 18th Century, and where many were relocated in the last few decades of the Ottoman Empire.

Hatice's son, Esat, was surprisingly cheerful when it came to the subject of integration. Under the shade of the veranda, he spread out an album filled with photographs of himself as a young man carrying out his military service in Northern Cyprus and working in a hotel on the coast. His was the only black face in these photos.

"I have many friends - yes, some call me 'Arab', they joke about me, but not in a nasty way," he said.

Esat, anxious to belong, downplayed the prejudice I had heard about from other members of the Afro Turk community, especially those in Izmir. Ironically, it is in the big cities where they say they stand out the most; in the villages they are generally accepted as part of the community.

"Everyone can live in Turkey, variety is beautiful," Esat insisted. "If a garden doesn't have lots of different flowers and trees, is it still beautiful? No! If people are racist, it just means they are ignorant. I don't take any notice. I am a Turk, that is all."

His brother, Orhan, felt his family's difference more keenly.

"It's a shame we have lost our African language, the language our great-grandparents spoke. Every minority in Turkey has its language - the Kurds, the Zaza, even the Laz. But we have only Turkish, and we don't know anything about our ancestors."

Afro Turks are nominally Muslim, with nothing to differentiate them from most Turks apart from an evidently different ethnic makeup. But as a prejudiced ethnic minority, they have tried over the generations to integrate as much as possible.

"After years of suffering, you hide what makes you different," said Orhan, sagely. "That is why our parents and parents' parents did not teach us their language. They did not want to make us different, they wanted us to only to be Turkish."

Two days later, I went to Izmir to hear Professor Ehud Toledano of Tel Aviv University, the world's foremost authority on the Ottoman slave trade, deliver a speech to an audience eager to hear more about their heritage.

"There is an expression in social anthropology," he told the assembled villagers, who had been bussed in for the occasion from villages near Izmir where many of the Afro Turks have lived for generations. "'The first generation lives it, the second rejects it and the third researches it.' I think we are seeing the third stage happening today in the Afro-Turk community."

If Toledano is correct, Hatice has lived the immediate post-slave experience, her son Esat has rejected it and the younger generations of Afro Turks are being actively educated about it. Among Toledano's audience were around 30 children, wide-eyed as they looked up at large graphs showing the number of African slaves brought to Turkey in the 19th Century.

Toledano's talk formed part of the Calf Festival (Dana Bayramı), an Afro Turk festival recently resurrected after a long hiatus by members of the community anxious to re-embrace their history.

Originally this was an annual tradition - in which a decorated calf was paraded around, collecting donations and well wishes for spring - among the African slave community during the days of the Ottoman Empire. It was then practiced in secret after the secularist Atatürk's ban on non-state-controlled religious institutions in 1925, which extended to superstitious practices such as this one with its trace remnants of African tribal practices. In the 1960s the practice died out, only to be brought back a decade ago by Mustafa Olpak, a 61-year-old local Afro-Turk who managed to trace his heritage to Kenya, via Crete. He was inspired by his research to establish Izmir's Afro Turk Foundation in 2006, in an effort to connect the disparate community.

There remains ample scope for Olpak's efforts: just 12km south of Naime, 86-year-old Fehmi Yavaser - one of three black men in the village of Belevi, and known as "Arab Fehmi" - had never heard of the Calf Festival and apparently had no interest in his background nor any connection to the Afro community. Sitting outside the village cafe, among the other retired men sipping lemonade and playing backgammon, Fehmi assumed, at first, that I had come to interview him about his semi-professional boxing career or the 18 years he spent working in Germany. He looked bemused at my interest in his family background.

"My mum was born in this village, and her mother before her," he told me, shrugging. "What can I say? I'm a local." His unspoken, uncomfortable question was: "Why am I so interesting, just because I'm black?"

At the other end of the spectrum was 65-year-old Ahmet Doğu, a retired worker in the former state-owned tobacco factory in Izmir and an avid member of the Afro Turk Foundation. Doğu was entirely frank about the discrimination he has faced as a black man in Turkey.

"Whether you like it or not, it does get to you," he said soberly, sitting outside the foundation's one-roomed office in Izmir's shopping district, describing how mothers on the street mutter superstitious phrases as they pass him with their children.

"They pray that their children will not turn out so black," he said, grimacing slightly. "They touch wood and look away from me."

More insidious, however, is the way Afro Turks are referred to in apparently friendly social circles as "Arab", a term which has been traditionally used in Turkey for anyone dark enough to be either Arab or African.

"We call ourselves Arab, too," Ahmet said. "It is better than "African", which has such bad connotations - when people think of Africans they think of cannibalism and backwardness. We do not want to be associated with that. These days, we also call ourselves Sudanese or Libyan or whatever, even though we don't know exactly where our families were from."

Ahmet insisted, however, that the situation is much better than it used to be.

"It was worse in the days when people really had no idea about black people - at least now we are more on television, on the internet, because of American culture."

In the village of Yeni Çiftlik, 8km northeast of Naime, Afro Turk children played in the street, unaware of their relatively privileged position in the history of their community. Adil, a striking eight-year-old boy with dark skin and green eyes, had the second name "Zenci", now a pejorative Turkish word for "black", roughly equivalent to "Negro". It was the name given to his great-grandparents under Atatürk's Surname Law in 1934, the first time Turkish citizens were allocated surnames. The fact that the Zenci surname has endured indicates that the Afro Turk community still has some way to go in owning itself as a minority based on something other than skin colour.

Nevertheless, Adil is part of a generation that is being taught to embrace their roots, rather than forget or hide them. He is the future of the Afro Turk community.
If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, Travel and Autos, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

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In the sleepy village of Naime, 60km southeast of the Aegean port of Izmir, a woman who claims to be 106 years old was trying to remember the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Dressed in baggy shalvar trousers, Hatice was huddled on a bench under the vine-covered veranda of her tiny house, her movements slow in the intense June heat.

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Ryan Lochte was given a 10 month band for his false story he gave when he was in Rio for the olympics. He and 3 others went out partying and stopped at a gas station on the way back. They then made up a story about how they got robbed by what they thought were "police officers" and they held a gun to his head. Lochte's 10 month ban prevents him from participating in the 2017 world championships. Even though he is coming to an end of his swimming career he still should represent our country way better then he did.

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On Swimming

Ryan Lochte's drunken night out with three other members of the United States Olympic swim team at the Rio Olympics - and his ever-shifting story about an armed robbery that the authorities in Brazil say never happened - resulted in no physical injuries. That is, unless you count the black eyes incurred by U.S.A. Swimming and the United States Olympic Committee, the governing bodies for which Lochte proved an indecorous ambassador.

As befits a victimless crime, the punishments announced Thursday, nearly a month after the fact, for Lochte and his accomplices - Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen - were largely symbolic.

The ringleader, Lochte, 32, a heavily decorated veteran of four Olympics, was given a 10-month suspension from domestic and international competitions. The disciplinary measure will prevent him from taking part in the 2017 world championships in Budapest, because the selection meet for the American team falls during his suspension.

He was hardly a lock to qualify for the meet anyway, given his slowing performances in the past year. In his one individual event in Rio, the 200 individual medley, he did not win a medal.

Bentz, 20; Conger, 21; and Feigen, 26, who kept the truth to themselves for more than 72 hours after Lochte told a tall tale on television about their night out, were handed four-month suspensions, which will not cause them to miss any major domestic or international competitions.

Because Bentz violated the team code of conduct by slipping out of the athletes' village after the swimmers had been told that only those 21 or older were cleared to leave, he was given an additional 10 hours of community service. All three are barred from United States Olympic Committee facilities - at a time when they would be unlikely to use them (especially Conger and Bentz, who are in college).

The swimmers' troubles began after a night of drunken revelry following the final session of the eight-day swimming competition.

They asked the taxi driver who was returning them to the athletes' village from a party to pull over at a gas station.

What happened next remains murky but involved public urination, vandalism and money changing hands between the swimmers and security guards brandishing weapons.

In Lochte's original account, which he gave in a television interview with NBC the next morning, he said the taxi had been stopped by armed men he believed were police officers, one of whom held a gun against his head before taking cash from his wallet.

His story encapsulated the fears of Olympic visitors and the insecurities of a host city struggling with high crime and gun battles between drug gangs and the police.

After the Brazilian authorities opened their own investigation, Lochte altered his story and acknowledged that he had "overexaggerated," but not before the events had overshadowed the accomplishments of American athletes during the second week of the Games.

Brazilian prosecutors are weighing formal charges against Lochte for providing false testimony to the police about the incident; the authorities have said that no robbery occurred. They also said that while the security guards were armed, they stopped the swimmers from leaving only so they would pay the gas station manager for the damage done to the property.

The timing of the announcement by the Olympic committee, which acted in concert with U.S.A. Swimming, was curious given that this story once again threatened to overshadow dream-chasing athletes, in this case the Paralympians. Confirmation of the suspensions came on the day after Wednesday's opening ceremony for the Paralympics, which are taking place in Rio in many of the same venues as the Olympics.

Scott Blackmun, chief executive of the Olympic committee, had made it clear in Rio de Janeiro that one of the more regrettable aspects of Lochte's behavior was how it hijacked the spotlight from deserving track and field and wrestling stars in the second week of the Games.

Lochte's bouts of public partying often turn up in the gossip pages.

His longtime rival, Michael Phelps, who had twice been arrested on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, appears to have turned his life around after his six-week stay at a treatment center in 2014. Lochte could have learned a lot from Phelps's example, but then, he has spent over a decade merrily building his reputation as the antithesis of the disciplined, hyperfocused Phelps.

Clearly, though, Lochte is not the swimmer he once was.

His swims this summer were markedly slower than his efforts a year ago. His fourth-place finish in the 200-meter freestyle at the United States Olympic trials was more than a second slower than his fastest time from 2015.

In the 200-meter individual medley, the only individual event that Lochte qualified to swim at the Olympics, he did not break 1 minute 56 seconds at the trials or at the Olympics after posting a 1:55.81 in 2015.

In the 200 I.M. at the trials, the average age of the five swimmers who finished directly behind Lochte was 20.0 years. If Lochte were serious about holding off the youngsters gaining on him, he would have committed to spending the fall working on his freestyle stroke rather than his freestyle dance as a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars."

As part of the penalties, Lochte loses his $3,500-a-month U.S.A. Swimming stipend, but his turn on "Dancing With the Stars," and the six-figure fee he will get for his toil and trouble, will more than make up for that loss.

Lochte also is required to perform 20 hours of community service. After four Olympics and 12 medals, he appears adrift. The punishment for a night of stupidity amounts to a get-out-of-jail-free card for Lochte, who sadly comes across as a prisoner of a sport he can still do immeasurably better in than he can imagine doing anything else.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B16 of the New York edition with the headline: Already Sluggish, Lochte Won't Be Slowed by 10-Month Ban. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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10-Month Ban for Ryan Lochte After Rio Scandal Is Largely Symbolic

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On Swimming Ryan Lochte's drunken night out with three other members of the United States Olympic swim team at the Rio Olympics - and his ever-shifting story about an armed robbery that the authorities in Brazil say never happened - resulted in no physical injuries.

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Early this Thursday North Dakotas Governor called in 100 National Guard Troops to assist in stopping the pipeline protest. Since the beginning of the pipeline project North Dakota has been met with hundreds of protesters form all over like the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Shailene Woodley and Green party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein. While the pipeline should carry crude oil down to the gulf so it can be refined it is also destroying an ancient Indian burying ground and polluting surrounding land and water. Protesters have taken their concern to Washington D.C where U.S Judge James Boasberg has postponed an official ruling. While protesters wait the National Guard will be setting up traffic checkpoints in 3 surrounding cities in case protesters become violent.

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North Dakota's governor activated 100 National Guard troops on Thursday ahead of an expected ruling by a federal judge on a Native American tribe's request to halt construction of a crude oil pipeline that has drawn fierce opposition and protests.

The $3.7 billion, 1,100-mile (1,770 km) Dakota Access pipeline would carry oil from just north of land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to Illinois, where it would hook up to an existing pipeline and route crude directly to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The line would be the first to allow movement of crude oil from the Bakken shale, a vast oil formation in North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The project has sparked violent clashes between security officers near the construction site and tribe members and other protesters. Opponents say the project will damage burial sites considered sacred to the tribe and pollute the area's drinking water.

Energy Transfer Partners, which is leading a group of firms to build the pipeline, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Protesters have included actress Shailene Woodley and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Some have spray-painted construction equipment, attached themselves to bulldozers and broken a fence, local authorities said.

Protests have been held in both North Dakota and Washington, D.C.

In a hearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, U.S. Judge James Boasberg granted in part and denied in part the tribe's request for a temporary restraining order to stop the project, and said he would decide by Friday whether to grant the larger challenge to the pipeline, which would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw permits.

In advance of that decision, Governor Jack Dalrymple ordered National Guard troops to the area from bases in Bismarck and two other cities.

Some two dozen troops will help with security at traffic checkpoints - the closest of which is about 30 miles (48 km) from the protest site, said Guard spokeswoman Amber Balken. One hundred troops in all are ready to aid local law enforcement should protests become violent, she said.

"The Guard members will serve in administrative capacities and assist in providing security at traffic information points - the Guardsmen will not be going to the actual protest site," Balken said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

BEFORE YOU GO

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North Dakota Governor Calls In National Guard Ahead Of Pipeline Ruling

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North Dakota's governor activated 100 National Guard troops on Thursday ahead of an expected ruling by a federal judge on a Native American tribe's request to halt construction of a crude oil pipeline that has drawn fierce opposition and protests.

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"Seeing the future of climate policy under the next president" highlights the issues that are commonly overlooked or have not been discussed often in this presidential election. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's starkest differences are in regards to their plan for the United States climate policy. Trump claims climate change is "a big scam for a lot of people to make a lot of money" and Clinton chooses to acknowledge the dangers of climate change stating, "Climate change is such a consequential crisis to everybody in the world.." These are two major differences in opinions that effect us all and voters deserve to know what their future president plans to do in regards to protecting and preserving our planet.

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There is probably no greater divergence between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's views than on climate change. Clinton thinks it poses grave danger, while Trump thinks it's a fantasy. William Brangham asks The New York Times' Coral Davenport and The Washington Post's Chris Mooney to predict what climate policy would look like under both administrations.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has repeatedly called climate change an urgent threat, and one that is driven in large part by human activity, namely the burning of fossil fuels. Clinton supports cutting carbon emissions, supports the goals of the Paris accords, as well as President Obama's clean energy plan.

Clinton acknowledges these plans will cost coal industry jobs, and she has proposed a multibillion-dollar renewable energy plan that she says will attempt to replace some of those lost jobs.

To help understand what a Clinton or Trump administration might mean with regards to climate change, I'm joined now by Coral Davenport, who is an environmental reporter for The New York Times, and Chris Mooney, who covers science and the environment for The Washington Post.

Thank you both very much for being here.

Chris, I would like to start with you.

Before we get to the candidates, let's talk for a moment about, what does the current science tell us about the current impacts of climate change?

CORAL DAVENPORT:
Oh, well, the most significant climate policy that Donald Trump has talked about is, he calls it canceling the Paris agreement.

The Paris agreement was a landmark accord reached last year in Paris which for the first time joined almost every country on Earth, over 195 countries, into committing to taking actions to reducing their carbon emissions. It was key for the U.S. to be a centerpiece of that.

The U.S. and China are the world's two largest emitters of carbon emissions, the U.S. historically the largest. If the U.S. actually were to pull out of the Paris agreement, the deal could potentially unravel.

And so the question now is, what would happen in a Trump administration? And the rest of the world, led by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, is trying to kind of figure out, well, how do we keep the Paris accord intact if there were to be a President Trump?

CHRIS MOONEY:
It depends what happens during this administration before the next president comes in.

There is a sort of rapid push right now by the Obama administration and many nations of the world to bring it into force. And once it actually enters into force, then - you have to have 55 countries representing 55 percent of the global emissions in order to achieve that. Once that happens, there is language in the agreement saying you need three years before you can withdraw again.

And then there's a year waiting period. So it sounds like, from that language, the hands of the next president could be tied if this thing enters into force. And we're going to have to see. Right now, only about 40 percent of global emissions, 39 percent have signed on, and that's because U.S. and China just did.

So, you need India, you need Canada, you need Great Britain. You can do the math, right, but you have to get to 55, and you have to do it this year. Then it would be more difficult to withdraw.

But a President Trump, if he didn't want to comply, but couldn't make it go away, could just not cooperate. And it's not clear what would happen then.

CHRIS MOONEY:
Some significant influence, but I agree with you that there are so many other things going on.

For instance, one of the reasons the United States has actually been reducing its emissions in recent years is actually that there's been a boom in natural gas. It's displacing coal. It emits less carbon dioxide when you burn it. This is not really an Obama policy. It's just something that happened because of technology and the free market.

And, globally, you're seeing a big, big trend towards large installations of renewable energies across the world. You are going to see huge installations of wind and solar in places like Africa. These things are going to happen no matter what. They're going to happen for largely non-policy free market reasons even in the United States.

So, I think that there are forces moving that are not really at the presidential level. But, at the same time, the Obama administration kind of shows how you can use diplomacy to bring the most important countries together and get the whole world on board.

So I wouldn't discount that either. So I think that the world will continue trying to grapple with the climate problem, no matter who is U.S. president. But I think that, depending on who that president is, it can have a significant influence on the trajectory.

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Seeing the future of climate policy under the next president

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There is probably no greater divergence between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's views than on climate change. Clinton thinks it poses grave danger, while Trump thinks it's a fantasy. William Brangham asks The New York Times' Coral Davenport and The Washington Post's Chris Mooney to predict what climate policy would look like under both administrations.

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Chicago still has not yet escaped an epidemic of gun violence, stating in the text that "Chicago, 2016 is already the deadliest year in more than two decades." Considering that, John Yang visits to see what is happening and meet people who are trying to change things in the city. There have been 500 homicides so far, 90 in August alone. These killings were mainly congregated in the city's South and West sides. In Englewood, the hardest hit neighborhood on the South side, there is a group called MASK, mothers against senseless killing, founded by Tamar Manasseh, and for the past two summers they have been sitting on that corner and haven't had a single shooting since they began this organization.

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But, first: a bloody year in Chicago. And residents, police and community leaders are asking why the violence is getting worse, instead of better?

It is already the deadliest year in more than two decades, 500 homicides so far, 90 in August alone. The killings were mostly clustered on the city's South and West Sides.

John Yang went to Chicago to try to find out why, despite calls for new action, the violence there is so hard to rein in.

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Why Chicago hasn't yet escaped an epidemic of gun violence

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How do you stop a "contagious" outbreak of violence? For Chicago, 2016 is already the deadliest year in more than two decades. John Yang visits the city to understand why the problem is so entrenched and to meet the people who are trying to change things.

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The jobs we'll lose to machines -- and the ones we won't by Anthony Goldbloom is about certain jobs that we will soon use machines because they are more efficient. Anthony believes that there will be many jobs lost to machines. Machines have already shown that they are able to diagnose medical conditions, and grade student essays, but he believes that jobs will still be needed that prompt new questions never before seen or asked.

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Anthony Goldbloom: The jobs we'll lose to machines -- and the ones we won't

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Machine learning isn't just for simple tasks like assessing credit risk and sorting mail anymore -- today, it's capable of far more complex applications, like grading essays and diagnosing diseases. With these advances comes an uneasy question: Will a robot do your job in the future?

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Alexander Betts discussed problems within the current refugee system in Europe. Many families are fleeing their homes out of fear, living in encampments, urban poverty or enduring dangerous journeys. Betts is deeply concerned with the country’s policies and believes refugees deserve the right to safety and opportunities by creating four different plans that will also benefit globalization.

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Alexander Betts: Our refugee system is failing. Here's how we can fix it

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A million refugees arrived in Europe this year, says Alexander Betts, and "our response, frankly, has been pathetic." Betts studies forced migration, the impossible choice for families between the camps, urban poverty and dangerous illegal journeys to safety.

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Aleppo is a city in Syria, facing complete turmoil due to refugees and civil war between the government and militant groups. The article, "What is Aleppo", highlights Gary Johnson, libertarian presidential candidate, immature response to a question, that sparked the whole nation, of how he wasn't aware about the situation going on in Syria, and the impact it could have in completing in the presidential election.

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Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and Libertarian Party presidential nominee, revealed a surprising lack of foreign policy knowledge on Thursday that could rock his insurgent candidacy when he could not answer a basic question about the crisis in Aleppo, Syria.

"What is Aleppo?" Mr. Johnson said when asked on MSNBC how, as president, he would address the refugee crisis in the war-torn Syrian city.

When pressed as to whether he was serious, Mr. Johnson indicated that he really was not aware of the city, which has been widely covered during the years that Syria has been engulfed in civil war. After Mike Barnicle, an MSNBC commentator who is often part of the "Morning Joe" program panel, explained that Aleppo was the center of Syria's refugee crisis, Mr. Johnson struggled to recover.

"O.K., got it," he said, explaining that he thinks that the United States must partner with Russia to diplomatically improve the situation there. "With regard to Syria, I do think that it's a mess."

The stumble could be a serious blow to Mr. Johnson's campaign, just as he is making a final push to improve his standing in the polls. His support needs to reach 15 percent in a series of major national polls to be included in the presidential debates.

Mr. Johnson's support has been hovering around 10 percent. He and his running mate, former Gov. Bill Weld of Massachusetts, have been aggressively making the case that they represent a viable alternative for voters who are not happy with the major party nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Weld are both former two-term Republican governors who are socially liberal and fiscally conservative. While Libertarians are very free-trade oriented, they are often criticized for being isolationist and lacking interest in foreign policy.

Some leading Republicans who oppose Mr. Trump have said openly that they are giving the Libertarian ticket a serious look. On Wednesday night, Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, publicly called for Mr. Johnson and Mr. Weld to be included in the presidential debates.

The stumble could derail such hopes and it was widely mocked on social media.

On Twitter the question "What is Aleppo?" was trending, with many critics arguing that Mr. Johnson had disqualified himself from the presidency.

Some even attributed the flub to Mr. Johnson's acknowledged use of marijuana. He is a proponent of legalizing the drug and he was previously the chief executive of a business that marketed and sold recreational marijuana products.

Even Hillary Clinton, Mr. Johnson's Democratic opponent, had a laugh at his expense on Thursday. Asked about the Libertarian candidate's lack of knowledge about Aleppo during a news conference, she joked, "You can look on the map and find Aleppo."

Thursday was not the first time that Mr. Johnson has faced such a situation. After speaking at a Politico convention in June, he was being directed to a room that was named after Harriet Tubman, the former slave and abolitionist. According to a report in The New Yorker, Mr. Johnson asked, "Who's Harriet Tubman?"

Mr. Johnson expressed disappointment about the Aleppo lapse in a brief follow-up interview that was broadcast on MSNBC and canceled some of his other scheduled interviews that had been planned for later in the day.

"I'm incredibly frustrated with myself," Mr. Johnson said. "I have to get smarter and that's just part of the process."

He also released a statement, explaining that he is "human" and that as president he would surround himself with experts and receive daily security briefings to fill any gaps in his knowledge.

As for the impact the matter would have on his presidential prospects, Mr. Johnson said that would be up to the voters to decide. In a separate interview on ABC's "The View" program, Mr. Johnson said that he was just trying to be as forthright about the situation as possible and made no excuses.

"For those who believe this is a disqualifier, so be it," he said.

Correction:

An earlier version of this article misidentified the de facto capital of the Islamic State. It is Raqqa, in northern Syria, not Aleppo.

Correction:

An earlier version of the above correction misidentified the Syrian capital as Aleppo. It is Damascus.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: 'What Is Aleppo?' Libertarian Presidential Candidate Asks in an Interview Stumble. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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'What Is Aleppo?' Gary Johnson Asks, in an Interview Stumble

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Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and Libertarian Party presidential nominee, revealed a surprising lack of foreign policy knowledge on Thursday that could rock his insurgent candidacy when he could not answer a basic question about the crisis in Aleppo, Syria. "What is Aleppo?"

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Kio Stark filmed this TED talk based on her obsession with talking to strangers. She decided to take this "obsession" further and start documenting human interaction. The research she collected and with further consideration and thinking, she concluded that it was time to change the way humans interact with strangers; we need to make an effort to make unexpected connections and build relationships out of our comfort zones.

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“When you talk to strangers, you’re making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life -- and theirs,” says Kio Stark. In this delightful talk, Stark explores the overlooked benefits of pushing past our default discomfort when it comes to strangers and embracing those fleeting but profoundly beautiful moments of genuine connection.

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What Message North Korea's Missile Launch Really Sends is an article by the Christian Science Monitor about North Korea's recent mid-range missile launches across the South China sea, and the responses by both the United States, Japan, South Korea and other members of the international community. It discusses how this launch has heightened tensions in the region and how Japan and South Korea are becoming increasingly concerned.

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As President Obama awoke in China Monday to the news that North Korea had launched three missiles overnight into the Sea of Japan, perhaps he was inclined to pick up a pen and jot down a little reminder.

"Note to successor: Worrisome steady progress on missile systems means ignoring North Korea won't work much longer."

That North Korean leader Kim-Jong un would choose to conduct a provocative missile launch this weekend was a foregone conclusion for many North Korean analysts.

Not only are world leaders in Hangzhou, China, for a G20 summit. But China's President Xi Jinping sat down Monday with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Pyongyang's chief enemy. Moreover, the United States recently agreed to deploy the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea, a move that both China and Russia have criticized.

But what stood out about the launch early Monday was how it demonstrated the North's steady progress in developing its missile systems targeting neighbors (and United States allies) like Japan and South Korea, US military forces in the region, and even to some extent the continental US. That progress was also displayed last month by the North's launch of submarine-based missiles.

These steady technological advancements - in areas specifically barred by international actions - underscore how the threat posed by the North has intensified even as world powers have largely focused their attention elsewhere, Northeast Asia experts say.

"All I can say about North Korea is that no president has handed to his successor a better situation on North Korea than they inherited, because North Korea just keeps blowing through every agreement," says Michael Green, a former director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council under President George W. Bush and now an Asia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Security Studies (CSIS) in Washington.

South Korean military officials said the weapons launched Monday were probably mid-range Rodong missiles, which flew about 600 miles west before crashing into the Sea of Japan within Japan's Air Defense Identification Zone. Pyongyang gave no notification of the launch.

Japanese, South Korean concerns

Japanese officials condemned the launch and noted the North's steady progress.

"Looking at the fact that the three missiles have landed on almost the same spot at almost the same time, I think their missile technology has substantially improved," said Japan's Defense Minister Tomomi Inada.

In past years, the North's weaponry tests were characterized by failure, including missiles exploding in mid-air or wobbling and crashing well short of presumed targets. But more recent tests suggest North Korea is steadily learning from what appears to be a test-and-improve approach, Ms. Tomomi said.

The submarine-based ballistic missile launch last month prompted even sharper expressions of concern. Submarine-based missiles could potentially put more of South Korea and Japan within the North's missile range and are harder than land-based missiles to detect before launch.

"North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are not imaginary threats any longer, but they are now becoming real threats," South Korea's President Park said after the submarine launch. "Those threats are coming closer each moment."

She cited the growing threats as justification for deployment of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile-defense system.

The North does not yet have a functioning long-range missile capable of reaching the continental US, regional security analysts say. But they point to a mid-range ballistic missile test in June as evidence of a steadily advancing ability to reach US forces stationed in the region.

Ignoring warnings

So far, Pyongyang has shown no signs of heeding the international community's warnings and punishments. After the United Nations Security Council in March unanimously approved perhaps the toughest set of punitive measures imposed on the North in two decades, the North appeared to ramp up its missile tests.

In August, Pyongyang confirmed what nuclear experts had speculated for months - that it had resumed production of plutonium at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. North Korea had agreed in 2007 to suspend activity there.

After the submarine-based launch, the Security Council called on UN member states to "redouble their efforts" to implement all UN sanctions imposed on the North.

The next president might face a similar urgency to go beyond simply taking note of North Korea's progress in developing destabilizing weapons systems.

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What message North Korea missile launch really sends

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As President Obama awoke in China Monday to the news that North Korea had launched three missiles overnight into the Sea of Japan, perhaps he was inclined to pick up a pen and jot down a little reminder. "Note to successor: Worrisome steady progress on missile systems means ignoring North Korea won't work much longer."