Monthly Archives: October 2012

Benzodiazepine use doubles dementia risk in over 65s

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Washington, October 6 (ANI): Many people over 65 are prescribed benzodiazepines to treat the symptoms of anxiety and sleep disorders.

A new study, however, found that the risk of developing dementia increased by 50 percent for subjects who consumed benzodiazepines during the follow-up period, compared with those who had never used these molecules.

Although this study does not confirm a cause and effect relationship, as is the case for all epidemiological research, the researchers recommend increased vigilance when using these molecules.

The prescription of these molecules is widespread, especially in France and other countries such as Canada, Spain and Australia.

Consumption of benzodiazepines is often chronic, with many people taking them over a period (often several years) that significantly exceeds recommended good practice guidelines that suggest limiting the duration to two to four weeks.

The effects of benzodiazepines on cognition have been the subject of several studies with much-debated results.

Recently, researchers from Inserm unit 657 “Pharmacoepidemiology and the assessment of the impact of health products on the population”, 897 “Inserm Research Centre into epidemiology and biostatistics” and 708 “Neuroepidemiology”, in collaboration with the Universite de Bordeaux, analysed a cohort of elderly individuals to improve knowledge of the relationship between the use of benzodiazepines and the development of dementia.

In an attempt to counteract the bias that may have restricted the scope of previous studies, the researchers completed several comparative analyses using data from the PAQUID cohort, covering 3777 individuals from between 1897 and 1989.

The main study focused on a sample of 1063 individuals from the PAQUID cohort (mean age of 78), who were free from dementia symptoms at the beginning of the follow-up period and who had not consumed any benzodiazepines prior to the fifth year in the follow-up period.

Out of the 1063 individuals, 95 used benzodiazepines from the fifth year onwards, thus defining two populations: those “exposed to benzodiazepines” and those “not exposed to benzodiazepines”.

Here is the original post:
Benzodiazepine use doubles dementia risk in over 65s

Source:
http://www.longevitymedicine.tv/benzodiazepine-use-doubles-dementia-risk-in-over-65s/

The Dementia Plague

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As the world’s population of older people rapidly grows in the coming years, Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia will become a health-care disaster.

Stephen S. Hall

Friday, October 5, 2012

William UtermohlenBlue Skies (detail), 1995 Galerie Beckel Odille Bocos

Evelyn C. Granieri is that rarest of 21st-century doctors: she still makes house calls. On a warm Thursday morning toward the end of August, the New Yorkbased geriatrician, outfitted in a tailored white suit and high heels, rang a doorbell at a seven-story red-brick apartment building in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and was buzzed in.

“You look gorgeous!” the doctor exclaimed when she greeted her patient, a 99-year-old woman with white hair and a wry smile, in the dining room of her apartment. In an hourlong conversation, Mrs. K (as we’ll call her) recalled, in moving and sometimes mischievous detail, growing up in Poland, where soldiers on horseback took her brother away; coming to America on a ship and working in her parents’ grocery story in Queens; and dealing with male colleagues in the real-estate business when they got “fresh.” But when Granieri asked how old Mrs. K was when she got married, she looked puzzled.

WHY IT MATTERS We have no effective treatments for dementia, a huge health crisis facing the world. The annual cost of care in the United States alone could reach $1 trillion by 2050.

“I can’t remember,” she said after a pause. A cloud passed over her face. “Was I married? To whom?” A framed photograph on a nearby table memorialized her 50th wedding anniversary.

Spirited and funny, her personality intact even as her memory deteriorates, Mrs. K is one of more than five million Americans with dementia. Far from the gleaming research centers where scientists parse the subtle biochemical changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of the condition, clinicians like Granieri, chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Aging at Columbia University Medical Center, confront its devastating reality every day. And, often, they talk to relatives of patients. As Granieri and two interns probed Mrs. K’s memory with small talk and measured her blood pressure, a niece called from Manhattan to see how her aunt was doing.

Almost every dementia patient has worried family members huddled in the background, and almost every story about dementia includes a moment when loved ones plead with the doctor for somethingany medicine, any intervention, anythingto forestall a relentless process that strips away identity, personality, and ultimately the basic ability to think. Unfortunately, Evelyn Granieri is the wrong person to ask. In 2010 she served on a high-level panel of experts that assessed every possible dementia intervention, from expensive cholinesterase-inhibiting drugs to cognitive exercises like crossword puzzles, for the National Institutes of Health; it found no evidence that any of the interventions could prevent the onslaught of Alzheimer’s. She canwith immense compassion, but equally immense convictionexplain the reality for now and the immediate future: “There really is nothing.” Dementia is a chronic, progressive, terminal disease, she says. “You don’t get better, ever.”

More here:
The Dementia Plague

Source:
http://www.longevitymedicine.tv/the-dementia-plague/

Village plan offers dementia care

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5 October 2012 Last updated at 07:11 ET

A retirement village in Wales with an on-site dementia centre is planned for farmland in Monmouthshire.

The 33m Grove Community project at Llanfoist, near Abergavenny, would be capable of housing 100 residents and could create up to 250 jobs.

The continental-style centre would offer one-to-one care and be financed by pension funds and a Swiss bank.

Ben Jones, the man behind the venture, said it was aimed at keeping couples and families together.

We hear all the time about partners being taken from their loved ones and situated miles away, so having a dementia unit will mean a lot to a lot of people

“Should one partner develop dementia, they’ll not be that far away for the other partner to visit on a daily basis,” he said.

“We hear all the time about partners being taken from their loved ones and situated miles away, so having a dementia unit will mean a lot to a lot of people.”

Other elements of the project include a swimming pool in the barn, a restaurant alongside the lake and medical centre in the farmhouse.

Of the 225 bedrooms, flats and cottages, 100 will be sold to private individuals with the rest being offered to the state sector, including NHS patients.

Excerpt from:
Village plan offers dementia care

Source:
http://www.longevitymedicine.tv/village-plan-offers-dementia-care/

Huron Technologies Awarded 1st Prize in Fluorescence Scanning Contest

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October 3, 2012 Waterloo, ON – Huron Technologies International Inc., recently was awarded 1st prize in two categories at the 2nd International Scanner Contest (ISC) held in Berlin, Germany and announced in Prague, Czech Republic, at the European Congress of...

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPathologyBlog/~3/i57tHcxkN8A/huron-technologies-awarded-1st-prize-in-fluorescence-scanning-contest.html

Meet A Pioneer in Digital Pathology and Virtual Microscopy

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Meet A Pioneer in Digital Pathology and Virtual Microscopy: Dr. Béla Molnár, Semmelweis University & 3DHISTECH Dr. Béla Molnár is an award-winning Physician at Semmelweis University’s 2nd Department of Internal Medicine in Hungary, where he specializes in gastroenterology and colorectal...

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPathologyBlog/~3/rEj6KgeNYCg/meet-a-pioneer-in-digital-pathology-and-virtual-microscopy.html

Definiens closes €10 Million Round to Grow its Clinical Digital Pathology Business

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Investments into the clinical digital pathology space continue to be made. Recent news of Definiens private funding, expanding on their portfolio and experience in research and development and pharmaceutical shows increasing interest in the clinical market. Good news for healthcare...

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPathologyBlog/~3/9rm_AjGl7kc/definiens-closes-10-million-round-to-grow-its-clinical-digital-pathology-business.html

MarketsandMarkets: Global Digital Pathology Market Worth $336.6 Million by 2017

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MarketsandMarkets: Global Digital Pathology Market Worth $336.6 Million by 2017 (via PR Newswire) The market size mentioned here comes in less (multi-billion dollar size) than was previously mentioned here, here, here, here and here. No way for me to know...

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPathologyBlog/~3/pl7kyd7N-QY/marketsandmarkets-global-digital-pathology-market-worth-3366-million-by-2017.html

Indica Labs Release HALO™ – Next Generation Image Analysis

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New Mexico, USA 9/30/2012 – Indica Labs, Inc. proudly announces the availability of HALO™, the next generation image analysis platform for digital pathology. HALO is designed to be the fastest, most scalable, user-friendly image analysis software the industry has witnessed....

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalPathologyBlog/~3/XzaaQ6G1AUw/indica-labs-release-halo-next-generation-image-analysis-1.html

Ectoplasm, "Spirit Art," and Mars in the Edwardian Imagination: A Series of Events at Observatory Curated by Photographer Shannon Taggart

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I am very excited to announce a series of spiritualist themed events produced by my good friend, newest Observatory member, and extremely talented photographer Shannon Taggart. All the events are based around her current Observatory exhibition, The Spirit Art of Stanley Matrunick.

Full details follow; hope to see there!

The Spirit Art of Stanley Matrunick Viewing Event 
Sunday, October 14 - 2pm - 5pm 

Join us for a viewing event during Gowanus Open Studios Weekend. Music and Drinks! The Morbid Anatomy Library will be open also!

About the Exhibit: Stanley Matrunick (1906 – 1995) was a medium and Spiritualist minister who channeled portraits of Ascended Masters, guardians and loved ones from the other side. With the help of spirit guides, Rev. Stanley began creating spirit art in 1954 at the White Lily Chapel in Ashley, Ohio. He was then led to travel across the United States for 40 years doing portraits and readings. His work was often featured on television, radio and in print.  The art presented here is from the private collection of Ron Nagy, historian of Lily Dale, NY, the world’s largest Spiritualist community. Also included are materials about Stanley Matrunick provided by his former student, Sakina Blue –Star of Sedona, Arizona.  

About the Curator: Shannon Taggart is a photographer based in Brooklyn and a member of Observatory. Since 2001, she has been working on a project about Modern Spiritualism. Her images have appeared in publications including Blind Spot, Tokion, TIME and The New York Times Magazine. Her photographs have been shown at Photoworks in Brighton, England, The Photographic Resource Center in Boston, Redux Pictures in New York, the Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles and the New Gallery in Houston.

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A History of Ectoplasm: An Illustrated Presentation by Shannon Taggart
Date: Thursday, October 25th

Time: 8pm
Admission: $10
Presented by: Shannon Taggart 

Why Ectoplasm? - Harry Houdini famously wondered this in his scathing critique of Spiritualism. Since it’s first appearances in Victorian era séance rooms, this mysterious substance has continued to seduce, disgust and intrigue believers and skeptics alike. This presentation will consider some of the complicated situations in which ectoplasm played a provocative role including the work of Baron von Schrenck-Notzing, the documentation of the Goligher Circle and the infamous case of Margery the Medium. Shannon Taggart’s images that address the current pursuit of ectoplasm within Modern Spiritualism will also be discussed. This lecture is part of a series that seeks to explore the intrinsic connection between Spiritualism and Photography. 

Shannon Taggart is a photographer based in Brooklyn and a member of Observatory. Her images have appeared in various publications including Blind Spot, Tokion, TIME and The New York Times Magazine. Her work has been recognized by the Inge Morath Foundation, American Photography, the International Photography Awards, the Society for News and Design, Photo District News and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace. Her photographs have been shown at Photoworks in Brighton, England, The Photographic Resource Center in Boston, Redux Pictures in New York, the Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles and the New Gallery in Houston.   

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Are We Alone? Planet Mars in the Edwardian Visual and Scientific Imagination, An illustrated lecture with author Jennifer Tucker
Date: Saturday, October 27 
Time: 8pm 
Admission: $10 
Presented by: Shannon Taggart  

Astronomers, religious leaders, and members of the lay public had speculated about the possibility of life on other planets for hundreds of years before the first “proof” appeared, in May 1905, in the first successful photographs of Mars. Newspapers and magazines swiftly published reproductions of the photographs, made by the amateur planetary astronomer and wealthy businessman Percival Lowell, with accompanying descriptions of the “canals” of Mars and its imagined inhabitants. This illustrated talk shows how the intersection of science with new forms of observation and journalistic image display in the late 19th and early 20th century galvanized public interest in Mars, and how “Mars Mania” intersected and interacted with key trends and figures in art, journalism, spiritualism, astronomy, evolutionary science, and politics during a period that, noted the British writer H.G. Wells, was fascinated by the idea that “There are certain features in which [Martians] are likely to resemble us.” 

Jennifer Tucker is a historian of science and technology specializing in the study of visual representation, gender, science, and popular knowledge in Victorian England. She is the author of Nature Exposed:  Photography as Eyewitness in Victorian Science (2006) and editor of a special issue of History and Theory on “Photography and Historical Interpretation, “ as well as articles about the visual representation of science and technology in Victorian England. She is finishing a book about the photos and other visual representations that circulated across the wide social spectrum of Victorian society during the most famous legal case of imposture in modern Britain.

You can find out more by clicking here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2012/10/ectoplasm-spirit-art-and-mars-in.html

"Permit Bearer to Go to Hell and Return Unharmed": Coney Island Ticket Stub or Souvenir for Darkness and Dawn Cosmorama, Early 20th Century?

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Seller's Description:
This is a souvenir of a visit to a Coney Island Bowery amusement called Darkness and Dawn. It was a Cyclorama, and had been created for an exposition in Omaha, Nebraska in 1898. It was brought to the Coney Island Bowery at the turn of the century. The souvenir is card stock, in the shape of a coffin, and has a skull and crossbones illustration at top. It also has a quote from "The Devil." The same image and text is printed on both sides (shown). The attraction on the Bowery was destroyed by fire in 1903, and was rebuilt for Luna Park several years later.

Via the wonderful Anonymous Works blog.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2012/10/permit-bearer-to-go-to-hell-and-return.html

"Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy" Exhibition, Final Open Hours TOMORROW, Saturday October 6, Noon-7 PM

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Tomorrow--Saturday, October 6--is your last chance to check out "Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy," an exhibition featuring photographs by myself (some of which can be seen above) and waxworks by artists Eleanor Crook and Sigrid Sarda, on view at The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare Street, London All photographs and waxworks are for sale, and quite affordable, if I do say!

The exhibition will be view from Noon until 7:00 PM. Also on view will be the wonderful collection of taxidermy, naturalia, erotica, books and curiosities which comprises the spectacular Last Tuesday Society Giftshop.

Well worth a trip, I promise! Full details follow.

Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses: Visions of Death Made Beautiful in Italy
An exhibition of photographs by Joanna Ebenstein of the Morbid Anatomy Blog, The Morbid Anatomy Library and Observatory with waxworks by Eleanor Crook and Sigrid Sarda.
Date: TOMORROW: Saturday, October 6
Time: Noon-7:00 PM
Location: The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare Street, London, E8 4RP

In her many projects, ranging from photography to curation to writing, New York based Joanna Ebenstein utilizes a combination of art and scholarship to tease out the ways in which the pre-rational roots of modernity are sublimated into ostensibly "purely rational" cultural activities such as science and medicine.Much of her work uses this approach to investigate historical moments or artifacts where art and science, death and beauty, spectacle and edification, faith and empiricism meet in ways that trouble contemporary categorical expectations.In the exhibition "Ecstatic Raptures and Immaculate Corpses" Ebenstein turns this approach to an examination of the uncanny and powerfully resonant representations of the dead, martyred, and anatomized body in Italy, monuments to humankind's quest to eternally preserve the corporeal body and defeat death in arenas sacred and profane.The artifacts she finds in both the churches, charnel houeses and anatomical museums of Italy complicate our ideas of the proper roles of--and divisions between--science and religion, death and beauty; art and science; eros and thanatos; sacred and profane; body and soul.

In this exhibition, you will be introduced to tantalizing visions of death made beautiful, uncanny monuments to the human dream of life eternal. You will meet "Blessed Ismelda Lambertini," an adolescent who fell into a fatal swoon of overwhelming joy at the moment of her first communion with Jesus Christ, now commemorated in a chillingly beautiful wax effigy in a Bolognese church; The Slashed Beauty, swooning with a grace at once spiritual and worldly as she makes a solemn offering of her immaculate viscera; Saint Vittoria, with slashed neck and golden ringlets, her waxen form reliquary to her own powerful bones; and the magnificent and troubling Anatomical Venuses, rapturously ecstatic life-sized wax women reclining voluptuously on silk and velvet cushions, asleep in their crystal coffins, awaiting animation by inquisitive hands eager to dissect them into their dozens of demountable, exactingly anatomically correct, wax parts.

Joanna Ebenstein: New York based visual artist and independent scholar Joanna Ebenstein runs the popular Morbid Anatomy Blog and the related Morbid Anatomy Library, where her privately held collection of books, art, artifacts, and curiosities are made available by appointment.

For the past 5 years, she has traveled the world, seeking out the most curious, obscure and macabre collections, public and private, front stage and back, and sharing her findings via her the Morbid Anatomy Blog as well as a variety of exhibitions including  Anatomical Theatre, a photographic survey of artifacts of great medical museums of the Western World; The Secret Museum, a photographic exhibition exploring the poetics of collections private and public, front stage and back.

Other exhibitions using history as their muse include Savior of Mothers: The Forgotten Ballet of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis  at the Center for Disease Control Museum and The Great Coney Island Spectacularium, an immersive investigation into the often bizarre spectacles of turn of the 20th century Coney Island at The Coney Island Museum.

She is the founding member of Observatory--a gallery and lecture space in Brooklyn, New York--and annual co-curator of The Congress for Curious Peoples, a 10-day series of lectures and performances investigating curiosity and curiosities, broadly considered and taking place at the Coney Island Museum.

Her work has been shown and published internationally, and she has lectured at museums and conferences around the world.

You can find out more about the show here, and view more images by clicking here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2012/10/ecstatic-raptures-and-immaculate.html

Nevada Rose: Inside the American Brothel: Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with Photographer Marc McAndrews: Tomorrow, October 4, at Observatory

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Tomorrow night at Observatory! Hope to see you there!  

Nevada Rose: Inside the American Brothel: Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with Photographer Marc McAndrews,  Nevada Rose: Inside the American Brothel
Date: TOMORROW, Thursday, October 4
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Produced by Morbid Anatomy

“…the themes are more prosaic than one might expect from a book about sex as industry, and they’re profoundly American. With “Nevada Rose,” Mr. McAndrews presents a story about work, commerce, capitalism and community. Mr. McAndrews was as interested in the landscape, the spaces, the mundane, the untouchables and staff members — as he was in the kinky and the taboo.”
– New York Times

Photographer Marc McAndrews spent five years living in and photographing "the landscape, the spaces, the mundane, the untouchables and staff members" of every legal brothel in the state of Nevada. One hundred and eighty nine of these stunning photographs, ranging in content from the prosaic to the sensational, are featured in his new book Nevada Rose: Inside the American Brothel.

Tonight, we invite you to join Mr. McAndrews for an illustrated lecture in which he will show many of these fabulous photographs, and share the stories behind them: what was it like living and working inside the Nevada brothels, how did he get access for the first time and what were his interactions like with the women, owners and customers. Books will also be available for sale and signing.

Marc McAndrews grew up in Reading, Pa. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1998. Marc’s love of photography began when he received his first Polaroid camera from his Grandmother when he was 5 years old and he immediately began using it as a means of distraction during his family’s long drives on vacation every year. Photography and long car rides would become themes in Marc’s life. After returning from living and working in Europe, Marc began traveling the country, concentrating on photographing and documenting American culture. It was through these travels that Marc began his book project, Nevada Rose which captures the places and personalities of Nevada’s legal brothels. His work has been seen in the New York Times and magazines such as Interview, Time, Stern, D Magazine, The Observer, Inc., Exit, Fortune Small Business, Marie Claire South Africa and many others. Marc was a recipient of the Magenta Art Foundation’s 2006 “Flash Forward” award. Nevada Rose was nominated for the 2009 NY Photo Awards and was an official selection for the 2009 and 2011 Lucie Awards. His series “JROTC” and “Girl Scouts” (part of the larger “American Youth” project) were official selections for the 2009 and 2011 Lucie Awards. He’s lectured at The New School, Sarah Lawrence, New York’s International Center for Photography, Rutgers University, St. Mark’s Bookshop, The Museum of Sex and many other places His first monograph, Nevada Rose, was published by Umbrage Editions May 2011.

You can find out more about this event by clicking here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2012/10/nevada-rose-inside-american-brothel.html

Apologies for Scant Blogging AND Seville, Spain: Packed with Tormented Souls in Purgatory, Mortally Wounded-Christs, Holy Week Processions and Madonna Dolorosas

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Greetings, all. My apologies for being such a abysmal blogger this month. As many of you already know, I spent the entirety of last month in London, completing a residency at the fantastic Last Tuesday Society; I also took advantage of my geographical location to take a few mini trips to places like Berlin, Budapest, and Seville. Above are a few of my photos from wonderful souls in purgatory, wounded-Christ, holy week procession and Madonna Dolorosa-packed Seville. You can see the complete set by clicking here.

More to come soon, I promise!

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2012/10/apologies-for-scant-blogging-and.html

MusclePharm Taps Out as Beast Sports Nutrition Prevails in Trademark Infringement Suit

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BEAST Sports Nutrition announced that Denver-based MusclePharm has conceded and agreed to discontinue use and sales of any and all material referencing BEAST Sports Nutritions trademarks including Beast and Beast Mode".

Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) October 07, 2012

BEAST Sports Nutrition announced that Denver-based MusclePharm has conceded and agreed to discontinue use and sales of any and all material referencing BEAST Sports Nutritions trademarks including Beastand Beast Mode".

BEAST Sports Nutritions trademark infringement claims were based on a MusclePharms alleged unauthorized use and representation of the BEAST trademarks. In a statement by company president Anthony Altieri, he said, Weve spent the last 17 years building BEAST into a well known and trusted brand and will enforce our trademark rights to the fullest extent of the law.

BEAST Sport Nutritions attorney, Ryan Kaiser of Amin Talati, LLC, commented, Were pleased with the results here. MusclePharm acknowledged the validity of BEAST's exclusive right to use its BEAST trademarks in connection with dietary supplements. Exact terms of the settlement agreement were not disclosed.

About BEAST Sports Nutrition

With headquarters in Boca Raton, FL, BEAST stands by its founding principles of bringing forth the highest quality products that are multi-purpose and manufactured under the strictest protocols while maintaining affordability.

BEAST products are for people who are serious about getting lean, being strong, keeping fit and staying healthy. Whether you are just looking to get in shape, or are an elite athlete, BEAST products are manufactured to fulfill your needs to help you achieve your goals.

This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (West Palm Beach Division). Case number 9:11-cv-80960

Tony Altieri BEAST Sports Nutrition 561-367-1474 Email Information

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MusclePharm Taps Out as Beast Sports Nutrition Prevails in Trademark Infringement Suit

DNA key to resolving decades-old criminal cases, both defense, prosecution find

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Yesterday at 10:16 PM It can clear a suspect or secure a conviction, as it did last week in Maine's oldest cold-case homicide.

By DOUG HARLOW Morning Sentinel

SKOWHEGAN - When physical evidence in the 32-year-old murder case against Jay Mercier seemed to bog down in court last month with tire tracks and old photographs, the state still had one trick left up its prosecutorial sleeve: DNA.

Rita St. Peter

click image to enlarge

Jay Mercier

HOWDNAISUSED

The past decade has seen great advances in a powerful criminal justice tool: deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.

DNA can be used to identify criminals with incredible accuracy when biological evidence exists. By the same token, DNA can be used to clear suspects and exonerate persons mistakenly accused or convicted of crimes.

In all, DNA technology is increasingly vital to ensuring accuracy and fairness in the criminal justice system.

Read this article:
DNA key to resolving decades-old criminal cases, both defense, prosecution find

Posted in DNA

The vast gulf between current technology and theoretical singularity

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An interesting pair of news posts caught my eye this week, and theyre worth presenting for general discussion. First, VentureBeat has an interview with futurologist Ray Kurzweil, who made waves in 2005 with his book The Singularity Is Near. In it, Kurzweil posits that were approaching a point at which human intelligence will begin to evolve in ways we cannot predict.

The assumption is that our superintelligent computers (or brains) will allow us to effectively reinvent what being human means. In our present state, we are, by definition, incapable of understanding what human society would look like after such a shift.

Mrow

Meanwhile, Google is working to put its neural network technology to work on different sorts of problems. This past summer, the company taught its network how to recognize a cat by showing it YouTube videos. Specifically, it showed 16,000 processors enough cat videos that the network itself learned how to see cat without human intervention. Total visual accuracy, according to the initial paper, is about 16%. The announcement is about applying similar strategies to language processing and how computers can learn to understand the specifics of human speech.

Kurzweil, as you can see in the video at the bottom, is a persuasive speaker and Googles success with teaching a network to recognize cats really is impressive. Reading stories like these, however, I come away skeptical. Its not that I doubt the individual achievements, or that they can be improved, but focusing on specific achievements ignores the greater problem:We have no idea how to build a brain.

Kurzweil uses advances in scanning resolution and genetic engineering together as proof that at some point, well be able to either program cell structures to do the things we want far more effectively than we can currently, or that well simply be able to build mechanical analogs. On some scale, this is probably true. The nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans has 302 neurons. We could build a neural network (or neural network analog) with 302 nodes fairly easily Googles neural node structure is far more complex than that.

Unfortunately, just having nodes isnt enough. The human brain has an estimated 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses. Different neurons are designed for different tasks and they respond to different stimuli. They respond to and release an incredibly complex series of neurotransmitters, the functions of which we dont entirely understand. Its not enough to say Yes, the brain is complex the brain is complex in ways that dwarf the best CPUs we can build, and it does its work while consuming an average of 20W.

Thats a monkey brain. Weve got more.

This is where Moores Law is typically trotted out, but its a wretchedly terrible comparison. Scientists have already demonstrated transistors as small as 10 atoms wide. Your average neuron is between 4 and 100 microns. If groups of transistors equals neural networks, brains would be no problem. Its not that simple. We dont know how to build synapse networks at anything like the appropriate densities. We dont even know if consciousness is an emergent property of sufficiently dense neural structures or not.

Self-driving cars (an example Kurzweil mentions) are a sophisticated application of refined models, meshed with sensor networks on the vehicle and additional positional data gathered from orbit. Theyre an example of how being able to gather more information and correlate that information more quickly allows us to create a better program but they arent smart. Our best neural networks are single-task predictors that gather information at a glacial pace compared to the brain.

See the article here:
The vast gulf between current technology and theoretical singularity

Lori Riley: UConn Field Hockey Team's Chemistry Includes International Element

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Louisa Boddy likes her new teammates. The chemistry between them is great, so good that after losing seven starters (one to injury, the rest to graduation), the UConn field hockey team is 13-0 and ranked third in the country.

She likes the field hockey facilities at UConn. They're nothing like athletic facilities in her home country of England, which are rather Spartan.

She liked that, once she joined the team, she got free field hockey gear, shirts and sweats. In England, university players pay for everything, including travel and uniforms.

She likes the media attention, which her teams never got in England; Boddy, a graduate student at UConn from Derbyshire, England, who plays defense and is third in scoring on the team, was in Faces in the Crowd in Sports Illustrated last week.

She also loves that there are four other players from Great Britain playing for the Huskies.

So Boddy, 23, is not too homesick, except for one thing.

"I miss my baked beans," Boddy said. "I love baked beans."

But, she was reminded, we have baked beans here.

"But not proper ones," Boddy protested.

They're horrible, she said to her British teammates nearby. "Aren't they?"

Read the original here:
Lori Riley: UConn Field Hockey Team's Chemistry Includes International Element

Mario-Erich chemistry was 'instant,' says director

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MANILA, Philippines The onscreen chemistry of Thai actor Mario Maurer and Kapamilya star Erich Gonzales happened to just click, according to the director of their first big screen team-up.

"Right away there was chemistry, right away, first shooting day, first scene, first sequence, first shot, bagay na bagay sila sa isa't-isa," said Rory Quintos, director of Star Cinema's upcoming romantic-comedy film "Suddenly It's Magic."

The film tells the story of a Marcus Hanson (Maurer), a superstar in his native Thailand, who finds love in the Philippines, where he meets baker Joey Hermosa (Gonzales).

Recounting how the "team-up" came about, Quintos said: "[I got a call that] there was this project with a Thai actor, Mario Maurer, and that he was going to be paired with a female actress."

"When I found out that it was Erich, I was very happy because at that time that I got the call from Star Cinema, I was with Erich in 'Maria la del Barrio.' We did the series together," Quintos added, referring to the Kapamilya series first aired in 2011.

Maurer, who rose to fame for his critically-acclaimed role in the 2008 Thai film "The Love of Siam," was not particularly hard to get along with, Quintos shared.

"When Mario came here, when we met, what struck me most was that he seemed like such a nice boy, and he's really, really cute. I think women of all generations would appreciate how cute he is," she said.

Also Joross Gamboa, Joy Viado, Guji Lorenzana, Ces Quesada, Dinkee Doo, John Lee and Pimchanok Luevisadpaibul, "Suddenly It's Magic" will hit theaters nationwide on October 31.

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Mario-Erich chemistry was 'instant,' says director

Proteonomix, Inc. Announces IRB Approval for Its Clinical Trial of UMK-121 in Patients with End Stage Liver Disease

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PARAMUS, N.J., Oct. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --PROTEONOMIX, INC. (PROT), a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics based upon the use of human cells and their derivatives, announced today that the Company's clinical trial of UMK-121 has received IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval and is now ready for the recruitment of patients.

We thank the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey for providing the IRB and their invaluable contribution to this study of the UMK-121 drug therapy on patients with End Stage Liver Disease.

To better understand what a clinical trial is please visit the following links: Overview; Rising Cost of Clinical Trial; Additional information on Clinical Trials .

As previously announced, the Company entered into an Agreement to conduct the clinical trial with the UMDNJ. That Agreement required the Company to pay expenses associated with the clinical study which the Company has done to date.

Michael Cohen, President of the Company, stated: "The financing that was required to complete the Company's obligation with respect to the Trial was provided by the private placement of our Series E Preferred Stock on Friday, March 9, 2012. We previously announced that we have engaged the University to conduct the trial and thanked the University for their assistance with the finalization of the agreement to conduct a clinical trial of UMK-121. The Company has previously described the terms of the agreement to license and develop and the patent application of the UMK-121 technology. The Company will work together with the University and the principal investigators to initiate the clinical study. The approval of the IRB was required before the study could go forward. The investigators can now accept patients into the study."

About the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is New Jersey's only health sciences university with more than 6,000 students on five campuses attending three medical schools, the State's only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and New Jersey's only school of public health. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, which provides a continuum of healthcare services with multiple locations throughout the State.

About Proteonomix, Inc.

Proteonomix is a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics based upon the use of human cells and their derivatives. The Proteonomix family of companies includes Proteoderm, StromaCel, PRTMI and THOR Biopharma. Proteoderm is a wholly owned subsidiary that has developed an anti-aging line of skin care products. StromaCel develops therapeutic modalities for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and for treatment of patients who have suffered post-myocardial infarction. Proteonomix Regenerative Translational Medicine Institute, Inc. (PRTMI) intends to focus on the translation of promising research in stem cell biology and cellular therapy to clinical applications of regenerative medicine. Additional information is available at http://www.proteonomix.com and http://www.proteoderm.com.

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Proteonomix, Inc. Announces IRB Approval for Its Clinical Trial of UMK-121 in Patients with End Stage Liver Disease