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Converging on cancer at the nanoscale | MIT News – The MIT Tech

Posted on July 7, 2017 by ev1

This summer, the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT marks the first anniversary of the launch of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, established through a generous gift from Kathy and Curt Marble 63.

Bringing together leading Koch Institute faculty members and their teams, the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine focuses on grand challenges in cancer detection, treatment, and monitoring that can benefit from the emerging biology and physics of the nanoscale.

These challenges include detecting cancer earlier than existing methods allow, harnessing the immune system to fight cancer even as it evolves, using therapeutic insights from cancer biology to design therapies for previously undruggable targets, combining existing drugs for synergistic action, and creating tools for more accurate diagnosis and better surgical intervention.

Koch Institute member Sangeeta N. Bhatia, the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, serves as the inaugural director for the center.

A major goal for research at the Marble Center is to leverage the collaborative culture at the Koch Institute to use nanotechnology to improve cancer diagnosis and care in patients around the world, Bhatia says.

Transforming nanomedicine

The Marble Center joins MITs broader efforts at the forefront of discovery and innovation to solve the urgent global challenge that is cancer. The concept of convergence the blending of the life and physical sciences with engineering is a hallmark of MIT, the founding principle of the Koch Institute, and at the heart of the Marble Centers mission.

The center galvanizes the MIT cancer research community in efforts to use nanomedicine as a translational platform for cancer care, says Tyler Jacks, director of the Koch Institute and a David H. Koch Professor of Biology. Its transformative by applying these emerging technologies to push the boundaries of cancer detection, treatment, and monitoring and translational by promoting their development and application in the clinic.

The centers faculty six prominent MIT professors and Koch Institute members are committed to fighting cancer with nanomedicine through research, education, and collaboration. They are:

Sangeeta Bhatia (director), the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science;

Daniel G. Anderson, the Samuel A. Goldblith Professor of Applied Biology in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science;

Angela M. Belcher, the James Mason Crafts Professor in the departments of Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering;

Paula T. Hammond, the David H. Koch Professor of Engineering and head of the Department of Chemical Engineering;

Darrell J. Irvine, professor in the departments of Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering; and

Robert S. Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor.

Extending their collaboration within the walls of the Institute, Marble Center members benefit greatly from the support of the Peterson (1957) Nanotechnology Materials Core Facility in the Koch Institutes Robert A. Swanson (1969) Biotechnology Center. The Peterson Facilitys array of technological resources and expertise is unmatched in the United States, and gives members of the center, and of the Koch Institute, a distinct advantage in the development and application of nanoscale materials and technologies.

Looking ahead

The Marble Center has wasted no time getting up to speed in its first year, and has provided support for innovative research projects including theranostic nanoparticles that can both detect and treat cancers, real-time imaging of interactions between cancer and immune cells to better understand response to cancer immunotherapies, and delivery technologies for several powerful RNA-based therapeutics able to engage specific cancer targets with precision.

As part of its efforts to help foster a multifaceted science and engineering research force, the center has provided fellowship support for trainees as well as valuable opportunities for mentorship, scientific exchange, and professional development.

Promotingbroader engagement, the Marble Center serves as a bridge to a wide network of nanomedicine resources, connecting its members to MIT.nano, other nanotechnology researchers, and clinical collaborators across Boston and beyond. The center has also convened a scientific advisory board, whose members hail from leading academic and clinical centers around the country, and will help shape the centers future programs and continued expansion.

As the Marble Center begins another year of collaborations and innovation, there is a new milestone in sight for 2018.Nanomedicine has been selected as the central theme for the Koch Institutes 17th Annual Cancer Research Symposium. Scheduled for June 15, 2018, the event will bring together national leaders in the field, providing an ideal forum for Marble Center members to share the discoveries and advancements made during its sophomore year.

Having next years KI Annual Symposium dedicated to nanomedicine will be a wonderful way to further expose the cancer research community to the power of doing science at the nanoscale, Bhatia says. The interdisciplinary approach has the power to accelerate new ideas at this exciting interface of nanotechnology and medicine.

To learn more about the people and projects of the Koch Institute Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine, visit nanomedicine.mit.edu.

Nanoparticle delivery tech targets rare lung disease – In-PharmaTechnologist.com

Posted on July 7, 2017 by ev1

Researchers at London, UK-based Imperial College are developing a technology to transport drugs directly to the lungs of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients.

The technology consists of ethanol-heated iron and trans-trans muconic acid nanoparticles that can be small molecule drug actives.

These particles can be delivered directly to the site of the disease according to lead researcher Jane Mitchell, who told us the targeted approach bypasses the toxicity issues that have held back development of less targeted, systemic nanomedicines.

One of the biggest limitations in nanomedicine is toxicity, some of the best nanomedicine structures do not make it past the initial stages of development, as they kill cells, said Mitchell.

However in a study published in Pulmonary Circulation , researchers explain that these metallic structures - called metal organic frameworks (MOF) are not harmful to cells.

We made these prototype MOFs, and have shown they were not toxic to a whole range of human lung cells, Mitchell told us.

The hope is that using this approach will ultimately allow for high concentrations of drugs we already have, to be delivered to only the vessels in the lung, and reduce side effects, she said.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)

PAH is a rare lung disease caused by changes to the smaller branches of the pulmonary arteries. The artery walls thicken, and eventually cause organ failure.

While no cure exists, treatments that open up blood vessels in the artery wall are available. According to Mitchell, these treatments can produce negative side effects.

The drugs available [for PAH]are all small molecule drugs which are seriously limited by systemic side effects. Therefore delivering these drugs to the site of disease in our metal organic frame-work (MOF) carrier would represent a paradigm step forward in technology to treat this disease, she said.

Further, researchers believe the MOF technology has therapeutic benefits of its own.

We know that the carriers can havetherapeutic benefits intheir own right such as reducing inflammation and, in the case of ourformation, the potential for imaging, said Mitchell.

For patients with PAH, it could mean we are able to turn it from a fatal condition, to a chronic manageable one, she said.

According to Mitchell, the technology is not expensive at the experimental level, and would be scaled up at commercial level.

We now need to perform proof of concept studies using carriers containing drugs in cell and animal based models. With funding, this will be complete within 2 years, she Mitchell.

Upon completion of clinical trials, the University hopes to license out the technology.

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Nanoparticle delivery tech targets rare lung disease - In-PharmaTechnologist.com

Semiconductor-laced bunny eyedrops appear to nuke infections – The Register

Posted on July 7, 2017 by ev1

Don't worry, little guy. They're really, really small!

In early lab experiments on rabbits, eyedrops laced with nanoparticles appear to combat bacterial keratitis, a serious infection of the cornea which can, in severe cases, cause blindness.

Researchers hope that these nanoparticles could someday offer a non-toxic alternative to antibiotics, which have the undesirable side effect of creating resistant bacteria.

A common treatment option is steroids, but they can cause scarring. Boffins have found that some nanomaterials, such as copper oxide and silicon, appear to damage bacterial cells. Lately, some groups have realised that carbon quantum dots really tiny semiconductors seem to offer similar benefits with low toxicity, the ability to disperse in water easily, and a relatively simple fabrication process.

"We think it should be safe," Han-Jia Lin, a biochemist at National Taiwan Ocean University in Keelung, told The Register. He and his team had previously studied quantum dots for wound healing in rats.

In the new study, Lin and his team created carbon quantum dots approximately six nanometers in diameter by heating spermidine at around 200oC for about three hours and placing the resultant dots in liquid. The ratio was about 0.4 per cent quantum dot to liquid.

The team infected rabbits with bacterial keratitis. Some received 4 per cent SMX antibiotics, some the quantum-filled eye drops, and others no treatment for control. The researchers found that the quantum dot eyedrop solution showed therapeutic effects right away, even after the first day. The dots were small enough to sneak into the cornea and destroy the bacterial cells.

This had something to do with the quantum dots' compatibility with the cells as well as how they destabilised the cell membranes. The researchers don't know exactly why they work.

By two weeks, the rabbits' eyes were mostly better the quantum dot eyedrop worked about as well as antibiotics. Lin says the treated rabbits showed no side effects from treatment.

A paper describing the research appeared this week in ACS Nano.

It's a "conceptually and technically quite elegant study with remarkable results" but "still with a couple of open questions and obvious risks before this could lead to any product that could help patients," Claus-Michael Lehr, a nanomedicine researcher at Saarland University in Saarbrcken, Germany, told The Reg.

First, he said the reasons why the nanomedicine has such strong bactericidal effects is "not easily explained". Second, the effect of opening tight junction tissue barriers (a potential risk in itself) needs to be shown to be reversible. Third, what chemical products are formed by the quantum dots are they toxic or carcinogenic?

Finally, he said it was wasn't clear how quantum dots that penetrate tissue would behave in the long term. "These structures are probably not biodegradable," he said, "and if they were, what metabolites are being formed?"

Lin says the next steps are to test the long-term effects of the quantum dots, but the the team is trying to be careful in their research to try to limit how they accumulate in bodies. Here, for example, they tested them on the eye.

Because the carbon quantum dots work on such a sensitive part of the body such as the eye without apparently harming cells, "This has potential," Lin said.

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Semiconductor-laced bunny eyedrops appear to nuke infections - The Register

Pence vows ‘new era’ in US space exploration, but few details – Phys.Org

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

July 7, 2017 by Kerry Sheridan US Vice President Mike Pence vowed to put astronauts on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970sbut gave no specifics

US Vice President Mike Pence vowed Thursday to usher in a "new era" of American leadership in space, with a return to the Moon and explorers on Mars, but offered few details.

Pence, who was recently named to head a government advisory body called the National Space Council, said the group would hold its first meeting "before the summer is out."

He also toured NASA's Kennedy Space Center to see progress in constructing a NASA spaceship destined for deep space and privately built capsules designed to send astronauts to low-Earth orbit in the coming years.

"Our nation will return to the Moon, and we will put American boots on the face of Mars," Pence told the cheering crowd of about 800 NASA employees, space experts and private contractors, but gave no specifics.

"We did win the race to the Moon," he added, recalling the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s which sent menone of whom, Buzz Aldrin, sat in the audienceto the surface of the Moon.

NASA earlier this year announced it is exploring a project called the Deep Space Gateway, which could send astronauts into the vicinity of the Moon using a massive new rocket, known as the Space Launch System, or SLS, being developed by NASA.

And propelling people to Mars by the 2030s was a key feature of US space policy under the previous administrations of Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

Shuttle era

The United States lost the ability to send astronauts to the International Space Station when the shuttle program was retired in 2011.

Since then, Americans have been forced to hitch rides aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, at a cost of more than $80 million per seat.

SpaceX and Boeing are hard at work on space capsules that will start sending people to low-Earth orbit as early as 2018.

Pence, who spoke in front of a previously flown SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule and a Boeing Starliner spaceship model, said he would continue to foster cooperation with private industry to make space travel cheaper, safer and more accessible than before.

"It was heartening to see him allude to growing public-private partnerships, but the lack of policy details, personnel and budgetary priorities is concerning," Phil Larson, a former White House space advisor under Obama who also worked for SpaceX, told AFP after the speech.

"Usually you have a leader visit, tour and give a speech to roll out a detail-oriented policy after it's been developed. This is backwards."

President Donald Trump's proposed budget, released in March, called for $19.1 billion for NASA, a 0.8 percent decrease from 2017.

It called for NASA to abandon plans to lasso an asteroid and cut several missions to study climate change and Earth science.

But NASA would emerge largely unscathed compared to deep cuts proposed at other agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lawmakers are still hammering out their adjustments to the proposed budget, which should be decided on later this year.

Explore further: Japan reveals plans to put a man on moon by 2030

2017 AFP

Japan has revealed ambitious plans to put an astronaut on the Moon around 2030 in new proposals from the country's space agency.

Under US President Donald Trump's proposed budget, NASA's funding would stay largely intact but the space agency would abandon plans to lasso an asteroid, along with four Earth and climate missions.

Dismissed by former US president Barack Obama as a place explorers had already seen, the Moon has once again gained interest as a potential destination under Donald Trump's presidency.

Boeing already has the Dreamliner. Now it also has the Starliner.

NASA will probably delay the first two missions of its Orion deep-space capsule, being developed to send astronauts beyond earth's orbit and eventually to Mars, the US space agency said.

Think you have the right stuff to be an astronaut?

IC 342 is a challenging cosmic target. Although it is bright, the galaxy sits near the equator of the Milky Way's galactic disk, where the sky is thick with glowing cosmic gas, bright stars, and dark, obscuring dust.

When it comes to the distant universe, even the keen vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope can only go so far. Teasing out finer details requires clever thinking and a little help from a cosmic alignment with a gravitational ...

Yale researchers have identified 60 potential new "hot Jupiters"highly irradiated worlds that glow like coals on a barbecue grill and are found orbiting only 1% of Sun-like stars.

A project that explores whether there is a musical equivalent to the curvature of spacetime will be presented on Thursday 6July by Gavin Starks at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull.

European and Japanese scientists Thursday proudly unveiled the BepiColombo spacecraft ahead of its seven-year journey to Mercury, to explore one of the Solar System's most enigmatic planets.

Astronomers have discovered a rare, warm, massive Jupiter-like planet orbiting a star that is rotating extremely quickly. The discovery raises puzzling questions about planet formation neither the planet's comparatively ...

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Pence vows 'new era' in US space exploration, but few details - Phys.Org

RCA graduate proposal would see ordinary people driving NASA’s space exploration rovers – Dezeen

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

Royal College of Art graduate Brian Black has designed a concept rover and virtual-reality interface that would allow anyone on earth to contribute to space exploration missions.

Black's vision would see participants driving the rovers over real planets and moons, and collecting samples for analysis, all via a virtual-reality (VR) headset.

Installed in galleries, universities or other public places, the VR experience would function as an engagement mechanism during future interplanetary missions by NASA and other space agencies.

Black a masters student in Vehicle Design at the Royal College of Art (RCA) titled his project the Overview Effect, after a phrase used to describe the awe and change in attitude that astronauts commonly report experiencing once they see the earth from orbit.

He said: "I started with a question. What if there was a way to increase understanding? To give the public an experience that provokes a mental shift the same way astronauts have that first time they look back upon the earth?"

"From space, astronauts tell us national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide us become less important and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this 'pale blue dot' becomes both obvious and imperative."

"Even more so, many of them tell us that from the Overview perspective, all of this seems imminently achievable, if only more people could have the experience," he continued.

For the purposes of the project, Black used Saturn's largest moon, Titan, as an example, because its earth-like qualities have made it a subject of interest for scientists.

Anticipating that a one-and-a-half-hour time delay in the transmission between Titan and earth would make real-time exploration impossible, Black proposes that the VR experience take place in a pre-scanned environment, with the terrain mapped using an orbital probe or data that the rover has already collected.

To avoid running into unforeseen obstacles, the rovers would also need to be equipped with autonomous technology.

In Black's demonstration for The Overview Project, users of the VR headset saw the terrain mapped as a simple point cloud, but he said that more detailed visualisations could ultimately be developed, such as those developed by 3D-scanning company ScanLAB.

Brian Black demonstrated a version of The Overview Effect virtual-reality interface at the Royal College of Art graduate exhibition

An accompanying concept space rover called Creos is also part of the Overview Effect. It is designed around its power source, an advanced radio isotopic generator (ASRG), a highly efficient kind of generator that is currently under development at NASA.

Around this, Black has imagined a "rugged" body suitable for exploration. The rover has a high clearance but is otherwise low and flat, with a nearly square shape.

The rover uses lidar (like radar, but using pulsed laser light) to visualise its environment the same technology as in today's self-driving vehicles. This module is situated on the rover's roof.

For users on earth, the vehicle also captures a soundscape using binaural audio receivers embedded in its front side panels. Scientific instruments like sampling tools and probes are all loaded into the front of vehicle.

Interplanetary design is experiencing something of a renaissance now that several private companies like Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk's SpaceX are aggressively pursuing space travel.

Clment Balavoine has imagined flight suits precisely tailored to support the musculoskeletal system of SpaceX travellers, while one of 2016's Designs of the Year was a Space Cup emulating a natural drinking experience for astronauts.

Black, who is originally from the US, studied at the Art Institute of Colorado before beginning his studies at the RCA. His work was included at the school's graduate exhibition, which ran from 24 June to 2 July at the Kensington campus in London.

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RCA graduate proposal would see ordinary people driving NASA's space exploration rovers - Dezeen

Go-ahead given to University of Warwick led space exploration – The Boar

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

Space exploration and the discovery of alien life have been of great interest to humans for decades. In recent times developments have been made, but there is still a long way to go before we have a United Nations on Mars! However, missions to discover Earth-like planets can bring us one step closer to achieving this reality. One such mission, led by Don Pollaco at the University of Warwick, has recently been given the go-ahead.

This mission will involve sending satellites into space, most notably the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO). The PLATO mission will help address how common Earth-like planets are, and whether our solar system is unusual or even unique. It even has the potential to eventually lead to the detection of extra-terrestrial life. The satellite will also investigate seismic activity in some stars in order to determine information such as their mass and age to and help to understand their exoplanet systems.

it will be able to help find planets across large areas of space, and process vast amounts of information on these planets.

The satellite will search for tiny, regular dips in brightness as the planets cross in front of stars, temporarily blocking out a small fraction of the starlight. However, the signals satellites pick up can be sometimes obscured by objects such as meteors that can appear to be planets, which can lead to false positives. These issues can be overcome through the use of machine learning techniques; new algorithms can be developed to distinguish false positives from real objects. The use of Big Data can help significantly with planet detection; it will be able to help find planets across large areas of space, and process vast amounts of information on these planets.

More generally, while there are many advocates for planet detection and space exploration, there is opposition. The most popular counter-argument would be whether or not we should focus on solving issues on our own planet before discovering others. This may not be a question of research, since climate change has been proven to exist for example, but there is the opportunity cost of research funding that helps deal with current issues on Earth. It may also be important that humans learn how to handle conflicting opinions, particularly in a political sense, before research into planet discovery is done.

It may also be important that humans learn how to handle conflicting opinions, particularly in a political sense, before research into planet discovery is done.

Nonetheless, if the research is there, it can help prepare humans for a time when exploring other planets will be necessary. Additionally, because some of the research at Warwick will involve machine learning and Big Data, research into this can help advance these fields and automation in general which, if used safely, can help improve current living conditions on Earth. Improvements in machine learning can also help develop more efficient rockets, such as with SpaceX, that can help with visiting the planets themselves, albeit far in the future.

Though the work is in its early stages, research into new planet detection can help us to further understand exoplanets and how the universe is structured, and help us acquire new knowledge that could potentially help us with machine learning techniques. The research applications should nevertheless be considered carefully; we may find less than we expect, but even finding one very Earth-like planet could have an important societal impact.

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Go-ahead given to University of Warwick led space exploration - The Boar

Lunar Rescue: Astronauts Can Move Fallen Comrades with New Tool – Space.com

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren pulled ESA astronaut Pedro Duque during a simulated moonwalk beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The pair tested a new instrument that allows for the safe and rapid transfer of a fallen companion despite the bulkiness of spacesuits.

Space is a harsh, unforgiving environment, so there's a good chance of an astronaut being injured at some point while exploring the formidable landscapes on the moon or Mars. To help cope with this type of potential disaster, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) recently tested a new device to bring astronauts safely back to base if they are incapacitated during a moonwalk or Mars expedition.

Last week, ESA astronaut Pedro Duque and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren spent 10 days in the Aquarius habitat 65 feet (20 meters) under the ocean off the coast of the Florida Keys as part of NASA's 22nd Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO-22) mission. With the aim of simulating space exploration to test new equipment, procedures and operations, the two astronauts made multiple "waterwalks," adjusting their buoyancy to simulate the gravity of the moon and Mars.

"The mission was both familiar and unique," Duquesaid in a statementfrom ESA. "Familiar because it resembled spaceflight, from the mission preparation, timelines, priorities, 'launch' when we dived to the base and daily program meetings, but the environment was unique, living and working at the bottom of the sea." [Take A Tour Of TheUnderwater AstronautHabitat, Aquarius | Video]

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren unfolding the Lunar Evacuation System Assembly so he can come to ESA astronaut Pedro Duque's aid in a simulated lunar rescue.

Among the new types of equipment that the mission was meant to test was the Lunar Evacuation System Assembly (LESA). Spacesuits add bulk and reduce astronauts' mobility, which would make it challenging to carry or drag a fallen comrade while wearing a suit, according to the statement. LESA allows for the rapid recovery of a moonwalker, even given the limited mobility of the bulky attire.

A foldable, pyramid-like structure on wheels opens above the astronaut, lifting the incapacitated explorer and placing her or him on a wheeled stretcher. It took only six months to move the instrument from concept to prototype at the ESA Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, according to the statement.

NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren rescues ESA astronaut Pedro Duque in a simulated lunar rescue.

During their undersea adventure, Durque and Lindgren took turns acting as the fallen astronaut. ESA astronaut trainer Herv Stevenin joined NEEMO-22 to help test the new device. Before its visit to the seafloor, LESA was tested in the Astronaut Centre's large training pool.

"We designed it with international cooperation in mind and based on our expertise in spacewalks and experience working with NASA on the preparation of future space exploration," Stevenin said. "This lunar-simulation capability will allow more tests of innovative European hardware for future human exploration of the moon."

Follow Nola Taylor Redd on Twitter @NolaTReddor Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

Sorry Veep, America already leads the world in space by a large margin – Ars Technica

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

Enlarge / Vice President Mike Pence speaks at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday.

NASA

If President Donald Trump has had one consistent message about space exploration both during his campaign and presidency, it's that America is doing badly in space. About a year ago during a campaign stop in Daytona Beach, Florida, Trump said, "Look what's happened with our whole history of space and leadership. Look what's going on, folks. We're like a third-world nation."

As Vice President Mike Pence has assumed duties over space policy, he has made a respectable effort to tour NASA and Air Force facilities around the country. But during these visits, he's also reiterated this Debbie Downer message. When he delivered a speech Thursday at Kennedy Space Center, Pence saidthat under the Trump administration, America will lead in space "once again" no less than eighttimes.

The subtext here is that America has fallen far behind in spaceand that it needs strong leadership to get back on its feet. While there are definitely significant problems with US space policystarting with the lack of a clear direction for human spaceflight and the funding to support those goalsno other nation can come close to the United States in space. Moreover, because of the long lead times baked into aerospace development, almost every "accomplishment" that demonstrates American leadership in space during the next 3.5 years will have startedlong before President Trump took office.

That said, here's a rundown of how America already leads in space.

With the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, the most powerful rocket in the world is now the Delta IV Heavy, manufactured and flown by the Colorado-based United Launch Alliance. It can heft 28.8 tons to low Earth orbit. Almost everything about the rocket, from its payload fairing to engines, is American made. Since its first flight in 2003, the Delta IV Heavy has flown nine successful missions without a hitch. The world's next most powerful booster is China's Long March 5 rocket, with a capacity of 25 tons to low Earth orbit. It has flown just twice: once successfully and once with a catastrophic failure.

Soon, probably by the end of this year, California-based SpaceX will debut its Falcon Heavy rocket. According to the company, this rocket will have a lift capacity of up to 63.8 tons to low Earth orbit. By around 2019 or 2020, NASA should fly its Space Launch System rocket, with 70 tons of capacity. Around the same time, Washington-based Blue Origin intends to debut the New Glenn rocket with a lift capacity of 45 tons. No other rocket under development in another country will have close to this lift capacity.

NASA has successfully landed eight of nine missions sent to the surface of Mars, culminating with the 1-ton Curiosity lander in 2012. Only its Mars Polar Lander failed to safely reach the surfacein 1999. Two more landers will be launched by the end of the decade, and SpaceX may send one or two private, uncrewed missions to Mars as well.

No other country can remotely boast about such a record. Four of five Soviet Union landers failed to reachMars safely, and the one that did, Mars 3 in 1971, survived for only about 15 seconds. In addition, there have been a number of failed Soviet and Russian attempts to reach the Martian moon Phobos. Europe also tried to land a spacecraft on Mars twice, and both were lost during the process.

NASA has explored the outer Solar System with Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, the Galileo and now Juno missions to the Jupiter system, Cassini to Saturn, and New Horizons to Pluto and beyond. It's amazing to contemplate the fact thateverysingle probeNASA has sent into the outer Solar System has been a success. In this, NASA has a perfect record with missionsno other space agency has even sought to attempt. The US also has numerous other missions en route to their targets, or under development, including more asteroid probes and a lander for Jupiter's intriguing moon Europa.

By contrast, Russia hasnot had a successful interplanetary mission in more than three decades, since 1984s launch of Vega 2, a probe to Venus and Halleys Comet. The Soviet Union and Russia, moreover, have never flown beyond Mars.

The European Space Agency has participated in two NASA missions that have gone beyond the asteroid belt. The first, Ulysses, made two distant flybys of Jupiter during a mission that focused primarily on observing the Sun. NASA managed development of the second mission, Cassini, which has had a spectacular run of observing the Saturn system overthe last decade. As part of that mission, the European Space Agency's Titan lander was mostly successful.

Thanks to commercial investment, as well as support from NASA for SpaceX through commercial crew and cargo contracts, the United States has a definitive lead in what is probably the most exciting new technology in spaceflightvertical takeoff and vertical landing of rocket boosters. The promise of these reusable launch systems is low cost, high frequency access to space, and the opening of the frontier for commercialization, national security, and perhaps settlement.

An Air Force University study recently found that the United States has a definitive lead in these technologies thanks to SpaceX and Blue Origin, but the study warnedthat countries such as China could copy these ideas and surpass the United States if strategic government investments are not made.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, alone, is putting about $1 billion of his own money into his rocket company, Blue Origin. In 2015, Google invested $900 million in SpaceX. Factoring in venture capital, we can conservatively estimate that private investors arenow putting about $2 billion a year into the US space industry. Compare that to Russia's annual budget for all space activities, including the maintenance of decades-old rockets, which is about $2 billion per year.

This is the "secret sauce" of US success in space: billions of dollars flowing to new, innovative ideas for spaceflight and activities in space.Other countries have nationalized space programs, with large bureaucracies. America has that, too, with NASA (which is funded to a far greater degree than any other government program). But it also has unfettered capital chasing dreams like asteroid mining.

NASA has nurtured this process, too. It has opened up its segment of the International Space Station for research and as a platform to launch cubesats. It has helped Bigelow Aerospace test a new inflatable space habitat. NASA has supported companies like Made in Space to experiment with in-space manufacturing. Finally, through its commercial cargo and crew programs, NASA has enabled private companies like SpaceX, Orbital ATK, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada to develop a new, modern fleet of spacecraft.

NASA gets a bad name for the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, and indeed it has been painful to rely on Russia for a ride to the International Space Station since then. However, this doesn't mean NASA has abdicated the lead in spaceflight. Within two years, the United States should have not one but two human-rated spacecraftSpaceX's Dragon and Boeing's Starliner. This will be thanks to a program originally conceived by the George W. Bush Administration and aggressively pursued by President Obama in the face of opposition from some congressional Republicans. Additionally, adeep space capsule, Orion, may be ready for humans by 2023.

Despiteall of its "America will lead in space once again" talk, the Trump administration has the potential to do some good with its revitalized National Space Council. When he wasn't saying America was behind in space, Pence on Thursday noted many of the accomplishments of the US commercial space industry.

If the new administration standardizes and simplifies regulations for these companies, allows NASA and the US military to make prudent investments, sets achievable goals for human spaceflight, embraces international partners rather than excludes them with an "America first" attitude, and continues to support planetary exploration without gutting Earth science, America's already considerable lead in space exploration can become insurmountable.

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Sorry Veep, America already leads the world in space by a large margin - Ars Technica

Market Focus on Shares of NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) – Baxter Review

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) has a current 14-day RSI of 41.31, the 7-day is 43.95, and the 3-day is resting at 43.09. The RSI, or Relative Strength Index is a widely used oscillating indicator among traders and investors. The RSI operates in a range-bound territory with values between 0 and 100. When the RSI line heads up, the stock may be showing strength. The opposite is the case when the RSI line is moving lower. Alternate time periods may be used when following the RSI indicator. The RSI may be more volatile using a shorter period of time. Many traders keep an eye on the 30 and 70 marks on the RSI scale. A move above 70 is widely considered to show the stock as overbought, and a move below 30 would indicate that the stock may be oversold. Traders may use these levels to help identify stock price reversals.

Traders may be focusing on other technical indicators for stock assessment. Presently, NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) has a 14-day Commodity Channel Index (CCI) of -40.21. The CCI technical indicator can be used to help determine if a stock is overbought or oversold. CCI may also be used to help discover divergences that could possibly signal reversal moves. A CCI closer to +100 may provide an overbought signal, and a CCI near -100 may offer an oversold signal. Investors may be watching other technical indicators such as the Williams Percent Range or Williams %R. The Williams %R is a momentum indicator that helps measure oversold and overbought levels. This indicator compares the closing price of a stock in relation to the highs and lows over a certain time period.

A common look back period is 14 days. NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK)s Williams %R presently stands at -53.00. The Williams %R oscillates in a range from 0 to -100. A reading between 0 and -20 would indicate an overbought situation. A reading from -80 to -100 would indicate an oversold situation.

Currently, the 14-day ADX for NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) is sitting at 34.87. Generally speaking, an ADX value from 0-25 would indicate an absent or weak trend. A value of 25-50 would support a strong trend. A value of 50-75 would identify a very strong trend, and a value of 75-100 would lead to an extremely strong trend. ADX is used to gauge trend strength but not trend direction. Traders often add the Plus Directional Indicator (+DI) and Minus Directional Indicator (-DI) to identify the direction of a trend.

A widely used tool among technical stock analysts is the moving average. Moving averages are considered to be lagging indicators that simply take the average price of a stock over a certain period of time. Moving averages can be very helpful for spotting peaks and troughs. They may also be used to help the trader figure out reliable support and resistance levels for the stock. Currently, the 200-day MA is sitting at 0.03.

Investors may be searching for stocks that are undervalued. Scanning the markets during obvious pullbacks may be one strategy, but it may take a more concerted effort to identify these names if the market decides to climb further. Getting caught up in the details from news and various economic reports may leave the average investor dizzy and confused. Focusing on the most important data sets may be helpful when trying to muffle all the noise. Heading into the next quarter, investors will be watching which companies are experiencing positive earnings momentum. Often times, earnings that vastly beat expectations may cause the stock to skyrocket. Filling the portfolio with stocks experiencing positive earnings momentum may be a popular choice. Investors may want to look a little bit deeper into the situation to make sure that the momentum is justified. Some investors may already be adept at figuring this out while others may need to put in a bit more work.

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Market Focus on Shares of NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) - Baxter Review

Agri Scientists in Raichur Use Nanotech to Strengthen Pesticide – The Wire

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

Science The many toxins and enzymes secreted byPhotorhabdus luminescens, a bacterium, are already inuse as biocontrol agents against arthropod pests.

The fight is on:A mite killed by the new nano-particulate solution. Source: India Science Wire

New Delhi: The use of eco-friendly biocontrol agents as an alternative to chemical pesticides is prevalent in some farming communities. A group of scientists have now shown that it is possible to substantially enhance the efficacy of such biocontrol agents by converting them into nanoparticles.

The bacterium Photorhabdus luminescensis used as a biocontrol agent against a wide range of crop pests, like mite, aphid and mealy bugs. Researchers at the University of Agricultural Sciences inRaichur, Karnataka, have converted the secretion ofP. luminescensinto nanoparticles and found that its efficacy improved significantly.The nanoparticulate formhas been tested against two sucking pests of cotton a mite,Tetranychus macfarlanei, and an aphid,Aphis gossypii.

The researchers reportedtheir findings through a paper published in the journal Current Scienceon July 10. They wrote that a high mortality coupled with quick action emphasises the potential of nanotechnology in enhancing the pathogenicity of a microbial pesticide. They had also foundthat the nanoparticle form of the secretion was lethal to pests at concentrations upto a million times lower than its unprocessed form a feature that could translate into crucial savings for farmers.

Scanning electron microscope image of a P. luminescenssecretion in nanoparticle form (A),about 8 m wide. Gum arabica particles are also visible (B). Credit: doi: 10.18520/cs/v112/i11/2312-2316

The cellular secretionshave been used as pesticide against a wide range of insects. The bacterium P. luminescenslives within the body of a genus of nematodes or roundworms called Heterorhabditis, in a symbiotic relationship with the worm. Its cellular secretions, in the form of an array of toxins and enzymes, have been used in pesticides against a wide range of insects thanks to their insecticidal properties. Some targets against which the chemicals are particularly effective include the sucking and chewing arthropod pests damagingagricultural crops. Once the secretion is extracted, it is incorporated into a solution that farmers then spray on their crops.

Notably, the solutions are not as potent as synthetically manufactured chemicals but could now be with the nanoparticle option in the picture.We have proved that it is possible to substantially enhance the efficacy of biopesticides. We need to conduct more studies to figure what is the best form in which it could be delivered to the users: whether it should be as a powder or a solution or in some other form, said A. Prabhuraj, one of the scientists involved in the study. He and his team converted the secretions into nanoparticles using a multi-stage process involving culturing, processing with a centrifuge, ultrasonic-assisted atomising and finally a hot air-assisted vacuum process. The final output was in the form of a fine dry powder.

This article was originally published by India Science Wire.Sunderarajan Padmanabhan tweets at @ndpsr.

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Agri Scientists in Raichur Use Nanotech to Strengthen Pesticide - The Wire

REVEALED: Nuke bunkers in UK that YOU could hide in if WW3 explodes – Daily Star

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

MILLION pound nuclear shelters are lying underneath our feet in Britain ready and waiting for World War 3 and the Daily Star Online can reveal exactly where they are.

The threat of a nuke war involving North Korea is higher than ever before after its tyrant leader Kim Jong-un tested his first intercontinental ballistic missile this week.

So if and when the time comes, and the UK finds itself in the firing line, thousands of Brits will be desperately cramming into nuclear fallout shelters across the country.

But the bad news is the numbers of active shelters fall into just single figures. And worse still, one of the just four shelters Daily Star Online have come across will only be reserved for the Prime Minister.

A cold war expert also revealed to us there are many more shelters across Britain that are being kept hidden from society, and has revealed some of their secret locations.

And on top of all of that, despite the already little protection, Nick Catford, the author of Cold War Bunkers, has a chilling warning for Daily Star Online readers: We are not prepared for a nuclear war.

GETTY

Tubby tyrant Kim Jong-un gloats as the world reacts to the news of his successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. As Trump took to Twitter to slam the secretive state, the world watches in fear: is this how WW3 starts?

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Kim Jong-un watches as the missile launches

The country currently houses four known nuke bunkers, but once was a hotbed for dozens of them which were built for the Cold War, before being turned into museums, sold off, or simply decommissioned.

Heres a list of the shelters as listed by Civil Defence Today:

Widen the net and include decommissioned and transformed bunkers, then these 14 shelters would have once been our getaway locations:

GETTY

Photographs have emerged of a forgotten Cold War bunker - complete with fascinating instructions of what to do in event of a nuclear attack. The hidden relic deep in the heart of the East Anglian countryside was built in 1958 when tensions between the West and the Soviet Union were growing towards their height.

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Although the public could flee into some of the active bunkers in the event of an all-out war involving the likes of Russia, North Korea and USA, they werent actually built for us, Cold War Bunkers writer Nick told Daily Star Online.

Provision was never made for the people here, ever, he told us. The Government, military and services were prepared for themselves.

But in other countries there was. In Sweden for example during the cold war, when you had a new build you would have to have fallout shelters included, but we never had that.

Some people built their own fallout shelters there are some fallout shelters in houses but they are very few and far between.

He added: (If there was a nuclear war) theres very little we could do.

In the Cold War the local and national government all had bunkers and fall out shelters and the main reason for those was so that in the event of a nuclear attack they could keep services running.

Nick revealed to Daily Star Online that besides the Government-commissioned bunkers, there are actually secret shelters lying underneath properties across the country that are kept hidden from the public.

During the threat of Cold War some people built their own bunkers under their homes, he said.

There was a company in Kent that would build shelters to order in your garden.

There was this one man in Brixham, Devon who got a bit paranoid in the cold war, and built his own house with a shelter underneath it.

I stayed there the night once, and hed fitted it out in similar equipment to the Government!

GETTY

Hes got plenty of food, water, hes got the generator. He is quite well provided for.

But for how long? Everything is going to run out, so youve got to come out at some time.

All the tins (of food) there I remember were dated to the 1980s, so they never got replaced!

The locations of the secret bunkers revealed to us are mainly in villages, and include Pluckily in Kent, Balcombe in Sussex, South Godstone in Surrey and Brixton in Devon.

But if anyone is now thinking about building their own nuke bunker, Nick has a word of warning: The cost is colossal.

Since 2008, photographer Eric Lafforgue ventured to North Korea six times. Thanks to digital memory cards, he was able to save photos that was forbidden to take inside the segregated state

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Taking pictures in the DMZ is easy, but if you come too close to the soldiers, they stop you

He told us: When the UK started its bunker building programme in the 1950s, at the start of the Cold War, we put all our radar stations in protected bunkers and just building the bunkers for the radar stations virtually bankrupted the country.

We cant afford it, and anyway, no bunker that we could build would withstand a direct hit.

They need blast protection, which would be virtually impossible to provide.

You then need filtration so if your air runs out, any air that you bring from the surface is clean from radiation. This would be horrendously expensive.

You would also need a supply of fuel for running a generator and a water supply - it is all just so expensive and the idea of the Government building shelters isnt going to happen.

But dont be downhearted, as Nick believes there is only a small chance of a nuclear bomb going off in Britain.

There is no threat whatsoever from the Soviets. I dont think there is a threat from North Korea either, he said.

The only slight worry would be if a terrorist organisation got hold of something. It would be a small, probably quite dirty bomb. But I dont think you could prepare for something like that.

If anyone is still concerned about not having a bunker, Nick told Daily Star Online: I dont think we have anything to worry about. I have a bunker, but I wont be running to it! I wouldnt want to be stuck down in that.

REVEALED: Nuke bunkers in UK that YOU could hide in if WW3 explodes - Daily Star

WW3 FEARS: Pakistan fires ballistic missile against ‘hostile and belligerent India’ – Express.co.uk

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

GETTY YouTube

It follows outrage from Islamabad about the sale of advanced weapons to India by some countries Pakistan claims would undermine the strategic balance in the region.

Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said: The weapon system will augment credible deterrence against [the] prevailing threat spectrum more effectively, including anti-missile defences.

Nasr is a high precision weapon system with the ability of quick deployments.

General Bajwa used the launch to target Indias cold start doctrine by saying the missile launch has put cold water on Cold Start.

In India, operation Cold Start is the armys attempt to retaliate to Pakistani terror attacks by quickly mobilising a military unit to seize and hold territory without giving Islamabad the excuse to escalate the conflict.

Indian Army Chief Bipin Rawat said: The Cold Start doctrine exists for conventional military operations. Whether we have to conduct conventional operations for such strikes is a decision well thought through, involving the government and the Cabinet Committee on Security.

New Delhi has only recently acknowledged the existence of Cold Start as tensions escalate between the two countries with nuclear weapons.

Pakistans general congratulated the engineers and scientists who were working on the missile project, he said: You are our real heroes; the unseen; we owe you our gratitude.

Our strategic capability is a guarantee of peace against a highly militarised and increasingly belligerent neighbour."

GETTY

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Artists pay tribute to the warriors of the past in the Games' opening ceremony

GETTY

Pakistan, which previously vowed to destroy India if provoked, claimed the trials were conducted to evaluate the projectiles technical parameters and proudly stated the range has increased from 60 kilometres to 70 kilometres.

General Bajwa claimed Pakistan will go to any length to ensure regional peace and stability. He also supported the government's efforts for peace through talks.

He added: We whole-heartedly support all government efforts towards peace through dialogue. Our capability is only meant to ensure, (that) no one thinks that war remains an option.

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WW3 FEARS: Pakistan fires ballistic missile against 'hostile and belligerent India' - Express.co.uk

The Summer of Love was more than hippies and LSD it was the start of modern individualism – Metro Newspaper UK

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

Nicholas Campion, Associate Professor in Cosmology and Culture, Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities and the Performing Arts, The University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Something remarkable happened to the youth of the Western world 50 years ago. In the summer of 1967 a huge number of American teenagers nobody knows exactly how many, but some estimate between 100,000 and 200,000 escaped what they saw as their suburban prisons and made for the city district of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco.

We now look back on the Summer of Love the name originated at a meeting of counter-cultural leaders in the spring as a lost golden age of bliss, excitement and adventure; a paradise which can never be recreated. But in actual fact, this centre-piece of the 60s still looms large over popular culture and social mores today.

Drawing on utopian traditions which date back to the founding fathers, and fuelled by the euphoric and hallucinatory powers of marijuana and LSD, the summer of 1967 saw an extraordinary culture rise in a remarkably short space of time.

There was a creative explosion in the arts, music and fashion combined with a belief that the world could be born anew. Characterised by the vivid, flowing colours of psychedelic art, and a belief that love was the solution to all problems, hippy culture set out to transform the world by rejecting every social, political, economic and aesthetic feature of mainstream Western society.

This hippy revolution became a media sensation with the release of Scott Mackenzies song, San Francisco, in May 1967, which was a huge hit in the US and much of Europe.

The story goes that a paradise of peace and love prevailed in San Francisco for much of the year, but came sadly unstuck very soon after. This new Garden of Eden was destroyed progressively by the sheer numbers of teenagers who descended on Haight-Ashbury. One leading figure described the resulting chaos as a zoo.

Commercialisation of the hippie dream compounded the problem and disillusion set in. The twin shock of the Manson murders in August 1969, and the brutal killing by Hells Angels of an audience member at the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont a few months later, provided the epitaph to an era.

According to this version, the survivors renounced psychedelia, abandoned the vain belief that love would solve everything and knuckled down to political action gay liberation, second wave feminism and environmentalism. Or they found gurus and became new agers. The 60s were sealed off, preserved in aspic as a lost golden age, a time of innocence. It was over, finished, forbidden to anyone who wasnt there.

However, like all golden age stories, this narrative is largely bogus.

Criticism of the Summer of Love mythology dates back to 1967 itself, to the Diggers named after the English radicals of 1649-50. This guerrilla street theatre group regarded the hippy phenomenon as a media creation, a distraction from the true attempt to build a new and more just society. They denounced the irresponsible preaching of psychedelic guru Timothy Leary, who urged teenagers to take LSD and renounce work and education, and attacked the catchy nonsense of MacKenzies song as a marketing ploy.

The truth is that like all apparently simple cultural phenomena, the Summer of Love was complex. There was a deep tension between the Diggers back-to-basics idealistic communism, the commercialism of hippy capitalists selling bells and beads, the advocates of psychedelic transformation, and the politicos of the new left based in Berkeley, California.

The single issue all these groups opposed was American involvement in Vietnam. When the war came to an end with the Paris peace accord in 1973, there was no longer a binding external enemy. The illusion of a single, principled counterculture vanished.

In reality, there was no single 60s, no golden age, and nothing to come to an end. Instead there were three taste cultures that all coincided, and started to change societys values.

The first of these cultures was based in fashion and music. Peacock styles for men long hair and bright colours and women in mini-skirts or flowing hippy garb. The second group were political revolutionaries, post and neo-Marxists for whom the transformation of socio-economic conditions was the pressing priority. The third group believed in inner transformation and liberation achieved through marijuana and LSD.

Though the three groups priorities were fundamentally different, they shared a belief that the past was old and stale, along with a commitment to unfettered individualism. There were, of course, still significant overlaps, and when psychedelic culture met the radical left, notions of protest as play and performance took centre stage.

Half a century on from the height of the Summer of Love, all three taste cultures have survived, but with a different relevance. Individuality and self-expression in fashion and music has continued unhindered. Traditions of political protest flourish as new targets are found in environmental activism and sexual politics. And new generations of spiritual seekers find inspiration in psychedelic drugs, now also known as entheogens.

Defining the 60s as a single unique period, a lost golden age, seals it off from contemporary experience. The sun may have set on the Summer of Love, but the warmth of its rays are still being felt today.

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The Summer of Love was more than hippies and LSD it was the start of modern individualism - Metro Newspaper UK

Paul Van Dyk(Aeon), Real Trance Family and ATB added to … – Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

Dreamstate has made just 2 out of its 5 announcements yet, this time they announce phase 2 of their lineup and MASSIVE is the only word that comes our mind. Paul Van Dyk brings a new concept Aeon, ATB, Arty brings Alpha 9 and MaRLo to play a tech trance set. They have alsoaddedsome newDJs that are ripping the scene up Factor B, Shugz, Daniel Skyver and more. Complete Phase 2 lineup below. Interesting to see Real Trance Family making his/their DJ debut at Dreamstate looks like all those videos about driving his kids to school was to eventually about to get to DJ at festivals J

Tickets for the 3rdannualDreamstateSoCal are on saleTuesday, July 11 at noon PT. Ticketing information is available atDreamstateUSA.com.

For the latest news, be sure to followDreamstateonFacebook,Instagram, andTwitter.

To stay up to date with the latest Insomniac news, visitwww.insomniac.com

Co-Founder of Trance Hub, Curator of The Gathering events in India and ALT+TRANCE in Czech Republic. By day, a Digital Marketing Enthusiast with love for Food and Technology. By night, a dreamer who wants to grow the Trance scene in India.

If all pathways Just led to now Then all Ive been through Was worth it somehow For...

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Paul Van Dyk(Aeon), Real Trance Family and ATB added to ... - Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

[Exclusive Interview] Ferry Corsten: No Blueprint for Trance – EDM Sauce

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

Ferry Corsten needs no introduction; the man practically created the melodic sounds now known as trance music. Almost twenty years after he introduced us to the build ups and crashes of melodies, Ferry continues to explore the rhythmic harmonies of trance, allowing it to create a story through his latest album, Blueprint.

I caught up with Ferry at EDC Las Vegas right before he was about to take the stage and play amongst thousands of fans from around the world. Even though we did chat with Ferry earlier this year (you can read Meagen's piece here), he did get a bit more candid in regards to his take on the current state of trance (no pun intended) and how fan reception has been since his album release.

Q: You're about to perform at EDC Las Vegas for the hundred millionth time, tell me, do you still get nervous?

A: Haha. Yeah, I've played many EDC's and there's always excitement, but it's not the nerves anymore. The nerves have traded places with excitement.

Q: Any special guests with you tonight?

A: Yeah, actually. I'll be bringing out Haliene and she's going to be doing three songs live.

Q: You also just released a new album, Blueprint. Are you focusing on that for your set?

A: Yes I am. With a new album out, you really have something to present and there's a few tracks that I am including tonight. You don't have much time when you are playing at a festival, but I really hope I'm able to tell the story of Blueprint in the hour or so I have.

Q: What stands out the most out of your latest album, Blueprint?

A: The fact that the emotion of the music is backed up by a real story. Everyone always says, I'm doing an album and it tells a story. Well, this album ACTUALLY tells a story.

Q: You released the album with a narrative and then again without. Why?

A: That was always the plan. I knew that when I released an album with spoken word it wasn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. But that's the way I wanted to present the album, that is how I meant it. After a few weeks, we released it again for people who may not want to listen to the narrative. I knew that people would be like, I'm not too sure about the narrative. but I've also seen people who said on social media, man, I can't listen to the album without it.

Q: Now that you mention social media, how connected are you online and with your online fanbase?

A: Fairly connected. I don't like to have social media dominate my life even though it does create a fanbase.

Q: I'm asking because there's been a lot of debate online recently about what is considered Trance' music. You've been at the forefront of trance since the beginning, what's your take on it?

A: Well, on a personal level, I feel that trance is the sound that was big from 1999 until about 2004. I feel like I'm partly to blame for this because I started to experiment with a little bit of electro and gave it a little bit of a grittier sound.

But, what I really think that trance isit's not a sound, it's a feeling. I could listen to some techno DJ playing 122 BPM and then there's this amazing melody coming out of it and that could be trance. I could also listen to Aly & Fila at 140 BPM and I could get the same feeling.

Where I did see it go wrong was when the big EDM Big Room bubble spilled over into trance. I had to stand up and say, this isn't trance anymore.

Q: So it does affect you and the way you produce your music?

A: Yeah, of course it does. I'm very passionate about that sound.

You can stream and download Ferry Corsten's latest album, Blueprint, here.

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[Exclusive Interview] Ferry Corsten: No Blueprint for Trance - EDM Sauce

Psy-trance night goes up north to Penang as well – The Star Online

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

Bryan Kearney heads up the list for Psydora.

HYBRID Music Asia presents Psydora, a premiere club night series produced specially for Progressive Psy-Trance lovers. A carefully curated cast of international acts and local heroes are set to unleash a brave new wave of progressive Psychedelic trance.

Open up your senses and be prepared for a wild cosmic journey to the world of Psydora which will be hitting the Klang Valley and Penang club scene on July 14 and 15.

The event will see the return to our shores of Bryan Kearney (IRE), Standerwick (UK) and Sensualise (AUS) while local heroes include misterAriffin, Slashsaiful Hassan, Chukies & Whackboi and Ramsey Westwood.

Bryan Kearney is a dedicated and driven individual with a relentless passion for all things energetic. A talented technician that has continued to climb through the ranks of global dance music to truly establish himself among the Djing elite.He has performed at massive events such as Electronic Daisy Carnival, Electric Zoo, Tomorrowland, Stereosonic and Cream Ibiza.

He has toured extensively all over the globe in countries such as the United States, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, Egypt, India and Europe.

It has been quite the compelling story for Standerwick, the once described enigmatic music producer and DJ from Bristol, but there is nothing mysterious about the success he has achieved inside the world of dance music in such a short space of time.

From his early years in song composition stemming from a professional songwritingbackground with Zomba Music Publishing over two decades ago, his decision to move from writing rock music to electronic dance music was a a good move.

From an early age, music has been an integral part of the up-and-coming DJ/producer, Sensualise aka Melbourne-born Roger Ye. He studied classical music as a child, leading to his ability to play multiple instruments including the violin, piano and guitar. With a broad taste in music, his influences include anything from Contemporary, Heavy Metal and Jazz, to Techno, House and Trance.

JULY 14

SOJU SUNWAY

LG2, 119-120, Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall, 3, Jalan PJS 11/15, Bandar Sunway, PJ

DJs: Bryan Kearney, Standerwick, Sensualise, Slashsaifull Hassan and Chukies & Whackboi.

JULY 15

SOJU PENANG

B2, Entertainment City, Penang Times Square, Penang

DJs: Bryan Kearney, Standerwick, Sensualise, Ramsey Westwood, misterAriffin, Slashsaifull Hassan.

Tickets available starting from RM78. For ticketing details, visit https://hybridentertainment.com.my. Door charges at RM98.

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Psy-trance night goes up north to Penang as well - The Star Online

AscendTMS launches commission system for TMS Software – Fleet Owner

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

InMotion Global, Inc. announced that AscendTMS has released a new commission and branch split management system available for TMS software.

The new module is provided as an included feature of the Premium AscendTMS subscription. It allows carriers and freight brokers to setup and manage a variety of sales commission and branch split programs, along with full commission overrides on a load-by-load basis, the company noted.

Tim Higham, president and CEO of InMotion Global, Inc. said, Commissions and sales incentives are the life-blood of all successful carriers and freight brokers. So, we designed our new commissions system to let the sales team monitor their own successes in real-time. Any commissioned sales representative can see exactly what has been paid, what is owed, and what their future commissions are expected to be. Better still, sales managers dont need to be asked to run commission reports, the sales reps can do it themselves any time they wish.

Higham continued, Whether you have one sales person or one thousand, this new AscendTMS feature gives you a happier and more productive sales force, which translates into more revenue and more profit. Thats why AscendTMS is the fastest-growing TMS in the world today. Never again will sales reps question their commissions or their branch split. AscendTMS does everything and its perfectly accurate every single time.

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AscendTMS launches commission system for TMS Software - Fleet Owner

Rewiring the brain to treat depression – WRCB-TV

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WRCB) -

Each year American's spend billions on antidepressants, but studies show they can be ineffective in up to 40 percent of all patients. Bob Holmes was one of them.

Bob Holmes says "They tried to adjust my medication, but the medication had side effects that weren't desirable."

Holmes is among the 16-million people in the U.S. who suffer major depressive episodes each year. Thatnumberincreased 18-percent over the last decade, which is why some doctors are taking a different approach.

Doctors are beaming magnetic pulses deep inside patients' brains to change the way depression symptoms are perceived.

Dr. Andrew Leuchter, UCLA Health says, "We are used to thinking of the brain as a chemical organ, but, it's also an electrical organ."

Dr. Ian Cook, UCLA Medical says, "It's called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or T-M-S. It's currently F-D-A approved only to treat depression, but doctors say it may prove helpful in a wide range of conditions, by rewiring a network of signals in the brain."

Doctors tell us that T-M-S can feel a bit uncomfortable at first, but many patients quickly get used to it and report substantial relief from their symptoms of depression within a few weeks.

Dr. Leuchter says, "What TMS is doing is changing how thenetwork functions, really rebooting the network to improve symptoms of mood, anxiety, and chronic pain."

Which may be why many patients treated for depression also say it helps relieve their pain. Raising provocative questions about whether T-M-S could one day become a viable alternative to opioids.

Dr. Ian Cook says, "This is really a transformative kind of therapy, but in medicine there's always the wish to do better, to help more people than what we do now."

But for now, it's made a dramatic difference in Bob's depression.

Bob Holmes says, "It provided that kind of jolt to get my brain to start work again, normally."

Rewiring the brain to treat depression - WRCB-TV

OPINION: Lou Zako: Political correctness is killing us – Petoskey News-Review

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

The following guest commentary was written by Lou Zako, a semi-retired doctor living in Harbor Springs. His views are his own. Email him at lrzako@gmail.com.

As a person of faith, my world view recognizes that both good and evil are ever-present in our lives. While government can at times protect from evil, it is often ineffective, and at times counter-productive. We must look to our religions, our communities, and our families to help instill good in our psyches.

The radical left, which includes a significant number in government at various levels, much of academia, and much of the main-stream media, has been remarkably successful in silencing those of us with traditional values, including love of country, through the use of political correctness.

I challenge my readers to introspectively ask themselves if the threat of being called a racist leads them to remain silent in the face of obvious bias. How many of us are willing to go to a local school board meeting to challenge the board and the administration when they unconstitutionally prohibit students from expressing their religious beliefs.

An excellent example of the intimidation of the populace into silence is the insane issue of transgender bathrooms, forced upon every school district in America by the Obama administration, in concert with big business and the New York Times. The hypocrisy of pretending to protect a person of a specific biologic gender from harassment without any regard for an overwhelming majority of children deprived of their right to privacy is stark and dramatic. In graphic terms, this policy mandated public schools to permit a teenage boy with a penis to use the girls bathrooms and showers by simply declaring that he felt like a female that day. Most of us would label such an edict insane, but it is actually much worse. It is in fact, intimidation of the citizenry to bend to the will of a tyrannical leftist government.

Almost daily we witness the radical left silencing the rest of us by using the race card. While it is perfectly acceptable to mock a Donald Trump or a George W. Bush, rather than debating specific issues, we dare not mock or disagree with Barack Obama for fear of being labeled as a racist.

A frank look at the end result of the Western European and North American elite preaching to the rest of us about the virtues of diversity and multiculturalism leads to the conclusion that millions of ordinary Americans, Brits, or Germans are tired of being human fodder for radical Islamists. The elites have their high walls and their bodyguards to protect them from terrorists, while making every effort to disarm the rest of us and leave us as helpless prey to terrorists. The radical lefts definition of diversity, interestingly enough, apparently does not include diversity of political thought. Does one need to ask oneself how many conservatives are on the faculties of the University of Michigan, Harvard, and Berkeley? How many conservatives are on the staff of the New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, etc. How many climate scientists who express skepticism of the role of human activity in climate change receive funding for their studies? Even changing global warming to climate change is an example of political correctness. When radical environmentalists were mocked for their almost religious belief in the coming end of the earth through global warming by ordinary citizens who often had to don sweaters during cold weather, rather than questioning the validity of their unproven assumption that the seas would rise during our brief lifetimes and we would all fry, they changed the terminology to climate change. In Michigan the climate changes month by month. Our ancestors have endured both ice ages and ages of warming.

To silence critics, the radical left invoke the piety that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree that man-made global warming is beyond discussion or dispute. These same scientists fathers and mothers asserted that energy could neither be created or destroyed until a sole maverick, Albert Einstein, proved them all wrong. True science is not about forced conformity but rather a search for the truth and a healthy degree of skepticism for any theory.

As the Western World is now witnessing terrorist massacres of ordinary people in Europe and the U.S. on a frighteningly regular basis, still our governmental agencies, the intelligence community, the FBI, the military, and the local police are forced to eschew profiling. In other words, the Detroit and Chicago police are prohibited from stopping and frisking young black males any more often than old white ladies, in spite of the fact that a disparate percentage of violent crime is committed by young black thugs against defenseless black children and black seniors. Moreover, town after town in America has had imposed on its citizenry large numbers of refugees from violent areas of the Middle East, including young Arabic males, many of whom never assimilate or take on our Western values. Ask the families of the victims of terrorist attacks at the Boston marathon or San Bernardino whether political correctness was in any part responsible for the loss of their loved ones.

The next time you meet any of your liberal/progressive/morally superior friends, ask them whether they share more concern for the safety and welfare of their fellow citizens or for undocumented immigrants, aka illegal aliens.

Note the madness of the elites of the United Kingdom. In spite of terrorist massacre after massacre the vast majority of British police are unarmed. More than 90 percent of Londons Metropolitan Police Force carries no weapons.

A majority of rational people now agree that political correctness kills.

More here:

OPINION: Lou Zako: Political correctness is killing us - Petoskey News-Review

What is the Source of Our Culture of Euphemism and Political Correctness? – Patheos (blog)

Posted on July 7, 2017 by Danzig

Nothing is as it seems these days (Juan Gris, Still Life with a Bordeaux Bottle, 1919; Wikimedia, PD-Old-70)

The sources of euphemism and political correctness are too close to be seen.

The Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski spent the better part of the 50s and 60s attempting to create a (Soviet Communist-) Socialism with a Human Face.Some of his more important attempts are collected in Toward a Marxist Humanism: Essays on the Left Today.The failure to square the circlewas one of the things that forcedKolakowski into exile in the West. His success in documenting the failure of real-existing socialismin his magisterial three-volume The Main Currents of Marxism made him a short-term pariah among Western Cultural Marxist intellectualswhen such a thing actually still existed.His book, along with Solzhenitsyns The Gulag Archipelago (Im surprised and disappointed to see it out of print) and The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, put the final nails in the Western Marxist economic tradition. It hasnt recovered from the defeat, but those who keep on harping about the omnipresence of Cultural Marxism seem content with chasing a ghost, rather than dealing with the present. Im happy to let them chase their specters of Marx.

The collapse of Real-Existing Socialism (Soviet Communism witha Human Face) made it look like there was no alternative after 1989. It took less than 20 years for the world to realize that there is a problem with capitalism. 2008 was a watershed moment that made many realize that a project to create Capitalism with a Human Face is all thats left to us. That is,if we refuse to countenance other working solutions, what are called the Third Ways(between capitalism and communism). Mark Fishers little manifesto,Capitalist Realism: IsThere No Alternative?,is a kind of interim report card on how the human face refuses to stick to capitalism as it refused to stick to communist-socialism:

Really Existing Capitalism is marked by the same division which characterized Really Existing Socialism, between, on the one hand, an official culture in which capitalist enterprises are presented as socially responsible and caring, and, on the other, a widespread awareness that companies are actually corrupt, ruthless, etc. In other words, capitalist postmodernity is not quite as incredulous as it would appear to be, as the jeweler Gerald Ratner famously found to his cost.

Side Note: Gerald Ratner is famous for admitting during anInstitute of Directors annual conference at The Royal Albert Hall that some of his products are crap:

We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for 4.95. People say, How can you sell this for such a low price?, I say, because its total crap.

He became a laughingstock for hishonesty and lost hisfortunein the process, only to win it back.His is an unusual case of demaskingCapitalism with a Human Face?

99.9% of the time the mask stays on? What keeps it glued to the face of capitalism? Euphemism and political correctness.Polish philosopherTadeusz Gadacz, aformer pupil of Fr.Jozef Tischner (the Chaplain of Solidarity), explains in a Gazeta Wyborcza (only my Polish readers will understand the irony of this)editorial the gluing process using the categoryof thestructural lieas developed by his master.

[I would like to describe our situation of using euphemisms for everything] by referring to a very concrete concept, which Fr. Jzef Tischner, my master, called the structural lie. We live in a structural lie. In the past it was fascism, communism, today it is the neoliberal market. It is no longer the lie of a single person who is concealing the truth. This lie applies to whole structures of life: political, social, economical, medial, and also educational. We participate in it and we make our peace with it. We do not really believe that we are able to radically change the world, so we take part in it. After all, who can presently change the principles of the neoliberal market? Nobody? And so we say there is no exploitation, theres outsourcing and economizing, there are no murders, there is ethnic cleansing. It makes it easier for us to swallow our dinner.

As my friend likes to say, We no longer have garbage men, we have sanitation experts.' We cover upour economic garbagewith euphemism and political correctness, because we do not want to admit our complicity in the structural lie. That element of self-criticism was something that was sorely missing in the Occupy Wall Street critique of the 1%. The 1% would not exist if not for the complicity of the 99%.

Whos going to write The Black Book of Capitalism: Crimes, Terror, Repression?

Capitalist Realism: IsThere No Alternative? is a pretty good place to start for now.

Bon apptit!

For more on Fr. Tischner see: Solidarity Means Carrying One Anothers Burden.

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