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Thursday, November 29, 2012
President Obama a Clear Winner for Women
President Obama fought for women?s rights ? both pay equity and reproductive rights ? for immigrant rights, and for working people.? The President fought for education opportunity, teachers, a robust economy and his leadership that does not leave women behind. President Obama made it clear that Romney sought to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood and women?s rights to make their own medical decisions.? President repeatedly called out Romney when he twisted the facts. Moreover the President stood strongly with his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton? and his diplomatic team as Governor Romney tried to score political points on the tragic attack on our heroic Ambassador and his courageous staff.
Once again the woman moderator, this time Candy Crowley, just like Martha Raddatz for the vice presidential debate, showed her strength as well as her knowledge of political affairs.? Crowley was the first women to moderator a presidential debate in some 20 years. This time lapse must not happen again.? But the audience appeared to be disproportionally white men.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FeministsForObama/~3/6X-QGltZz_c/
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Historical society hopes to reopen Conser Home - News9.com ...
HEAVENER, Okla. (AP) - The Oklahoma Historical Society says it plans to reopen the historic Peter Conser Home next spring.
The historic site in southeast Oklahoma has been closed to the public because of increased costs and budget cuts. Officials say Conser's family donated the property to the Oklahoma Historical Society with the stipulation that it be operated as a museum. If not, the property would revert back to the family.
Kathy Dickson, the society's director of museums and historic sites, says the society is working with members of the Conser family to reopen the home.
A meeting is planned for Dec. 12 in Heavener to discuss the issue.
Peter Conser was born in the mid-19th century in McCurtain County. He is best known as a member of the Choctaw Nation's famed Lighthorsemen.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.news9.com/story/20207829/historical-society-hopes-to-reopen-conser-home
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Logistics, GIS and Disaster Response | GPS World
A 40-foot recreation of a 19th-century lighthouse rises inside the atrium of Lockheed Martin?s Center for Innovation.
An exercise in planning for months proves timely in light of Hurricane Sandy
By Art Kalinski
I was going to write about the increasing presence of social media at GEOINT 2012, but I?ll cover that next month since Hurricane Sandy made an exercise I attended last week more significant in its timeliness.
The Disaster Response Integrative Logistics Exercise was a joint effort of the Institute for Defense & Business and Lockheed Martin. Heading up the effort was retired U.S. Ambassador David Litt of the IDB and Corey Cook of Lockheed Martin. The almost week-long event was held at the Lockheed Martin Lighthouse located in Suffolk, Virginia, near Norfolk. The 65,000-square-foot high-technology facility is designed for experimentation and prototyping using analysis, modeling and simulation. It?s a reconfigurable command and control operations laboratory that permits participants to test and analyze concepts in a gaming environment.
The stated purpose of the disaster response exercise was: ?Given the nature, frequency, location and severity of disasters, inter-organizational collaboration ? to include the private sector ? is becoming increasingly critical to the efficiency and effectiveness of logistics in disaster responses.?? The exercise involved more than a 100 participants from the private sector, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and military services. Lou Kratz, Vice president and managing director, Logistics and Sustainment, Corporate Engineering & Technology for Lockheed Martin, stated that ?Today?s crisis response efforts struggle with effective collaboration among participating organizations, especially in the domain of logistics. This trend cannot continue in an era of 21st-century logistics capabilities. With global resources available from public sector and private organizations, we all need to collaborate effectively to help our communities and businesses recover.?
The Lockheed Martin Lighthouse in Suffolk, Virginia, site of the Disaster Response Integrative Logistics Exercise.
And collaborate we did! The list of participants was quite extensive and quite diverse. To give you a sense of the attendees, here is a partial list of organizations represented:
- commercial companies included DHL, Maersk, Florida Power and Light, Fluor, Home Depot, Walmart
- federal government agencies included FEMA, DHS, GSA, HHS, USAID, State Department
- military organizations included NAVSUP, NORTHCOM, USACE, USAF, USMC, USN, SOUTHCOM, National Defense University, USCG, NORTHCOM
- NGOs included United Nations agencies, the Red Cross, Operation Blessing, Catholic Relief Services and many more.
Conference attendance was significantly impacted by Hurricane Sandy, which also highlighted its timeliness.? FEMA, USAID, USACE, and the Red Cross, who were confirmed attendees and were instrumental in the development of the DRIL exercise, were deployed to Hurricane Sandy just hours before the start of the event. Fortunately, attendance to the DRIL by multiple organizations and substitute personnel was still robust, allowing for a highly successful exercise.
The DRIL exercise had robust attendance despite Hurricane Sandy.
Some of the exercise objectives included defining and understanding different agency logistics capabilities, leadership structures, institutional and regulatory obstacles, differences in cultures, missions and operating procedures while developing metrics to evaluate performance in disaster response efforts. To accomplish the objectives, all the participants were organized into four integrated teams that were then separated at times into functional teams and then reassembled with representatives speaking for each team to the entire group of attendees.
Since this was the first exercise of its type, it was a learning experience for all involved and focused on the basics of personnel interactions and group consensus.? Each participant had access to his or her own computer, common computer resources and pre-developed exercise parameters. There were many artificial assumptions presented to the teams, and the team members made even more assumptions and guesses as they worked through the individual scenarios. Most of the exercise consisted of reviewing the effects of Category 5 hurricanes hitting the Dominican Republic, South Florida and Virginia, so there was a domestic as well as international impact. We participated in our groups, listening to individual team members with specialized knowledge and experience, then prioritized the delivery of needed resources and services. As the exercises ramped up, there were many animated discussions in which basics such as water, food, shelter, medical, electric power and transportation infrastructure were prioritized and justification documented.
I made several observations to myself as the exercises progressed. First, there are definite cultural differences between federal, military, NGO and commercial agencies. Not bad differences, just different. Second, individual personalities can steer the group dynamics and outcomes. And third, situational awareness is critical to effective disaster response. Geospatial technology was not part of this first exercise, but would clearly have been valuable to provide a common operational picture. That level of complexity would not have been practical for this initial exercise, but it does lead me to the ?Solutions? room next to the main exercise area.
In a space adjacent to the main exercise room was a ?Solutions? room that showcased potentially helpful technologies. The room was open to exercise participants toward the tail end of the week. It consisted of a diverse assortment of commercial and government solutions that addressed some of the issues? the teams struggled with during the week. Examples include a new computer-based system developed by the Navy Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) that is similar to the commercial Kayak flight search system. The Transportation Exploitation Tool (TET) was explained to me by Greg Butler, division director, NAVSUP GLS Transportation, who initiated the effort. He explained that all too often resources are wasted flying parts or personnel on dedicated aircraft that are duplicate trips of other aircraft or ships with available space traveling to the same location. The new geospatial network scheduling system optimizes transportation resources across all branches of service and already saved the Navy $23M on a $750k investment.
Lockheed Martin?s Hybrid Air Vehicle is a multi-mission capable airship.
Lockheed Martin displayed several technologies, including communications and data management technologies. One of the most interesting was its Hybrid Aircraft that was initially developed for military use. However, its ability to transport equipment and supplies efficiently to undeveloped sites while providing a persistent platform for communications and to collect and download imagery makes it a valuable asset for emergency response activities.? To learn more, view the following video.
A representative from NATO explained the NATO Civil-Military Fusion Center, including a map library and custom services. Several exhibitors demonstrated the use of social media, which can be a very valuable and timely source of information to build situational awareness during emergencies. A company I work with, Soft Power Solutions, integrates GIS resources such as Google, USGS, ortho and oblique imagery married to geographically placed social media to build situational awareness that is quite robust. It was especially dramatic that during demonstrations, a 7.2 earthquake was reported off the coast of Guatemala.? One could easily see the growing number of tweets that almost immediately confirmed the earthquake and level of damage. Here is a ShakeMap generated by USGS within minutes of the earthquake showing the level of impact on the Guatemalan coast (shown in yellow).
A USGS ShakeMap shows the impact of an earthquake on the Guatemalan coast (in yellow).
One of the exercise objectives was to develop metrics that would evaluate performance in disaster response efforts. There were many metrics developed that one would expect ? roads open, electricity restored, utilities restored, etc. However, the one informal metric that was developed through personal experience of Florida emergency responders was the ?Waffle House? metric. Waffle House is a ubiquitous restaurant chain with locations throughout the southeast. The Florida responders observed that driving from one county?s Waffle House to another open Waffle House was a good indicator that the location was in OK shape.? Since a Waffle House needs minimal staffing and utilities compared to larger restaurants, it was a good indicator as to how bad conditions were in the location. Perhaps someone will develop a ?Waffle House Open? type GIS layer as a metric to ?okayness.?? Sounds like a good thesis for a GIS graduate student.
Everyone who participated was enthusiastic about conducting another similar exercise. Planning is already underway to make that happen. I, for one, feel that this kind of exercise can have a significant positive impact on future disasters because it builds face-to-face relationships that are so valuable during actual events. I?m going to do what I can to help with a geospatial aspect in future exercises.
Source: http://www.gpsworld.com/logistics-gis-and-disaster-response/
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Video: Arafat exhumation could raise more questions than answers
>>> also in the middle east today, they took an extraordinary step to investigate an old rumor, they dug up the body of yasser arafat to see if he had been poisoned, and they're conducting tissue samples all over the world now to find out. we get our report from our veteran middle eastern correspondent martin fletcher in ramallah .
>> reporter: a grim day in ramallah , yasser arafat was reburied after scientists took samples from his remains, seeking an answer to the mystery that began with his death eight years ago. was he murdered? palestinians may soon have an answer. labs in russia, france and switzerland will conduct separate tests of bone samples taken today. muslim clerics gave permission to open his grave. it was a delicate process kept out of sight.
>> it was important for the palestinians to emphasize that no hands touch the remains of yasser arafat . only the palestinians touched him. a matter of honor.
>> the last time arafat was seen in public he flew to a paris hospital age 75 and sick. three weeks later he was dead. why? his wife refused an autopsy. rumors flew, aids murdered, poisoned, that's what many palestinians believed.
>> all the circumstantial evidence , all the political evidence indicates one direction, which is mr. sharon.
>> reporter: there is no evidence he had been killed until this year. the investigation was triggered by swiss technicians working with al jazeera tv . they examined arafat's toothbrush and hat. and found traces of radioactive pe pelonium 210. the question now is, will they find it on his bones.
>> the idea of being able to detect pelonium 210 this long after burial is low.
>> reporter: the test could raise more questions than it answers. yasser arafat controversial in life, his death still a riddle. martin fletcher , nbc news, ramallah , the west bank .
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49986366/
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Cyber Monday likely to be busiest online sales day
NEW YORK (AP) ? Black Friday is a distant memory. Small Business Saturday is long gone. Now, it's Cyber Monday's turn.
Cyber Monday, coined in 2005 by a shopping trade group that noticed a spike in online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving when people returned to their work computers, is the next in a line of days that stores are counting on to jumpstart the holiday shopping season.
This year's Cyber Monday is expected to be the biggest online shopping day of the year for the third year in a row: According to research firm comScore, Americans are expected to spend $1.5 billion, up from $1.25 billion last year on Cyber Monday, as retailers ramp up deals to get shoppers to click on their websites.
Amazon.com, which is starting its Cyber Monday deals at midnight on Monday, is offering as much as 60 percent off a Panasonic VIERA 55-inch TV that's usually priced higher than $1,000. Sears is offering $430 off a Maytag washer and dryer, each on sale for $399. And Kmart is offering 75 percent off diamond earrings and $60 off a 12-in-1 multigame table on sale for $89.99.
Retailers are hoping the deals will appeal to shoppers like Matt Sexton, 39, who for the first time plans to complete all his holiday shopping online this year on his iPad tablet computer. Sexton, who plans to spend up to $4,000 this season, already shopped online on the day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday and found a laptop from Best Buy for $399, a $200 savings, among other deals.
"The descriptions and reviews are so much better online so you can compare and price shop and for the most part get free shipping," said Sexton, who lives in Queens, N.Y., and is a manager at a utility company.
Sexton also said it's easy to return an online purchase to a physical store than it had been in previous years. "That helps with gifts," he said.
How well retailers do on Cyber Monday will offer insight into Americans' evolving shopping habits. With the growth in high speed Internet access and the wide and increasing use of smartphones and tablet computers, people are relying less on their work computers to shop than they did when Shop.org, the digital division of trade group The National Retail Federation, coined the term "Cyber Monday."
As a result, the period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday has have become busy for online shopping as well. Indeed, IBM Benchmark, which tracks online sales, said on Thanksgiving, a day that historically had not been big for online shopping, online sales this year rose 17.4 percent over 2011. Of that, mobile shopping, or shopping on smartphones and tablets, rose 18.3 percent. Meanwhile, online sales on Black Friday were up 20.7 percent.
For the overall holiday season, comScore predicts online sales will be up 17 percent to $43.4 billion. And the research firm expects online sales to surpass 10 percent of total retail spending this holiday season. The National Retail Federation estimates that overall retail sales in November and December will be up 4.1 percent this year to $586.1 billion
"People years ago didn't have the kind of connectivity to shop online at their homes. So when they went back to work after Thanksgiving they'd shop on the Monday after," said Vicki Cantrell, executive director of Shop.org. "Now they don't need the work computer to be able to do that."
But as other days become popular for online shopping, Cyber Monday may lose some of its cache. To be sure, Cyber Monday hasn't always been the biggest online shopping day. In fact, up until three years ago, that title was historically held on the last day shoppers can order items with standard shipping rates and get them delivered before Christmas. That day usually falls in late December.
Even though Cyber Monday is expected to be the biggest shopping day this year, industry watchers say it could just be a matter of time before other days take that ranking.
"Of all the benchmark spending days, Thanksgiving is growing at the fastest rate, up 128 percent over the last five years," said Andrew Lipsman, a spokesman with comScore.
Associated PressMonday, November 26, 2012
ScienceDaily: Gene News
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/rss/health_medicine/genes.xml
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