X Games’ evolution from curiosity to mainstay rooted in breathtaking feats – Minneapolis Star Tribune

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By Matt Vensel Star Tribune

July 13, 2017 10:16am

A number of its quirkier sports from its early days crashed and burned (we miss you, street luge) and the icons who initially captured Americas attention are growing old (Tony Hawk, a rare extreme athlete with crossover appeal, turns 50 next year).

But the X Games are still shredding and by most measures are bigger than in 1995, when ESPN debuted the extreme sports spectacle on ESPN2, the network it had launched in part to attract a younger demographic of sports fans.

This week, when the X Games make their first stop in Minneapolis and are expected to attract more than 100,000 fans over four days, the tricks will certainly be crazier (please dont try at home a double backflip on a motorcycle), the ramps will be taller (the most daunting drop-in ramp is 82 feet high) and the event will have more of a festival feel, with live music and interactive art exhibits.

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X Games' evolution from curiosity to mainstay rooted in breathtaking feats - Minneapolis Star Tribune

How Do Isaac Asimov’s Laws Of Robotics Hold Up 75 Years Later? – Newsy

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ByTyler Adkisson July 13, 2017

Imagine sitting in a self-driving car that's about tocrash into a crowd. The car has to choose between hitting everyone or running off the road, putting your life at risk. So how does it make that decision?

For simple bots, Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" might help. But, for more complex machines, researchers aren't so sure the 75-year-old set of rules will work.

According to Asimov's laws, robots can't injure humans or allow them to be harmed; they have to obey orders humans give them; and they must protect themselves. But there's a caveat. If the laws conflict, the earlier law takes precedent.

Single-function robots something with a straightforward job, like a Roomba could in theory follow those laws. But with some of the robots engineers are working on, like the U.S. military'srobot army, it gets complicated.

Robots may not function properly even if they're built to follow the laws. In one experiment, for example, researchers programmed a robot to save another bot if it got too close to a "danger zone."

Related StoryThis Robotic Exoskeleton Helps You Stay On Your Feet

Saving one robot was easy, but when two were in danger, the rescue bot got confused. In about 40 percent of trials, it couldn't decide which to save and did nothing.

So while Asimov's laws might help retain some order between humans and robots, it doesn't seem like our futurewill line upwith hismostly subservientrobots at least for now.

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How Do Isaac Asimov's Laws Of Robotics Hold Up 75 Years Later? - Newsy

Intuition Robotics raises another $14 million, this time from Toyota Research Institute – TechCrunch

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Intuition Robotics, maker of the ElliQ robotic elder care assistant, and opened an office in San Francisco. As it looks to grow staff and ramp up testingof the product, the company has raised another $14 million, this time from Toyota Research Institute (TRI).

ElliQ, which the company likes to call an active aging companion, ismade up of an interactive robot attached to a tablet, and is designed to help older adults age in place. The robot was built to keep the elderly engaged, active, and connected to the outside world, first byallowing families to video chat with older relatives and second by acting as a companion to suggest activities and remind elderly users to take their medicine.

Intuition Robotics recently entered the initial testing phase of the companion robot with users in the Bay Area, and is actively hiring a team there. With those plans underway, the company was looking to add more funding to its war chest and add some expertise along the way because, well, hardware is hard.

With the Toyota Research Institute investment, the company got both. According toIntuition Robotics CEO Dor Skuler, Toyota approached the robotics company after learning what it was working on and immediately provided value by helping to replace some of the motors in the ElliQ prototype.

At this stage of the product, we do need help, and its very refreshing to be approached by an investor that has studied this space and has some expertise, Skuler told me.

The new funding follows$6 million that Intuition Robotics raised from investors that include Roomba maker iRobot, Terra Venture Partners, Bloomberg Beta and Maniv Mobility. The company also raised money through crowdfunding platform OurCrowd.

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Intuition Robotics raises another $14 million, this time from Toyota Research Institute - TechCrunch

Afghan girls will be allowed into US for robotics contest after Trump intervenes – Minneapolis Star Tribune

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Rahmat Gul, Associated Press Members of a female robotics team arrive from Herat province to receive visas from the U.S. embassy, at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, July 13, 2017.

KABUL, Afghanistan The third time's the charm for Afghanistan's all girl robotics team, who will be allowed entry into the U.S. to compete in a competition after President Donald Trump personally intervened to reverse a decision twice denying them enter into the country.

The six girls will now be able to participate next week against entrants from 157 countries. The Afghan girls have devised a ball-sorting robot, which has the ability to recognize orange and blue colors, and can move objects to put them in their correct places.

"I am very happy. This is such an important trip for us," said 15-year-old team member Lida Azizi, who was excited at the prospect of being able to compete.

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Afghan girls will be allowed into US for robotics contest after Trump intervenes - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Kids have fun learning how to fail at robotics camp – KWQC – KWQC-TV6

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ELLSWORTH, Maine (WABI) -- There were a lot of frustrated sighs and grunts from kids participating in a LEGO Robotics Camp.

Billy Wall, Ellsworth, the camp director said, "What the kids are learning mostly is how to fail repeatedly, so we give them a chance to fail over and over and over again and have fun."

Dawson Peterson, a camper, said, "We're building robots and we're trying to put them through different sets of obstacles."

Max Harmon, another camper, said, "At the moment we're doing a maze, which is kind of irritating."

But according to camp staff, that's all part of learning.

Wall said, "We're asking them to learn to combine programming and some structural mechanical stuff and a whole lot of persistence which is mostly what the camp is about. We want kids to try something different within some guidelines and some support from us."

During the week-long camp, kids worked with LEGO MindStorms robotics kits . They built and programmed the robots to perform tasks using a laptop.

The camp is meant to teach kids skills linked to engineering and computer programming, as well as team work and logic. All of these experiences prepare them for the future.

Wall said, "It's unlikely that any of them will have any kind of a career that does not involve some sort of telling a machine what to do. Whether that's a desk top computer or a piece of sensory automation on a building or they become an engineer or a scientist. If they just put together plumbing, they're going to be interfacing with electronic instrumentation, so they get a taste of all of that."

And while there are many failures in learning, there are also many triumphs.

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Kids have fun learning how to fail at robotics camp - KWQC - KWQC-TV6

MIT’s Daniela Rus is leading a robotics revolution | TechCrunch – TechCrunch

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Daniela Russ morning is packed. My arrival appears to come as a bit of a surprise, as she readies herself to enter the gauntlet of wall-to-wall meetings. She considers the situation for a moment before inviting me into her office, where a group of students are already patiently waiting to talk self-driving cars. You cant report about any of the findings, Rus says with a smile. But you can come in.

Rus has allowed me to sit in for a packed morning of team meetings. Its a generous gesture, but more to the point, its the only way to manage some face-to-face time with the head of MITs groundbreaking Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Library (otherwise known as CSAIL).Its a non-stop job, heading up the largest lab on MITs Cambridge, Massachusetts campus and, from the looks of it, Rus never rests. Theres no time for an interview, she explains, as we settle into the meeting. Maybe during lunch.

Inside the office, a half-dozen students are seated in a circle around a coffee table. Theres an award of some kind and an upside-down, 3D-printed robot with six legs standing up straight in the air though both have mostly disappeared beneath piles of paperwork. A nearby bookshelf is filled with titles about electrical engineering and coding and robotics the usual fare for a computer science professor. Near the top, however, theres a copy ofThe Art of War turned on its side, sandwiching a book of JFK quotations and a Gary Shteyngart novel.

Various groups of students cycle in and out of the office over the next couple of hours. Its a morning of problem solving, as Rus checks in on the status of a wide range of ongoing projects, from robotics to self-driving wheelchairs. She tackles every imaginable angle of the research, from coding complications, to methods for promoting CSAIL among the student body, to where the best location is in Boston for testing an autonomous boat.

She extols the virtues of both complicated theorems and common sense. We need a robot, she tells one of the teams. We need a handsome, happy robot.

I attempt to make myself scarce an impossible task in such a small group. As I quietly peck away at my keyboard in an awkward attempt to take notes, Rus regularly points out which parts of the meeting are on- and off-the-record. You can talk about the problems, Rus says, slightly modifying her earlier sentiment, but not the solutions.

The solutions, after all, have yet to appear in print. Thats the end goal of so many of these conversations: the acknowledgement among peers that comes with the publication of an academic paper. But in Russ role, the isolation of the problem is every bit as important a part of the process. Its her job to keep the trains running here, overseeing the 750 students and 110 professors/supervising research scientists who make up the 54-year-old research institute.

I have to make sure that they solve the right problem, Rus explains, when we finally have a few free minutes between meetings. As the adviser of these students, I need to make sure that their work invents the future. That their work is scientifically solid, wellgrounded, correct. What problems are we working on? Are they impactful? Are we on tangents? Are we really focused on the most salient and critical aspects of the problem? Its very important to think about that, because honestly, we have only so many hours in a day, and we can spend them in so many ways.

Russ own day is a testament to this. As the head of CSAIL, she helps lead the research and the outreach, serving as chief problem solver and cheerleader for some of the most exciting research in the fields of robotics and computer science. That shes managed to carve out a chunk of a day to entertain me feels like something of a minor miracle, before she leaves for a two-week trip to Asia to spread the CSAIL gospel.

She finally carves out a few minutes to speak at lunch but not before giving an impromptu speech to the staff. She walks to the front of the room, a strange space with geometrically erratic wood paneling that reflects the architectural chaos of the buildings Frank Gehry-designed exterior. The lunch is, among other things, a weekly check-in though this week its sparsely attended, with many of the professors off-campus for the summer. Rus floats the idea of intramural sports to help keep the students engaged outside class during the break.

Reactions are mixed. What about a Call of Duty tournament? one of the professors suggests, with a laugh.

CSAIL was officially formed in 2003, when MITs Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) and the AI Lab merged, forming the schools largest interdepartmental research lab. Its origins, however, date back to the late-50s, when the school began its first official research into artificial intelligence. Over the past 50-plus years, the programs various iterations have played a pivotal role in robotics and computer science.

The labs website proudly boasts a laundry list of accomplishments, from the creation of Multics, which laid the foundation for modern operating systems, to early file sharing systems and mobile robotics, to some of the underlying technologies for the World Wide Web. In fact, Tim Berners-Lee is among the 110 team leads, with CSAIL serving as the current home for the World Wide Web Consortium.

Russ own history with the lab dates back to 2008, fresh off a stint as a professor at Dartmouths Computer Science Department. She received her PhD a decade earlier at Cornell, under the guidance of pioneering theoretical computer scientist John Hopcroft. It was there that Rus, who had previously studied math and astronomy, fell in love with robotics.

[Professor Hopcroft] gave this really inspiring talk where he said that many of the problems in classical graph algorithms, which was the core of computer science at the time, were done and it was time for grand applications, Rus explains. He said, We shall take computing into the world. We should work on robots.

Her work shifted from the large, industrial robots that dominated research in the mid-90s, to the notion that robots could become more portable and modular. The idea was to make a robot out of cells, just like living organisms are made out of cells, Rus explains. If you have cells, you can create whatever shape you want. She formed the Distributed Robotics Lab at Dartmouth, taking it with her as she made the jump.

The labs projects have diversified greatly in the last decade. As with all of CSAILs sub-laboratories, work is driven by its head researchers passions and Rus, unsurprisingly, has many. The Distributed Robotics Laboratorys current slate of projects covers the gamut of bleeding-edge robotics. One project makes it possible to 3D-print a robot, hydraulics and all, in a single step. In another impressive demo, an origami robot folds into a predetermined structure when heat is applied and then walks away with the help of magnets. There are a number of biologically inspired soft robots and a brain-controlled industrial bot programmed to learn from its own mistakes.

I love the fact that here at CSAIL, everyone lives in the future, explains Rus. Everyone thinks about how to make the future better, what kinds of things we need in the future. People have wild and crazy ideas and people are fun. We are excited, we are full of life and we love what we do, most importantly. I think we have tremendous students. We have tremendous faculty members. We have extraordinary staff, so its a very special community that has the role of inventing the future of computing.

Between meetings, we sit and chat. You have to take advantage of the brief moments of down time, and Rus is more than happy to fill each moment of silence with ideas about robotics, computer science and her thoughts on leading a happy life. She tells me, off-handedly, that shes becoming really interested in the science of sleep though between lab work, travel and talks, its hard to imagine Rus gets much in the way of it. And its clear that every moment shes awake, her mind is working overtime.

She tells me about her commute how the time she spent driving to jobs influenced her own passion for autonomous vehicles. I became interested in transportation when I moved from Dartmouth where my commute was about one minute, Rus explains. MIT, where my commute was anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour and minutes, that is the huge difference. I found myself in the early 2000s, so 10 years ago I found myself just mentally collecting data.

As we talk, soft music twinkles in through her open door. Its Beethoven. Rus stands up and beckons me to follow. She disappears around the corner and then pops back in, beckoning me to follow. Theres a small piano just outside her office, where a student sits, playing a familiar piece of classical music.

Rus explains that she bought a piano for her own kids a few years ago and the movers dropped it off at the lab before they were able to deliver it to her home. The students flocked to it during its temporary CSAIL residence. I would be sitting here, and all of a sudden, there would be beautiful Chopin.

The students were, naturally, bummed when the piano went back home with her. Ultimately, she explains, she made the decision to make the instrument a permanent fixture. I love to see the students take a break and get in touch with the other side of their brains, she says, listening as the student finishes the piece. As a professor, your objective is to help people be the best that they can in the paths that they choose.

Rus will be appearing at TC Sessions: Robotics on July 17 in Cambridge, MA.

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MIT's Daniela Rus is leading a robotics revolution | TechCrunch - TechCrunch

How to prevent bandwidth throttling with a VPN – T3

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Vlogging online can be a great way to showcase your hobbies or even supplement your income. Once you decide on a topic and set up your own YouTube channel, you can start producing and posting your own content. To avoid having your bandwidth throttled when uploading large videos, you should consider using a VPN to connect to the Internet to bypass any restrictions from your ISP.

Most VPN service providers offer services globally and thus charge in US Dollars rather than in local currencies, so we've listed pricing in Dollars for the sake of simplicity. Bear in mind that when you click through to the actual deals, you may find the prices automatically displayed in pounds, or whatever your native currency may be.

These are the best deals we found for bypassing restrictions on our connection:

1. TunnelBear - Only $59.88 for 1 year

This easy to use VPN is a great choice for novice users and the company offers a wide range of clients. TunnelBear has 1,000 servers across 20 locations and the service supports up to five simultaneous connections. A free option available that limits you to 500MB of traffic per month but with this offer you can increase that to 5GB of data instead of 500MB.

2. VyprVPN - From $60 for 12 months

VyprVPN has over 700 servers across more than 70 locations with 200,000+ shared IP addresses available to its users. This VPN also includes some great extras such as an auto-connect option, a kill switch and increased security thanks to the companys own Chameleon protocol and VyprDNS. VyprVPN also has a special offer where new customers can get 25% off its annual plans.

3. NordVPN - 2 Years for just $79

This ultra-secure VPN offers quality mobile and desktop clients as well as a number of payment options including PayPal and Bitcoin. NordVPN supports up to six devices simultaneously and protects its users with 2048-bit encryption and an automatic kill switch. This VPN has 1015 servers in 59 countries and the company is currently a massive 72% discount off when you buy two years worth of service using the code 2YSpecial2017.

Check out the best VPN services of 2017 and visit thebestvpnfor.me to get the best VPN deals and offers on the market, straight from our VPN team.

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Slate’s first virtual-reality talk show was a hilarious disaster – Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard

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If, hypothetically, Georgia and Florida went to war, which state would win? That was one of the questions posed to actress Carrie Preston in the first episode of Conundrums, Slates new virtual reality Facebook Live talk show that launched Thursday.

Preston and host Dan Kois, Slates culture editor, were presented as legless avatars as the show is produced using Facebooks VR app Spaces, which was launched earlier this year as a way for Oculus Rift users to interact with each other as avatars. Facebook this week announced that it was adding a livestreaming feature to Spaces, and Slate says it is the first outlet to utilize this platform in this way.

Kois and Preston began their conversation outside of a Brooklyn-based brewery thats sponsoring the show before using the magic of virtual reality to transport themselves to Jekyll Island, Georgia one of Prestons favorite places in her home state. Hey, thats Driftwood Beach over there, she said as the pair arrived on a boardwalk.

The show was streamed from the perspective of a third avatar, a Slate producer, who controlled the locations and camera angles and also tried to help Preston when she had trouble operating some of the Spaces functionality.

Preston first answered the question of whether she preferred peach pie or peach cobbler (cobbler, she said). The conversation then turned to the important matter of who would win a Florida-Georgia War, but before she could answer the Facebook Live feed cut out. (Side note: I insist that any such war should be called The Worlds Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.)

Slate was able to resume the broadcast a few minutes later in a new video I was skinnydipping, sorry Im back now, Preston joked as the show came back but the technical difficulties underscored the experimental nature of the show.

In fact, Slates first attempt at broadcasting the show cut out about a minute and a half in and they had to continue the broadcast in a new stream.

For Slate, this is a relatively low-risk way for the online publisher to dip its toes in the VR waters. Speaking to Digiday in May, Slate product head David Stern said the company was taking lessons from its successful podcasts and trying to implement them with VR. That meant focusing on conversations and publishing on a regular schedule. Podcasts taught us, you got to create that habit, Stern said.

The conundrum conceit is actually one that originated from its podcasts. On our Gabfest podcasts, weve been using conundrums to ask those really tough questions, Kois said on the show. Questions like: If one set of animals was going to all band together to eliminate humans forever, would it be dolphins or bees?

Slate is considering the show an experiment, but its going to try to continue to ask guests those wacky questions on a weekly basis while also finding ways to build an audience (and eventually monetize it).

And as Kois and Preston finished their interview by drinking virtual beers, Kois called the first episode an insane adventure that we have set forth on that has in many ways worked and in many ways been a hilarious disaster.

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Slate's first virtual-reality talk show was a hilarious disaster - Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard

ESPN to show X Games in virtual reality – CNET – CNET

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Look Ma, no hands: BMX street biker Chad Kerley soaring to a gold medal during the 2013 X Games.

Now you'll be able to see BMX street stud Chad Kerley flip, twist and spin all over your head in virtual reality.

ESPN willstreampart of its X Games in VR for the first time starting Thursday. The sports network is teaming up with Samsung to show the event in Minneapolis using 360-degree cameras to 48 countries across the globe.

Fans can catch the BMX Street, Skateboard Vert and Skateboard Street Amateurs competitions using the Gear VR headset.

The sport network's popular extreme sporting event is the latest to attempt reaching a new audience using VR. Last season, the NBA became the first pro sports league to broadcast weekly games in VR. Meanwhile, Intel is becoming a major VR player by not onlystreamingthis year's Final Four in virtual reality, but also weeklyMajor League Baseball games. Additionally, Intel says it will broadcast 16 events in VR during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

As for ESPN, X Games executive Tim Reed said in a statement that the two-decade-old action sports competition has always been "a laboratory for innovation and progression," including placing helmet cams on bikers and skateboarders.

"We are always pushing to create new and better ways for fans to experience and interact," he said.

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Virtual reality heals rehab patients in Phoenix – ABC15 Arizona

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PHOENIX - You might think virtual reality is just a pair oversized goggles that gives you access to an exciting, alternate world. But, what if virtual reality had other powers that could heal your body? That question is being answered at Banner Health's University Medicine Rehabilitation Institute right here in Arizona.

Cristina Vazquez was in school to become a nurse. But, on February 7, 2015, everything changed.

"I had a car accident. It was a t-bone," Cristina says.

She suffered a traumatic brain injury which put her in the hospital for months, barely able to open her eyes or even talk.

"I thought I wasn't going to walk ever," she says.

But, therapists at Banner's Rehabilitation Institute had different plans.

"I came here with a wheelchair and they said, oh no, homegirl, you cannot be with the wheelchair," Cristina jokes.

So, they got to work, using virtual reality to help heal Cristina's body. Specifically, the Dynovision machine is used on patients who need to retrain their visual motor coordination.

Cristina's occupational therapist, Holly Jones, explains, "it's looking at her reaction time."

At the same time, it serves as a form of speech therapy for Cristina, who tries to shout out the words she sees on the screen in front of her.

"When a patient has an injury to their brain," Holly explains, "other areas surrounding that damage can re-learn what that damaged area did."

But, that kind of therapy takes a lot of practice and a lot of repetitions, which can be extremely mundane and very frustrating for patients.

"That's where Virtual Reality comes in," Holly says. "It gives us the ability to give the patient something meaningful to do. They can visually see what's going on. They can see the movement in their affected arm. And, it gives them a score, so they know how they're doing and how they're progressing."

Cristina says, "Before, I would just look at people... ugh, I'm never going to do that."

But, with innovative, meaningful therapy, her coordination has improved, her balance is better and her legs are stronger.

"Thank God for the help, because, I don't know, without them, I'd probably still be wheelchair-chilling," Cristina laughs.

Officials at Banner Health say Cristina's story is just one of many incredible stories at the clinic showing how technology is impacting lives.

Their occupational therapists are using Virtual Reality to help a tattoo artist regain their fine motor skills necessary for his craft and assisting another patient with relearning tasks like folding laundry or swinging a golf club.

They also say there is no age-limit for the technology. They've used it for children and patients as old as 89 years old.

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Virtual reality heals rehab patients in Phoenix - ABC15 Arizona

This new virtual reality tool could transform how we design cars – CNN

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Now, London-based design studio Seymourpowell is hoping to do the same in the automobile sector with a new 3D sketching tool. Wearing an HTC Vive headset, users are able to draw, manipulate and augment car models in virtual reality.

The software is designed to speed up the design process, with adjustments quicker to make than if modeled in Photoshop or in traditional 3D-imaging programs.

Seymourpowell's lead automotive designer, Richard Seale, hopes the tool will bridge the longstanding divide between designers (who are paid to shoot for the stars) and engineers (who are meant to keep them grounded).

"As an engineer, it's very frustrating to (produce) cars with designers, because designers and engineers are typically at loggerheads," he said at the firm's south London studio. "It's the same for designers, (who say) 'I want to do this -- why can't I?'"

The typical design process begins with a meeting -- or three -- followed by concept sketches. Once a design is approved, a clay model is created. After that, a costlier model is used to further refine the design.

This is the point where designers and engineers typically clash. A car shaped like an arrow would be great for keeping aerodynamic drag to a minimum, but it would be impractical and unlikely to meet safety requirements.

Here's where the new software steps in. Put on the VR headset and you are transported to a 3D workspace where the view adjusts to your head movements. The left control stick lets you sketch lines, which can be twisted, moved and manipulated with the right one. You can then jump around your digital surroundings at the press of a button.

With so few functions to worry about -- and because you can see the two controllers as if they were your own virtual hands -- the process is surprisingly intuitive.

"We think that the quicker and easier it is to do something, the more likely you are to do it," Seale explained.

Because cars are typically symmetrical, the software speeds up the design process by mirroring the lines you draw. You can create a full 3D concept vehicle in under an hour.

The software also has a social side that can transform how the design process works. Other team members -- whether designers or engineers -- are able to look at drawings on a monitor and, if they have another headset to hand, make adjustments in real time.

This means that engineering specifications, such as the legally required height of a car's headlights, can be brought into the design process earlier on. Later down the line, surfaces can be applied to show what a car would look like in a certain color or material.

Getting up close to a life-size digital model makes it easier to spot design problems. The headset's perspective can also be adjusted to show the car's inside, allowing designers to assess the driver's visibility.

This all means that designers can come up with designs that are better thought out, which in turn means that they are more likely to be approved (especially if any engineering prerequisites have been met) and may be easier to build. This will ultimately speed up the process and save companies money.

The technology has already been adopted by Ford and Jaguar Land Rover. According to Seale, two more car companies ("major" German and Chinese manufacturers) have expressed interest since the London Motor Show, and the company is already exploring how their technology could be applied to architecture and education.

Seymourpowell plans to spend the next 10 years adding new tools and commercializing the product.

"There are so many possibilities that you want to do everything," Seale said. "In that way, it's brilliant."

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This new virtual reality tool could transform how we design cars - CNN

Virtual reality gives old fairground rides new purpose – The Economist

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Original post:

Virtual reality gives old fairground rides new purpose - The Economist

Mario Kart becomes the first Nintendo property to come to VR – Ars Technica

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It's been nearly a year-and-a-half since Nintendo first said it was "looking into" virtual reality, though we have yet to see any concrete signs of that "look" outside of a vague patent application. Thus, it came down to Nintendo partner Namco Bandai to give the world its first official taste of what a popular Nintendo franchise would look like on a modern virtual reality headset (no, the Virtual Boy does not count).

Apparently, it will look a lot like Mario Kart Arcade GP VR, a title being teased for Japanese arcades in a newly released 30-second trailernow making the rounds. The slickly produced, first-person trailer shows players puttering somewhat slowly down familiar looking track settings (Peach's Castle grounds, Bowser's airship, a Thwomp-filled fortress) while throwing turtle shells and banana peels and even bonking opposing players with a hammer.

Though the trailer is making a big splash today, the game's existence was first revealed a month ago as part of a preview event for Namco's upcoming VR arcade games (an event we seem to have missed amid the bustle of E3). A report from The Japan Times explains and shows a bit more about how the game works, with users sitting in a small kart that bumps and shakes as they drive with an HTC Vive strapped to their heads. Vive trackers strapped to the back of the wrists track players' hands (via rubber gloves) and allow them to grab virtual items out of the air and throw them at opponents with real-world motions. IGN Japan has even more footage of people playing the game(notethe commentary is all in Japanese).

The existence of a new VR Mario Kart doesn't necessarily mean we should expect more Nintendo franchises to show up in VR soon. While the new game is officially licensed by Nintendo, Namco Bandai is taking the lead in the game's development, much as it has with the arcade spin-off Mario Kart Arcade GP series since 2005. Nintendo reportedly had a limited role in designing those previous arcade Kart titles (besides loaning out and approving the treatment of the characters and settings), and it's not clear Nintendo has any direct role in this new virtual reality development at all.

Don't get your hopes up for this new Mario Kart to be widely available outside of Japan, either. For now, Mario Kart Arcade GP VR is being featured exclusively as a central piece of Namco's flagship VR Zone Shinjuku entertainment complex, which is opening this weekend in the popular Tokyo commercial district. The permanent Shinjuku location is a follow-up to last year's VR-focused Project i-Can, a limited-time pop-up arcade Namco Bandai set up for in Tokyo a few months as a "VR entertainment research facility." The new site will also feature experiences based on Dragon Ball Z, Evangelion, and Ghost in the Shell.

Namco Bandai Executive Officer for Amusement Yoshiyasu Horiuchi said in a statement that "the company plans to install their VR activities in over 20 locations worldwide in order to increase the opportunities for a larger audience to enjoy their VR entertainment," leaving the door open for Western locations in the future. At those limited numbers, though, you may have to travel a bit to find the game if and when Namco does decide to expand.

Those who can't make the trip can always try an emulated version of Mario Kart Wii in their Oculus Rift, of course. Or, how about some unofficial augmented reality Super Mario Bros. while you wait?

See original here:

Mario Kart becomes the first Nintendo property to come to VR - Ars Technica

The Beauty Of Virtual Reality – The Good Men Project (blog)

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The dynamic principle of fantasy is play, a characteristic also of the child, and as such it appears inconsistent with the principle of serious work. But without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable. Carl Jung

In my research and experiments, I found that the ability to play in another world can offer a person a renewed sense of spirit. Most adults I have talked to about virtual reality commonly have the same reactionthey are not interested in finding out what it is all about. When I talk to teens about it, though, they cannot wait to try it. It makes me wonder why adults are reticent to attempt to play in another world. My findings are that gaming and virtual reality have an underlying stigma that is looked upon as useless or wasting time.

I see playing in virtual reality as an opportunity to play for a short amount of time without any actual backlash. It is meant to be fun, entertaining, and challenging. When used logically and occasionally, I see it as an excellent life tool.

Here are some reasons why virtual reality can be seen as spiritually enlightening:

In the virtual world, you are anonymous

Becoming anonymous on a conscious level can be considered as a useful step on the road to higher self-awareness. Playing in the virtual world creates new ways to access other states of thought that may have been previously veiled.

When you begin to play any game, you jump into another universe and forget about your daily routine in everyday, physical life

Is this a bad thing? Only if you believe it is. Within the virtual world of the game, you can become who you want, you can go to other locations, and can live another lifetemporarily. There are no consequences to your actionsjust the same as imagination. When the game is turned off, and you enter back into your current now, you may be able to see events more clearly with a new approach to problem-solving.

Anonymity can give you a renewed sense of power

The self is first seen in the mind, and then the feeling of novel perception can transfer into physical life. The experience allows you to see your authentic self outside of the virtual reality. In the virtual, there is room for invention and the art of living is discovered.

When playing in the virtual world, the activity is done in real time, and the experience envelops and responds to you. Playing in virtual reality is a sharp contrast to simply reading travel magazines, watching a film, or talking with a person in a physical situation.

The virtual world becomes, then, a new possibility to re-imagine the world, with all of its unconscious processes of control. Looking inwards with the virtual and moving past a controlling system, the experience becomes a form of awareness, and the role of playing in the virtual world becomes self-consciousness.

The bliss of the gameand enjoying yourself for the sake of experiencing a pleasing experience

The virtual world can be seen as enjoyable as, there, a piece of innocence is found. The rebirth that occurs removes the original sense of the ordinary. Now, the game experience is grounded in creative change.

In the virtual space, there are no resentments or doubts

All players are, essentially, on the same page in the virtual world. The interaction is a continual dialogue. The imagination is immediately activated, along with perceptions. This playing can be seen as a new form of training in understanding. The imaginary deals with the capacity to conceptualize images and see how these images reflect on to the self. While it may be uttered that more can be done by way of teaching art and culture, it is imperative to integrate the teachings of awareness coupled with perception and imagination to progress further into the twenty-first century. In my opinion, virtual play is one answer to this long heard call.

Playing in the virtual world lets the mind and body connect with new potential

The experiences within the game offer future modes of learning and becoming more than might currently be realized. While a video game is largely seen as a commoditized object, the transformative power provided is yet unrealized potential. The experiential nature of playing in the game gives you a new sense of fulfillment and optimal hope for what is possible.

When you begin to play, you dive into the newness of the game and experience. You become a being that is immersed with others. In the virtual space, there are no prescribed social spheres, presumed ways of being, or judgments that will affect your character.

By choosing identities and trying out different points of view, you may experience empathy. You can now see the world from a different point of view that may have otherwise never been known. I believe empathy is indeed a step closer to a higher state of self-consciousness.

In all, I find virtual reality to be a great tool to get in touch with ones self. Of course, I would never promote the use of virtual reality every day and all day, but I do think everyone should give it a try occasionallyto truly step into another world.

Do you want to be part of creating a kinder, more inclusive society? Join like-minded individuals in The Good Men Project Community.

Photo Credit: Flickr/Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, University of Texas at Austin

Im a visual artist, writer, and researcher who teaches and mentors creative people to write clearly and complete their writing projects. I have my Ph.D. in Philosophy, Art Theory, and Aesthetics. My research is on virtual reality and understanding authenticity in the digital world. I have four children, and Im married to an amazing man. I love traveling, being near water, painting, music, and writing. I'm currently working on a book about creativity.

You can connect with me at: twitter.com/jessica_project instagram.com/prettyneatprettyneat jessicamdoyle.com

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The Beauty Of Virtual Reality - The Good Men Project (blog)

Internet Memes Are Changing The Way We Communicate IRL – HuffPost UK

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It doesn't matter whether the Game of Thrones, Success Kid or Awkward Penguin is your favourite meme - they are changing the way we communicate.

The meme's story began long before the internet was a thing though.

Richard Dawkins coined the phrase meme to cover how ideas, behaviours, or styles spread from person to person within a culture.

He came up with the word in his 1976 book called The Selfish Gene. Long before the internet. Just like with hashtags, it's another thing the internet has

The history of the internet podcast has dedicated its second episode to what Dawkins described as the 'hijack' of his word.

Search 'History of the Internet' wherever you listen to your podcasts to subscribe in your app.

Dawkins' original theory, as his book title suggests, began in the way genes mutate by random change and spread by a form of Darwinian selection.

The reason Dawkins describes it as a hijack is because internet memes make no attempt at the accuracy of copying. It's a a key part of his definition and Internet memes are deliberately altered.

The academic and everyday literacies blogger, Michele Knobel, first studied internet memetics back in 2005. When she first looked at them they were very marginal.

In this documentary, she gave a new reflection the way we talk online.

"Humans communicate on so many different dimensions. Memes add layers of meaning to a medium that can otherwise be rather flat.'

The way our online conversations have evolved has normalised the use of internet memes.

Victoria Emma who wrote her PHD on them thinks we need to pay more attention to them:

'If millions of people use them to communicate every day, there must be something to them. We can't just dismiss them as internet cats.'

There is a reason I reply in a gif, emoji or memes online more often than just text.

Yes, admittedly, it's partly because I like to be king of the gif game.

However, it's also because they say so much more when our body language can't carry my words online in the same way they do IRL.

That's why memes are so fascinating, and shouldn't be underestimated.

Subscribe to podcast documentary series the History of the Internet to listen to more about why the meme is changing the way we are developing as humans, on Apple Podcasts, with RSS, audioBoom, or wherever you listen to your shows.

OH, and btw my fave internet meme features the best two characters ever created

Buzz and Woody, you always say it best:

P.S that's why we used their picture forepisode one about hashtags - read about that here

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Internet Memes Are Changing The Way We Communicate IRL - HuffPost UK

Virtual graveyards: Algorithms of death and the cost of immortality – The Conversation CA

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Gifts left behind for the deceased are translated into tokens in an online setting.

For those who have lost their loved ones, social media platforms can allow for RIP memorials, and for recreating memorable visual and audio collections that keep those who have passed away alive in our imaginations.

In fact, digital immortality/virtual immortality that escapes the constraints of time and space is a hot commodity. From mobile apps that allow people to create digital avatars that can look and sound like your deceased best friend to those that allow you to relive shared memories through photographs, video clips and favourite tunes, your beloved remains present in your life. You can tell the digital avatar of your mother, who passed away before getting a chance to watch your children grow up, about the play your son is in or your daughter making the honour roll.

For the past six months, I have been examining the importance of virtual graveyards with a group of graduate students. We are looking at the significance of these virtual sites for marginalized identities in Canada. Virtual graveyards and cyber-memorial sites have become increasingly commonplace on the web.

This kind of technology can help people through the grieving process and help with the healing after a great loss. Indeed, neuroscientists have argued in favour of such technologies, suggesting that social networking sites like Facebook can help with the grieving process.

Yes, these are graveyards in cyberspace and they function much like the cemeteries in real life, with one exception you can go there at any time and from any place.

Thinking about Canada hundreds of years from now, what would such sites reveal about the everyday contributions of the countrys inhabitants? What stories of the nation could these sites tell us? As repositories that memorialize stories of common people leading common lives, virtual graveyards are potentially invaluable to historians and others seeking to understand the past.

What adds to their value is that they are accessible. For marginalized communities, printed obituaries may be inaccessible, structured as they are by criteria that demand remarkable personalities performing extraordinary feats or making singular contributions to the country; or, alternatively, notorious individuals whose deaths need to be publicized so as to appease our sense of a restored and balanced social order. Online memorials allow for a memorialization of the deceased in a public way, generating a sense of community.

These sites represent a shift in traditional rituals around death. Therapists are now recognizing that mourning does not end after one month or a year, but is rather ongoing, reflecting our continued attachment to friends and family after they have passed. Cyber-memorials and virtual graveyards assist with the healing process by providing space for ongoing grief.

In contrast to printed obituaries, which tend to be more descriptive rather than emotional, these virtual graveyards offer people a means to commemorate their loved ones in a less restricted way. We can write about our fathers unpublished poetry or our sisters generosity and more importantly, how much we love and miss them. We can celebrate their everyday lives and role in our communities.

Following the tradition of leaving tokens at a grave, these sites allow users to place virtual flowers or light candles for the deceased. One can upload pictures, video clips, songs, or a poem. By allowing mourners to interact with others who knew the deceased, or who are also grieving, these sites also provide the potential for building community support during the grieving process providing some relief from the pain of loss.

But these sites come at a price. It may be the invasion of privacy in the vein of Facebook using personal photographs posted by users for its sponsored stories content. The emotional cost could also be the constant reminder of loss, or confronting visual memories that are assembled in such a way as to focus primarily on positive and loving memories instead of addressing the pain and suffering one experiences while grieving. Add to this, the issue of ephemerality: sites are notorious for their temporary nature, here today and gone tomorrow. Your memorial could vanish within minutes.

The economic costs are also factors to be considered. Most virtual graveyards charge at least $50 a year and sometimes more. There are few Canadian sites that offer such services for free, and if they do, they are often tied to other economic costs related to death rituals, such as funeral costs.

On the plus side, though, these sites are accessible to those who are literate in the ways of the Internet.

Should the sites survive, theyll offer an archival treasure trove for those looking to see how ordinary people lived their lives and contributed to society. They could be a window into how marginalized groups lived, loved and struggled.

In that vein, virtual graveyards afford us an opportunity to reject a past based on erasure and ignorance. In Canadas future, they could become invaluable national assets that should be supported, but only if they are freely available to their users and regulated in the best interests of all people.

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Virtual graveyards: Algorithms of death and the cost of immortality - The Conversation CA

Immortality in the Rg Veda – San Diego Reader

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The Man has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. He pervades the earth everywhere and extends beyond for ten fingers breadth. The Man himself is all this, whatever has been and whatever is to be. He is the lord of immortality and also lord of that which grows on food. Such is his greatness, and the Man is yet greater than this. All creatures make up a quarter of him; three quarters are the immortal heaven. With three quarters the Man has risen above, and one quarter of him still remains here, whence he spread out everywhere, pervading that which eats and that which does not eat. When the gods spread the sacrifice, using the Man as the offering, spring was the clarified butter, summer the fuel, autumn the oblation. They anointed the Man, the sacrifice, born at the beginning, upon the sacred grass. With him the gods, Sadhyas, and sages sacrificed. With this sacrifice the gods sacrificed; these were the first dharmas. And these powers reached the dome of heaven where dwell the ancient Sadhyas and gods.

from Hymn 1.2 of the Rg Veda

The Rg Veda is a collection of ancient Vedic Sanskrit hymns. The title means, in Sanskrit, praise, shine (rg) and knowledge (veda). One of the four canonical texts of Hinduism known as Vedas, the book is organized into ten sections called Mandalas. In the eight earliest books, the hymns meditate on creation and the relationship between immortality and mortality, such as the above hymn indicates. It is thought that the Rg Veda was composed between 1500 and 1200 BC.

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Immortality in the Rg Veda - San Diego Reader

Letter to the Editor: Conditional immortality? – Sunbury Daily Item

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If a person were interested in knowing what it might be like to live in Paris, it would probably be more useful to seek out the opinions of those who actually spent a fair amount of time there rather than relying on the speculations and guesses of those whod never even made the trip.

In his column in the Faith and Reason section of July 8 Daily Item, my dear friend Kerry Walters takes us to a somewhat more exotic destination thats of interest to many of us the afterlife. Kerry outlines the view, expressed primarily by the ancient philosopher/theologians Theophilus of Antioch and Irenaeus, that only a portion of us those who had chosen to act in a Godly and morally-upstanding manner in this earthly life were destined for immortality; the rest of us, would simply cease to exist.

Unfortunately, at the time they wrote, neither Theophilus or Irenaeus had been to Paris. Their personal experience of the afterlife was nil. Fortunately, other sources do exist that we can turn to for more first-hand information.

From almost two decades of intensive research in this very subject (my book on the topic will hopefully be completed later this year) I can state that the consensus (closer to unanimous) opinion of those whove actually been there spirits whove finished their earthly life and made their journey to the other side is that those who believe in conditional immortality are, no pun intended, dead wrong.

Based on post-mortem communications from these spirits (144 of them, ranging from the famous to the infamous to just-plain-folks) delivered through some of the most highly-respected, intensively-observed, and scientifically-studied mediums of the 19th and 20th centuries plus communications from a 145th spirit (the Virgin Mary) the prevailing experience of the afterlife is that (1) its open to essentially everyone, that (2) the quality of ones initial afterlife experiences will be totally dependent on how one lived his or her earth-life, and (3) that learning, growth and development are not limited to our earth-lives, but continue on the other side.

Take if as you will, but this is the take from those whove actually been there.

Donald C. Porteous Jr.,

Milton

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Letter to the Editor: Conditional immortality? - Sunbury Daily Item

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop posted a defense of its jade eggs for vaginas. It’s a mess. – Vox

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Gwyneth Paltrows Goop, a lifestyle company dedicated to helping people find health solutions, has become an easy target for medical bloggers and journalists who relish a good takedown.

The pile-on keeps happening because Goop keeps making claims that beg for debunking: from bogus energy healing stickers purported to be made from the same material as spacesuits (theyre not) to the claim that negative emotions can spoil your drinking water (nope) to the never-ending obsession with detoxing the body (which if youre not a heroin addict you dont need). (At Vox, weve written about many of these.)

On Thursday, the team at Goop posted what it says is the first of many articles confronting its critics. It mostly focuses on Dr. Jen Gunter, an OB-GYN and blogger whos become one of the most prominent voices in the Goop wars. (Gunters personal website has a dozen-plus posts just from this year making the case against Goop claims.)

Rather than offering a clear and coherent defense of alternative medicine, Goops statement is filled with ad hominem attacks and baldfaced hypocrisy. But its Goops central defense of its editorial decision-making that reeks most of Goopshit.

Goop mockery crystallized into a fervor early this year when the site posted this whopper of a headline: Better Sex: Jade Eggs for Your Yoni.

The post featured a Q&A with Shiva Rose, a beauty guru/healer, who claimed that inserting egg-shaped jade rocks into the vagina can help cultivate sexual energy, increase orgasm, balance the cycle, stimulate key reflexology around vaginal walls ... [it goes on for a while] ... and invigorate our life force. And Goop, of course, would be happy to sell you said eggs for just $66.

The backlash to this absurdity was swift and furious. Among the first to respond was Gunter, who pointed out that the eggs are probably ineffective and potentially dangerous. Jade is porous and can trap bacteria, increasing the risk of bacterial vaginosis or deadly toxic shock syndrome, as Voxs Belluz explained it.

Its not clear that any of this coverage has hurt Goops business. It 2016, the company raised $15 million to $20 million in venture capital. In May, it inked a magazine deal with Cond Nast. Hundreds of people recently spent between $500 and $1,500 to attend a Goop summit in Culver City, California.

Still, its clear that Paltrow and her business partners are deeply irked, particularly with Gunter, whos the primary target of the attack.

Goop singles out Gunter in the third paragraph of the statement and then invites two of its affiliated doctors to add their two cents. But they dont have much in the way of ammo. One of the doctors, Steven Gundry, grounds most of his critique in the fact that Gunter dared to use the word fuck in a blog post criticizing Goop.

I have been in academic medicine for forty years and up until your posting, have never seen a medical discussion start or end with the F-bomb, Gundry wrote.

It appears that neither Goop nor Gundry appreciates that Gunter, an OB-GYN, is actually concerned with womens health. (They implied Gunter was not on the side of women taking ownership of female sexual pleasure. Gunters rebuke of the jade eggs in fact had to do with the risk of bacterial infections.)

Theres a lot more thats passive-aggressive in the Goop post. For one, Goop complains that Gunters concern about bacterial infections from the jade eggs was strangely confident. Was it more strangely confident than saying jade eggs can help cultivate sexual energy?

You can find plenty more examples of hypocrisy, but whats really concerning is when Goop rationalizes its editorial decision-making.

We simply want information; we want autonomy over our health, Goop writes. Thats why we do unfiltered Q&As, so you can hear directly from doctors; we see no reason to interpret or influence what theyre saying, to tell you what to think.

The argument here is that the information in the Q&A (and around the site) is meant to empower women to make choices about their health. Our primary place is in addressing people, women in particular, who are tired of feeling less-than-great, who are looking for solutions these women are not hypochondriacs, and they should not be dismissed or marginalized, Goop writes.

This defense, though, is unjustifiable.

For one, as others have pointed out, marketing bogus products to women isnt dealing empowerment; its dealing false hope. Or worse: Its exploitative.

Yes, many women do not feel great. They are looking for solutions. But as a media property devoted to wellness, Goop should have a responsibility to tell them the whole story.

Where have we heard this style of defense before? From another famous broadcaster of dubious health advice: Dr. Oz.

In 2014, Oz testified before a Senate subcommittee about his role promoting green coffee extract, which he claimed aided in weight loss. My job, I feel on the show, is to be a cheerleader for the audience, he said. And when they don't think they have hope, when they don't think they can make it happen, I want to look ... for any evidence that might be supportive to them.

Hope is great. But any evidence to support it wont do. Peoples money is on the line. And so is their health. The evidence doesnt have to be 100 percent clear-cut, but it should exist.

Goop says its just asking questions about possible wellness solutions. And, as the site writes, what we dont welcome is the idea that questions are not okay. The problem is not that the Goop team isnt asking questions. Its that theyre not asking enough questions. Their curiosity should lead them to wonder, How can a piece of jade actually affect my energy levels? Whats the biological mechanism? Are there any studies on safety or efficacy at all? And if there arent, shouldnt we let readers know?

Even if the jade eggs dont pose any infection hazards, the truth still remains: Theres no evidence in support of their benefits.

Where would we be if we all still believed in female hysteria instead of orgasm equality? Goop writes. That smoking didnt cause lung cancer? If every nutritionist today saw the original food pyramid as gospel?

Yes, health myths need to be busted. But theyre not busted in softball interviews with self-styled gurus. Theyre busted in the lab.

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Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop posted a defense of its jade eggs for vaginas. It's a mess. - Vox

Angela Bassett’s Dermatologist Just Released a Line of Vitamins for Flawless Skin – BET

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I know many of you may be wondering how the flawless 58-year old, Golden Globe-winning actress and activist Angela Bassett keeps her skin glowing and wrinkle free. Finally, we might have found the secret to her ageless complexion.

Angelas dermatologist, Dr. Barbara Sturm,an internationally renowned skin care specialist, recently launched Skin Food supplements. These nutrient-rich skin and health supplements help keep the skin nourished and unblemished. In addition to the supplements, Dr. Sturm is the founder of a skincare line called Molecular Cosmetics, which features a line of cosmetic products for anti-aging and rejuvenation of the skin for men and women.

(Photo: Molecular Cosmetics)

The base of theSkin Foodsupplements is purslane, which is a superfood known for unbelievable anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and nutritive properties. It is basically the fountain of youth drug that protects and allows the skin to stay hydrated to not form wrinkles. Dr. Sturm said it was very difficult to incorporate purslane into her daily diet since it is hard to find year-round, so this was her inspiration to formulate this supplement.

(Photo: Molecular Cosmetics)

Dr. Sturm received inspiration for her cosmetic line after working with the team that developed the treatmentOrthokine, used for basketball phenomenon Kobe Bryant. This treatment is a therapy where the patients own blood cells are used to produce proteins that reduce inflammation and stimulate a process to heal the area. She used her previous knowledge from this orthopedic procedure to focus on building her skincare line to treat inflammation and skin aging to produce her supplements.

Last year, Dr. Barbara Sturm and Angela Bassett collaborated to create a skincare line, Darker Skin Tones, for women of color. The products help reduce inflammation and hyper-pigmentation and even the skin tone. We know many of us look forward to keeping up with Dr. Sturm and her future products to keep us looking just as youthful as Angela.

Check out more of Dr. Sturm's products here!

(Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)

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Angela Bassett's Dermatologist Just Released a Line of Vitamins for Flawless Skin - BET