Bobby Allison, founder of racing's "Alabama Gang" and a NASCAR Hall of Famer, died Saturday. He was 86.

President-elect Donald Trump is looking to fill hundreds of top positions in his incoming administration during the next two months -- but one of the most coveted, flash point slots is that of attorney general.

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.

President-elect Donald Trump's resounding victory may spell doom for the anti-freedom, anti-prosperity international movement that is the push for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

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.

United Nations peacekeepers warned Tuesday that the Israeli military has committed "severe violations" of a cease-fire deal with Syria as its military continues a major construction project along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.

In order to tackle inflation, Donald Trump's No. 1 policy goal, if reelected, would be to "Drill, baby, drill."

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stepped in to prevent a group of known illegal aliens from voting next Tuesday.

Utah athletic director Mark Harlan blasted the Big 12 officiating crew following BYU's 22-21 win over the Utes on Saturday night for controversial calls on the Cougars' winning drive.

NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan grew up in a military family, but that didn't save him from an onslaught of criticism on Sunday when he failed to place his hand over his heart during the national anthem.

The Chicago Bears fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron on Tuesday, hoping to shake up a unit that ranks among the worst in the NFL.

Southern California's football program has been fined $50,000 and placed on probation for one year by the NCAA because of multiple violations of coaching staff rules over two seasons.

Joey Gallo's $8 million mutual option was declined by the Washington Nationals on Sunday, making the first baseman/outfielder a free agent.

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.

The Vatican and Microsoft on Monday unveiled a digital twin of St. Peter's Basilica that uses artificial intelligence to explore one of the world's most important monument's while helping the Holy See manage visitor flows and identify conservation problems.

Los Angeles residents can now order robotaxis from their phones after Google's autonomous vehicle company Waymo ended its waitlist Tuesday.

The trio of 76ers' stars looked majestic on opening night as their images covered the arena's 4K kinetic scoreboard. Joel Embiid palmed a basketball. Tyrese Maxey in the middle appeared ready to burst off the screen for a dunk. Paul George looked fierce as he squeezed a basketball with both hands.

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

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing President-elect Donald Trump to crack down on fluoride levels in drinking water, saying the mineral can lead to unintended medical problems -- and setting up a clash with medical experts who defend it as a proven way to fighting cavities.

When opponents of Idaho's strict abortion law said it was forcing women to be emergency-airlifted out of state to have their pregnancies terminated, it shocked the Supreme Court. Now Idaho says the claim is not true.

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.

Former Duke star Kyle Singler's cryptic Instagram post saying he fears for his life has drawn an outpouring of concern and support from former teammates and others.

Amazon is bringing back the video game adaptation for another year after one of Prime Video's biggest premieres.

The post Fallout TV Series Gets A Second Season first appeared on SciFi Stream.

Take a look at the first photos from Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson's first season in the TARDIS, streaming this Friday on Disney+.

The post Gallery: Doctor Who Double-Episode Premiere Is This Week first appeared on SciFi Stream.

On March 18 2013 the BHL-Europe portal has gone officially live. The Biodiversity heritage library for Europe project began in 2009 and joins noteworthy European museum and botanical gardens, including some in the USA as well. The primary goal of the project was to create an indexed archival system for digitized scientific literature, and free access to this literature via a multifunctional portal (www.bhl-europe.eu).
The portal makes available 6,149 books containing one million pages from 92 content providers at the moment, but this is just the initial offering. New material is added every day, and the growth is projected to increase over time. The BHL-Europe portal (and other international sources) is linked to the Biodiversity Library Exhibition  platform, which publishes selected literature in the form of interesting themes, information and an attractive design. Thanks to the specific presentation of literature and interesting scientific items, the platform has significant educational potential.

You can access the BHL-Europe portal here: www.bhl-europe.eu
Read more about the portal on the official BHL blog:  http://bhleurope.blogspot.cz/2013/03/bhl-europe-is-finally-officially-live.html

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

The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) was initiated by the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) together with a group of editors and publishers of scholarly journals after a meeting in  December 2012 during the ASCB Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The document recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scientific research are evaluated.

DORA puts into question the use of Journal Impact Factor as a main tool for assessment, and proposes the consideration of various other factors towards more sophisticated and meaningful approaches. DORA is a worldwide initiative covering all scholarly disciplines.

To read the whole declaration, please follow the link: http://am.ascb.org/dora/

The Brazilian initiative PPBio (The Program for Research on Biodiversity) launches a new book based on over a decade of experience in implementing the biodiversity monitoring system RAPELD in the Brazilian Amazon. Richly illustrated and written in simple language, the book "Biodiversity and Integrated Environmental Monitoring" addresses the issues that led to the system development, covering topics such as the spatial organization and representation of biological diversity, environmental monitoring, and data management.

Monitoring of biodiversity is not merely an academic endeavor. Although scientific aspects such as representation of biodiversity and biodiversity data integration, management and preservation are of a great importance, it is also essential to think about the political context in which decisions will be made and how to incorporate political stakeholders and decision makers.

"As this important book makes clear questions about biodiversity are far from purely scientific. Biodiversity matters. Our needs to assess it embed in a complex of questions posed by managers, policy makers and those who live in or otherwise benefit from biodiversity.",  explains Dr Stuart L. Pimm in the preface of the book. "So how do we ensure that data collected now will be useful for purposes we cannot yet imagine at some unexpected time in the future? Or provide comparison to some other place that we might survey some day?"

Those and many more questions regarding biodiversity data management and policy involvement are discussed in the new book "Biodiversity and Integrated Environmental Monitoring".

Policy-makers and science and industry representatives are discussing how to make large amounts of Earth observation data accessible to a wider user community. To explore this idea, some 250 science, industry and policy-making representatives and national delegates from Europe, the US, Australia, China and Africa met at ESA’s ESRIN centre in Frascati, Italy last week for ESA’s first ‘Big Data from Space’ event.

Representatives from ESA and NASA opened the event together with the European Commission. European Commission Directorates-General for Enterprise and Industry, Research and Innovation and Communications Networks, Content and Technology, along with representatives from the European Environment Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Open Geospatial Consortium acted as session chairs. 

Javier de la Torre, representing the EU BON partner Vizzuality gave a presentation 'Global Deforestation through Timeme: Big Data Meets Scalable Visualizations,' which included some of the work Vizzuality is doing toward the EUBON project.

The event concluded with a strong call by all parties for the ability to handle and use big Earth observing data. This could potentially open new opportunities for research and international cooperation schemes such as programmatic and industrial coordination.

A correspondence item, published today, 10 Oct 2013, in Nature focuses on the upcoming calls for Horizon 2020 research funding. The European Commission has said that it would prefer bids from open, collaborative consortia rather than the competitive bids seen in previous funding programmes. The authors call for an effort to forge interdisciplinary links in biodiversity research, and ask readers to contribute to discussions on project ideas.

For more information read the full correspondence item in Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v502/n7470/full/502171d.html

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren (Belgium) is part of the FishBase Consortium and responsible for the information on the fresh- and brackish water fishes of Africa. Through an agreement with the Belgian Development Cooperation and as part of the FishBase programme, the RMCA has five grants available for a 3-month training programme in the use of FishBase and the taxonomy of African fishes.

The training includes three subsets:

1. A detailed explanation of FishBase in all its aspects;
2. A training in the taxonomy of African fishes; and
3. A case study based on data from FishBase or on taxa for which taxonomic problems have been encountered.

The main focus of the training is on fish biodiversity data and their integration into FishBase, and on how to use and contribute data to FishBase. The context of these contributions may vary and can also include the knowledge on common names, fish ecology, fisheries statistics, aquaculture and many other areas of fish biology.

After the training, the participants should be able to make their own contribution to fish biology and continue to work on FishBase. They are encouraged to teach their newly apprehended skills to new/local users, to help in completing the database and keeping it up to date, and to spread the use of FishBase as a source of information and a fisheries tool.

This course has been offered annually since 2005 and is held at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium).

To apply for traineeship and for more information, go to:
http://www.africamuseum.be/research/collaborations/training/group?set_language=en&cl=en

Please note that for 2014, this course will be given in French only.

Contact: Dimitri Geelhand de Merxem (dimitri.geelhand@africamuseum.be)

The Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg offers in cooperation with GEO BON and iDiv the position of Executive Director for the duration of 30 months (initially limited till September 30th, 2016 with possibility of extension). The Executive Director will work in close collaboration with the incoming Chair of the GEO BON Steering Committee, Prof. Henrique M. Pereira (iDiv) and the incoming vice-chair, Dr. Mike Gill (Environment Canada), thematic workgroup coordinators, regional BON coordinators, the GEO BON Steering Committee and the GEO secretariat.

Requirements:
• Ph.D. in ecology or related field
• excellent diploma or master degree in a relevant field
• demonstrable experience in project management with executive leadership in organizations a plus
• excellent communication skills, fluency in English, knowledge of other languages being a plus
• willingness to travel abroad frequently, outgoing and at ease in multicultural backgrounds

Topic/job description:
• Providing visible leadership for GEO BON and representing GEO BON at scientific and policy meetings
• Creating funding opportunities through engagement with potential donors
• Coordinating activities of GEO BON Working Groups and Regional Observation Networks
• Liaising with national and regional organizations involved in biodiversity monitoring and reporting
• Organize the Steering Committee, All-hands and other meetings of GEO BON and manage the communication activities of GEO BON, including a regular newsletter and a website
• Manage, as and when required, activities and inputs requested by the GEO secretariat

Applications should be directed to emily.keller@idiv.de and addressed to Henrique M. Pereira, Professor of Biodiversity Conservation, iDiv. Applications should be in a single PDF file with reference file number (D 189/2013). Applications are accepted until January 6th, 2014.

For more information see attached the full text of the job offer.

Connecting the dots: Integrating Biodiversity Observations to Better Track the CBD 2020 Targets. 

Biodiversity: Journal of Life on Earth invites authors to share their experiences using systematic observations - including remote sensing observations - for monitoring change in biodiversity. The journal envisions submissions focusing on models for blending in-situ and remotely sensed data to fill gaps in the understanding of biodiversity status and trends.Biodiversity would welcome papers from members of the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, working in the wider landscape of data and observation, and from contributors to the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) exploring how Essential Biodiversity Variables could provide a framework for integrating biodiversity data. The journal also welcomes papers related to support offered by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility for implementing the Aichi Targets. 

This special double issue will be published in September 2015, the midpoint of the 2020 mandate of the CBD, and following the release of the 4th edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook at the October 2014 12th meeting of the CBD’s Conference of the Parties (COP-12) in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea.

Prospective authors may wish to refer to UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/17/2, Facilitating the Implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets through Scientific and Technical Means, prepared for the Seventeenth meeting of the CBD’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-17); the SBSTTA-17 report (http://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=SBSTTA-17); and meeting documents for the Expert Workshop on Enhancing Biodiversity Data and Observing Systems in Support of the Implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 (http://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=WS-BDOBS). 

Please submit abstracts (250 words or less) in Times New Roman 12 pt. by 27 November 2014 to the Managing Editor, Vanessa Reid. A special board of editors will review the submitted abstracts. Only approved abstracts will be asked to proceed to final draft (4000-5000 words plus references and figures). Publication will be subject to peer review via Scholar One manuscripts online.

BiodivERsA3 has officially launched its 2015 pan-European joint call for research proposals. The call, co-funded by the European Commission, will focus on understanding and managing the biodiversity dynamics to improve ecosystem services and functioning.

BiodivERsA is a network of 29 research-funding agencies across 18 European countries. It is an ERA-NEt Co-fund, funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. BiodivERsA works to coordinate national research programmes on biodiversity across Europe and to organize international funding for research projects in this field.

The complete announcement on this call, including details on the topics, is listed here.

Scientific teams are invited to form international consortia comprising research groups from at least three countries participating in the BiodivERsA call. The complete list of participating countries can be found here.

The deadline for submission of pre-proposals (mandatory) is set on Monday 20 July 2015, 17:00 GMT +1:00. More information on the time schedule can be found here.

A Special Section: "Conservation in Europe as a model for emerging conservation issues globally" is featured in the Early View module of Conservation Biology online. The section includes: 

Mapping opportunities and challenges for rewilding in Europe

Silvia Ceaușu, Max Hofmann, Laetitia M. Navarro, Steve Carver, Peter H. Verburg and Henrique M. Pereira

John D. C. Linnell, Petra Kaczensky, Ulrich Wotschikowsky, Nicolas Lescureux and Luigi Boitani

DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12534

ecoSERVICES is seeking a new host institution to establish its international project office from 2016. Expressions of interest will be examined with the scientific steering committee on the week of 30 November 2015.

Currently hosted at the Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Ecologie (IMBE) in France, ecoSERVICES is seeking a new host for its international project office from 2016

The ideal host institution works on scientific issues related to biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being, at various scales from local or national to global; and meets a few practical specifications via direct funding or in-kind support for establishment of a fully operational office.

Expressions of interest need to be sent to Karine Payet-Lebourges by email with subject "ecoSERVICES IPO – Offer".

Applications will be examined with the scientific steering committee on the week of 30 November 2015.

More information here.

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren (Belgium) is part of the FishBase Consortium and responsible for the information on the fresh- and brackish water fishes of Africa in the FishBase database. Through an agreement with the Belgian Development Cooperation and as part of the FishBase program, the RMCA has five (5) grants available for a 3-month training program in the use of FishBase and the taxonomy of African fishes.

The training will have three subsets:

1. A detailed explanation of FishBase in all its aspects;
2. A training in the taxonomy of African fishes;
3. A case study based on data from FishBase or on taxa for which taxonomic problems have been encountered.

This course has been offered annually since 2005 and is held at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium). For more information and to apply for this three-month training grant, see: http://fishbase.africamuseum.be or www.fishbaseforafrica.org. Please note that for 2016, this course will be given in French only.

Questions? Contact Dimitri Geelhand de Merxem (dimitri.geelhand@africamuseum.be).

A new EU BON derived paper, publsihed recently in the journal Remote Sensing, introduces eHabitat+, a habitat modelling service supporting the European Commission’s Digital Observatory for Protected Areas.

Abstract:

Protected areas (PAs) need to be assessed systematically according to biodiversity values and threats in order to support decision-making processes. For this, PAs can be characterized according to their species, ecosystems and threats, but such information is often difficult to access and usually not comparable across regions. There are currently over 200,000 PAs in the world, and assessing these systematically according to their ecological values remains a huge challenge. However, linking remote sensing with ecological modelling can help to overcome some limitations of conservation studies, such as the sampling bias of biodiversity inventories. The aim of this paper is to introduce eHabitat+, a habitat modelling service supporting the European Commission’s Digital Observatory for Protected Areas, and specifically to discuss a component that systematically stratifies PAs into different habitat functional types based on remote sensing data. eHabitat+ uses an optimized procedure of automatic image segmentation based on several environmental variables to identify the main biophysical gradients in each PA. This allows a systematic production of key indicators on PAs that can be compared globally. Results from a few case studies are illustrated to show the benefits and limitations of this open-source tool.

Original Source: 

Martínez-López, J.; Bertzky, B.; Bonet-García, F.J.; Bastin, L.; Dubois, G. Biophysical Characterization of Protected Areas Globally through Optimized Image Segmentation and Classification. Remote Sens. 2016, 8, 780. DOI: 0.3390/rs8090780

Just accepted, a new paper in Conservation Letters looks at the barriers and solutions to the use of conservation science in policy. The main data used in the paper are from a global multi-lingual survey filled in by 758 research scientists, practitioners, or people in policy positions, executed as part of the EU BON project.

"The most interesting result from our study is that there is agreement (perhaps surprisingly!) between research scientists, practitioners, and people in policy positions about the main barriers preventing the use of conservation science in policy. Although barriers such as lack of policy relevant science, lack of understanding of science on the part of policy-makers, and limited awareness of policy processes from researchers, featured in the top-ten barriers included in the online survey, they were not the most highly ranked," shares lead author David C. Rose in a dedicated post on his blog Academic Optimism.

Read more in the blog post: https://academicoptimism.wordpress.com/2018/04/22/overcoming-the-barriers-to-the-use-of-conservation-science-in-policy-time-for-action/

The original research is available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12564

Abstract: 

Conservation policy decisions can suffer from a lack of evidence, hindering effective decision‐making. In nature conservation, studies investigating why policy is often not evidence‐informed have tended to focus on Western democracies, with relatively small samples. To understand global variation and challenges better, we established a global survey aimed at identifying top barriers and solutions to the use of conservation science in policy. This obtained the views of 758 people in policy, practice, and research positions from 68 countries across six languages. Here we show that, contrary to popular belief, there is agreement about how to incorporate conservation science into policy, and there is thus room for optimism. Barriers related to the low priority of conservation were considered to be important, while mainstreaming conservation was proposed as a key solution. Therefore, priorities should include the elaboration of public policy pathways with education initiatives that promote the importance of long‐term conservation‐compatible policies.

The SETAC Europe 25^th Annual Meeting will be held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, from 3-7 May 2015.  

The innovative use of chemicals and nanomaterials in new technologies, industry and agriculture challenges many aspects of the ecosystem functioning of the global environment. However, these new technologies and materials also offer opportunities to remediate or minimise these anthropogenic insults. Finding innovative solutions to environmental problems is ever more important in the current economic scenario.  This international conference brings together experts from government, industry, consultancy and academia to meet this challenge. The conference will focus on the most recent advances in environmental sciences and will provide platforms for implementing this knowledge, for improving the protection of our environment and to shape policies from current viewpoints to future needs.

Learn more here: http://barcelona.setac.eu/general_info/welcome!/?contentid=790&pr_id=766&last=769&sub=790

The 2015 AGU Fall Meeting "Earth Observations in Environmental Management & Policy" will take place from 14 to 18 December in San Francisco, CA.

With nearly 24,000 attendees, the AGU Fall Meeting is the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world. Now in its 48th year, the AGU Fall Meeting is the best place to present your research, hear about the latest discoveries, trends, and challenges in the field, and network and make connections that can enhance your career.

For more information see the event's offiicial webpage: http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2015/

The 2016 GEO BON Open Science Conference: "Biodiversity and ecosystem Services Monitoring for the 2020 Targets and beyond. Building on observations for user needs" and the GEO BON ALL-Hands-Meeting will take place from 4 to 9 July 2016 in Leipzig, Germany. Registration for the event is now open!

The GEO BON Open Science Conference & All Hands Meeting will be a major event to bring together all of those interested in developing biodiversity monitoring programs, biodiversity observations research, and sound biodiversity management. The first 2½ days will be organized as an Open Science Conference, with oral and poster presentations in parallel sessions.

There will be also some keynotes from renown speakers. This conference is an opportunity to open GEO BON to anyone interested in joining our community. The second 2½ will be the All Hands Meeting and organized as parallel workshops on specific topics. These workshops may have products (e.g. a guide to monitor an EBV) and/or may lay out a work plan for a working group for 2016-2019. The All Hands Meeting is open to everybody active or wanting to be active in GEO BON.

Deadline abstract submission: 1 April 2016

For more information and to register, please see the official event's page.

BIOTALENT is a multilingual blended e-learning training programme to gain crucial skills and knowledge in biodiversity. Protecting life on earth in all its forms also involves introducing innovative ways to address pressing environmental issues of today. A strong investment in environmental education and a passion for science is therefore essential to this programme.

This one-day event, Taking place on 18 May 2017, in Brussels, will illustrate the uniqueness of the BIOTALENT project and programme in the way environmental education is brought to the course participant. The various expert speakers that are invited are all very passionate about innovation in education and the new ways in which scientific and environmental education can contribute to conserving biodiversity.  

To register and find out more visit the official announcement.

The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982). David’s health situation has made it difficult for our household to maintain this blog. We don’t want it to fade away, though, so we’ve decided to select previous entries from our backlist to republish. These are items that chime with current developments or that we think might languish […]

"They never really called out Russell on certain things, but Bill would call Tom out on everything," Bennett said, comparing the Seahawks and Patriots in the 2010s.

The post Michael Bennett recalled how Bill Belichick treated Tom Brady as harshly as other Patriots appeared first on Boston.com.

“It's something that I'll look back at and bring with me forever."

The post Linus Ullmark relishes his return to TD Garden, especially after beating Bruins  appeared first on Boston.com.

"He puts himself in some bad situations, which he needs to learn from those. But we just love how combative he is."

The post Are the Bruins making the right call sending Matt Poitras to Providence? appeared first on Boston.com.