Children and teenagers playing sports overall has increased even as participation among boys has dropped off, according to an annual study released Wednesday.

The presidential election is right around the corner. This event has not put the nation in a very good mood.

A federal appeals court has ruled the Department of Education improperly rejected Grand Canyon University's switch from for-profit to nonprofit status, granting a key point in the Christian school's appeal of a record fine.

Peruvian police arrested the head of the country's soccer federation Thursday as part of an investigation into allegations that he abused his position to extort local clubs into ceding their television rights.

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From minimalist millennials to well-off retirees, some 300 people live year-round on floating homes in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Their vessels range from small sailboats to luxury motor yachts, and their offbeat stories are captured beautifully in this episode by Out of the Blocks field producer Melissa Gerr.

Do you have any privacy when you live on a sailboat with another couple? What happens when you try to raise kids on a motor yacht? How does it test a marriage when you share a small space? What do you sacrifice to live on a boat? What do you gain? And is worth the trade-off? Field producer Melissa Gerr brings us more stories from the eccentric live-aboards of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

West Oakland’s Lower Bottoms neighborhood is home to the historical headquarters of the Black Panther party. It’s also one train stop away from San Francisco, and escalating real-estate prices are quickly changing the character of the neighborhood.  This episode, we meet locals who find themselves living at the intersection of heritage and gentrification.

Special thanks this episode to field producer Ariana Proehl, KQED, and The National Endowment for the Arts.

Our listening tour of West Oakland’s Lower Bottoms continues as we meet the volunteers at a local food pantry, a street ball legend known as ‘the greatest player never to make the NBA,’ a transplant from Compton who’s become a wilderness survival instructor, a former Tesla engineer who’s developing an affordable co-housing living space, a US Army veteran determined to help others get their military benefits, and a pastor who relies on the power of prayer to effect social change.

Special thanks this episode to field producer Ariana Proehl, KQED, and The National Endowment for the Arts.

This North Baltimore neighborhood is just inside the city line, but it’s got the cloistered feel of an affluent suburban hamlet. High-end consignment boutiques, beauty salons, and restaurants bring well-heeled locals to Sulgrave Avenue in Mount Washington Village, a quiet world away from the traffic and sirens of downtown.

We visit Baltimore Clayworks, where artist Sam Wallace teaches a pottery technique he learned as a kid in Jamaica. We talk with the crew at The Mount Washington Tavern about romance, oyster shucking, and a major fire that put the place out of business for a year. And we drop in at The Village Vet, where the staff cares for ailing animals and the worried humans that come along with them.

Stories from a Dominican barbershop, a tattoo parlor, a lawyer’s office, a coffee counter, and a collaborative arts hub, all neighbors in the melting pot that is Eastern Avenue in Baltimore’s Highlandtown neighborhood. 

In this episode: The perfectly nice lady behind one of the most menacing overdubs in television history, the tireless purveyor of Baltimore’s most famous pizza, two barbers who’ve paid their dues to learn their trade, the operators of a make-it-from-scratch ice cream shop, and a tenacious entrepreneur for whom failure is not an option.

A therapist plumbs his own psychology by creating artistic collages, a Central American kitchen staff cooks the menu at a Peruvian chicken restaurant, a general store sells everything from microwaves to original artwork, a neighborhood handyman makes his living out of a Radio Flyer wagon, a marketing firm gets caffeinated, and high school sweethearts get married, open up a wine shop, and stay in love.

A visit with a Chilkat Ravenstail weaver, a rain-forest hike in search of Devil’s Club, the tale of a rudely awakened Black Bear, an afternoon with a fishing boat captain, a mountain jog with a champion ultra-runner, hair and make-up tips with a renowned drag queen, a sound-check at the home-studio of a Juneau-based hip hop musician, and a window into the life of a local poet and her 10-year-old son.

Special thanks this episode to Juneau field producer MK MacNaughton and the National Endowment for the Arts.

A game hunter consults his conscience, a Native Rights advocate remembers being separated from her heritage, a local chef plays host to TV personality Gordon Ramsay, a widow remembers her late husband’s grace and humor, a Native Youth Olympics coach connects kids to culture through athletics, plus an artist, a musician, a cross-country bicyclist, two roller-derby girls, and a family in a half-built cabin on an island in the wilderness

Special thanks this episode to Juneau field producer MK MacNaughton and the National Endowment for the Arts.

We take the show to Charleston West Virginia’s West Side neighborhood to visit a family barbecue joint, a country music jamboree, a faith-based after-school program, a women’s drug recovery house, and a bustling Goodwill headquarters. Plus, conversations with an activist preacher, a vacant-home rehabber, an open-eared neighborhood planner, and a retired theater technician who’s projected more than 50 years of movie history.

Special thanks this episode to Maryland State Folklorist Emily Hilliard, The West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Our audio tour through Charleston’s West Side continues with a community gardener, an antique collector, a symphony clarinetist, a deli owner, and a retired pro basketball player. Plus, a visit to a local auto shop, a barbershop, a Girl Scout meeting, and Mary C Snow West Side Elementary.

Special thanks this episode to West Virginia State Folklorist Emily Hilliard, The West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Change is knocking on the door of Baltimore’s iconic Lexington Market. Ground has been broken on a new market building, and local vendors are wondering if they’ll have a place in the much-hyped new structure. In this episode, merchants, artisans, security officers, and custodians reflect on their lives and the uncertain future of the market they call home.

Conversations with vendors & market-goers about the past & present of Lexington Market, a look at hopes for (and doubts about) the market’s future, and a talk with the idealistic developer responsible for the big changes that lay ahead.

Well, this long-overdue episode wasn’t originally intended to be an audio time-capsule, but, you know… life.  Here’s a final look back at a venerable city market that’s now temporarily closed to the public, and partly demolished.

Musician Art Garfunkel recently reunited with on-again/off-again musical partner Paul Simon, looking to reconcile their differences and make amends.

Sauber has signed 20-year-old Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto to make his debut in Formula 1 next year as Nico Hulkenberg's teammate.

The hard-left billionaire George Soros and his heir apparent son Alex have championed, with donations, defunding the police movement, open borders and soft prosecutors.

I imagine the past few weeks have been stressful for you and Dr. Jill. I noticed that on election day, she was dressed in red - not blue. Was her Freudian slip showing?

Ghana's Supreme Court restored the ruling party's majority in the parliament on Tuesday ahead of the Dec. 7 election, with an order that the speaker's declaration of four seats as vacant was unconstitutional.

Will Venable is a busy man these days. The new manager of the Chicago White Sox is learning his way around the organization. He is talking to his new players and working with the front office on its offseason plans.

The Justice Department is suing to block UnitedHealth Group's $3.3 billion purchase of Amedisys, citing concerns the combination would hinder access to home health and hospice services in the U.S.

The curtain will come down on the Paris' feel-good summer with a grand parade of French athletes on the Champs Elysees on Saturday as the country throws one last party to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Not long after Edwin Moses figured out how to attack the solution to track's ultimate math problem, he transformed himself into the best hurdler in history.

Democrats for Life of America said Tuesday that 97% of its endorsed candidates won their races in last week's election, which raises the question: Is there such a thing as a pro-life Democrat?

The official Kickoff meeting of the Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON) project, organized by the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, took place on 13-15 February 2013 to formally mark the beginning of the project and to set goals and objectives for the future. Among the hottest issues discussed was the integration of EU BON's framework with the Global Earth Biodiversity Observation Network project GEO BON and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Another intention set for the future is the enhanced communication and synchronization between the various partners and work packages.

The main objective set for EU BON is to facilitate with its contributions, and thus build a substantial part of GEO BON. EU BON Advisory Board, comprising ten leading experts in data management, biodiversity conservation and earth observation realms has been set up. Dr. Wouter Los - Chairman of the Expert centre for Taxonomic Identification (ETI), and 2nd Vice Chair of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Governing Board (GBIF) was elected as a chair of the EU BON Advisory Board. It has been decided, with the directions and help of the EU BON's Advisory Board, to achieve that a substantial amount of work should be done towards a more comprehensive vision of the relationship between the two projects and the place EU BON takes as a major contributor.

Another aim delineated is working towards collaboration between the currently fragmented biodiversity data sources in Europe in an attempt to create an integrated network and framework for the benefit of the project objective itself, and GEO BON eventually. Dialogue and association with similar or relevant biodiversity projects and initiatives, on European and Global levels, are also encouraged. Organizing a conference is on the project's to do list.

Enhanced communication between the different partners and work packages has been outlined as the engine for achieving of the projects main objectives. A second official meeting has been already assigned for 2014 to measure the progress of EU BON and to set further goals. Meanwhile partners are already organizing workshops to work towards reflecting the directions for development currently set.

The Environmental Change Institute (ECI) in the University of Oxford is seeking to appoint a Research Assistant to join the existing research team on two EU funded research projects.

The role will require the development and application of methodologies for undertaking systematic literature reviews, quantitative analysis of model outputs, contribution to the writing of research papers, organisation of workshops and large meetings, and the performance of other duties necessary for the successful completion of both the IMPRESSIONS and OPENNESS projects

You will have a Masters or equivalent in an environmental discipline and strong quantitative skills. You must have the ability to undertake systematic literature reviews and synthesise findings and assist in the management of large research projects. Excellent organisational and writing skills are essential.

This is a part-time (50% FTE) post and is available for 24 months.

The closing date for applications is 12.00 noon on Wednesday 18 December 2013.

You can find more information and apply here.

EU BON takes care to enhance the expertise of its consortium by affiliating associate partners, an approach the project is planning to continue with. EU BON is pleased to welcome the latest addition to our list of associate partners - HaMAARAG- The Israel National Program for Ecosystem Assessment.

HaMaarag was established in 2006, following a decade’s worth of research in Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) stations. Its main objective is to promotescience-based management of open landscapes and natural resources, for human well-being and for long-term sustainability of nature in Israel.

HaMaarag aims to:
•   Generate science-based knowledge about the state of ecosystems and biodiversity in Israel
•   Strengthen the relationship between scientific knowledge, management and policymaking, in the fields of natural resource and open landscape management, land use planning and nature conservation.
•   Improve accessibility of this knowledge to decision-makers and the general public.

By achieving these aims, HaMaarag promotes the development of a common language, knowledge base and perspective regarding ecosystems in Israel, thus facilitating efficiency of management and policy within the relevant organizations.

Care about biodiversity protection and science-policy dialogue? The second BESAFE stakeholder workshop might be just the thing for you.

The BESAFE project invites all interested policy makers, NGO representatives, decision makers and people, who argue ('lobby') for biodiversity protection to take part in its second stakeholder workshop, focusing the results from the project case studies and the best ways to make them useful through a stakeholder focused web-based tool.

The workshop will be held on 13 and 14 May 2004 at the Park Inn Brussels Midi, Brussels, Belgium. To register and participate is easy just follow this link, which will take you to an easy to follow and use registration page.

On the afternoon of 13 May BESAFE will present the results of the project’s case studies and then their use and implications will be discussed with stakeholders. The morning of 14 May is reserved for a learning workshop on the best ways to unlock and present project results. As committed stakeholder involvement is crucial to BESAFE’s success, we hope that you will be able to join us in Brussels!

In a nutshell, BESAFE investigates the effectiveness of different types of arguments in convincing policy makers to take action for biodiversity protection in a variety of circumstances. The project has two specific focus areas: the interactions of environmental protection policies between governance scales, and the contribution that ecosystem services BESAFE is committed to produce practically usable results and to make them available and easily accessible through a web-based tool. This is a goal we can clearly only achieve through input and feedback from stakeholders. BESAFE is therefore set up as an interactive project in which we inform and consult those on a regular basis.

Deadline for registration is the 1st of April 2014, but registration will be closed earlier when our limit of 25 stakeholders is reached. Due to this limited capacity, registration is subject to approval.

EU BON is happy to announce that Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with four new associated partners. The EU BON family is now joined by DataOne (Observation Network for Earth), USA; Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité (FRB) / ECOSCOPE, France; Atlas Florae Europaeae (AFE), Finland; and the Natural Environment Centre / SYKE (Finnish Environment Institute), Finland. Welcome to all!

DataOne (Observation Network for Earth)

Natural Environment Centre / SYKE (Finnish Environment Institute)

The Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) promotes the conservation of biodiversity by various measures, e.g. by assessments of the conservation status of species and natural habitats or by research on methods of management and restoration of habitats. An important field of research is the significance of ecosystem services and their interactions with biodiversity. SYKE's tasks also include finding solutions to problems with invasive species, assessment of the environmental impacts of genetically modified organisms and permits for international trade in endangered species.

EU BON is pleased to welcome a new associated partner Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) Europe to its family!

Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) is an essential component of world-wide efforts to better understand ecosystems. This comprises their structure, functions, and long-term response to environmental, societal and economic drivers. LTER contributes to the knowledge base informing policy and to the development of management options in response to the Grand Challenges under Global Change.

From the beginning (around 2003) the design of LTER-Europe has focussed on the integration of natural sciences and ecosystem research approaches, including the human dimension. LTER-Europe was heavily involved in conceptualizing socio-ecological research (LTSER). As well as LTER Sites, LTER-Europe features LTSER Platforms, acting as test infrastructures for a new generation of ecosystem research across European environmental and socio-economic gradients.

EU BON is happy to announce a new addition to our growing family of associated partners. In April 2015, the project has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the German Federation for Biological Data (GFBio).

GFBio is a project that brings together national key players providing environmentally related biological data and services to develop the ‘German Federation for Biological Data' . The overall goal is to provide a sustainable, service oriented, national data infrastructure facilitating data sharing and stimulating data intensive science in the fields of biological and environmental research. 

The federation will build on proven data archiving infrastructures and workflows such as those of PANGAEA for environmental data and the resources of Germany's major natural history collection data repositories. The new infrastructure will improve and integrate these existing components within a common technological and organizational framework.

Our family of Associated Partners has grown with three new members that joined us this month. EU BON has signed MoUs with the GLOBal Infrastructures for Supporting Biodiversity research (GLOBIS-B), the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources of the National Research Council of Italy (IGG-CNR) and ECOPOTENTIAL: Improving Future Ecosystem Benefits through Earth Observations, The hand over took place during the 9th GEO European Projects' Workshop in Copenhagen (15 – 16 June 2015).

   
Left: EU BON coordinator Christoph Hauser and Anke Hoffmann handing over the MoUs to our partners from IGG-CNR and ECOPOTENIAL  Antonello Provenzale, Carl Beierkuhnlein and Palma Blonda; Right: Handing over the MoU to Daniel Kissling - scientfic coordinator of GLOBIS-B; Credits: Anke Hoffmann
 

The GLOBIS-B project is a new H2020 project aiming to bring together biodiversity scientists with research infrastructure operators and legal interoperability experts to address the research needs and infrastructure services required to calculate Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) at a global scale.

ECOPOTENTIAL makes significant progress beyond the state-of-the-art and creates a unified framework for ecosystem studies and management of protected areas (PA). ECOPOTENTIAL focuses on internationally recognized PAs in Europe and beyond in a wide range of biogeographic regions, and it includes UNESCO, Natura2000 and LTER sites and Large Marine Ecosystems. Best use of Earth Observation (EO) and monitoring data is enabled by new EO open-access ecosystem data services (ECOPERNICUS). 

IGG-CNR conducts studies based on mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, geodynamics and geophysics, aimed at understanding the processes occurring both in the interior and at the surface of the Earth, and providing the fundamental knowledge for the applications (technological use of geomaterials, mitigation of the natural risks and correct management of the Earth resources for a sustainable development).

We are happy to announce the latest member of our Associated Partners list - MUSE (Museo delle Scienze). 

MUSE, or the Science Museum is an auxiliary body of the Autonomous Province of Trento. Its task is to interpret nature, starting from the mountains, using the eyes, tools, and applications of scientific research, taking advantage of the challenges of the contemporary world, stimulating scientific curiosity and the pleasure of knowledge, giving value to science, innovation, and sustainability. 

We look forward to more institutions and projects joining our Associated Partners family.

MUSE (Museo delle Scienze) joined EU BON's Associated Partners family in November 2015. We are now happy to present some more information about the museum and its initiative - the TEAM network.

MUSE is involved in biodiversity monitoring both locally in Trento Province, southeastern Alps, and globally. In particular, its Tropical Biodiversity Section runs a long-term biodiversity research and monitoring programme in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania, an outstanding site for biological diversity and endemism. In 2009, this site became the first in Africa to enter the TEAM Network, a global programme for the standardized monitoring of biodiversity across the tropical moist forests.

 
Camera trap images from the MUSE site in Tanzania; Credit: MUSE – Science Museum 

Started in 2002 by Conservation International (CI), the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network (http://www.teamnetwork.org/ ) – grew to a coalition in 2009 that includes CI, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Wildlife Conservation Society. TEAM has collected and made publicly available more than 2.5 million photos from camera traps in tropical forests across the planet. With support from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, formerly Hewlett Packard Company, the TEAM Network is now able to analyze this global data set in near real-time and provide data-driven insights for improving natural resource management.

A major analysis of TEAM data was recently published in PloS Biology and caught vast media coverage as it represents the first standardized assessment of its kind for population trends of tropical forest mammals and terrestrial birds (http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002357). TEAM researchers monitored 244 species of ground-dwelling mammals and birds in 15 protected areas spanning tropical regions in Central and South America, Africa and Southeast Asia. They analyzed more than 2.5 million pictures captured by more than 1,000 camera traps and found that 17% of the animal populations they monitor increased in number while 22% remained constant and 22% decreased. The Wildlife Picture Index (WPI) Analytics System was developed in partnership with Hewlett Packard Company.

WPI is an index that summarizes the occupancy trends at community level and is an official indicator to monitor progresses against the Aichi Targets under the CBD (http://www.bipindicators.net/wildlifepictureindex).

In 2015, MUSE – Science Museum established in a Natural Park in the Brenta Dolomites (near Trento) the first site in Europe of systematic camera trapping that adopts the standardized protocol developed by the TEAM Network. This entails the sampling of 60 camera trap locations within an area of 200-250 km2 for 30 days each year, to derive data that are suitable to occupancy analysis and that can allow, as demonstrated by the recent paper in PLoS Biology, to assess population trends using state-of-the-art ecological methods.

MUSE’s scientists hope that this protocol may attract the interest of other partners within the EU BON family that may be keen to replicate this sampling at other sites in Europe.

ECSA – the European Citizen Science Association is the latest addition to our ever growing group of associated partners. The Memorandum of Understanding handover took place at the reception of the ECSA Conference at the Museum für Naturkunde on 19 May 2016.

ECSA is a network of Citizen Science initiatives, research institutes, universities, museums, other organisations and individuals from 20 EU countries, Switzerland, Israel and the US, who are working together with the mission to connect citizens and science through fostering active participation. ECSA is a registered non-profit association administered by a Secretariat hosted at the Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Research (MfN) in Berlin, Germany. 

See the full list of associated partners here.

Photo: Signing the MoU between ECSA Chair of Data, Tools and Technology Committee Dr. Jaume Piera and EU BON's Project manager Anke Hoffmann; Credit: Hwaja Götz

The 10th GEO European Projects Workshop that took place from 31 May - 2 June, in Berlin, was a success for EU BON in many ways. Among the significant achievements was signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the ConnectinGEO project to add this important initiative to our ever-growing list of associated partners.

The MoU handed over by EU BON coordinator Dr. Christoph Häuser to Dr. Joan Masó, coordinator of ConnectinGEO.

Handing over the MoU between Christoph Häuser, EU BON (left) and Joan Masó, ConnectinGEO (right); Credit: EU BON

ConnectinGEO is under the umbrella of GEOSS and the EU funding with the aim of linking existing coordinated Earth observation networks with the science and technology (S&T) communities, the industry sector and the GEOSS and Copernicus stakeholders. The goal is to facilitate a broader and more accessible knowledge base to support the needs of the GEO Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) and their users. A broad range of subjects from climate, natural resources and raw materials, to the emerging UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be addressed.

The EU project EKLIPSE has joined our family of associated partners. The MoU was signed by Dr. Carsten Neßhöver, UFZ, on behalf of EKLIPSE project Coordinator Dr. Allan Watt (NERC-Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh, UK) and Dr. Anke Hoffmann, on behalf of EU BON Coordinator Dr. Christoph Häuser, during the 2016 GEO BON Open Science Conference & All Hands Meeting in Leipzig, Germany.

Dr. Carsten Neßhöver and Dr. Anke Hoffmann at the handing of the MoU; Credit: EKLIPSE

EKLIPSE is a EU project that will set up a sustainable and innovative way of knowing, networking and learning about biodiversity and ecosystem services. EKLIPSE is an unusual project in several ways, particularly:

• The project is funded for four years to develop a sustainable mechanism  that will be in place for many years to come.

• The development of the support mechanism through the project is facilitated by project partners. Their role is to facilitate linkages between science, policy and society, through different actions, such as knowledge synthesis, identifying research priorities, and building the Network of Networks  that will support the other actions.

he ASEAN-EU Science, Technology and Innovation Days serve as a visible forum for cooperation activities between the two regions in the field of STI. The event addresses researchers from most thematic areas – with a focus on the societal challenges with relevance to both regions – as well policy makers, research conducting companies and innovation managers. It takes place annually, alternating between an ASEAN and a European country. High-level policy makers as well as many research projects and companies seize the chance to network, discuss, exchange and inform themselves.

EU BON is also going to hold a workshop during the conference  called "Integration of biodiversity data recording and information management systems for environmental sustainability: a call for EU-ASEAN collaboration" (22nd January). The agenda of this workshop (incl. invited speakers) ican also be found here: http://www.stidays.net/?page_id=510