Climate Change Exhibit now at the Field Museum in the Windy City
Depending on your viewpoint, exhibit educates or agitates
29Jul2010
by Shannon Downey
I was invited to the Field Museum, as many press were, for a guided tour of the new Climate Change Exhibit. My guide was Project Manager, Janet Hong. She kindly walked me through the exhibit highlighting points of interest and engaging in some exciting conversation about malaria, the arctic fox, and carbon off-setting.
The exhibit is full, and I mean full, of information. It is content-driven which also means it’s a lot to take in. It is without a doubt geared toward middle schoolers and up simply because it is just so much darn reading.
Is the reading worth it? Absolutely. The exhibit raises interesting points, leaves most of the doomsday approach out, and offers guests a chance to internalize their role in minimizing climate change.
What I also appreciated about the exhibit was its many levels of information. If you are new to exploring climate change, you will be carefully introduced to the basics but should you be AFS readers and already know your stuff, you will still leave the exhibit with new information.
The ‘talk back board’ at the end of the exhibit gives guests an opportunity to comment on the exhibit, the changes they are willing to implement to minimize their impact on the environment, or to whine about the number of summer camps passing through. It was here that I saw a particularly interesting comment that led me to do some additional online research.
I honestly don’t remember the exact wording but it was something alluding to this particular guest’s belief that climate change was not real.
I thought this was really interesting. I love a good debate. I love a conspiracy theorist even more. I got home and hopped online and found the most amazing article I’ve ever read.
Norm Rogers of the Heartland Institute reviewed the exhibit after visiting it not once but twice. The Heartland Institute claims to, “produce an ambitious program of research and educational projects in defense of free-market environmentalism.”
Now I’m not one to give the extreme right any additional attention, but if nothing else inspires you to go support this exhibit, good ole Norm’s take on things should.
Norm Rogers writes, “The blatant effort to propagandize children is one of the most disagreeable aspects of the exhibit. The school children are bombarded with alarmist propaganda and then encouraged to post notes pledging to take actions to stop climate change. Children donʼt have the sophistication to recognize propaganda.”
I know I know, take a minute and gather yourselves. Wipe the laughter tears from your eyes.
This exhibit does in fact encourage children to pledge to take steps to help minimize climate change. Use CFL’s, walk more, get a clotheslines, eat more vegetables, in fact, wow…when you look at it, this is just the sort of propaganda that aims to makes kids healthier and get them outside more. Damn you Field Museum, using your propaganda to make our kids and world healthier!
I imagine there would be nothing more grating to Norm and his buddies than the final portion of the exhibit which is dedicated to educating guests about the Chicago Climate Action Plan.
This wonderful city initiative is an action plan for every Chicagoan to follow so that, collectively, “we can achieve an 80 percent reduction below our 1990 green house gas emissions level by the year 2050 in order to do our part to avoid the worst global impacts of climate change.”
This addition to the exhibit is, in my opinion, a fantastic way to help visitors personalize the message of climate change and learn about city initiatives and city successes.
So, when looking for something scandalous to do this summer, I suggest you head to the Field Museum and explore the highly controversial Climate Change Exhibit then weigh in with your thoughts and opinions. Just be careful not to let the do-gooder propaganda win you over! Next thing you know you’ll be riding your bike to work and bringing your own shopping bags to the grocery store.
Climate Change runs through November 28th.
While you are there, don’t miss the Mammoths and Mastodons Exhibit, now through September 6th. So
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
HP: Realize The Future, McCormick Place, February 25, 2010
CHICAGO Thursday, February 25th, 8:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.McCormick Place South · South Building/MLK Entrance · 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive · Chicago, IL 60616
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Learn about breakthroughs in cloud computing, application modernization, and automation and virtualization that will redirect your
IT investments and transform the business itself. Hear strategies, insights and vision from HP’s executive team to help you Realize the Future.
Tom Hogan
EVP, HP Software & Solutions
Marius Haas
SVP and General Manager, ProCurve Networking
Roderick Walker
VP and General Manager, Business Intelligence Solutions, HP Software and Solutions
Robb Rasmussen
VP and General Manager, Best Shore® Services, HP Enterprise Services
AGENDA
Specifically designed for IT management, this half-day agenda respects busy schedules, offering keynote presentations and your choice of one track session with in-depth discussions around technologies that will change the way we all work.
8:30 a.m.
Registration and continental breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Keynotes:
Creating Advantage Today and Tomorrow
Creating Advantage from Converged Infrastructure
Utilizing Analytics for Better Insight
Delivering Innovation through Applications and Industry Solutions
11:00 a.m.
Break
11:15 a.m.
Track Sessions (one of the following):
Cloud computing. Behind the amorphous language often used to describe cloud computing lies tangible efficiency and flexibility. We will talk about how to build your own private cloud and what you need to know about sourcing services from the public cloud.
Automation and virtualization. With boundaries imposed by physical devices dropping fast, we’ll explore the resulting opportunities to boost IT efficiency, reduce errors, and drastically reduce manual effort, to improve service levels.
Application transformation. A radical departure from legacy application practices, state-of-the-art development and operations — the route to decreased cost, increased agility and reduced risk — will be illuminated.
12:15 p.m.
Conclusion
Presented by HP’s executive team, together we will explore technology advances that will change how IT professionals surpass service levels, trim costs and position their organizations for greater competitiveness.
We look forward to seeing you there.
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Learn about breakthroughs in cloud computing, application modernization, and automation and virtualization that will redirect your
IT investments and transform the business itself. Hear strategies, insights and vision from HP’s executive team to help you Realize the Future.
Tom Hogan
EVP, HP Software & Solutions
Marius Haas
SVP and General Manager, ProCurve Networking
Roderick Walker
VP and General Manager, Business Intelligence Solutions, HP Software and Solutions
Robb Rasmussen
VP and General Manager, Best Shore® Services, HP Enterprise Services
AGENDA
Specifically designed for IT management, this half-day agenda respects busy schedules, offering keynote presentations and your choice of one track session with in-depth discussions around technologies that will change the way we all work.
8:30 a.m.
Registration and continental breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Keynotes:
Creating Advantage Today and Tomorrow
Creating Advantage from Converged Infrastructure
Utilizing Analytics for Better Insight
Delivering Innovation through Applications and Industry Solutions
11:00 a.m.
Break
11:15 a.m.
Track Sessions (one of the following):
Cloud computing. Behind the amorphous language often used to describe cloud computing lies tangible efficiency and flexibility. We will talk about how to build your own private cloud and what you need to know about sourcing services from the public cloud.
Automation and virtualization. With boundaries imposed by physical devices dropping fast, we’ll explore the resulting opportunities to boost IT efficiency, reduce errors, and drastically reduce manual effort, to improve service levels.
Application transformation. A radical departure from legacy application practices, state-of-the-art development and operations — the route to decreased cost, increased agility and reduced risk — will be illuminated.
12:15 p.m.
Conclusion
Presented by HP’s executive team, together we will explore technology advances that will change how IT professionals surpass service levels, trim costs and position their organizations for greater competitiveness.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
NSF: National Solar Observatory -- the World's Largest Solar Telescope
The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope will be the world's flagship facility for the study of magnetic phenomena in the solar atmosphere.
Provided by NSO, Sunspot, New Mexico
Double prominences. SOHO/ESA/NASA [View Larger Image]January 22, 2010
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $298 million cooperative support agreement to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) to build the 4-meter Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST).
"I want to congratulate everyone who has helped make this happen," said Stephen L. Keil, director of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and AURA's principal investigator for ATST. "It should be an exciting next several years as we bring ATST to reality."
ATST will be the largest and most capable solar telescope. No comparable facility exists or is planned. ATST will be the world's flagship facility for the study of magnetic phenomena in the solar atmosphere and will be the first large, ground-based, open-access solar telescope in the United States in more than 40 years.
"This is an exciting opportunity for the NSO to lead the community," said William Smith, president of AURA. "We look forward to achieving a first-rate, cutting-edge facility."
ATST is to be built atop Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii, pending completion of a Conservation District Use Agreement and other permits. Haleakala was selected after considering 72 sites and then narrowing those down to six for additional consideration through on-site testing. Of those six sites, only the Haleakala site met all of ATST's requirements — the least atmospheric blurring, the most annual hours of low sky brightness, the lowest dust levels, and the smallest temperature extremes. The site is next to the existing Mees Solar Observatory that is owned and operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, a principal partner in the project.
Understanding the role of magnetic fields in the outer regions of the Sun is crucial to understanding the solar dynamo, solar variability, and solar activity, including flares and mass ejections, which can significantly affect life on Earth. ATST research will investigate solar variability and its impact on terrestrial climate — the conditions responsible for solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other activities that can impact terrestrial communications and power systems, disrupt satellite communications, and endanger astronauts and air travelers.
ATST's 4-meter primary mirror will feed an advanced array of instruments designed to study the Sun in light ranging from near ultraviolet (350 nm) into the far infrared (28,000 nm, or 28 microns). High-order adaptive optics, pioneered by the NSO and its partners at NSO's Dunn Solar Telescope at Sunspot, New Mexico, will correct blurring of solar images caused by Earth's atmosphere, thus allowing ATST to observe features in the solar atmosphere with unprecedented sharpness, down to structures only a few tens of kilometers in size.
ATST will observe both on the bright solar disk and in the ultra-faint corona. ATST will accurately measure magnetic fields in the ultra-faint corona, which is only a few parts in a million as bright as the solar disk.
Provided by NSO, Sunspot, New Mexico
Double prominences. SOHO/ESA/NASA [View Larger Image]January 22, 2010
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $298 million cooperative support agreement to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) to build the 4-meter Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST).
"I want to congratulate everyone who has helped make this happen," said Stephen L. Keil, director of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and AURA's principal investigator for ATST. "It should be an exciting next several years as we bring ATST to reality."
ATST will be the largest and most capable solar telescope. No comparable facility exists or is planned. ATST will be the world's flagship facility for the study of magnetic phenomena in the solar atmosphere and will be the first large, ground-based, open-access solar telescope in the United States in more than 40 years.
"This is an exciting opportunity for the NSO to lead the community," said William Smith, president of AURA. "We look forward to achieving a first-rate, cutting-edge facility."
ATST is to be built atop Haleakala, Maui, Hawaii, pending completion of a Conservation District Use Agreement and other permits. Haleakala was selected after considering 72 sites and then narrowing those down to six for additional consideration through on-site testing. Of those six sites, only the Haleakala site met all of ATST's requirements — the least atmospheric blurring, the most annual hours of low sky brightness, the lowest dust levels, and the smallest temperature extremes. The site is next to the existing Mees Solar Observatory that is owned and operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, a principal partner in the project.
Understanding the role of magnetic fields in the outer regions of the Sun is crucial to understanding the solar dynamo, solar variability, and solar activity, including flares and mass ejections, which can significantly affect life on Earth. ATST research will investigate solar variability and its impact on terrestrial climate — the conditions responsible for solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other activities that can impact terrestrial communications and power systems, disrupt satellite communications, and endanger astronauts and air travelers.
ATST's 4-meter primary mirror will feed an advanced array of instruments designed to study the Sun in light ranging from near ultraviolet (350 nm) into the far infrared (28,000 nm, or 28 microns). High-order adaptive optics, pioneered by the NSO and its partners at NSO's Dunn Solar Telescope at Sunspot, New Mexico, will correct blurring of solar images caused by Earth's atmosphere, thus allowing ATST to observe features in the solar atmosphere with unprecedented sharpness, down to structures only a few tens of kilometers in size.
ATST will observe both on the bright solar disk and in the ultra-faint corona. ATST will accurately measure magnetic fields in the ultra-faint corona, which is only a few parts in a million as bright as the solar disk.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
IT Roadmap Chicago, March 16, 2010, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center
Network World's IT Roadmap Chicago | March 16, 2010 | Accept this complimentary registration
IT Roadmap Chicago - the ONE day technology conference and expo that comes to you! Register today at no cost!
Now in its fifth year, IT Roadmap surrounds you with:
•Technology’s most-followed analysts
•Your region’s most-experienced network and IT practitioners
•And the industry’s most-innovative solution providers.
IT Roadmap is the one-day conference and expo focused entirely on building your successful roadmap in crucial centers of enterprise IT. Key topic areas include: Security, Cloud & Virtualization, Data Center, Optimization & Management, Convergence & Wireless and more. Sign up and reserve your seat!
Plus! All New Technology Drill-Down Sessions - New for 2010, you’ll have the opportunity to customize your content and delve deeper into the IT topics most important to you.
Create your own afternoon agenda by choosing to attend a variety of technology drilldown session formats:
-Help-me-build-my-business-case!
-Whiteboard tech tutorials
-New Tech Demos
-Strategy-in-action case studies
-Same-day solution clinics.
Register for this complimentary event today at
https://www.eiseverywhere.com/RM10CHI?discountcode=ECHI0114
Share this offer with your colleagues: Forward this to a Friend >>>
Join us at IT Roadmap Chicago, March 16, 2010, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center
View Network World's online privacy policy
Copyright 2010 | Network World | 492 Old Connecticut Path | Framingham MA 01701 | www.networkworld.com
IT Roadmap Chicago - the ONE day technology conference and expo that comes to you! Register today at no cost!
Now in its fifth year, IT Roadmap surrounds you with:
•Technology’s most-followed analysts
•Your region’s most-experienced network and IT practitioners
•And the industry’s most-innovative solution providers.
IT Roadmap is the one-day conference and expo focused entirely on building your successful roadmap in crucial centers of enterprise IT. Key topic areas include: Security, Cloud & Virtualization, Data Center, Optimization & Management, Convergence & Wireless and more. Sign up and reserve your seat!
Plus! All New Technology Drill-Down Sessions - New for 2010, you’ll have the opportunity to customize your content and delve deeper into the IT topics most important to you.
Create your own afternoon agenda by choosing to attend a variety of technology drilldown session formats:
-Help-me-build-my-business-case!
-Whiteboard tech tutorials
-New Tech Demos
-Strategy-in-action case studies
-Same-day solution clinics.
Register for this complimentary event today at
https://www.eiseverywhere.com/RM10CHI?discountcode=ECHI0114
Share this offer with your colleagues: Forward this to a Friend >>>
Join us at IT Roadmap Chicago, March 16, 2010, Donald E. Stephens Convention Center
View Network World's online privacy policy
Copyright 2010 | Network World | 492 Old Connecticut Path | Framingham MA 01701 | www.networkworld.com
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
"Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010"
"Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010"
January 12, 2010
Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010
Download the Forecast for Free!
Information Gatekeepers Inc. (IGI) has just announced the availability of its forecasts for 2010. Every year, Clif Holliday, author of IGI’s Lightwave report series, prepares his view of the most significant events likely to underpin telecommunications for the coming year. While Clif likes to take a somewhat lighthearted approach to this forecast (its title is “Holliday’s Holiday Horoscope,”) his accuracy has been exceptional! He is one of the few New Year’s prognosticators who always precedes his new forecast with a review of the accuracy of last year’s forecast. This gives the reader a sense of how much creditability to put in the forecasts for the coming year.
We are also offering you a similar opportunity to comment on the upcoming 2010 forecasts. Click here to download the Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010 now.
“This year we have some very significant forecasts that could signal the change in many fundamental aspects of our telecommunications business, particularly in regards to Overbuild by major RBOCs. There are important implications in these forecasts to the traditional telephony carriers, the cable TV companies and the equipment manufacturers. We think there is something of significance in them for everybody concerned with telecommunications,” declared Dr. Paul Polishuk, President of IGI.
Mr. Holliday’s highly anticipated forecast is currently available on IGI’s website, in addition to various new Lightwave reports, newsletters, and conferences. The latest being the “Next Generation Carrier’s Network” and the Transformation Series and our comprehensive series of Advanced Access Architecture Reports including Cost, Equipment, Overbuild Strategies, and Bandwidth Requirements, and our just announced series of ROADM reports including “ROADMs from the Core to the Edge” and “Edge R-OADM Revolution.”
IGI is certain that its clients and readers will find these forecasts both fun and of tremendous value. Clif’s accuracy the last few years has been well above 75% in these efforts, so they may be more than just a pleasant diversion, but rather a powerful set of forecasts for 2010.
For more information regarding these forecasts please visit IGI's website or contact IGI below.
Dr. Hui Pan
Information Gatekeepers Inc.
1340 Soldiers Field Road, Suite 2
Boston, MA 02135
Tel: 617-782-5033
Fax: 617-782-5735
hpan@igigroup.com
January 12, 2010
Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010
Download the Forecast for Free!
Information Gatekeepers Inc. (IGI) has just announced the availability of its forecasts for 2010. Every year, Clif Holliday, author of IGI’s Lightwave report series, prepares his view of the most significant events likely to underpin telecommunications for the coming year. While Clif likes to take a somewhat lighthearted approach to this forecast (its title is “Holliday’s Holiday Horoscope,”) his accuracy has been exceptional! He is one of the few New Year’s prognosticators who always precedes his new forecast with a review of the accuracy of last year’s forecast. This gives the reader a sense of how much creditability to put in the forecasts for the coming year.
We are also offering you a similar opportunity to comment on the upcoming 2010 forecasts. Click here to download the Top 10 Telecom Forecasts for 2010 now.
“This year we have some very significant forecasts that could signal the change in many fundamental aspects of our telecommunications business, particularly in regards to Overbuild by major RBOCs. There are important implications in these forecasts to the traditional telephony carriers, the cable TV companies and the equipment manufacturers. We think there is something of significance in them for everybody concerned with telecommunications,” declared Dr. Paul Polishuk, President of IGI.
Mr. Holliday’s highly anticipated forecast is currently available on IGI’s website, in addition to various new Lightwave reports, newsletters, and conferences. The latest being the “Next Generation Carrier’s Network” and the Transformation Series and our comprehensive series of Advanced Access Architecture Reports including Cost, Equipment, Overbuild Strategies, and Bandwidth Requirements, and our just announced series of ROADM reports including “ROADMs from the Core to the Edge” and “Edge R-OADM Revolution.”
IGI is certain that its clients and readers will find these forecasts both fun and of tremendous value. Clif’s accuracy the last few years has been well above 75% in these efforts, so they may be more than just a pleasant diversion, but rather a powerful set of forecasts for 2010.
For more information regarding these forecasts please visit IGI's website or contact IGI below.
Dr. Hui Pan
Information Gatekeepers Inc.
1340 Soldiers Field Road, Suite 2
Boston, MA 02135
Tel: 617-782-5033
Fax: 617-782-5735
hpan@igigroup.com
Friday, August 7, 2009
IBC 2009, RAI Centre, Amsterdam, Holland
MRG is a Media Sponsor of IBC 2009
September 10-15, 2009
RAI Centre, Amsterdam, Holland
IBC is an international forum for the electronic media industry, attracting 49,000+ visitors and 1,300+ exhibitors from more than 130 countries. It combines a highly respected and peer reviewed conference, an exhibition that demonstrates state of the art media technology and unrivalled networking opportunities.
Visitors can expect to learn about the developments which are shaping the industry, interact with the latest technologies, experience world first demonstrations and do business in a professional and supportive environment. IBC is an event for everyone involved in the world of content, creation, management and delivery.
For more information visit: www.ibc.org
September 10-15, 2009
RAI Centre, Amsterdam, Holland
IBC is an international forum for the electronic media industry, attracting 49,000+ visitors and 1,300+ exhibitors from more than 130 countries. It combines a highly respected and peer reviewed conference, an exhibition that demonstrates state of the art media technology and unrivalled networking opportunities.
Visitors can expect to learn about the developments which are shaping the industry, interact with the latest technologies, experience world first demonstrations and do business in a professional and supportive environment. IBC is an event for everyone involved in the world of content, creation, management and delivery.
For more information visit: www.ibc.org
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