Google Launches Initiative to Archive Endangered Languages

With rapid growth of  the world-wide-web, the way humans interact and communicate with one another is evolving. However, with this change comes specific obligations to preserve some of the ways of communication that are sadly becoming extinct. Google, the world's most popular search engine company, recognizes this need and in response has launched a website for Endangered Languages.

So what inspired this amazing idea? It all started a couple of years ago, when a group of YouTube users approached Google for help with an endangered-language preservation project they were running on the video site. Google's staff then decided to expand the project and went searching for partners...the rest is history.

"A diverse group of collaborators have already begun to contribute content ranging from 18th century manuscripts to modern teaching tools like video and audio language samples and knowledge-sharing articles" Google said in a post announcing the new site.

This site is already archiving information from more than 3,000 languages.  This includes the Harsusi language, spoken by about 700 people in Oman and the Assiniboine language, spoken natively by fewer than 150 people in parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. This tool will be very valuable in preserving a lot of the aboriginal languages in Canada that are already on the verge of extinction. 

Unfortunately, Google has only been able to archive half of the total number of endangered languages around the world and more work needs to be done. This is why Google has partnered with the First Peoples' Heritage, Language and Culture Council (FPHLCC) (a British-Columbia based Crown corporation) and the Institute for Language Information and Technology at eastern Michigan University. In fact, once the website takes off, Google plans on handing over control of the entire project and these two groups will be responsible for maintaining and expanding the website. 

Google has faith that the First Peoples' Heritage, Language and Culture Council (FPHLCC) in British Columbia can handle the project because of what they have already achieved. Indeed, around the same time Google was developing their website to preserve languages, the FPHLCC was starting to use new technology to aid in the preservation of endangered languages. In fact, they had even begun developing various keyboards that allowed users to type in some 34 languages and 61 dialects present in B.C. alone - many of them spoken by only a handful of people.

A Date with History: 17 yr old Addresses World Leaders at the UN Earth Summit

What would you say if given the opportunity to tell world leaders your thoughts on climate change? For 17 year-old New Zealander, Brittany Trilford, that opportunity became a reality this morning at the Rio+20 Earth Summit. Invited to provide the opening speech, Trilford delivered a polite, but stern address to the 130 heads of state and representatives in attendance. Her demand: Do something.

While watching this Brittany speak I couldn't help but remember the speech by Severn Cullis-Suzuki, daughter of environmentalist David Suzuki, at the Rio Earth Summit in 1993. Her speech was so well done, it became an overnight hit online and she is now known  as "The girl that silenced the world for five minutes". Check it out:

                                       

Lung Powered By Microchip - Harvard Research

Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute are developing microchips comprising the cells and functionality of human organs. These organs-on-a-chip represent an advance that could prove revolutionary for pharmaceutical companies who spend billions of dollars testing new drugs in controversial - and often ineffective - animal trials.

The lung-on-a-chip offers a new in vitro approach to drug screening by mimicking the complicated mechanical and biochemical behaviors of a human lung.

Below is a video of a researcher involved in the project...

Parallel Universes - Time Travel - String Theory

Have you ever thought that other Universes are closer than trillions of light years away? Me too.


Sometimes, scientists feel it is beyond the human mind to envision such massive spaces and more than three dimensions, However, over time theories of Universes and how they interact with one another is becoming more and more understood with the advancements in theoretical physics. 


Below is a really interesting broadcast of Brian Greene being interviewed by Anna Maria Tremonti of CBC radio. Brian Greene wrote the book called a The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos...

If you are looking for a less intense version of the above broadcast, you would like Brian Greene talking with David Letterman on his research of the Universe and string theory.

I find appreciating and understanding astrology and astrophysical research important because without the Universe and planet, there is nothing -and thus no other research matters.

Residents of Spain Saving the Ozone!

When you drive by a greenhouse, do think it could help save the world in any way? So often today the word "greenhouse" is associated with "greenhouse gasses," that we don't associate greenhouses with anything positive for the planet. However, the locals in a province called Almeria in Southern Spain, beg to differ and are using greenhouses to reduce greenhouse gas incubation, and offsetting global warming. 

Since the 1980's, the Almerian people in southern Spain have been developing greenhouses for everyone. In fact, Almeria has the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world, covering 26,000 hectares.

What's so great about greenhouses you ask? Well, they actually reflect a majority of the sunlight back into the atmosphere. This allows for less to sunlight incubate in the towns/cities; reducing the susceptibility of holes in the ozone layer.

The greenhouses built in Spain are reflecting so much sunlight back into the atmosphere that they are actually cooling the province! While temperatures in the rest of Spain have climbed faster than the world average, meteorological observatories located in the so-called 'sea of plastic' have shown a decline of 0.3 degrees per decade. It turns out that the plastic’s white colour acts like a mirror, reflecting sunlight back into the atmosphere before it can reach and heat up the ground. This means that at a local level, the greenhouses offset global warming.

This story is inspiring because it demonstrates the power of collaborative thinking and how each of us can make a difference if we would just work together and have a common goal.

Iconic Cinematographer Amazes With Time-lapse Nature Video

This video is perfect since World Environment Day is this week. It celebrates the incredible beauty nature has to offer and how we can find it in ourselves to feel gratitude for our ability to experience this beauty every day.

The video was created by Louie Schwartzberg, who is an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer whose notable career spans more than three decades providing breathtaking imagery for feature films, television shows, documentaries and commercials.

As a visual artist, Louie has created some of the most iconic and memorable film moments of our time. He is an innovator in the world of time-lapse, nature, aerial and "slice-of-life" photography - the only cinematographer in the world who has literally been shooting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week continuously for more than 30 years.

This piece includes his short film on Gratitude and Happiness. Brother David Steindl-Rast's spoken words, Gary Malkin's musical compositions and Louie's cinematography make this a stunningly beautiful piece, reminding us of the precious gift of life, and the beauty all around us.

Louie was recognized as one of the top 70 Cinematographers for the On Film Kodak Salute Series. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Incredible Animation: How Humans are Changing the Earth's Fate!

This video shows the impact humans are having on the Earth, and in many ways changing it. It is a 3-minute journey through the last 250 years of our history, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global force on an equivalent scale to major geological processes.

 

It is unbelievable how we have spread ourselves out with endless roads and shipping lanes which basically cover the whole thing. In many other videos out there we see see composite pictures of the Earth at night, showing various light of cities, but never before have we seen anything like this. 

So what now?! Well, as the population continues to grow to nine-billion, we must think about how to find a safe operating space for humanity, for the sake of future generations -welcome to the Anthropocene.

This video was produced for the Planet Under Pressure Conference, and at the heart of it is a beautiful animation produced by Globaïa.

Learn more at: Anthropocene.info

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Fish Oil Prevents Blindness - New Research!

A research team at the University of Alberta has discovered that an omega-3 fatty acid in fish prevents the accumulation of a toxin called lipofuscin, which can lead to age-related vision loss.

As people age, retina function progressively declines and A2E, a component of the toxin lipofuscin, builds up in the retinal pigment epithelial cells. These events are usually worse in people who have age-related retinal diseases, such as macular degeneration.

At the University of Alberta, a team of investigators under the direction of Yves Sauve, a researcher in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, conducted studies in mice and discovered that those fed DHA (found in fish oil) did not accumulate the lipofuscin and its compound. Lipofuscin, a brownish pigment left over from the breakdown of damaged blood cells, is also known as the aging pigment.

Sauve noted that this toxin increases twofold as people age. In their lab tests, however, "there was no increase in this toxin whatsoever. Note that this has never been demonstrated before -that supplementing the diet with DHA could make this kind of difference."

“This discovery could result in a very broad therapeutic use,” says Sauve, whose work was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.

The team has now started another study, looking at people who have age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition that results in the loss of central vision and is the main cause of blindness in those over the age of 50. The researchers will look for DNA markers in the blood of study participants. The team wants to determine if participants with certain genetic markers will respond better to increasing amounts of DHA in their diet and if so, why.