Thursday, August 21, 2014
Video: SECNAV Ray Mabus Holds All Hands on USS America
Video: CJCS General Martin Dempsey “Hoops for Troops” at NBA Ceremony
2014- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey joined Commissioner of the National Basketball Association Adam Silver last night in New York City to discuss the commitment to the “Hoops for Troops” program.
CONCERT ENSURES ANIMALS WON’T SING THE BLUES
Blues for the Zoo Benefit Concert Raises Funds for Big Bear Alpine Zoo
BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif./ August 21, 2014 – The blues is a powerful form of music that is known for its healing ability. On Saturday, September 27 the 5th Annual Blues for the Zoo benefit concert brings the healing power of the blues to help 
raise funds for Big Bear Alpine Zoo’s rehabilitation programs for orphaned and injured alpine wildlife.“We’re very grateful for Blues for the Zoo because the funds we get from the concert tremendously help care for our animals, including our newest resident snow leopard sisters and our grizzly bear family,” said Big Bear Alpine Zoo Curator Debbie Richardson.
The concert that features world-class blues musicians takes place at Swim Beach Outdoor Amphitheater’s lakeside stage. Headlining this year’s benefit concert is internationally recognized blues band the Otis Taylor Band, which is known for its unique blend of Delta blues and free-style jazz mixed with improvised jams to create a distinctive form of blues known as trance blues. The Otis Taylor Band includes an electrifying fiddle player, a solid rhythm section, a guitarist who plays steel guitar as well as slide guitar and band leader Otis Taylor occasionally picks up a banjo to add to the band’s eccentric style of blues. Taylor who broke into the blues scene in the late 1990s is known for his intriguing and creative songwriting ability that explores the African-American experience.
“Otis Taylor is an amazing artist. He brings a very unique style of blues and concertgoers are in for a real treat!” said Big Bear Events Resource Office Director Rick Bates.
Bonne Musique Zydeco gets the concert started with its very danceable Louisiana bayou-influenced music. The fast-tempo music includes traditional zydeco instruments such as button accordion and washboard. Janiva Magness performs second on the bill. Magness is an incendiary vocalist who delivers scorching intensity with a dose of personal introspection.
Blues for the Zoo is Saturday, September 27 at Swim Beach Outdoor Amphitheater, located at41220 Park Ave. in Big Bear Lake. Gates openat 11 a.m. The concert is from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.Ticket prices are $30 in advance or $35 at the gate. Children 10 and under are free with a paying adult. Parking is $4. The concert features a selection of local arts and crafts and a freshly prepared food and beverage menu. Beach chairs and blankets are welcome for festival-style lawn seating. No coolers or pets allowed. For full details about Blues for the Zoo visit www.bluesforthezoo.com. To purchase tickets in advance or to book lodging and ticket packages log onto www.bigbear.com or call800-424-4232. You may also purchase tickets at the Big Bear Visitor Center, 630 Bartlett Road or Big Bear Alpine Zoo, 43285 Goldmine Dr. in Big Bear Lake.
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New Senate Report: Is the New G.I. Bill Working? For-Profit Colleges Increasing Veteran Enrollment and Federal Funds
The
Obama administration and the Democratic members of the Senate Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee are concerned about
whether federal student aid is being used effectively to graduate
postsecondary students with degrees or certificates that prepare them
for entry into high-skill, high-demand occupations. These officials
have been looking at institutions with high dropout rates and those
whose students accumulate student debt in excess of their ability to
repay their loans. To address one part of this issue, veterans’
educational benefits, the committee released the report Is the New G.I. Bill Working? For-Profit Colleges Increasing Veteran Enrollment and Federal Funds.
Three
years ago, according to the report, the HELP Committee determined that,
of the top 10 recipients of veterans’ education benefits under the
Post-9/11 GI Bill, eight were large, publicly traded companies operating
for-profit colleges. Now, in the program’s fourth year, analysis finds
that enrollment of veterans in for-profit colleges has again increased
substantially, even though overall for-profit college enrollment has
declined.
Financially,
the report notes that, “Taxpayers continue to spend twice as much on
average to send a veteran to a for-profit college,” even as up to
two-thirds of the total students who enrolled at these for profit
colleges in 2008–09 terminated their studies without a degree or a
diploma. There also is the concern that some for-profit college
companies are increasing their dependence on veterans funds “to comply
with federal requirements intended to ensure that these companies do not
become overly reliant on federal education resources.”
In
addition to these general findings, other specific discoveries are
causing concern among the committee members. Examples of these include
the following:
- In 2009, 62 percent of veterans attended a public college. That percentage dropped to 50 percent in 2013. The percentage of veterans enrolled in for-profit colleges increased from 23 to 31 percent over that same time period.
- From the 2009–10 to the 2012–13 school years, the number of veterans attending for-profit colleges and the amount of benefits those colleges received increased more than at other institutions of higher education.
- The yearly burden on taxpayers is twice as high, on average, to send a veteran to a for-profit college as compared to a public college or university ($7,972 versus $3,914).
- For the 2012–13 school year, Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits in the amount of $1.7 billion went to for-profit colleges. This was nearly the entire program cost in 2009.
These
and other HELP Committee concerns are detailed in this report, and show
why the for-profit higher education sector has become increasingly
controversial in recent years.
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NSF Announces $18M in Funding for ThreeRegional Science and Engineering Partnerships
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently announced funding
for three science and engineering research groups that will build
regional partnerships in Nebraska-Kansas, Arkansas-Missouri, and
Louisiana-Mississippi. Each of these partnerships will receive Research
Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-2 awards of up to $6 million through NSF's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).
This program establishes regional partnerships with government, higher
education, and industry to improve state and regional research
infrastructure, and research and development capacity, as well as
academic competitiveness. Adult education providers, including community
colleges, the workforce community, ED’s federal partners, and others
may wish to explore these partnership activities for potential
application to their own work.
According
to the announcement, these awards will fund researchers from 20
universities over a three-year period to undertake nationally
significant scientific challenges. Each group will implement
region-specific activities “for developing a scientifically literate
workforce and broadening participation of underrepresented groups in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).” According to
Denise Barnes, head of EPSCoR, “These consortia will spur technological
innovations that drive economic growth and develop a diverse
STEM-enabled workforce."
Following are brief descriptions of the work that the three teams will be doing:
Nebraska-Kansas:
Areas of study for this consortium will be laser technology and atomic,
molecular, and optical research. Education, outreach, and workforce
development activities will involve partnerships with small colleges in
those states, summer workshops for high school physics teachers, and
several student programs.
Louisiana-Mississippi:
This group will focus on developing “new experimental and computational
tools” to develop polymers for “medicine and material science.” It will
work to strengthen regional economic competitiveness by building a
diverse STEM workforce.
Arkansas-Missouri:
This consortium “will promote STEM education and workforce development
through training activities for teachers, undergraduate and graduate
students, and faculty members.” Their research will focus on plant
science for “food security and agricultural sustainability.”
Please
visit NSF’s EPSCoR website for more detailed information on these
funding partnerships as well as state team and NSF program contact
information.
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OCTAE Welcomes Lul Tesfai
OCTAE
is pleased to welcome Lul Tesfai who joined our staff as a special
assistant in July.Before joining OCTAE, Tesfai was a policy consultant
for the California Senate Office of Research. In this role, she
evaluated how well the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation vocational training programs improved employment
opportunities for ex-offenders and aligned with the workforce needs of
state and regional economies. Tesfai began her career in education as a
Teach For America corps member in San Francisco. Prior to attending
graduate school, she was an educational consultant to the San Francisco
Unified School District, where she helped to build and sustain student
achievement growth in poor performing schools on the verge of closure.
As a graduate fellow in the office of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel,
Tesfai worked on a number of education, urban, and social policy issues,
including Chicago’s Cradle-to-Career Initiative. She is committed to
ensuring educational equity for students of all ages and working to
diminish the predictive power of demographics. Tesfai has a bachelor’s
in political science and international studies from Northwestern
University and a master’s in public policy from the Goldman School of
Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. In her free
time, she enjoys rock climbing and trying out new Crock-Pot recipes.
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Gap Between Higher- and Lower-Wealth Households Widens, Census Bureau Reports
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U.S. Conducts Airstrikes Against ISIL near Mosul Dam
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2014 - U.S. military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in support of Iraqi Security Force operations, using fighter and attack aircraft to conduct six airstrikes in the vicinity of the Mosul Dam, according to a U.S. Central Command news release issued today.
The strikes destroyed or damaged three ISIL Humvees, one ISIL vehicle, and multiple IED emplacements. All aircraft exited the strike area safely.
These strikes were conducted under authority to support Iraqi security forces and Kurdish defense force operations, as well as to protect critical infrastructure, U.S. personnel and facilities, and support humanitarian efforts.
Since Aug. 8, U.S. Central Command has conducted a total of 90 airstrikes across Iraq. Of those 90 strikes, 57 have been in support of Iraqi forces near the Mosul Dam.
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WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2014 - U.S. military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in support of Iraqi Security Force operations, using fighter and attack aircraft to conduct six airstrikes in the vicinity of the Mosul Dam, according to a U.S. Central Command news release issued today.
The strikes destroyed or damaged three ISIL Humvees, one ISIL vehicle, and multiple IED emplacements. All aircraft exited the strike area safely.
These strikes were conducted under authority to support Iraqi security forces and Kurdish defense force operations, as well as to protect critical infrastructure, U.S. personnel and facilities, and support humanitarian efforts.
Since Aug. 8, U.S. Central Command has conducted a total of 90 airstrikes across Iraq. Of those 90 strikes, 57 have been in support of Iraqi forces near the Mosul Dam.
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Supernova Seen In Two Lights
Supernova Seen In Two Lights
The destructive results of a mighty supernova explosion reveal themselves in a delicate blend of infrared and X-ray light, as seen in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton.
The bubbly cloud is an irregular shock wave, generated by a supernova that would have been witnessed on Earth 3,700 years ago. The remnant itself, called Puppis A, is around 7,000 light-years away, and the shock wave is about 10 light-years across.
The pastel hues in this image reveal that the infrared and X-ray structures trace each other closely. Warm dust particles are responsible for most of the infrared light wavelengths, assigned red and green colors in this view. Material heated by the supernova's shock wave emits X-rays, which are colored blue. Regions where the infrared and X-ray emissions blend together take on brighter, more pastel tones.
The shock wave appears to light up as it slams into surrounding clouds of dust and gas that fill the interstellar space in this region.
From the infrared glow, astronomers have found a total quantity of dust in the region equal to about a quarter of the mass of our sun. Data collected from Spitzer's infrared spectrograph reveal how the shock wave is breaking apart the fragile dust grains that fill the surrounding space.
Supernova explosions forge the heavy elements that can provide the raw material from which future generations of stars and planets will form. Studying how supernova remnants expand into the galaxy and interact with other material provides critical clues into our own origins.
Infrared data from Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer (MIPS) at wavelengths of 24 and 70 microns are rendered in green and red. X-ray data from XMM-Newton spanning an energy range of 0.3 to 8 kiloelectron volts are shown in blue.
Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/IAFE
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On August 21, 1959, Hawaii joined the Union. Happy anniversary to the 50th state
On August 21, 1959, Hawaii joined the Union. Happy anniversary to the 50th state!
Photo of Kīlauea Point Lighthouse in the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge by Raul Ruiz (www.sharetheexperience.org).
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