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Explained: A new calculation to find out your dogs age in human years – The Indian Express

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Written by Kabir Firaque, Mehr Gill | New Delhi | Updated: July 11, 2020 5:08:29 pm There exists a very simple thumb rule, used frequently over the years. The new research, however, has described it as a myth

Dogs live shorter lives than humans, and so a six-year-old dog is at a far later stage of its life than a six-year-old child. A dog can even be a grandparent at age six. What, then, is its age in human years? New research, published in the journal Cell Systems has come up with a formula and a graph to determine that.

Was there not a formula already?

There exists a very simple thumb rule, used frequently over the years. The new research, however, has described it as a myth. According to the popular rule, you multiply a dogs age by 7, and you supposedly get its equivalent age in human years: For example, a four-year-old dog is 28 in human years. Only, its not so simple.

Why not?

The new research, which is based on epigenetics, has found the comparison between human years and dog years is not perfectly linear which would have been the case had the 1:7 thumb rule been reliable. The relationship, in fact, follows the red curve shown in the figure.

How can I use this curve to determine my dogs age in human years?

First, find your dogs age along the horizontal (X) axis. Suppose your dog is four years old. Locate 4 on the horizontal axis, then trace your finger upwards until you reach the red curve. From that point, move left towards the vertical (Y) axis, where you have human years (illustrated with Tom Hanks at various ages). Your finger will touch the vertical axis at, in this case, 52 years.

So, a four-year-old dog is equivalent in physiological age to a 52-year-old Tom Hanks (or any 52-year-old human). This is almost twice as much the age you would get (28) if you followed the 1:7 thumb rule.

What is the basis of this new calculation?

It is based on molecular changes in the human genome and dog genome over time. Researchers at the University of California at San Diego analysed patterns over time in methylation a term that refers to specific chemical changes in the genome.

This is the field that is known as epigenetics, which studies chemical modifications that influence which genes are off or on, without altering the original genetic sequence itself. The new formula, the researchers said, provides a new epigenetic clock for determining the age of a cell, tissue or organism.

How did the researchers derive the formula?

The UC San Diego team had previously published epigenetic clocks for humans. For the new study, they collaborated with dog genetics experts at UC Davis and the US National Human Genome Research Institute. They analysed blood samples from 105 Labrador retrievers for changes with age.

Only Labradors?

Indeed, that is one limitation of the new epigenetic clock, acknowledged by senior author Trey Ideker himself. (The first author is Tina Wang, Idekers former graduate student, who first suggested the idea for such a study.) In a statement, Ideker acknowledged that the new epigenetic clock was developed using a single breed of dog, and some dog breeds are known to live longer than others. More research will be needed, he said.

Will it work for my dog if it is not a Labrador?

Ideker said it is accurate for humans and mice, as well as Labrador retrievers. He predicts that the clock will apply to all dog breeds. As such, it may provide a useful tool for veterinarians and even for evaluating anti-ageing interventions, the researchers suggest.

How so?

There are a variety of anti-ageing interventions in the market, with some of these standing on a more solid scientific foundation than others. But, as Ideker noted in the statement, how do you know if a product will truly extend your life without waiting 40 years or so?

If you refer to the new epigenetic clock, you need not wait, he suggested. What if you could measure your age-associated methylation patterns before, during and after the intervention to see if its doing anything?

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Explained: A new calculation to find out your dogs age in human years - The Indian Express

10-year plan hopes to give western chimpanzees a fighting chance – Mongabay.com

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Western chimpanzees are the most threatened of the four confirmed chimpanzee subspecies. Conservationists estimate that populations of the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes versus) declined by 80% between 1990 and 2014. Large tracts of chimpanzee habitat have already been lost, and much of what remains is in the crosshairs of agriculture, industry and infrastructure development.

Adding to the pressure, in their West African home, the subspecies shares its space with the worlds fastest-growing human population. Without immediate action, the IUCN warns the western chimpanzee may soon become extinct.

The IUCN recently released its latest 10-year action plan, setting out nine key strategies to protect chimpanzees. On the agenda are improved legal protection, raising awareness, and more research into their distribution, genetics and behavior. The plan also highlights the need for chimpanzees to be considered at all levels of the land use planning process if they are to have a future in the rapidly developing West Africa region.

The western chimpanzee is in dire need of coordinated and effective conservation action right now, said Erin Wessling, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvards Department of Human and Evolutionary Biology and lead editor of the IUCN plan.

The western chimpanzees range extends across eight countries in West Africa: Cte dIvoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierre Leone. The subspecies is already locally extinct in Benin, Burkino Faso and Togo.

The exact challenges western chimpanzees face vary by location, but the IUCN has identified common key threats across the region: poaching, habitat loss, and disease.

According to U.N. population data, almost half of West Africas 367 million inhabitants were 15 or younger in 2015, making it highly likely that the regions current rapid population growth will continue in the near future. Agricultural production in West Africa has been growing even faster than population growth in the last 30 years, allowing the region to greatly reduce undernourishment.

While vital for West Africas food security, this rapid agricultural expansion has had unfortunate consequences for chimpanzees. Much of their habitat has been lost to subsistence and industrial agriculture, and what remains has become increasingly fragmented.

In Cte dIvoire, once home to one of the largest populations of western chimpanzees, widespread agricultural expansion for coffee, cacao and palm oil has seen the chimpanzees range cut by 70%. Researchers now believe that only small remnant populations of a few hundred individuals remain in two of Cte dIvoires national parks.

Large portions of the remaining chimpanzee habitat in West Africa as much as 80% in Liberia are also suitable for oil palm production, a valuable export crop. Without a voice for chimpanzees in the land use planning process, experts fear the lure of foreign exchange may well override any conservation concerns.

As well as agriculture, artisanal and industrial mining, logging, new roads and development projects all have an impact on chimpanzee habitat. According to a study modeling western chimpanzee distribution, 10% of chimpanzees live within 25 kilometers (16 miles) of four major development corridors planned in West Africa.

As large-scale land-use change is occurring across West Africa, this action plan points out the need for integrated land-use planning that involves chimpanzee experts, said Stefanie Heinicke, a postdoctoral researcher with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and one of the authors of the IUCN plan.

At present, chimpanzees are sometimes considered in environmental impact assessments for individual projects in the region. However, the IUCN plan argues that unless the cumulative impact of multiple projects is considered, the full impact of development on chimpanzees cant be seen.

Chimpanzee experts need to have a voice in the planning practice, argues the action plan, which was developed following a four-day workshop in Monrovia that included representatives from the governments of all eight range countries as well as NGOs and researchers.

The authors propose that environmental assessments be carried out at both a national and range-wide level to assess the impact of development and land use change on chimpanzee populations and identify important no-go zones to protect. The IUCN plan also emphasizes the importance of ensuring land use planners have accurate information on the likely impact of developments on chimpanzee populations. As a last resort, the IUCN suggests establishing offset programs to counteract the impact of development projects on chimpanzees.

In addition to fragmenting habitat, infrastructure projects like roads also make chimpanzee habitat more accessible to poachers 60% of western chimpanzees already live within 5 km (3 mi) of a road. Bushmeat consumption is the main driver of direct killing of chimpanzees in West Africa, with researchers documenting the availability of chimpanzee meat in both rural and urban bushmeat markets. Chimps are also killed for their body parts and as a result of human wildlife conflict, or are captured live for the exotic pet trade.

Heinickes modeling study calculated that 83% of the estimated 52,800 remaining western chimpanzees live outside protected areas, leaving them especially vulnerable.

As less than 20% of western chimpanzees occur in high-level protected areas, the strengthening and extension of protected areas is a central strategy of this new conservation action plan, she said.

And even living in a protected area is not a guarantee of safety. A study surveying hunters around Liberias Sapo National Park recorded 74 chimpanzees killed and eight infants captured alive in two months.

To tackle this, the action plan calls for increased legal protection for chimpanzees and international coordination to improve the enforcement of wildlife laws.

Laws and protected areas dedicated to protecting this subspecies havent been as effective as we need them to be, Wessling said. To do so will require that chimpanzee conservationists have a seat at the table in the discussions.

There are also other consequences to the growing proximity between chimpanzees and humans.

An increasing spatial overlap can increase the risk of disease transmission between humans and chimpanzees, and can also increase the likelihood of conflicts, Heinicke said.

With many physiological similarities, chimpanzees are susceptible to a number of human diseases, and vice versa. Chimpanzees are known to have caught human respiratory diseases, including a type of human coronavirus, that can prove fatal. Another disease of major concern in the West Africa region is Ebola. While there is no evidence that chimpanzees have been affected in the worst outbreak, from 2014-16, gorilla and chimpanzee populations have been severely affected in the past.

The action plan calls for disease monitoring and risk analysis to understand and mitigate the risks of disease transmission between humans and chimpanzees, an issue that has recently shot to prominence in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Another area the plan focuses on is the need to fill gaps in scientific knowledge about the distribution, behavior and genetic diversity of western chimpanzees an area also highlighted in the previous action plan.

Since the last conservation action plan many areas across West Africa have been surveyed, Heinicke said. However, there are still gaps, especially in terms of chimpanzee density and distribution.

The remaining strategies in the action plan call for an increased awareness of the plight of western chimpanzees at both the local and international level, and the need for effective long-term financing for chimpanzee conservation.

With rising competition for chimpanzee habitat and increasing proximity to West Africas growing human population, the future for the western chimpanzee is precarious. Wessling and Heinicke say they are hopeful that the nine strategies the IUCN plan sets out can offer a glimmer of hope for the western chimpanzees.

Theres an urgent need to make calculated efforts to give this subspecies a chance, Wessling said. [T]he consequences if we arent effective are immense.

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10-year plan hopes to give western chimpanzees a fighting chance - Mongabay.com

New Report: Genomic Biomarker Market: Reporting and Evaluation of Recent Industry Developments| Bio-Rad, Beckman Coulter, Myriad Genetics, Thermo…

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

LOS ANGELES, United States: QY Research has recently published a report, titled Global Genomic Biomarker Market Report, History and Forecast 2015-2026, Breakdown Data by Companies, Key Regions, Types and Application. The research report gives the potential headway openings that prevails in the global market. The report is amalgamated depending on research procured from primary and secondary information. The global Genomic Biomarker market is relied upon to develop generously and succeed in volume and value during the predicted time period. Moreover, the report gives nitty gritty data on different manufacturers, region, and products which are important to totally understanding the market.

Key Companies/Manufacturers operating in the global Genomic Biomarker market include: Bio-Rad, Beckman Coulter, Myriad Genetics, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Roche, QIAGEN, Epigenomics, Almac, Pfizer, Human Longevity, ValiRx, Personalis, Eagle Genomics, Empire Genomics, Agilent, Illumina

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Protein MarkerNucleic Acid MarkerOther

Global Genomic Biomarker Market Segment By Application:

HospitalsDiagnostic and research laboratories Global Genomic Biomarker

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Competitor analysis is one of the best sections of the report that compares the progress of leading players based on crucial parameters, including market share, new developments, global reach, local competition, price, and production. From the nature of competition to future changes in the vendor landscape, the report provides in-depth analysis of the competition in the global Genomic Biomarker market.

Key companies operating in the global Genomic Biomarker market include Bio-Rad, Beckman Coulter, Myriad Genetics, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Roche, QIAGEN, Epigenomics, Almac, Pfizer, Human Longevity, ValiRx, Personalis, Eagle Genomics, Empire Genomics, Agilent, Illumina

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TOC

1 Market Overview of Genomic Biomarker1.1 Genomic Biomarker Market Overview1.1.1 Genomic Biomarker Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Genomic Biomarker Market Size Overview by Region 2015 VS 2020 VS 20261.3 Global Genomic Biomarker Market Size by Region (2015-2026)1.4 Global Genomic Biomarker Historic Market Size by Region (2015-2020)1.5 Global Genomic Biomarker Market Size Forecast by Region (2021-2026)1.6 Key Regions, Genomic Biomarker Market Size YoY Growth (2015-2026)1.6.1 North America Genomic Biomarker Market Size YoY Growth (2015-2026)1.6.2 Europe Genomic Biomarker Market Size YoY Growth (2015-2026)1.6.3 Asia-Pacific Genomic Biomarker Market Size YoY Growth (2015-2026)1.6.4 Latin America Genomic Biomarker Market Size YoY Growth (2015-2026)1.6.5 Middle East & Africa Genomic Biomarker Market Size YoY Growth (2015-2026) 2 Genomic Biomarker Market Overview by Type2.1 Global Genomic Biomarker Market Size by Type: 2015 VS 2020 VS 20262.2 Global Genomic Biomarker Historic Market Size by Type (2015-2020)2.3 Global Genomic Biomarker Forecasted Market Size by Type (2021-2026)2.4 Protein Marker2.5 Nucleic Acid Marker2.6 Other 3 Genomic Biomarker Market Overview by Application3.1 Global Genomic Biomarker Market Size by Application: 2015 VS 2020 VS 20263.2 Global Genomic Biomarker Historic Market Size by Application (2015-2020)3.3 Global Genomic Biomarker Forecasted Market Size by Application (2021-2026)3.4 Hospitals3.5 Diagnostic and research laboratories 4 Global Genomic Biomarker Competition Analysis by Players4.1 Global Genomic Biomarker Market Size (Million US$) by Players (2015-2020)4.2 Global Top Manufacturers by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3) (based on the Revenue in Genomic Biomarker as of 2019)4.3 Date of Key Manufacturers Enter into Genomic Biomarker Market4.4 Global Top Players Genomic Biomarker Headquarters and Area Served4.5 Key Players Genomic Biomarker Product Solution and Service4.6 Competitive Status4.6.1 Genomic Biomarker Market Concentration Rate4.6.2 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans 5 Company (Top Players) Profiles and Key Data5.1 Bio-Rad5.1.1 Bio-Rad Profile5.1.2 Bio-Rad Main Business5.1.3 Bio-Rad Products, Services and Solutions5.1.4 Bio-Rad Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.1.5 Bio-Rad Recent Developments5.2 Beckman Coulter5.2.1 Beckman Coulter Profile5.2.2 Beckman Coulter Main Business and Companys Total Revenue5.2.3 Beckman Coulter Products, Services and Solutions5.2.4 Beckman Coulter Revenue (US$ Million) (2015-2020)5.2.5 Beckman Coulter Recent Development and Reaction to Covid-195.3 Myriad Genetics5.5.1 Myriad Genetics Profile5.3.2 Myriad Genetics Main Business5.3.3 Myriad Genetics Products, Services and Solutions5.3.4 Myriad Genetics Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.3.5 Thermo Fisher Scientific Recent Developments5.4 Thermo Fisher Scientific5.4.1 Thermo Fisher Scientific Profile5.4.2 Thermo Fisher Scientific Main Business5.4.3 Thermo Fisher Scientific Products, Services and Solutions5.4.4 Thermo Fisher Scientific Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.4.5 Thermo Fisher Scientific Recent Developments5.5 Roche5.5.1 Roche Profile5.5.2 Roche Main Business5.5.3 Roche Products, Services and Solutions5.5.4 Roche Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.5.5 Roche Recent Developments5.6 QIAGEN5.6.1 QIAGEN Profile5.6.2 QIAGEN Main Business5.6.3 QIAGEN Products, Services and Solutions5.6.4 QIAGEN Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.6.5 QIAGEN Recent Developments5.7 Epigenomics5.7.1 Epigenomics Profile5.7.2 Epigenomics Main Business and Companys Total Revenue5.7.3 Epigenomics Products, Services and Solutions5.7.4 Epigenomics Revenue (US$ Million) (2015-2020)5.7.5 Epigenomics Recent Development and Reaction to Covid-195.8 Almac5.8.1 Almac Profile5.8.2 Almac Main Business5.8.3 Almac Products, Services and Solutions5.8.4 Almac Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.8.5 Almac Recent Developments5.9 Pfizer5.9.1 Pfizer Profile5.9.2 Pfizer Main Business5.9.3 Pfizer Products, Services and Solutions5.9.4 Pfizer Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.9.5 Pfizer Recent Developments5.10 Human Longevity5.10.1 Human Longevity Profile5.10.2 Human Longevity Main Business5.10.3 Human Longevity Products, Services and Solutions5.10.4 Human Longevity Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.10.5 Human Longevity Recent Developments5.11 ValiRx5.11.1 ValiRx Profile5.11.2 ValiRx Main Business5.11.3 ValiRx Products, Services and Solutions5.11.4 ValiRx Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.11.5 ValiRx Recent Developments5.12 Personalis5.12.1 Personalis Profile5.12.2 Personalis Main Business5.12.3 Personalis Products, Services and Solutions5.12.4 Personalis Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.12.5 Personalis Recent Developments5.13 Eagle Genomics5.13.1 Eagle Genomics Profile5.13.2 Eagle Genomics Main Business5.13.3 Eagle Genomics Products, Services and Solutions5.13.4 Eagle Genomics Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.13.5 Eagle Genomics Recent Developments5.14 Empire Genomics5.14.1 Empire Genomics Profile5.14.2 Empire Genomics Main Business5.14.3 Empire Genomics Products, Services and Solutions5.14.4 Empire Genomics Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.14.5 Empire Genomics Recent Developments5.15 Agilent5.15.1 Agilent Profile5.15.2 Agilent Main Business5.15.3 Agilent Products, Services and Solutions5.15.4 Agilent Revenue (US$ Million) & (2015-2020)5.15.5 Agilent Recent Developments5.16 Illumina5.16.1 Illumina Profile5.16.2 Illumina Main Business and Companys Total Revenue5.16.3 Illumina Products, Services and Solutions5.16.4 Illumina Revenue (US$ Million) (2015-2020)5.16.5 Illumina Recent Development and Reaction to Covid-19 6 North America6.1 North America Genomic Biomarker Market Size by Country6.2 United States6.3 Canada 7 Europe7.1 Europe Genomic Biomarker Market Size by Country7.2 Germany7.3 France7.4 U.K.7.5 Italy7.6 Russia7.7 Nordic7.8 Rest of Europe 8 Asia-Pacific8.1 Asia-Pacific Genomic Biomarker Market Size by Region8.2 China8.3 Japan8.4 South Korea8.5 Southeast Asia8.6 India8.7 Australia8.8 Rest of Asia-Pacific 9 Latin America9.1 Latin America Genomic Biomarker Market Size by Country9.2 Mexico9.3 Brazil9.4 Rest of Latin America 10 Middle East & Africa10.1 Middle East & Africa Genomic Biomarker Market Size by Country10.2 Turkey10.3 Saudi Arabia10.4 UAE10.5 Rest of Middle East & Africa 11 Genomic Biomarker Market Dynamics11.1 Industry Trends11.2 Market Drivers11.3 Market Challenges11.4 Market Restraints 12 Research Finding /Conclusion 13 Methodology and Data Source 13.1 Methodology/Research Approach13.1.1 Research Programs/Design13.1.2 Market Size Estimation13.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation13.2 Data Source13.2.1 Secondary Sources13.2.2 Primary Sources13.3 Disclaimer13.4 Author List

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Social Media Bans ‘Highlight the Profound Censorship on Web 2.0’ – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

The crackdown on alleged hate speech is intensifying as social media platforms either expand their policies or step up enforcement of their terms of service.

Reddit banned over 2,000 subreddits as part of a focus on what it deemed hate speech, including The_Donald as well as the subreddit for the leftist podcast Chapo Trap House. Twitch temporarily banned President Trump. Facebook booted a boogaloo group (part of a loose affiliation of anti-government forces that vie for a second civil war), citing its promotion of violence. And YouTube banned a group of far-right content creators, including white nationalists such as David Duke.

The actions seem spurred by a variety of factors, including rising internal pressure from tech employees, the protests around the police killing of George Floyd, Twitter enforcing its terms of service against President Trump and growing advertiser boycotts. The moves ratchet up the volume on a longstanding debate and raise important questions about free speech in the modern internet era, including what constitutes hate speech, whether platforms are obligated to allow hateful content and, most of all, who should get to make decisions about the nature of content.

I defend the companies power and right to make these business decisions, as I defend the right of individuals and organizations to pressure them to do so, said Nadine Strossen, a law professor at New York University and the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in an email.

But she is convinced any speech restrictions that go beyond whats consistent with the U.S. Constitutions First Amendment and International Human Rights principles will be at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive.

A double-edged sword

The application of social media company standards may not mitigate the potential harms of the speech at issue, according to Strossen. The standards for describing the targeted speech are overly vague and broad, meaning they give full power of discretion to those that enforce them, she said. Giving individuals that power means theyll enforce them in accordance with their personal views and may mean that speech by minority views and voices is disproportionately censored, she said.

This has been the case previously when platforms such as Instagram flagged body positive imagery as inappropriate. Facebook reportedly trained its moderators to take down curses, slurs and calls for violenceagainst protected categories such as white males, but allow attacks on subsets such as black children or female drivers. Facebooks formulaic approach to what qualified as a protected category is what allowed some vulnerable subsets to fall through the cracks.

Ironically, many of the very same civil rights/human rights groups that are now clamoring for more restrictions by the platforms have consistently complained that the existing hate speech standards have disproportionately silenced Black Lives Matter activists, Pipeline protesters, and other social justice advocates, said Strossen. Why do they think this would change in the future?

Amy James, co-founder of the Open Index Protocol (OIP), which is like a decentralized patent filing system protecting content thats created on it, organizing it and making sure creators get paid,said the bans were horrifying for a number of reasons.

Even if you disagree with information, censoring it doesnt destroy it, it just allows it to spread without counterpoints, said James in an email. But on the positive side, it highlights the profound censorship.. on Web 2.0, and the more widespread [the] awareness about it, the better.

James added she absolutely sees more bans in the future, largely because the internet isnt a real-life public place where First Amendment protections apply.

On the web, we primarily communicate using platforms that belong to private companies, so they can and should have a right to filter content however they want based on financial criteria, community standards, etc, said James.

Thats a key part of this debate. By entering into these platforms, you give them the right to moderate and regulate your speech largely as they see fit, with little to no recourse. Its ironic the people most adamant about the government not intervening in private businesses lose sight of that when it comes to social media.

Look no further than Trump, who has stridently dismantled business regulations but signed an Executive Order calling for reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields social media companies from liability for content they publish.

Is there a way forward?

Rather than going after legislative fixes for Section 230, James said solutions offered by blockchain and the decentralized Web 3.0 provide a better path. In practice, that looks like supporting cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and open-source web browsers like Brave. She also points to platforms building with OIP Streambed Media, a tamper-proof media index, or Al Bawaba, the Middle Easts and North Africas largest independent news platform, which is building integrations with OIP as good options to help encourage and build Web 3.0, which would not allow for centralized censorship.

There are censorship-free platforms available now like Gab and 4chan but the trade-off with these platforms is some audiences may not go to them because of their content. One person taking a stand alone has almost no effect, she said.

Gab and 8chan (4chans rowdier offspring) also face consistent threats to their ability to function, as domain name providers such as GoDaddy and payment processing companies such as PayPal and Stripe have previously booted Gab off their services. Such methods go beyond just a ban, and fundamentally affect such websites ability to continue.

These platforms are based on the commitment they wont censor you when they absolutely still could, based on their centralized nature.

Strossen envisions a market in which there are a number of viable alternatives with diverse content moderation standards to choose from. Ideally, this would result in maximally empowered end users to make their own informed choices. She points to Parler, which is branded as a free speech platform, as one recent example of where conservatives have flocked, but even its content moderation standards are as hopelessly vague and over broad as all the other platforms, she said.

Now, as Parlers user base has crossed one million, CEO John Matze is also grappling with the limits of speech.

As soon as the press started picking up, we had a ton of violations, Matze told Fortune. We had a queue of over 7,000 violations, and we only had three people to police the entire site.

The Santa Clara principles are another framework for moderation deductions. They were spearheaded by the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation and others, and laid out minimum requirements for companies disclosing information about moderation. This includes publishing the numbers of posts removed and accounts permanently or temporarily suspended, giving notice to each user whose content is taken down or account is suspended about the reason for the removal or suspension, and offering a meaningful opportunity for timely appeal of any content removal or account suspension.

Strossen said no one is going to be completely satisfied with any standards no matter how theyre phrased or enforced because of the subjectivity of the issues at hand.

One persons hate speech is someone elses cherished speech, one persons fake news is someone elses treasured truth and one persons extremist speech is someone elses freedom-fighting speech, said Strossen.

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Social Media Bans 'Highlight the Profound Censorship on Web 2.0' - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

The Trump Administration Is Attacking Critical Internet Privacy Tools – VICE

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

A few weeks ago, I was shocked to learn that the US government had begun dismantling the Open Technology Fund (OTF), a major funder of open source tools like Signal, Tor, and Tails that allow internet users to circumvent censorship and protect themselves from online spying.

The organizations entire leadership team had been summarily fired by Michael Pack, an ally of Steve Bannon and the new Trump-approved CEO of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). The firings were just a small piece of a bigger reconfiguring of the organizations administered by USAGM, which include government-run media networks Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. But as someone who has watched OTF thrive for the past eight years as a member of its Advisory Council, this stood out as an attack against the organization that gave birth to some of our most important anti-censorship and privacy tools.

When I began studying online censorship in 2008, it was not a particularly well-known phenomenon in the United States. Elsewhere in the world, however, was a different story: In places like China, Tunisia, Syria, Vietnam, Iran, and Thailand, a heavily restricted Internet was the norm. Individuals in a number of countries were commonly prohibited from accessing information about human rights, foreign news publications, social media websites, religious content, and information about sexuality and sexual health.

In those days, it wasnt easy to circumvent web blocks. While organizations like Tor had long provided anonymous and uncensored access to the Internet, they did so on shoestring budgets. Basic web proxies were often free but worked poorly, while paid VPNs required a credit cardsomething out of reach for many web users worldwide. Back then it seemed like a divided, Balkanized web was our global shared future.

Then, in January 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at The Newseum introducing Internet freedom as a core component of 21st century statecraft. Acknowledging information networks as a new nervous system for our planet, Clinton spoke to the need to synchronize our technological progress with our principles, and laid out a plan to fight online censorship, connect more people to global information networks, and find diplomatic solutions to strengthen cyber security.

That plan came with funding, first through the State Departments Department of Democracy, Rights, and Labor (DRL), and later joined by OTF, launched under Radio Free Asia and funded through USAGM (then called the Broadcasting Board of Governors).

That funding, as anyone in the Internet freedom community can attest, has altered the landscape of the Internet for millions upon millions of users around the world by providing support for technology that enables users to leap over firewalls and protect themselves from pervasive government surveillance. It has provided organizations in numerous countries where local funding is impossible and major foundations fail to reach with the necessary support to keep Internet users in their countries safe from harm and able to access important information.

Ill readily admit that I was, and remain, skeptical of the Internet freedom agenda. The State Department agenda seemed heavily focused on countries where the US sought regime changelike Iran, Syria, and China. And I wasnt the only one: Prominent Tunisian activist Sami Ben Gharbia criticized the agenda for its propensity to disincline the US from engaging in action that would endanger the stability of the dictatorial Arab order, while writer Evgeny Morozov challenged the very idea that the Internet could bring about freedom or change.

In those heady, early days it was not uncommon for untested and unvetted toolsat least one of which turned out to be utter snake oilto receive funding, invitations to State Department events, or even awards. In my circles, rumors of Beltway Bandits competing for lucrative Internet freedom contracts abounded.

But OTF, launched in 2012, sought to change all that by putting into place measures that ensured that any technology it funded was open source. Recognizing the mistrust that existed amongst much of the global Internet freedom community, OTF put together an expert advisory council (of which I was a founding member) to review applications for funding, and began to create a sense of community amongst OTF-funded projects through the creation of an annual summit that has, over time, grown to be a diverse, inclusive, and community-led event.

This is what sets OTF apart and, regrettably, what is most at stake if Michael Pack gets his way. Neither Packnor James Miles, his recent appointee to the position of the position of OTF CEOis an expert on Internet freedom, but some powerful players have his ear, among them the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice and the lobbyist Michael Horowitz, another Steve Bannon ally. Both have long worked to get the majority of funding for a particular set of tools backed by the anti-gay religious group Falun Gong that includes China-focused VPNs Ultrasurf and Freegate.

The Lantos Foundation would have you believe that it is that affiliation that has prevented their favored toolswhich include Ultrasurf and Freegatefrom receiving funding from OTF, claiming prejudice against this oppressed religious group. But the fact of the matter is that the people behind the tools have for many years refused to open up their code, and thereby verify the accuracy of their security claims. The battle is, therefore, between closed and open source technology.

Open source technology is critical in the internet freedom space, because it allows anyone to inspect the code and understand how a given program works, or whether its code contains any bugs or backdoors. If bugs are found, they can be reported to the developers, helping them to improve upon the technology.

OTF requires that the tools it funds make their code open and publicly available, allowing it to be used by other developers, who can learn from it or reuse parts of it to build new programs or create applications that run on top of existing ones. Closed source technology, on the other hand, withdraws that knowledge from the publicit is inherently proprietary, unavailable for audit by anyone but hired experts under a non-disclosure agreement.

For OTFs global community, this is a matter of trust and safety. I have attended most of OTFs annual summits and spoken to a number of the developers, researchers, and activists from all over the world. Many of them speak of persecution by the state, of targeted surveillance, and pervasive censorship. They trust open source technology because they understand that using it does not present yet another vulnerability in their lives, the way that an unvetted closed source tool could.

Open source can also be a matter of thrift: OTFs estimated annual budget is $15 millionhardly a dent in what myriad state actors spend each year to go after activists and dissidents. By using open source code, technologists can stretch that budget even farther, creating news tools that run alongside existing ones, or forking existing code for new purposes. It also ensures sustainability: If a projects founders move on, they leave their code behind, allowing another group to pick up the slack and continue the work.

OTFs opponents have failed time and time again to engage with any of these arguments, instead hammering on how their favored tools will ensure that more people can leap over Chinas Great Firewall. That is certainly a noble goal, but what concerns me is that it seems to be their only goal.

While Chinas censorship model is one of the most sophisticated, there is no publicly available instruction or guidance from the developers of tools such as Ultrasurf or Freegate on how users can continue to use this tool despite some enforcement of VPN restrictions in China, as well as VPNs repeatedly being removed from Chinas Apple store. Because these tools are closed source, no one can say whether theyre even safe for Chinese users. Yet, these problems are regularly discussed and new approaches piloted among other open source anti-censorship projects, so that they can learn from each others hard work.

As the space for online free speech continues to shrink, the developers of these tools have apparently done little to nothing to make their technology available to, say, activists in Uganda impacted by the countrys new social media tax. Using these tools, protesters in Hong Kong will be unable to access censored content or safely hide their online identity amid growing surveillance capabilities used to find protesters. Theres also no evidence that Lebanese human rights defenders could make use of these tools to organize safely.

The digital threats that face anyone whose right to existence is under attack are not isolated to one country. Civil society worldwide must work together to overcome well-coordinated, well-resourced digital adversaries, and must trust in the technology that holds their sensitive conversations and identities. This trust can only be earned through open source code.

It is for these reasons that nearly five hundred organizationsand more than a thousand individuals, many of whom are experts in the fieldhave signed a letter calling on Congress to require Internet freedom funds to be awarded through an open, fair, competitive, and evidence-based decision process; to remain fully open-source in perpetuity; to ensure that all technologies supported by government funds receive regular security audits; and to pass the Open Technology Fund Authorization Act.

It is difficult to say what exactly will be lost if Michael Pack is allowed to continue his tyrannical reign, but one thing is for certain: The Internet freedom agenda is going to look a lot more like the Trump agendadangerous and ineffective.

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The Trump Administration Is Attacking Critical Internet Privacy Tools - VICE

Wendell Berry joins lawsuit to stop University of Kentucky from removing controversial mural – Courier Journal

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

A look at some of the events over the past 30 days that have made history in Kentucky. Louisville Courier Journal

Famed Kentucky writer Wendell Berry has joined a lawsuit attempting to stop the University of Kentucky from removing a longtime controversial mural on campus depicting slavery.

The suit, filed electronically Monday,seeks to stop UK President Eli Capilouto from removing a 1934 fresco in Memorial Hall, arguing that the rare piece of art is publicly owned and exists to"promote education, the arts, and governmental purposes."

Removing the fresco, the lawsuit argues, can't be done safely.

"The completed OHanlon Mural is an actual part of the building itself," the lawsuit states. "The plaster is an inherent part of the lobby walls on which it is painted. The completed Mural leaves a brilliant, nearly indestructible glass-like surface.

"The fresco cannot be removed without removing the entire wall itself. Any attempt to remove the wall with the OHanlon Mural puts the physical integrity of this unique work of public art at risk of shattering and being destroyed."

Wendell Berry at home in 2006.(Photo: Courier Journal file photo)

The suit, which names the university and Capilouto, also calls for protection of the response mural named "Witness."

Along with the lawsuit, theNational Coalition Against Censorship wrote aletter to Capilouto on July 1, arguing that the removal of a controversial mural on campuswould invalidate the work of aBlack artist's response.

"This is the first instance we are aware of in which the removal of a mural by a white artist will have the simultaneous effect of silencing the work of a Black artist," the letter stated.

Background: A timeline of the controversies surrounding UK's Memorial Hall mural

UK spokesman Jay Blanton said in a statement that "Our respect for Wendell Berry is deep and abiding. His contributions to our state and literature are profound. Moving art, however, is not erasing history. It is, rather, creating context to further dialogue as well as space for healing."

Ann Rice OHanlon paintedthe original 1934 fresco for the Public Works of Art Project, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal,in the foyer of Memorial Hall.

It depicts slavery in Americaand has long been the subject of campus protests and discussions between the student body andUK administration.

It is one of 42 frescoes amid the15,000 pieces of art commissioned under the Public Works of Art Project, according to the Berry complaint.

The mural inside Memorial Hall on the University of Kentucky campus.(Photo: Mark Cornelison | UK photo)

In 2018, UK commissionedPhiladelphia artist Karyn Olivierto create a new piece of art in Memorial Hall, called "Witness," which was meant to create a dialogue between the two.

"My piece could be consideredcorrective, but for me it's really about providing a space for discourse," Olivier said at the time. The National Coalition Against Censorship's concern is that if O'Hanlon's fresco is removed, Olivier's work will be for naught.

Last month, Capilouto announced he'd remove the mural amid national protests against systemic racism. In a letter to the campus community, he wrote that the university's prior solutions to the mural problem "for many of our students, have been a roadblock to reconciliation, rather than a path toward healing."

The frescowas previously covered in 2015 and later was unveiled with added information for context in 2017.

Neither of these moves stopped a 2019 overnight sit-in in UK's Main Building as students protested the mural and food insecurities among disadvantaged students.

Amid those protests, Olivier wrote an open letter to the campus community, introducing herself as "the black immigrant female gay artist" who took on the "problematic" mural.

Previously: Campus issues that led to UK protest were simmering for a while, students say

More coverage: UK adds artwork next to mural with racial images to deepen the dialogue

"When I first thought of what to do, my initial instinct was 'why not remove the black and brown figures from the mural, leaving only ghost-like shapes?'" she wrote. "However, erasing and (in effect) defacing a work of art is a less powerful gesture than confronting what is there."

More recently, the National Coalition Against Censorship letter to Capilouto includes support from Olivier: "The Universitys decision to remove the OHanlon mural also renders my workWitnessblind and mute," she is quoted as saying in the letter.

"It cannot exist without the past it sought to confront. And it is ironic that the decision to censor the original artwork has, in one fell swoop, censored my installation, too.

The Black Student Advisory Council, whose members have been outspoken against the O'Hanlon mural in the past, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reach breaking news reporter Sarah Ladd at sladd@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter at@ladd_sarah.Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.

Read or Share this story: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/education/2020/07/06/wendell-berry-joins-lawsuit-keep-university-kentucky-racist-mural/5384495002/

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Wendell Berry joins lawsuit to stop University of Kentucky from removing controversial mural - Courier Journal

[OPINION] Pinoy BL, censorship, and problematic LGBTQ+ representation – Rappler

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Following the success among Filipino audiences of the Thai BL (Boys Love) series 2gether, numerous media outlets are starting to create Filipino BL series to please the newfound market. The list of upcoming series includes Darryl Yaps Sakristan, Petersen Vargass Hello, Stranger, Xion Lims #MyDay, and Ivan Andrew Payawal's Gameboys, among others.

I have seen efforts by film producers and writers to veer away from the parloristang bakla narrative, where gays are portrayed as comic relief just starving for the male species. However, when it comes to BL series, how gay characters are depicted there poses another challenge. They are presented as eye candy, with masculine features and fit bodies, charming male leads without a trace of body fat or effeminacy. This poses a problem, as young LGBT viewers could then view themselves as too ugly to be gay, or worse, believe that they do not deserve the same love because of their appearance. (READ: 'Tolerated, but not accepted': Filipino LGBTQ+ speak up vs discrimination)

***

I taught media and communication for a year at a Dominican-run Catholic institution before transferring to the blue Jesuit school. As a partial requirement, I instructed my students from the Dominican school to create a short film about a social or political issue. I stressed the importance of media representation, that it was better for them to create stories on the lives of the least represented.

In 2019, one of the student-made films, Hanggang Dulo, bagged awards in an intra-school student film competition. The film was not perfect. It had its flaws. But I said to my students that what mattered more was that they lent a voice to the least represented in the society. In the film, they shared how young LGBT members cope in relationships where one partner is born with HIV. (READ: What LGBT kids need to hear)

After winning Best Picture, I gave my students the go-signal to publish their film on YouTube. I was usually hesitant to let students post their films on the internet as I wanted to reduce digital footprints and not be held accountable for their works. However, their film was an exception, as I wanted more people not only to watch it, but also spread its message to end the stigma towards people living with HIV/AIDS, and to get tested. As of writing, the video garnered 750,000+ views and more than a thousand comments on YouTube. Not bad for a student-made film.

However, one of my colleagues remarked that the films submitted by my students were hindi pang-hayskul (not suited for high school students). She might have been echoing former MTRCB chair Marissa LaGuardia's classification of homsexuality as an abnormality of nature." She also pointed out how some of my students were even minors. She said that they might be too young to comprehend issues like same-sex relationships, rape, and even death as subjects of films. I understood her concern, because I was still bound to the rules and norms of a Catholic institution. However, I remained firm with my philosophy to be more liberal, while teaching my students to be ethical content producers, and not to be exploitative in their own writings.

***

Communication theorist George Gerbner argues that the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality aligns with reality portrayed on television. Although Gerbners cultivation theory is debunked by most theorists, as most audiences have shifted from getting information on TV to getting it on the internet, content producers of Pinoy BL series still have a responsibility to be more inclusive.

My cis female cousin who is a 'BrightWin,' or a fan of 2gether's main actors, asked me to recommend similar series, and I shared with her one of the Thai series I admired, Diary of Tootsie. My cousin watched a few episodes and was lukewarm towards it. She said that some characters from Diary of Tootsie were not as "visually pleasing" as 2gether's Bright Vachirawit or Win Metawin.

I hope that Pinoy BL series go beyond this hype, serving a greater purpose and injecting pressing social and political realities. Who knows? The next Pinoy BL series might feature a gay character who is plump (or in LGBT lingo, a chub) or an effem person with a disability. Rappler.com

Patrick Ernest C. Celso, 23, is a licensed professional teacher from Makati City. He teaches media and communication at Ateneo de Manila University. He is finishing his graduate degree in Creative Writing and obtained an English Education degree at the University of Santo Tomas.

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[OPINION] Pinoy BL, censorship, and problematic LGBTQ+ representation - Rappler

Facebook suspends disinformation network tied to staff of Brazil’s Bolsonaro – Reuters

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) on Wednesday suspended a network of social media accounts it said were used to spread divisive political messages online by employees of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and two of his sons.

FILE PHOTO: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro looks on after a meeting at the Ministry of Defense headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Brasilia, Brazil, May 29 2020. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

The company said that despite efforts to disguise who was behind the activity, it had found links to the staff of two Brazilian lawmakers, as well as the president and his sons, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebooks head of cybersecurity policy, said the accounts were removed for using fake personas and other types of coordinated inauthentic behaviour which violated the companys rules.

He said there was no evidence the politicians themselves had operated the accounts. What we can prove is that employees of those offices are engaged on our platforms in this type of behaviour, he told Reuters ahead of the announcement on the companys blog. (bit.ly/2Cf0dMA)

Facebook said it has also suspended three other networks on Wednesday, including one it attributed to Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Brazilian presidents office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro said his fathers government was elected with strong popular backing and has thousands of supporters on social media.

As far as we know, they are all free and independent, he said in a statement. Based on Facebooks report, its impossible to evaluate what kind of profile was blocked and whether the platform crossed the line into censorship.

The allegations by Facebook add to a burgeoning political crisis in Brazil, where Bolsonaros sons and supporters have been accused of running a coordinated online campaign to smear the presidents opponents.

The accusations have spurred a congressional inquiry and a separate Supreme Court investigation into so-called fake news attacks on the countrys judiciary, which led to police raids in May on the homes and offices of Bolsonaro allies.

Bolsonaro, who is also under mounting criticism over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, has said the courts investigation is unconstitutional and risks establishing censorship in Brazil by policing what people can say online.

Facebook has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks to better police how political groups use its platform. Hundreds of advertisers have joined a boycott aimed at forcing the company to block hate speech on its site, and multiple employees walked out last month over CEO Mark Zuckerbergs decision not to challenge inflammatory posts Trump.

Gleicher said his team had identified and suspended more than 80 accounts on Facebook and its photo-sharing site, Instagram, as part of the Brazilian network. The accounts had amassed 1.8 million followers, he said, and some dated back to 2018.

Researchers at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab, who spent a week analysing the activity identified by Facebook, said they had found five current and former political staffers who registered and operated the accounts.

Some of those accounts posed as fake Brazilians and news outlets to spread hyper-partisan views supporting Bolsonaro and attacking his critics, said researcher Luiza Bandeira. Their targets included opposition lawmakers, former ministers and members of Brazils Supreme Court.

More recently, the accounts also amplified Bolsonaros claims that the risks of the coronavirus pandemic are exaggerated. The disease has killed more than 66,000 people in Brazil and Bolsonaro himself tested positive this week.

We have known for a long time that when people disagree with Bolsonaro they are targeted by this machine that uses online disinformation to mock and discredit them, said Bandeira.

So knowing now that part of these attacks are coming from people directly related to the Bolsonaro family, that explains a lot.

Reporting by Jack Stubbs in London and Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

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Facebook suspends disinformation network tied to staff of Brazil's Bolsonaro - Reuters

Laura Loomer and Freedom Watch request full court review of their Big Tech censorship lawsuit – Reclaim The Net

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Congressional candidate Laura Loomer and non-profit Freedom Watchs lawyer Larry Klayman has submitted a petition for rehearing en banc which seeks a full court review of the dismissal of their Big Tech censorship lawsuit by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The lawsuit accuses Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter of working together to intentionally and willfully suppress politically conservative content, breaching the Sherman Act (an anti-monopoly law, breaching the District of Columbias public accommodation law (which prohibits discrimination in any place of public accommodation), and breaching the First Amendment.

It also argues that Loomer suffered severe financial injury as a result of being banned from these Big Tech platforms and that each and every one of these platforms had participated in a conspiracy to suppress Freedom Watchs content.

The court originally ruled that the District of Columbias accommodation law only applies to physical spaces within the District of Columbia and dismissed the claim.

Double your web browsing speed with today's sponsor. Get Brave.

In May, Freedom Watch contested the courts interpretation of place of public accommodation and argued that the court should interpret this statute more broadly.

But a three-judge panel dismissed the lawsuit and found under the District of Columbia Human Rights Act (DCHRA) that a public accommodation must operate from a particular place.

The petition for rehearing en banc argues that the district court erred by dismissing the Sherman Act claims, the DCHRA claim, and the First Amendment claims.

It states that the numerous errors in the panels treatment of the DCHRA claims are:

An issue of exceptional importance, as people in modern society have increasingly, and almost entirely at this point, replaced the traditional physical public forum with the internet and social media. This rings particularly true given the current state of events, with COVID-19 severely hampering the ability of individuals to physically gather.

The petition for rehearing en banc argues that the court should adapt and evolve with the changing times and make the common sense ruling that the internet and social media qualifies as a place of public accommodation under the DCHRA and adds that the traditional place of public accommodation is a dying breed.

It also cites several court rulings where websites have qualified as a place of public accommodation, including a ruling by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Del-Orden v. Bonobos, Inc., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209251 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 20, 2017) which found that a commercial website itself qualifies as a place of public accommodation.'

On the dismissal of the Sherman Act claims, the petition for rehearing en banc argues that Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter acted against their own economic self-interest in their concerted action to restrain trade and states that they are willing to lose revenue from conservative organizations and individuals like Freedom Watch and those similarly situated to further their leftist agenda and designs to effectively overthrow President Trump and his administration and have installed leftist government in this district and the 50 states.

And on the dismissal of the First Amendment claims, the petition for rehearing en banc argues that the panel failed to address the Supreme Courts recent decision in Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct. 1730 (2017) where the US Supreme Court struck down a North Carolina statute that prohibited sex offenders from accessing social media websites and ruled that the statute violated the First Amendment.

The petition for rehearing also asks that Loomer and Freedom Watchs oral arguments and notes that this request was denied by the three-judge panel.

It concludes that now is an opportunity for the court to recognize and adapt to changing times to ensure that the law keeps up with the reality and adds:

This case is not just about Freedom Watch and Ms. Loomer, but all Americans who desire to exercise their rights of free speech, free from the illegal and anticompetitive practices of giant social media companies, who have restrained trade and who believe and act as if they are above the law.

After filing the petition for rehearing en banc, Loomer wrote:

My legal battle against the Silicon Valley Big Tech Tyrants is Americas battle, which is why my legal team and I are committed to taking this case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary!

Free speech is worth fighting for, at all costs!

Days before filing this petition for a rehearing, Loomer highlighted how influential Facebook has become in election contests and wrote that her ban from the platform means that shes not allowed to create an account for her political campaign and that Political Action Committees (PACs) are also prohibited from running ads that promote her campaign.

Additionally, because Facebook has branded Loomer dangerous, other users are prohibited from mentioning her or attempting to link to her content.

Meanwhile, Loomers opponent, Lois Frankel, has a Facebook page with thousands of followers, has the ability to run ads, and can have her content shared by other Facebook users.

Loomer noted that shes the only federal candidate in the nation banned from advertising on Facebook and accused Facebook of illegal election interference.

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Laura Loomer and Freedom Watch request full court review of their Big Tech censorship lawsuit - Reclaim The Net

A Look Into The Wild Economy Of Tabletop Board Game Funding – NPR

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Tim Overkamp shows the game "The Settlers of Catan." Britta Pedersen/dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images hide caption

Tim Overkamp shows the game "The Settlers of Catan."

Long before the coronavirus pandemic, tabletop board games were having something of a renaissance, with popular games like The Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride becoming mainstream additions to family game nights.

Then, COVID-19 hit and, as Quartz reported, it changed how many hobbyist board game creators approached the industry. But for many people who suddenly found themselves stuck at home under lockdown, the pandemic also spurred newfound interest in strategy games that require creativity and concentration. Board game hobbyists had more time to spend learning about new games coming out, while newbies to the scene were discovering a world beyond classics like Monopoly and Clue.

Then, on March 30, the board game Frosthaven the dungeon crawling, highly-anticipated sequel to the hit game Gloomhaven surpassed its funding goal of $500,000 on Kickstarter in mere hours. Today, it is the most-funded board game on the site ever, with nearly $13 million pledged toward funding the game's development. Only two projects have ever crowdsourced more funding on the site.

Frosthaven's success seemed to exemplify a shift that has been happening in the tabletop gaming community for years: toward games that are not only focused on strategy and adventure, but also a new type of funding model where fans have more say than ever in which games move from the idea stage to their living rooms. And hobbyist tabletop games are a different breed of entertainment altogether.

"You have mass market games, which are Monopoly and everything that you find at Target or Toys "R" Us, and you have hobbyist games, which you typically find at your FLGS your friendly local gaming store," said Cree Wilson, the programming and tabletop gaming manager for Comicpalooza. "Then there's this blurry line of stuff in between, which I've heard sometimes called entertainment gaming, and it's games selling tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of copies, but isn't selling millions yet."

For many of these smaller games, funding from fans has proved essential. Hasbro, the company that makes games like Monopoly and Connect 4, earns hundreds of millions each year through everything from game sales and licensing deals to its TV and film business. But funding models are far different for newer or smaller game makers. These makers have become part of one of the country's most popular quarantine hobbies, but they've done so through a mini-economy that relies on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter.

It makes for a unique experience that can line creators up for success and it isn't specific to Frosthaven. Games like Dark Souls, Ankh: Gods of Egypt, Cthulhu: Death May Die and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon are among those that earned multiple millions through crowdfunding.

Creators use Kickstarter like a social media site, an advertisement and a fundraising tool all in one, and they use it more successfully than nearly any other game creators on the site. In 2019, fans pledged more than $176 million toward tabletop games up 6.8% over the previous year, according to Kickstarter data gathered by the entertainment site Polygon. In all, more than 1 million people pledged to games on the site last year.

For fans, the benefits of pledging can go beyond the games themselves. Fans can earn special gifts from game makers in exchange for their support. And often, pledging toward a game can end up costing less than waiting to buy it in a store.

Another factor motivating fans, Wilson says, is fear of missing out.

"The FOMO on Kickstarter is real," Wilson said, adding that often people will pledge because they don't want to miss out on a game their friends will be getting.

It's a feeling that Ash Mehra can identify with. Mehra, a 27-year-old board game fan and medical resident in Miami, said she checks Kickstarter every day, and has spent about $1,200 on the site, pledging to games like the Terraforming Mars Big Box and The Age of Atlantis. She said there "definitely is a visceral thrill, an endorphin rush" to watching games she has pledged money to not only reach early fundraising targets, but then stretch them due to momentum on the site.

Fans like Mehra are already on Kickstarter either awaiting their favorite game-makers next move or looking for new games to try out so connecting with them and pulling in funding pledges is almost inevitable.

"For the board game community, there's a culture of looking on Kickstarter ... and being more willing to fund things," said Isaac Childres, the CEO of Cephalofair Games and creator of Forge War, Gloomhaven and Frosthaven. "It's like a larger avenue for board game creators to use that automatically picks up a following."

This is what makes Kickstarter so attractive to individual makers and less attractive to other gaming industries like video game makers. It takes a lot of startup value to create your own video game, for instance, but for board games, you only need a good enough idea and a well-placed Kickstarter page to gauge public interest.

Once a maker has proven success, it's easier to build on that success. Raising millions from fans "is a pretty strong sign of there's demand," said Ethan Mollick, an associate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who has studied crowdfunding, entrepreneurship and games. "And I can go to investors. And that also means that if I deliver a good game, I can go back and do, [for example] Fire Haven."

It's not a perfect system. Childres says he devotes much of his success to Kickstarter, but adds that there are "upper limits" to the size of the community on the site. While their engagement is deep, he said, it can only carry a game so far.

"When GloomHaven was published and all those people on Kickstarter got their copy [and started] raving about it, that's when it sort of was able to reach a wider audience outside of Kickstarter."

And there are drawbacks to the funding technique, too. Creators are responsible for everything if their goals are reached. They have to print the games and send them to their customers on their own a process that can be grueling, time-consuming and even detrimental. One board game creator miscalculated the amount of money it would cost to ship games and lost his house due to the unexpected financial burden.

But, for many creators, the positives outweigh the negatives.

Childres said it's hard to imagine where he might be without crowdfunding. Offering his game Forge War as an example, he said had he "somehow found the money to publish it on my own and get it into stores, I don't think anyone would have paid attention to it."

Now, he's one of the most successful hobbyist tabletop board game creators in the country.

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A Look Into The Wild Economy Of Tabletop Board Game Funding - NPR

NASA, China and the UAE are scheduled to send missions to Mars in July | TheHill – The Hill

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Starting in July the window opens when missions to Mars can be easily sent across the interplanetary gulf. If all goes well, three such missions, mounted by NASA, China and the United Arab Emirates, will depart Earth for the Red Planet. The number of missions, who is launching them and their complexity illustrate the importance Mars has for purveyors of space exploration policy.

NASA Perseverance is currently scheduled to launch somewhere between July 30 and August 15. It will land in the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. Perseverance will roll about the Martian landscape looking for signs of life past and present and collecting rock and soil samples for later pickup and delivery to Earth. The rover will also carry a helicopter drone that is envisioned as the first aircraft to fly in the skies of another world.

Chinas Tianwen-1 is the most complex, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. The name translates roughly to the quest for heavenly truth. The rover is much smaller than Perseverance and contains six scientific instruments. While the rover spends 90 Martian days rolling about studying Mars at close range, the orbiter will examine it from a wider perspective for about a Martian year, serving as a communication relay.

The United Arab Emirates mission is a small orbiter called Hope. Hope is scheduled to launch on a Japanese rocket and will spend 200 days cruising to Mars. The probe will enter an elliptical orbit around the Red Planet. Hope will spend at least two years studying aspects of the Martian atmosphere.

Why are so many missions being sent to Mars in a single month? The answer is different for each player.

NASAs primary mandate since its beginning has been to explore space. The space agency has been sending robot probes to Mars since the Mariner 4 in the mid-1960s. NASA also has a renewed mandate to send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit to Mars as well as other destinations. Each robotic probe that flies by, orbits or lands on Mars is a prelude to the day when Americans step out of the Mars lander and tread the face of a second alien world. The human expedition to Mars, which will stop by the moon to top off rocket fuel created by lunar water, will be a singular, historic event of this century, dwarfing the Apollo moon landing.

China is mounting an expedition to Mars to enhance its status as a major space power. Beijing envisions its space program, which includes a planned crewed space station and several robotic expeditions to the moon leading to a crewed landing, as a means to define itself as a superpower, first as a peer of the United States, but in the long term to supplant America.

The UAE, conscious that oil and gas are beginning to lose their appeal, has embarked on creating a high-tech economy. The Hope mission, the first of its kind by any Arab nation, is part of that strategy.

Every iota of data gleaned by these missions, as well as everyone past and future, will support the grandest Mars vision of all. SpaceXs Elon MuskElon Reeve MuskThe Hill's 12:30 Report- Presented by Facebook - Trump threatens schools' funding over reopening NASA, China and the UAE are scheduled to send missions to Mars in July Kanye tweets he's running for president MORE has made no secret of his desire to found a city on the Red Planet, thus establishing, as the space visionary Robert Zubrin has advocated, a second branch of human civilization. The idea is to spark the pioneering spirit on Earth by opening a human frontier on the fourth planet from the sun, enabling innovation and optimism that has been sorely lacking in recent years. Coincidentally, Mars would become an insurance policy for the human race, ensuring that it does not become extinct due to some calamity, such as the object that crashed into the Earth, killing the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The ultimate dream is to use terraforming techniques to transform Mars into a habitable world, one of oceans and forests and an atmosphere that humans can breathe. Terraforming the Red Planet into a blue world would be the work of centuries. The process would restore Mars to what it once was billions of years ago, before a slow-motion calamity created the arid, chilly planet that we know today.

Musks dream, should it be fulfilled, would be as consequential as the emergence of life from the ocean to the land. It would constitute the evolution of humanity into a multi-planet species.

Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond. He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the LA Times, and the Washington Post, among other venues.

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NASA, China and the UAE are scheduled to send missions to Mars in July | TheHill - The Hill

Fourth Amendment | Constitution of United States of …

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

A Guide to the Fourth Amendment

The Fourth Amendment, or Amendment IV of the United States Constitution is the section of the Bill of Rights that protects people from being searched or having their things taken away from them without any good reason. If the government or any law enforcement official wants to do that, he or she must have a very good reason to do that and must get permission to perform the search from a judge. The fourth amendment was introduced into the Constitution of the United States as a part of the Bill of Rights on September 5, 1789 and was ratified or voted four by three fourths of the states on December 15, 1791.

The Text of the Fourth Amendment

The text of the Fourth Amendment which is found in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights is the following:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

History of the Third Amendment

In Colonial America, laws were written in order to help the English earn money on customs. The justices of the peace would do this by writing general warrants, which allowed general search and seizure to happen. Massachusetts wrote a law in 1756 that banned these warrants, because tax collectors were abusing their powers by searching the colonists homes for illegal goods. These general warrants allowed any messenger or officer to search a suspected place without any evidence. It also allowed them to seize people without even saying what they did wrong or showing evidence of their wrongdoings. Virginia also banned the use of general warrants later due to other fears. These actions later led to the addition of the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

The Fourth Amendment Today

Today, the Fourth Amendment means that in order for a police officer to search and arrest someone, he or she will need to get permission or a warrant to do so from a judge. In order to get a warrant, the police officer must have evidence or probable cause that supports it. The police officer, or whoever has the evidence, must swear that it is true to his or her knowledge.

Facts About the Fourth Amendment

The Fourth Amendment applies to the government, but not any searches done by organizations or people who are not doing it for the government.

Some searches can be done without a warrant without breaking the law, like when there is a good reason to think that a crime is happening.

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Protected attorney-client calls released to prosecutors at least four times in Maine – The Bethel Citizen

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Maines public defense agency is still working to determine how many inmate phone calls with attorneys may have been improperly recorded and sent to prosecutors, with four known instances happening since 2015.

The state is investigating the extent to which Maine county jails and phone companies theyre contracted with recorded and released privileged phone calls between attorneys and inmates.

The investigation started with fervor when allegations of apossible violationof a Somerset County Jail inmates right to privately speak on the phone with his attorney surfaced in late April, after the Maine Office of the Attorney General reported it had accidentally obtained recordings of their calls.

In May, public defense attorneys reported to the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services at least three other times over the last five years that calls protected by attorney-client privilege were released to prosecutors by three jails.One attorney also reported an instance of a jail allegedly sharing calls between a witness and an attorney seven years ago.

John Pelletier, executive director of the state public defense agency, is trying to determine if that is the extent of the problem.

There may be no (other) calls, there may be two calls, there may be 200 calls we dont know, Pelletier said.

In addition to the 2020 incident in Somerset County, the same jail released an attorneys calls with an inmate in 2015, as did the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset, according to a report Pelletier wrote to the commission on May 29.Cumberland County Jail in Portland released protected inmate calls earlier this year, Pelletier said. Cumberland County Jail also allegedly released calls that a witness made from the jail to a defendants attorney in 2013, according to the document.

No additional cases have been discovered since June 18, Pelletier said.

What weve discovered is four instances where attorney-client calls were recorded and came into the possession of prosecutors, he said. I think fortunately for Maine, we did not discover a situation where the prosecutors were readily listening to these calls, using them in plea negotiations or actually litigating the admissibility of calls in cases.

Pelletier said that has happened inother statesand some courts have allowed the calls to be used as evidence.

Pelletier is working with the jails to gather additional information and is considering having the recordings purged from the system, once he understands the scope of the problem, according to the written report. Recorded calls are typically stored for six months to two years.

Bob Cummins, a Maine defense attorney appointed to the commission in 2019, said a broader investigation by the governors office or Maine Supreme Judicial Court may be necessary. Cummins is a former chairman of multiple American Bar Association committees on professional discipline and conduct.

If we have had for some period of years a procedure whereby lawyer-client calls are being recorded, weve got a serious problem, he said. With all due respect to judges and lawyers and prosecutorial authorities, we know things go astray. This is a problem that needs not only attention in court to deal with the immediate problem but also a more comprehensive look at this whole matter of recording.

The commission is awaiting the jails responses before requesting a larger investigation. But the specter of a constitutional challenge to the widespread recording of inmate phone calls has already emerged.

Communications between an attorney and client are confidential and protected under attorney-client privilege. Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine Legal Director Zach Heiden told Pine Tree Watchthat any interference by the government between an attorney and a client in a criminal matter raises serious constitutional questions.

On Monday, ACLU spokeswoman Rachel Healy said the organization does not have plans to take legal or legislative action and believes its up to the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services to fix the problem.

To prevent the future recording of attorney calls, Pelletier sent the jails a list of phone numbers for attorneys employed by the commission. The list did not include private criminal defense attorneys.

Roger Katz, an Augusta attorney and former state legislator, said the need to protect the privacy of attorney-client phone calls extends to all inmates, not just those who cannot afford their own attorney and are provided one by the state. Katz was appointed to the eight-member commission in 2019.

The good news is it seems as though despite these failings prosecutors have been acting ethically, Katz said. The bad news is its a system rife with problems. But the good news is these are totally fixable problems.

Recording and requesting calls

Jails that have released attorney-client calls maintain that recording inmate calls is necessary to protect victims of crimes. Capt. Don Goulet of the Cumberland County Jail said in a phone interview that police have a legitimate public safety interest in recording calls inmates make to family or friends, particularly in cases involving domestic violence.

We have a significant ongoing issue with people contacting their domestic violence partner, he said.

Police or prosecutors may also request recorded phone calls from jail if they suspect the inmate of tampering with a witness. But police and prosecutors dont have to provide evidence of their suspicions and can request calls made by an inmate without a specific reason, attorney Robert Ruffner of Portland said at the commission meeting.

Ruffner recalled an instance in which he explained to his client what would happen in court the next day. The client then called his parents from jail to talk about his case. The next morning, the prosecutor repeated things to Ruffner that he thought were confidential between him and his client, but the prosecutor knew from listening to the recordings of his clients calls with his parents. Ruffner advised his client to stop sharing details over the phone with family members.

This is an example of why there should be guidelines that specify when calls can be listened to and prevent prosecutors from listening in to private conversations without good cause, he told commissioners.

Joseph Jackson, director of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, said in a recent phone interview that inmates have long been aware that most of their calls are recorded. But the practice of recording calls without discretion sparks concern of a police state, in which law enforcement is afforded too much power over citizens without sufficient accountability.

Its hard for me to separate what we see now with a big uprising in our country and disassociate it from the practices we see taking place inside, he said, referring to the nationwide protests against police violence following the killing of George Floyd by an officer in Minneapolis. Its hard to imagine an environment thats more trauma-filled than when (officers) have control and qualified immunity.

Jackson was incarcerated in Maine for 19 years on a manslaughter conviction before becoming one of the states leading prisoner advocates.

Further complicating matters is that Maine jails have been closed to in-person visits for months because of the coronavirus. Although some jails have reopened for in-person attorney meetings with restrictions for months the only way inmates could speak to their attorneys was by phone.

A year before change?

With the Legislature out of session, major change wont be immediate.

State Rep. Jeffrey Evangelos, I-Friendship, recommended the commission work with the Legislatures Judiciary Committee to expressly prohibit the sharing of attorney-client calls with anyone. But it would likely be a year before a bill is passed and goes into effect, Katz said. After that, it will be up to the jails to figure out how to comply.

Without a central system overseeing county jails in Maine, thats an imperfect solution, said Jackson. Still, he said the coalition would support the legislation.

Once the issue of recording inmate calls with attorneys is addressed, the commission may also need to address inmate privacy, said Commissioner Sarah Churchill, a private defense lawyer on the commission. The phones inmates use are sometimes located in areas where other inmates can hear one end of the conversation, she said.

To the extent that we solve the recording problem, I think we still have a confidentiality problem, she said. If somebody else can overhear the conversation, then the whole entire privilege is blown out of the water.

Katz suggested that legislation also require jails to provide space for inmates to make private calls or have private visits with their attorneys.

Jackson agreed, pointing out that these conversations often take place before an inmate has received a conviction.

The rights of clients in a (Maine) county jail are less than a client that has been sentenced, he said.

Too haphazard

One of the most troubling findings so far is that some of the jails appear to have known some of the calls should not have been released.

Somerset County Jail has twice released privileged calls to prosecutors. In one case in 2015, the jail produced numerous CDs with an inmates phone calls, including one that contained recordings of 55 calls between an attorney and the inmate.

Though the attorney and prosecutor involved with the case ultimately found the disc had not been turned over to the prosecutor, Pelletier said its creation reflects an awareness that these calls involved privileged material.

And although the matter was vigorously pursued by defense counsel and taken seriously by the court, I got no indication of specific reforms at the jail that came about as a result, Pelletier added.

Under the existing system, attorneys are required to set up an account with the jails phone vendor or otherwise alert the jail that their calls are not to be recorded.

On such a crucial issue, its too haphazard and too burdensome on the attorney, Pelletier said. It seems to me that attorney-client conversations shouldnt require a bunch of hoops to ensure that its confidential.

In the Cumberland County case earlier this year the most recent to have occurred the jail released seven inmate calls to the Buxton Police Department, which shared them with the district attorneys office. A paralegal allegedly identified the error before anyone listened to the calls, according to Pelletiers May 29 report. Goulet, of the Cumberland County Jail, said that the attorney in that case had not registered his phone number with the jails phone vendor.

Goulet said he and Sheriff Kevin Joyce have since sent a letter to attorneys and put a message on their website reminding them that they need to create an account and register with their phone system to protect the privacy of their calls with inmates.

In Somerset County, Sheriff Dale Lancastertold Pine Tree Watchin May that its up to the inmate to provide the jail with their attorneys phone number so if calls are requested, the phone vendor can prevent a recording.

Katz said its up to several parties to make sure calls arent recorded.

Theres shared responsibility of the jail, the provider, the client and the attorney, he said.

Recording inmate calls has become nearly universal across the country following a1984 Supreme Court decisionthat ruled inmates have a diminished right of privacy under the Fourth Amendment, Pelletier reported to the commission in June. But calls between attorneys and their clients should not be recorded, he said during a meeting with the commission.

Inmate phone calls have been recorded in Maine since at least 2006, when Two Bridges Regional Jail hired GTL to run its phone system. TheVirginia-based companyprovides communication services for more than 1.6 million inmates in 2,300 facilities. GTL also provides phone services in the Somerset County Jail.

Maines other 13 county jails have contracted inmate phone services to Securus Technologies, aDallas-based companythat services 1.2 million inmates in the U.S. in more than 3,400 public safety, law enforcement and corrections agencies.

In the recent cases in Maine, prosecutors or a paralegal in the prosecutors office stopped listening when they realized the calls were sent to them in error and reported the incidents to defense counsel, according to Pelletier. He also acknowledged we dont know what we dont know with regard to whether there are additional instances or whether prosecutors have at times used information from these calls to help their case.

Pelletier told the commission it needs to discuss how best to ensure attorney-client calls are not recorded. In addition, if a request for inmate calls is made, the calls should be screened for the attorney phone number before they are given to the police or prosecutors, he said.

The situation is that the default rule is that these calls are being recorded, he said. The question is, how do we make sure that attorney-client calls are somehow exempted from that system?

Pine Tree Watch Staff Writer Samantha Hogan contributed to this report.

Protected attorney-client calls released to prosecutors at least four times in Maine - The Bethel Citizen

Virtual reality is a fun and innovative way to exercise indoors – Iowa State Daily

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Students view southern France through virtual reality headsets in a demonstration hosted by the Department of World Languages and Cultures.

Just because gyms and parks are temporarily closed doesnt mean exercise is a thing of the past. With these virtual reality games, at-home workouts can be both fun and doable.

Virtual reality (VR) headsets are the newest and most sought-after additions to video game consoles. While there are many immersive, beautiful and even scary games for VR, the games with the most practical use are meant for exercise. Video games as exercise may have once seemed counterintuitive, but now this is a concept of the past.

Cloudhead Games Pistol Whip is one example of an exercise-centered VR game. After being released on Steam in 2019, the rhythm-based shooter garnered immediate glowing reviews. This game does not have a specific plot, but instead it centers around the player being propelled through various environments while catchy music, of which the player is encouraged to shoot their in-game pistol at various targets on-beat to, plays all around them.

Pistol Whip is not a high-intensity exercise, but is more suited for players who want to headbang while getting on their feet every once in a while.

A more intensive exercise game is Beat Games Beat Saber." This VR exclusive came to consoles in 2018. It currently holds a 10/10 score on Steam and its popularity has only seemed to rise since its release.

Beat Saber is similar to Pistol Whip in that it is a rhythm-based VR game. The difference here though is the directions the player needs to follow in order to remain on-beat to the songs. Similarly to old Dance Dance Revolution games, players must both hit the targets on-beat as they appear to them while also striking them in the right direction with their hand controllers. Missing too many beats or directions will abruptly end the song.

There are additional settings to make Beat Saber more player-friendly, such as activating the no fail option where the song will continue no matter how many hits are missed. Additionally, the song difficulty level can be adjusted. Most songs that come with Beat Saber have Easy," Hard," Expert" and Expert+ modes where the intensity of the rhythms and speeds vary based on player ability.

One man who can attest to Beat Saber's"uses in exercise is Robert Long, a player who used the game to lose almost 140 pounds. In his original Reddit post, Long explains his workout routine.

Now, load it [Beat Saber] up and then set a timer for 35 minutes," Long said. "Thirty minutes for workouts and five for relax time and quick stops for 30 seconds to catch your breath and select a new song. But, do not do an hour at once. I have, and I did burn 1500+ calories in that one workout, but yeah. Recovery was [not] fun.

Beat Saber," when played on the higher-intensity levels of difficulty can be a very extreme workout. For players who are just starting an exercise routine, take Longs advice and do not overdo it.

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Virtual reality is a fun and innovative way to exercise indoors - Iowa State Daily

Icelandic Virtual Reality meditation start-up, Flow, receives USD $500000 from Iceland Venture Studio fund – Auganix

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

In Virtual Reality News

July 10, 2020 Iceland Venture Studio, a fund devoted to growing Icelandic tech startups, has announced that it has raised USD $2 million (in addition to its USD $1 million fund from 2019), and has made additional investments into its first portfolio companies. These include Flow, which develops immersive virtual reality-enhanced meditation programs, and RetinaRisk, which has created an algorithm that can help to predict diabetic retinopathy years in advance. Both companies have received an investment of USD $500,000 from the fund.

In addition, Iceland Venture Studios has stated that it is diversifying outside of the region and is seeking to invest a significant part of its newly-raised funds into innovative tech startups outside of Iceland. The fund is seeking investments in companies that are focused around the decentralization of private data, algorithms, privacy, process and data security.

Were very committed to both the past and future of Iceland Venture Studios as both a fund as well as the companies we have been fortunate enough to help in their seed rounds, noted CEO and co-founder, Bala Kamallakharan. We remain very bullish on both RetinaRisk and Flow and are very proud to be able to make further investments in their companies and team. Having raised twice the money in half the time of our first fund, fund two is earmarked not just for Iceland but for any company demonstrating vision and excellence in our target market segments.

Commenting on the announcement, Kristn Hrefna Halldrsdttir, CEO of Flow, said: Bala is a legendary mentor to the Icelandic tech community and we are very happy that his fund has seen fit to not only continue its support of VR-assisted meditation, but also Flows worldwide promotion of pure Icelandic nature and progressive culture. She added, The new investment of USD $500,000 into Flow will allow us to continue our journey of bringing meditation to not just the corporate world, but also to individuals who want to partake of guided meditation enhanced with VR, carefully curated music and nature straight from Iceland.

RetinaRisk has developed a unique, proprietary algorithm that can correctly identify those most at risk of retinopathy and allows physicians and patients alike to take preemptive steps to prevent vision loss through proper diabetic management. Iceland Venture Studio has now invested a total of SUD $500,000 into our company and we are very honored to be working with Bala and his team, said Sigurbjrg sta Jnsdttir, CEO of RetinaRisk. These new funds will be especially valuable as we seek to make our app also available to developing countries, where easy access to health care can be severely limited by geography.

Iceland Venture Studio states that it provides a growth solution for entrepreneurs building the next-generation of services around decentralization of personal data, algorithms, privacy, process and data security. Serving startups worldwide, the Studio has a data-driven approach to developing and accepting founders into the program. For more information on the Iceland Venture Studio, click here.

Video credit: Flow / YouTube

About the author

Sam Sprigg

Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he covers news articles on both the AR and VR industries. He also has an interest in human augmentation technology as a whole, and does not just limit his learning specifically to the visual experience side of things.

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Icelandic Virtual Reality meditation start-up, Flow, receives USD $500000 from Iceland Venture Studio fund - Auganix

Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market Demand Escalating on Growing Popularity In Technology Sector – Daily Research Chronicles

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market (2020)Report Provides an in-depth summary of Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market Status as well as Product Specification, Technology Development, and Key Manufacturers. The Report Gives Detail Analysis on Market concern Like Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market share, CAGR Status, Market demand and up to date Market Trends with key Market segments.

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Analysis tools such as SWOT analysis and Porters five force model have been inculcated in order to present a perfect in-depth knowledge about Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market. tables, charts are added to help have an accurate understanding of this Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market. The Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market is also been analyzed in terms of value chain analysis and regulatory analysis.

Key players in global Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market include:Sony Corporation, Samsung electronics Ltd., HTC Corporation, Google, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, LG Electronics, Inc., Avegant Corporation, Facebook, Fove, Inc., and Oculus VR, LLC.

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The study details country-level aspects based on each segment and gives estimates in terms of market size. The key regional trends beneficial to the growth of the Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets market are discussed. Further, it analyzes the market potential for every nation. Geographic segmentation covered in the market report:

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Virtual Reality (VR) Headsets Market Demand Escalating on Growing Popularity In Technology Sector - Daily Research Chronicles

Is virtual reality the new frontier of tourism? – Northern Star

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

TRAVELLING in the time of COVID-19 has become next to impossible but Southern Cross University experts believe virtual and augmented reality could change that.

Augmented reality fuses the real world with virtual aspects whereas virtual reality uses technology like goggles or headsets to transport users to a real or fictional place.

Southern Cross University Professor of Tourism Kevin Markwell said these technologies would enable users to travel without leaving their living room.

"Incorporating opportunities for playfulness and gamification into a physical space will enable visits to a destination to become an adventure that integrates the 'real' with the 'imagined' into one seamless experience," said Prof Markwell.

"The trick is for the technologies to offer qualitatively different experiences to those normally offered when we visit a destination, world famous art gallery or museum."

Virtual reality technology is steadily growing in popularity, as organisations like SCU in Lismore use the technology for virtual tours.

The two technologies could even widen the accessibility of the tourism market for people with disabilities, Prof Markwell said.

"This is also an important advancement for tourists with disabilities, which is a very significant market in Australia and around the world.

"This technology can allow people with disabilities to look at hotel rooms before renting a night to ensure their specific requirements are there, and also to 'experience' places that could otherwise be difficult to access."

Prof Markwell said it's important to realise that the technologies will not save the industry but could further enhance holiday-makers' experience.

"Visitors will want to reassure themselves that they have made the right decision about where they stay, which airline they choose to fly with, and which attractions and tours they experience," he said.

"VR can break down the locational barriers and allow travellers to make informed decisions."

For an example of what virtual reality is like, visit scu.edu.au/Lismore for a virtual tour of the SCU Lismore campus.

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Is virtual reality the new frontier of tourism? - Northern Star

This Guy Wore a Face Camera for a Year and Built a VR Time Machine – PetaPixel

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

San Francisco-based inventor Lucas Rizzotto spent all of 2019 wearing cameras on his face. He then built a virtual reality time machine that lets him relive any memory from the year by simply punching in a date and time.

Rizzotto shows how the project was done in the 28-minute video above, which exaggerates some aspects of the project for comedic/dramatic effect (and warning: theres some strong language). Heres an 18-second video showing the gist of how the time machine works:

Rizzotto wore Snapchat Spectacles, glasses that use two cameras to record 12161216 footage at 60fps in stereoscopic 3D.

After filling up a mountain of hard drives with his life footage, Rizzotto had to code up a virtual reality control panel for the time machine, a system that can quickly retrieve any memory based on timestamp, and special effects for displaying the retrieved memories in a cool way.

It took quite a bit of work and troubleshooting, but Rizzotto ended up successfully creating a slick time machine that he interacts with using a VR headset. Once he selects the destination date and time with the machines buttons, he pulls a lever and is presented with a large portal that plays what he was seeing at that specific time.

Its really hard to describe the feeling you get reliving your own past, Rizzotto says in the video. It doesnt feel like watching a video not at all. In fact, the moment you see through your eyes again, your brain lights up and you remember everything connected to that moment. You dont just see the memory portal, you see everything around it. Like the rush of memories you get when you smell food you used to eat as a child.

Its crazy, overwhelming, emotional, and way more immersive than I thought it would be. I was my own ghost, watching myself wander through life with no idea of what was going to happen next.

Back around 2012, there were a number of wearable lifelogging cameras (e.g. Autographer and Memoto) that promised a similar concept of reliving any of your memories. Those projects never achieved any commercial success or widespread usage, but itll be interesting to see whether improvements in camera technology and memory reliving (e.g. using VR) could lead to a viable commercial product sometime in the future.

AIRC explores VR, other teaching methods while focusing on Native education – Cherokee Phoenix

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

BYSTACIE BOSTON Multimedia Reporter

07/11/2020 02:00 PM

Founded in 1983, it serves approximately 80 schools and introduces new teaching styles while emphasizing Native learning styles.

We have established a spatial lab for virtual reality and we have actually put a lot of equipment in the schools like large TVs and virtual reality headsets for the youth, Pam Iron, AIRC executive director, said.

Iron said AIRC officials can scan items such as hickory nuts or other tangible items to be used within VR. Were trying to do a lot of scanning of items, so when we get ready to do a game or some kind of history lesson, those artifacts will already be in there.

By introducing VR learning and the spatial lab to students, Iron said she feels AIRC is on the cutting edge when it comes to educating. We were doing this before COVID and then all of a sudden its kind of jumped to the forefront.

Another type of learning AIRC offers is exploration outdoor education, which Iron said is implemented in most of their programming. One program offered is Project Venture.

So, what that program does is it really teaches leadership, she said. Self-esteem is at the center of it, knowing who you are, knowing your likes and dislikes and becoming centered and also how to relate to the world around you. A lot of it is in a camp setting.

She said the students partake in Project Venture at AIRCs Camp Sevenstar near Lake Tenkiller.This camp has the low ropes and high ropes. We write outdoor exploration learning in all of our programs, then we take our youth out to the camp, she said. However, due to COVID-19 weve had to curtail some of our activities at the camp.

A program that Iron called AIRCs best kept secret is the Educational Talent Search, which assists eighth through 12th grade students who are the first in their family to attend college. She said it serves approximately 750 Native and non-Native students annually.

We do that in 12 different schools, and weve had that program for like 29 years, she said. Its kind of like that programs the best kept secret that has helped thousands and thousands of Cherokees with getting into college.

Iron said AIRC is also in its second year of providing the Wathene Young Scholarship and Dr. Fount Holland Memorial Scholarship, for which students who qualify can apply until July 15.

It was established by our board of directors for two of the founders of our organization. Wathene was the founder and then Fount, about five years later, came and worked in partnership with Wathene, she said. Were really proud that weve been able to establish them because of not only honoring them for all of their leadership in Indian education but it really depicts what AIRC stands for and that is to promote secondary education at the college level and vocational.

AIRC is raising funds for the scholarships. Iron said this is because the center does not receive federal funding for them. The two things that we established have been an Indian taco dinner in the fall and then a wild onion dinner in the spring. However, we wont be able to do that this year, so were doing online fundraising, and we also have a donor list so people can give money towards the scholarship.

Iron said AIRC providing enhanced services is important for Native youth.

Although, Indian education has improved dramatically theres still a long way to go to be sure that our youth have the opportunities that other individuals have, she said.

AIRC has offices in Tahlequah, Kenwood and at Camp Sevenstar. For information, visit aircinc.org or search American Indian Resource Center on Facebook.

Wathene Young Scholarship

Apply at aircinc.org/news/

Must be a citizen of a federally recognized tribe verified by a Certificate Degree of Indian Blood issues by the federal government or tribal enrollment identification;

Must be a high school senior from one of the following counties in which AIRC provides educational services: Adair, Cherokee, Delaware, Mayes, Muskogee, Nowata, Rogers or Sequoyah;

Must be enrolled as a full-time student seeking a college degree or technical certificate at an accredited institution (for profit institutions prohibited); and

A 2.5 cumulative GPA or higher is required.

Dr. Fount Holland Memorial Scholarship

Apply at aircinc.org/news/

Must be a high school senior participant of the American Indian Resource Centers Educational Talent Search program;

Must be enrolled as a full-time student seeking a college degree or technical certificate at an accredited institution (for profit institutions prohibited); and

A 2.5 cumulative GPA or higher is required.

stacie-boston@cherokee.org xxx

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AIRC explores VR, other teaching methods while focusing on Native education - Cherokee Phoenix

What a real small business thinks of loan for Jelly Belly – Los Angeles Times

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

To the editor: As a small-business owner for the past 26 years, I do everything right: hire a diverse workforce, provide health insurance without a waiting period, offer new-business bonuses and pay my taxes on time. I self-financed my business and run it with no debt. (Jelly Belly and Yeezy got PPP loans. Which other California companies benefited? July 6)

I considered applying for a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, as two of my six employees can only do their work physically in the office. However, the complex web of applications, the shifting rules and no actual guarantee of loan forgiveness for following those rules dissuaded me from trying.

The travesty that rich and public companies even applied for and received millions that were in spirit reserved for those in real need perfectly illustrates why the federal governments definition of small business must change to reflect reality.

Mine is a truly small business seven employees, including me. My profit margins are slim. My paltry attempts to save for the mirage of retirement are discouraging. There are no advantageous loopholes to lower my tax burden.

We always hear that small business is the backbone of America. Well, our discs are ruptured and our backs are broken.

Julie Taylor, Los Angeles

To the editor: Which part of championing unbridled private-sector capitalism, disdain for the public sector and the supremacy of self-reliance do you think the Ayn Rand Institute found most convenient when applying for a PPP loan?

Ted Rosenblatt, Pacific Palisades

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What a real small business thinks of loan for Jelly Belly - Los Angeles Times

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