Hasta La Gadget!

Ahead of the Gamescom conference today in Germany Microsoft unveiled some of the new features that will be landing on Xbox One over the next few months. The company praised fans who left a generous amount of feedback about features and services on the Xbox Feedback channel and says that all this played a “huge role in shaping these updates.” One feature that particularly stands out is the support for streaming TV from Xbox One to the SmartGlass app on smartphones and tablets.

At first support for this feature will be limited to markets where the Xbox One digital TV tuner has been released. Its mostly European countries for now so folks in the U.S. may have to wait a while before they can take advantage of this feature.

Xbox One owners will be able to stream TV across their home network to a mobile device that’s running the Xbox SmartGlass app. This app is available for Windows Phone, Android and iOS. Play, pause and rewind controls are included in the app and the feature won’t interrupt gameplay on the console itself.

Other new features destined for the console include ability to boot straight into TV, Snap Center which puts messages, friends, parties and achievements side-by-side with a game, ability to play media from an attached USB or DLNA device and threaded messages that keep the entire messaging history neat and clean.

The updates with all of these features will be rolled out gradually over the next couple of months. Microsoft promises even more down the line.

Xbox One Update Will Add TV Streaming Support For Mobile Devices

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For the eighth year in a row, Sierra magazine has dedicated a big chunk of its September/October issue to higher education. So why is the “Cool Schools” issue such a big deal? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not because of the schools.

Over the last few years, I’ve spoken to many different audiences about how clean energy is going to change our world ­­ I never get tired of talking about it. And people seem to appreciate hearing the good news that we’re already well on our way to a future without fossil fuels. But one particular audience always leaves me with a net surplus of energy ­­ and that’s college students. I don’t know if it’s because young people have always been passionate about social issues or because our planet’s future is especially important to the people who’ll be spending the most time there, but young people seem to possess a singular fervor for making the world a better place.

So, although the “Cool Schools” sustainability rankings of universities around the country are interesting in and of themselves, their most important function is to foster accountability. Colleges and universities should be leading the charge on sustainability and the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. When they don’t, students will be the first to speak up.

Here’s how the Sierra Club is going to help them do that. Tomorrow, the Sierra Student Coalition will launch a new Campuses for Clean Energy campaign. Its goal is to build on the growing student­led movement around the country calling on school administrations to demand enough clean energy from their utility providers to power campuses with 100 percent renewable energy. Universities are often some of the biggest energy users, which means they’re well positioned to put significant pressure on utility providers.

Universities can apply pressure in other ways, too, such as divesting from fossil­fuel companies. Sierra‘s “Cool Schools” issue examines a partial but significant victory along those lines: Stanford University’s decision to divest from coal­mining stocks. The U.S. currently has more than 400 student­led campaigns to persuade institutional investors to divest from fossil­fuel stocks.

In addition to committing to renewable energy and divesting from dirty fuels, colleges and universities can use their influence to advocate for statewide policies that will bring more clean energy online. Given the current inertia in Washington, D.C., such campaigns will be crucial for years to come.

Regardless of how “cool” they may be, though, colleges and universities are still institutions, and institutions tend to accumulate quite a bit of inertia of their own. You can’t say the same, thank goodness, for their students. The issue may be called “Cool Schools,” but really it’s awesome students whom we’re counting on.

Okay, fine — elephants aren’t people. But they’re like people in a lot of ways, and on World Elephant Day, that counts for something.

And yet around 35,000 of these pachyderms were killed in 2013 alone, and there’s a continuing demand for their valuable ivory tusks. If we aren’t careful, most of these creatures could be extinct by 2020, according to some conservationists.

It’s a tragedy for any animal to face extinction, but it would seem like a special tragedy to lose this one. Our very history is entwined, with elephants and humans evolving in parallel hundreds of thousands of years ago. While we’re still learning about elephant intellect — a far greater number of studies have been conducted on other large-brained mammals like chimps — what’s been found so far suggests a creature that’s kind, self-aware and very loyal. Surprisingly, elephants aren’t so different from us.

1. They have a sense of self, like chimps, dolphins and humans…

In a 2006 study of three Asian elephants, Emory University researchers placed a mirror in the enclosure of three female Asian elephants. Each creature investigated the mirror by touching it with their trunks to see if it was really another elephant, exploring the back side to see if there was another elephant hiding there, or inspecting some part of herself to see if the reflection copied her. One, named Happy, even passed the “mark test,” which included touching a white X the researchers had painted on her (and the other elephants’) foreheads, only visible in the mirror.

The fact that Happy passed that test, the researchers said, indicates the capacity of elephants to recognize themselves as individuals rather than just part of a pack. And while the other two seemed ambivalent toward the white marks, the researchers noted that only around half of chimpanzees — generally held up as one of the most intelligent creatures — pass such tests.

Another test showed that elephants understand pointing, using, of course, their trunks. It sounds simple, but pointing indicates a sense of self, too — your independent thoughts may be communicated to another through gesture. Even chimps have trouble with pointing.

2. Which allows them to be more empathetic.

Having a sense of self, the Emory researchers suggested, may be a reason for elephants’ social and altruistic habits. Evidence suggests helping one another out is a regular part of life in an elephant herd.

Researchers at an elephant park in Thailand studied 26 elephants in six groups to determine that elephants comfort other elephants during suffering. (No, they didn’t stress the creatures out on purpose — they waited for such an occasion to present itself naturally, like a snake rattling in the grass or the sound of a dog nearby.) They saw the elephants make chirping noises and reassure the unhappy ones with a kind “hug.” Previously, this behavior was only seen in apes, wolves and some kinds of birds.

Certain anecdotes suggest their compassion extends to other creatures, as well. An elephant in India trained to lower heavy wooden posts into pre-made holes once refused to place one of them until a sleeping dog was shooed from the bottom of the hole.

3. Elephants are also understand teamwork.

In a 2011 experiment, researchers in Thailand devised a system in which two elephants could reach a platform of food only if each pulled her own rope. Pulling one end got them nowhere. Not only did all of the test subjects figure out the rope system, but they understood the importance of a helping hand trunk — they couldn’t get to the food by themselves.

One especially clever elephant, though, thought up a way to game the system. Instead of pulling on her end of the rope, she simply stood on it, forcing her partner to do all the work in pulling. (There’s always that one.)

4. And they grieve for their loved ones.

It’s long been thought that elephants grieve — they’re even capable of shedding tears. Deceased elephants are buried under dust, branches and leaves, and a mother elephant may stay with the body of a deceased calf for days. In one experiment, researchers at the University of Sussex found elephants have a strong interest in their own dead, preferring to investigate the skull of a deceased elephant over a piece of wood or the skull of a rhino. When members of a herd pass a dead elephant, they’ve been observed silently touching the bones, perhaps out of respect. And when members of a herd lose a beloved family member, they become visibly and audibly distressed. Other herds may visit the body, as well.

Although elephants have been observed displaying markedly less interest in the carcasses of other animals, one anecdote suggests otherwise. In 2004, an African elephant trampled a human mother and child to death in Kenya. Before leaving the scene, however, it covered the bodies in leaves and twigs.

5. After all, elephant families have a lifelong bond.

Unlike most human societies in history, elephant herds are matriarchal, where one female cow presides over a herd of females and adolescents. Adult males, meanwhile, roam either alone or in bachelor herds. The strongest relationship is between mother and child — mothers and daughters, in particular, will usually remain together their entire lives until the mother passes away. And it’s not uncommon for responsibility of the herd to be passed down to the deceased matriarch’s closest female relative.

6. And they’re smarter than we give them credit for.

Research in the past decade has shown elephants to rival the brainiacs of the animal kingdom in their ability to use tools. Elephants have been observed using tools in captivity and the wild, including branches to swat away flies. In one study, however, researchers were able to show just how insightful this species can be. After hanging a delicious cantaloupe treat in the enclosure of seven-year-old Kandula — just out of reach — researchers observed him rolling a square cube to the treat, standing on it for better reach. What was remarkable about that feat, the researchers explained, was that Kandula did it without any trial and error, demonstrating an understanding of cause-and-effect problem-solving. Watch him here.

7. Some of them are even gay.

Bonds between male elephants of the same sex have been observed in the wild — homosexual mounting and erotic play being a fairly common sight between young males in particular.

And it’s also been observed at a certain zoo in Poland, angering a local politician. (“We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females, how will he produce offspring?”) Unlike humans, elephants are probably a little more accepting of others’ personal preferences.

8. Elephants are all-around curious and creative creatures.

Prepare to be dazzled by the not-entirely-harmonious piano stylings of this elephant named Peter and his human friend!

Ferguson, Missouri erupted in anger after Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot to death by a police officer on Saturday.

Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis — as of the 2000 census, the ninth most segregated city in America — was mostly white until school desegregation, when white families moved further out.

Today, the town of 21,000 people is two-thirds black, yet the town’s leadership and police force are mostly white.

The Los Angeles Times surfaced some alarming statistics about racial divisions in the town that help to put that anger in context:

Ferguson’s police chief and mayor are white. Of the six City Council members, one is black. The local school board has six white members and one Latino. Of the 53 commissioned officers on the police force, three are black, said Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson.

Blacks in Ferguson are twice as likely to be stopped by police as whites, according to an annual report on racial profiling by the Missouri attorney general. Last year, 93% of arrests following car stops in Ferguson were of blacks. Ninety-two percent of searches and 80% of car stops involved blacks, the report said.

That report also showed that police were less likely to find contraband on the black drivers they stopped. (Police found contraband on 22 percent of black residents they stopped, compared to 34 percent of white residents.)

Residents told the LA Times that these dynamics contribute to the “racial powder keg” that’s developed in Ferguson. (Read the full report here).

There have been conflicting accounts of what happened the night Brown was shot. A witness reports that when an officer opened his car door, it hit Brown and then bounced back on the officer, enraging him. He grabbed Brown and shot him. Brown and a friend ran and the officer then shot Brown in the back. Brown stopped, turned around and put his hands up, before the officer shot him an additional several times at close range, killing him.

The police account differs dramatically, though the department has provided few details other than saying that someone tried to take the officer’s gun.

As the chairman of an international nonprofit that focuses on using the power of sport to affect social change, a recent article from USA Today titled “Fun – Not Winning – Essential to Keep Kids in Sports” about children dropping out of organized sports struck a nerve.

Citing a recent study from George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, the article discussed that while many people may think it’s all about winning for kids to have “fun” that actually is not the key factor for most kids. Of 81 “fun” factors surveyed, winning was well down the list, with the most commonly found influences being positive coaching, trying hard and being a good sport.

First off, the fact that kids aren’t having fun playing sports raises huge red flags. Sports are a game, and especially for children, are meant to be fun. About 70 percent of kids stop playing organized sports by Middle School according to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. So by the time most children are 12 or 13 years old, they’ve already given up participating in sports to pursue other endeavors — most of which are not going to provide the physical activity children require at that age to be healthy.

The “fun” factor in the study that stands out most to me is positive coaching. This brings to light a major problem in youth sports today — the lack of quality coaches and mentors. At the youth level, coaches shouldn’t be focused solely on winning and losing. Yes, teaching a certain level of competiveness is good for children, but coaching youth sports needs to be much more than that. Winning is great, but not at the expense of fun. Not at the young age of kids in middle school. For those that excel, they can be separated into more competitive leagues in order to not deter those that just want to play because they enjoy it.

We need coaches and mentors that are going to guide children and ingrain positive values and sportsmanship, while also highlight the importance of education and physical fitness to get kids on an overall path to success in life. As an Olympic Gold medalist, I appreciate the drive to win, but we have to understand that not every child is going to play professionally and sports are too important to children’s well being to scare them away before they get to high school. Coaches need to recognize that and adapt their tactics accordingly. This is why a huge focus of the Sport for Good movement nationwide has been equipping coaches with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively work with children and create these early positive experiences.

For example, Up2Us’s Coach Across America program trains and places quality coaches in communities around the country where they’ll have the most impact. Coaches undergo rigorous training in order to become certified in sports based youth development and then work with kids at sport existing for good programs. Another organization, Playworks trains coaches and places them into schools in low-income communities to oversee recess, therefore organizing the session to ensure elementary school students gain structured exercise and mentorship each school day while having fun.

And separately, Designed to Move is a call to action supported by a community of public, private and civil sector organizations dedicated to getting kids active. A joint effort of over 70 organizations worked to better understand the underlying issues related to physical inactivity. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE) then joined to validate, refine, and publish the findings and an action plan that is used by organizations around the country.

These are just a few of the organizations that understand the positive impact good coaches have on kids, as there are plenty others involved in this movement. They didn’t necessarily need a survey to tell them the reasons why kids drop out of organized sports. They see it every day and understand what it takes to engage children in healthy activities and keep them interested. These organizations are also cognizant of the fact that often times winning is valued more by coaches and parents than the kids themselves, and part of the job of the coach is to temper these expectations for the benefit of the children.

The benefits of organized sports on youth can’t be ignored. Whether it’s fighting obesity, improving graduation rates, reducing the risks of youth violence or inspiring confidence and mental health, research shows sports positively affect all of these. This is why the Sport for Good sector exists — it’s not to help build a basketball court so kids have a place to play, but instead to provide them with structured opportunities that put them on a path to success.

The USA Today story is important as it helps bring a serious, but often overlooked issue to the masses. Collectively, we need to make sports fun again for kids. After all, it’s just a game, but the benefits are endless.