Psychedelic Shine takes a trip to the skies in Boulder – Boulder Daily Camera

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If you go

What: Psychedelic Shine: Extended-State DMT with Dr. Andrew Gallimore and

Breathwork

When: 2 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Shine Restaurant and Gathering Place, 2027 13th St., Boulder

Cost: $20 to $55 (various packages)

More info: medicinalmindfulness.org/psychedelic-shine

The world may owe psychedelics a little credit.

George Harrison, citing LSD as a necessary experimentation for the Beatles in the '60s, told Rolling Stone, "It was like gaining hundreds of years of experience in 12 hours."

Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the DNA molecule structure, was allegedly on LSD when he lightbulbed the idea of the helix structure.

And Steve Jobs kept it no secret that he experimented with LSD in college. Apple's late-cofounder told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that "taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life."

Coming to Boulder from Japan on Sunday, neurobiologist Dr. Andrew Gallimore will discuss how the psychedelic drug, DMT, can be used as a tool for exploring alien worlds.

DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, for the science types) is a molecule naturally produced in various plants, animals and humans. The well-known version of DMT, ayahuasca, is a tropical Amazonian vine, known for its hallucinogenic properties and is often made into a tea, which is experiencing a boom in the United States with ceremonies from Brooklyn to Silicon Valley. (Marc Maron recently said on a "WTF" podcast that DMT is so trendy right now. His guest Susan Sarandon agreed, explaining her trip on ayahuasca.)

Medicinal Mindfulness, a consciousness company in Boulder, is hosting the Psychedelic Shine event that also features live music and breathwork exercises (to help achieve deep healing from anxiety or trauma) from 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Shine Restaurant and Gathering Place, 2027 13th St., Boulder.

But back to that mind-altering mecca.

"I see DMT as a tool for accessing alternate realities and establishing stable communication with intelligent beings not of this world, not even of this universe," Gallimore said via email from a conference in Belgium. "The verification that such intelligences exist and that we could communicate with them would, in my opinion, the most profound discovery in the history of mankind."

Dr. Andrew Gallimore explains the brain on DMT

The world you experience, whether during normal waking life, dreaming or at the peak of a DMT trip, is built from information generated by the brain. This world is a model and should not be taken as the definitive absolute reality. The brain has evolved to build a world for you to live in, a world that is a useful model, but "truth" has nothing to do with it. It is a mistake to assume that the normal waking world is the "real thing" and any alternative worlds are mere hallucinations or false perceptions. The waking consensus world is a functional model, a simulacrum in which to survive and reproduce.

When you drift into the dream world at night, your brain builds your world in almost exactly the same way as it does during waking. The only difference is that, during waking, the information used to build the world is modulated by a relatively small amount of information from the senses.

The world is merely constrained by sensory information, but not built from it your world is always built from information generated by your brain. When a psychedelic drug, such as LSD, enters the brain, it interacts with specific receptor proteins in the cortex. This changes the patterns of information generated by the brain and, since your world is built from this information, your world changes. The world shifts from being stable and predicable, to unstable, unpredictable and novel. However, DMT has a much more profound effect on the brain and seems to activate a complete reality switch the information generated by the brain no longer manifests as the world we are familiar with, but an entirely new world of astonishing complexity and strangeness: a hyperdimensional alien reality replete with hyperintelligent entities.

Why DMT, the most common natural hallucinogen in the world, has this special ability to flick the reality switch in this way is open to speculation. I speculate in one of my papers that DMT might have been implanted as a message about the nature of our reality by an advanced intelligence a message that can only be decoded once humans reach a degree of cognitive sophistication to identify and isolate DMT from the plants in which it occurs. But this is highly speculative and not necessarily something I believe.

Gallimore, based in Japan at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, explained that the world we experience whether it's waking life, dreaming or at the peak of a DMT trip is built from information generated by the brain. In short, some psychedelics, such as LSD, interact with receptor proteins in the cortex, changing the patterns of information generated by the brain, he said. DMT, on the other hand, has a much more profound effect on the brain.

"(It) seems to activate a complete reality switch," said Gallimore. "The information generated by the brain no longer manifests as the world we are familiar with, but an entirely new world of astonishing complexity and strangeness: a hyperdimensional alien reality replete with hyperintelligent entities."

Is it a big drug party at Shine on Sunday, then?

No. There will be no consumption of any drugs, Medicinal Mindfulness Executive Director Daniel McQueen said. This is the 10th Psychedelic Shine (the February event at the Boulder Theater gathered 500), and this particular one is "going to be a wild one," said McQueen, a spirituality and life coach.

"It's the most controversial topic we've explored so far and we expect to fill the place," said McQueen. Medicinal Mindfulness will be filming a documentary for Gaia TV, a streaming service based out of Louisville with programing that focuses on mind, body and spirit.

McQueen called the event part "grassroots consciousness experience," and will be speaking about his research proposal. With a master's degree in transpersonal counseling psychology from Naropa, he said in his practice he works with cannabis as a tool to initiate healing transformations.

"I haven't experienced anything more effective in healing," he said. "We work with medicines in an intentional way by going into unconscious behavior to help with revealing, healing and inspiring the person."

McQueen said he has also studied the effects of MDMA (ecstasy, molly) on post-traumatic stress disorder patients in approved research settings.

"Psychedelics allow us to look at something deep within, whether it's a problem or struggle or a pattern we are unconscious about that's not healthy," he said. "A combination of the medicine and solid psychotherapy allows the person to review traumatic material without being re-traumatized by the events."

McQueen explained that psychedelics, which are reported to increase empathy and euphoria in users, can help the patient look at their problems in a compassionate and non-judgemental way.

"Once you come out of the experience after the healing, many patients find it difficult to revert back to living the way they did before because the conscious mind knows it wasn't having a positive impact," he said. "We call it integrating the lessons and understandings of how to move forward with life."

McQueen said, like any therapy, the journey is an ongoing one. He said the practice helped him to heal from his own past trauma and to step into the person he truly is now. Along the way, he said he has seen many other transformations.

If DMT is so extraordinary and a naturally-occurring, nonetheless, psychedelic substance, how can the world play without legal access since it's classified as a Schedule I drug?

"We're seeing a renaissance of psychedelic research since the several decade-long hiatus because of prohibition," said Gallimore. "Now we're seeing an increasing number of research programmes (sic) looking at the mechanisms of psychedelic drug action in the brain, as well as exploring therapeutic uses. However, I don't see any time in the near future when DMT will be freely available for the purpose of communicating with extradimensional intelligences. That's just too far out. But one day perhaps."

Gallimore wouldn't divulge his DMT channel of choice, but said he has been to extra-dimensional realities "a number of times."

Is it like spaceships and purple beings with buggy eyes?

"For me the place is always similar, one of extreme complexity and with a technological ambience, as if this place has been there for countless trillions of years before our universe popped into existence," Gallimore said. "The power and intelligence of the beings that reside therein is overwhelming, the point we might expect an intelligence to reach after trillions of years of evolution."

McQueen and Gallimore said they encounter skeptics many of whom have never taken DMT before.

"To gain a deep understanding of what we do, someone should try it to experience it in context, read about it and learn about the clinical support for what we do," said McQueen.

"It's just a hallucination" is the usual response. Many think it's a recreational substance only for use at parties or raves.

But there's a simple answer for the skeptics.

"I always say the only true convincer is a small glass pipe and somewhere comfortable to lie down for 20 minutes," said Gallimore.

Have a nice trip.

Christy Fantz: 303-473-1107, fantz@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/fantzypants

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Psychedelic Shine takes a trip to the skies in Boulder - Boulder Daily Camera

Psychedelic drugs could tackle depression in a way that antidepressants can’t – INSIDER

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Jul. 20, 2017, 12:16 PM

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When Clark Martin tripped on magic mushrooms for the first time, he was flanked by two researchers in a small room at New York University.

An avid sailor, Martin said the first few hours of the experience reminded him of a time he'd been knocked off his boat by a powerful wave and lost track of the vessel.

"It was like falling off the boat in the open ocean, looking back, and the boat is gone. Then the water disappears. Then you disappear," he said.

But the panic was temporary. Over the next few hours, Martin felt overwhelmed by an enduring sense of tranquility and a feeling of oneness with his surroundings.

"The whole 'you' thing just kinda drops out into a more timeless, more formless presence," Martin told Business Insider in January.

That shrinking of the sense of self has been linked with long-lasting shifts in perspective changes that appear to be related to a reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety. That's according to clinical trials of magic mushrooms' active ingredient, psilocybin, in cancer patients at Johns Hopkins and New York University. Martin was one of those patients.

David Nutt, the director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit in the division of brain sciences at Imperial College London, told Business Insider in January that a key characteristic of mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, and addiction is overly strengthened connections in some brain circuits specifically those involved in the sense of self.

"In the depressed brain, in the addicted brain, in the obsessed brain, it gets locked into a pattern of thinking or processing that's driven by the frontal, the control center," Nutt said.

Brain scan studies and several clinical trials suggest that psychedelic drugs tamp down on the activity in these circuits, potentially providing relief that may last a few weeks, several months, or even years. For this reason, preliminary research on psychedelics suggests they could one day be used to help treat mental illnesses.

"Psychedelics disrupt that process so people can escape," Nutt said. "At least for the duration of the trip, they can escape about the ruminations about depression or alcohol or obsessions. And then they do not necessarily go back."

Researchers say the drugs' apparent ability to induce powerful, positive changes in personality could offer a way to address the foundations of mental illness, unlike current antidepressant medications that simply treat the symptoms.

"Psychedelic therapy ... offers an opportunity to dig down and get to the heart of the problems that drive long-term mental illness in a much more effective way than our current model, which is take daily medications to mask symptoms," psychiatrist Ben Sessa said at a recent conference in London on the science of psychedelics.

The drugs are not a treatment in and of themselves, Sessa said. Rather, they are a tool that can be used in conjunction with therapy to help people address underlying issues.

"It's using the drugs to enhance that relationship between the therapist and the patient," he said.

Julie Holland, a psychiatrist who is currently serving as the medical monitor for a study of MDMA and psychotherapy in veterans with PTSD, said at the conference that she sees the use of psychedelics alongside therapy as a powerful way to address issues that patients may never deal with on existing anti-depressant medications.

Those medications, Holland said, "are sort of sweeping symptoms under the rug. Psychedelic psychotherapy takes the rug out back and beats the hell out of it and vacuums the floor and puts the rug back down."

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How San Francisco’s Summer of Love sparked today’s religious movements – Religion News Service

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50th anniversary By Don Lattin | 8 hours ago

Guests view the Bill Ham Light Painting Room/Light Show during the opening night of TheSummer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco on April 8, 2017. Photo courtesy of BillHamLights.com

SAN FRANCISCO (RNS) Over the past few months, the Bay Area has been waxing nostalgic over the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, the 1967 season when hippies and tens of thousands of seekers, drifters and runaways poured into the citys suddenly chaotic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

To many Americans, the psychedelic counterculture of the 1960s, which the Summer of Love came to represent, may seem like an irrelevant little experiment involving LSD, tie-dyes, free love, shaggy hairstyles and rock bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.

A crowd keeps a large ball, painted to represent a world globe, in the air during a gathering at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, to celebrate the summer solstice on June 21, 1967, day one of Summer of Love. (AP Photo)

It was all of that, but the mind-blowing revolution that rocked the streets of San Francisco that summer may also be seen as a new religious movement that profoundly shaped the lives and spiritual expression of millions of Americans who never dropped acid, grew a beard, burned their bra, or set foot in a hippie commune.

Anyone who has ever participated in yoga classes, practiced mindfulness meditation, looked into alternative medicine, or referred to oneself as spiritual but not religious, may want to find a 70-year-old hippie this summer and simply say, Thank you.

The Cosmic Car on a San Francisco street in 1967. Photo by Gene Anthony

San Francisco had been drawing adventure seekers and freethinkers since the 1849 Gold Rush, but the immediate roots of the Summer of Love date back to the 1950s and the influential work of the Beat writers like Jack Kerouac (On the Road, 1957) and poet Allen Ginsberg (Howl, 1956).

The psychedelic experimentation in San Francisco took off in 1965, when novelist Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, 1962) gathered a Dionysian band of artists, musicians and drug enthusiasts known as the Merry Pranksters and held a series of LSD-fueled happenings around the Bay Area. Their story was immortalized by Tom Wolfes 1968 nonfiction book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

Those who were in the middle of the San Francisco scene in the mid-1960s say the best of times were over by the summer of 1967, when the drugs got harder and the unconditional love got conditional.

Timothy Leary addresses a crowd of hippies at the Human Be-In that he helped organize in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco on Jan. 14, 1967. Leary told the crowd to turn on, tune in, drop out.(AP Photo/Bob Klein)

It was all downhill, they say, following the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park in January of 1967, when Timothy Leary, the former Harvard University psychologist and LSD guru, took the stage and told the stoned multitudes to turn on, tune in, drop out.

To Carolyn Mountain Girl Garcia, the 1967 Summer of Love was very much a media distortion.

It drove people in vast numbers with expectations that were never met, she said. It was kind of a sociological disaster. But it was really wonderful when it was working.

Garcia, now 71, was only 17 years old when she arrived in the Bay Area with her older brother from New York in the summer of 1963. Within a year, she met Neal Cassady, the real-life version of a charismatic character in Kerouacs On the Road.

Judy Smith, wearing face paint and flowers in her hair as she and others gather at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on June 21, 1967. Fifty years ago, throngs of American youth descended on San Francisco to join a cultural revolution. (AP Photo/Robert W. Klein)

Cassady introduced Garcia to Ken Kesey who christened her Mountain Girl and fathered Garcias first daughter, Sunshine. Within a few years, Garcia was living with Sunshine and Jerry Garcia, the lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead.

She later co-founded an organization called the Womens Visionary Congress, a community of adventurers from generations and traditions united to explore a more vivid and profound awareness of our inner and outer worlds.

Carolyn Garcia sees psychedelic drugs and plants as a major inspiration for much of the broader spiritual experimentation in the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond.

It got people into a spiritual dimension without the religion attached. It was personal contact with the realm of spiritual energy, with an unseen force that connects everybody to life itself, to nature, she said. Many spiritual communities have evolved from the hippie times, including people taking on Buddhism and other Asian religions and recreating them as modern movements. If you want to find out about spirituality and psychedelics, just talk to your yoga teacher.

Some former psychedelic enthusiasts question whether the consciousness-raising counterculture was all that effective in transforming American society.

One of them is Robert Forte, who studied the history and psychology of religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School and has taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz and the California Institute of Integral Studies.

He sees the psychedelic counterculture as a microcosm of the best and worst of religion.

Religion is a very complex subject, spanning the whole spectrum of human behavior. It can be an ethical, exalted expression, but religion can also be a mind-control technique to subjugate the masses, said Forte, who edited two collections of essays in the late 1990s, Timothy Leary Outside Looking In,and Entheogens and the Future of Religion.

A lot of people in the 1960s had unitive experiences that informed their life in important ways.

Yet we also see all this fake New Ageism, he added. You hear a lot of cheerleading about the value of these drugs. But where is our anti-war movement today? Where are the visions we had in the 1960s about transforming the world in more ecologically, sustainable ways? Weve failed. Yet there are these people who think that by taking drugs and putting feathers in your hair and going to Burning Man you are somehow furthering this alternative culture.

For visual artist Bill Ham, the man who more-or-less invented the psychedelic light show, it was a magical time of creative freedom. Ham is now 84 and still living in San Francisco, not far from Haight Street. He arrived as an art student in 1958 and began hanging out with the Beats, who gathered in coffeehouses and poetry venues in the citys North Beach neighborhood.

Artist Bill Ham performs a light painting. Photo courtesy ofBillhamlights.com

Ham was among a small band of San Francisco beatniks and hippies who spent the summer of 1965 at the Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nev., a old mining town about five hours east of San Francisco, on the other side of the Sierras.

Some fledgling musicians, including Dan Hicks, formed the Charlatans and became the Red Dog house band. Ham had just developed an art form he calls light painting, a kinetic abstract expressionism that used an overhead projector, layers of glass, oils, pigments and other liquids to project pulsating amoeba-like patterns of color onto walls and ceilings.

According to some rock historians, the Charlatans were the first psychedelic rock band. They returned to San Francisco and began performing with other fledgling groups in small clubs and dance halls and for free in Golden Gate Park. In the early years, there was little separation between the performers and audience, a connection that was intensified by psychedelic plants like marijuana and peyote, and later with powerful mind-altering drugs like LSD, which at high doses have the ability to blur the boundary between self and other.

In the early 1960s, Ham said, there was this whole city of creative people, including jazz musicians, artists, writers, dancers, avant-garde actors, and the early electronic music creators. Then it got overwhelmed by the rock and roll scene, he said, because it turned out that was where the money was.

Americas music critics discovered the San Francisco sound at the Monterey Pop Festival in the spring of 1967, a concert where the imported Texas blues singer Janis Joplin, the new frontwoman for Big Brother and the Holding Company, blew everyone away. That spring also saw the release of the hit pop song, San Francisco, with its famous lyric, If youre going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair.

But the most influential musical release that spring was the Beatles classic psychedelic album, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Those songs inspired millions of people around the world to experiment with psychedelic drugs and explore the mystical promises of Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism.

Peace demonstrators fill Fulton Street in San Francisco on April 15, 1967, during a five-mile march through the city. The march ended at Kezar Stadium, where a peace rally was held. Groups came from Los Angeles and the Northwest to join in the march and rally. San Francisco City Hall is in the background. (AP Photo/Robert W. Klein)

This was all two years before the Woodstock nation gathered on Max Yasgurs dairy farm in upstate New York.

All of the media attention focused on San Francisco and the 1967 Summer of Love attracted throngs of baby boomers to the Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

It was not all peace and love.

Among the waves of psychedelic immigrants were hordes of troubled, runaway kids. Many found freedom, while others fell into drug addiction, sexual exploitation, and the worsening of pre-existing mental illness caused by the careless use of psychoactive drugs. There were definitely casualties, Ham said, but when you compare it to Vietnam, we dont have too much to apologize for.

Photographer Gene Anthony, the author of a richly illustrated book, The Summer of Love Haight-Ashbury at its Highest, captured many of the magical moments during the Acid Tests and the early gatherings of the tribe from which the soon-to-be-famous San Francisco rock bands would emerge.

In some ways it did seem like a religious movement, but more in the communal and political sense. There wasnt one charismatic leader, Anthony said. There were groups of people like the Mime Troupe and The Diggers, who were feeding the kids and trying to do something positive. There was the Free Clinic and a store where everything was free.

A young San Francisco resident, far right, came out of his apartment across the street to welcome three new visitors arriving from Ohio for the 1967 Summer of Love. Photo by Herb Greene

Anything could happen. One Sunday in the summer of 1967, Anthony was standing at the corner of Haight and Masonic streets when a black limo pulled up and out popped George Harrison, the famous Beatle, with his wife, Pattie Boyd, both of them decked out in fashionable hippie garb.

Harrison would later reveal that he was not impressed with the scene in the Haight. I expected it to be a brilliant place with groovy gypsy people, he said, but it was full of horrible spotty dropout kids.

Starting in the fall of 1966, and continuing into the 1980s, laws were passed banning and increasing penalties for drugs like LSD and MDMA, known on the street as Ecstasy or Molly. Scientific research into beneficial uses of these compounds, which date back to the 1950s, was shut down in the 1970s and 1980s. Richard Nixon declared his war on drugs, and the Just Say No mantra of Nancy Reagan became the official federal drug policy.

Today, however, there is a growing appreciation of the potentially beneficial medical uses of still-banned, mind-altering compounds like, MDMA and psilocybin, the drug that puts the magic in magic mushrooms. Government-approved clinical trials are underway at UCLA, New York University and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in which these drugs, alongside psychotherapy, are used to help people suffering from depression, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Summer of Love exhibits have opened in San Francisco at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and at the Mission Street offices of the California Historical Society.

(Don Lattin is the author of Changing Our Mind Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy, published this spring. Find him at http://www.donlattin.com)

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How San Francisco's Summer of Love sparked today's religious movements - Religion News Service

Jordan Suckley @ Avalon Hollywood || Preview & Giveaway – EDM Identity

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Get ready for a night of epic night of trance as Jordan Suckley returns to Avalon Hollywood on July 29!

One part tech trance,one partturntablist, and all heart,UK DJ and Producer Jordan Suckley has been making his mark for some time now. His signature tech trance sound and his rare but stunning scratching hasmadeSuckley one ofthetrance artists notto miss. Aside from being a prolific artist, hes also label boss at Damaged Records and produces a radio show entitled, Damaged Radio that airs every Tuesday!

Fans of the Damaged head honcho love his flair forthedynamic. Though hes a trance artist through and through, hes a fearless experimenter. Suckleyisnot afraid tocollaborate withhardstyleacts, such as Kutski, andwill occasionally droplive scratching into his sets. The fact that he dares togo beyond expectations iswhat hasmade him a favorite amongst many trance fans.

Lately, Suckley has beenseen playing some ofthe hottestclubs andfestivals around the world. He recently played Sun KissedFestival inFresno, CA, LuminosityBeachFestival in TheNetherlands andAIM Festival in Montreal. Now, it is time for fans in Los Angeles to have a special show of their own.

On Saturday, June 29, come out to Avalon Hollywood to catch Suckley perform a rare extended set. We are sure these 4 hours will be full of the dynamicsSuckley is known for. As he rarely plays an extended set of this length in the United States, this is not one to be missed. Opening the evening up for the big show will be Randy Seidman, so make sure to arrive early and leave late!

Want to learn more about Jordan Suckley and his influences as an artist? Check out our interview with him.

Meet and Greet with Jordan Suckley @ Avalon Hollywood

Date: Saturday, July 29, 2017 Ages:21+

Hours:10PM 6AM

AVALON is one of Hollywoods most historic landmarks. From The Beatles first West Coast performance in 1964 to ABCs hit television variety show The Hollywood Palace to Sashas first West Coast DJ residency, the theater at Hollywood & Vine has been a show-business epicenter since opening in 1927.

Website|Facebook|SoundCloud|Twitter

Abisola has been listening to electronic music since high school. Though she enjoys a variety of sub-genres she mainly listens to Trance, House and Techno. Abisola has attended multiple events in the Southern California region and is beginning to expand to out-of-area and international festivals. She is a full-time school psychologist and also enjoys eating, traveling and video games.

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RA Reviews: Age Of Love – The Age Of Love (Solomun … – Resident Advisor

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Age Of Love - The Age Of Love (Solomun Renaissance Remix) Remixing a classic is risky. When done poorly, the feedback is doubly negative. And even when it's done well, comments like, "Yeah, but it's not as good as the original" are inevitable. But many producers still try. Solomun is the latest artist to give a classic tune a high-profile touch-up. He's been a gifted remixerhis rework of Noir & Haze's "Around" will go down as one of this decade's defining tracksin the past, but his latest strips away the ethereal charm of the 1990 trance bomb "Age Of Love."

The original's shifting mood was a big part of its success. Famously remixed by Jam & Spoon in 1992, its opening minutes are deep and heady, after which the intensity increases with the introduction of a whistling melody, atonal bleeps and a series of mini-breakdowns. These shifts, if you're unfamiliar with the track, feel unexpected and steadily boost the energy until the famous vocal climax two-thirds through.

On his version, Solomun replaces the groove and beefs up the intro's bassline, which is joined by bursts of white noise and the original's bleeps and atmospheric melody. Where the original's drum rolls are subtle flourishes, Solomun's are intense and usually signal a change. This removes the original's spontaneity, which, when coupled with Solomun's own blaring synth melody, makes the whole thing feel like "Ibiza Peak-Time Track 101." Even with the clumsy final breakdown, there's no doubt it would keep a packed dance floor happy. But by jamming a 27 year-old track into a contemporary tech house framework, Solomun removes the anything-goes energy that made so much '90s dance music timeless.

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RA Reviews: Age Of Love - The Age Of Love (Solomun ... - Resident Advisor

Banyan Gold Closes Second Trance of Non-Brokered Private … – Junior Mining Network

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Calgary, Alberta (FSCwire) - BANYAN GOLD CORP. (Banyan or The Company), announces that subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval, it has completed a Second Tranche non-brokered private placement for $204,000 in gross proceeds by issuing a total of 1,360,000 shares at $0.15 per share. This second tranche supplements a first tranche (see news release of June 22, 2017) of $600,000, bringing the total funds raised to $804,000.

The Two Tranches of the Private Placement consists of 5,360,000 flow through shares (within the meaning of the Income Tax Act (Canada)), priced at $0.15 per share. Net proceeds will be used on the Companys ongoing summer exploration program at the Aurex-McQuesten and Hyland Gold Projects.

The shares issued will be subject to the customary four month hold period.

A cash commission of $28,860 was paid on part of the funds raised during the first tranche.

Insiders participated for $65,000 or 433,333 shares in the first tranche.

Technical Information

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul D. Gray, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

About Banyan Gold

Banyan is well financed growth stage gold exploration company whose flagship property, the Hyland Gold Project, is approximately 70km NE of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the southeast end of the Tintina Gold Belt. The Main Zone gold Inferred Resource, at a 0.6 g/t gold equivalent cutoff, hosts a NI 43-101 resource of 12,503,994 tonnes containing 361,692 ounces gold at 0.9 g/t and 2,248,948 ounces silver at 5.59 g/t for a combined gold and silver 396,468 ounces gold equivalent.

The newly acquired 9,230 ha Aurex-McQuesten Property, in close proximity to Victoria Gold's Eagle project and Alexco Resource's Keno Hill Silver District, is highly perspective for structurally controlled, intrusion related gold-silver mineralization in relation to quartz monzonite dykes of the Tombstone intrusive suite.

Banyan trades on the TSX-Venture Exchange under the symbol BYN. For more information, please visit the corporate website at http://www.BanyanGold.com or contact the Company.

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Banyan Gold Closes Second Trance of Non-Brokered Private ... - Junior Mining Network

When evolution and biotechnologies collide – Phys.Org

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July 21, 2017 by Pierre Quvreux, The Conversation Credit: Tom/Flickr

Since 2012, genetic engineering has been revolutionised by CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing. The technology is based on an enzyme from a bacterial cell, whose work is to cut the information storing system of living beings, DNA, at one predefined location. It generates a gap within the DNA. Then, a new sequence for example, a gene from another organism can be included.

Such a simple and inexpensive technology has made the creation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) much easier. More interesting, including the gene of the Cas9 enzyme to the genome made the cell able to do by itself this cut-and-insert process. The technique, called "gene drive", can propagate a new gene in the whole population of organisms in a few generations. Once the introduced gene is installed in the population, one may call them GMOs. One of the most promising application would be to eradicate mosquitoes by spreading mutations that cause infertisity, but as explained in a 2017 article in the journal Nature, can be thwarted by evolution itself.

Arms race with bacteria

This is not the first time that evolution itself makes life hard for genetic engineering and biotechnology. One of the most important revolutions in human health was the industrial production of antibiotics. After World War II, western countries used them to fight human diseases but also to promote industrial agriculture and breeding. A basic rule of living beings' development is that species can ingest only a limited quantity of food and must face trade-offs between three main biologic functions: growth, reproduction and survival. This is true for domestic species as well but the existing trade-offs might not be to the liking of industries. Allocating more resources to one function inevitably leads to reduced performances of the other two.

Farmers had long before noticed that castrating young bulls turned them into steer that grew and fattened up faster. In the same way, the use of antibiotics decreased the stimulation of the immune system and enabled breeders to select fast-growing but less-resistant animals. Combined with industrial breeding relying on high densities of genetically similar individuals, the massive use of antibiotics is required to protect them against disease. In France, 40% of produced antibiotics are consumed by animals. Combined with the human consumption, bacteria have been exposed to a huge selective pressure or ways to survive antibiotics. Thus, many strains developed antibiotic resistances. Now, the emergence of multi-resistant infectious bacteria strains is a signficant concern in public health policies.

The fragility of homogeneity

A similar situation is observed in in agriculture. Increasing mechanisation and specialisation turned the landscape of polyculture windbreaks into endless fields of monoculture. Such a biomass of a few poorly genetically divers plants cultivars is a bonanza for pathogens and insects: if one gets infected, the next one is likely to be feeble too. In addition, crops were selected to have the highest yield, supported by a massive use of fertiliser and pesticides. Thus, the new cultivars are sensitive plants and poor competitors compared to weeds. The industrial agriculture was championed by GMOs, especially in North and South America. Crops producing toxins that killed caterpillars or were resistant to herbicide such as glyphosate were only efficient for a few years. Like bacteria, targeted insects and weeds evolved resistances in one or two decades.

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And the resilience of nature

By the same way, using the new CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology to modify or eliminate wild populations will not work forever and can also disturb the ecosystem. The large size of the targeted population, their short life cycle and the heavy selective pressure applied lead to huge adaptive advantages of resistant mutants that quickly spread in the population. Ecosystems are the outcome of billion years of evolution of complex networks of interacting species, thus building disease or pests managements technologies and policies without taking into account evolution must must fail in the long term.

Explore further: Gene drives likely to be foiled by rapid rise of resistance

Journal reference: Nature

Provided by: The Conversation

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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When evolution and biotechnologies collide - Phys.Org

1925 Scopes Trial Pits Creationism Against Evolution – Voice of America

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To understand the significance of the so-called Monkey Trial, one must try to imagine the America of 1925; specifically, the southern state of Tennessee.

Under pressure by a coalition of strict Christians, Tennessee became the first state in the United States to pass a law the Butler Act that deemed it illegal to "teach any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animal."

The act alarmed many in the legal community, including the recently formed American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which persuaded John Scopes, a 24-year-old high school science teacher and football coach from Illinois, to test the constitutionality of the law in what became known as The Monkey Trial.

The trial also attracted intense media attention, including live radio broadcasts of the trial for the first time in history, according to an award-winning documentary by PBS's American Experience on the trial.

Attorney Clarence Darrow represented Scopes; William Jennings Bryan, a Democratic conservative, represented both Tennessee and the fundamentalists who were deeply opposed to Charles Darwin's theory.

"I knew, sooner or later, that someone would have to stand up to the stifling of freedom that the anti-evolution act represented," Scopes wrote in his 1967 book Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes.

The trial ended on July 21 with a guilty verdict and $100 fine.

A year later, the ACLU issued its appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which upheld the law, but overturned the conviction of Scopes on a legal technicality.

Decades later in 1967, Tennessee repealed the act and teachers were free to teach the theories of Darwin without breaking the law.

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1925 Scopes Trial Pits Creationism Against Evolution - Voice of America

Hella Homecoming: The Evolution of Insecure – The Root

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Summer is indisputably a season tailor-made for black joy. Tis the season of cookouts, stoop-sitting, rooftop bars, music and food festivals, block parties, hand fans, summer jams and all-white affairs (Diner en Blanc, if youre bougie).

And for fans of Issa Rae, it is now also the season to welcome with open and sun-kissed arms the return of her hit series Insecure (which merited a block party of its own last Saturday).

Frankly, with the level of excitement and anticipation generated by the release of the trailer alone, I was mildly surprised that the promotional campaign didnt adopt the tagline Summer Is Coming (shoutout to another HBO fave, Game of Thrones). Because while this years Emmy-nominating committee may not have felt the love (clearly, it didnt get the memo from the Golden Globes), come Sunday night, a huge swath of black America will be eagerly settling into our respective bouches to see whats new and next with Issa and Co.which is exactly what I did on my summer vacation.

Spoiler alert: This season is hella fun to watch. Malibu. (Yes, theyre actually trying to make Malibu happen. Get with the program.)

That said, I approached my second Insecure review with equal parts anticipation and trepidation. After all, last season, I garnered a substantial amount of shade for daring to express the unpopular opinion that HBOs freshest show was perhaps a bit too heavy-handed in perpetuating stale stereotypes of single, successful black womennamely, that were too thirsty to consider ourselves complete without a man in the picture. (Fun fact: You can think something is great without thinking its perfect.) With season 1 ending with both Issa and Molly unwillingly alone, would there be more self-flagellation on the menu?

But if season 2 reunites us with the crew almost exactly where we left them last fall, it now handles its heroines with a both gentler and defter hand, adding significant self-awareness to its sophomore stride.

Expectedly, our eternally awkward black girl is now trying to navigate life after Lawrence (Jay Ellis), grappling with both a broken pussy and a broken heart after her dalliance with Daniel (Ylan Noel) has effectively destroyed their five-year relationship. Its a reckoning rarely explored from a womans perspective, and the results are simultaneously heart-wrenching and hilarious.

Meanwhile, Mollyeasily the best-written best friend currently on TVis taking a more compartmentalized approach to life after her series of disappointments in season 1, opting to focus on her career rather than her relationship status. Its an extremist approach, but one that most career-driven women can relate to after weathering enough romantic disappointments. And yet, even without men in the picture, life aint automatically no crystal stair. As Mollys new therapista rare maternal figure in Insecures sea of black millennial angstacknowledges:

[A]s black women, it can feel like theres a lot of things stacked against us: We feel invisible at work; we feel the need to have the perfect relationship; its a lot. But if your shoulds didnt come to fruition, would you be open to your life looking a different way?

And its the shoulds that take center stage this season as our cast continues to struggle with insecurities and expectations about where they should be as they approach their 30s (a struggle that I can personally confirm doesnt end with your 30s). And thankfully, those insecurities remain equal opportunity; Lawrence may no longer be Issas other halfor the dude best known for his presence on the couchbut hes still got his own identity issues to deal with; namely, what really constitutes being a good dude. (Hint: It doesnt just entail having a job, a functioning penis and a basic grasp of monogamy.)

Insecures stellar supporting cast is back for more, tooalong with some fun guest appearancesand given ample opportunity to shine. The cohesion and chemistry have only become more solid this season, to hilarious effect. In particular, Natasha Rothwells standout return as Kelli (as well as a writer for the show) sets this season off with consistent and impeccable comedic timing, stoking this writers excitement for how her own HBO development deal might pan out.

Even four episodes in, its fair to say that along with the sophistiratchetry weve come to know and love from this crew, theres also plenty of self-reflection to look forward to this season. Balancing the need for independence with the need for intimacy; working out our own racial hypocrisies under the earnest and oft-patronizing gaze of white allyship; sex for sexualitys sake (as opposed to a vehicle to relationships); the inequities that often accompany being black and female at work; the reality that theres no reliable route to a happy ending; and the disappointment that sometimes comes with getting exactly what we want are all up for analysis, and the result is ... refreshing.

And as for my prior unease about the story Insecure might be telling about single black women? Well, perhaps that concern is best addressed by Molly:

Damn. I was out there like that?

Clearly, just like the rest of us, shes learning from her mistakes. Because whats the point of admitting our insecurities if theres no evolution?

Insecures second season premieres Sunday, July 23, on HBO at 10:30 p.m.

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Hella Homecoming: The Evolution of Insecure - The Root

Burundi High School Robotics Team Reported Missing In DC – NPR

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The missing teens are Aristide Irambona, 18 (clockwise from top left), Nice Munezero, 17, Audrey Mwamikazi, 17, Don Ingabire, 16, Richard Irakoze, 18, and Kevin Sabumukiza, 17. DC Metropolitan Police Department hide caption

The missing teens are Aristide Irambona, 18 (clockwise from top left), Nice Munezero, 17, Audrey Mwamikazi, 17, Don Ingabire, 16, Richard Irakoze, 18, and Kevin Sabumukiza, 17.

Washington, D.C., police say six teenagers from Burundi who competed in an international robotics competition were reported missing on Wednesday.

Two of the teens 16-year-old Don Ingabire and 17-year-old Audrey Mwamikazi were last seen leaving the U.S. and heading into Canada, the Metropolitan Police Department tells The Two-Way blog, adding that there is "no indication of foul play."

The six-person team participated in the first international high school robotics competition, called the First Global Challenge, earlier this week.

They were reportedly last seen on Tuesday, the final day of the competition.

The Metropolitan Police Department says it has no further information as of early Thursday afternoon about the whereabouts of Richard Irakoze, 18, Kevin Sabumukiza, 17, Nice Munezero, 17, and Aristide Irambona, 18, and adds that the case is under investigation.

The six teens four males and two females are shown smiling and posing with Burundi's flag on their team page on the competition's website. It says the teens were chosen from schools around the capital, Bujumbura, and are accompanied by a mentor.

According to The Washington Post, a spokesperson for the competition said "FIRST Global president Joe Sestak, a former Navy admiral and congressman, called police after receiving word from the team's mentor, Canesius Bindaba, that the teens had gone missing."

The Metropolitan Police provided NPR with six nearly identical police reports, which all state that Bindaba accompanied the teen to the robotics competition at Washington's DAR Constitution Hall. They each had one-year visas to the U.S. The mentor stated that each teen "went missing and he does not know where [they] could have went."

Authorities also says they canvassed the location where the event was held.

Burundi, which is in central Africa, has faced intense political unrest since 2015. "Hundreds of people have been killed, and many others tortured or forcibly disappeared," according to Human Rights Watch. "The country's once vibrant independent media and nongovernmental organizations have been decimated, and more than 400,000 people have fled the country."

The robotics competition previously attracted international headlines when Afghanistan's team of six teen girls were denied visas twice. As NPR's Laurel Wamsley reported, President Trump "intervened to find a way to permit the girls entry."

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Burundi High School Robotics Team Reported Missing In DC - NPR

Robotics and STEM education nonprofit moves headquarters to … – Tribune-Review

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Robotics and STEM education nonprofit moves headquarters to ... - Tribune-Review

How Did The Afghan All-Girl Team Do At The Robotics Competition? – NPR

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Lida Azizi, right, and other members of the Afghanistan team repair their robot during the competition. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption

Lida Azizi, right, and other members of the Afghanistan team repair their robot during the competition.

The first international robotics competition for high schoolers made headlines before it even started and after the event was over as well.

First there was the story of the all-girl Afghanistan team, which was denied visas to attend for unknown reasons.

Then there was the post-competition story: All six teens on the Burundi team were reported missing on Wednesday, the day after the competition ended, with reports that two of them were headed to Canada.

At the last minute, the Afghan team did get visas. They waved their country's flag during the parade of nations at the event's opening ceremonies. And they showed off their robot. Like all the entries, it was designed to separate balls representing water particles and water contaminants, among other tasks.

So how did the Afghan team do?

"The girls did a good job in the competition," says Roya Mahboob. She's a tech entrepreneur from Afghanistan and the CEO of the Digital Citizen Fund, the nonprofit which sponsored the team.

"They did much better than many of the other countries, but of course we could still do better. We had less experience and practice," Mahboob says.

They ranked 114th out of 163 teams ahead of the U.S. and the United Kingdom teams.

And they didn't go home empty-handed. They did win an award for "courageous achievement" for showing a "can-do attitude' throughout the Challenge, even under difficult circumstances, or when things do not go as planned," according to First Global, the nonprofit that organized the event.

The other two "courageous achievement" winners were the teams from South Sudan and Oman.

The Afghan team was thrilled by the award: "They got so excited, they were very happy," Mahboob says.

Mexican billionaire and First Global founding member Ricardo Salinas announced during the competition that next year's international robotics competition will be held in Mexico City.

The Afghanistan team hopes to be back.

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How Did The Afghan All-Girl Team Do At The Robotics Competition? - NPR

This Robotics Player Neared 1000, Then Toppled Here’s Why – Investor’s Business Daily

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Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) is hamstrung on a "psychological barrier" at 1,000 a share, an analyst arguedFriday as the stock toppled despite the robot surgeon-maker's sales and earnings beat late Thursday.

XAutoplay: On | OffThe numbers simply weren't good enough to pull the stock above 1,000, Evercore analyst Vijay Kumar said. On the stock market today, Intuitive Surgical stock tumbled 4.6% to close at 927.47.

Shares have climbed by half this year, and closed in on the 1,000 mark Thursday, hitting a high at 974.66. Intuitive Surgical inched up after hours following its second-quarter earnings report.

"While a headline revenue, procedure and overall systems beat all pointed to 'life is good' for Intuitive Surgical, they key question for investors is whether these numbers were enough to drive the stock higher and potentially break through the 1,000 psychological barrier," Kumar said.

IBD'S TAKE:Intuitive Surgical is fending off robotics advances from Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google and Medtronic (MDT). How will it fare as offerings from those rivals come to fruition? Visit IBD Data Stories.

U.S. procedures a proxy for overall health of the company continued to be healthy, he wrote in a note to clients. That said, procedure guidance implies a slowdown in the second half of the year from the first half.

"Guidance of about 15% (growth) at the high end implies about 13% (growth) in the second half of the year vs. 17% seen in the first year," he wrote.

RBC analyst Brandon Henry doesn't see the same psychological barrier at 1,000.He upped his price target on Intuitive Surgical stock to 1,000 from 950. But her kept his sector perform rating on the stock.

Henry also increased his sales views for 2017 and 2018 to $3.03 billion and $3.38 billion, respectively, and calls for adjusted profits to come in at a respective $23.65 and $26.65 a share.

Meanwhile, Intuitive Surgical is working to maintain its lead in robotics and is aiming to have a lung biopsy system launched in 2019. It's facing robotics competition from the likes of Google parent Alphabet and Medtronic.

"While robotics competition is coming, Intuitive Surgical is making the necessary investments to expand its total addressable market and remain a premium player in the surgical robotics market," he wrote in a note to clients.

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7/21/2017 Despite a disappointing outlook, eBay management reiterated 2017 guidance, which implies accelerating growth in the second half.

7/21/2017 Despite a disappointing outlook, eBay management reiterated 2017 guidance, which...

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This Robotics Player Neared 1000, Then Toppled Here's Why - Investor's Business Daily

Sami Atiya from ABB says industrial robots will add jobs, not take … – TechCrunch

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In and interview earlier this week at theTechCrunch Robotics Sessionheld on the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA, Sami Atiya, president of ABBs Robotics and Motion division, said he believes bringing robots into the manufacturing process actually adds jobs instead of killing them.

ABB certainly has some data points with more than 300,000 industrial robots installed worldwide, and Atiya claims that conventional wisdom is wrong when it comes to robots and jobs. Automation is going to drive more productivity and also jobs, he said. He went on to say that countries with the highest ratios of humans to industrial robots in production environments also have the lowest rates of manufacturing unemployment.

If you look at pure data and statistics, he said, in the countries that have the highest rates of robots per employees, which is Japan and Germany, they have about 300 robots per 10,000 employees, and they have the least unemploymentin the manufacturing sector.

He also claimed that there have been 100,000 industrial robots installed in the U.S. in the last five years, which has resulted in 270,000 additional jobs, more than two jobs for every robot. (ABB cites the International Federation of Robotics, World Bank, OECD and BLS as sources for these numbers.)

There has been, of course, a lot of speculation that as companies increase the use of robots to automate jobs, there will be corresponding job loss. In May, an article in the LA Times appeared to back up this assertion, citing a study by PwC, whichclaimed that 38 percent of all U.S. jobs could be lost to automation by the early 2030s. Thats a frightening prospect to many people and to policy makers who would have to deal with the fallout if that were to happen.

An article on CNN Money from last March, smack dab in the middle of the contentious presidential campaign, cited numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that 5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since 2000. While there has been much debate for the reason, the article claims robots and machines have been a big contributing factor in replacing workers. Its worth noting that there are still more than 12 million jobs in the sector in spite of decades of steady decline.

ABB Robot arm. Photo: Veanne Cao, TechCrunch

Atiya said one of the reasons companies are moving to robots is they simply cant compete without them. If you look at this from a macro-[economic] perspective, skilled labor is becoming [more scarce], and its not a question [whether] you want to do it or not. You have to do it to stay competitive as a nation, and also as a company, he said.

Atiya used the standard argument for these types of historical economic transitions, comparing the increasing use of robotics with the rise of the steam engine, electricity and industrialization. The common belief during all of these key changes was that they would kill jobs, but in the end they created more jobs because of productivity increases, he said (and history backs him up).

Obviously we have concerns and fears about new technologies, but ultimately we humans, Im very convinced, will find ways to cope with them, and use them as tools as opposed to substituting our own work, he said.

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Sami Atiya from ABB says industrial robots will add jobs, not take ... - TechCrunch

Keeper review: A strong focus on security – PCWorld

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This password manager serves up peace of mind. Thank you

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By Michael Ansaldo

Freelance contributor, PCWorld | Jul 21, 2017 3:00 AM PT

Keeper is a no-nonsense password manager that puts the security of your login credentials above all else. However, its lack of automated features may limit its appeal for some.

When you sign up for Keeper, youre prompted to create a master password and select a security question. The latter will be used, along with a verification code andif enabledtwo-factor authentication, to access your data if you forget your master password.

Next, Keeper walks you through a four-step quick start checklist: creating your first record, installing the browser extension, uploading your first file, and enabling two-factor authentication. As you complete each step, the checkmark next to the relevant items turns green.

Keeper's interface isn't fancy but it's easy to get around.

Keeper doesnt automatically capture your login credentials when you sign into a website for the first time. Rather, it places gold lock icons in the username and password fields; you have to click one of these to create a new record. Keeper will prefill the username field with your email address and the password field with a generated 12-character password as if youre creating a new account rather than just a new Keeper record. Youll have to delete these and enter the correct credentials. When you enter your password, Keeper will rate it with a bar that colors red, yellow, or green depending how strong it is.

When you revisit a site, you again have to click the lock icons to access your credentials. When the record for that site open, you must click an arrow icon next to your username and one next to your password to fill each field separately. If youre used to password managers that autofill these fields and autolog you in, these extra steps can feel laborious, even if it is for enhanced security.

Keepers password manager surfaces in the password field as a dice icon any time youre creating a new record, which you can do in the KeeperFill browser plugin or right in your vault. You can generate anywhere from eight- to 51-character passwords using a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numerals, and symbols.

Keeper's password generator can create up to 51-character complex passwords.

Both Keepers web-based vault and the desktop app display your passwords in a list. Unlike with LastPass and some other managers, Keeper doesnt let you assign logins to folders when its capturing them, but you can do it here by editing the record and assigning it to a folder. You can also audit your passwordsKeeper gives you a strength percentage rating and lets you know if the password has been used for more than one account. Credit cards and personal data can also be stored in your vault and autofilled into web forms when making payments.

Keeper supports password sharing, but, as an added security layer, only with other Keeper users. If you share with a non-Keeper user, theyll get an email with a link to set up an account. It also recently added emergency access, which allows you to grant access to up to five contacts, who can log in in the event you can't for whatever reason.

Keeper is free to use on a single device. To sync across multiple devices, youll need an Individual plan at $30 a year. Family plans cover up to five users for $60 a year.

Despite its bare-bones interface, Keeper offers robust password protection. However, it lacks the automation prized in most password managers, so its unlikely to compete with top tools LastPass and Dashlane. But if youre merely looking for strong security and dont mind being more hands-on with your password manager, Keeper wont disappoint.

If youre looking for strong security and dont mind being more hands on with your password manager, Keeper wont disappoint.

Michael Ansaldo is a veteran consumer and small-business technology journalist. He contributes regularly to TechHive and writes the Max Productivity column for PCWorld.

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Keeper review: A strong focus on security - PCWorld

Chester Bennington fans visit singer’s California home to pay respects – as Chris Cornell fans leave flowers at his … – Mirror.co.uk

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Fans mourning the loss of Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington have been flocking to his California home to pay their respects.

Devasted fans were pictured leaving flowers and notes close to the driveway at his Palos Verdes Estates home, which is located in a suburb south of Los Angeles.

Linkin Park DJ Joe Hahn was also seen arriving at the house on Thursday afternoon after police had sealed off the area.

Meanwhile, in Hollywood on what would have been his 53rd birthday, fans of late singer Chris Cornell were laying flowers at his gravesite.

Chester and Chris had been close friends - with the Linkin Park singer paying an emotional tribute to the Soundgarden and Audioslave legend when he died on 17 May 2017.

Uploading a letter dedicated to Chris to Twitter at the time, Chester wrote: I dreamt about the Beatles last night. I woke up with [Beatles song] Rocky Raccoon playing in my head and a concerned look on my wifes face. She told me my friend has just passed away.

"Thoughts of you flooded my mind and I wept. Im still weeping, with sadness, as well as gratitude for having shared some very special moments with you and your beautiful family, he continued.

In his emotional post, Chester credited Chris with influencing his own music - and beyond.

You have inspired me in many ways you could never have known. Your talent was pure and unrivaled. Your voice was joy and pain, anger and forgiveness, love and heartache all wrapped up into one. I suppose thats what we all are. You helped me understand that, he wrote in his post.

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I just watched a video of you singing A day in the life by the Beatles and thought of my dream. Id like to think you were saying goodbye in your own way," he said.

"I cant imagine a world without you in it. I pray you find peace in the next life. I send my love to your wife and children, friends and family. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life, Chester added following Chris's death.

Linkin Park paid tribute to Chris during a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live when they dedicated their song One More Light to the late rocker during a performance.

Chester also performed at Chris's memorial service - which was held on May 26.

Chris' death was ruled suicide after his body was found in the bathroom of his room of his MGM Grand in Detroit on May 17.

Chester was confirmed dead on 20 July 2017 with local law enforcement confirming the news in a statement saying: "At about 9 a.m. on Thursday, police responded to a call of a dead body in a Palos Verdes Estates home, the location of Bennington's private residence."

Chester leaves behind wife Talinda Bentley and his six children.

The Samaritans has a free helpline, available round the clock on 116123 for those effected by any issues reported in this article.

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Chester Bennington fans visit singer's California home to pay respects - as Chris Cornell fans leave flowers at his ... - Mirror.co.uk

Virtual Reality Expert Filip Baba Shares His Newest Project and How VR is Changing Entertainment – Parade

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July 21, 2017 1:10 PM BySam Coley Parade @samlcoley More by Sam

Virtual reality (VR) pro Filip Baba swears that a great VR experience is just like jumping into your favorite sci-fi novel.

Its what you used to read about in sci-fi books or watched on Star Trek. Its pretty close, Baba says.

A self-taught expert, Baba is the CEO and founder of the virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) agencyAnyworld, which creates VR and AR experiences for clients like real estate companies and artists.

Recently, Baba and Anyworld worked with R&B singer, Tangina Stone, on her latest music video. The virtual reality music video, called the Anxious 360 Experience, debuted at her album launch party in New York City.

Baba talked with Parade on how he created the VR music video, why people are fascinated by VR and what the future holds for the industry.

What was it like creating a virtual reality music video for Tangina Stone?

It was a really fun experience. The whole screenplay and story was all hers. It was about Tangina dealing with anxiety. So, we tried to put the user in the type of anxiety shed be feeling. We sat down with her and got her creative vision, and then we went ahead and technologically did it. We did all the 3-D environments and screenplayed the whole thing. She came up with the concept on that, so she had a lot of fun doing it, as well.

Tell us about the scenes of the music video and how you created those.

In the beginning, you see [a sign post that says] Canton and Brooklyn. Since the whole beginning scene is VR and 360, it forces you to look away. But [when] you look back, that spot isnt the sign post anymoreits actually a burning tree. The burning tree symbolizes the odd one out of the whole forest, and under it is an old TV playing a 2-D version of the music video. Then, theres a glitch effect. We use that to glitch into another scene. In VR, it takes you by surprise. Then in the second scene, youre in a room and it starts to grow big around you. You start to feel smaller, which is a lot more pronounced when youre in VR. All of a sudden, you start flying up. We very slowly start lifting the person up, and it gives you the sensation of flying, and youre getting pulled out of this room. The third and last scene is a mental ward. Around you are whiskey bottles, which is one of her things shes dealt withalcoholism. All of a sudden, the display breaks. When youre in VR, it seems like the glass shards are coming at your face. Then, you look down and the floor falls under you. Youre floating in darkness, and you see the room above you just fading away. It was a bit of a trip to create.

How would you say VR has grown through the years, and where do you see it going in the future?

The hardware has definitely gotten a lot more polished. Now, a lot of the mobile [devices] are becoming more affordable. Most of our smartphones can be used as VR headsets. Its all getting more mainstream. Now, its up to the content creators to create content and distribute it. I believe that in the futurenow, we have 2-D screens, monitors, phonesthings are going to meld and be more augmented. More and more consumers are going to demand these experiences. I think it will become as common as how people go to the movies or watch TV at home.

Why do you think theres a growing appeal for virtual realityexperiences?

When you try some good VR, its what you used to read about in sci-fi books or watched in Star Trek. Its pretty close, I would say. Im a gamer. I used to play classic PC games, but I play some VR games now. Theyre competitive, too. They get you up on your feet. Youre actually movingits got that Wii appeal. If you get someone in a VR experience, you could take full control over what theyre going to experience.

In what ways do you think virtual reality could be used in other forms of entertainment, like movies and TV?

Its already happening. I know some movies have VR experience booths. I dont think thats going to be the main thing. Itll probably start with artists and specific genres. Maybe the horror genreI can totally see them capitalizing on something like that. Events are going to play a large role. People love installations at events, and a VR installation gets a lot of attention. Sometimes at Anyworld, well do a tradeshow and people respond positively. They love coming up and trying something.

Do you have any other projects coming up?

Were starting to teach AR classes with the new Apple AR kit thats coming out. We also do things with real estate, so were going to have some AR and VR solutions for real estate coming soon. I think [AR] is going to be even bigger than VR is right now.

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Virtual Reality Expert Filip Baba Shares His Newest Project and How VR is Changing Entertainment - Parade

Why 3D audio is the next big step for virtual reality – VentureBeat

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Almost 90 years ago, in October 1927, the art of storytelling took a dramatic turn when the first talking picture or sound film was released to audiences around the world. The Jazz Singer was a smash hit, earning more than $2.6 million as it captivated audiences with its Vitaphone technology, the eras leading sound-on-disc system that would forever change the standard for in-theater experiences. Within just a year, filmmakers encouraged by the success of The Jazz Singer were already developing ways to advance in-theater audio beyond the use of discs and turntables and began migrating to sound-on-film. Regardless, the new multi-media era had been launched. The introduction of sound on top of moving pictures took people to a new dimension.

Fast-forward to today and the art of storytelling in our modern, more virtual world is once again about to be disrupted by another seminal advancement in sound. Its the use of 3D audio to immerse people more deeply into virtual environments, taking them to a reality thats, well, much more real.

Binaural 3D audio is inherently more authentic to our ears than two-dimensional stereo. It is sound thats designed to replicate the way we hear spatially, leveraging how humans consume auditory information in our natural environment. 3D audio engages the listener by offering a spatial bearing that enables them to sense where they are relative to the noises around them. In a 3D soundscape, the origins of sounds can perceptibly move about the listener, locating the listener as if they were standing in a real life environment.

By inserting 3D audio, new spatial information is introduced to the virtual experience, enabling audiences to sense things happening behind them, or elsewhere in their virtual environment, completely independent of their eyes. Just imagine yourself at a museum, standing in front of a massive painting that despite being a two dimensional work of art has amazing depth and allure. Visually, it draws you in and creates a sense of rapture. Now fold 3D audio into the experience with carefully crafted sound that wraps itself around you and pulls you closer. Characters in the painting sneak up from behind and encourage you to look deeper. Meanwhile, others call for your attention on the right, and then on the left. Suddenly, youre a part of whats happening on the seemingly flat canvas. Manipulating this type of audible sensory perception has the potential to completely reshape the entire virtual experience.

While the creative industry has been exploring 3D audio for some time, these efforts have been difficult, expensive and time-consuming to engineer since its production requires a mannequin head equipped with microphones shaped like the human ear. Not exactly the type of stuff you have laying around in the garage.

However, a group of five companies called The BINCI Consortium short for binaural tools for the creative industries are working collaboratively to develop an integrated software and hardware solution that can be used by professional audio content creators and artists to ease the production, post-production and distribution of 3D audio content.As an active member of The BINCI consortium, I share the organizations vision that everybody will soon be able to create and listen to binaural audio with off-the- shelf devices and headphones. The Consortium, which includes my company, Antenna International, as well as Eurecat, HEAD acoustics GmbH, 3D Sound Labs and Voodoopop, aims to develop a solution that can support a variety of professional applications in the creative industries, such as music, video games, virtual reality and augmented reality.The new tools will cut production costs tremendously and therefore revolutionize the industry as well as all virtual experiences.

Virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality experiences as we know them today are still flat unless the audio sound doesnt create a similar three-dimensional reality as the visual effects do. Reflecting back to how Vitaphone technology changed the in-theater experience nearly a century ago, todays virtual experiences havent yet met the modern equivalent of The Jazz Singer but its coming soon.

BINCIs experimental production pilots are scheduled to be carried out over the next year in cultural and heritage sites that include Fondaci Joan Mir (Barcelona, Spain), Opra Garnier (Paris, France), and Alte Pinakothek BStGS (Munich, Germany). These pilots, also known as The BINCI Project, will offer visitors the worlds first encounter with 3D audio-guide productions and usher in a new era of immersive storytelling.

In the meantime, others in the VR, music, film and gaming industries are also attempting to drive 3Daudio forward. For example, Microsofts new Xbox One X supports 3D audio content and the headphone manufacturer Plantronics has developed 3D audio gaming headsets. And San Diego-based Comhear Inc., has recently developed a sound projection system that can deliver 3D audio without the use of headphones.

In less than five years, 3D spatial audio is expected to revolutionize our standard for multimedia listening. Similar to how high-definition television has enhanced the everyday viewing experience, binaural 3D sound is expected to reshape our listening experience and redefine the production of music, movies, radio, and television programming and yes, VR, AR and mixed reality content as well.

Theres currently no blueprint for piecing together the storytelling thats best suited for this new type of virtual medium. As far as content goes, there is consensus about only one thing: in a virtual world, its all about storydoing, not storytelling.

Eva Wesemann is the Director of Creative Strategy for Antenna International, a provider of technology, content, and managed services to the worlds artistic, historic, and cultural institutions. She is also an active member of the BINCI Consortium.

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Why 3D audio is the next big step for virtual reality - VentureBeat

Another ‘Promising’ Week for Virtual Reality – Multichannel News (blog)

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Despite a week of upbeat virtual reality developments, promises and encouragement -- the first Disney-backed Marvel VR game, six Emmy nominations for VR "experiences," an endorsement from a top streaming media packager plus a big (albeit temporary) discount from Oculus-- the outlook for the immersive technology continues to baffle media analysts.

The recent string of frothy announcements comes just a few weeks after Ericsson released a generally effusive outlook about VR, especially its value in video programming.

So while technology and programming suppliers continue to proclaim VR's looming role in entertainment (as well as in industrial, medical and other professional applications), media operators are still going slow in planning for the bandwidth and transmission requirements that VR will require. For now, much of the discussion still revolves around the near-VR (but usually not immersive) presentations of 360 cameras, increasingly showing up as thumbnail videos in social media and other online feeds.

Nonetheless, the mid-summer bump of simultaneous VR developments served as a reminder that this technology could still become a $100 billion global industry by 2020 (as Nokia forecasts) and reach 49.2 million American by 2019, according to a report by eMarketer.

At Disney's D23 Expo in Anaheim, Calif., last weekend, the studio plunged back into the games category (from which it had withdrawn last year) via its subsidiary Marvel. It unveiled "Marvel Powers United VR," which will debut next year. Gamers can play at varying skill levels using Marvel characters such as Rocket Raccoon, Deadpool, Captain Marvel and The Hulk. Disney has partnered with Facebook-owned Oculus.

Related> CTA Projects Record Revenue for VR

A day before D23 began, when the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced nominees for the 69th Emmy Awards, VR was in the running with six projects nominated in the "Original Interactive Program" and "Creative Achievement in Interactive Media Within a Scripted Program" categories (the academy hasn't created a VR category).

In the first category, all three nominations came from Oculus, some with a partner. One of those nominees is The People's House, featuring a White House tour with Barack and Michelle Obama. The second category included The Mr. Robot Virtual Reality Experience from USA Universal Cable Productions, Stranger Things VR Experience from Netflix and CBS Digital, and The Simpsons Planet of the Couches from Gracie Films, 20th Century Fox Television and Google Spotlight Stories.

More Content, Lower Prices Separately, Oculus announced that it will put $50 million of the $250 million already committed to VR content into non-gaming, experiential VR content," according to published reports.

Meanwhile Oculus just slashed its equipment pricing. It has temporarily bundled its Rift headset and Touch controller into a $399 package, about $200 lower than the $598 price announced in March, which itself marked a drop from the $799 Oculus kit price early this year. The company said the summer-long promotional pricing seeks to attract potential customers who "may have been sitting on the sideline because of price," as well as viewers who have been waiting for more apps and games to become available.

Related> VR Equipment Market Mixed: Study

And at a July 18webinar on "How to Produce, Deliver, Monetize & Experience VR Content, NeuLion and Nokia executives urged media companies to plunge into VR opportunities.

VR has moved "beyond simple streaming, said NeuLion executive VP Chris Wagner, because "theres so much more to do to interact with the viewer to enhance the video-viewing experience.

Compelling content is [vital] to make sure that you have that most immersive experience, added Malachi Bierstein, head of VR sales at Nokia.

Without the content, not really much else matters," Bierstein said in published reports from the webinar. "So, really that compelling content is going to be the ultimate driver of VR adoption."

Their pleas for high-quality video content backed up findings from an extensive Ericsson "Merged Reality" study published a few weeks earlier.

That study found that 54% of respondents believe VR devices will become the new screens for video. About the same number (53%) expect video to be one of the most popular uses for VR.

Notably, current "early adopters" were significantly more enthusiastic than survey respondents who "are planning to use a headset," but the overall optimism is promising for a product that currently has a very limited footprint. (According to eMarketer, only 2.9% of Americans now use a VR headset at least once-per-month, a figure that will grow to just 5.2% by 2019.)

Related: Facebook Dives Deeper Into AR

Many analysts still believe that augmented reality -- a more limited, less expensive approach to content enhancement that doesn't require special headsets and other gear -- will make its mark in the mass media well before VR. As an example: During next month's total solar eclipse, the Weather Channel will use AR during its all-day coverage to explain the science of how the eclipse develops.

Perhaps even more pertinent: AFacebook group that has focused on VR for several years this week expanded its name to "Virtual and Augmented Reality."

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Another 'Promising' Week for Virtual Reality - Multichannel News (blog)

Virtual reality lab offers Austinites a chance to try out new tech … – KXAN.com

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AUSTIN (KXAN) With all the talk of virtual reality these days, you might have been wondering what all the fuss is about.

Downtown Austins technology startup accelerator Capital Factory wants to make it easier for Austinites to find out for themselves.

Virtual reality, or VR, is really an experience-it-to-believe-it technology; thats why Capital Factory recently opened its VR lab to the public. What started in December as a place for developers to test out ideas is now available for anyone to come in and try out various virtual reality applications.

The lab is set up with several different VR headsets and controllers, with monitors so others can watch whats happening. Users can shoot free throws, use a bow and arrow to defend their castle against invaders, and prepare virtual meals.

But the space is for more than just games.

A popular VR experience in the lab is using Google Earth to take virtual tours of anywhere in the world. The camera moves with your head movements and the controllers zoom down to street-level to explore.

Entrepreneurs are working to harness the technology to apply it to a wide range of industries and professions, including medicine and education.

The latter is where Kate Peilers interests lie. She set out to answer one question: How do you make books more interactive?

I was always a tactile and visual learner, Peiler, the founder and CEO of the educational technology company DisruptED, said.

Shes developing a series of books for pre-K and kindergartners that use augmented reality and virtual reality to engage kids.

I realized, oh my gosh, this is how visual learners like me can dive into a book, she said.

In the augmented reality, or AR, version, readers open up a physical book, then use the camera on their smartphones or tablets to enhance the pictures in real-time. Whats flat on the page turns into 3-D animations.

In the VR version, users are transported into the story and can look around as narration explains whats happening. So its bringing that story to life, Peiler said.

Shes developing several educational books, including one about shapes, one about letters, and one about colors.

Peiler got help developing her project at Capital Factorys VR lab.

Theres no excuse not to try VR, Brance Hudzietz, Capital Factorys ambassador or emerging technologies.

We noticed that in Austin theres this huge appetite for virtual reality, both on the entrepreneur side and the consumer side, Hudzietz said. But there wasnt this centralized place for it.

The VR lab, which now anyone can try out, is just the start of the companys investment in the new technology. Capital Factory conference rooms are now equipped with VR capabilities, Hudzietz said.

You can be showing off the innovations that are happening in healthcare and VR, he said. If its an education event, an edtech event, you can be showing off really interesting educational VR experiences as well.

They get it, Peiler said.

Shes working on a pilot to test out her book series with families and others in the tech space; thats thanks to the VR lab and the connections it brings, too. Without it, she said, she wouldnt be ready.

It would take me a lot longer, she said, and I just no I couldnt. I tried.

If youd like to try out the VR lab, you can take a tour of Capital Factory Tuesday through Thursday at 4 p.m. and play around in the lab for about an hour afterwards, or email cr@capitalfactory.com to set up an appointment to check it out.

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Virtual reality lab offers Austinites a chance to try out new tech ... - KXAN.com