Starting at 11 a.m., students, faculty and their families congregated in front of Jordan Hall to watch the first total solar eclipse the United States has seen since 1979. The event, hosted by the physics department and officially running from noon to 4 p.m., offered visitors views of the sun from three telescopes, and organizers passed out free specialized sunglasses for safely watching the eclipse. The first “contact” of the moon with the sun at Notre Dame was at 12:57 p.m., and the eclipse lasted until 3:44 p.m., according to the College of Science’s website. ANDREW CAMERON | The Observer While Notre Dame’s campus was over 200 miles north of the eclipse’s path of totality (where the sun is completely obscured by the moon), spectators were able to see roughly 89 percent coverage as the eclipse reached its “totality” (maximum coverage for the area) at 2:22 p.m. Additionally, two of the classrooms in Jordan held viewings of NASA’s live stream of the eclipse, and physics professor Grant Mathews gave a short lecture on the phenomenon and its importance as the eclipse neared totality.Among the many volunteers present, helping with the telescopes, handing out glasses and answering questions about the eclipse, Ben Rose, a sixth-year physics Ph.D. student, expressed his satisfaction with the event.“It’s a little bigger than we were expecting,” he said. “Some people were proposing some incredible numbers, and we haven’t quite reached those yet, but it’s definitely up there on the higher levels of what we were expecting. I would call it a great success, because we were able to engage all these people and talk to them about the eclipse.”Rose said that hosting an event for such a rare astronomical phenomenon was important for multiple reasons.“One is getting the community to interact with scientists — getting them to understand what they do and what they think and who they are,” Rose said. “Because scientists are trying to learn new things and communicate with people, and if you don’t trust the people who are doing the investigations, then you can’t trust the results, so I think it’s just always a good thing to get scientists out of the labs and into the community. “The eclipse in particular is great for our country, because it’s going coast to coast and everyone will get to see something. Because of something that universal, I think we really need to do something with it — it’s something everyone is going to experience, and it’s a great way to explain scientific techniques, and a great way to explain with a practical thing you can see.”Sophomore Amanda Ferraro came to the event early to get glasses. She said she came because she is “really interested in science and astronomy, so it’s really cool to experience something that only happens once in such a long time.”Fortunately, the weather proved not to be a major issue, and the large crowd applauded as the sun became visible just as a cloud passed. Many viewers lingered for some time after totality passed, but the large crowd quickly thinned. After the event, physics professor and one of the primary organizers of the event, Grant Mathews, said the event exceeded his expectations.“We set up the telescopes behind Jordan Hall, and handed out as many eclipse glasses as we had, which wasn’t quite enough for the crowd,” he said. “We had a little more people than we thought we would — between three and four thousand people. Personally, I thought a thousand, maybe two thousand, but it was great … It’s just beautiful to see the sun and the machinery of the heavens. One of the telescopes wasn’t working, and so I spent a long time trying to get it working. It had kind of a festive atmosphere, and we even had a cheer right when the cloud passed right when totality hit.”Tags: College of Science, Physics department, solar eclipse
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NDVotes outlines plans for year
With the 2016 election a thing of the past, NDVotes will shift its focus to encouraging voter education and civic engagement amongst the University’s student body.Coming off of a presidential election year, NDVotes is looking for new ways to keep students engaged in the political process, NDVotes co-chair and junior Kylie Ruscheinski said.“Voter registration is what founded NDVotes, but at its core, it’s also about voter education,” she said. Past iterations of the club existed during the 2008 and 2012 elections, Ruscheinski said, but weren’t active in the years in between. This time, the group will be sticking around. NDVotes will aim to keep students consistently engaged in the political world, as opposed to only during major elections, Ruscheinski said. “Being an educated voter and an active citizen is not a cycle,” she said. “It doesn’t stop.”This year, NDVotes will continue to focus on its mission of helping students become registered voters, Ruscheinski said. In 2016, from November through January, nearly 3,500 people signed up through the NDTurbovote portal, either to register to vote or to request an absentee ballot. The group also ran a competition between dorms to register the highest percentage of voters and helped first-year students register to vote during Welcome Weekend. NDVotes will continue to frequently set up a table in the LaFortune Student Center in order to provide assistance with the voter registration process, Ruscheinski said. In addition to voter registration, NDVotes seeks to encourage non-partisan political discussion, education and civic engagement. Ruscheinski said possible discussion topics for future events include foreign policy, nuclear policy, voter apathy and the role of religion in politics. “This past election in particular sparked a new interest [in politics] in our age group,” she said. “ … A lot of key issues that affect 20-year-olds on a regular basis were overlooked.” These topics could be a place where the group helps fill the gap, providing a forum for students to discuss and learn about the issues which impact their lives the most, senior and NDVotes co-chair Andrew Pott said.“Another focus is getting more variety in speakers,” he said. The majority of speakers at past NDVotes events have been from the department of political science. Bringing in professors and other faculty speakers from departments in areas such as business, engineering, science and law could attract “totally different audiences,” than the more politically-oriented speakers, Pott said.Another plan NDVotes has for this year is to set up spaces in which students can gain experience having conversations about political topics, Pott said. These spaces would give students a stress-free, non-partisan environment in which they could practice engaging in political discourse.“There are a lot of people that generally want to know more about politics, but don’t know where to start or how to talk about it,” he said.Tags: NDVotes, political discourse, voter registration
New York’s Governor Talks Future Of Recreational Marijuana Legalization
Cropped Paxson Woelber / The Alaska Landmine / CC BY 2.0 ALBANY – New York’s Governor this week discussed what the future of legalizing recreational marijuana, this after neighboring New Jersey approved a similar measure.“New Jersey did it on the ballot, which, in retrospect, I think was probably, turned out to be the faster way to do it,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said during an interview on WAMC Radio’s The Roundtable with Alan Chartock.Medical use of marijuana was already legal in the Garden State, but the legislature was unable to pass a bill to fully legalize cannabis.Instead, state lawmakers decided to put the question directly to voters in the form of a referendum. Under the ballot measure approved by voters, marijuana would be legal for personal use by adults 21 and older.The commission that currently regulates the medical marijuana market in the state would also manage the recreational use market.The Governor, who supports legalizing marijuana for recreational use, said he thinks the state will “get there” in 2021, called it the “right policy,” and said “the state is going to be desperate for funding.”“The question becomes about the money, about the distribution, and the power… who gets the licenses and who gets the money,” he said.Last year, New York decriminalized recreational marijuana but stopped short of legalizing, regulating and taxing it.New York State enacted its medical marijuana program in 2014.Arizona and South Dakota also voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Share:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats Prowls Into the London Palladium
The composer is even altering two of the numbers for the latest West End incarnation. Lloyd Webber told The Daily Mail: “Today Rum Tum Tugger should be a street cat and so that gives us a great dance opportunity and I must say that I never liked what I did with Growltiger’s Last Stand…so we’re having a go at that.” View Comments We’re positively purring at this news! Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats is returning to the West End this Christmas. The tuner will play a limited three month engagement at the London Palladium, beginning in early December. Casting will be announced shortly. Cats ran for 21 years in London and 18 years on Broadway, where it won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical. Based on T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, the musical tells the story of the Jellicle cats and each cat’s individual quest to be selected as the lucky one that will ascend to “the heavyside layer.” In their desire to be chosen to rise above to cat heaven, each cat sings his or her story. Cats features the Billboard top 40 hit “Memory.” The production will be based on the current U.K. touring show, which all the original creative team are involved with. Director Trevor Nunn, designer John Napier, choreographer Gillian Lynne and Lloyd Webber will be overseeing the transfer, with Chrissie Cartwright, long term associate director of Cats, working with Nunn and Lynne in re-directing the production for the Palladium.
Odds & Ends: Lin-Manuel Miranda Explains Himself & More
Star Files Here’s a quick roundup of stories you may have missed today and over the weekend. Miranda Takes Us Into the Room Where It Happened“Genius” is a word that’s been frequently associated with Lin-Manuel Miranda of late, so it’s perhaps fitting that the creator and star of Hamilton can now be found on the website Genius. The online “knowledge base” allows users to break down song lyrics with line-by-line annotations, and the Tony winner himself has now released his notes on the numbers featured in his gargantuan Broadway hit. It’s like being in the room where the tuner’s creation happened!Perfect Holiday Present for Broadway LoversIt’s almost that most wonderful time of the year and once again those folks over at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS have the perfect answer for all your listening needs. The King and I’s Kelli O’Hara and Ruthie Ann Miles, along with Fun Home’s Beth Malone, Hamilton’s Leslie Odom, Jr., Beautiful’s Chilina Kennedy and many more have contributed to Broadway’s Carols for a Cure, Volume 17. The two-disc CD is now on sale, so what are you waiting for?!Neil LaBute’s Latest Job TitlePlaywright Neil LaBute has been named showrunner for upcoming Syfy series Van Helsing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new show will focus on Vanessa Helsing, the next in a long line of vampire-fighting warriors. Production will kick off in Vancouver in January; the 13-episode first season is set to begin airing in the fall of 2016.The Force is Strong With the Harris-Burtka FamilyAs we all know by now, Tony winner Neil Patrick Harris, his husband, Broadway alum David Burtka, and their cuter-than-words kiddos Gideon and Harper are the reigning royal family when it comes to magnificent Halloween costumes. This year was no exception—check out their Star Wars themed outfits below. The Force is strong with this clan! View Comments
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Identity theft
• Monitor your credit report. It contains your SSN, present and past employers and a listing of all account numbers, including closed accounts. Watch for new accounts or activity on existing accounts you didn’t approve. An ever growing problemEach year, more than 500,000 Americans are victims of identity theft. According to the Federal Trade Commission, people whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years and thousands of dollars cleaning up the mess it causes. Victims of identity theft can lose job opportunities, be refused loans or housing, and even get arrested for crimes they didn’t commit. Once you’ve taken these precautions, watch for signs that your information is being misused. If you see signs, file a report with the police. Be sure to keep a copy of the police report to give to companies who need proof of a crime. By April SorrowUniversity of GeorgiaIn a single day you might write a check for daycare, charge a lunch bill, rent a car, change cable providers and apply for a credit card. These everyday transactions can give a con artist all the tools he needs to assume your identity and wreck your credit. “Identity theft is the fastest growing form of fraud in Georgia and across the country,” said Michael Rupured, a University of Georgia Cooperative Extension consumer financial expert. • Shred old bank statements and junk mail credit card offers before throwing them away. • Limit sharing your SSN. Don’t print it on checks or use it on ID cards. Check your Social Security Earnings and Benefits statement once a year to check for fraud. • Don’t carry extra credit cards or other important identity documents except when needed. Cancel unused credit card accounts. • Never give your credit card number or personal information over the phone unless you have initiated the call and trust that business. Tell the FTC if your identity has been stolen. This can help law enforcement officials across the nation track down thieves and stop them. The FTC can refer victims’ complaints to other government agencies and companies for further action, as well as investigate companies for violations of laws the agency enforces. Complaints can be filed online at www.ftc.gov/idtheft.
Contact the Department of Motor Vehicles and Social Security office and follow its procedures to cancel documents and get a replacement. Ask the agency to flag your file so that no one else can get a driver’s license or any other identification document in your name. Call the toll-free fraud number of any of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies and place an initial fraud alert. This will help stop someone from opening new credit accounts in your name. For less than $15, you can place a freeze on your credit information that blocks access to your credit report. Contact Equifax at 1-800-525-6285, www.equifax.com; Experian at 1-888-EXPERIAN, www.experian.com; and TransUnion at 1-800-680-7289, www.transunion.com. • Use secure computing methods to deter hackers from obtaining your information. Use safe passwords and change them often. Close accounts, call FTCIf you think your personal information may have gotten into the wrong hands, the FTC suggests closing credit card and bank accounts immediately. When opening new accounts, place passwords on them. When creating passwords, don’t use your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your SSN, your phone number or a series of consecutive numbers. • Remove your name from the marketing lists of the three consumer credit reporting agencies. Call 1-888-5-OPTOUT to remove your name from the list for two years. This will reduce the number of preapproved credit offers you receive. Add your name to the list of name-deletions of the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service and Telephone Preference Service used by banks and other marketers. Visit www.junkstopper.com to learn the addresses of where to send name removal requests. • Make copies of the contents of your wallet. Copy both sides of your driver’s license and credit cards. Thieves can get the information they need from stealing business records, mailed statements, through a phishing e-mail scam or by digging through trash. With a few account numbers, a Social Security number, address and phone number, a thief is equipped to assume someone’s identity. Follow this adviceThe risk of identity theft can never be completely eliminated, he said. But to improve the chances of avoiding it:
Investing in Cyber Defense is Essential for Brazil’s Future
By Marcos Ommati/Diálogo October 12, 2017 Brazilian Air Force Major General Reis Tavares, the deputy director of International Affairs at the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, was Brazil’s representative at the 2017 South American Defense Conference (SOUTHDEC). The general moderated a panel discussion on cyberattacks. Among other important information, he said that in the last two years there has been an increase of more than 270 percent in cyberattacks on corporate and government websites. To discuss this and other matters, Diálogo spoke with Maj. Gen. Reis during the event, held in the Peruvian capital of Lima from August 22nd to 24th.Diálogo: During the panel discussion, you talked a lot about the compartmentalization of information, saying that it would be essential for tackling the issue of cyberattacks. What is missing for this information sharing to actually occur?Major General Reis Tavares, the deputy director of International Affairs at the Brazilian Ministry of Defense: What’s happening is that there is an increasing need to do this. So this conference is now a mechanism of goodwill, good faith, by the countries to identify those needs. It’s not that anything is missing but we have to complement our intentions. The next step, in the bilateral sense, is for each country to state its needs and share that information. And how will we share? In what way? Only through mutual trust. Every country has its own mechanism for bilateral meetings. That’s why we have to exchange and share experiences, training, courses, technical visits, and since we’re going to go operational with cyber specialists, surely they’ll find the most suitable paths for the information to arrive at the right time in order to counter an on-scene threat inside the nation’s critical infrastructure.Diálogo: Do you feel that Brazil has improved its capabilities in this regard after having hosted the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016?Maj. Gen. Reis: Certainly, the country’s [readiness] level has jumped by at least one level from where it was before. Without making comparisons, I believe Brazil has learned a lot and reformulated its own doctrine in terms of cyberdefense, and logically, it has established protocols for large-scale world events such as the Olympics, for example. There have been a lot of lessons learned in terms of information sharing. Therefore, I believe that future specialist forums will be a great tool for each nation in the region to exchange information and experiences. During today’s panel, we identified how Argentina, the United States, and Uruguay have established their own models, adapting them to the laws of their nations. So, of course, a process, a point identified in the other nation, can be useful to Brazil, and vice versa. But Brazil certainly grew a lot and learned a lot from the Olympic Games.Diálogo: The Brazilian government has announced a 40 percent budget cut that mainly affects the Armed Forces. How do you balance the books and keep investing in what many consider to be the next war, meaning cyber warfare?Maj. Gen. Reis: As a new military capacity, cyber warfare has to be included in our Armed Forces budget, and it has also been placed within the regulatory framework for Brazil’s development in the field of cybernetics. Back in 2012, we saw that the strategic defense systems project was established precisely through a specific budgetary action for that kind of investment because we don’t see it as an expense. Because it’s an investment in cyber defense, which is exactly what will protect us from the damage that might be caused by future threats and from intended attacks by terrorists, hackers, or criminals. A survey done by Latin American banks showed $90 billion in damages in one year alone. It’s a big deal. So it’s an investment to protect us, because it fits neatly within the structure of our defense systems, our cyber defense, and supports them. And the military is there to help combat the threat, which can cause damage.Diálogo: Sir, how do you assess the Brazilian Air Force’s participation in Amazon operations, mainly in support of the Brazilian Army and Federal Police?Maj. Gen. Reis: The Armed Forces’ presence in the Amazon is essential. It’s the presence of the Brazilian government and the Armed Forces as a government institution on our borders, with our border platoons and our battalions at the Amazon Military Command, and in the naval districts. And the air wings are there too, positioned in various regions of the Amazon. And that is how we fulfill our mission to defend our sovereignty: it’s the presence of the government. It’s a social good that Brazil is performing, integrating that region and its communities, whether indigenous or not, raising the level of health, schooling, and education of those people. This means that the communities there don’t live without the Armed Forces. So it’s really quite important.Diálogo: How was Brazil, a developing nation, able to bring to market what appears to be a universally acclaimed aircraft, the Super Tucano (A-29)? Are there future projects?Maj. Gen. Reis: The Armed Forces are still idealists. We’re idealists and patriots. We think about the Brazilian government and we invest in it. Back in 1968, the Air Force, through Embraer [the manufacturer of the Super Tucano], which was a state-owned company, was working on manufacturing a Bandeirantes turboprop plane. In those days there was only the Concorde. The gap between both planes was huge. But the Air Force approved the project, invested in the project, and through the knowledge acquired, today our planes aren’t any different from others around the world. They don’t fall short. In the area of aircraft — of aviation knowledge and engineering — Embraer’s aircraft are at the same level as everyone else. Getting back to the Super Tucano, it was made possible because we believe in our product, we believe in our investment, and we know that it’s truly a great plane for the mission for which it was conceived. We receive only praise from the countries that have acquired the product. So really it’s an investment in the Armed Forces, and especially in the Air Force.
Freeport Man Gets 47 Years for Gang Slay
Sign up for our COVID-19 newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest coronavirus news throughout New York Ramiek SmallsA Freeport man was sentenced Tuesday to47 years to life in prison for gunning down a rival gang member outside of a Hempstead bar in 2011.Ramiek Smalls was convicted last month at Nassau County court of second-degree murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.Prosecutors said that the 24-year-old man and two others confronted rival Lawrence Hartman, 28, of Freeport, at the Rumba Sky nightclub over a year-long feud on May 31, 2011.Hartman, who was set to perform in a hip hop show at the bar, got into a fight with the trio in the parking lot when Smalls shot Hartman in the abdomen and left thigh. Hartman died two hours later at Nassau University Medical Center.Smalls fled with his co-defendants but Nassau County and Freeport village police apprehended them the following month.The other men, 33-year-old Michael Toney of Uniondale and 24-year-old Richard Paul of Floral Park pleaded guilty to gang assault and manslaughter, respectively.Toney was sentenced to a year in jail. Paul is awaiting sentencing.
Further wolf protection is wrong for U.S.
Categories: Letters to the Editor, OpinionIn the March 18 letter to the editor, Jacqueline de Witt pleaded for [continued] federal protection of wolves to help them spread into New York. She indicated that this is needed to “perfect the ecological order.” In the western United States the reintroduction of wolves has decimated elk herds, taking hunting opportunities away from a wide variety of humans, from professional guides to lower income individuals for whom a freezer full of elk meat (or lack thereof) has a substantial economic impact. Federal protections continued long after wolf numbers far exceeded the reintroduction targets. Further spread of wolves will further decimate game animal populations.Human hunting is regulated by seasons and limits designed by wildlife biologists to maintain healthy herds. Wolves are not regulated, and unlike humans, wolves feast when new calves or fawns are born. Omitting a description of canine hunting, does anyone claim that a wolf kill is ever as humane as a well placed gun shot?Wolves avoid human contact in proportion to the threat that humans pose. Predatory attacks on people were once common in Europe and have happened sporadically in North America. “Child lifting” by wolves is still a problem in India. Protected wolves will be emboldened and risks to our rural margins will increase.I must ask Ms. de Witt: in a world with many hungry humans, is your aesthetic sense of ecological order so important that we should ignore those risks and squander a fully sustainable supply of organic, free-range protein to canine predators?Norman PerazzoGlenvilleMore from The Daily Gazette:EDITORIAL: Beware of voter intimidationEDITORIAL: Thruway tax unfair to working motoristsEDITORIAL: Find a way to get family members into nursing homesEDITORIAL: Urgent: Today is the last day to complete the censusFoss: Should main downtown branch of the Schenectady County Public Library reopen?
Doing the Lambert Smith walk
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