Tag Archives: models

The Perfect Green Grad Gift: A Refurbished Laptop

by HaleyJ22hfomjh Posted on May 7, 2018

Shares

The fateful day finally arrived. My trusty computer bit the dust.

As a college student with limited funds, I didn’t really have the option to buy a brand-new computer. I needed a computer powerful enough to run photo and video editing software that wouldn’t completely deplete my bank account.

My only real alternative was to buy refurbished. So that’s what I did. Since then, I’ve been a big advocate of buying refurbished computers. In fact, I’m typing this on a refurbished one that has served me well for more than three years.

If you’re looking to give your grad a computer as a gift, a refurbished one is a great choice.

3 Tips on Picking Out a Refurbished Computer

Having purchased a couple of refurbished computers, I can offer a few tips to make the process a little easier.

1. New vs. Refurbished vs. Used

A new computer is just that, brand new, never been used. Though the two are commonly confused, a refurbished computer is not the same thing as a used computer.

A used computer is typically one that someone else owned and is selling directly to you. There is no warranty or certification. The computer comes as is.

A refurbished computer falls somewhere in between new and used. It commonly originates from one of the following categories:

Demonstration models
Slightly damaged computers
Returned computers that weren’t used
Overstock/unsold models that are being replaced

Computers that have been lightly used are wiped and tested to ensure complete working condition before they are sold as refurbished models.

Computers that get damaged in shipping or have any cosmetic issues are often returned to the manufacturer, then repaired, tested and sold as refurbished models.

When purchased from a reputable dealer or the original manufacturer, refurbished computers are usually certified and must pass strict testing. They also often come with a warranty. Refurbished computers are sold at a discount compared with new computers.

2. Buying from the Manufacturer vs. a Third Party

There can be some benefits to buying a refurbished computer directly from the manufacturer. Their refurbished computers are required to pass strict testing to ensure they are in complete working order. In some instances, the testing is more stringent than what a new computer must pass.

Refurbished computers purchased from the manufacturer nearly always come with a warranty. Also, the manufacturer’s technicians work on the same computer models every day. They know which issues are most common and are probably quite proficient at making all the repairs quickly and without mistake.

Third-party refurbishers and sellers can also be a great source for a refurbished computer. These are companies that buy lightly used or slightly damaged computers and get them back into working order. They typically have their own certification process and require their computers to pass testing to ensure they work as well as new computers. They also often provide a short-term warranty.

I’ve had good experience purchasing refurbished computers from the manufacturer and from third-party sellers. What it really comes down to for me is who has the computer I’m looking for in stock.

3. How Will Your Grad Use the Computer?

Before you purchase a refurbished computer for your grad, you may want to pause and consider how he or she will use the computer.

If it will be used mainly to write papers, browse the internet and send email, then you don’t need a computer with a lot of power. In this case, I think a refurbished computer is perfect.

Typically, refurbished computers aren’t the latest model. Often they are a model or two behind what’s currently on shelves, so they won’t have the latest graphics card or most powerful CPU.

However, if your grad is going into graphic design, film or engineering, look for a machine with a bit more power. This doesn’t mean you can’t purchase a refurbished computer — you just need to do more research and be more selective to ensure the computer will meet their needs.

When you’re on a budget, a refurbished computer is a great way to go. I highly recommend purchasing refurbished over new.

Of course, if you’re getting a refurbished computer to replace an old model, make sure you recycle or donate your old computer.

You Might Also Like…

Solutions to Computer Recycling Roadblocks

Recycling computers is a win-win situation — you get rid …Haley ShapleyNovember 24, 2015

Help a Family in Need: Recycle Your Computer

This season, many people will unwrap beautifully packaged presents to …Haley ShapleyDecember 18, 2014

Discarded Computers Find New Purpose

When the Dell Reconnect program was preparing to exhibit …Haley ShapleySeptember 17, 2014

The Perfect Green Grad Gift: A Refurbished Laptop

The fateful day finally arrived. My trusty computer bit the …Brian BrassawMay 7, 2018

LEGO Commits to Sustainable Packaging

LEGO bricks have been around for nearly 80 years and …Lauren MurphyMay 7, 2018

Recycling Mystery: Silicone Bracelets

Ah, the colored wristband, the go-to fashion accessory of the …Trey GrangerMay 4, 2018

earth911

This article is from: 

The Perfect Green Grad Gift: A Refurbished Laptop

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, PUR, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Perfect Green Grad Gift: A Refurbished Laptop

Let’s Cut the Crap About Why Hillary Clinton Lost

by BOYSamanth Posted on June 2, 2017

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The latest thing for the caterwauling classes to caterwaul about is Hillary Clinton’s recent interview with ReCode. Basically, she said that the big reasons she lost the election were Russia, the Comey letter, and the media’s infatuation with her email server. Everyone is outraged that she refuses to admit that she herself made gigantic mistakes that led to her loss.

Bah. Let’s run the tape:

Hillary Clinton was running for a third Democratic term with an OK but not great economy. Most models predicted a roughly 50-50 race.
In the end, despite everything, she still outperformed the models and won the popular vote by 2 percent.
The Comey letter cost her 2-3 percent, and the other stuff probably cost her another couple of points. Without those things, she wins in a landslide and cruises into the White House.

So she’s right. I guess everyone wants her to be the captain going down with her ship, but that’s stupid. She accurately described why she lost. Why shouldn’t she?

But still, what about all the stuff she screwed up? There wasn’t that much, really, but sure, there are a few things:

The Goldman Sachs speeches were dumb.
The private email server was dumb.
The “deplorables” comment was dumb

But look: no candidate is perfect and every campaign has stuff like that. It comes with the territory. And despite all that, Clinton had a comfortable 7-point lead by the end of September. Those things couldn’t have been the reason for her loss since they were all well known by then. After that, she crushed Trump in all three debates and was all set to win.

So why didn’t she? The answer is pretty simple: despite running a pretty good campaign, she got walloped by things that decidedly don’t come with the territory: Russian interference via the WikiLeaks drip; an indefensible letter released by the FBI director; and a press corps that treated the Comey letter like the OJ trial. She got slammed late in the game, and had no time to recover.

That’s just what happened. Denying that reality because we like losers to wear hair shirts is dumb.

Now, there is one thing I’m still curious about: did her data analytics team blow it in the (now) infamous states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania? In most recent campaigns, there’s at least one embedded reporter who promises to embargo everything until after the election, and then gives us the inside dope when it’s all over. But I guess Clinton didn’t allow that, so we don’t really have an inside view. Supposedly, though, internal polling is far more accurate than the stuff we plebs see, and it should have alerted her that something was going on in her firewall states.

Did the analytics fail? Or did they work just fine, but she ignored them? To this day, does anyone know?

Original article: 

Let’s Cut the Crap About Why Hillary Clinton Lost

Posted in Everyone, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Let’s Cut the Crap About Why Hillary Clinton Lost

Donald Trump’s Modeling Agency Is on the Verge of Collapse, Say Industry Insiders

by CarrieGottshall Posted on April 5, 2017

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Donald Trump’s presidency hasn’t been good for one of his favorite businesses. The president’s modeling agency has been losing models and senior staff in recent months amid a growing backlash over his toxic politics. And the problems at Trump Model Management appear to be escalating. In interviews with Mother Jones, three industry insiders said they believe the agency could be forced to close.

The sources—two model bookers who have worked with Trump Models and another person with deep ties to the agency—attributed the firm’s sudden tailspin to the controversial president himself. The once glamorous Trump brand, they said, now appears to be tainted.

“Yeah, it’s closing,” said Virginie Deren, a model booker at the top Paris firm Premium, which co-represents a handful of models with Trump Model Management. Deren said she was given this information by a Trump booker. “It’s surprising that it’s come to that point,” she added. “It’s rough.”

Trump executives didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment for this story, but employees of the agency said this week that business is continuing as normal.

Deren said she didn’t know the precise timing of the potential closure or what might happen next for models at the agency. “For now, they haven’t really told us anything,” she said. “Of course, it’s going to take time.”

“That’s definitely happening,” said a second modeling agent who has also worked with Trump models, when asked about the potential closure. This source added that Trump staffers have approached the source’s own company looking for work. “They’re all pretty much sort of scrambling to get out,” said the source, who spoke anonymously to protect the firm where the source works. “We’ve met quite a few who’ve expressed the dismay this is happening, and their only goal is to find a new place.”

A third source—who has close ties to Trump Models—agreed that the situation at the agency is dire and that closing is a real possibility. This source requested anonymity to protect against the possibility of future legal action by the agency.

Corinne Nicolas, president of Trump Model Management, did not respond to questions from Mother Jones. Ronald Lieberman, a vice president at the Trump Organization who has previously responded to press queries about Trump Models, also did not respond to questions about the state of the modeling business. No one answered several calls to the company’s main phone line Wednesday.

Asked about the claims that the agency could soon close its doors, Michael Wildes—a New York attorney who has worked extensively with the agency, as well as with Melania Trump—told Mother Jones, “I’ve been privy to conversations, but I’m not permitted to share anything.”

Still, employees at Trump Models say their work is continuing as normal. Reached on her cellphone Tuesday, Helene Marengo, who works in the agency’s accounts department, said she was unaware of any plans to close her company. “I’m still working. I’m in my office right now, working like normal,” she said. “I have no knowledge of anything happening. As of right now, it’s business as usual.”

A woman who answered the door at the company’s Manhattan office Wednesday said that “of course” the agency remained open for new business.

Last summer, Mother Jones interviewed several foreign-born models who alleged they had worked illegally in the United States with Trump’s agency—a report that was particularly striking in light of Trump’s hawkish stance on illegal immigration. Four former Trump models told Mother Jones they worked for the agency without work visas; one said she worked for the agency for four years without a visa. Records in a lawsuit filed against Trump Model Management by a fifth former model, Alexia Palmer, indicated that she, too, worked for the company without work authorization. (The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.)

Read Mother Jones’ original Trump Models investigation here.

Deren, the Paris booker, said agencies have recently suffered from a general downturn in the modeling business in both Paris and New York. But, she added, the problems at Trump Model Management have more to do with “the political situation”—that is, with Trump.

Since Trump’s campaign, models and their bookers have become increasingly uneasy about working with the president’s agency, said Brandon Hall, the creative director of Sutherland Models, a Toronto agency. He has co-represented roughly 10 models with Trump’s agency over the years and said he currently has about four or five models in common with the company. (Successful fashion models typically have several agents representing them in different markets around the world to book local gigs.) “I would probably be a little reluctant” to work with Trump’s agency, Hall said—adding that models themselves might be even more reluctant to sign with Trump.

One model Hall represented recently didn’t want to meet with Trump’s agents in New York, he said. “It’s just sort of what has transpired because of the election and what has arisen from that,” he said, attempting to explain the apparent aversion to Trump’s agency in the modeling world. “I’m sure he’s gained in some ways and is suffering in others. And I think in the entertainment industry and the fashion industry, among actresses, models, he’s not well liked.”

According to his most recent financial disclosures, Trump owns an 85 percent stake in the agency. He earned nearly $2 million in commissions from it in 2015. But since the election, the modeling firm he founded in 1999 has suffered from a series of staff defections, including longtime Trump agent Duane Gazi-White, who traveled the globe scouting new modeling talent at pageants and Miss Teen USA contests. He recently went to work for a Trump competitor, New York Models, as director of new faces and development. (Gazi-White did not respond to requests for comment.)

Another Trump agent, Gabriel Ruas Santos-Rocha, recently left Trump Models to set up a new modeling firm called Anti Management, which launched last month. “I did not start an agency with the intent of taking someone out of business,” Santos-Rocha told the Washington Post this week. “Outside of that I have no comments.” (Rocha wouldn’t comment for this story.)

Rocha told Refinery29, the fashion news site, that Trump models were finding it tough to stay with the company because of Trump’s brand. “The people who got the worst of it were the models; they’d arrive on set and people would say, ‘Oooh, you’re from Trump Models? How dare you,’ or ‘Why are you still with them?'” Rocha said, according to the article. “They were constantly harassed by employees on shoots, especially by other models.” Refinery29 first reported that a possible boycott among industry stylists and photographers was being discussed in early February.

Then there are the models. Katie Moore, a breakout star from New York’s Fashion Week in February 2016, and a rising talent in the modeling world, is preparing to leave Trump’s firm in search of new representation, according to Tabitha Garcia, her Texas-based agent. Garcia told Mother Jones that too many Trump agents were leaving the agency for Moore to continue her career there—the situation had become untenable. “Most of Katie’s agents have moved on to other agencies and we are exploring those options for her right now,” Garcia wrote in an email. “An agent really makes the model…That is why it is sad to have this happen.”

“I will be flying to NYC next week to meet with agencies with Katie to continue her career at another agency,” Garcia added. “The staff at Trump have been nothing but kind and amazing along our journey and I am sad that we had to make this hard decision.”

A post shared by Katie Moore (@katherineann.moore) on Apr 3, 2017 at 4:25pm PDT

Katie Moore’s Texas-based agent confirmed the star Trump model is seeking new representation.

Other top Trump models have also fled the agency. Shirley Mallmann signed on with Anti. Veteran supermodel Maggie Rizer blamed Trump’s politics when she exited the company on the eve of the November election. “As a woman, a mother, an American and a human being, I cannot wake up Wednesday morning being the least bit related to the Trump brand,” Rizer wrote on Instagram.

Trump Model Management might be a small part of the president’s business empire, but it did seem to be particularly close to his heart. It augmented his brand as a playboy, and he enjoyed cross-pollinating his other businesses with Trump models. He personally signed talent directly from his Miss Universe and Miss USA competitions. And Trump Models appeared on his reality show, The Apprentice. Melania Trump was once represented by the agency.

At the agency’s launch party in 1998, Trump issued a promise about the company, as described by New York Magazine. Flanked by his business partner and the supermodel Daniela Pestova, Trump rose for a toast. “To the richest agency,” he declared. Now that agency could become the first piece of his business empire to fall victim to his polarizing presidency.

Read this article:  

Donald Trump’s Modeling Agency Is on the Verge of Collapse, Say Industry Insiders

Posted in alo, FF, GE, LAI, LG, Mop, ONA, Radius, Ultima, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Donald Trump’s Modeling Agency Is on the Verge of Collapse, Say Industry Insiders

New Study Suggests Police Shoot Whites More Frequently Than Blacks

by Elyse Corder Posted on July 11, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

In a new paper using an interesting approach, Roland Fryer finds that police officers treat blacks and Hispanics more roughly than whites, but they don’t shoot them any more frequently:

The results obtained using these data are informative and, in some cases, startling. Using data on NYC’s Stop and Frisk program, we demonstrate that on non-lethal uses of force — putting hands on civilians (which includes slapping or grabbing) or pushing individuals into a wall or onto the ground, there are large racial differences. In the raw data, blacks and Hispanics are more than fifty percent more likely to have an interaction with police which involves any use of force.

In stark contrast to non-lethal uses of force, we find no racial differences in officer-involved shootings on either the extensive or intensive margins. Using data from Houston, Texas — where we have both officer-involved shootings and a randomly chosen set of potential interactions with police where lethal force may have been justified — we find, in the raw data, that blacks are 23.8 percent less likely to be shot at by police relative to whites. Hispanics are 8.5 percent less likely.

Analyzing data from cities in California, Texas, and Florida, Fryer found that lethal force was used more often against whites than blacks.1This is from the New York Times:

In officer-involved shootings in these cities, officers were more likely to fire their weapons without having first been attacked when the suspects were white. Black and white civilians involved in police shootings were equally likely to have been carrying a weapon. Both of these results undercut the idea that the police wield lethal force with racial bias.

….A more fundamental question still remained: In the tense moments when a shooting may occur, are police officers more likely to fire if the suspect is black?

To answer this question, Mr. Fryer focused on one city, Houston. The Police Department there allowed the researchers to look at reports not only for shootings but also for arrests when lethal force might have been justified. Mr. Fryer defined this group to include suspects the police charged with serious offenses like attempting to murder an officer, or evading or resisting arrest. He also considered suspects shocked with Tasers.

And in the arena of “shoot” or “don’t shoot,” Mr. Fryer found that, in tense situations, officers in Houston were about 20 percent less likely to shoot a suspect if the suspect was black. This estimate was not very precise, and firmer conclusions would require more data. But, in a variety of models that controlled for different factors and used different definitions of tense situations, Mr. Fryer found that blacks were either less likely to be shot or there was no difference between blacks and whites.

Fryer calls this “the most surprising result of my career.” Needless to say, it’s based on limited data and a new way of looking at police shootings, so Fryer’s results should be considered tentative. And it’s worth keeping in mind that lesser uses of force are far more common in encounters with blacks than whites:

“Who the hell wants to have a police officer put their hand on them or yell and scream at them? It’s an awful experience,” he said. “I’ve had it multiple, multiple times. Every black man I know has had this experience. Every one of them. It is hard to believe that the world is your oyster if the police can rough you up without punishment. And when I talked to minority youth, almost every single one of them mentions lower level uses of force as the reason why they believe the world is corrupt.”

Food for thought. Fryer is a careful and high respected researcher, and he was motivated to conduct this study by the events in Ferguson a couple of years ago. Both of his conclusions are worth taking seriously.

1The results weren’t statistically significant, so technically Fryer’s conclusion is that there’s no difference between the shooting rate of whites and blacks.

See more here: 

New Study Suggests Police Shoot Whites More Frequently Than Blacks

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New Study Suggests Police Shoot Whites More Frequently Than Blacks

Greenland is melting way ahead of schedule

by AntwanLeslie874 Posted on April 13, 2016

Greenland is melting way ahead of schedule

By on 13 Apr 2016comments

Cross-posted from

Climate CentralShare

To say the 2016 Greenland melt season is off to the races is an understatement.

Warm, wet conditions rapidly kicked off the melt season this weekend, more than a month-and-a-half ahead of schedule. It has easily set a record for earliest melt season onset, and marks the first time it’s begun in April.

Maps show the current melt area centered around southwest Greenland. The graph shows the current melt season in blue and the average in black.

Polar Portal

Little to no melt through winter is the norm as sub-zero temperatures keep Greenland’s massive ice sheet, well, on ice. Warm weather usually kicks off the melt season in late May or early June, but this year is a bit different.

Record warm temperatures coupled with heavy rain mostly sparked 12 percent of the ice sheet to go into meltdown mode (hat tip to Climate Home’s Megan Darby). Almost all the melt is currently centered around southwest Greenland.

According to Polar Portal, which monitors all things ice-related in the Arctic, melt season kicks off when 10 percent of the ice sheet experiences surface melt. The previous record for earliest start was May 5, 2010.

This April kickoff is so bizarrely early, scientists who study the ice sheet checked their analysis to make sure something wasn’t amiss before making the announcement.

“We had to check that our models were still working properly,” Peter Langen, a climate scientist at the Denmark Meteorological Institute (DMI), told the Polar Portal.

But alas, the models are definitely working and weather data and stories coming out of West Greenland have borne that out. According to DMI, temperatures at Kangerlussuaq, a small village in southwest Greenland, set an April record for that location when they reached 64.4 degrees F (17.8 degrees C) on Monday. That’s just a scant .4 degrees F (.2 degrees C) off the all-time Greenland high for April. Heavy rains have also inundated local communities.

The summit of the Greenland ice sheet has also been record warm. On Tuesday, it reached 20.3 degrees F (-6.5 degrees C) which while obviously below freezing, is still record mild for this time of year and is roughly 40 degrees F above normal. And the warmth isn’t over yet.

Temperatures could reach as high as 57 degrees F above normal this week. It’s distinctly possible more temperatures records could fall before the week is out.

Temperatures anomalies for Wednesday afternoon forecast by the Euro model. In Greenland, the temperature could reach as high as 57 degrees F above normal.

Weatherbell

And while normal temperatures are expected to return, the impacts of this warm stretch will remain with the ice sheet. Energy of all that melting ice is expected to wend its way a bit deeper into the ice pack, making it easier for continued melt later in the season.

The Greenland ice sheet represents one of the most massive stores of ice on the planet. If it were all to melt, it would raise oceans about 20 feet. Melting ice is also affecting ocean circulation and even the drift of the North Pole.

Climate change has been cutting into Greenland’s icy reserves, with warm air and water temperatures leading to the loss of millions of tons of ice each year. Dust and soot from forest fires in Canada and Siberia have also expedited the ice sheet’s melt.

But how this melt season progresses depends a lot on the weather. Last year, a cool spring kept Greenland mostly solid before a summer heat wave led to a rapid meltdown of the ice sheet. And in July 2012, a record-setting 95 percent of the ice sheet experienced surface melting due to high temperatures and soot from wildfires in Siberia.

It remains to be seen how the weather plays out in the coming months. But regardless of this year’s weather, it’s increasingly clear the planet’s ice is in for a rough ride. By 2100 the entire Greenland ice sheet could experience melting every year if temperatures continue to rise.

Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.

Get Grist in your inbox

More:

Greenland is melting way ahead of schedule

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, Jason, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Greenland is melting way ahead of schedule

The Feds Just Accused Volkswagen of an Unbelievable Scheme to Evade Pollution Laws

by SamualKaufman Posted on September 18, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Volkswagen produced hundreds of thousands of cars with a device made to intentionally evade air pollution standards, according to a citation issued today by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA alleges that nearly 500,000 VW cars sold in the United States over the last several years were equipped with the device, which the EPA says enabled the onboard computer to detect when the car was undergoing an emissions test. At that time, the engine would operate in a way that complied with emissions standards; at all other times, the car would produce emissions of harmful gases up to 40 times greater than allowed by federal law. The primary gas in question is nitrogen oxide, which causes smog, which is a leading cause of respiratory ailments.

This table from the citation lists the models that were allegedly outfitted with the illegal device. All of the cars in question had diesel engines:

EPA

The EPA cites a 2014 study by the International Council on Clean Transportation that found a troubling gap between real-world and laboratory emissions in some diesel cars, without naming specific manufacturers.

“When you test it in the lab, they looked great,” said Anup Thiruvengadam, one of the study’s authors. “But when you actually drive them around, emissions were much higher.”

The citation issued today lifted the curtain on the specific cars in question and delineates the federal laws VW is accused of violating. The EPA is continuing to investigate the charges and has passed the citation to the Justice Department, where it will be up to federal prosecutors to prove the charges. Volkswagen could be compelled to fix all the cars and pay up to $3,750 per car (roughly $18 billion altogether) in fines.

In a statement, a Volkswagen spokesperson said the company was cooperating with the investigation but declined to comment further.

From:

The Feds Just Accused Volkswagen of an Unbelievable Scheme to Evade Pollution Laws

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, Green Light, LG, ONA, Oster, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Feds Just Accused Volkswagen of an Unbelievable Scheme to Evade Pollution Laws

Here, China — let this algorithm tell you how to control your pollution

by MarlaTranter Posted on August 31, 2015

The Desolation of Smog

Here, China — let this algorithm tell you how to control your pollution

By on 31 Aug 2015commentsShare

For those of you who aren’t constantly plundering the trenches of Meteorology Monthly* for the latest weather models, the general badassery of predicting the evolution of massively complex meteorological and climatic systems can perhaps slip your mind. (I assume.) If so, you’re in luck: Grist is here for you in a way that Meteorology Monthly never will be.** In a move that has artificial-intelligence and machine-learning enthusiasts tapping their keyboards slightly more rambunctiously than baseline, IBM has entered the air-systems prediction space — but not with respect to the weather. Instead, the computing giant has aimed its algorithmic cannons at China’s air quality.

By sampling data from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau and combining several existing air-quality models, the research group hopes to build a high-resolution model of Beijing’s pollution levels. Advanced statistical techniques mine the troves of data for predictive insights that would otherwise get lost in the smog.

You might be thinking to yourself, OK, ozone cowboy, what can IBM actually do with an air-quality model? To which this sleep-deprived reporter responds, How did you know my AIM screen name? And to answer your question, quite a lot.

MIT Technology Review spoke with one of the research group’s leaders:

“We have built a prototype system which is able to generate high-resolution air quality forecasts, 72 hours ahead of time,” says Xiaowei Shen, director of IBM Research China. “Our researchers are currently expanding the capability of the system to provide medium- and long-term (up to 10 days ahead) as well as pollutant source tracking, ‘what-if’ scenario analysis, and decision support on emission reduction actions.”

The project, dubbed Green Horizon, is an example of how broadly IBM hopes to apply its research on using advanced machine learning to extract insights from huge amounts of data—something the company calls “cognitive computing.” The project also highlights an application of the technology that IBM would like to export to other countries where pollution is a growing problem.

Machine learning is more or less statistical inference on steroids. The artificial intelligence per se enters the picture in the “decision support” arena. It’s one thing to build a predictive model of air quality, but quite another to build a reactive model: one that can suggest actions the city could take to reduce daily air pollution in a localized, preemptive manner to respond to public health concerns. These actions could include “closing certain factories or temporarily restricting the number of drivers on the road,” writes MIT Technology Review.

The models (and accompanying predictions), which have a resolution close to a kilometer, are likely the most precise predictive pollution models in existence. Of course, it’s a niche field, but it’s a field that promises to expand as smokestacks continue to pump those delicious particulates into the atmosphere. IBM is already developing another version of the software in Hebei province, home to China’s most polluted city.

* Unfortunately/fortunately, not a thing.

** Insofar as it’s still not a real magazine.

Source:

How Artificial Intelligence Can Fight Air Pollution in China

, MIT Technology Review.

Share

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get Grist in your inbox

Originally from: 

Here, China — let this algorithm tell you how to control your pollution

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Here, China — let this algorithm tell you how to control your pollution

California is figuring out the whole drought thing for the rest of us

by ChristaGoodlet Posted on June 22, 2015

Looking on the Blight Side of Things

California is figuring out the whole drought thing for the rest of us

By on 22 Jun 2015 2:48 pmcommentsShare

California drought,yadda yadda yadda. You’ve probably heard it all by now — water rights debates, evil almonds, lawn hate — but that overexposure could be a boon for the rest of the world, where drought is forecast to be a serious and growing problem as the climate warms. Here’s the gist, from Wired:

[B]eyond the lack of rain and decades of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad water policies, California has some of the best resources for setting things right. Resources like its $2.2 trillion GDP, its water-hawk governor, or the brains at Cal Tech’s Resnick Institute in Pasadena. (The institute, it should be noted, was funded with money from megafarmer Stewart Resnick, who has been the center of other water controversies.) . The institute, which focuses on scientific and technological fixes for energy, water, and other sustainability issues, is crafting a three-part plan to alleviate the drought. The goal, says director Neil Fromer, isn’t to solve the drought. “But if we can develop a system that is much more resilient to these kinds of weather systems, that can be valuable to people all over the world.”

Broadly, the Resnick group will explore three areas:
1. Technology to catch and recover water that is currently lost.
2. Sensors to gather better intelligence on how much water is available.
3. Models to put this intelligence to use for water management.

Basically, 1) a lot of the rain that falls on California runs straight off into the sea. The infrastructure and tech for capturing this rain and routing it into the watersupply should be fairly straightforward — but so far doesn’t really exist.

“Los Angeles, for instance, gets a decent amount of rainfall and most of that goes into the ocean,” Fromer says. Building stormwater capture and treatment facilities isn’t hard, but there’s no way to plug them into the system.

2) Our water system is incredibly old, while sensor technology has gotten good and cheap enough to help plug leaks and track usage — neither of which the state does at the moment.

Last summer a pipe burst under L.A.’s Sunset Boulevard and spilled at least 20 million gallons of water … to the best of anyone’s knowledge. City officials have no clue how long the pipe had been leaking before it burst. Municipal sensors could track flow in real time, along with water quality

And for No. 3), cities could get proactive with all that sensor data:

With the right data, engineers can write algorithms that predict use and plug up waste. For example, a model could track L.A.’s water usage by the minute, and by measuring those rates against averages could detect spikes indicating underground leaks. And because the sensors would be distributed, engineers could quickly pinpoint the leak’s location.

If that all sounds somewhat basic to you, it’s because our water infrastructure — not unlike the electrical grid — is pretty outdated to begin with. But we’re all about silver linings here at Grist. If the disaster that is California’s ongoing drought can show the rest of us a little light, let’s do ourselves a favor and pay attention now … including what NOT to do.

Source:
DEAR WORLD: HERE ARE SOME DROUGHT FIXES. LOVE, CALIFORNIA

, Wired.

Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get Grist in your inbox

Read more:  

California is figuring out the whole drought thing for the rest of us

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, green energy, LG, ONA, Radius, solar, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on California is figuring out the whole drought thing for the rest of us

Shocking video footage shows scientists having feelings

by AntwanKingsmill Posted on March 16, 2015

Shocking video footage shows scientists having feelings

By on 16 Mar 2015commentsShare

Inside every scientist, there’s a thinking, feeling human being, who experience a full range of emotions — happiness, sadness, worry, fear, weird midnight cravings for junk food. And, as it turns out, the human beings inside climate scientists have a lot of feelings. (re: the fate of humanity.)

You can see some of those feelings first-hand at the More Than Scientists Project, home to more than 200 short videos of climate scientists confessing that they do, in fact, have emotions:

[…] We aren’t just scientists inside labs and academia. We are people like you, with hopes and dreams and loved ones. We are mothers, fathers, farmers, fishermen, hikers, hunters, …

… And we’re concerned.

The site is the brainchild of the Climate Change Education Project, a Seattle-based nonprofit. Most of the scientists currently featured are from the University of Washington, MIT, or Harvard, but scientists anywhere are welcome to contribute their own videos.

They all have something unique to say, because, well, each one is a unique individual (mission accomplished, More Than Scientists Project!). Some talk about what inspired them to go into climate science; others talk about how concerned they are for their children’s futures; many touch on their frustration with the false debate over climate change; one dude talked about home brewing, and how he worries about the effects climate change will have on our ability to grow hops (he’s a grad student, obviously).

Here’s a sample:

Dargan Frierson, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, spoke about a hurricane that devastated his home state of North Carolina back in 1999:

That was something that really changed the way I thought about the power of the weather. I just didn’t want to see more of that stuff happening to people, you know? It was kind of traumatic. [I] saw images on the news from just around where I was going to school of farm animals – just thousands of farm animals – that had been drowned in that storm. It was really disturbing to see, you know, what kind of damage can be done by the earth around us, and we know that there are gonna be worse and stronger hurricanes with climate change.

Ana Ordóñez, a graduate student in the University of Washington’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, kept it pretty real:

I know for a lot of people, when you first really start thinking about climate change and what a big issue it is, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. If you don’t, that’s great. I wish I could feel that way a lot of the time.

Josh Lawler, an associate professor in the University of Washington’s School of Forest Resources, spoke more broadly about the bleak future we’re in for if we don’t adequately address climate change:

I’m afraid that if we don’t do anything, we’re going to see some pretty uncomfortable changes, and it’s gonna be far worse in some places in the world than others. I mean, there are gonna be food shortages and there are gonna be mass migrations and there are gonna be large disasters […], and all those things will affect our economies, and they’ll effect health — human health. So I think the picture that’s painted – that the scientists paint and that the models paint — if we don’t do anything now, if we don’t curb our emissions quickly, and if we don’t sequester carbon, [is] pretty grim. Humans will survive, and most of the natural world will survive in some state or another, but I think it’ll be a bad time for people.

Yikes.

The website’s worth a look. The videos range from 20 seconds to about two minutes long, and they all give a pretty candid look at who these people are, why they do what they do, and how they’re feeling about the future. (Um, in short, not great.)

Source:
“More Than Scientists” seeks to show human side of climate experts.

, The Daily Climate.

Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get stories like this in your inbox

AdvertisementAdvertisement

Original post – 

Shocking video footage shows scientists having feelings

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Pines, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Shocking video footage shows scientists having feelings

Get ready for another extremely cold winter starting NOW

by Unacoomt Posted on November 5, 2014

Get ready for another extremely cold winter starting NOW

By

5 Nov 2014 6:01 PM

Share

Share

Get ready for another extremely cold winter starting NOW

×

If you didn’t experience last year’s polar vortex, let me offer a brief ode to The Great Northern Indiana Winter 2013-14: One morning, I woke up to a thermostat reading 36 degrees INSIDE THE HOUSE. It is because I endured you, Winter of 13-14, that I can consider myself a serious BAMF.

Climate change likely contributed to the cold weather carnage that swept the Midwest and eastern parts of the U.S. last winter. And this year, it looks like we’re not going to get a break. Here’s Slate’s Eric Holthaus with some cold comfort:

Over the last few weeks, seasonal climate models have shifted more and more toward the idea that this winter will be a doozy. Now that we’re within shorter range, the odds of recurring cold snaps — at least for the rest of November — are increasingly certain. Over the last few days, shorter-term weather models have locked on to the growing likelihood that — for the Eastern United States, at least — winter starts now.

Now? As in, now-now? Like, early-November-not-even-Thanksgiving-yet, now? C’mon Holthaus, you’re makin’ us noyvous. But according to meteorologists, there’s a super-typhoon set to hit Bering Sea on Saturday that is expected to hasten winter’s coming on the East Coast — and bring well-below freezing temps to the Midwest. Here’s a map of what you can look forward to next week:

It’s not just the cold that’s getting out of control; the west was hit with unprecedented warmth this year — not to mention California’s continuing drought from hell. We know we’re starting to sound like scratched vinyl here, but climate change exacerbates extreme weather. In fact, according to a Stanford study, climate change makes extreme temperatures at least three times more likely. I, for one, am heating up my rice bags.

Source:
Bundle Up: November Is Going to Be Really Cold in the Eastern United States

, Slate.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get stories like this in your inbox

AdvertisementAdvertisement

Visit site: 

Get ready for another extremely cold winter starting NOW

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Thermos, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Get ready for another extremely cold winter starting NOW