Tag: organization

LiDAR reveals Mayan mega city hidden in Guatemalan jungle

A vast Mayan megalopolis apparently lies hidden underneath all the trees, creepers and centuries of growth and soil in the Guatemalan forest — and we might never have found it if not for the wonders of laser technology. The PACUNAM Foundation , which champions the use of scientific research to preserve cultural heritage, has scanned the jungles in the country using Light Detection and Ranging ( LiDAR ) technology and found an interconnected network of ancient cities. They discovered 60, 000 previously unknown structures without having to cut down a single plant, and that discovery changes many things we thought we knew about the ancient civilization. The sheer size of the megalopolis suggests that Mayan populations were bigger than we thought. Previous estimates put the Mayan people’s population at around 5 million, but now it’s possible that there were 10 to 15 million of them. The fact that the team discovered houses, pyramids, palaces and elevated highways even though Mayans didn’t use wheels or relied on beasts on burden indicates that they had an organized workforce. Since the cities in the hidden megalopolis were connected by wide causeways, the Mayans likely interacted regularly and might’ve had established trade routes. Further, all the ramparts and fortresses found in the ruins show that “warfare, ” as team member and archaeologist Thomas Garrison explained, “wasn’t only happening toward the end of the civilization.” While we mostly talk about LiDAR as a system that helps self-driving cars and robots “see” their environments, scientists have also been using it to survey the environment without disturbing it. That’s why it’s the perfect tool for PACUNAM’s scientists — aside from the fact that physically looking for the ruins would’ve taken forever, Guatemala is already losing 10 percent of its forests every year to agriculture and human settlement. In fact, we’ll probably hear more discoveries in the future, since this is only the initiative’s first phase: the organization plans to use LiDAR to map over 5, 000 square miles of Guatemala’s lowlands in the future. Via: The Guardian Source: National Geographic

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LiDAR reveals Mayan mega city hidden in Guatemalan jungle

Slooh’s stargazing telescope livestreams now free to view

If you enjoy watching nature livestreams (and let’s face it, who hasn’t put on a panda cam at least one or twice while toiling away), then you may love today’s announcement. Slooh , an online astronomy community that has a network of telescopes, is now making virtual viewing free. Slooh’s aim is to bring outer space to your fingertips ; it owns two telescopes in Chile and seven in the Canary Islands. It allows its paid members to book time to control these telescopes. You can secure 5 reservations per month (5–10 minutes in length) for $5 per month or an unlimited number of reservations for $25 per month. Other Slooh members can sit back and watch online, but until today, they were required to pay for the privilege. Now the organization has opened up viewing for free; all you have to do is register to view live streams of outer space. Right now, some of Slooh’s telescopes are offline due to dust in the air, and obviously when it’s daylight at a telescope’s location, it will be dormant. To join Slooh’s community, you can register on their website. You’ll be taken to a payment page, which offers a 30-day trial of the $5/month tier, but you can move ahead with a free account by clicking the “Continue Exploring the Community” option. You can’t control the telescopes, and the number of photos you’ll be able to take is limited, but hey, it’s hard to complain about a free account. Via: The Verge

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Slooh’s stargazing telescope livestreams now free to view

N. Korean defectors show locations of mass graves using Google Earth

Much of what happens in North Korea remains hidden from the outside world. But commercial satellite imagery and Google Earth mapping software are helping a human-rights organization take inventory of the worst offenses of the North Korean regime and identify sites for future investigation of crimes against humanity. A new report from the South Korea-based Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) —a non-governmental organization that tracks human-rights abuses and crimes against humanity by the world’s most oppressive regimes—details how the organization’s researchers used Google Earth in interviews with defectors from North Korea to identify sites associated with mass killings by the North Korean regime. Google Earth imagery was used to help witnesses to killings and mass burials orient themselves and precisely point out the locations of those events. Entitled “Mapping Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea: Mass Graves, Killing Sites and Documentary Evidence,” the report does not include the actual locations of what the researchers deemed to be sensitive sites out of concern that the North Korean regime would move evidence from those sites. But it does provide location data of other sites with potential documentary evidence of crimes, including police stations and other government facilities that may have records of atrocities. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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N. Korean defectors show locations of mass graves using Google Earth

Elon Musk’s ‘Godot’ machine cuts its first LA tunnel segment

SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk just tweeted that his tunnel-carving operation, The Boring Company, just completed cutting out its first segment with its Beckett-homaging drill, Godot. While the plan is to build an entire subterranean network underneath the streets of Los Angeles, it’s unclear where this first tunnel portion was cut and how far it went. Last we heard, negotiations for permits to start digging under city soil were promising but not concrete. No longer waiting for Godot. It has begun boring and just completed the first segment of tunnel in LA. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2017 Location is important: Back in February, The Boring Company was safely and legally cutting test tunnels in the SpaceX parking lot, but anything beyond the borders of the organization’s land would require getting permission from the city. The founder tweeted that he’d had “promising conversations ” with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti two weeks ago — and that getting permits was harder than developing the tech for his future tunnel network — but we haven’t seen official confirmation that Musk got the green light to start digging on city grounds. That network isn’t for a new public transit system, mind you: The Boring Company’s tunnels will haul cars, bikes and pedestrians on electric sleds at up to 125 miles per hour, according to a concept video released in April, that will shrink half-hour drives aboveground to five-minute blitzes below. The first leg of the network is slated to run from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Culver City, Santa Monica, Westwood and up to Sherman Oaks. Source: Elon Musk (Twitter)

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Elon Musk’s ‘Godot’ machine cuts its first LA tunnel segment

50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

The Ocean Cleanup , a Dutch foundation that aims to deal with plastics polluting our seas, says it’s finally ready to put its technology to work. In a statement released today, the organization has revealed that it plans to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in early 2018 using its newly redesigned cleaning system. That garbage patch is the biggest collection of debris in the ocean, a massive soup of visible and microscopic plastic particles poisoning marine life. The ship captain who discovered it in 2003 said he “never found a clear spot” in the week it took to cross the region. While Boyan Slat (the organization’s founder) originally envisioned trapping plastic trash with one large screen tethered to the ocean floor, the new design is smaller, sturdier and can save the group a ton of money. Instead of deploying a 60-mile stationary screen, they plan on releasing 50 smaller ones that measure 0.6 miles in length. They’ll weigh the floating screens down with anchor, so they can move with the currents like plastics do, albeit a bit slower in order to trap debris. Slat told FastCompany that he expected the original design to clean up half of the massive garbage patch in 10 years for $320 million. Now, he expects the new design to cut that timespan in half and to cost the group significantly less than that amount. Since he and his team still need to fund the project, though, they plan to use the plastic they collect to make items they can sell, such as sunglasses, chairs and car bumpers. Source: The Ocean Cleanup

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50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

The Ocean Cleanup , a Dutch foundation that aims to deal with plastics polluting our seas, says it’s finally ready to put its technology to work. In a statement released today, the organization has revealed that it plans to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in early 2018 using its newly redesigned cleaning system. That garbage patch is the biggest collection of debris in the ocean, a massive soup of visible and microscopic plastic particles poisoning marine life. The ship captain who discovered it in 2003 said he “never found a clear spot” in the week it took to cross the region. While Boyan Slat (the organization’s founder) originally envisioned trapping plastic trash with one large screen tethered to the ocean floor, the new design is smaller, sturdier and can save the group a ton of money. Instead of deploying a 60-mile stationary screen, they plan on releasing 50 smaller ones that measure 0.6 miles in length. They’ll weigh the floating screens down with anchor, so they can move with the currents like plastics do, albeit a bit slower in order to trap debris. Slat told FastCompany that he expected the original design to clean up half of the massive garbage patch in 10 years for $320 million. Now, he expects the new design to cut that timespan in half and to cost the group significantly less than that amount. Since he and his team still need to fund the project, though, they plan to use the plastic they collect to make items they can sell, such as sunglasses, chairs and car bumpers. Source: The Ocean Cleanup

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50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

The Ocean Cleanup , a Dutch foundation that aims to deal with plastics polluting our seas, says it’s finally ready to put its technology to work. In a statement released today, the organization has revealed that it plans to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in early 2018 using its newly redesigned cleaning system. That garbage patch is the biggest collection of debris in the ocean, a massive soup of visible and microscopic plastic particles poisoning marine life. The ship captain who discovered it in 2003 said he “never found a clear spot” in the week it took to cross the region. While Boyan Slat (the organization’s founder) originally envisioned trapping plastic trash with one large screen tethered to the ocean floor, the new design is smaller, sturdier and can save the group a ton of money. Instead of deploying a 60-mile stationary screen, they plan on releasing 50 smaller ones that measure 0.6 miles in length. They’ll weigh the floating screens down with anchor, so they can move with the currents like plastics do, albeit a bit slower in order to trap debris. Slat told FastCompany that he expected the original design to clean up half of the massive garbage patch in 10 years for $320 million. Now, he expects the new design to cut that timespan in half and to cost the group significantly less than that amount. Since he and his team still need to fund the project, though, they plan to use the plastic they collect to make items they can sell, such as sunglasses, chairs and car bumpers. Source: The Ocean Cleanup

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50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

The Ocean Cleanup , a Dutch foundation that aims to deal with plastics polluting our seas, says it’s finally ready to put its technology to work. In a statement released today, the organization has revealed that it plans to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in early 2018 using its newly redesigned cleaning system. That garbage patch is the biggest collection of debris in the ocean, a massive soup of visible and microscopic plastic particles poisoning marine life. The ship captain who discovered it in 2003 said he “never found a clear spot” in the week it took to cross the region. While Boyan Slat (the organization’s founder) originally envisioned trapping plastic trash with one large screen tethered to the ocean floor, the new design is smaller, sturdier and can save the group a ton of money. Instead of deploying a 60-mile stationary screen, they plan on releasing 50 smaller ones that measure 0.6 miles in length. They’ll weigh the floating screens down with anchor, so they can move with the currents like plastics do, albeit a bit slower in order to trap debris. Slat told FastCompany that he expected the original design to clean up half of the massive garbage patch in 10 years for $320 million. Now, he expects the new design to cut that timespan in half and to cost the group significantly less than that amount. Since he and his team still need to fund the project, though, they plan to use the plastic they collect to make items they can sell, such as sunglasses, chairs and car bumpers. Source: The Ocean Cleanup

More here:
50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

The Ocean Cleanup , a Dutch foundation that aims to deal with plastics polluting our seas, says it’s finally ready to put its technology to work. In a statement released today, the organization has revealed that it plans to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in early 2018 using its newly redesigned cleaning system. That garbage patch is the biggest collection of debris in the ocean, a massive soup of visible and microscopic plastic particles poisoning marine life. The ship captain who discovered it in 2003 said he “never found a clear spot” in the week it took to cross the region. While Boyan Slat (the organization’s founder) originally envisioned trapping plastic trash with one large screen tethered to the ocean floor, the new design is smaller, sturdier and can save the group a ton of money. Instead of deploying a 60-mile stationary screen, they plan on releasing 50 smaller ones that measure 0.6 miles in length. They’ll weigh the floating screens down with anchor, so they can move with the currents like plastics do, albeit a bit slower in order to trap debris. Slat told FastCompany that he expected the original design to clean up half of the massive garbage patch in 10 years for $320 million. Now, he expects the new design to cut that timespan in half and to cost the group significantly less than that amount. Since he and his team still need to fund the project, though, they plan to use the plastic they collect to make items they can sell, such as sunglasses, chairs and car bumpers. Source: The Ocean Cleanup

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50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year

The Ocean Cleanup , a Dutch foundation that aims to deal with plastics polluting our seas, says it’s finally ready to put its technology to work. In a statement released today, the organization has revealed that it plans to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in early 2018 using its newly redesigned cleaning system. That garbage patch is the biggest collection of debris in the ocean, a massive soup of visible and microscopic plastic particles poisoning marine life. The ship captain who discovered it in 2003 said he “never found a clear spot” in the week it took to cross the region. While Boyan Slat (the organization’s founder) originally envisioned trapping plastic trash with one large screen tethered to the ocean floor, the new design is smaller, sturdier and can save the group a ton of money. Instead of deploying a 60-mile stationary screen, they plan on releasing 50 smaller ones that measure 0.6 miles in length. They’ll weigh the floating screens down with anchor, so they can move with the currents like plastics do, albeit a bit slower in order to trap debris. Slat told FastCompany that he expected the original design to clean up half of the massive garbage patch in 10 years for $320 million. Now, he expects the new design to cut that timespan in half and to cost the group significantly less than that amount. Since he and his team still need to fund the project, though, they plan to use the plastic they collect to make items they can sell, such as sunglasses, chairs and car bumpers. Source: The Ocean Cleanup

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50 floating screens will clean the Pacific garbage patch next year