A Beginner’s Guide to Cryptocoin Mining: What You Need to …

Mining cryptocoinsis an arms race that rewards early adopters. You might have heard of Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency that was released in early 2009.Similar digital currencies have crept into the worldwide market since then, including a spin-off from Bitcoin called Bitcoin Cash. You can get in on the cryptocurrency rush if you take the time to learn the basics properly.

If you had started mining Bitcoins back in 2009, you could have earned thousands of dollars by now. At the same time, there are plenty ofways you could have lost money, too.Bitcoinsare not a good choice for beginning miners who work on a small scale. The current up-front investment and maintenance costs, not to mention the sheermathematical difficulty of the process, just doesn't make it profitable for consumer-level hardware. Now, Bitcoin mining is reserved for large-scale operations only.

Litecoins, Dogecoins, and Feathercoins, on the other hand,are three Scrypt-based cryptocurrencies that are the best cost-benefit for beginners.

Dogecoins and Feathercoins would yield slightly less profit with the same mining hardware but are becoming more popular daily. Peercoins, too, can also be a reasonably decent return on your investment of time and energy.

As more people join the cryptocoin rush, your choice could get more difficult to mine because more expensive hardware will be required to discover coins. You will be forced to either invest heavily if you want to stay mining that coin, or you will want to take your earnings and switch to an easier cryptocoin. Understanding the top 3 bitcoin mining methods is probably where you need to begin; this article focuses on mining "scrypt" coins.

As a hobby venture,yes, cryptocoin mining can generate a small income of perhaps a dollar or two per day. In particular, the digital currencies mentioned above are very accessible for regular people to mine, and a person can recoup $1000 in hardware costs in about 18-24 months.

As a second income,no, cryptocoin mining is not a reliable way to make substantial money for most people. The profit from mining cryptocoins only becomes significant when someone is willing to invest $3000-$5000 in up-front hardware costs, at which time you could potentially earn $50 per day or more.

If your objective is to earn substantial money as a second income, then you are better off purchasing cryptocoins with cash instead of mining them, and then tucking them awayin the hopes that they will jump in value like gold or silver bullion. If your objective is to make a few digital bucks andspend them somehow, then you just might have a slow way to do that with mining.

Smart miners need to keep electricity costs to under $0.11 per kilowatt-hour;mining with 4 GPU video cards can net you around $8.00 to $10.00per day (depending upon the cryptocurrency you choose), or around $250-$300 per month.

Now, there is a small chance that your chosen digital currency will jump in value alongside Bitcoin at some point. Then, possibly, you could find yourself sitting on thousands of dollars in cryptocoins. The emphasis here is on "small chance," with small meaning "slightly better than winning the lottery."

If you do decide to try cryptocoin mining, definitely do so as a hobby with a very small income return. Think of it as "gathering gold dust" instead of collecting actual gold nuggets. And always, always, do your research to avoid a scam currency.

Let's focus on mining scrypt coins, namely Litecoins, Dogecoins,or Feathercoins. The whole focus of mining is to accomplish three things:

You will need ten things to mine Litecoins,Dogecoins, and/or Feathercoins.

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A Beginner's Guide to Cryptocoin Mining: What You Need to ...

True AI is both logically possible and utterly implausible …

Suppose you enter a dark room in an unknown building. You might panic about monsters that could be lurking in the dark. Or you could just turn on the light, to avoid bumping into furniture. The dark room is the future of artificial intelligence (AI). Unfortunately, many people believe that, as we step into the room, we might run into some evil, ultra-intelligent machines. This is an old fear. It dates to the 1960s, when Irving John Good, a British mathematician who worked as a cryptologist at Bletchley Park with Alan Turing, made the following observation:

Once ultraintelligent machines become a reality, they might not be docile at all but behave like Terminator: enslave humanity as a sub-species, ignore its rights, and pursue their own ends, regardless of the effects on human lives.

If this sounds incredible, you might wish to reconsider. Fast-forward half a century to now, and the amazing developments in our digital technologies have led many people to believe that Goods intelligence explosion is a serious risk, and the end of our species might be near, if were not careful. This is Stephen Hawking in 2014:

Last year, Bill Gates was of the same view:

And what had Musk, Teslas CEO, said?

The reality is more trivial. ThisMarch, Microsoftintroduced Tay an AI-based chat robot to Twitter. They had to remove it only 16 hours later. It was supposed to become increasingly smarter as it interacted with humans. Instead, it quickly became anevil Hitler-loving, Holocaust-denying, incestual-sex-promoting, Bush did 9/11-proclaiming chatterbox. Why? Because it worked no better than kitchen paper, absorbing and being shaped by the nasty messages sent to it. Microsoft apologised.

This is the state of AI today. After so much talking about the risks of ultraintelligent machines, it is time to turn on the light, stop worrying about sci-fi scenarios, and start focusing on AIs actual challenges, in order to avoid making painful and costly mistakes in the design and use of our smart technologies.

Let me be more specific. Philosophy doesnt do nuances well. It might fancy itself a model of precision and finely honed distinctions, but what it really loves are polarisations and dichotomies. Internalism or externalism, foundationalism or coherentism, trolley left or right, zombies or not zombies, observer-relative or observer-independent, possible or impossible worlds, grounded or ungrounded Philosophy might preach the inclusive vel (girls or boys may play) but too often indulges in the exclusive aut aut (either you like it or you dont).

The current debate about AI is a case in point. Here, the dichotomy is between those who believein true AI and those who do not. Yes, the real thing, not Siri in your iPhone, Roomba in your living room, or Nest in your kitchen (I am the happy owner of all three). Think instead of the false Maria in Metropolis (1927); Hal9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), on which Good was one of the consultants; C3PO in Star Wars (1977); Rachael in Blade Runner (1982); Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987); Agent Smith in The Matrix (1999) or the disembodied Samantha in Her (2013). Youve got the picture. Believers in true AI and in Goods intelligence explosion belong to the Church of Singularitarians. For lack of a better term, I shall refer to the disbelievers as members of the Church of AItheists. Lets have a look at both faiths and see why both are mistaken. And meanwhile, remember: good philosophy is almost always in the boring middle.

Singularitarians believe in three dogmas. First, that the creation of some form of artificial ultraintelligence is likely in the foreseeable future. This turning point is known as a technological singularity, hence the name. Both the nature of such a superintelligence and the exact timeframe of its arrival are left unspecified, although Singularitarians tend to prefer futures that are conveniently close-enough-to-worry-about but far-enough-not-to-be-around-to-be-proved-wrong.

Second, humanity runs a major risk of being dominated by such ultraintelligence. Third, a primary responsibility of the current generation is to ensure that the Singularity either does not happen or, if it does, that it is benign and will benefit humanity. This has all the elements of a Manichean view of the world: Good fighting Evil, apocalyptic overtones, the urgency of we must do something now or it will be too late, an eschatological perspective of human salvation, and an appeal to fears and ignorance.

Put all this in a context where people are rightly worried about the impact of idiotic digital technologies on their lives, especially in the job market and in cyberwars, and where mass media daily report new gizmos and unprecedented computer-driven disasters, and you have a recipe for mass distraction: a digital opiate for the masses.

Like all faith-based views, Singularitarianism is irrefutable because, in the end, it is unconstrained by reason and evidence. It is also implausible, since there is no reason to believe that anything resembling intelligent (let alone ultraintelligent) machines will emerge from our current and foreseeable understanding of computer science and digital technologies. Let me explain.

Sometimes, Singularitarianism is presented conditionally. This is shrewd, because the then does follow from the if, and not merely in an ex falso quodlibet sense: if some kind of ultraintelligence were to appear, then we would be in deep trouble (not merely could, as stated above by Hawking). Correct. Absolutely. But this also holds true for the following conditional: if the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were to appear, then we would be in even deeper trouble.

At other times, Singularitarianism relies on a very weak sense of possibility: some form of artificial ultraintelligence could develop, couldnt it? Yes it could. But this could is mere logical possibility as far as we know, there is no contradiction in assuming the development of artificial ultraintelligence. Yet this is a trick, blurring the immense difference between I could be sick tomorrow when I am already feeling unwell, and I could be a butterfly that dreams its a human being.

How some nasty ultraintelligent AI will ever evolve autonomously from the computational skills required to park in a tight spot remains unclear

There is no contradiction in assuming that a dead relative youve never heard of has left you $10million. That could happen. So? Contradictions, like happily married bachelors, arent possible states of affairs, but non-contradictions, like extra-terrestrial agents living among us so well-hidden that we never discovered them, can still be dismissed as utterly crazy. In other words, the could is not the could happen of an earthquake, but the it isnt true that it couldnt happen of thinking that you are the first immortal human. Correct, but not a reason to start acting as if you will live forever. Unless, that is, someone provides evidence to the contrary, and shows that there is something in our current and foreseeable understanding of computer science that should lead us to suspect that the emergence of artificial ultraintelligence is truly plausible.

Here Singularitarians mix faith and facts, often moved, I believe, by a sincere sense of apocalyptic urgency. They start talking about job losses, digital systems at risk, unmanned drones gone awry and other real and worrisome issues about computational technologies that are coming to dominate human life, from education to employment, from entertainment to conflicts. From this, they jump to being seriously worried about their inability to control their next Honda Civic because it will have a mind of its own. How some nasty ultraintelligent AI will ever evolve autonomously from the computational skills required to park in a tight spot remains unclear. The truth is that climbing on top of a tree is not a small step towards the Moon; it is the end of the journey. What we are going to see are increasingly smart machines able to perform more tasks that we currently perform ourselves.

If all other arguments fail, Singularitarians are fond of throwing in some maths. A favourite reference is Moores Law. This is the empirical claim that, in the development of digital computers, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. The outcome has so far been more computational power for less. But things are changing. Technical difficulties in nanotechnology present serious manufacturing challenges. There is, after all, a limit to how small things can get before they simply melt. Moores Law no longer holds. Just because something grows exponentially for some time, does not mean that it will continue to do so forever, as The Economist put it in 2014:

From Turkzilla to AIzilla, the step is small, if it werent for the fact that a growth curve can easily be sigmoid, with an initial stage of growth that is approximately exponential, followed by saturation, slower growth, maturity and, finally, no further growth. But I suspect that the representation of sigmoid curves might be blasphemous for Singularitarianists.

Singularitarianism is irresponsibly distracting. It is a rich-world preoccupation, likely to worry people in leisured societies, who seem to forget about real evils oppressing humanity and our planet. One example will suffice: almost 700million people have no access to safe water. This is a major threat to humanity. Oh, and just in case you thought predictions by experts were a reliable guide, think twice. There are many staggeringly wrong technological predictions by experts (see some hilarious ones from David Pogue and on Cracked.com). In 2004 Gates stated: Two years from now, spam will be solved. And in 2011 Hawking declared that philosophy is dead (so whats this you are reading?).

The prediction of which I am most fond is by Robert Metcalfe, co-inventor of Ethernet and founder of the digital electronics manufacturer 3Com. In 1995 he promised to eat his words if proved wrong that the internet will soon go supernova and in 1996 will catastrophically collapse. A man of his word, in 1997 he publicly liquefied his article in a food processor and drank it. I wish Singularitarians were as bold and coherent as him.

Deeply irritated by those who worship the wrong digital gods, and by their unfulfilled Singularitarian prophecies, disbelievers AItheists make it their mission to prove once and for all that any kind of faith in true AI is totally wrong. AI is just computers, computers are just Turing Machines, Turing Machines are merely syntactic engines, and syntactic engines cannot think, cannot know, cannot be conscious. End of story.

This is why there is so much that computers (still) cannot do, loosely the title of several publications Ira Wilson (1970); Hubert Dreyfus (1972; 1979); Dreyfus (1992); David Harel (2000); John Searle (2014) though what precisely they cant do is a conveniently movable target. It is also why they are unable to process semantics (of any language, Chinese included, no matter what Google translation achieves). This proves that there is absolutely nothing to discuss, let alone worry about. There is no genuine AI, so a fortiori there are no problems caused by it. Relax and enjoy all these wonderful electric gadgets.

AItheists faith is as misplaced as the Singularitarians. Both Churches have plenty of followers in California, where Hollywood sci-fi films, wonderful research universities such as Berkeley, and some of the worlds most important digital companies flourish side by side. This might not be accidental. When there is big money involved, people easily get confused. For example, Google has been buying AI tech companies as if there were no tomorrow (disclaimer: I am a member of Googles Advisory Council on the right to be forgotten), so surely Google must know something about the real chances of developing a computer that can think, that we, outside The Circle, are missing? Eric Schmidt, Googles executive chairman, fuelled this view, when he told the Aspen Institute in 2013: Many people in AI believe that were close to [a computer passing the Turing Test] within the next five years.

The Turing test is a way to check whether AI is getting any closer. You ask questions of two agents in another room; one is human, the other artificial; if you cannot tell the difference between the two from their answers, then the robot passes the test. It is a crude test. Think of the driving test: if Alice does not pass it, she is not a safe driver; but even if she does, she might still be an unsafe driver. The Turing test provides a necessary but insufficient condition for a form of intelligence. This is a really low bar. And yet, no AI has ever got over it. More importantly, all programs keep failing in the same way, using tricks developed in the 1960s. Let me offer a bet. I hate aubergine (eggplant), but I shall eat a plate of it if a software program passes the Turing Test and wins the Loebner Prize gold medal before 16 July 2018. It is a safe bet.

Both Singularitarians and AItheists are mistaken. As Turing clearly stated in the 1950 article that introduced his test, the question Can a machine think? is too meaningless to deserve discussion. (Ironically, or perhaps presciently, that question is engraved on the Loebner Prize medal.) This holds true, no matter which of the two Churches you belong to. Yet both Churches continue this pointless debate, suffocating any dissenting voice of reason.

True AI is not logically impossible, but it is utterly implausible. We have no idea how we might begin to engineer it, not least because we have very little understanding of how our own brains and intelligence work. This means that we should not lose sleep over the possible appearance of some ultraintelligence. What really matters is that the increasing presence of ever-smarter technologies is having huge effects on how we conceive of ourselves, the world, and our interactions. The point is not that our machines are conscious, or intelligent, or able to know something as we do. They are not. There are plenty of well-known results that indicate the limits of computation, so-called undecidable problems for which it can be proved that it is impossible to construct an algorithm that always leads to a correct yes-or-no answer.

We know, for example, that our computational machines satisfy the Curry-Howard correspondence, which indicates that proof systems in logic on the one hand and the models of computation on the other, are in fact structurally the same kind of objects, and so any logical limit applies to computers as well. Plenty of machines can do amazing things, including playing checkers, chess and Go and the quiz show Jeopardy better than us. And yet they are all versions of a Turing Machine, an abstract model that sets the limits of what can be done by a computer through its mathematical logic.

Quantum computers are constrained by the same limits, the limits of what can be computed (so-called computable functions). No conscious, intelligent entity is going to emerge from a Turing Machine. The point is that our smart technologies also thanks to the enormous amount of available data and some very sophisticated programming are increasingly able to deal with more tasks better than we do, including predicting our behaviours. So we are not the only agents able to perform tasks successfully.

This is what I have defined as the Fourth Revolution in our self-understanding. We are not at the centre of the Universe (Copernicus), of the biological kingdom (Charles Darwin), or of rationality (Sigmund Freud). And after Turing, we are no longer at the centre of the infosphere, the world of information processing and smart agency, either. We share the infosphere with digital technologies. These are ordinary artefacts that outperform us in ever more tasks, despite being no cleverer than a toaster. Their abilities are humbling and make us reevaluate human exceptionality and our special role in the Universe, which remains unique. We thought we were smart because we could play chess. Now a phone plays better than a Grandmaster. We thought we were free because we could buy whatever we wished. Now our spending patterns are predicted by devices as thick as a plank.

Whats the difference? The same as between you and the dishwasher when washing the dishes. Whats the consequence? That any apocalyptic vision of AI can be disregarded

The success of our technologies depends largely on the fact that, while we were speculating about the possibility of ultraintelligence, we increasingly enveloped the world in so many devices, sensors, applications and data that it became an IT-friendly environment, where technologies can replace us without having any understanding, mental states, intentions, interpretations, emotional states, semantic skills, consciousness, self-awareness or flexible intelligence. Memory (as in algorithms and immense datasets) outperforms intelligence when landing an aircraft, finding the fastest route from home to the office, or discovering the best price for your next fridge.

Digital technologies can do more and more things better than us, by processing increasing amounts of data and improving their performance by analysing their own output as input for the next operations. AlphaGo, the computer program developed by Google DeepMind, won the boardgame Go against the worlds best player because it could use a database of around 30million moves and play thousands of games against itself, learning how to improve its performance. It is like a two-knife system that can sharpen itself. Whats the difference? The same as between you and the dishwasher when washing the dishes. Whats the consequence? That any apocalyptic vision of AI can be disregarded. We are and shall remain, for any foreseeable future, the problem, not our technology. So we should concentrate on the real challenges. By way of conclusion, let me list five of them, all equally important.

We should make AI environment-friendly. We need the smartest technologies we can build to tackle the concrete evils oppressing humanity and our planet, from environmental disasters to financial crises, from crime, terrorism and war, to famine, poverty, ignorance, inequality and appalling living standards.

We should make AI human-friendly. It should be used to treat people always as ends, never as mere means, to paraphrase Immanuel Kant.

We should make AIs stupidity work for human intelligence. Millions of jobs will be disrupted, eliminated and created; the benefits of this should be shared by all, and the costs borne by society.

We should make AIs predictive power work for freedom and autonomy. Marketing products, influencing behaviours, nudging people or fighting crime and terrorism should never undermine human dignity.

And finally, we should make AI make us more human. The serious risk is that we might misuse our smart technologies, to the detriment of most of humanity and the whole planet. Winston Churchill said that we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us. This applies to the infosphere and its smart technologies as well.

Singularitarians and AItheists will continue their diatribes about the possibility or impossibility of true AI. We need to be tolerant. But we do not have to engage. As Virgil suggests in Dantes Inferno: Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by. For the world needs some good philosophy, and we need to take care of more pressing problems.

Continued here:

True AI is both logically possible and utterly implausible ...

Delights of Egypt Ultra-Deluxe Edition – Egypt Escapes …

The 'Delights of Egypt Ultra-Deluxe Edition' from Egypt Escapes offers the same fantastic opportunity to enjoy a 5-star 'River Nile Cruise & Red Sea Stay but this time with a luxurious finishing touch, for the more discerning traveller. The best cabins on the best Nile Cruise ships will be offered here, combined with an ultra-luxurious option for your Red Sea Stay on the stunning Hurghada Riviera.

We have a wonderful combination of Nile Cruises & Red Sea Hotels available for you, get in touch & we can make your dream holiday for you.

With this deluxe version of our most popular tour you can still follow in the steps of the great Pharaohs! Cruise the legendary River Nile for 7 days on one of our 5-star ultra-deluxe Nile Ships, with full-board basis and opportunities to enjoy sites such as the Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel & Aswan High Dam. Then spend 7-days in 5-star ultra-deluxe, ultra-all-inclusive comfort with a choice of fine properties on the stunning Red Sea Riviera among the beautiful beaches & reefs.

Return Direct Flights

7-Nt 5-Star Full-Board Ultra-Deluxe River Nile Cruise

7-Nt 5-Star Ultra-All-Inclusive Red Sea Riviera Hotel Stay

Travel winter sun dates for best prices. Please contact us for a bespoke itinerary quote.

Other Options:

Hold luggage optional cost dependent on airline approximately 50 per case for 20kgs.

Choose your own combo from our extra special, ultra-deluxe collection of ships here: MS Alexander The Great, MS Steigenberger Minerva, MS Jaz Jubilee, MS Tarot, MS Nile Azur, MS Blue Shadow, MS Tuya, MS Esmeralda & The Gorgonia Nile Cruise.

Other hotels on the Red Sea Riviera are available including options to stay in Soma Bay, Marsa Alam, El Gouna, Safaga, Sahl Hasheesh or combine a stay in Luxor too.

Full Sightseeing Package during your Nile Cruise Includes (bookable in advance and on the spot): Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, Valley of the Kings (Tutankhamen), Hatshepsut Temple, Collossi of Memnon, KomOmbo Temple, Khnum Temple in Esna, Philae Temple in Aswan, High Dam of Aswan. English speaking tour guide (Egyptologist) at all tours. All ground transportation by modern A/C vehicles.

No holiday in Egypt is complete without a visit to Cairo, the greatest city in Africa!

From just 149pp you can also add on a trip from Hurghada to Cairo & the famous Pyramids of Giza, one of the '7 Wonders of the Ancient World!' Watch the sun rise on the way to visit the Giza Pyramids & the Great Sphinx. Learn all you need to know about the Pyramids of Giza & Egyptian Museum from your qualified English speaking Egyptologist. Enjoy lunch at a top class restaurant & modern day Cairo shopping opportunities before heading back to your Red Sea Hotel!

Youll depart from your hotel at approx 3am and watch the sun rise as you head by car towards the Giza Pyramids, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which also includes the Great Sphinx. Your guide is a qualified Egyptologist wholl be bursting with information and ready to answer your questions. Then reflect on your incredible morning over an inclusive lunch in a top class restaurant.

The afternoon is yours to enjoy at a more leisurely pace. Lose yourself in the cool, quiet rooms of the amazing Egyptian Museum containing more than 150,000 incredible exhibits. Wander around the maze of rooms spellbound as you see everything from the golden treasures of Tutankhamun to ancient mummies, statues and more with your guide. Then soak up the real atmosphere of modern-day Egyptian life at Khan El Khalili Bazar and try out your bartering skills. Return to Hurghada at around 11pm.

We have lots of other excursion opportunities available from your Red Sea Riviera base including boat trips to Giftun & Paradise Islands, Quad Biking, Submarine Trips, Jeep Safaris & Aqua Parks!

Alternatives

These are sample itineraries, cruise ships & hotels which can be suited with alternatives depending on the dates you choose to travel. This will be confirmed with you upon enquiry. We have a variety of ships & hotels to choose from so if you would like to discuss alternatives then please give us a call. The options chosen may differ slightly in price.

You can book & secure this special offer holiday with a low deposit & the final balance due 4 weeks prior to travel.

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Delights of Egypt Ultra-Deluxe Edition - Egypt Escapes ...

Company Seven | Astro-Optics Index Page

To learn more about how this site is arranged and how to navigate it, or for those new to Company Seven please Click Here. To learn more about the latest activities, web page changes, and developments at Company Seven then visit our News and Developments page. For those new to astronomy, we also provide Observing Plan Aids to help them learn the sky.

On 8 January 2019 we celebrate 39 years of defining competence and integrity as a business, with 35 of these years promoting our hobby and our international astronomy community from our Laurel, Maryland showrooms

39 & 35

We fondly remember:

Bruce Roy Wrinkle (b. 7 August 1945, d. 28 April 2013) was the soul of our showroom; kind, witty, intelligent, and able to greet you with a funny joke. Bruce was was amazingly well read, able to hold conversations with doctors and scientists on matters from prions to dark matter. And he was our friend, a true friend in every sense of the word and every day without him lacks some luster.

And Robert Kim Carter (b. 18 Jan 1962, d. 23 April 2005) whose friendship and support originally brought this site on line in 1994. Robert founded one of the first Internet Service Providers of "Internet Valley", Digital Gateway Systems, Inc. in Vienna, Virginia. DGS used to be to ISP's, as Company Seven is to our industry.

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Company Seven | Astro-Optics Index Page

Astronomy Ireland | Studying Astronomy

Astronomy Ireland are run a twice yearly series of Evening Classes in many towns and cities all around the country.More details HERE

As the national astronomy society in Ireland with 3,000 active members and an even bigger public following we receive a lot ofrequests for information like this so we are very keen to provide a listing of every course in Ireland and you can help us bykeeping us up to date on changes or additions so we may keep this website up to date at all times.

Astronomy Ireland takes on people/students for Work Experience. Typically these are young people doing Transition Year studentsbut we also take on people doing FS courses and others. Email office@astronomy.ie or call 086 06 46 555.

There are still some copies of the Astronomy and Space educationsupplement with what to study and where. Be sure you get your copy.

Astrophysics DeptTel:(021) 4903211

B.Sc in Physics with AstronomyCourse Director: Dr. Enda McGlynnTel: (01) 7005000

Physics with Astronomy and Space ScienceCourse Director: Lorraine HanlonTel: (01) 7162214

B.Sc. in Physics with AstrophysicsCourse Director: Ray ButlerTel: (091) 493788Email: ray.butler@nuigalway.ie

Physics with AstrophysicsHead of Department: Prof. J. Anthony MurphyTel: (01) 7083771

Physics with AstrophysicsHead of School: Prof. James Lunney.Head of Astrophysics: Dr. Peter Gallagher Tel: (01) 896 1300

The Department of Applied Physics& Instrumentation offers postgraduate studies in astrophysics, with emphasis on the development of high-speed imagingdevices.Tel: (021) 4326369

The Department of Physics and AstronomyDepartmental Office physics@qub.ac.ukTel 028 9097 3941

There is an active research community of about 150 Irish astronomers (2007) in the universities of Ireland and D.I.A.S. who canbe contacted at: http://www.arm.ac.uk/asgi

The ASGI holds 2 meetings a year in one of the member institutions, usually around the date of the equinoxes, that last 1 or 2days where short talks on a wide variety of subjects are present and a guest speaker from abroad is usually invite. ASGI also hasan emailing list with notices of meetings, study and job vacancies, etc. Contact the secretary at their website.

If you have any comments, additions or changes email to tom@astronomy.ie

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Astronomy Ireland | Studying Astronomy

Welcome to the Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology Gttingen

In his "Membrane Theory" of 1902, the German physiologist JuliusBernstein gave the earliest biophysical explanation of propagatingaction potentials and thereby provided the first truly quantitativetheory in electrophysiology.

Since then, Neuroscience has become a vast and growing area innatural sciences devoted to unraveling the function of the brain as oneof the most complex results of biological evolution. A thoroughanalysis of brain function still continues to be an outstandingscientific challenge.

Today a big step in the process of advancing our understandingis expected from the highly dynamic and interdisciplinary research lineof Neurotechnology. This discipline combines experiments withmathematical models, computer simulation and data analysis on the basisof well-defined theoretical concepts hopefully resulting inapplications (e.g. in Neuroprosthethics). It makes available ascientific language and methodology that can be used across disciplinesranging from neurobiology, cognitive science, systems biology toinformation technology. This task requires focussed interdisciplinarycooperation between engineers and theoreticians with a long-standinginvolvement in neuroscience collaborating with advanced experimentalgroups in order to investigate and design complete Neuro-BionicClosed-Loop Systems, neuro-sensing andneuro-stimulation strategies.

In 2004 the Federal Ministry of Education and Research(BMBF) in Germany has started an initiative to create a "NationalBernstein Network Computational Neuroscience" now consisting of thefour Bernstein Centers for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin,Freiburg, Goettingen and Munich, five Bernstein Groups, elevenBernstein Collaborations, several Bernstein Awards, and last but notleast four Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology in the regions Berlin,Frankfurt/Main, Freiburg/Tuebingen and Goettingen.

The BMBF has bestowed the title of "Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience" to honour Bernstein's scientific achievements.

The Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology (BFNT) Goettingen integrates research groups at the

Georg-August-University GttingenMax Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (Dept. of Nonlinear Dynamics)Max Planck Institute forBiophysical Chemistry (incl. BiomedNMR)Max Planck Institutefor Experimental MedicineMax Planck Institute for BiophysicsGerman Primate CenterHannover Medical School

Moreover, active collaboration with the following industrial partnersfurther defines the scientific and technological core of the BFNTGttingen: Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH, LEICA MicrosystemsGmbH, MED-EL GmbH, and Thomas Recording GmbH.

Thecoordinator of the BFNT Goettingen is Prof Woergoetter, Professor ofComputational Neuroscience at the University of Goettingen.

Prof. Dr. Florentin Woergoetter Georg-August-University of GttingenDepartment of Computational NeuroscienceFriedrich-Hund-Platz 1 37077 Gttingen

E: worgott @ bccn-goettingen.de

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Welcome to the Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology Gttingen

About Braingate | BrainGate

Over the past few years, there has been substantial scientific and medical progress toward designing powerful restorative neural interfaces for people with paralysis or limb loss. Much of this progress has resulted from decades of fundamental research, funded almost entirely by federal sources, including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense, with critical help from philanthropic foundations.

In the late 1990s, the initial translation of fundamental neuroengineering research from bench to bedside that is, to pilot clinical testing would require a level of financial commitment ($10s of millions) available only from private sources. In 2002, a Brown University spin-off/startup medical device company, Cyberkinetics, Inc. (later, Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc.) was formed to collect the regulatory permissions and financial resources required to launch pilot clinical trials of a first-generation neural interface system. The companys efforts and substantial initial capital investment led to the translation of the preclinical research at Brown University to an initial human device, the BrainGate Neural Interface System [Caution: Investigational Device. Limited by Federal Law to Investigational Use]. The BrainGate system uses a brain-implantable sensor to detect neural signals that are then decoded to provide control signals for assistive technologies. In 2004, Cyberkinetics received from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the first of two Investigational Device Exemptions (IDEs) to perform this research. Hospitals in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Illinois were established as clinical sites for the pilot clinical trial run by Cyberkinetics. Four trial participants with tetraplegia (decreased ability to use the arms and legs) were enrolled in the study and further helped to develop the BrainGate device. Initial results from these trials have been published or presented.

While scientific progress towards the creation of this promising technology wassteady and encouraging, Cyberkinetics financial sponsorship of the BrainGate research - without which the research could not have been started - began to wane. In 2007, in response to business pressures and changes in the capital markets, Cyberkinetics turned its focus to other medical devices. Although Cyberkinetics own funds became unavailable for BrainGate research, the research continued through grants and subcontracts from federal sources. By early 2008 it became clear that Cyberkinetics would eventually need to withdraw completely from directing the pilot clinical trials of the BrainGate device. Also in 2008, Cyberkinetics spun off its device manufacturing to new ownership, Blackrock Microsystems, Inc., which produces and is further developing research products as well as clinically-validated (510(k)-cleared) implantable neural recording devices.

Beginning in mid 2008, with the agreement of Cyberkinetics, a new, fully academically-based IDE application (for the BrainGate2 Neural Interface System) was developed to continue this important research. In May 2009, the FDA provided a new IDE for the BrainGate2 pilot clinical trial. The BrainGate2 pilot clinical trial is directed by faculty in the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School; the research is performed in close scientific collaboration with Brown Universitys Department of Neuroscience, School of Engineering, and Brown Institute for Brain Sciences, and the VA RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnologyof the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at the Providence VA Medical Center. Additionally, in 2011 and 2013, Stanford University and Case Western Reserve University, respectively, joined the BrainGate Research Team as clinical sites and scientific sites. As was true of the decades of fundamental, preclinical research that provided the basis for the recent clinical studies, funding for BrainGate research is now entirely from federal and philanthropic sources.

The BrainGate Research Team at Brown University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Stanford University, Case Western Reserve University, and Providence VA Medical Center comprises clinicians, scientists, and engineers working together to advance understanding of human brain function and to develop neurotechnologies for people with neurologic disease, injury, or limb loss. We hope that these technologies will become a powerful means to restore communication, mobility, and independence to people with paralysis. The teams investigator-initiated research is focused on advancing the science and medicine of restorative neural interfaces.

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Israel’s Lunar Lander Just Crashed Into the Moon

The Beresheet lunar lander crashed into the surface of the moon after experiencing engine failure during its final descent.

Landing Attempt

Beresheet, the lunar lander built by Israeli space nonprofit SpaceIL, crashed into the surface of the Moon on Thursday.

It would have been the first privately-owned lander on the surface of the Moon, and would have made Israel the fourth country to reach the surface of the Moon — but the craft experienced engine failure during its final approach.

“We have a failure of the spacecraft,” said Israel Aerospace Industries general manager Opher Doron on livestream, according to CNBC. “We unfortunately have not managed to land successfully,”

Final Approach

As Beresheet was approaching the surface of the Moon, the main engine failed and Beresheet was forced to reset the engine.

With about 10 kilometers left to go (6.2 miles), the main engine cut out and the lander crashed into the Moon traveling at about 134 meters per second, according to the livestream.

“We failed the first try, we’ll make it in the second… within two years we’ll try it again,” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to CNBC.

Definitely Tried

SpaceIL tweeted a photo of the lander’s final approach minutes before it lost contact with the craft. In it, the Moon looms ominously in the background.

“We didn’t make it. But we definitely tried,” said SpaceIL.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with additional details.

READ MORE: Israeli spacecraft Beresheet falls short of history as moon landing fails in final moments [CNBC]

More on Beresheet: The Israeli Moon Lander Is About to Touch Down

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Israel’s Lunar Lander Just Crashed Into the Moon

We Wouldn’t Have the First Black Hole Image Without Katie Bouman

Katie Bouman, a 29-year-old computer scientist, led the development of the algorithm that made the first black hole image possible.

Algorithmic Assist

It took a team of more than 200 scientists to create the first image of the event horizon of a black hole — and the internet is currently in love with one of them.

Computer scientist Katie Bouman led the development of the algorithm that made the breathtaking black hole image possible, and soon after the Event Horizon Telescope team revealed the photo on Wednesday, another image — this one a shot of Bouman that she posted to her Facebook page — started making the rounds online.

“Watching in disbelief as the first image I ever made of a black hole was in the process of being reconstructed,” the 29-year-old wrote of the photo, which was subsequently shared by everyone from CNN to Kamala Harris.

Here's the moment when the first black hole image was processed, from the eyes of researcher Katie Bouman. #EHTBlackHole #BlackHoleDay #BlackHole (v/@dfbarajas) pic.twitter.com/n0ZnIoeG1d

— MIT CSAIL (@MIT_CSAIL) April 10, 2019

Women Who Code

The online photo frenzy wasn’t over, though.

Many in the Twitterverse and beyond noted the similarities between an image of Bouman with piles of hard drives containing black hole image data and an image of another female computer scientist, Margaret Hamilton, standing next to the stacks of code she wrote to help NASA put astronauts on the Moon in 1969.

Still, Bouman, who is now an assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences at the California Institute of Technology, is quick to note that creating the first black hole image wasn’t a one-woman job.

“No one of us could’ve done it alone,” she told CNN. “It came together because of lots of different people from many different backgrounds.”

Left: MIT computer scientist Katie Bouman w/stacks of hard drives of black hole image data.

Right: MIT computer scientist Margaret Hamilton w/the code she wrote that helped put a man on the moon.

(image credit @floragraham)#EHTblackhole #BlackHoleDay #BlackHole pic.twitter.com/Iv5PIc8IYd

— MIT CSAIL (@MIT_CSAIL) April 10, 2019

READ MORE: That image of a black hole you saw everywhere? Thank this grad student for making it possible [CNN]

More on the black hole image: Scientists Just Released the First-Ever Image of a Black Hole

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Space Station Mice Learned to Propel Themselves in Zero Gravity

A video of mice in microgravity reveals that the animals quickly adapted to their off-world conditions, running, eating, and cleaning themselves.

Mouse House

A first-of-its-kind study aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has yielded new insights into how humans adapt to spaceflight — and an entertaining video of mice in microgravity.

In a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from NASA’s Ames Research Center describe how they sent 20 mice to live in the ISS’s NASA Rodent Habitat to see how they’d behave when exposed to the same conditions as astronauts, including microgravity, radiation, and confinement.

“Our approach is yielding an interesting analogue for better understanding human responses to spacefight,” the researchers wrote, “and providing the opportunity to begin to address how physical movement influences responses to microgravity.”

Squeak By

The NASA team use cameras to observe the mice in microgravity and noted in the study that the animals appeared to adapt to their space lives quickly by “propelling their bodies freely and actively throughout the habitat, utilizing the entire volume of space available to them.”

After about a week, some of the mice began zipping around the sides of the Rodent Habitat, a behavior the researchers called “race-tracking.”

As for why the mice race-tracked, the researchers hazarded a guess in the study that the behavior might have been due to stress, a response to boredom, or even a form of entertainment — similar to how mice on Earth might choose to run on a wheel.

READ MORE: The First Detailed Study of How Mice Behave in Space Reveals Strange, Coordinated Zooming [Gizmodo]

More on microgravity: Alarming Research: Zero Gravity Makes Astronauts’ Brains Age Faster

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NASA: Genetic Changes Caused by Space Travel Are Temporary

NASA just published the full results of its extensive study into how space travel altered astronaut Scott Kelly's health and gene expression.

Twin Study

For years, NASA has been analyzing the health effects of space travel by comparing astronaut twins Mark and Scott Kelly. In 2015 into 2016, Scott spent 340 days in orbit while Mark stayed on Earth, giving scientists rare data about how leaving the planet affects the human body.

The study, finally published Thursday in the journal Science, reveals that Scott experienced a number of genetic changes while he was in space. Surprisingly, most of them reversed once he landed back on Earth, the MIT Technology Review reports, giving researchers valuable insight as space agencies prepare for longer and deeper missions into space.

Back And Forth

Over the past few years, NASA scientists have gradually released some info about the twin study’s findings. Most surprising was how Scott’s time in space extended his telomeres, the protective caps that protect chromosome and — at least on Earth — slowly degrade over time.

While this finding will likely lead to speculation — and future research — into how spaceflight could affect human longevity, the changes were shortlived. Within half a year of his return to Earth, Scott’s lengthened telomeres returned to normal, while some new, shorter-than-usual telomeres that formed upon his return persisted.

Ready To Launch

Past research on astronauts suggested that extended space travel could compromise their immune systems. The new findings reveal that these changes are largely temporary and that astronauts quickly recover, which is a promising development for the prospect of sending people out to Mars and maybe even farther.

But because the twin study only involved one person in space, it’s hard to tell just how much each data point matters because the context is missing.

“It’s analogous to the very first time that we measured someone’s blood pressure,” lead researcher Chris Mason told MIT Tech. “We didn’t know what the actual reference numbers were until we started to measure more people.”

READ MORE: The first study of a twin in space looks like good news for a trip to Mars [MIT Technology Review]

More on the twin study: After a Year Away from Earth, Scott Kelly’s “Space Genes” Set Him Apart From His Twin

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NASA: Genetic Changes Caused by Space Travel Are Temporary

Family Caught Selling Diseased Body Parts to Medical Centers

A father and son team was just charged with fraud and concealing a crime for their six-year black market operation where they sold human body parts.

Side Hustle

A father and son team from Michigan were just charged for illegally selling human body parts — and failing to disclose that the corpses carried infectious diseases.

The duo, both named Donald Greene, sold bodies that people donated to the Biological Resource Center of Illinois for the purpose of furthering scientific research, according to CBS Chicago.

No Returns

The family sold body parts to medical clinics such as the Detroit Medical Center’s sports medicine department between 2008 and 2014, according to the station, sometimes for up to $100,000 per CBS.

But they also failed to disclose that they were selling body parts that had tested positive for diseases including HIV, hepatitis, and sepsis, CBS reports.

Technicality

Strangely enough, selling body parts isn’t strictly illegal.

But selling bodies that had been donated for medical research constitutes fraud, according to the federal prosecutors who charged the Greenes, and failing to disclose the infections was against the law. Greene Sr. has been charged with wire fraud, and Jr. with concealing a crime.

READ MORE: Father And Son Charged With Selling Diseased Body Parts In Alleged Brokering Scheme [CBS Chicago]

More on body parts: Freezing And Storing Donated Organs Could Eliminate Some Transplant Waitlists

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SpaceX Milestone: Company Lands Three Falcon Heavy Boosters

SpaceX successfully landed all three of its Falcon Heavy boosters during the rocket's second launch ever, marking a new milestone in reusable rocketry.

The Falcons Have Landed

The second time is apparently the charm for SpaceX.

In February 2018, Elon Musk’s space company launched a Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time, but it wasn’t able to recover all three of the rocket’s boosters — rather than landing on SpaceX’s autonomous drone ship like it was supposed to, the center core splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. Whoops.

On Thursday, the company attempted its second Falcon Heavy launch, and this time it nailed the landing of all three boosters — marking a new milestone in reusable rocketry.

Watch SpaceX's #FalconHeavy rocket lands its center core on a ship for the first time ? pic.twitter.com/VltoKVaAox

— CNET (@CNET) April 12, 2019

Democratizing Space

The Falcon Heavy is currently the most powerful launch vehicle in operation. Because SpaceX designed the rocket to be reusable, it can keep the cost of launches lower than would otherwise be possible — and cheaper launches mean more launches, thereby advancing humanity’s efforts to study, explore, and exploit space.

Now that SpaceX has proven it can successfully recover all three Falcon Heavy boosters, it can start looking ahead to the five launches already on the rocket’s manifest — and the others that will likely follow.

Falcon Heavy’s side boosters land on Landing Zones 1 and 2 pic.twitter.com/nJCCaVHOeo

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 12, 2019

READ MORE: SpaceX launches mega rocket, lands all three boosters [Phys.org]

More on Falcon Heavy: The Falcon Heavy Launched. Here’s What’s Next for SpaceX.

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The First Black Hole Photo Is Even More Amazing When You Zoom Out

A team from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has shared an image that puts the first black hole photo into stunning context.

Photo Friends

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) wasn’t the only powerful device with its gaze fixed upon galaxy Messier 87 (M87) in April 2017.

While the EHT was focused on the event horizon of the black hole at the center of M87, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory was taking a wider view of the same target — and the image produced through those observations puts the black hole photo into stunning context.

Credit, X-ray: NASA/CXC/Villanova University/J. Neilsen; Radio: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

1,000 Light Years

The Chandra team provided additional details on the dazzling display of bright particles captured in its black hole companion image in a blog post shared on Monday:

“While Chandra can’t see the shadow itself, its field of view is much larger than the EHT’s, so Chandra can view the full length of the jet of high-energy particles launched by the intense gravitational and magnetic fields around the black hole. This jet extends more than 1,000 light years from the center of the galaxy.”

Image Credit, X-ray: NASA/CXC/Villanova University/J. Neilsen; Radio: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

READ MORE: Chandra and the Event Horizon Telescope [Chandra X-Ray Observatory]

More on the black hole photoScientists Just Released the First-Ever Image of a Black Hole

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People Are Horrified When They Have to Torture a Virtual Person

In a virtual recreation of the infamous Milgram Shock Experiment, participants were just as reluctant to continue, even though no one was hurt.

Digital Shock

Back in 1961, psychologist Stanley Milgram shocked the world with controversial research in which everyday people followed a scientist’s instructions to electrocute someone who they thought was giving incorrect answers on a quiz — a damning indication that many people will acquiesce to brutal directives by an authority figure.

In December 2018, a team of London-based scientists repeated the experiment in a VR simulation in which they asked participants to zap a virtual avatar. Even though no one got hurt, participants were just as reluctant to pull the lever — even going so far as to try rigging the experiment so they didn’t have to, according to research published in the journal PLOSOne that breaks new ground in the psychology of how people relate to virtual characters.

Answer Key

During the experiment, participants quizzed a virtual character. A correct answer meant they could move on, while an incorrect answer meant the human participant had to administer a virtual electrical jolt. The scientists noticed that participants sometimes tried to feed the virtual avatar the correct answer by pronouncing it louder — in hopes that they wouldn’t be told to shock them.

And even though many participants continued to follow instructions, they were measurably stressed and anxious about doing so, the researchers write in a Scientific American blog post published Friday.

“At the end, even those who had cheated showed an increased stress level,” they wrote.

Big Picture

In their blog post, the scientists suggest that their research could be used to explain how people act under troubling leaders — just like how Milgram set out to explore the behavior of individual Nazis after World War II.

“If we look at our experiments as a proxy for resistance to authority, we can anticipate a psychological cost to the resisters. Even though their obedience isn’t genuine, those who persist endure additional stress compared to those who decide to quit,” they wrote. “In the long term they will also be facing the moral dilemma of engaged followership, wondering whether they engaged too much and in essence enabled a leader they did not want to obey.”

READ MORE: Would You Give a Virtual Electric Shock to an Avatar? [Scientific American]

More on Milgram: Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories – and How to Change Their Minds

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Fecal Transplants Reduce Symptoms of Autism Long Term

A new study shows that fecal transplants of healthy gut flora can help reduce the more severe symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Follow-Up

New research suggests that fecal transplants can reduce the severity of conditions associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) — and that the changes last several years after the transplants.

Back in 2017, Arizona State University conducted a study on children with ASD of varying severity. Now, research published Tuesday in the journal Scientific Reports shows that the reduction in ASD symptoms persisted for two years after the fact, further demonstrating the link between the gut microbiome and the brain.

Drastic Change

In the original study, 15 of the 18 children had what was considered severe autism, with difficulty communicating and handling social interactions. Two years after the study, which involved eight weeks of fecal transplants that reintroduced a greater variety of healthy microbial flora into the participants’ gastrointestinal tracts, only three participants still fall within the “severe” classification, according to the research.

“We are finding a very strong connection between the microbes that live in our intestines and signals that travel to the brain,” Arizona scientist Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown told New Atlas. “Two years later, the children are doing even better, which is amazing.”

Early Days

The scientists are now working to design a larger and more thorough clinical trial in hopes of getting their treatment approved for use by the FDA, according to New Atlas.

And while the goal isn’t to “cure” a condition that some argue doesn’t need curing, this study suggests that fecal transplants could someday provide people with a way to help children with specific communicative or social difficulties.

READ MORE: Fecal transplants result in massive long-term reduction in autism symptoms [New Atlas]

More on fecal transplants: New Study Supports the Link Between Autism and Gut Microbes

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Home – Believer

BELIEVER gained worldwide recognition for their boundary-breaking, artistic form of progressive metal music. The early albums threwopen the doors to collaborations between metal and orchestral musicians and sealedthe bands legacy. BELIEVERsfocus on creativity and innovation has earned praise from fans and musicians worldwide.

October 31, 2017 | Progressive metallers BELIEVER have released 3 of 5 and continue to break genre boundaries.The third installment of their current album project presents the songs Imagine Dragons and King of Ozand wasreleased via Trauma Team Productions on October 31, 2017.

Believer, once again, dug deep into their bag of early influences to deliver these unique tracks and Michael Rosner of Eye Level Studio does the math (1/5+2/5= 3/5) for the cover art. We had to deliver something a bit odd since its an odd number release, stated Jeff King. And we just couldnt sit on our hands when Imagine Dragons released their song Believer, added Kurt Bachman.

Sticking to their plan, new songs from Believer will be released throughout 2017, culminating in the release of a physical product to be announced later this year. Believer fans will enjoy digital releases every few months with new artwork from Michael Rosner to accompany each release. 3 of 5 was mixed by Kevin Gutierrez at Assembly Line Studios and mastered by Bill Wolf of Wolf Productions.

These tracks are #amazing! Love them even more than their early releases. Mike Boardley on metalinjection.net

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Seven Ways Cannabis Legalization Will Make the Future Better

Cannabis legalization is picking up steam across the nation. Here are seven ways the future stands to benefit from ending the war on weed.

High Times

In the United States, marijuana used to have a bad reputation.

Now, more than two out of every three people in the United States support legalizing cannabis, and state laws are reflecting that shift in opinion. Medical marijuana is currently legal in 33 states plus Washington, D.C., and in 10 of those states and the nation’s capital, adults over the age of 21 can legally buy marijuana for recreational use.

Government officials are even starting to push for nation-wide cannabis legalization — and not just because they think more people should be getting high.

Legalize It

Here are seven ways experts predict cannabis legalization will lead to a better future:

1. Cannabis is already creating jobs more quickly than any other industry — and the number of new jobs is expected to keep increasing as more places legalize marijuana.

2. Scientists believe legalization could make it easier for them to develop cannabis-based medical treatments. One such medication is already helping children cope with a rare, previously untreatable form of seizure-causing epilepsy, and early studies show the plant’s potential to treat everything from brain aging to psychosis.

3. Legalization gives governments the opportunity to regulate cannabis cultivation, thereby ensuring farmers aren’t allowed to damage the environment while growing their crops.

4. It also decreases the strain on the justice system, freeing up police — and billions of dollars in state money — to fight other criminal activity.

5. Experts are hopeful cannabis could help end the opioid crisis by easing the symptoms of withdrawal.

6. The taxes from cannabis sales could go toward improving any number of societal institutions. Oregon, where recreational marijuana is legal, recently dedicated millions in cannabis taxes to its schools and public health services.

7. By driving down cannabis costs, legalization also drives cartels and black-market dealers out of business — taking violent activity along with them.

More on cannabis: New Senate Bill Would Legalize Marijuana Nationwide

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Tesla Says Autopilot Is Statistically Safer Than a Human Driver

A new Tesla safety report reveals an increase in Tesla crashes, but engaging Autopilot cuts the likelihood of a fender bender.

Good News/Bad News

Tesla’s latest quarterly safety data report is a mixed bag of good and bad news.

According to the report, which Tesla released this week, crashes involving the company’s vehicles are on the rise. Not great.

However, when Autopilot is engaged, Teslas are less likely to get into crashes, signaling that human drivers may benefit from an artificial intelligence safety boost. And even with Autopilot switched off, the likelihood of a Tesla getting into a crash is still less than the national average — a sign that Tesla’s efforts to make its cars the safest in the world appear to be paying off.

Crunched Number

In the fourth quarter of 2018, Tesla reported one accident for every 2.91 million miles driven with Autopilot engaged. The first Tesla safety report of 2019 shows that rate increasing slightly, to one accident every 2.87 million miles.

However, both of those figures are better than the statistics for Teslas without Autopilot engaged: one accident for every 1.76 million miles driven in Q4 2018 and one every 1.58 million miles driven in Q1 2019.

Teslas with or without Autopilot engaged also appear substantially safer than the average car, based on the new Tesla data. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s most recent data, there’s an auto crash every 436,000 miles driven in the United States.

READ MORE: Tesla releases new Autopilot safety report: more crashes but still fewer than when humans drive [Electrek]

More on Autopilot: Elon Musk: Teslas Should Have “Full Self-Driving” by End of 2019

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Chinese Scientists Gene-Hacked Super Smart Human-Monkey Hybrids

Chinese scientists figured out that they could enhance a monkey's intelligence by introducing a single human gene linked to brain development.

Big Brain

For the first time, scientists have used gene-editing techniques to make monkey brains more humanlike.

The monkeys, rhesus macaques, got smarter — they had superior memories to unaltered monkeys, according to recently-published research that’s kicked off a fiery debate among ethicists about how far scientists should be able to take genetic experimentation.

Cognitive Gap

The team of Chinese scientists edited the human version of a gene called MCPH1 into the macaques. The new gene made the monkeys’ brains develop along a more human-like timeline. The gene-hacked monkeys had better reaction times and enhanced short-term memories compared to their unaltered peers, according to China Daily.

But not everyone is on board.

“The use of transgenic monkeys to study human genes linked to brain evolution is a very risky road to take,” University of Colorado geneticist James Sikela told the MIT Technology Review. “It is a classic slippery slope issue and one that we can expect to recur as this type of research is pursued.”

Evolutionary Roadmap

Pinpointing the gene’s role in intelligence could help scientists understand how humans evolved to be so smart, MIT Tech reports.

While altering one gene to enhance memory in some macaques won’t throw Darwinism off-kilter — there’s no risk of a “Planet of the Apes”-style uprising, yet — it could teach us how humanity became so intelligent and gives us hints as to why.

READ MORE: Chinese scientists have put human brain genes in monkeys—and yes, they may be smarter [MIT Technology Review]

More on gene editing: Scientist Who Gene-Hacked Babies “Likely” Boosted Their Brainpower

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Chinese Scientists Gene-Hacked Super Smart Human-Monkey Hybrids