Branson Aims Mid-2018 Space Trip as Virgin Resumes Powered Tests – Bloomberg

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More than 2 1/2 years after the fatal breakup of Virgin Galactics experimental rocket plane, Richard Branson is poised to revive powered test flights as the billionaire entrepreneur targets his first journey into space by the middle of next year.

Following the completion of a series of glide-only sorties, powered tests are set to take place every three weeks with the aim of extending them into space by November or December, Branson said in an interview. After his own flight, full commercial passenger operations should start by the end of 2018, he said.

QuickTake The New Space Race

Bransons update is the most detailed since the October 2014 crash of Virgin Galactics original SpaceShipTwo, in which co-pilot Michael Alsbury died when the craft was torn apart after he prematurely unlocked a braking mechanism. While the accident in the Mojave Desert came just months before the planned maiden commercial flight, Branson said the appetite for travel to the edge of space remains undimmed, leaving room for a number of competitors.

We will never be able to build enough spaceships, Branson said Wednesday in Hong Kong following the introduction of Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd. flights from Melbourne. The demand is enormous.

The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo at the Farnborough International Air Show in Farnborough, U.K. in 2012.

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Branson was an early leader in the new space race after founding Virgin Galactic in 2004. Since then, rivals like the Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin LLC and Elon Musks Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, have gained momentum by focusing on reusable rockets to cut the cost of space travel.

On Wednesday, SpaceX successfully launched its 10th Falcon 9 rocket of 2017, little more than a week after sending a total of 11 communication satellites using two rockets, whose first-stage boosters were recovered for reuse later. Musks company has contracts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration valued at about $4.2 billion to transport astronauts and supplies to the Space Station.

Blue Origins New Shepard rocket has flown to suborbital space five times since November 2015. Suborbital space is high enough for passengers to experience weightlessness, but not high enough to orbit the Earth.

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Branson, who turns 67 on July 18, said theres a role for various launch systems, especially in the deployment of satellites, viewed as a likely mainstay of Virgin Galactics future business. The companys Virgin Orbit arm is working on a two-stage air-launched rocket that would carry small satellites, with test rockets set to be dropped from an aircraft in the first quarter of 2018, the Briton said.

There is definitely the demand for all three, Branson said of the competing ventures. We can take off at 24-hours notice, put a couple of satellites up and come back again. With ground-based rockets, theres quite a long waiting time.Elon has bigger rockets, so he has advantages there.

Branson declined to comment directly on Donald Trumps June 30 announcement that hell revive a Cold War-era council that helped shape space policy, or on theU.S. presidents suggestion that private companies are set to play an important role in the next phase of space technology.

I think myself and Jeff Bezos and Elon are just getting on with it, he said. I dont think Ive heard of anything majorly exciting thats come out of the administration as far as space is concerned, but maybe theyll surprise us.

Virgin Galactic will also play a role in developing elements of Boom Technologiess planned supersonic plane, Branson said, and will build parts of the XB-1 demonstrator on which the U.S. startup plans to commence work before the end of this year, according to

Branson, a vocal opponent of the U.K. leaving the European Union, said hes hopeful the country is now headed for a Brexit kinder to business following the outcome of Mays general election, which left the ruling Conservatives with fewer seats and dependent on the support of a smaller party.

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Branson Aims Mid-2018 Space Trip as Virgin Resumes Powered Tests - Bloomberg

About Us | Trusted News Source for Psychedelic Research …

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A hub for new developments in the science and application of psychedelics for healing and therapy

Our mission at Psychedelic Times is to share the latest news, research, and happenings around the study of psychedelics as tools of healing, recovery, and therapy. We are passionate about the incredible potential that psychoactive substances such as marijuana, ayahuasca, MDMA, LSD, iboga, psilocybin, and DMT present to humanity, and are excited to share that passion with you.

Psychedelic substances, also known as entheogens, are intimately linked with human culture. From the dawn of human civilization and up to the present, psychedelics have been used and celebrated across the globe as agents of healing, spiritual realization, and personal transformation. There are countless works of art, sculpture, literature, and culture that relate to psychedelic substances, and even today there are native cultures that continue to practice their ancient psychedelic rituals of healing and initiation. Psychedelic experiences have helped to inspire some of the worlds most iconic figures, from Plato, to Steve Jobs, to Kary Mullis, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist who invented the method to replicate DNA, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and attributes his creative insights in part to LSD and marijuana.

Joseph Gabriel Mattia III and Lana Baumgartner are a husband and wife team who work as recovery coaches and agents of growth, health and transformation. They have firsthand experience with the struggles and tragedies of addiction, as well as the hugely beneficial role that psychedelics can play in turning peoples lives around. Their own marriage was strengthened by therapeutic psychedelic experiences on Ibogaine and 5meoDMT that they undertook together at a healing center, an event that inspired them to be trained as recovery coaches and promote the use of psychedelics in healing and therapy.Joe and Lana each have over fifteen years of experience with psychedelics and three years of studying psychedelic therapy. When theyre not working to bring the latest and most noteworthy news about psychedelic therapy here at Psychedelic Times, Joe and Lana offer psychedelic consulting and coaching services including psychedelic integration and referrals for treatment centers and recovery coaching.

Joseph Gabriel Mattia III

Josephs drive to seek deeper meaning and the expansion of consciousness began at a very young age, spurred on by tragic life events including the loss of his father and brother to addiction. As a young adult, experimentation with LSD led him to the revelation that all living beings are sublimely connected, and yet, modern culture promotes separation from nature rather than harmony with it. This led to many years of studying yoga and various other personal development disciplines.

A later encounter with Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) founder Rick Doblin was hugely influential in showing Joe that psychedelics were being studied by leading scientists and their therapeutic uses were increasingly celebrated and understood. This inspired him to embrace his own lessons on psychedelics, to help facilitate therapeutic psychedelic experience for others, and share this knowledge with the world.

Lana Baumgartner

Like her husband, Lana also experienced the destructive powers of addiction when she lost her closest family member to a drug overdose. This loss and a series of transformative experiences including her psychedelic sessions with Joe have catalyzed her lifelong journey as a healer, teacher, and recovery specialist.

Lanas mission to help people find health and wholeness is informed by a diverse set of passions including dance, massage, Reiki, yoga, meditation, and nutrition. Her food healing work as a Sensual Foodist has been featured in major media news outlets such as ABC News, Business Insider, and The Huffington Post. With expertise in many alternative healing fields, her approach to health, empowerment and recovery has a broad and multidimensional scope.

Wesley Thoricatha

Wesley Thoricatha is a writer, visionary artist, permaculture designer, and committed advocate for a more meaningful and harmonious world. Introduced to Eastern spiritual traditions in his teenage years by his grandmother, Wesley would go on to experiment with psychedelics as an adult and have life-changing revelations that brought his philosophical understandings into crystal clear, direct experience. Over the last decade, Wesley has studied indigenous shamanic traditions, exhibited his artwork alongside the worlds leading visionary artists, and been a regular volunteer for psychedelic harm reduction at art and music festivals.

Wesleys goal as an advocate for psychedelics is to help build our cultural aptitude surrounding psychedelic medicines in the same way that indigenous cultures around the world understand and use them for healing, rites of passage, and therapeutic release. He believes that psychedelics are a key leverage point in changing the consciousness of the western world from a paradigm of materialism, distraction, and separation to an interconnected, meaningful, and collaborative one.

We are at an exciting time in history where the stigma surrounding psychedelics is beginning to fade and the realization of their healing properties are being embraced by mainstream science. Scientific research into these substances began in the early and mid 20th century but was halted in the later half of the century due to politics, propaganda, fear, and the War on Drugs. Many of these substances remain illegal and scheduled among the most dangerous drugs, yet that classification and the surrounding stigma is being quickly eroded by the scores of scientific studies that are proving again and again that the benefits that psychedelics offer far exceed the dangers. By and large, they are safe, non-addictive, and have profound benefits that can save and transform lives when used responsibly.

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

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Heading to San Francisco.

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 - The Conversation UK

GAIA, KEY4050 to debut at this years Dreamstate SoCal – Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

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Last week, Insomniac announced the return of its fastest growing brand and North Americas largest dedicated trance gathering,DreamstateSoCal. Making its way around the globe to six cities and four countries since its inception in 2015,Dreamstatewill bring thousands of fans home to the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, CA. onFriday, November 24 and Saturday, November 25. Tickets to the highly anticipated event are on saleTuesday, July 11 at noon PT,here.

Following its first-ever hosted stage debut at EDC Las Vegas 2017,Dreamstatewill bring the stunning visual production and ethereal melodies from quantumVALLEY to SoCal. Expanding to four massive stages featuring the most respected names in the genre,Dreamstatehas grown to become an international leader in the trance movement. Last years sold-out celebration brought over 26,000 fans to the dance floor for legendary acts like Paul van Dyk, ATB, Simon Patterson, Vini Vici, MaRLo, and more.

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.

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Artist Shaming on the rise? – Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

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Earlier this week, Armin Van Buuren premiered his new track Sunny Days on his radio show, A State of Trance. It was a big moment for him and it was a highly-anticipated track. Of course, it wasnt the most trancy track, but it had a happy summer vibe which is exactly what he aimed to create and the track managed to do it successfully.

However as soon as the track was premiered, it received a lot of backlash from various people. Not everyone was very pleased with how the track sounded, and its okay. Not everyone has to like every track that is possibly released. Its perfectly fine. If one wishes to state their opinions regarding the same also, its not an issue. Each person can voice their opinions as they wish. But things start going wrong when people start shaming the artist for the work they have done. Its not positive and constructive criticism, but abuses that are hurled at the artist, which in my opinion is disgusting.

An artist doesnt choose to restrict his creativity to a specific genre. And if they wish to experiment with different sounds, its wholly their decision. If one is not in favor of it, dont listen to the track. Or listen to another artist who still chooses to make music within the boundaries of the specific genre.

One can never know if something will work out until and unless they experiment or try something new. Sometimes an idea if implemented well, may sound brilliant. In some cases, it may not. Doesnt mean that the artist has changed or chooses to produce a bad track. In the case of Armin, This is what it feels like was again not the most trancy track, but it got him recognition and fame and even a Grammy nomination. The track was not necessarily trance, and I personally am also not a great fan of the track, but it doesnt mean that the track was a bad one. If an artist chooses to take the safe path and produce work that is literally based off templates from his previous track, he is criticized for his lack of creativity. If he or she decides to try something new and tries to blend in a few elements from other genres, then also, they are criticized for not sticking to their so called specific styles or genres. So if both are wrong, what should he or she be doing? Because nothing that he or she makes will collectively satisfy everyone.

Who determines the rules by which an artist plays? Or who determines their so called styles? Why should an artist be restricted to a particular style of music, that too not out of his or her own free will? Embrace was again not the best album that came from Armin. It was not trance. But he had very clearly mentioned it that he was trying to experiment with different instruments with this album. Every track sees the incorporation of a different style of music and set of instruments with trance to produce a fusion. It was a unique concept, probably wasnt implemented too well to the liking of the people. But this doesnt mean that the album was terrible. It extremely upsetting to see people criticize it and curse the artist

When an artist plays a set at a mainstage of a huge festival, he or she is thrown in front of a mix bag. Crowds having people who love various genres of music. So, when they play a set, they have to take all of that into consideration. So, their sets tend to lean slightly towards the commercial side as it has the most crowd appeal. On the other hand, when they play a set at a specific genre dominated stage, they know that 90% of the fans love the genre and they can play a good set within the boundaries of the genre. Here, their sole priority is to appeal to the people at this stage and they can do it well. Just because they have to play a partly commercial set on the mainstage, doesnt mean they are sell-outs.

A similar situation was faced by quite a few musicians and artists who have gotten frustrated and eventually choose to leave the rat race. All that I am trying to say here is, as fans today, we tend to get a little too cynical about peoples work. If one cant appreciate what an artist does, its perfectly fine. You dont have to. Just because we have the freedom of speech and there is no form of moral policing on the internet, doesnt mean we can say anything derogatory to an artist. Today, I speak about Armin, because its the most recent one that has taken place. Its not like he isnt producing trance.Saint Vitus under his Gaia moniker was a good trance track. Probably not as good as some of his classic work, but yes, it was a good track.

Through this article, I do not wish to attack any genre or its fans. Its just directed toward that one section of people who tend to cross their limits when it comes to getting critical and negative about the work of a musician or an artist. Everyone has a choice when it comes to their listening preferences. Some may not like how an artist is progressing. Some may feel that the artist has become too commercial or cant produce as well as they used to before. But all I can request is, do not shame an artist. Do not put down their work and call it disgusting.

Trance enthusiast. Armada Ambassador. Content writer. Im not afraid of 138! Making people give Trance a chance.

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[Exclusive Interview] Fatum: Sealed Fate – EDM Sauce

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Have you ever wondered why you don't notice when something impactful is about to happen in your lifethose seconds before your big break, a big announcement, a life changing moment? There are steps, events, that take place beforehand that eventually put you in that position, but one rarely notices them. In retrospect, you look back in your life and realize those specific moments led you to where you are at but you can never pinpoint those moments as they happen. Fate.

I had the opportunity to chat with one of the members of Fatum during EDC Week, and I'll be frank, going into the interview I was unaware of who they were aside from a little research. I knew of a few tracks they had remixed or produced, but nothing else.

Fate, as it turns out, put me in the position to interview one of the most promising, rising electronic music artists out there and after the one-on-one, I realized that these guys were on to something big.

Fatum consists of Bill Hamel, Chad Newbold, Bruce Karlsson, and Daniel Davis. With releases at Anjunabeats, Ultra Records and Armada, this quadruplet force have quite a bright future ahead of them. Oh, and did I mention a GRAMMY NOMINATION for a remix of JES's track Hold On?

Q: Welcome to the craziness of EDC Week. Hows it going?

A: Good, man. It's been a tiring week here in Vegas but we're powering through it.

Q: I'm really digging your remix of Late Night Alumni's Only For Tonight. How's the response been?

A: Good. The response is really, really, really good. When you take a little bit of a risk you never expect an outcome, but it seems like everyone is digging it.

Q: You're gaining new fans because of that track. What kind of sound can they expect out of Fatum?

A: Right now we're starting to mingle into the mainstream stuffnot too far, though. I wanted to come back into the trance scene and do it right. Everyone is calling it Trance 2.0, so let's call it that, but I wanted to dip into the good mainstream stuff the melodic side of it.

Q: You had a pretty big Anjunabeats show in L.A. back in May. How did that go?

A: Great! I haven't had a nice little adrenaline rush, especially coming back to trance, in a while. The trance fan's energy is way different than other fans. The energy that night at The Belasco Theater was really heartfelt and I haven't had that feeling in a long time.

Q: That energy is one of the main reasons I'm a trance fan, and as a trance fan, I look forward to Armin van Buuren's annual A State of Trance' compilation. You guys were featured on that, congratulations!

A: Thank you! I'm stoked about that. We had the track (Draco) ready for about half a year and we were just waiting and waiting telling ourselves, come on! Everyone will like this! and it finally happened.

Q: We're in the middle of EDC Week. Do you guys see yourself ever playing a set at EDC Las Vegas?

A: Right now we're right on the cusp of being able to play a big festival like EDC. For Fatum, I think if we hit it off this year with some good vocals, we may have a chance to gain a spot. EDC is tough, though. It was a lot easier back then, but now everyone's a DJ.

Q: You guys are just making it big on the scene, what can we expect out of Fatum in the near future?

A: We have two new tracks with Angel Taylor and she's been jumping on board and writing for us. Right now we're seeking new vocalists, trying that approach and getting people more connected with the music and then get into the more mainstream stuff. I really would like the trance elitists' to say, you know what, I can't hate it.

Keep an eye out for these four, something tells me that fate is on their side.

Give Fatum a listen on their Soundcloud.

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[Exclusive Interview] Fatum: Sealed Fate - EDM Sauce

Lanesborough-Williamstown Schools Hire Business Management Consultant – iBerkshires.com

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. After three attempts to hire a business manager for the Williamstown-Lanesborough Tri-District, the school committees this week agreed to hire a consulting firm to handle the schools finances on an interim basis.

On Tuesday, the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee joined its counterparts from Superintendency Union 71 in unanimously accepting the recommendation of Interim Superintendent Kimberley Grady to sign a one-year contract with The Management Solution (TMS) out of Auburn.

At the time, school officials took solace that the groundwork for the fiscal year 2018 budgets had been laid, and, in fact, all three budgets for Lanesborough Elementary, Williamstown Elementary and Mount Greylock passed muster with their respective town halls and town meeting voters in Lanesborough and Williamstown.

Nonetheless, Grady seemed relieved on Wednesday when she updated the Williamstown Elementary School Committee about the current staffing levels at the Tri-District office.

We have an interim director of pupil personnel services also starting July 5 and an HR specialist starting July 5, Grady said. And we have a district office manager who will continue his role.

"I will be fully staffed on July 5. Thats a really good feeling. Thank you all for the support youve supplied in the last several months. Im looking forward to rolling out the new team and hitting the ground running over the summer months."

This is the second time the Tri-District has contracted with TMS.

TMS last tenure in the district was remembered as less than smooth by some members of the hiring committees, but Grady said that the firm had undergone some restructuring and came recommended by districts that recently have used their services.

The companys website lists 28 clients, including Mount Greylock, the overwhelming majority in Massachusetts.

TMS, founded in 2006, has a mission statement that reads: Rethinking the process for managing school district operations. This includes business management, planning, professional development, evaluation of staff, contract negotiation, procurement, program review, and use of data. TMS continues to push forward and break new ground.

The Management Solution was the only firm to respond to the request for proposals the Tri-District issued after several tries to hire either a permanent or interim business manager.

Prior to recommending the Auburn firm, Grady sought feedback from the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials and the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. As part of the contract, the firm promised to have someone on site three days a week during the term of the arrangement: July 1 to June 30, 2018.

The school committee members were satisfied that TMS is the best option for the three school districts.

Since Im raising specific concerns, Id like to say Im happy to bring them on board, said Mount Greylock School Committee member Carolyn Greene, who was on the committee for the last go-around with TMS. I think we have a good shot at working well with them. Theyre much more aware of us. Were more aware of them. And we need a business firm.

I dont think its a compromise. Its a fair option.

Lanesborough Elementary School Committee Chairwoman Regina DiLego, who also served the last time the Tri-District employed TMS, agreed.

One of the problems was they were new and didnt anticipate the size and scope of what they had to do, she said.

The RFP made clear the expectations of the business manager, including the use of three different accounting software programs, answering to three different school committees, attending night meetings in the two towns and managing bills and compensation from the state related to the ongoing building project at Mount Greylock.

I think having them for three days will be better than two days, DiLego said. And, in all fairness, I have to say that, in my opinion, the issue wasnt totally with TMS. There were internal issues at the time that complicated a successful venture with them, and I dont see them being issues again.

The Tri-Districts contract with TMS is for $97,000 for one year. The full-time business manager position had been budgeted for $94,000 in the FY18 budget; all three school districts pay a share of the central administration costs proportionally based on enrollment.

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5 Reasons to Think Twice About Animal Cloning – Care2.com

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Dolly the cloned sheep was born more than two decades ago on July 5. As the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, she remains one of the most famous cloned creatures today.

Since then, cloning has progressed greatly, but the process occupies anethical gray area. Animal cloning may have the potential tobring back extinct species, but according to a Gallup poll conducted earlier this year, most Americans do not morally support cloning. When considering the future of cloning, here are some animal rights concerns to keep in mind.

Cloned animals often live shorter and sicklierlives than their naturally produced counterparts. For instance, the New Zealand-based AgResearch shut its doors in 2011 because too many animals died in its studies.Only 10 percent of the cloned animals even survived research trials, according to the company. The National Human Genome Research Instituteadds that cloned sheep can bebigger at birth and have defective livers, brains and hearts. They also tend to die younger.

In 2013, UK pet owners got the opportunity to clone beloved dogs after they died. However, the process set some people up for disappointment when their new pet isntthe same as itsgenetic counterpart. Care2s Steve Williams explainsthat these expectations could lead owners to get rid of their dogs, whether byreturning them, taking them to an animal shelter or opting for euthanasia.

As the Humane Society of the United States notes, pet cloning doesnt get the same federal scrutiny that animal testing facilities do in the United States. The Department of Agriculture doesnt even require those cloning cats and dogs to follow the bare-bones rules of the Animal Welfare Act.

Animals involved in cloning are often exposed to painful and invasive research practices and kept in sterile, uncomfortable conditions. As the Humane Society says, The egg donors and/or surrogate mothers are subjected to painful hormone treatments to manipulate their reproductive cycles. These animals are also subjected to invasive surgery to harvest eggs or implant embryos, and the surrogate mothers endure an additional surgery to deliver the baby.

From a more abstract line of thought, some argue cloning devalues animals because it treats them as commodities. A paper from the University of Pennsylvanias Center for Bioethicsstates:

While cloning opponents admit that animals are already considered property and products, they argue that cloning takes this objectification to new levels. Life for animals in agriculture, research, and the pharmaceutical industry is already bad enough, its argued; cloning will desensitize us further from the suffering of these entities, placing them even more firmly in the thing category.

While cloning has its place, these ethical problems must be addressed.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Powerful New Cloning Technique Can Clone Thousands of Genes at Once – Futurism

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In Brief Researchers have developed a new gene cloning technique that works on thousands of genes at once: the LASSO probe. The tool will enable far more rapid discovery of biomarkers for numerous diseases and new treatments for them.

Scientists from Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, and the University of Trento in Italy have developed LASSO cloning, a new molecular technique. LASSO cloning can be used to simultaneously isolate long DNA sequences faster than was previously possible. This new technique speeds up protein creation, which means that genes (the final product of the process) are arrived at more quickly. This, in turn, can enable far more rapid discovery of biomarkers for numerous diseases and their treatments.

In the past, researchers have sussed out what a gene does by cloning its DNA and then expressing the protein it codes for single gene by single gene. With this novel molecular approach, a single reaction can clone and express thousands of DNA sequences at once. The technique involves the use of a novel captured DNA strand, the LASSO probe (Long Adapter Single-Stranded Oligonucleotide). Researchers can use collections of these tools to grab DNA sequences theyre after. Unlike a cowboy roping cattle, however, scientists using the LASSO probe can capture thousands of sequences in a single try.

The LASSO technique improves on molecular inversion probes (MIPs), an older method which is limited to capturing only about 200 DNA bases at once. This is minuscule compared to each LASSO target gene sequence which can be as much as a few thousand DNA base pairs longaround the length of a typical genes protein-coding sequence.

The team used LASSO probes to simultaneously capture more than 3,000 DNA fragments from the E. coli genome as part of a proof-of-concept study. They captured at least 75 percent of their gene targets successfully. More importantly, however, the tool allows researchers to capture sequences in a way that allows them to analyze what the corresponding proteins do.

Were very excited about all the potential applications for LASSO cloning, Larman said in the release. Our hope is that by greatly expanding the number of proteins that can be expressed and screened in parallel, the road to interesting biology and new therapeutic biomolecules will be dramatically shortened for many researchers.

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Powerful New Cloning Technique Can Clone Thousands of Genes at Once - Futurism

Obamacare May Be Near Its Demise, But DC’s Successful Software Is Headed up North – Washington City Paper

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DC Health Link is fulfilling the promise of open-source tech.

Mila KofmanDarrow Montgomery

Nine months before the countrys Obamacare insurance marketplaces were due to debut online, the agency responsible for building the Districts version made its first hire. No state began work on its marketplace later than the District.

So that was the worst year ever, says Mila Kofman, the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authoritys executive director and first staffer, as she thinks back to 2013. I call it a high-risk pregnancy. Seriously, every day was quite challenging.

When the nationwide due date arrived in October 2013, the federal governments marketplace, HealthCare.gov, face-planted. The websites persistent outages and malfunctioning software were an embarrassment.

Just a few state marketplacesthe District is treated like a state for the purposes of the insurance exchangesuccessfully opened on time, and one of them was the Districts miracle baby, DC Health Link. Today the site functions so well that Massachusetts is copying its code.

But at first, DC Health Link couldnt do much more than crawl. Kofman says, We had no bells and whistles at all, just a basic system whose core functions worked. Part of my job was essentially to say no to everyonemy board members, to staff, to other agencies.

The software, from commercial vendors, was clunky. Even fixing a typo on the website required the agency to run a bunch of tests, bring the whole system offline, and then deploy it anew, as if from scratch.

One of its glitches caused the system to characterize every customer as a smoker, which non-smokers could see but do nothing about. This ultimately didnt matter to the District, as it had opted not to surcharge health insurance for smokers. But the arduous update process meant the glitch took time to quash, and a lot of irritated non-smokers fumed, including Kofman.

I was highly offended when I saw that they built that. And you cant just change it like that, she says.

The agency and its new contractor set about redoing the DC Health Link software in 2015, applying tools that are standard in Silicon ValleyRuby on Rails, MongoDB, Amazon Web Services cloud serversbut still relatively exotic in government.

The revamped software is also open-source. Anyone with an Internet connection can view the code and suggest edits. Its publicly visible on the agencys account on GitHub, a service for developing and sharing software, chronicling code changes large and small pushed out multiple times each day. Its a long way from the days of waiting to delete an errant comma from the website. The agency also no longer has to pay recurring licensing fees for proprietary software.

The grander promise of open-source software is that anyone can copy it, free of charge.

For DC Health Link, this isnt theoretical: Massachusetts is cloning the Districts code. The ancestral home of Obamacare, a state whose healthcare overhaul preceded the landmark federal reform, is now adopting D.C.s software for the part of its marketplace that handles insurance for small businesses.

D.C. was able to offer: Take our platform, create an instance of it for you guys, and then customize it a little bit, says Jason Hetherington, chief information officer of Massachusetts Health Connector.

Massachusetts is paying the DC Health Link software team to implement and maintain it. The D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority also earns a 6 percent administrative fee.

Massachusetts didnt go looking to hire a government rather than a business, nor was it targeting open-source software. No one ever gets fired for choosing IBM, says Hetherington, citing an old business-world saying. If you need a database and you propose Oracle, everybody thinks its a really good idea, he says.

Massachusetts embarked on a routine procurement in 2014, going in search of a contractor to redo its small-business marketplace. None of the commercial proposals were fully adequate. Massachusetts tried another round a year later, unsuccessful once again. Then in 2016 it reached out to states whose marketplaces had strong reputations, looking for a partnership.

D.C. edged out Rhode Island as the winner.

They were just the most modern, the most well-developed, the most resilient technology platform that we had seen in either of the prior commercial responses or in comparison to the other states we looked at, Hetherington says.

He echoes Kofmans emphasis on cost savings, noting they dont have to pay software licensing fees or make a capital investment in servers to host the platform, instead renting only as much cloud computing power as they use.

Though a repeal of Obamacare could be devastating for people who receive subsidies to buy insurance, it would not necessarily doom state marketplaces. DC Health Link is funded by a 1 percent tax on the insurance companies doing business in D.C.

Once the August launch in Massachusetts is finished, sharing software will mean that D.C. and Massachusetts can split the cost of any new features they both want to see built.

Kofman has reached out to Minnesota about the possibility of adopting D.C.s open-source software there.

I would love to partner with other states as well, because it will make it less expensive for us and Massachusetts, she says.

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Obamacare May Be Near Its Demise, But DC's Successful Software Is Headed up North - Washington City Paper

Researchers develop powerful cloning technique – BSI bureau (press release)

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The new technology speeds up the creation of proteins, the final products of genes, and is likely to lead to far more rapid discovery of new medicines and biomarkers for scores of diseases.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, the University of Trento in Italy, and Harvard Medical School report they have developed a new molecular technique called LASSO cloning, which can be used to isolate thousands of long DNA sequences at the same time, more than ever before possible.

The new technology speeds up the creation of proteins, the final products of genes, and is likely to lead to far more rapid discovery of new medicines and biomarkers for scores of diseases.

The study describes a new type of captured DNA strand, a tool the authors refer to as a LASSO probe, for long adapter single-stranded oligonucleotide. Collections of these LASSO probes can be used to grab desired DNA sequences, thousands at a time in a single effort.

In a proof-of-concept study, LASSO probes were used to simultaneously capture more than 3,000 DNA fragments from the E. coli bacterial genome. The team successfully captured at least 75 percent of the gene targets. Importantly, these sequences are captured in a way that permits scientists to analyze what the genes' proteins do, as demonstrated by conferring antibiotic resistance to an otherwise susceptible cell.

The hope is that by greatly expanding the number of proteins that can be expressed and screened in parallel, the road to interesting biology and new therapeutic biomolecules will be dramatically shortened for many researchers.

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Researchers develop powerful cloning technique - BSI bureau (press release)

In Our View: Evolution of Summer Jobs – The Columbian

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A A

There is much value to be found in spending a summer scooping ice cream or stocking grocery store shelves or picking fruit. Generations of American teens have gleaned life lessons and work experience from traditional seasonal jobs, learning responsibility and money management and the all-important skill of customer service.

Anybody who has worked in the retail industry, for example, can share stories of unreasonable patrons and the difficulty of embracing the idea that the customer is always right a mantra that reportedly dates to 1909 and a London department store.

Yet, while we agree with the benefits of summer employment for teens, we also recognize the changing economy that has altered employment options for young workers. According to a recent report from the Associated Press, 57 percent of Americans ages 16 to 19 were employed in July 1986. That percentage remained above 50 percent until 2002, but by last year it had dipped to 36 percent.

One major factor is that jobs traditionally taken by teens often are filled by adults these days. Experts point to growth in the number of low-skilled immigrants, a population that works later in life, and increases to the minimum wage as factors that reduce seasonal employment for teens. Each of those boosts the number of adults seeking jobs formerly filled by young workers. A study by Drexel University found that in 2000-01, teens accounted for 12 percent of retail workers; by 2016, that number was 7 percent. In the restaurant and hotel industries, the percentage of teen employees fell from 21 percent to 16 percent.

Indeed, there is a tendency to lament this trend. As the Associated Press report details: Economists and labor market observers worry that falling teen employment will deprive them of valuable work experience and of opportunities to encounter people of different ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds. Locally, Sharon Pesut of Partners in Careers told The Columbian in May: Where those jobs used to be plentiful, those are now few and far between. The kids really need to do their research. Its not as simple as dropping off a r?sum? anymore.

At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that fewer and fewer teens are seeking summer jobs. No, this is not the result of a lazy generation that would rather sit on the couch and play video games; it is the result of a generation that is busier than ever. Teens are more inclined to seek summer educational opportunities, fill their schedules with sports, volunteer for r?sum?-building endeavors, travel with their families, or attend summer camps. As Derek Thompson wrote last month for The Atlantic: Education is to blame, rather than indolence. The percent of recent high-school graduates enrolled in college both two-year and four-year has grown by 25 percentage points.

Thompson also details a rise in unpaid internships, in which teens are working but are not counted among the labor force.

As with any economic trend, the issue of teen employment is complex, and it was exacerbated by the Great Recession of the past decade. The recovery has come largely in the sector of low-skilled, low-wage jobs, increasing the likelihood of adults filling jobs formerly open to youngsters.

Summer employment for teens is, indeed, valuable. But the loss of summer jobs does not necessarily reflect a loss of the American work ethic or a changing generation. Instead, it reflects unavoidable alterations in the nations economic structure.

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In Our View: Evolution of Summer Jobs - The Columbian

Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat up Females to Increase Mating Success – Newsweek

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Male baboons have been observed carrying out long-term abuse of their female partners as a means of control and to increase mating success.

The discoverythe result of a four-year research projectprovides more evidence to support the idea that sexual intimidation among humans has evolutionary roots, potentially helping explain why domestic abuse is so frequent in humans today.

Researchers from the Zoological Society of London, U.K., and CNRS in France monitored a population of chacma baboons in Namibia to find out whether male aggression towards females was a type of sexual coercion, where females were intimidated into mating rather than being directly forced to.

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"When I was in the field and observing the baboons, I often noticed that males were directing unprovoked attacks or chases toward females in oestrus [in heat]," study author Alice Baniel said in a statement. "They also maintained close proximity and formed a strong social bond with one particular cycling female, from the beginning of their cycle until the end.

Researchers monitored the baboons for attacks and sexual activity in the 20 minutes that followed and found there was no increase in mating directly after violent attacks, but further analysis revealed another trend. Their findings are published in the journal Current Biology.

A male baboon attacking a female. Scientists found males use long-term sexual intimidation to increase their mating success. Alecia Carter

Over four years, researchers found fertile females suffered more aggression from males than those that were pregnant or lactating. Male aggression was a major source of injury to fertile females. Males that were more aggressive towards one particular female were found to have had more mating success than those that were less aggressive.

Instead of forcing the females to mate after violence, the males appear to be using the attacks as a means of long-term sexual intimidation that, over time, encourages the female to stick with the male aggressor.

Elise Huchard, another author on the study, tells Newsweek the patterns seen appear to work as a mating strategy in two waysit discourages the female from leaving the proximity of the male, while also inciting her to accept his mating facilitation.

Similar long-term sexual intimidation has previously been observed in chimpanzees and may well be present in other primates. "Because sexual intimidationwhere aggression and matings are not clustered in timeis discreet, it may easily go unnoticed," Baniel said. "It may therefore be more common than previously appreciated in mammalian societies, and constrain female sexuality even in some species where they seem to enjoy relative freedom."

Female baboon with her newborn baby. Alice Baniel

Because both chimpanzees and baboons are relatives of humans, this behavior being present in all three could indicate it has a long evolutionary history, Baniel said.

Sexual intimidation was first described in chimpanzees a few years ago and now weve got evidence of sexual intimidation in baboons, Huchard says: This suggests sexual intimidation might be widespread in social primates, so it opens the possibility for an evolutionary origin of human sexual intimidation.

But its just a possibility. It doesnt mean it has an evolutionary basis. All we can say at the moment is that its now well documented in animalsanimals that are closely related, so its not impossible to think that human sexual intimidation has a long evolutionary history.

She says they will next need to find more evidence of this behavior in other mammals to pinpoint the systems involved. That would shed more light on human sexual intimidation and whether its an evolutionary trait, she says.

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Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat up Females to Increase Mating Success - Newsweek

Camp sparks kids’ interest in robotics – South Strand news

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The Waccamaw Neck Branch Library hosted a new camp this summer for students to gain hands-on experience in robotics and programming.

Sixteen students ages 9 to 16 signed up for LEGO Robotics Camp and were split into pairs to build and program their own robots.

Children's librarian Amy King said she tried to keep the numbers down so students could have the chance to program on their own.

"This is a more advanced program," King said. "We wanted students to be able to get their hands on a robot."

Students at the camp included newbie programmers and seasoned pros, including two-year library robotics team veteran Ellie Keesee.

"My favorite part of the camp is programming," Keesee said. "The camp teaches us a lot about it."

King and computer programmer Amanda Blair assisted the students throughout the camp. King and Blair also both volunteer to coach robotics during the school year; King at the library and Blair at Socastee Elementary School.

The library received the camp's robots through an eco literacy grant, and King said she hopes to use this new technology to help build robotics programs at schools in the area.

The library has been home to its own robotics team for two years, but is now looking to play more of a supporting role for Georgetown County schools.

"There's a huge learning curve when you start a team," King said. "New programs can be difficult to learn. We want to reach out and help coaches and students with robotics."

The Georgetown and Carvers Bay branch libraries will also be hosting robotics camps in the coming weeks to expose students to computer programming.

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Camp sparks kids' interest in robotics - South Strand news

Israel’s Mazor Robotics sees record Q2 revenue – Reuters

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TEL AVIV, July 6 (Reuters) -

* Mazor Robotics, an Israeli maker of guidance systems for spine and brain surgeries, said on Thursday it expects to report record revenue of $15.4 million for the second quarter, up from $8.3 million a year earlier.

* During the second quarter, the company received 19 system orders, of which 16 were for the Mazor X system from U.S. customers. In addition, the company received orders for three Renaissance systems.

* "Our second quarter performance reflects the market's enthusiasm for the Mazor X system and demand continues to grow," said Ori Hadomi, Mazor's chief executive officer.

* The company intends to report its financial results for the second quarter on Aug. 1. (Reporting by Tova Cohen)

* Has capital resources to fulfill ongoing commitments, obligations, to assume funding requirements between now and end of 2017 Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:

* Yokogawa Electric's group operating profit probably jumped 18% on year to around 6 billion yen in the April-June quarter - Nikkei

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Israel's Mazor Robotics sees record Q2 revenue - Reuters

Robotics and AI tech can revolutionize classroom ed – Education Dive

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Dive Brief:

School leaders and administrators must be careful that the introduction of new technology is not a burden to teachers, as it could have detrimental effects for both educators and students. In a recent survey, educators expressed pessimism on how ed tech is used in their schools, with only 13% reporting that new tech would help advance learning experiences for students. Many teachers felt there was a likelihood that the introduction of such tech to classrooms would include extensive out-of-pocket costs for teachers.

Therefore, it is important for administrators to consider applying tech that can help, rather than hinder, educators. Robotics and AI technology offer a unique ability to proffer some form of classroom instruction, which could be of great assistance to educators managing classrooms with a high number of students. For example, students making great strides in a given subject may be able to challenge themselves through the use of AI-assisted tech. This would free educators to offer more extensive human interaction to students who are struggling with the given subject matter.

Utilizing robotics tech in K-12 classrooms to assist early learners in math can pay off in dividends later in their educational career. Recent news from California indicates that many students must take remedial math courses to qualify for community college. While there are successful models of remedial instruction, it can still be a strain on institutions and students, often causing enrollees to drop out before receiving a diploma. With research showing that early childhood education generally offers robust returns on investment, and specifically that early mathematics learning can be essential for students future understand and proficiency in mathematics, robotics and AI offer an additional tool for educators to utilize one that can be particularly immersive and engaging for younger students.

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Robotics and AI tech can revolutionize classroom ed - Education Dive

36 Years of Loretta’s – Racer X Online

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SCOTT SPORTS, Inc., established in 1958 and located in Sun Valley, Idaho, is a leading international manufacturer of premium bike accessories/equipment, running shoes, motosport and wintersport products.

As we count down the 36 days until the start of the 2017 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC Loretta Lynns AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship, we are going to look back at each year in the history of the event. Today we look back at 2005.

With believe the hype officially graduated from the amateur ranksMike Alessi now off and running with a pro career with KTM, and in the hunt for the 125 National MX Championshipthe focus shifted to his old rival, Ryan Villopoto. Villopoto came into his own on 85cc bikes to become Alessi's stiffest competitor, but in 12 knock down drag out minicycle motos in 2002 and 2003, he won just two. Alessi was a machine at the ranch. Villopoto won plenty of amateur races elsewhere, but the pressure was on to prove he could perform when the stage was his.

But a new nemesis loomed. Suzukis Jason Lawrence, who dominated the B class the previous year, heard all about Villopoto and set about establishing himself through his classic J-Law ways. All week, rumors spread through the ranch of J-Law skirting with trouble, leading to the classic quote from Carrrie Coombs (Davey's sister): "I've got two names on the shit list and both of them are Jason Lawrence."

But man could J-Law ride. Villopoto kept struggling with starts while Lawrence ran up front, winning the 125 A/Pro Sport title.Villopoto finished fourth that year, behind Kyle Chisholm and Martin Davalos.

"They keep saying Villopoto is supposed to be the next big thing and I never even saw him," said Lawrence in one podium interview.

In his final chance, after enduring frustration from team Alessi and talk and mind games from Lawrence, Villopoto finally came through to win 125 A going 1-1-1 to beat out Jake Weimer and Davalos. It's his only championship at Loretta's, a fact that shows sometimes being the chaser leads to the best possible motivation.

That was true in another class, also. The 125 Modified 12-15 ranks were loaded with the likes of Zach Osborne, Austin Stroupe and more, but Minnesota's Ryan Dungey scored an upset victory. The previous year, Dungey finished fourth in the same class behind Stroupe, Osborne, and Trey Canard.

Like Villopoto, that 2005 triumph would prove his only title at the event. Five years later, they were setting up to take over at the sport's highest levels. As for Alessi and Lawrence...do we have time to write a book?

Just as significant was a new method of coverage for the event. Led by teenaged video visionary Wes Williams and the DMXS Radio team, MX Sports Center, the first daily internet review show in the sport, debuted here. Shooting, editing and uploading daily 30-minute clips in the days before even YouTube existed is also a challenge worthy of a book. Williams and crew pulled it off, barely, with sweat, all nighters and youthful exuberance.

That was just the right mix for an event like this. Check out this clip from the first ever episode.

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36 Years of Loretta's - Racer X Online

Animal Welfare Groups Have a New Tool: Virtual Reality – New York Times

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Wayne Hsiung, a founder of Direct Action Everywhere, which also fights for animal welfare, called the technology a game changer for animal advocates.

The meat industry always complains that were using selective footage, narrow vantage points and editing to make things seem worse, he said. But with VR, youre seeing exactly what we saw and hearing exactly what we heard.

In one sign of how quickly the technology is being adopted among animal advocacy groups, Direct Action also released a virtual-reality video on Thursday. It takes viewers into barns at Circle Four Farms in Milford, Utah, one of the largest pig production operations in the United States. The film shows sows with bloody and mangled teats; pregnant sows gnawing on the bars of the narrow stalls they live in until they give birth; and piglets clambering over and nibbling dead siblings.

In a portion of the film Mr. Hsiung narrates, dead piglets are piled up behind a sow who is wedged into a crate so tightly that she cannot move away from the mess. But a viewer can turn away from her to see, and hear, sows in similar straits all around her.

Circle Four is owned by Smithfield Foods, which was bought in 2013 by Shuanghui International, one of Chinas largest meat processors. Keira Lombardo, a Smithfield spokeswoman, said the video had blatant inaccuracies, such as its assertions that the animals shown in it are being starved.

This video, which appears to be highly edited and even staged, is an attempt to leverage a new technology to manufacture an animal care issue where one does not exist, she wrote in an email on Wednesday.

She said that after Smithfield was contacted last week by The New York Times, the company had outside auditors Barry N. Pittman, Utahs state veterinarian, and Jennifer Woods, a veterinarian and livestock handling expert conduct an investigation at Circle Four, which found no animal mistreatment. Rather, she said, the videos creators, who claim to be animal care advocates, risked the life of the animal they stole and the lives of the animals living on our farms. (In fact, Direct Action took two piglets from the farm, to rescue them, and Smithfield says it will alert the authorities in Utah on Thursday about trespassing on its property and other alleged infractions by Direct Action.)

Other animal rights organizations are moving to adopt virtual-reality technology. At its Animal Care Expo in May, the Humane Society of the United States introduced its first 3D video showing conditions at a dog-meat plant in South Korea. Its powerful, more powerful than conventional video, said Paul Shapiro, the societys vice president for policy.

It is not easy, however, to sneak the bulky equipment needed to make a high-quality VR video into an industrial barn or meat plant. Animal Equality had to stitch its first iAnimal video together using film shot on several cameras.

But the bigger challenge is distribution. The technology needed to watch the videos is not widespread, so when Animal Equality started an outreach program on American college campuses last year, it had to supply headsets.

So far, the videos have made it to 117 campuses, including Oxford, Yale and the University of California at Berkeley. Animal Equality is working to develop a mobile app that will deliver as close to a virtual-reality experience as possible.

Mr. Valle noted that The Times had distributed more than one million cardboard virtual-reality headsets and said that he expected the technology to continue to spread. Sure, this is a new technology, he said, but its being used more and more.

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Animal Welfare Groups Have a New Tool: Virtual Reality - New York Times

Hollywood studios dip their toes in virtual reality – The Economist

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