More Than 100 Nobel Laureates Have Signed A Letter Urging Greenpeace To End Its Opposition To Genetically

Neil deGrasse Tyson lays down some rainbow facts in honor of Pride and Pulse. If you couldn’t love him enough already.

“You should socialize.” “Aren’t you lonely?” “So, you’re socially awkward?" These are a few of the things introverts hear quite often. Thankfully we have Tumblr, which has time and again nailed the emotions, perks and struggles of having an introverted personality. Like this perfect GIF for dealing with small talk.

Inside the new MTA K-9 training center in Stormville, New York

At a sprawling campus north of New York City, a 3-year-old German Shepherd named Johnny frantically sniffed through seats and luggage bins on an out-of-service commuter rail train trying to catch a whiff of hidden explosive.

When Johnny found a black bag with the faint scent of C-4, commonly used to blow up buildings, he sat statue-still at attention, alerting handler Kevin Pimpinelli of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police to his discovery. In return, Pimpinelli rewarded him with a prized chew toy.

“In the real world, he can find the explosive before it gets on the train,” Pimpinelli said. "Our job is to try to prevent that device getting in.”

Johnny is one of 50 of the transit authority’s police dogs being trained at its $13 million, 72-acre training center in Stormville, New York, about 70 miles (113 km) north of New York City.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority operates subways, buses, and railroads in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and provides more than 2.7 billion trips each year to travelers, according to the agency’s website.

The canine training center, the biggest facility of its kind in the United States, begins full operations on June 8, 2016,  and will train dogs used by police across the nation.

Amid attacks including the March bombing of a Brussels train station and airport, which killed 32 people, U.S. police agencies see highly trained dogs as key to maintaining security in large public spaces.

Their sharp sense of smell exceeds the ability of humans and machines to detect explosives and track suspects.

“The importance of this facility is growing daily because we get more threats daily,” said MTA Police Lieutenant John Kerwick, who oversees the agency’s police-dog training operations.

The dogs are carefully selected. Only about one in 30 dogs assessed at breeders are chosen for the canine police force. The dogs are mainly German Shepherds like Johnny or Belgian Malinois, high-energy breeds known for a strong desire to work.

HIGHLY TRAINED SNIFFERS

Those handpicked few are trained to detect threats such as explosives or contraband including narcotics, said David Ferland, who heads the United States Police Canine Association (USPCA).

The MTA dog training facility includes rooms modeled after classrooms and bus stations, 26 kennels and a veterinary clinic. Outside, there are nine buses, ponds and train cars at the end of a retired Metro North railroad track. All are used to train the dogs.

While there is no central database tracking the number of police dogs in service in the United States, the USPCA estimates the figure at about 10,000.

Ferland said interest in training police dogs has risen dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, evidence of a sense of urgency in combating similar threats.

“Before 9/11, there were only a handful of these training sites,” Ferland said. “Now, there are training facilities an hour’s drive from every major city in the U.S.”

The Stormville facility will offer initial 12-week courses where dogs learn to detect explosives and the refresher courses that dogs are required to take each month.

The canines are exposed to heights, loud noises, fumes, moving vehicles and other distractions they would face on the job.

Typically they work until about the age of 10, after which they normally go on to live as pets in their primary handlers’ homes.

“They’re like family,” said Officer Keith Flood with his three-year-old black Shepherd-Malinois mix named Doc, after finishing a training exercise. (Reuters)

See more images of the K-9 training center on Yahoo News!

Solar System: Things to Explore on Your Phone This Week

Let our apps lead you on a journey of exploration across the Earth, through the solar system and beyond. Here are some to download today:

1. Actually, it is rocket science Rocket Science 101 let’s you select your favorite mission and build a rocket to take you to destinations near and far. Learn how launch vehicles are configured and how their boosters and other component parts work together to successfully launch spacecraft. 

iOS Google Play

2. Go to Mars (sort of) Be A Martian lets you experience Mars as if you were there! Join an international community of explorers. See the latest images of the Red Planet! Learn about Mars, ask questions, and check out behind-the-scenes videos of the missions.

iOS Google Play

3. All the Earth science With Earth Now, watch Earth science satellites in real time as they gather data about our home planet. Get real-time images of the places we call home. Check out global climate data, including surface air temperature, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and sea level variations.

iOS Google Play

4. Pretty pictures Discover stunning images and videos of our planet Earth, space, stars and planets with Space Images. Find your favorite galaxies and explore our celestial neighborhood.

iOS Google Play

5. Ch-ch-ch-changes Images of Change give you a close-up view of our ever-changing planet. Inside this app, before and after image pairs show areas that have been subject to natural disasters or seen significant change over time.

iOS

Last but not least: NASA on the go With our official NASA app, explore and discover the latest images, videos, mission information, news, feature stories, tweets, NASA TV and featured content from across America’s space program.

iOS Google Play

Our apps let you explore our latest images, videos,and mission news.

Discover the full list of 10 apps showcasing our solar system this week HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Source: Wasted in Engineering : Story of India's Youth Sharing thoughts of the writer: \\\\‘If you study engineering, you will have a good future.’ This is a claim often repeated to children and teenagers by parents and teachers in many parts of India. But only those who have gone through an engineering college life know that it’s not completely true.

There is a difference between calling yourself as an engineering graduate and an engineer. India produces millions of engineering graduates like you and me but only very few of us are actual engineers. Many of us just graduate with an engineering degree, with an artistic dream in mind.

What do you think is the difference between engineers in many countries around the world and engineers from India? In other countries, if David Pascal studied electrical engineering in college, few years later you can find him working as an electrical engineer. In India, if Ram Krishnamurthy studied electrical engineering, few years later you can find him working in a completely irrelevant field like software coding, banking, photography and even movie directing.

This book is not about the few engineering students in your class who love engineering. I don’t hate them. In fact, I am very jealous that they study what they love. This book is about the majority of engineering graduates whose lives are wasted in engineering and is intended to tell you why you should make an attempt in pursuing your real passion, instead of being suffocated under the weight of an engineering degree.

This is a story of India’s Youth. Welcome to India, the land of Wasted Engineers.///

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To buy the book 'Wasted in Engineering', use the link http://goo.gl/Ia7l7zfor Amazon and http://goo.gl/a29ph8 for Flipkart.

Check out this robotic hand which can touch and feel, improving perception and reflexes for its user. [ Δ ]

What's Wrong with Cultural Appropriation? These 9 Answers Reveal Its Harm

If cultural appropriation doesn't seem like a big deal to you, you're missing something big. Here's what you need to know.

1. It Trivializes Violent Historical Oppression

2. It Lets People Show Love for the Culture, But Remain Prejudiced Against Its People

3. It Makes Things ‘Cool’ for White People – But ‘Too Ethnic’ for People of Color

4. It Lets Privileged People Profit from Oppressed People’s Labor

5. It Lets Some People Get Rewarded for Things the Creators Never Got Credit For

6. It Spreads Mass Lies About Marginalized Cultures

7. It Perpetuates Racist Stereotypes

8. White People Can Freely Do What People of Color Were Actively Punished for Doing

9. It Prioritizes the Feelings of Privileged People Over Justice for Marginalized People

“If you’re wondering what the big deal is about cultural appropriation, I’ve got you covered.

Read on for some perspective on why people might get upset if you borrow from another culture.”

Read the whole article on @evrydayfeminism at: http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/06/cultural-appropriation-wrong/

WATCH THE FULL SPEECH: Caitlyn Jenner Takes ESPYs By Storm: ‘Trans People Deserve Something Vital. They Deserve Your Respect’

Defining "rape culture"

A rape culture is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women.

It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself.

A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm.

~ Rape culture is encouraging male sexual aggression.

~ Rape culture is regarding violence as sexy and sexuality as violent.

~ Rape culture is treating rape as a compliment, as the unbridled passion stirred in a healthy man by a beautiful woman, making irresistible the urge to rip open her bodice or slam her against a wall, or a wrought-iron fence, or a car hood, or pull her by her hair, or shove her onto a bed, or any one of a million other images of fight-fucking in movies and television shows and on the covers of romance novels that convey violent urges are inextricably linked with (straight) sexuality.

~ Rape culture is encouraging men to use the language of rape to establish dominance over one another ("I'll make you my bitch").

~ Rape culture is making rape a ubiquitous part of male-exclusive bonding.