Tag Archives: new york

From the Man Who Played God, a Vampire and a Statesman: Don’t quit

By Guest PostNovember 10, 2011Culture, Entertainment1968, academy award for best actor, academy award winning actor, actor, brilliant director, broadway debut, bruce almighty, chubb fellow, clint eastwood, driving miss daisy, fast black, film studies program, glory, god, hello dolly, invictus, jackson state university, james bundy, long walk to freedom, los angeles, lucious fox, million dollar baby, mississippi born actor, morgan freeman, ned logan, nelson mandela, new york, nobel peace prize winning statesman, pbs children show, ron gregg, sergeant major john rawlins, south african leader, street smart, the dark knight, the electric company, the shawshank redemption, unforgiven, us air force, vincent the vegetable vampire, woolsey hall, yale

Woolsey Hall was packed with his fans on Nov. 8 when Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman took the stage for an “Actor’s Studio”-styled interview with Ron Gregg, a senior lecturer and programming director in Yale’s Film Studies Program.

Among those who came out to see the 74-year-old-actor — visiting the campus as a Chubb Fellow —was a 95-year old woman who listened as Freeman described his acting career and his history on television, in theater and in film. When given the opportunity to ask a question, she simply gushed, “Morgan Freeman, I love you. I’ve seen every movie you’ve been in.” She then told him, “I don’t want to show you any disrespect” for being so bold. (more…)

West Nile Virus Transmission Linked with Land-Use Patterns and “Super-spreaders”

By Guest PostOctober 22, 2011Scienceagricultural fields, american robin, atlantic in an airplane, bird hosts, disease causing organisms, ecology of infectious diseases, Environment, house sparrows, human activities, human infections, key species, knowledge, land use, marm kilpatrick, mosquito borne, mosquito vectors, national science foundation, new york, north and south america, nsf, robins, sam scheiner, santa cruz, tick borne viruses, transmission rates, united states, university of california, west nile virus

*Spread highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats*

After its initial appearance in New York in 1999, West Nile virus spread across the United States in just a few years and is now well established throughout North and South America.

Both the mosquitoes that transmit it and the birds that are important hosts for the virus are abundant in areas that have been modified by human activities.

As a result, transmission of West Nile virus is highest in urbanized and agricultural habitats. (more…)

Water Evaporated from Trees Cools Global Climate

By Guest PostSeptember 17, 2011Environmentatmosphere, central park, earth, emissions of carbon dioxide, evaporated water, evaporation, george ban-weiss, global balance of energy, global climate, global warming, govindasamy bala, greenhouse gas, julia pongratz, ken caldeira, new york, vegetation, water, water vapor

Washington, DC — Scientists have long debated about the impact on global climate of water evaporated from vegetation. New research from Carnegie’s Global Ecology department concludes that evaporated water helps cool the earth as a whole, not just the local area of evaporation, demonstrating that evaporation of water from trees and lakes could have a cooling effect on the entire atmosphere. These findings, published September 14 in Environmental Research Letters, have major implications for land-use decision making.

Evaporative cooling is the process by which a local area is cooled by the energy used in the evaporation process, energy that would have otherwise heated the area’s surface. It is well known that the paving over of urban areas and the clearing of forests can contribute to local warming by decreasing local evaporative cooling, but it was not understood whether this decreased evaporation would also contribute to global warming (more…)

Mr. Fusion Helps Students Build a Nuclear Reactor

By Guest PostAugust 18, 2011Science, Technologyalbert babb, brian greene, carl greninger, farnsworth hirsch fusor, garage, glassification of nuclear waste, high end suv, iec 9000, jayce glenn, microsoft employee, microsoft it operations, microsoft research science fair, new york, nuclear reactor, physicist, physics, thermonuclear reactor, united states operates 104 nuclear reactors, voila fusion, x ray machine

*Microsoft employee Carl Greninger helped a team of young students build a working nuclear reactor in his garage. He hopes the project can inspire a passion for physics in students around the country.*

REDMOND, Wash. – Sometimes you have to smash a few atoms to excite people about science.

So says Carl Greninger, a program manager in Microsoft IT Operations by day and full-fledged physics fanatic by night. That’s why he decided to help some young students get hands-on experience with something they couldn’t find in their classrooms: a working thermonuclear reactor.

For the past year, a group of local students – some as young as 13 years old – have met at Greninger’s garage every Friday night to build a type of fusion reactor known as a Farnsworth–Hirsch Fusor. Dubbed IEC-9000, their machine has been fusing atoms and producing neutrons since May. It cost about as much as a high-end SUV, weighs 1,400 pounds, and generates temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun. (more…)

Yahoo! Sports and Gow Broadcasting Hit the Radio Airwaves with Yahoo! Sports Radio

By Guest PostAugust 1, 2011Technologyadrian wojnarowski, Chicago, chris childers, dan wetzel, david gow, digital media company, gow broadcasting, ken fuchs, mike silver, mission media group, national sports radio network, new york, rivals radio, sirius satellite radio, steve czaban, Yahoo, yahoo sports radio

*No. 1 online sports destination announces new relationship with leading sports radio network*

SUNNYVALE, Calif.– Yahoo!, the premier digital media company, and Gow Broadcasting, LLC (formerly Mission Media Group, LLC), today announced the launch of Yahoo! Sports Radio. The new, national sports radio network can be heard on over 180 affiliate radio stations across the country, Sirius Satellite Radio, and a number of digital and mobile partners. This partnership enables Yahoo! Sports — the No. 1 destination for online sports with more than 50 million monthly unique users — to reach its avid fans in the largest local sports markets across the country.

“Yahoo! Sports Radio builds on our leadership as the No. 1 sports site online and creates a national and local outlet for our brand and talent,” said Ken Fuchs, VP Yahoo! Media Network. “As Yahoo! Sports covers the biggest events, stories and athletes on and off the field, our partnership with Gow Broadcasting will provide more access to our users and solutions to our advertising partners that want to connect with them wherever they consume sports.” (more…)

Did Obama’s Election Kill the Antiwar Movement?

By Guest PostApril 6, 2011Politicsafghanistan, americans, anti-obama attitudes, anti-republican, anti-republican sentiments, antiwar movement, antiwar protests, capitol hill, Chicago, congress, critical mass, d c, democratic party, democrats, election, fabio rojas, Iraq, libya, michael heaney, new york, Obama, political system, presidency, pro-war decisions, radical political attitudes, republicans, united states, war, Washington

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Since 2003, the antiwar movement in the United States has had much to protest with Americans fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya, but the movement—which has dropped off sharply the past two years—may be more anti-Republican than antiwar, says a University of Michigan researcher.

A new study by U-M’s Michael Heaney and colleague Fabio Rojas of Indiana University shows that the antiwar movement in the United States demobilized as Democrats, who had been motivated to participate by anti-Republican sentiments, withdrew from antiwar protests when the Democratic Party achieved electoral success, first with Congress in 2006 and then with the presidency in 2008. (more…)

Pollution Triggers Genetic Resistance Mechanism in a Coastal Fish

By Guest PostFebruary 24, 20112 commentsEnvironmentacushnet river estuary, ahr2, amino acids, antibiotics, atlantic tomcod, bacteria, diana franks, Environment, evolutionary change, fish, fish populations, general electric facilities, genetic receptor, genetic resistance, hudson environment, hudson river, insecticides, insects, isaac wirgin, mark hahn, natural selection, new york, pahs, PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, protein, receptor gene, stress factors, superfund basic research, tomcod, toxicity, vertebrate population

For 30 years, two General Electric facilities released about 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into New York’s Hudson River, devastating and contaminating fish populations. Some 50 years later, one type of fish—the Atlantic tomcod—has not only survived but appears to be thriving in the hostile Hudson environment.

Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have joined colleagues from New York University (NYU) and NOAA to investigate this phenomenon and report that the tomcod living in the Hudson River have undergone a rapid evolutionary change in developing a genetic resistance to PCBs. (more…)

IBM Selected to Manage First Phase of New York City’s Data Center Consolidation and Modernization Program

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 20111 commentTechnologybridget van kralingen, citiserv, city, cloud computing, data center, Environment, ibm, modernization program, municipal cloud environments, new york, new yorkers, technology platform, technology solutions

*Project to Streamline IT Infrastructure to Improve Service Delivery, Reduce Energy Consumption and Strengthen Security*

NEW YORK, N.Y. – 31 Jan 2011: IBM today announced that it has been selected by the City of New York to build a more efficient, smarter technology platform for CITIServ, the City’s IT infrastructure modernization program. The goal of the project is to streamline delivery of City services by consolidating and updating outdated and incompatible IT, thereby reducing energy consumption, strengthening security, and providing City workers with faster access to the latest technologies. (more…)