Faith And Science discusses the unnecessary battle we seem to be fighting and how to cross the battle lines and work together. Theories on Evolution, Intelligent Design and Global Warming are used as examples.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto argues in an exclusive interview that his country remains the only NATO nation to avoid sending weapons to Ukraine because such a step, he believes, would only prolong a war with Russia that it is increasingly evident neither side can win.

Taiwan's top diplomat in the United States tells The Washington Times in an exclusive interview that China's communist government is intensifying its campaign to pressure countries not to recognize the legitimacy of the island democracy and to block it from participating in the United Nations and other key international organizations.

A visit with a Chilkat Ravenstail weaver, a rain-forest hike in search of Devil’s Club, the tale of a rudely awakened Black Bear, an afternoon with a fishing boat captain, a mountain jog with a champion ultra-runner, hair and make-up tips with a renowned drag queen, a sound-check at the home-studio of a Juneau-based hip hop musician, and a window into the life of a local poet and her 10-year-old son.

Special thanks this episode to Juneau field producer MK MacNaughton and the National Endowment for the Arts.

A game hunter consults his conscience, a Native Rights advocate remembers being separated from her heritage, a local chef plays host to TV personality Gordon Ramsay, a widow remembers her late husband’s grace and humor, a Native Youth Olympics coach connects kids to culture through athletics, plus an artist, a musician, a cross-country bicyclist, two roller-derby girls, and a family in a half-built cabin on an island in the wilderness

Special thanks this episode to Juneau field producer MK MacNaughton and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Have you ever been a mentor to someone? Maybe you had a mentor of your own? How did it change your life? January is National Mentoring Month, and this episode we turn our attention to the voices and the stories of some young Baltimoreans we met through a network called Maryland MENTOR. They’re young, but they’ve got life-lessons for a willing ear of any age.   

Musician Art Garfunkel recently reunited with on-again/off-again musical partner Paul Simon, looking to reconcile their differences and make amends.

Last season, Maryland beat Indiana so bad that the Hoosiers fired their offensive coordinator less than 24 hours later. How much things can change in just one year, as Indiana is at 4-0 in 2024 as they await the Terrapins on Saturday.

The Maryland Terrapins are used to hoeing a difficult road during the football season. In 2024, however, the difference is a team that has not only failed to reach rather mild expectations, but one that is severely underperforming.

Southern California and Maryland met Saturday for the first time in football and as Big Ten members, but if you didn't know any better, it was as if an old Pac-12 after dark game broke out. Maryland mounted a two touchdown comeback in the fourth quarter, capped by Billy Edwards Jr.'s 3-yard rushing score as the Terrapins beat the Trojans 29-28.

Last season marked the first time Maryland posted a .500 or better mark in the month of November under Mike Locksley. College football's final month has always been a gauntlet for Locksley's teams, a trend that continues Saturday at No. 1 Oregon.

The new Big Ten truly comes to full bore for Maryland this weekend with its first-ever West Coast conference trip to No. 1 Oregon, bringing with it a host of logistical tweaks and challenges.

The struggling Alpine Formula 1 team will use engines and gearboxes from Mercedes starting in 2026 after parent company Renault cuts its in-house F1 engine program.

Call it the "Tax Cuts and Wall Act." Republicans, on the verge of a full sweep of government, are plotting immediate legislation that would extend and expand tax cuts, bolster U.S. energy production and perhaps provide money to finish building the southern border wall.

U.S. forces launched strikes against nine Iran-linked targets in Syria, a response to several attacks on American troops in the region over the last 24 hours, U.S. Central Command officials said Monday.

The numbers are trickling in, and between the presidential elections of 2020 and 2024, President-elect Donald Trump saw dramatic increases in support at the ballot boxes from Hispanics, youth and Black people -- traditionally all voters who stick with Democrats. This has the Democrat Party trembling in its big black boots.

A senior police officer warned Tuesday of calls for more rioting in Amsterdam, after dozens of people armed with sticks and firecrackers set a tram on fire Monday night as the city faces tensions following violence last week targeting fans of an Israeli soccer club.

Violence in Haiti led to the closure of Toussaint Louverture International Airport after gunfire struck a Spirit Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, trying to land Monday.

Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with a sophisticated combination of missiles and drones for the first time in 73 days on Wednesday, authorities reported, as the Pentagon said most of the North Korean troops sent to help Moscow's war effort are fighting to drive Ukraine's army off Russian soil in the Kursk border region.

Song Jae-lim, a South Korean actor known for his roles in K-dramas "Moon Embracing the Sun" and "Queen Woo," was found dead at his home in capital Seoul. He was 39.

On the morning of Oct. 30, a peaceful animal sanctuary in rural New York was besieged by a squadron of storm troopers from the state's departments of health and environmental conservation ("N.Y. conservation employees sent home as death of Peanut the squirrel spurs outrage, bomb threats," web, Nov. 4).

Starting in the Obama administration and continuing through Vice President Kamala Harris' run for president, the Democrats have pledged to bring the American people back together.

Former NFL coach Jack Del Rio will part ways with the University of Wisconsin's football team after he was arrested last week on a drunk driving charge.

Berlin's city government launched an official bid campaign on Tuesday to host NFL games over a five-year period from next year.

Now back at home for the first time in nearly a month and with three games remaining, the chance for Maryland to salvage a disappointing season with a potential bowl appearance begins with Rutgers.

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco was charged with illegally carrying a gun in his vehicle during the altercation in a parking lot that led to his arrest over the weekend, Dominican Republic prosecutors said Tuesday.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Thursday that his government would begin proceedings on a rule that would ban social media use for children under 16 years old.

Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.

Anthropic's large language model Claude is preparing for work in the U.S. intelligence community.

The Auburn men's basketball team plane had to return to Auburn University Regional Airport Friday after two players scuffled midflight.

Alperen Sengun scored 27 points for a second straight game and added 17 rebounds, leading the Houston Rockets to a 107-92 win over the Washington Wizards on Monday night.

Queen Camilla will miss Britain's annual remembrance weekend events to honor fallen service personnel while she recovers from a chest infection, Buckingham Palace said Saturday.

One of 43 monkeys bred for medical research that escaped a compound in South Carolina has been recovered unharmed, officials said Saturday.

Curled up in his father's lap, clinging to his chest, Hussein Mikdad cried his heart out. The 4-year-old kicked his doctor with his intact foot and pushed him away with the arm that was not in a cast. "My Dad! My Dad!" Hussein said. "Make him leave me alone!" With eyes tearing up in relief and pain, the father reassured his son and pulled him closer.

Worsening air pollution sickened an estimated 1.8 million people in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province in the past month, health officials said Tuesday, as schools across the province were ordered to close for five days to protect children's health.

The Justice Department is suing to block UnitedHealth Group's $3.3 billion purchase of Amedisys, citing concerns the combination would hinder access to home health and hospice services in the U.S.

In his first visit back to Utah since awarding Salt Lake City the 2034 Winter Games, the International Olympic Committee president sought to ease worries that the city could lose its second Olympics if organizers don't fulfill an agreement to play peacemaker between anti-doping authorities.

He's been tough on Russia, led the charge to put prize money in the pockets of athletes and pushed for a definitive but much-derided resolution in the longstanding debate over transgender athletes.

USA Track and Field is bringing the U.S. Paralympics Track & Field program in-house beginning Jan. 1 as part of a partnership that will unite all of its athletes under one roof.

Apple TV+'s adaptation of the books by Hugh Howey has a good four seasons in it, producers say.

The post Here’s How Long Apple’s Silo Show Could Run first appeared on SciFi Stream.

The prequel series will chronicle the rise of the Bene Gesserit order thousands of years before Paul Atreides.

The post First Look At Dune: Prophecy, The Spin-Off TV Series Coming To Max first appeared on SciFi Stream.

The Academy Award winner will play the chancellor of Starfleet Academy in the 32nd century spin-off.

The post Holly Hunter Cast As Starfleet Academy Lead first appeared on SciFi Stream.

Zur Unterstützung der Beteiligung des MfN an EU BON ist am Museum für Naturkunde Berlin zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt eine vorerst auf 2 Jahre befristete (mit der Option der Verlängerung)
Position eines/einer Wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiters/in mit 75% der regelmäßigen wöchentlichen Arbeitszeit Entgeltgruppe E13 TV-L Berlin zu besetzen
Aufgabengebiete:
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeit und eigenständige Durchführung spezifischer Aufgaben innerhalb des EU BON Projektes, vor allem innerhalb der Arbeitspakete 1 (Datenquellen) und 2 (Datenintegration), i.b.
- Datenrecherche und Erstellung von Übersichten für EU BON relevanter Daten- und Informationsquellen;
- Bewertung und Lückenanalyse bestehender Datenbanken und Informationssysteme zur Biodiversität;
- Harmonisierung, Aktualisierung und Koordinierung taxonomischer Referenz-Datenbanken i.b. für Europa;
- Unterstützung der Einführung und Verbesserung von Datenstandards zur Verbesserung der Integration und Interoperabilität unterschiedlicher Datenebenen
- Mitwirkung bei Erprobung neuer Datenerhebungsansätze und –verfahren, auch im Gelände
- Planung und Durchführung von Projekttreffen und -veranstaltungen
- Erstellung von Ergebnisberichten und wissenschaftlichen Präsentationen / Veröffentlichungen.

The official Kickoff meeting of the Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON) project, organized by the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, took place on 13-15 February 2013 to formally mark the beginning of the project and to set goals and objectives for the future. Among the hottest issues discussed was the integration of EU BON's framework with the Global Earth Biodiversity Observation Network project GEO BON and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Another intention set for the future is the enhanced communication and synchronization between the various partners and work packages.

The main objective set for EU BON is to facilitate with its contributions, and thus build a substantial part of GEO BON. EU BON Advisory Board, comprising ten leading experts in data management, biodiversity conservation and earth observation realms has been set up. Dr. Wouter Los - Chairman of the Expert centre for Taxonomic Identification (ETI), and 2nd Vice Chair of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Governing Board (GBIF) was elected as a chair of the EU BON Advisory Board. It has been decided, with the directions and help of the EU BON's Advisory Board, to achieve that a substantial amount of work should be done towards a more comprehensive vision of the relationship between the two projects and the place EU BON takes as a major contributor.

Another aim delineated is working towards collaboration between the currently fragmented biodiversity data sources in Europe in an attempt to create an integrated network and framework for the benefit of the project objective itself, and GEO BON eventually. Dialogue and association with similar or relevant biodiversity projects and initiatives, on European and Global levels, are also encouraged. Organizing a conference is on the project's to do list.

Enhanced communication between the different partners and work packages has been outlined as the engine for achieving of the projects main objectives. A second official meeting has been already assigned for 2014 to measure the progress of EU BON and to set further goals. Meanwhile partners are already organizing workshops to work towards reflecting the directions for development currently set.

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) has been recently launched. Its First Plenary took place between 18-20 March, 2013 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The hot topic of the Plenary was the RDA vision towards open access data without barriers. The 3 days of meetings and working sessions brought the research data community together to contribute and set milestones for the future work of the RDA towards open access data-driven innovation. 

Over the last decade, significant investments have been made  all over the globe
for developing scientific  data infrastructures to support the work of research communities and improving shared access to data.  There is a  common understanding that solutions must be global and that the development of an integrated and interoperable data domain can only be achieved through increased global cooperation.

As "big data" emerges as an international priority, the Research Data Alliance (RDA) is a newly formed organization whose goal is to accelerate data-driven innovation world-wide through research data sharing and exchange.

At its first Plenary, the RDA was launched by sponsors from the European Commission, the U. S. Government and the Australian Government and leaders in the data community. The Plenary was used as a working meeting to accelerate discussion, Working and Interest Group interaction, and data community development.

ICSU-WDS Data Publication Charter: http://www.icsu-wds.org/working-groups/data-publication

A main obstacle to reach the 2010 biodiversity goals and to implement the European Biodiversity Strategy is lacking integration of biodiversity aspects into political, economic, and management decisions in different sectors mainly due to knowledge gaps. EU BON will provide access to sound data sources and scientific knowledge that is reliable, relevant, up-todate, and publicly available. Europe maintains substantial capacities to generate and manage such knowledge and to provide data relevant to assessing and managing our biological resources. These capacities concern research and technology development, tools for information management and infrastructure, and procedures for the development and implementation of well-informed environmental policies. 

In order to meet the demands of the main political stakeholders in the EU, in this workshop an overview of the project will be given and first results will be shown summarized in the first show case which is dealing with datasets in relation to political targets and indicators. In addition, the idea how the science–policy/management interface can function for example via the planned European Biodiversity Portal will be presented and the requirements for policy (political administration) discussed.

Results of this first stakeholder round table will be documented and passed back to the project in order to increase its relevance. Next stakeholder round tables can be used to evaluate the progress of the project with regard to serving the demands of EC, EEA, GEO BON, IPBES and other stakeholders.

The data repository invites community input on the future of data archiving at upcoming membership meeting

Dryad, a repository for data underlying the international scientific and medical literature, works with a variety of journals, societies and publishers to archive research data at the time of publication.  The project began in 2009 and has published more than 3,000 data packages.  In 2012, Dryad incorporated as a nonprofit organization with the mission to make scientific and medical research data permanently available to all researchers and educators free-of-charge without barriers to reuse.
For the past four years, Dryad has worked with its stakeholders to develop a sustainability plan to realize this vision.  Central to the sustainability plan is a one-time submission fee that will offset the actual costs of preserving data indefinitely. A variety of pricing plans are available for journals and other organizations such societies, funders and libraries to purchase discounted submission fees on behalf of their researchers.  For data not covered by a pricing plan, the researcher will be asked to pay upon submission, with waivers provided to researchers from World Bank low and lower-middle income economies. Submission fees will apply to all new submissions starting September 2013.  Dryad will also be supported in part by its membership, by grants for research and innovation, and by donors. Membership in Dryad is open to any organization that supports research and education.  Dryad is pleased to include Pensoft Publishers among its Charter Members.
The Dryad Membership meeting, to be held in Oxford, UK on Friday, May 24 is open to members, prospective members, researchers and other interested parties.  Attendees will hear about recent and upcoming developments in the repository and the nonprofit organization. In addition, there will be an Emerging Issues Forum with presentations from the community about future directions for Dryad, its members, and partner journals, including models for the technical and peer review of data, ideas for promoting the adoption of data citations, measuring data reuse, funder perspectives on the use of research grants for data management costs and the relevance of larger data networks.  
Dryad’s Membership Meeting is part of a series of free public events in Oxford spotlighting trends in scholarly communication with an emphasis on research data, including a Symposium on the Now and Future of Data Publication on Wednesday, May 22nd and an ORCID Outreach Meeting with a special joint Dryad-ORCID Symposium on Research Attribution on Thursday, May 23rd. Registration for these events closes on May 13th. Remote attendance will be available for those unable to attend in person.

For more information about submitting data, becoming a member or the sustainability plan, please visit http://datadryad.org. The website also offers an Ideas Forum where people can make their voice heard by suggesting and voting for new features and offering comments.

CONTACT:
Laura Wendell, Executive Director
lwendell@datadrayd.org
+1-919-668-4005 or +1-919-423-3889

The first EU BON Stakeholder Round Table is now approaching. The workshop will take place in Brussels on 18 June 2013 and be hosted by the Leibniz Association. A main obstacle to reach the 2010 biodiversity goals and to implement the European Biodiversity Strategy is the lacking integration of biodiversity aspects into political, economic, and management decisions in different sectors mainly due to knowledge gaps. The aim of the 1-day workshop will be to identify existing gaps, determine current needs regarding biodiversity information and develop solutions to overcome the existing knowledge gaps within the EU BON project.

EU BON will provide access to biodiversity information that is reliable, relevant, up-to-date, and publicly available. In the first Stakeholder Round Table, the EU BON approach for establishing a European Biodiversity Observation Network will be outlined. Based on that introduction, existing approaches that compile biodiversity or biodiversity-relevant data and the possible synergies and possible contributions to EU BON will be discussed. Another important aspect of the meeting will be to highlight the link to policy and governments of the European Union and their specific needs regarding biodiversity information.

Results of this first stakeholder round table will be documented and passed back to the project in order to increase its relevance. Next stakeholder round tables can be used to evaluate the progress of the project with regard to serving the demands of EC, EEA, GEO BON, IPBES, JRC and other stakeholders.