Author: Adam Clare

Stripespotter: A New Tool for Wild Animal Tracking

- Adam Clare

Tracking wild animals can be a difficult task be it tagging or just eyeballing the count. Researchers have adapted barcode reading to non-other than zebras. Now they can easily track zebras based on their individual stripe pattern. Neat!

A team of computer scientists and biologists have developed a barcode-like scanning system called Stripespotter that automatically identifies individual zebras from a single photograph. The system is more accurate than other image-recognition programs and could be used on additional animals with stripes, such as tigers and giraffes.

On top of that, it’s simple to use. Ecologists in the field take pictures of the animals using an everyday digital camera. That image is uploaded to a Stripespotter database. The scientist highlights a portion of the photographed animal, such as its hindquarters, and the program analyzes the pixels in that portion and then assigns a “stripecode” to the animal. When additional images of zebras are uploaded to the database and the hindquarters highlighted, the Stripespotter program compares the stripecode with others in the system. If it finds a match, it provides feedback about why two images of an animal are similar.

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Here’s the project’s page: Stripespotter

Frank Gehry’s Cool New New York Project

- Adam Clare

That crazy architect Frank Gehry has an environmental and socially conscious development going up in New York City. I love it when high-profile people work on projects that are down to earth.

Unsurprisingly, New York by Gehry is not seeking LEED certification, but a spokeswoman informed Inhabitat that the building does have a variety of green features, including low-e windows, Energy Star appliances and greywater filtration. Plus, the building has lots of green/outdoor space.

Probably the biggest surprise to come out of the luxury building is that all 903 apartments will be rent stabilized. Developer Forest City Ratner received Liberty Bonds and city tax breaks for the building, so in return they must keep the apartments rent stabilized for 20 years. Plus, a senior vice president at Ratner told DNAinfo that they are offering one month free rent. But that doesn’t mean they’re cheap — rents still start at market rate, which is $3,580 for a one bedroom.

Read the rest at Inhabitat

Worldviews Conference on Media and Higher Education

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

The Worldviews Conference on Media and Higher Education is happening this June in Toronto and they want people who are interested in discussing the relationship between academia and media to attend. I was invited to a pre-conference brainstorming session recently and I have to say that I’m looking forward to this event.

There are a lot of really good people speaking at the conference so if you’re interested in how the media represents academic findings and how academic institutions relate to media organizations you should conference out.

Higher education affects every aspect of our lives – from the economy and the environment, to culture and communications. While the media play a critical role in shaping public understanding of this institution, little discussion has taken place about how that influence is manifested – or about how, in turn, higher education uses the media to mould how the public perceives it.

But that’s about to change.

Introducing Worldviews: Media Coverage of Higher Education in the 21st Century. This innovative conference, scheduled for June 2011 in Toronto, Canada, will not only examine these issues, but explore why it’s important to do so.

The 2011 inaugural conference will consider a range of important issues, including:

How media coverage of higher education has changed over the past two decades and where it is headed
The impact of social media and how it is changing what is covered and how higher education is understood
The role the media play in influencing public policy debates on public education
How higher education engages with the media to inform public opinion
The different realities of the developing and developed worlds

Visit the conference’s website.

Bookstores are Still Places for Change

- Adam Clare

In Beijing there stands a bookstore that does more than just sell books – it’s bringing more culture and more discourse to the city. Books are an invaluable way to share ideas and as a result bookstores tend to create a culture around them that encourages critical thinking.

However, the Bookworm is more than just a bookshop with a library, bar and restaurant: it’s a hot house of discussion, creativity and ideas in one of the world’s most happening cities.

Its big book-lined rooms, free Wi-Fi, hip music and good food have made it a magnet for expats and young, English-speaking Chinese alike.

But it’s the Bookworm International Literary Festival that has put it on the map for top international authors curious about China: Americans Dave Eggers and David Sedaris were here for events in January. This month, Toronto’s Emma Donoghue and 70 other writers from 19 different countries celebrated the festival’s fifth year, which wraps up Friday.

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Floating Solar Power Plants

- Adam Clare 2 Comments

Solar panels have to endure a lot of temperature variations be it from bright sun to cloud to rain so the panels need to be rather durable. Some smart people have figured a way to keep the ambient temperature of the solar array low b placing the panels over water.

The floating solar power units, called Liquid Solar Arrays (LSA), use concentrated photovoltaic technology where a lenses direct the light onto solar cells and move throughout the day to follow the sun.

The company says the advantage to floating a solar power plant is that it erases the need for expensive structures to protect it from inclement weather and high winds — when rough weather comes along, the lenses just submerge. Floating on water, whether it be the ocean, a lake or a tiny pond, also keeps the solar cells cool, which increases their efficiency and lifespan

Read the rest here

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