Investors who lost 170m demand exhumation of cryptocurrency mogul – The Irish Times

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Lawyers for customers of an insolvent cryptocurrency exchange have asked police to exhume the body of the companys founder, amid efforts to recover about $190 million (170.5 million) in Bitcoin which were locked in an online black hole after his death.

Miller Thomson LLP sent a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Friday, requesting authorities conduct an exhumation and postmortem autopsy on the body of Gerald Cotten, founder of QuadrigaCX, citing what the firm called the questionable circumstances around his death earlier this year.

Citing decomposition concerns, lawyers requested the exhumation be completed no later than spring 2020.

Gerald Cotten (30) died abruptly in December 2018 of complications relating to Crohns disease while on honeymoon in Jaipur, India, with his wife, Jennifer Robertson. His body was repatriated to Canada and a funeral was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Soon after his death, however, reports surfaced that nearly 80,000 users of QuadrigaCX - at the time Canadas largest cryptocurrency exchange - were unable to access funds totalling more $190 million.

Cotten was the only one with access to necessary permissions. While Robertson has possession of the laptop containing the necessary passwords, she remains locked out.

The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere, she said in court filings.

Uncertainty about the missing funds has fuelled speculation that Cotten may still be alive. In their letter to the RCMP the law firm underlined the need for certainty around the question of whether Mr Cotten is in fact deceased.

The accounting firm Ernst & Young, tasked with auditing the company as it undergoes bankruptcy proceedings, discovered numerous money-losing trades executed by Cotten, using customers funds.

They also found a substantial amount of money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle for the couple, including the use of private jets and luxury vehicles. Ernst & Young was able to recover $24 million in cash and $9 million in assets held by Robertson.

Both Canadas tax authorities and the FBI are also investigating the company.

Guardian News and Media 2019

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Investors who lost 170m demand exhumation of cryptocurrency mogul - The Irish Times

90 Day Fiance: Syngin is beyond bored while Tania parties it up in Costa Rica – Monsters and Critics

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21st December 2019 2:09 PM ET

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At this point on 90 Day Fiance, its no secret that Tania Maduro left Syngin Colchester behind so that she could spend a month in Costa Rica, and as the days go by, he has become really bored.

Tanias trip is supposed to be a life-changing experience where shes learning about herbs and alternative medicine. While shes there, though, Syngins fiancee has been spending time Salsa dancing, swimming in the ocean, and learning how to Salsa dance.

It seems as if Tania is living it up in Central America without a single care about how her absence is affecting the man she loves.

Meanwhile, Syngin is still back home with Tanias mom, where he has been fixing up the garden, cleaning up the shed, and trying to keep himself occupied. Based on the recent 90 Day Fiance sneak peek, it looks like he may be going a bit stir crazy.

We already know that Tania and Syngin did make it to their wedding day, so obviously, they were able to work things out. But is Tanias incredible need for independence and Syngins yearning for closeness going to cause them problems in the future?

This difference in Tania and Syngins needs, coupled with her distrust that he can even get things done around the house without her constant micromanagement has many 90 Day Fiance viewers turning on Tania and rooting for Syngin.

Only 7 episodes in and I think Tania is annoying af #90DayFiance

M (@mahaha420) December 21, 2019

Ugh, Tania. There's nothing worse than a micromanaging procrastinator stress addict who's deluded themself into believing that they're a hyper-organized Type A go getter. #90DayFiance pic.twitter.com/2tgXVYsPjA

Snarl Tooth Seether (@zaynah237) December 20, 2019

Even Tanias sister voiced her concerns that Tania is going to drive Syngin away.

Check out the latest 90 Day Fiance sneak peek below to see Syngins impressive opera skills as he continues to miss Tania and just try to keep it together until she gets back.

90 Day Fiance airs Sundays at 8/7c on TLC.

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90 Day Fiance: Syngin is beyond bored while Tania parties it up in Costa Rica - Monsters and Critics

Medicine or myth? The dubious benefits of placenta-eating – Salon

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When Brooke Brumfield wasnt battling morning sickness, she craved nachos. Like many first-time expectant mothers, she was nervous and excited about her pregnancy. She had just bought a house with her husband, a wildland firefighter who had enrolled in paramedic school to transition to firefighting closer to home. Everything was going according to plan until 20 weeks into Brumfields pregnancy, when she lost her job at a financial technology startup and, with it, her salary and three months paid maternity leave. After building a new business to support her family, she had clients, but childcare was limited, and her husbands schedule was always shifting. By the time her baby arrived, everything was beyond overwhelming, Brumfield says. I pretty much felt like a truck hit me.

Brumfield had heard stories from friends and family about a way to minimize the stress and emotional fallout of the postpartum period: consuming her placenta, the vascular organ that nourishes and protects the fetus during pregnancy and is expelled from the body after birth. The women swore by the results. They said their milk supply improved and their energy spiked. The lows caused by plummeting hormone levels didnt feel as crushing, they explained.

Brumfield enlisted her doula who, for a fee, would steam, dehydrate, and pulverize her placenta, pouring the fine powder into small capsules. She swallowed her placenta pills for about six weeks after delivering her daughter. She said they helped her feel more even, less angry and emotional. When her milk supply dipped, she says, I re-upped my intake and [the problem] was solved.

Social scientists and medical researchers call the practice of consuming ones own placenta placentophagy. Once confined to obscure corners of alternative medicine and the countercultures crunchier communities, it has been picked up by celebrities (Kourtney and Kim Kardashian, January Jones, Mayim Bialik, Alicia Silverstone, Chrissy Teigen) and adopted by the wider public.

Although there are no official estimates of how many women ingest their placenta after delivery, the internet is increasingly crowded with placenta service providers preparers of pills, smoothies, and salves to support new mothers in the slog to recovery. But the purported benefits are disputed. Depending on whom you ask, placenta-eating is either medicine or a potentially dangerous practice based on myth. How did this practice go mainstream, despite a lack of reported scientific or clinical benefits? The answer may say much more about the world new mothers live in than it does about the placenta.

* * *

In any doctors office or primary care setting, a provider treating a patient will often mention new research that supports a recommended treatment. A pregnant woman diagnosed with preeclampsia, for example, might learn from her health care provider that low-dose aspirin has been shown in recent studies to reduce serious maternal or fetal complications. But the basis for placentophagy, a practice that lies beyond the boundaries of biomedicine, is a 16th-century text.

Li Shizhens Compendium of Materia Medica, or Bencao gangmu, first published in 1596, is a Chinese pharmacopoeia and the most celebrated book in the Chinese tradition of pharmacognosy, or the study of medicinal plants. It appears on the websites of placenta service providers and in the pages of the standard references for practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a millennia-old medical system with a growing global reach.

A physician and herbalist, Li drew on his empirical experiences treating patients but also on anecdotes, poetry, and oral histories. His encyclopedia of the natural world is a textual cabinet of natural curiosities, according to historian Carla Nappis The Monkey and the Inkpot, a study of Lis life and work. Containing nearly 1,900 substances, from ginseng and peppercorn to dragons bone and turtle sperm, Lis book describes dried human placenta as a drug that invigorated people, and was used to treat impotence and infertility, among other conditions. For advocates of placentophagy, this book serves as ethnomedical proof of the long-standing history of the practice and by extension, its efficacy and safety.

But like many claims to age-old provenance, the origins of placentophagy as a postpartum treatment are disputed. Sabine Wilms, an author and translator of more than a dozen books on Chinese medicine, scrutinized classical Chinese texts on gynecology and childbirth and told me theres no written evidence at all of a woman consuming her own placenta after birth as a mainstream traditional practice in China, even if formulas containing dried human placenta were prescribed for other conditions, as described in Lis book.

Beyond Lis 400-year-old encyclopedia, evidence of postpartum placenta-eating is nearly impossible to find in the historical record. Womens voices are notoriously difficult to unearth from the archives, and even in the 19th century, the details of childbirth and what happened to the placenta went largely unreported. But when two University of Nevada, Las Vegas anthropologists pored over ethnographic data from 179 societies, they discovered a conspicuous absence of cultural traditions associated with maternal placentophagy.

The earliest modern recorded evidence of placentophagy appears in a June 1972 issue of Rolling Stone. I pushed the placenta into a pot, wrote an anonymous author, responding to the magazines call asking readers to share stories from their personal lives. It was magnificent purple and red and turquoise. Describing her steamed placenta as wonderfully replenishing and delicious, she recounted eating and sharing it with friends after delivering her son.

Raven Lang, who is credited with reviving the oldest known and most commonly used recipe for postpartum placenta preparation, witnessed placentophagy while helping women as a homebirth midwife and TCM practitioner in California in the early 1970s. These women lived off the land, she explained, and might have drawn inspiration from livestock and other animals in their midst.

It wasnt long before placentophagy made its way beyond Californias hippie enclaves. In 1984, Mary Field, a certified midwife and registered nurse in the U.K., recounted eating her placenta, an unmentionable experience, to ward off postpartum depression after the birth of her second child. I remain secretive, Field wrote, for the practice verges on that other taboo cannibalism as it is human flesh and a part of your own body. She recalled choking down her own placenta. I could not bear to chew or taste it.

* * *

The rise of encapsulation technology, developed for the food industry and picked up by placenta service providers in the early aughts, put an end to visceral experiences like Fields. No longer must women process their own placenta or subject themselves to its purported offal-like flavor. Tidy, pre-portioned placenta pills resembling vitamins can be prepared by anyone with access to a dehydrator, basic supplies, and online training videos.

The boom in placentophagy highlights a longstanding puzzle for researchers. Almost every non-human mammal consumes its placenta after delivery, for reasons that remain unclear to scientists. Why did humans become the exception to this nearly universal mammalian rule? For Daniel Benyshek, an anthropologist and co-author of the UNLV study that found no evidence of placentophagy being practiced anywhere in the world, the human exception raises a red flag: It suggests the reasons that humans have eschewed placentophagy arent just cultural or symbolic, but adaptive that theres something dangerous about it, or at least there has been in our evolutionary history.

Scientific data on the potential benefits and risks of placentophagy is scarce, but a few small studies suggest that any nutrients contained in cooked or encapsulated placental tissue are unlikely to be absorbed into the bloodstream at concentrations large enough to produce significant health effects. Whether and in what quantity reproductive hormones such as estrogen survive placental processing has been little studied, but ingesting them after birth could have negative effects on milk production and may also increase the risk of blood clots.

Yet placental encapsulation services which remain unregulated in the U.S. have found a receptive audience of American consumers. (The food safety agency of the European Union declared the placenta a novel food in 2015, effectively shuttering the encapsulation business on the continent.) Mostly small and women-owned, placenta service businesses position themselves as an alternative to a highly medicalized, bureaucratized birthing process that has often neglected the needs of women. Postpartum checkups focus narrowly on pelvic examinations and contraceptive education. One survey of U.S. mothers found that one in three respondents who received a postpartum checkup felt that their health concerns were not addressed. In contrast, placenta service providers speak the language of empowerment.

That language can resonate with new mothers like Brumfield, who face overwhelming pressures to care for a newborn, nurse on demand, manage a household, and return to work amid anxieties about postpartum depression, dwindling energy, and inadequate milk supply.

In some ways, placenta consumption is motivated by a desire to perform good mothering, wrote scholars from Denmark and the United States in a paper on the emergence of the placenta economy. It reflects the idea of maternity as a neoliberal project, in which new mothers are responsible for their own individual well-being as well as that of their babies, they added.

Meanwhile, rates of postpartum depression keep climbing, maternity leave policies are stingy, and child care costs are often prohibitive. Its easy to see why many women would be eager to seek help, real or perceived, wherever they can find it.

* * *

Daniela Blei is a historian, writer, and book editor based in San Francisco.

This article was originally published on Undark. Read the original article.

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Medicine or myth? The dubious benefits of placenta-eating - Salon

Would a Virginia bill really ban dads from teaching sons how to use hunting rifles? – PolitiFact

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A state senate bill would "criminalize a father teaching his own son how to use a hunting rifle."

Mike Adams on Wednesday, November 27th, 2019 in a blog.

ByWarren Fiskeon Tuesday, December 17th, 2019 at 6:00 a.m.

A prolific conspiracy theorist is sounding a "TYRANNY ALERT" about a bill introduced in the state Senate that he claims would ban firearms training and martial arts instructionin Virginia.

"It would even criminalize a father teaching his own son how to use a hunting rifle," wrote Mike Adams in a Nov. 27, 2019 post on NewsTarget, one of several websites he operates thatare anti-vaccine, critical of science, and promote guns and survivalism.

Adams is based in Cody, Wyo. In June 2019, Facebook revoked an Adams page promoting alternative medicine for violating spam rules. The page, called NaturalNews, reportedly had 2.9 million Facebook likes.

Adams recent post on Virginia centers on a bill recently introduced by state Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, that would add restrictions to Virginias paramilitary activities laws. Passed in 1987, the laws make it a felony to assemble - or teach how to assemble - guns, explosives or incendiary devices with the intention of abetting civil disorder. Violators face a maximum 10 years in prison and $2,500 fine.

Lucas bill would also make it a felony for people to gather "with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons by drilling, parading, or marching with any firearm, any explosive or incendiary device, or any components or combination thereof." It comes after the August 2017 white supremicist rally in Charlottesvillethat left one counterprotestor dead and others injured.

Adams wrote that the bill, in addition to banning a father from teaching his son how to hunt with a rifle, "would also criminalize all firearms training classes, including concealed carry classes."

He added, "The law would instantly transform all martial arts instructors into criminal felons."

In fact, the legislation would do none of these things.

Lucas bill, as we noted, adds to the list of illegal acts and Virginias paramilitary laws. But it leaves intact the next section of the code, whichwhich exempts from paramilitary laws:

*"Any activity, undertaken without knowledge of or intent to cause or further a civil disorder, which is intended to teach or practice self defense or self-defense techniques such as karate clubs..."

*"Lawful activities related to firearms instruction ortraining intended to teach the safe handling and use of firearms."

*"Lawful sports or activities related to the individual recreational use or possession of firearms."

We tried to contact Adams, but received no reply to three emails sent to an address on one of his websites for media inquiries. A person answereing the phone in Adams' media relations office, who didnt give her name, told us "there probably wont be a response."

It should be noted that Lucas introduced identical bills in each of the last two years that were killed in Republican-controlled Senate committees. GOP senators voiced concern that the bill would be hard to enforce and might violate citizens constitutional right to assemble. Videos of the hearings show no one raising concerns that the bill would affect firearms training or self-defense instruction.

The bill may face better prospects this year, with Democrats controlling both chambers of the General Assembly for the first time this century. Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, has endorsed the legislation.

Our ruling

Adams wrote that a bill in the General Assembly "would criminalize a father teaching his own son how to use a hunting rifle."

Thats flat out wrong. The bill would add a clause to the states paramilitary laws making it a felony for groups to train or march with weapons with "the intent of intimidating others." The bill, however, does not change a code section that exempts from the paramilitary act "lawful activities related to firearms instruction."

Another ridiculous Adams claim: The bill "would instantly transform all martial arts instructors into criminal felons." State paramilitary laws specifically exempt common efforts to "teach or practice self defense or self-defense techniques such as karate clubs."

Adams claims are devoid of truth and inflammatory. We rate them "Pants on Fire."

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Would a Virginia bill really ban dads from teaching sons how to use hunting rifles? - PolitiFact

NPD Group: ‘Food as medicine’ one of the trends to watch in 2020 – talkbusiness.net

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Better-for-you and save-the-planet ideology among more consumers continues to reshape the food and beverage industries and 2020 will no different.Consumers are driving innovation in the food manufacturing sector as more startups and private brands continue stealing share for traditional food companies.

Darren Seifer, food consumption analyst at NPD Group, recently outlined four trends in 2020. Seifer said he expects tailwinds behind the a few trending behaviors from plant-based protein demand to greater sustainability expectations. He said plant-based food and beverage alternatives have been around, but Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods helped propel the plant-based alternative market from niche to mainstream. But consumers also like their meat.

Since nearly 90% of these consumers also use traditional meat and dairy, its fair to say people arent necessarily becoming vegetarians or vegans; rather, consumers are integrating these products as additional options for their daily repertoire. Watch for continued growth of burger alternatives at foodservice operators and for in-home consumption as these options become more widely available across both, he noted, while also wondering if alternatives will be a fad or a trend.

This trending flexitarian diet behavior caught the eye of Tyson Foods in recent years and the meat giant continues to invest in alternative and blended meat products. Tyson launched its Raised and Rooted brand of blended proteins at retail earlier this year. Tyson CEO Noel White has said the company continues to innovate in this space there will be more products that combine plants and animal proteins into better-for-you offerings that also have a smaller carbon footprint.

Seifer said more U.S. consumers are adopting some plant-based alternatives into their diets such as Almond milk and cauliflower pizza. He said millennials and Gen Z consumers have grown up with many of the products and they push the demand in alternative proteins and dairy. He expects this trend will continue into 2020 with the largest meat companies like Tyson Foods and Cargill paying close attention.

FOOD AS MEDICINEHe said the top reason consumers use plant-based alternatives is that theyre considered healthier options, and consumers want to take control of their health with food choices. He said viewing food as medicine is another trend he expects to continue in 2020.

Nearly one quarter of U.S. adults report they are on a nutrition plan with the goal of promoting long-term health, but not necessarily weight loss. This represents a dramatic shift in the way consumers approach food and beverage choices compared to their behavior in the 1980s and 1990s, when they changed behaviors in response to a specific health issue, he noted.

Increasingly consumers see food and beverages as a pathway to better health; this is more pronounced among younger adults. And when health issues arise, many turn to natural alternatives for help.One in five adults manages a health condition with food and beverage choices. This doesnt mean they arent taking medication, but that many first look at their food and beverage consumption options as a first solution before medication.

BREAKFAST/SNACK SHIFTHe also said breakfast and morning dayshifts for eating are becoming more important to consumers and the days of serving cereal for breakfast are fading. He said breakfast was also a meal many consumers used to skip, but that too is changing.

There has been an increase in morning snack occasions as well as restaurant meals that nearly equals the in-home (breakfast) decline. Categories increasing during this time are portable and functional, reflecting the needs for speed and health, which drive much of consumer behavior in the morning. We expect sustained growth for categories like breakfast sandwiches, juices with functional benefits, such as energy and categories with protein, like eggs, Seifer noted.

Tyson unveiled in September two new Jimmy Dean product lines, Biscuit Roll-Ups and Morning Combos. The biscuit roll-ups wrap eggs, meats and cheese in a flaky biscuit to provide 10 grams of protein per 2-piece serving. The frozen boxes of 8 roll-ups are 240 to 270 calories per serving and come in three varieties: sausage, egg and cheese; egg and cheese; and egg, ham and cheese.Tysons Morning Combos breakfast food line pair items like pancakes or blueberry muffins and sausage into bite-sized meals that can be eaten on the move. Each package contains 8 grams of protein.

Breakfast as a meal occasion is evolving, and were excited to lead innovation and the development of products that provide options for everyone, Steve Silzer, marketing director for the Jimmy Dean brand at Tyson Foods, said in the product release.

SUSTAINABILITY FOCUSSeifer said sustainability will continue to be a third-level concern in the food and beverage manufacturing industries in 2020. Food companies selling to Walmart are measured on their sustainability efforts and the retail giant recently reiterated its goal to reduce 1 gigaton of greenhouse gas emissions from the supply chain by 2030.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon recently spoke at the Evolve Conference in Los Angeles about the retailersclose to the core ways in which it can enact change. McMillon said selling more sustainable products and focusing on more efficient packaging methods to reduce waste were two of the ways its moving the needle. He said Walmart is on track with the gigaton goals set in 2017. The EPA said Walmarts 1 gigaton removal of greenhouse gas is the equivalent of taking 211 million passenger cars off of roads for an entire year.

Seifer said its important for food and beverage marketers to engage in real sustainability efforts because consumers want it.

Food and beverage is unique since taste and health needs are satisfied first, before other needs are addressed. A products packaging could be recyclable and sourced sustainably, but that wont matter if consumers find the taste unpalatable. This explains why animal welfare and sustainability rank low among the reasons for using plant-based foods, he said.

But, consumers are still interested in how products are produced and they want to feel better about supporting brands that use sustainable methods, he added.

When comparing two similar products, consumers could find them equal in taste, convenience, and price, but if one uses sustainable production methods while the other product does not, that could be the deciding factor, Seifer concluded.

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NPD Group: 'Food as medicine' one of the trends to watch in 2020 - talkbusiness.net

A brief history of the items in your spice drawer – Treehugger

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A visit to a Sri Lankan herb and spice garden reveals a rich history of trade and alternative medicine.

The drive to Luckgrove Herb and Spice Garden was a harrowing one. Our small bus narrowly missed getting rammed head-on by much larger public buses passing in the traditional Sri Lankan manner moving into the middle of the winding mountain road and expecting all other vehicles to move out of the way. After too many near misses, we pulled into Luckgrove's parking lot, relieved to be on solid ground.

I needn't have worried about any potential injuries, however, because Luckgrove contains a cure for every imaginable mishap. After listening to our animated guide for an hour, I figured that, had I been carried in on a stretcher, not only would I have skipped out, but also seen wrinkles erased, energy boosted, and entire years added to my life.

Cinnamon is nearest and dearest to Sri Lanka's heart, the indigenous spice that first attracted Dutch and Portuguese traders from afar. Sri Lankan cinnamon is the best in the world, our guide said, and indeed its Latin name Cinnamonum verum or 'true cinnamon' would suggest the same. It has an older botanical name called Cinnamonum zeylanicum, which comes from Ceylon, Sri Lanka's former name. Perhaps it's easiest just to call it 'brown gold'.

A cinnamon tree lives for 40 years and can be harvested three years after planting. From then on, it is harvested once annually by removing the bark in bands. True Sri Lankan cinnamon bark dries into curly pieces like bamboo. It crumbles under your fingertips, unlike the Chinese and Indonesian cinnamon that is hard as wood. Cinnamon bark can be ground or pressed for oil. This, the guide explained, is useful for drawing wax out of ears, rubbing onto cold feet to warm them, bleaching teeth, lowering blood sugar.

Other spices were brought to the island by European traders once they realized how perfect the growing conditions were. Vanilla came from Mexico but flourished here. It is a natural insect repellent, which is why no bees or butterflies pollinate it and all the work must be done by hand. The bean pods are dried for three months in the shade before being pressed for their extract. It takes 1 kilogram of vanilla beans (roughly 65 beans) to make a small vial of extract.

Lemongrass is also a natural insect repellent. It is planted in the soil ahead of tea crops to get rid of pests, and is used to make citronella cream.

Pepper is the king of spices, the guide announced. He showed us tiny green peppercorns growing at the end of branches. The pepper plant is a creeper vine that climbs up other trees, and different colored peppercorns all come from the same plant but have been processed in different ways.

Beside the pepper vine was a cloves plant. Cloves, which originated in Zanzibar, grow at the end of a branch in clumps of 15. They are a natural anaesthetic and keep insects away, hence the age-old practice of stuffing oranges with cloves. (I thought it was because it smells great.) The wood from the cloves tree is rock-hard and perfect for building walking sticks and chess boards.

Nutmeg and mace come from the same plant. The nutmeg is the nut at the center of the fruit, the mace comes from the reddish skin surrounding the nut, and the apricot-like fruit is used locally for making jam.

Turmeric and ginger are root crops. Both take nine months to mature, 'just like a baby,' the guide said. A single ginger plant will yield 3 kilograms of tubers. Turmeric is known as cheap saffron and a pinch is added to every curry in Sri Lanka to kill off germs. It has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties and is helpful for managing menopausal hot flashes.

Not everything in the garden received the guide's praise. 'Don't eat pineapple more than once or twice a week,' he told us. It attracts insects and the acidity is hard on your bowels and teeth, bad for psoriasis. Then he pointed to a jackfruit and said, 'Any fruit that grows off a trunk is fattening. Think of bananas, coconut, even rice.' The lesson was to eat these in moderation.

'If pepper is the king of spices, what is the queen?' I asked. 'Cardamom,' he replied, and took me to see a cardamom plant on the far side of the garden. He showed me where the pods would form if it were the right season, but then I promptly stepped in some dog poo and the tour was over. Alas, there was no herbal or spice cure for that predicament, and I had to make do with a bucket of water.

The author is a guest of Intrepid Travel. There was no obligation to write this story.

A visit to a Sri Lankan herb and spice garden reveals a rich history of trade and alternative medicine.

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A brief history of the items in your spice drawer - Treehugger

Veriheal: A Highly Innovative MD Cannatech Platform – Forbes

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veriheal personalized cannabis consultation

Background Information About Veriheal:

Veriheal is an innovative cannatech platform that connects prospective patients with licensed doctors that will approve them for their states medical cannabis program. Veriheal aims to educate the public about cannabis and is eager to encourage them on their path to healing. Thus, they are willing to take it to the next level by introducing a new state of the art service you wont be able to find elsewhere.

Most people set out to educate themselves on medical cannabis but often struggle to find the right information that is vital to them as an individual. Luckily, Veriheal has recently launched its new personalized cannabis consult service that is available nationwide in all 50 states. This service will give everyone the opportunity to thoroughly evaluate whether or not cannabis therapy is right for them. The purpose of these personalized assessments is to provide those new or old to cannabis with a one-on-one discussion with an expert that can further target and refine their recommendations based on a patients individual interests. These consultations cover things such as recommended terpene and cannabinoid profiles, offer guidance on due-diligence, as well as up to date information on state cannabis laws. The results are all exclusively tailored to the patient.

cofounder of veriheal sam adetunji

Warren Bobrow=WB: Why Cannabis? When did you first discover the healing benefits of the plant? What is it like out there in the real world of medical cannabis?

Sam Adetunji: Joshua and I got involved with the cannabis industry after trying to get our medical marijuana cards in Washington DC. The process was very difficult and challenging. There were not tech platforms that made the process easier or sped up the process. However, we both had our own realizations on the benefits through our own personal experiences. On my end, I saw my father battle liver cancer at home. It was one of the most painful things to watch your hero suffer from a disease he could not control. One day, a friend recommended Rick Simpson Oil for my father and I wanted him to try whatever was available. So, I brought it to him and had him try it. A couple of hours later, my dad is eating food and thanking my mom and I for providing him with something to eat. That's when I realized this plant could really help people. Josh had a friend in California that used cannabis as a form of treatment while battling chemo. During this intense form of treatment, his friend was able to cope with the intense sessions and stay in a positive state while going through his battle. Both of our experiences created a spark in us to do something great for the people around us.

WB: How do you intend to make it easier for your client to attain a medical cannabis card? How long does it take? What kind of ailments are needed by the states to qualify?

Sam Adetunji: Our strengths come from our knowledge and understanding of technology and strong personnel.Weve spent the last few years of building Veriheal focused on utilizing technologies such as telehealth and scheduling platforms to make things ten times easier than our competition. All of our technology is built in-house by our development team who come from some of the top universities in the country. In regards to personnel, we make sure to constantly train our customer service representatives on making people feel like a family of ours either when they call us, email us, or even shout us out on social media.

The process, as you know, really varies per state. However, we see patients with an abundance of conditions ranging from PTSD, to chronic pain, to epilepsy, and everything in between. We pride ourselves on making the process as fast as possible for those that need it most.

WB: Tell me about your company? What is your six month and twelve-month plan? How do you deal with stigmas to cannabis? How do doctors (MDs) deal with cannabis?

veriheal-trash-for-trees-event

Josh Green: As Sam said earlier - we started Veriheal after discovering the need for fast and reliable access to world-class cannabis professionals. The whole company is young at heart, but in just three years, we went from serving a couple hundred patients in a handful of states, to helping tens of thousands of patients nationwide. It humbles us to be on the ground as the first point of contact for so many people looking to try cannabis. We are really committed to helping every community we can. With our Trash for Trees events, we go out and help those who are less fortunate by allowing them to consult with one of our professionals entirely for free. Most of these people were told their entire lives to stay away from cannabis and have this demonized image of what effects it might have on them. By going out there and allowing them to have a conversation with a medical professional it helps lift that black cloud that has stigmatized this medicine for so long. Our team will be engaging in events like this all throughout 2020, so keep your eyes open. Veriheal is also expanding to Europe and Latin American in 2020! Big things are coming, were just getting started.

WB: Do you cook? If so, who taught you? Whats your favorite restaurant? Where? What kind of food?

Sam Adetunji: I do cook, but not as good as my mom! Im a first-generation Nigerian so cooking was somewhat taught at home after seeing my mom throw down daily. If I was to cook now though Id say Im pretty simple. White rice, grilled salmon, asparagus, maybe a little beans on the rice. Nothing crazy!

I love Nigerian food but my favorite type would have to be Japanese. If I were to choose my favorite restaurants Id choose Nobu if I want a good variety of dishes - or Sushi Taro just for sushi.

WB: What is your passion?

Josh Green: My passion is inspiring and helping people. I love to serve; I think I get that trait from my father who has served his community as a clergy member for over 45+ years. I am what you would call a hyper-creative, I enjoy coming up with ingenious and fun ideas on how to do something in a more interesting and impactful way. In this manner, Veriheal has transformed into the perfect company for me because it allows me to chase my dreams, help people find healing and happiness, and be an inspiration for others. I wholeheartedly believe that medical cannabis science is the future path to seeing a lot more people healed, and living better and happier lives.

The Future of Cannabis Care

Cannabis has garnered worldwide popularity as alternative medicine, but current laws, its lack of research, and ever present stigma often keep many from learning more about it or even attempting to consider it in their treatment plan. Furthermore, companies in the cannabis space are not even allowed to boast any medical claims. They often resort to submitting disclaimers to avoid any legal ramifications. Product and website disclaimers advise the consumer to seek the advice of a medical professional before using cannabis products. However, most physicians have little to no advice to give which is increasingly problematic. This is where Veriheal steps in to help.

Since cannabis is not completely backed by authoritative research, the standard healthcare professional is not likely to be well-informed about it as a whole. While doctors can recommend or approve of cannabinoid therapy, their wisdom usually ends there. This leaves patients to fend for themselves in an uncharted and confusing market where the law is not clearly laid out in black or white. It can be scary and offputting which will ultimately turn people away from potential options that could have been legitimately beneficial.

Bonafide experts are the ones that are looked up to for advice. Nutritionists, dieticians, fitness experts and the like all have specialized knowledge that lets them be able to formulate wellness plans that fit their clients interests. The cannabis industry is in a critical need for such experts who are willing to educate the general public and provide patients with some clarity on what products to use, how to use them, and where to access them.

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Veriheal: A Highly Innovative MD Cannatech Platform - Forbes

India and breast cancer: The missing link and what we can do – Times of India

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India is bearing a big burden of cancer and if the recent reports are to be believed, cancer will be the biggest threat in the next 10-20 years. Among women, the occurence of breast cancer is on the spike with more and more cases being detected every year. Despite regular clinical trials and studies being carried out, it seems like we are still far away from curbing this menace. We spoke to Dr Anthony Pais, Clinical Director and Senior Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgery, Cytecare Cancer Hospitals, Bangalore to understand the issue. Is it true that Indians are more prone to cancer than their western counterparts?While it is true that certain cancers are more common in India than in the western countries, it is a misconception that Indians are more prone to cancer. Every country has its own unique healthcare challenges. For India, oral, head and neck and cervical cancers pose the biggest problems. The causes are many from the widespread use of betel quid and tobacco to the high incidence of cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and poor hygiene standards, especially among the lower socioeconomic strata of society. In many cases, the issue is far more complex. For instance, when it comes to breast cancer, Indian women are not more prone than their western counterparts. However, the average age of breast cancer patients in India is 47-49 years which is almost a decade earlier than for most women in the west. Research shows that our biology is different, causing some cancers at a younger age and typically more aggressive. This often makes timely diagnosis and treatment a greater concern.

Its scary to see so many Indian women being diagnosed with breast cancer. Why are they succumbing to breast cancer so easily?Out of the nearly two lakh new cases of breast cancer reported every year in India, around 90,000 die in the first year itself. In fact, while the incidence of breast cancer is lower in India, the mortality rate is much higher than in the west. There are several reasons for this perturbing reality.

First, theres lack of awareness. In most parts of India, women are uncomfortable to discuss symptoms and go in for a physical examination. Studies show that most deaths occur among the unscreened population as the cancer is typically detected at a late stage.

Secondly, most Indian healthcare centres lack the basic facilities for early diagnosis of cancer. And centres that have the facilities arent often armed with adequate expertise to diagnose and treat the disease in the most effective manner. Unfortunately, we see this scenario even in the so-called advanced centres of excellence!

The high cost of treatment is another factor that hinders timely treatment. Patients often have to sell their property, jewellery and valuables to avail of cancer care. In quite a few cases, the financial worries drive patients towards alternative medicine, further delaying diagnosis and scientific treatment. Unless, we offer affordable healthcare solutions, the situation is unlikely to change.

We keep reading reports about studies being conducted but how close are we in discovering the reasons behind the incidence of breast cancer?Several studies have shown that estrogen is the main culprit. Besides the hormone factor, dense breast on a mammogram, obesity, lack of exercise, stress, alcohol and smoking also play a role in the causation of breast cancer.

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India and breast cancer: The missing link and what we can do - Times of India

Why Some Skiers Pukeand What They Can Do About It – 5280 | The Denver Magazine

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Skiing make you a little queasy? You're not aloneand living in Colorado doesnt make it any better. But there are lots of ways to counteract the nausea.

When I learned to ski five years ago, both my general anxiety and experienced friends kept my brain occupied with terrifying scenarios: surprise cliffs, yard sales, boarding the chairlift alongside a first-time snowboarder.

I did not anticipate hurling at the lift line.

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Ive been prone to motion sickness since middle school. It always happens when Im not the one controlling the movement, like sitting in a car or bobbing on a kayak. In the backseat of a carpool to Taos, New Mexico last year, I got queasier with each turnbecause of the drive and anticipation. But it would be fine once we got some fresh air and I was the one doing the steering! I thought.

But as I booted up, made shaky turns, and paused at the bottom of each run, I felt like the snow before me was still somehow moving. On the lift, I held back dry heaves while my friend ate a quesadilla next to me. And finally, at a regrettably busy lift line, I turned and let my breakfast burrito exit my body in a beautiful projectile that landed neatly between my skis. Still, I tried to rally a few times before realizing it was the skiing, not my dearly departed burrito, making my stomach turn.

Theres an explanation for what I was dealing with: Huslers disease, coined exactly for the experience of skiing in bad lighting conditions and getting really, really dizzy. Apparently, its the skiers brand of motion sickness. It starts with the inner ear, a snail-shaped bundle of systems that assist with balance and communicating sound to the brain. Motion sickness generally happens when your inner ears detect one kind of motion and your eyes detect another, says Carol A. Foster, M.D., associate professor of otolaryngology at the University of Colorado.

Continuous movement, like waves, makes that confusion worse, because your inner ears are more stimulated. If youre not seeing a lot of movement on top of that, get the barf bags out. You can make almost anyone get motion sick if you expose them to the right sorts of motion, Foster says. But there are some people who are much more resistant than others.

These things all compound in Colorado, where a typical winter weekend involves winding roads, lower-oxygen levels, and sliding downhill fast in all kinds of conditions, Foster says. You are more at risk when youre here.

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After all, skiing in bad light or a whiteout ticks all the boxes: constant movement, few visual cues, and being at a higher altitude. Focusing on something stable, like the horizon when youre on a boat, might help. But thats not an option on snowy or foggy days when you can barely see. High-contrast ski goggles can be beneficial on flat-light days, but Foster says when visual conditions are really bad, the only thing thatll truly help is to stop skiing. For people who can ski with their eyes closed, it doesnt matter, she jokes. But those of us who require vision to ski, flat lightits bad.

I require vision to ski, and just when Id started feeling more confident on the snow, my vestibular system of all things was sabotaging me. And I felt ridiculous because none of my friends seemed to have any trouble with ski-sickness. But Im perfectly normal, Foster assures me. Actually, about 10 percent of people are very susceptible to motion sickness.The better your ears, she says, the more likely you are [to get motion-sick] because you feel motion more.

So, what can someone like me do about it? The first step is acceptance: pay attention to how you feel on good- versus bad-light days, and consider that a wobbly stomach may not just be altitude sickness or those beers you had last night. If youre more prone to motion sickness, prevention and awareness are key. Meclizine, found in seasickness drugs like Dramamine and Bonine, is mild enough to use on a regular basis, but it will make you drowsy. Still, Foster knows people who are perfectly happy to take it before getting on the ski hill. If you dont want to medicate, invest in high-contrast lenses you can switch out and dont force yourself to keep going when visibility deteriorates. Those are the most expert-approved options, but Foster says people find all kinds of alternative fixes that seem to work for themme included.

One day this summer, I remembered that my grandma always wore weird little bracelets called Sea-Bands to counteract seasickness. One Google search and $12 later, a tiny plastic box arrived on my doorstep holding two fabric wristbands, each about as big as a fun-size candy bar and fitted with an M&M-shaped piece of plastic in the middle. These admittedly geriatric-looking accessories are to be worn on both arms, dots pressing on the inner wrists. Theyre called acupressure bands, and theyre supposed to engage an acupuncture point between the two tendons of the wrist that is thought to relieve nausea and balance issues.

Its hard to explain the exact mechanism that make acupressure bands work, and the benefits have not been strenuously tested. (Some studies have supported the idea that acupressure bands seem to have some effect in certain cases.) But my sweet little Sea-Bands have changed my life. The first time I wore them, on a two-hour car ride on mountain roads, I felt like I could stand on my head while doing donuts and reading The Odyssey with not one twinge of queasiness. Foster notes the workings of acupressure bands are not totally clearand the benefit might just be a placebo effect.

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I was raised with a dose of alternative medicine passed down from my mom and grandma, so I am down for acupressure. But even if it is just the placebo effect, Ill take it. In fact, I suspect Im more susceptible to it; having a non-invasive but concrete intervention has always calmed my anxious brain. I had spontaneous and violent bloody noses for years as a kid, and my grandma gave me a necklace that she said I should wear whenever I felt one coming on: a tiny jade teapot on a red string. This was definitely a kindness more than any medical belief, but the nosebleeds started to feel shorter. Within a year, theyd stopped altogether. Motion sickness feels similar in that its impossible to control, as if my brain is one step behind my body (and it kind of is!). Like putting on the necklace, maybe donning my Sea-Bands and feeling the pressure on my wrists grounds me enough to get a grip on things.

And thats what Ill keep telling myself as ski season starts. I wore them for my first uphill skin of the season on a foggy day, and though I gritted my teeth on the way down anticipating that this would be where the placebo effect fadednot so! Ill continue to proudly slip on my dorky little Sea-Bands for every carpool, and Ill enter every lift line in peace, dammit.

I have a professional otolaryngologist supporting that plan. You know the old cartoon Dumbo, holding the feather? Foster asks. Dumbo always thought it was the feather that helped him fly, when it was something else (his ears) all along. Well, is having a Sea-Band just holding a feather that you really believe in? My view is, if all you need is a little placebo effect, then thats great.

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Why Some Skiers Pukeand What They Can Do About It - 5280 | The Denver Magazine

The Panarchist Solution to a World Divided – CounterPunch

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In these days of epic collapse, with the established order rapidly disintegrating before our very eyes, mankind seems to be tearing apart at the seems and resorting to the bipolar extremes of the far-left and the far-right. And why the hell not? Poor people across the globe have grown weary of the false promises and bald-faced lies of the so-called moderates. The one thing the warring camps of extremes seem to agree on is that the mass democracy of neoliberal globalism is an epic wash. A rigged shell game that only pays out to the house, and now the house is on fire.

So we witness the spectacle of populism on both the left and the right. Record numbers of young people embracing the once tainted label of socialism while the kind of xenophobic nativism which was once only uttered in hushed tones at the far corners of church potlucks has now become mainstream fodder openly brandished like Hermann Goerings revolver. These are the times that we live in but weve seen them before. Whenever empires crumble and the fixed markets of state capitalism find themselves in peril. The people who stand to gain the most from the cataclysm find themselves divided on the opposite ends of the barracks. Stalinists and Brown Shirts. Antifa and the Alt-right. Its times like these when the call of Samuel L. Jacksons prophetic DJ in Spike Lees classic dissection of urban upheaval, Do the Right Thing, rings like tinnitus through my eardrums. Can we live together?! Together, can we live?!! Ive spent my life in search of an answer to that existential question. I believe Im getting closer.

Ive always found myself on the far-left end of the barracks, even while the proletariat was still drunk on the delusions of progress that came with the first black president and Apple Store commodity fetishism. I discovered Marx young and Chomsky shortly after. I spent the lion share of my teens flirting with a carousel of Libertarian Socialist ideologies, Chomskys Syndicalism, Red Rosas Council Communism, Subcomandante Marcos Zapatizmo. All set to a hard-driving soundtrack of Billy Bragg, Joe Strummer and Zack de la Rocha.

By my late adolescence, I found myself under the spell of more statist genres of leftism, brought on by the unexpected revival of Bolivarianism in Hugos Venezuela and Evos Bolivia. I eventually came to embrace Third World Communism as a bulwark against Northern attacks on these democratic social experiments. I came to see Fidel Castros harshly undemocratic measures to protect the Cuban Revolution in the wake of Kennedys terrorist campaign against it as the only solution to imperialism. But my appetite for history wouldnt allow me to hold on to that delusion for very long. Upon further studies, I came to the conclusion that the state itself was cancer and it mattered little how benevolent its managers were. It was always a wicked contraption designed to oppress before it self-destructs. I turned back to anarchism but contradictions continued to haunt me.

The biggest problem with nearly every school of leftism is its almost messianic assumption that mankind can be united in internationalist harmony beneath the banner of a single way. As much as I may believe that my own brand of Post-Marxist Syndicalism is the ideal model for a truly democratic society, I had trouble convincing myself that someday mankind would reach a singular collective consciousness and fall in love with the guild. Frankly, as an anti-imperialist, Ive always been uneasy with these sort of notions of internationalism.

Assuming that some 19th-century factory workers in industrial Western Europe had all the answers for my friendly neighborhood primitivists in the Amish community, let alone the tribes of Borneo or the Kalahari, just smacks bitchingly of colonialism. With a world so beautifully complex, how could there ever be just one way? This seemed like the same trap that lead our Founding Fathers to set the stage for the neoliberal hellhole of global capitalism, only ours was an egalitarian Manifest Destiny. I believed very strongly in the ideals of Murray Bookchin and Rudolph Rocker, but these contradictions kept me from seeing even my own anarchism as anything more than a distant pipe dream. That is, until I discovered the philosophy of Panarchy.

One of the biggest misconceptions about anarchism is that it is defined by the absence of government. Such notions are patently absurd. Governments have, do and always will exist. A government is any gathering of individuals brought together to make collective decisions. Technically speaking, three stoned roommates debating over pizza topping is a government. Anarchy is defined by the absence of the state, a permanent government micromanaged by a class of professional politicians, be they corporate board members, congressmen or monarchs. The very existence of this managerial class is what makes a simple government a state. Anarchy, in all its forms, seeks to abolish this hierarchy and replace it with an entirely civilian government. Panarchy is the recognition that in our world, in this diverse cultural landscape known as mankind, there is no singular answer to the scourge of the state. Anarchy can only exist outside of manifestos and punk rock venues when it is free to take on any form, regardless of adjectives, as long as it does so voluntarily and free from force.

Globalism has brought on nothing but colossal super-states. The tyranny of bigness, big government, big business, big race, big religion. This problem cannot be solved by hijacking these systems and rebranding them as internationalism. The only valid solution to this mass tyranny is localism and thats precisely what Panarchy embraces, the idea that government can only succeed on the same grounds as any other relationship, through reversible contracts between consenting parties committed to voluntaryism and non-aggression above all else. These could be mutual aid societies, autonomous communes, democratic syndicates, tribal orders, a quilt-work of endless Utopian experiments competing peacefully for their citizenrys patronage with individuals free to opt-out and collectives free to succeed at anytime. Ideally, these governments would exist like social clubs with benefits, completely untethered by geography. Making it entirely possible for six stateless nations to exist on a single square block.

Whats the catch, you ask? And there is always a catch. The catch is that freedom of society exists under the same parameters as freedom of speech. Panarchy doesnt just protect the societies you like, it protects the societies you hate. Under the grand contract of a confederal constitution, people would be free to build societies based around any ideology as long as they remained peaceful and voluntary. That means societies based on Mutualism, Syndicalism, Capitalism and Communism. But that also more than likely means peaceful nations governed by ideologies like Religious Fundamentalism, Geographic Integralism and even Racial Separatism. Allowing such societies to exist does not mean condoning them anymore than freedom of speech means condoning hate speech. Its a matter of excepting the reality that true liberty means respecting the decisions of others, however misguided, to live voluntarily however they damn well please, provided they do so peacefully, much like my clannish Amish neighbors who peacefully coexist with wicked English trannies like me.

This philosophy runs anathema to the current culture of both the far-left and the far-right, who both seem to define themselves by their guttural opposition to the others very existence. But I see this catch as the solution to a proletariat that will always remain divided across complex cultural lines. When they lack the nifty shield of persecuted victim-hood, the Fascist right tends to lose its appeal to the masses. Every time one of those goosestepping pricks gets hammered by Antifa, there book sales go through the fucking ceiling. I have to believe in the Kropotkinite theory that free mutual aid leads left towards true egalitarian evolution. When free to compete peacefully, the more malignant fear-based cultures will dwindle while the open communal ones will thrive. The beauty is that the far-right is free to believe the very same thing about my Queer Syndicalist Tribe. They get the opportunity to prove me wrong just as I do them, but the both of us will be too small to waste our energy on combat. Micro-nations make any form of sustained warfare an act of mutually assured destruction. Coexistence becomes the only sustainable way to exist.

And this is how I believe we can live together, Communists, Nationalists, melting pots and Isolationists, together we can live. Behind every apocalypse hides an opportunity for Utopia. The Panarchist says why not a thousand? Why not? Tis the season after all.

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The Panarchist Solution to a World Divided - CounterPunch

Moon’s Surface Could Electrocute Astronauts, Scientists Warn

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The Moon’s surface could electrocute future astronauts as they plan to visit areas hit by very little charge-negating sunlight.

ZAP!

The Moon’s lack of an atmosphere and magnetic field means particles from the Sun go straight to the lunar surface.

That gives the Moon’s surface an electric charge — and it mean future astronauts run the risk of being zapped when they visit the Moon, according to University of Southern California plasma physicist Joseph Wang’s research, as Gizmodo reports.

Balancing Charges

Wang’s team found that the electrically charged lunar surface “raises concerns on possible charging/arcing risks for astronauts on lunar surface,” according to the abstract of his team’s paper, which it presented at this year’s meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

It’s not unlike the experience of (Moon) walking across a carpet wearing socks and then feeling a zap when you touch a metal doorknob — except without an atmosphere, you wouldn’t even need to make contact with the doorknob on the Moon.

Cautiously Optimistic

So why haven’t astronauts been zapped just yet? That’s because the areas they visited during past missions were bathed in direct sunlight, according to Wang, and the photons from that light helped balance out the surface’s otherwise negative charge, making shocks far less likely.

Future missions, however, will see astronauts visiting the Moon’s south pole, which gets far less sunlight.

Jim Rice, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, told Gizmodo he doesn’t think electrocution should be an actual concern for those astronauts. But he also didn’t rule out issues with larger future operations, such as ones that might involve bulldozing large amounts of charged materials around on the Moon.

READ MORE: Why the Next Lunar Astronauts May Have to Worry About Electric Shocks [Gizmodo]

More on the lunar surface: NASA: Four Astronauts Will Stay on the Moon For Two Weeks

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Moon’s Surface Could Electrocute Astronauts, Scientists Warn

Half of America May Be Obese by 2030. Here’s Why That Matters for Society.

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A new CDC study suggests that one in two American adults will be considered obese by 2030. It's a growing problem that affects low-income workers the most.

After mapping out the last two decades of public health records, a team of scientists made a grim prediction: half of the adults in America will be obese by 2030, with half of those people falling in the “severely obese” category.

To get it out of the way: it’s a tired joke that Americans are too heavy. The medical community is also plagued by a disturbing trend in which doctors obsess over their patients’ weight rather than offering any real medical advice or care.

But that doesn’t make it less alarming just how rapidly America has become obese, nor does it erase the extra strain that an increasingly obese population will place on the already faltering American healthcare system. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity-related healthcare costs amount to billions of dollars every year.

The new CDC-conducted study, published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that all but two states reported that at least 35 percent of their populations were obese this year. Ten and especially 20 years ago, those numbers were drastically lower.

The new research identified low income as one of the largest predictors of obesity — a troubling sign that existing public health initiatives are leaving behind groups of people who are already amongst society’s most vulnerable.

The solutions that the researchers identified reveal just how pervasive the problem has become.

In addition to the same old suggestions, including increased nutrition education, the study identified things like increased access to areas where it’s safe to walk or exercise and support for people to get up and move during the day.

Given how many Americans live sedentary lifestyles — necessitated by office work and lengthening commutes — it’s clear that this is a systematic problem facing the entire country. And it’s one that will require major changes to effectively address.

The post Half of America May Be Obese by 2030. Here’s Why That Matters for Society. appeared first on Futurism.

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Half of America May Be Obese by 2030. Here’s Why That Matters for Society.

This Robotic Bug Was Designed to Survive Swatting

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Engineers built a soft robotic bug capable of surviving harsh punishment like being flattened, stomped, and folded. It's creepy, but a huge step forward.

Strong Bug

As if nature wasn’t already full of pests, a team of engineers just built their own — and the little bug can take a beating.

The DEAnsect is a soft robot modeled after an insect, and it’s the work of engineers from Switzerland’s École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and France’s University of Cergy-Pontoise.

After they built the bot, the engineers stomped on it, smooshed it with a fly swatter, and even folded it in half, but the robot kept scooting along — a creepy mental image, sure, but also a big step forward for soft robotics technology.

Adventure Bug

According to research published Wednesday in Soft Robotics, the engineers built two versions of the DEAnsect — one tethered to a controller and the other wireless and more autonomous — giving scientists the ability to choose the little critter that best meets their needs.

The two versions present a tradeoff between durability and mobility. The tethered model can survive more abuse because it only contains its own tiny artificial muscles. The wireless model, however, has to carry visual sensors, a battery, and other electronics that make it a bit more vulnerable to being squished.

Useful Bug

Even if the wireless bug can’t take as much abuse, the fact that it can carry everything it needs marks a significant leap forward for autonomous soft robots.

“This technique opens up new possibilities for the broad use of [artificial muscles] in robotics,” researcher Herbert Shea said in the release, “for swarms of intelligent robotic insects, for inspection or remote repairs, or even for gaining a deeper understanding of insect colonies by sending a robot to live amongst them.”

READ MORE: A soft robotic insect that survives being flattened by a fly swatter [EPFL newsroom]

More on soft robots: This Soft Robot Mimics Plant Tendrils to Creep and Climb

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This Robotic Bug Was Designed to Survive Swatting

Farmers Could Use Drones to Grow Better Christmas Trees

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Researchers at North Carolina State University are exploring if drones can be used to monitor the growth of Christmas trees in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

‘Tis the Season

Researchers at North Carolina State University are exploring the use of drones to monitor the growth of Christmas trees in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

“Instead of going out and measuring individual trees, a person could fly a drone,” research associate Justyna Jeziorska said in a statement.

That could prove especially handy since the most popular Christmas tree species in the area, the Fraser fir, grows best in mountainous areas and on steep slopes.

Robofeller

Drones have been used to 3D-scan natural landscapes in the past, but current landscape analysis software tends to make individual trees appear like short domes rather than anything that actually looks like a tree.

That makes the process of analyzing the trees’ height and diameter near impossible, which is why the NC State team is developing new 3D-processing techniques.

In addition to monitoring the Christmas trees’ size, drones could also tell farmers if the trees are diseased by detecting discoloration or even spray herbicides and pesticides on them from above, according to the researchers.

Farmer’s Helper

The team is hoping their drone techniques could be used by other types of tree farmers in the future as well.

“If this research shows that drones are useful for managing Christmas trees, the info we provide will allow someone with their own interest and their own drone to do it themselves,” project collaborator Zac Arcaro said in the statement.

READ MORE: It’s tough to grow a Christmas tree. Can drones help? [Futurity]

More on Christmas trees: Robots Decorate Trees, Perform Carols in Store’s Holiday Display

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Farmers Could Use Drones to Grow Better Christmas Trees

Finally, a Smart Robot That Can Cook and Serve Us Hot Dogs

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Engineers taught an artificially intelligent robot to cook and serve hot dogs by training it in a virtual setting and then an actual grill.

GrillBot

At long last, robots have conquered one of the last bastions of human dominance: the grill.

After training an artificial intelligence in a virtual reconstruction of a grill, Boston University engineers built a robot that can successfully cook and serve perfectly acceptable hot dogs to its human masters, Inverse reports.

While it sounds like a minor triumph, the process of cooking and preparing food involves background knowledge that humans take for granted but that has, until now, consistently tripped up AI systems.

Entry Level

The engineers found that the robot was able to reach the rank of grill master when they trained it using a process called reinforcement learning, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics. Compared to the other kinds of AI they tried, reinforcement learning was by far the best method for the chef-in-training.

Reinforcement learning is an AI architecture that basically incentivizes a system to gradually learn a new skill by coding it to perceive success as intrinsically rewarding.

The Basics

When it came to cooking a hot dog, “success” included learning things like the correct order of actions — cook the meat and then place it in a bun — as well as things people see as common knowledge, such as the fact that gravity remains a constant threat.

“You have to define things beforehand,” BU engineer Zahcary Serlin told Inverse. “As long as I know what you mean by ‘grill’ when you say ‘grill,’ then I can learn to do the thing that has ‘grill’ in it.”

READ MORE: This ‘self-aware’ robot can cook and serve hot dogs [Inverse]

More on training robots: Hellishly Hard New Game Is Specifically Designed to Confound AI

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Finally, a Smart Robot That Can Cook and Serve Us Hot Dogs

Invisible Ink “Tattoos” Could Be Used to ID Vaccinated Kids

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Researchers from MIT came up with an invisible ink that can be harmlessly embedded in the skin along with a vaccine to serve as a medical record.

For the people overseeing nationwide vaccination initiatives in developing countries, keeping track of who had which vaccination and when can be a tough task.

But researchers from MIT might have a solution: they’ve created an ink that can be safely embedded in the skin alongside the vaccine itself, and it’s only visible using a special smartphone camera app and filter.

In other words, they’ve found a covert way to embed the record of a vaccination directly in a patient’s skin rather than documenting it electronically or on paper — and their low-risk tracking system could greatly simplify the process of maintaining accurate vaccine records, especially on a larger scale.

“In areas where paper vaccination cards are often lost or do not exist at all, and electronic databases are unheard of, this technology could enable the rapid and anonymous detection of patient vaccination history to ensure that every child is vaccinated,” researcher Kevin McHugh said in a statement.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the team’s research, which was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday. According to a Scientific American story, the project came about following a direct request from Microsoft founder Bill Gates himself, who has been personally involved in efforts to eradicate polio and measles through vaccinations.

The invisible “tattoo” accompanying the vaccine is a pattern made up of minuscule quantum dots — tiny semiconducting crystals that reflect light — that glows under infrared light. The pattern — and vaccine — gets delivered into the skin using hi-tech dissolvable microneedles made of a mixture of polymers and sugar.

So far, the system is mostly a proof of concept. But the researchers have already tried it out on rats and found that the patterns were still detectable nine months after injection. In human cadaver skin models, the patterns outlasted five years of simulated Sun exposure.

“It’s possible someday that this ‘invisible’ approach could create new possibilities for data storage, biosensing, and vaccine applications that could improve how medical care is provided, particularly in the developing world,” MIT professor and senior author Robert Langer said in the statement.

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Invisible Ink “Tattoos” Could Be Used to ID Vaccinated Kids

Phone Location Tracking Is Way Worse Than We Thought

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A major investigation reveals two terrifying truths: your phone is constantly tracking and sharing your location, and you have no control over it.

Constant Surveillance

If you own a phone, it’s almost certainly tracking your every move and sending the information to a handful of private companies that operate with virtually no regulatory oversight.

That’s according to a massive investigation by the opinion desk at the New York Times, during which reporters gained access to a tiny slice of one company’s massive stores of location data.

The investigation reveals just how much information these companies have on the average person and makes one thing very clear: any company claiming to protect or anonymize your data is either lying or being deliberately misleading.

Security Breach

The leaked phone tracking data the NYT gained access to through anonymous sources contains some 50 billion data points representing the exact locations of 12 million Americans’ phones during several months in 2016 and 2017.

Using the data, the investigators were able to track and identify senior government officials, celebrities, investigative journalists, and even an engineer who took a job at a rival company — and that’s all from a tiny fragment of the data collected and analyzed or sold by just one of dozens of similar companies.

While it’s unclear why the investigation was published by the NYT‘s opinion desk, it may have been so that the reporters could say in no uncertain terms: this is utterly terrifying.

READ MORE: Twelve Million Phones, One Dataset, Zero Privacy [The New York Times]

More on surveillance: The Pentagon Is Launching Mass Surveillance Balloons Over America

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Phone Location Tracking Is Way Worse Than We Thought

Our Acidic Oceans Are Eating Away at Sharks’ Skin

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Ocean acidification is literally eating away at sharks' skin, destroying the layer of tiny scales that helps them swim and hunt.

I’m Melting

As the oceans grow increasingly acidic, they’re claiming yet another casualty: sharks.

New research shows that the acidic water, a byproduct of human-induced climate change, is damaging and destroying the tiny scales on sharks’ skin, according to Newsweek. As a result, the sharks can’t swim or hunt as well — and that could potentially wreak havoc on the already-fragile ecosystems in which they live.

Fast Changes

A team of German and South African scientists found that after just nine weeks of exposure to acidic water, over nine percent of the sharks’ denticles — those are the tiny scales — were damaged, according to research published on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

While the experiment isn’t exceptionally robust — there were only three sharks in the cohort that got the acidic water treatment — the findings are a troubling sign for the future of marine life.

Silver Lining

Thankfully, the study turned up some good news as well. The researchers found that the sharks were able to moderate their bodies’ chemistry to adjust to the increasingly acidic water. Other than the damaged and destroyed scales, they seem to be unharmed.

Luntz Auerswald, an environmental researcher from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, told Newsweek that the team “expected that they would be able to regulate their acid-base balance in the short term as a response to a lowered pH. We were unsure, but not surprised, that they can keep this regulation up for extended periods.”

“The corrosion of the denticles, however, came as a surprise,” he added. “We did not expect this.”

READ MORE: ACID OCEANS ARE STRIPPING SHARKS OF THEIR SCALES [Newsweek]

More on ocean acidification: Marine Food Webs Are on the Brink of Collapse Because of Climate Change

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The Army Wants to Generate Electricity Inside Soldiers’ Boots

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An Army research center patented bizarre boots that generates electricity every time a soldier takes a step, giving them a new way to power their gear.

Portable Batteries

The U.S. Army has some wacky ideas to keep soldiers’ futuristic gear working, even when they’re far away from the nearest outlet.

To keep their gear juiced up, researchers at the Army’s C5ISR Center patented a bizarre new portable generator that can fit inside a soldier’s boot, Army Times reports. Every time a soldier takes a step, their foot triggers a small mechanism that creates a small electrical charge — not big enough to solve the energy crisis, but perhaps enough to keep personal electronics running.

Leg Day

The weird power-boots are just the first step in the military’s plan to turn soldiers into walking battery packs, per Army Times. Army researchers are also trying to build kinetic energy harvesters into high-tech knee braces and backpacks as well.

But some of these devices are actually making soldiers’ lives worse. For instance, the backpack only harvested energy when it was loose-fitting and able to bounce around — making it cumbersome to carry.

READ MORE: How the Army wants to use your boots to generate juice (and keep tabs on you) [Army Times]

More on military tech: The U.S. Army Is Using Virtual Reality Combat to Train Soldiers

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Navy Pilot Describes Bizzare “Tic Tac” UFO Encounter He Filmed

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Chad Underwood, a Navy pilot who recorded a bizarre UFO encounter in 2004, talked to Intelligencer about what he saw in an interview.

In 2004, Navy pilots spotted something extremely unusual off the West Coast — groups of objects flying in erratic, inexplicable flight patterns.

Years later, the puzzling UFO encounter was revealed by The New York Times, with multiple eyewitnesses stepping forward over the years to describe what they saw.

One of three infrared videos, recorded in 2004 and shared by the Times in 2017, shows an odd oblong unidentified object, garnering it the nickname “Tic Tac.”

Now Chad Underwood, the Navy pilot who recorded the video at the time, talked to New York Magazine’s Intelligencer about what he saw in a new interview.

“You’re not going to see it with your own eyes until probably 10 miles, and then you’re not going to be able to visually track it until you’re probably inside of five miles, which is where [commanding officer, who first made visual confirmation of the UFO,] Dave Fravor said that he saw it,” Underwood told Intelligencer.

“The thing that stood out to me the most was how erratic it was behaving,” he added. “It was just behaving in ways that aren’t physically normal. That’s what caught my eye. Because, aircraft, whether they’re manned or unmanned, still have to obey the laws of physics.”

What puzzled Underwood the most was that the “Tic Tac” bore no resemblance to any conventional aircraft.

“Well, normally, you would see engines emitting a heat plume. This object was not doing that,” he said. And it certainly was no bird. “You don’t see birds at 5,000 or 10,000 or 20,000 feet. That’s just not how birds operate.”

READ MORE: Navy Pilot Who Filmed the ‘Tic Tac’ UFO Speaks: ‘It Wasn’t Behaving by the Normal Laws of Physics’ [Intelligencer]

More on the videos: Navy Confirms That Three UFO Encounter Videos Are Real

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