China, India vying to become new heavyweights in space exploration – Ripples Nigeria

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Asian giants, China and India are currently locked in a serious competition to become the new heavyweights in space exploration, reports say.

Before now, the U.S. and Russia were longtime power players in space exploration, but two nations in Asia have made big strides to improve their programs.

India recently sent 31 satellites from 15 different countries into orbit. And in early 2017, it sent 104 satellites into orbit at once the most ever for a single rocket. It surpassed the previous record of 37 set by Russia in 2014.

Read also: Hacking group, CyberTeam claims responsibility for Skype outage

China is set to send an unmanned probe to the moon to bring back the first soil samples in more than 40 years. By 2018, its expected to be the first country to soft-land a probe on the far side of the moon.

India and China are also two of six space agencies in the heavy-lift rocket club. China joined at the end of 2016, and in June, India successfully launched a satellite into orbit thats several tons and 13 stories tall.

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China, India vying to become new heavyweights in space exploration - Ripples Nigeria

The Refugee Funding America’s Psychedelic Renaissance – VICE

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Deep in the Mexican jungle, in a village so remote it's only accessible by boat, 74-year-old venture capitalist George Sarlo waited to meet his father.

It was the fall of 2012, and Sarlo knew his quest seemed absurd. After all, his father had been dead for decades, and he had no connection to this region of rainforests and beaches and its indigenous peoples. As the financier watched a shaman prepare a ceremonial cup of bitter brown ayahuasca, he couldn't believe that he'd agreed to swallow this nauseating psychedelic brew for a second time.

But he had traveled for 12 hoursvia plane, boat, and finally on footto this primeval place, a newly-built gazebo-like wood platform without walls. He had expressed his intentions in a group therapy session in preparation; he had eaten a special, bland diet and even halted other medications.

He also trusted his friend, Dr. Gabor Mat, a fellow Hungarian Holocaust survivor, who led the therapy and had arranged the trip. Mat is perhaps best known for his book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, which explores his work with extremely traumatized injection drug users in Vancouver. He's been offering psychedelic therapy to trauma survivors since learning about the potential of ayahuasca in 2008.

A shaman had also assured Sarlo that the veil between worlds would be thinner at this time, during Mexico's Day of the Dead, which runs from Halloween through November 2. Since he had survived the past night's ordealwith all of its vomiting and visions of sepia-colored soldiershe figured he had little to lose by trying again and hoping that this time, his father would appear to him and the experience would start to make sense.

Though consuming ayahuasca in a Mexican jungle might complicate the picture, in many ways George Sarlo personifies the American Dream. In fact, his rags-to-riches refugee story is included as one of less than three-dozen examples in a new online exhibit on becoming an American at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington. As co-founder of Walden Venture Capital, which he helped start in 1974 and which currently manages some $107 million in funds, he has overseen the investment of billions of dollars.

"There are opportunities where relatively small amounts of money and energy can have a tremendous impact. So that's what I'm looking for."George Sarlo

His philanthropy has supported a humanitarian award in his name at the International Rescue Committee, two endowed chairs at the University of California, San Francisco, and funded Immigrant Point Lookout, a gorgeous spot in a beautiful public park: San Francisco's Presidio, near the Golden Gate Bridge.

Not far away, his own 1920s mansion also overlooks the bridge, taking in the entire 180-degree sweep of the bay. Salesforce billionaire Marc Benioff lives in the neighborhood; across the street is Robin Williams's former home.

When he sees me slack-jawed at the beauty of the place, Sarlo, who is slim with intense blue eyes, smiles impishly and says, "Not bad for a refugee, eh?"

He leads me out onto a wide terrace from which I can see cliffs, beach, surfers, and, in the misty distance, the Marin headlands and Mount Tamalpais. This is a long way from the dirt-floored home of his grandparents in jfehrt, Hungary, and from the modest apartment of his parentsa textile factory clerk and a seamstressin Budapest.

Until recently, however, Sarlo wasn't able to fully enjoy the material pleasures of his wealth, like racing sailing yachts and a country house with its own vineyard in Marin County. Nor could he appreciate the deeper comforts of friends, romance or family. "I don't have many memories of looking at him and feeling like he was in joy," says his daughter Gabrielle, now 50.

For much of his life, Sarlo suffered from one of depression's cruelest tortures: anhedonia, or the inability to feel pleasure. Anhedonia insidiously drains joy from formerly enjoyable social interactions and experiencesand worse, replaces it with dullness, dread, or apprehension.

In fact, Sarlo first realized that he might be depressed when both of his daughters complained about his constant dissatisfaction when they were teenagers. "They would ask, 'Dad, how come you're not having fun ever? You never laugh,'" he recalls. It wasn't until he began to find himself weeping for no discernible reason that he finally sought helpand began a journey that would ultimately take him to places he did not think it possible to reach.

These days, evidence of a psychedelic renaissance is everywhere in America. MDMAbest known as ecstasy, or, more recently, Mollyis set to begin Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which means it could be FDA-approved and on the market as early as 2021. Psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, is at a similar stage, with research suggesting it can help with the anxiety and depression associated with cancer, and with quitting smoking.

Ketaminethe club drug, a.k.a. Special Kis already widely used for intractable depression, following a series of trials that showed it could act rapidly, unlike existing antidepressants, which often take weeks to have an effect.

Meanwhile, a YouGov poll this month found that nearly two thirds of American adults would personally be willing to try MDMA, Ketamine, or Psilocybin if it was proven safe to treat a condition they have. And in April, a scientific conference on research about drugs that produce visions, out-of-body and transcendent experiences like ayahuasca, psilocybin and LSD was attended by over 3,000 peopleincluding Tom Insel, the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Two widely-discussed recent booksAyelet Waldman's A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage and My Life and Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal's Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Worktout the benefits of these substances for everything from depression and PTSD to improved creativity and productivity.

"Microdosing," or taking such small amounts of these drugs that they don't noticeably alter consciousness, is fashionable in Silicon Valley and beyond. The psychedelic revival has such cultural currency that even the New Yorker got in on the action, running a snarky piece about ayahuasca use by Brooklyn hipsters.

Sarlo is one of the key forces behind the scenes in this revolution, funding research and connecting various experts with each other and the resources they need to advance their work. "He's a nexus," says Dr. Mat. "He's important both in the sense that he's a donor and he makes things happen, but also, his house is a bit like a clearinghouse."

According to Vicky Dulai, who runs Compassion for Addiction, one of Sarlo's charities, he has donated nearly two million dollars to psychedelic research so fara substantial sum given that neither the government nor Big Pharma is willing to fund the studies needed to get these drugs to market.

"He brings to the table a particular acumen," explains Bob Jesse, a former Oracle executive who is now a board member of the Usona Institute, a nonprofit organization that does what pharmaceutical companies usually do: in this case, funding, sponsoring, and managing trials of psilocybin, with the goal of supplying the market if a version of the drug does win approval.

Jesse explains, "There's a certain sensibility to a successful venture capitalist. You have to find good sectors and projects that are going to work, while a lot of people are pitching you ideas that probably aren't going to work. Another thing George offers is his inclination toward funding partnerships." Sarlo has given $100,000 to Usona.

Overall, Sarlo's main goal is to support research and find ways to de-stigmatize these medicines so that they can eventually be used legally, effectively, and safely, in appropriate contexts.

"For me, the most important thing is to find some of the tipping points," Sarlo says. "There are opportunities where relatively small amounts of money and energy can have a tremendous impact. So that's what I'm looking for. I hope I can spend all of my money, but I don't have enough opportunity."

The clash between science and spirituality that inevitably arises in the psychedelic worldand the politics that caused a backlash against the drugs in the 1960s and 70smakes this a difficult undertaking, even for someone with such fabulous wealth. In the age of Donald Trump and attorney general Jefferson Sessions, fear about a return to the dark ages of drug war demonization of all currently illicit psychoactive substances is palpable.

During his second ayahuasca experience, Sarlo's visions took him far away from the humid rainforest. This time, he says, he was transported to what appeared to be a snowy field at the edge of a wintry forest. Skeletal men stood like statues, frozen in marching formation. Some still wore remnants of the striped uniform of prisoners, signifying that they were Jewish men who had been conscripted to support the fascists in World War II.

"They are all covered with snow, except one skeleton is sticking out and for some reason I know it's my father," he tells me.

Inside Sarlo's brain, a drug called DMT had presumably reached the receptors it targets, which are normally occupied by the neurotransmitter serotonin, involved in regulation of mood and sensation. Like the classic psychedelics LSD and psilocybin, DMT is active at one particular serotonin receptor, known as 5HT2A, which is believed to be responsible for the drug's mind-expanding effects.

Ayahuasca is a potent mixture that includes segments of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine boiled together with either Psychotria viridis (chacruna) leaves or those from the Diplopterys cabrerana (chagropanga) plant. By itself, each ingredient isn't strongly psychoactive. But when boiled together, an enzyme inhibitor in the "vine of the soul" allows the DMT from the leaves to profoundly alter consciousness.

The brew has been used for millennia by South American peoples, and was brought to the attention of Western science by ethnobotanist Richard Schultes. American beatniks and psychedelic explorers first learned of it under its other nameYagein William Burroughs's and Allen Ginsberg's 1963 Yage Letters.

"He felt lighter to me and in many ways, what transpired over the next few years in terms of our relationship was miraculous."Gabrielle Sarlo

Sarlo last saw his father when he was just four years old, in 1942. He remembers the last day he spent with him: He had watched his dad go pale as he read the telegram that told him he would be conscripted. But the next morning, when the elder Sarlo headed out the door, he didn't even wake his son for a farewell kiss. "I thought that he didn't come back because I was a bad boy," his son recalls. "That's what I carried with me."

Tripping in Mexico, and sensing a presence next to him on that frozen field in Europe, which he knew intuitively to be his father's spirit, Sarlo asked the questions he'd been wrestling with for years. First, "Why didn't you say goodbye?" He says that he heard a familiar voice respond: "I didn't want to wake you. I thought I would be back the same day. I was known as a pretty clever guy. I thought: I can get out of this stuff."

Then, Sarlo says, "I ask the big question: 'Did you love me?'" His father indicated the skeleton that was most clearly sticking out; its mouth was open, as if to speak. And he said, "'Look at me. That's my last breath and with my last breath I blessed you and promised to guard you all of your life.'"

Suddenly, after that "interaction," years of pain began to dissolve and ebb away. The burden of feeling fatherless, unworthy, and unlovable; the fear that had dominated his childhood as a Jewish boy in Nazi-occupied Hungary, when every day brought new restrictions, starvation, crowding. The bomb that dropped into the courtyard but didn't explode; the incident in which he'd hidden under a man's coat on a train and watched a soldier's bayonet miraculously slide past him, without injuring him or causing him to cry out.

Decades of accumulated trauma and depression started to lift. "I felt weak. I felt lighter. I felt relief. I can't say that I was happy, but I felt good," Sarlo says.

More remarkably, the transformation has persisted over the years since that initial experience. "He changed in so many ways," his daughter Gabby says. "He became kinder, more compassionate, more understanding of others, more open. He felt lighter to me and in many ways, what transpired over the next few years in terms of our relationship was miraculous He's turned into the person that I had kind of always hoped to have as my dad."

Psychedelic research is fraught with paradox: for one thing, ingesting a chemical that clearly alters specific receptors in one's very physical and material brain can produce an experience that feels as though you have transcended time, space, your bodyeven the universe. A chemical transforms not just your brain, but your mind.

Modern science can study these age-old substances with great precision. But even if you're lying in an fMRI brain imaging machine surrounded by state-of-the-art technology while tripping, the only language that begins to describe what you feel is that of mysticismand all the fuzzy spiritual stuff that hard scientists often dismiss as "woo."

That leaves people who want to blend the scientific and the shamanic facing difficult questions. For example: Did George Sarlo really meet his father? And how much does the literal truth of these experiences even matter?

For his part, Sarlo says that at first, part of him reasoned, "'OK, so this has been on your mind for many years. It accumulated all this yearning in your subconscious and when you took that medicine, something opened up and you saw and heard what you wanted to see and hear.'"

"The other part of me thought, There is some kind of a world beyond what we know."

This led him to research the history of the Hungarian slave laborers and the way they were likely to have died during the warand he found nothing that falsified the scenario he experienced. His father could have died just the way he saw in his vision; it wasn't historically incorrect. On the other hand, freezing to death in a Northern European forest when you aren't given adequate food or clothing is not especially unlikely.

"It's a great question," says Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, who heads psychedelic research at Imperial College in London and has studied psilocybin for depression. "It's poignant. It's come up in our trial and it seems to come up for everyone. These apparent recollections feel so real."

"What really happens when we die? We don't know. Don't act like you do."Roland Griffiths

But while medicine can easily incorporate new psychiatric drugs that show efficacy on validated scales, it will have a far more difficult time accommodating treatments that leave some patients believing they have communed with the dead, discovered the afterworldor even met God. Medicine and religion are already the site of many fraught interactions: to bring a treatment into the mainstream, clinical trials and clear measures of progress are needed; otherwise, insurers and politicians will dismiss psychedelic therapy as sheer quackery.

Mat, who uses ayahuasca in clinical work where it is legal, says, "People have all kinds of visions. I'm not ever concerned or engaged with their literal content, but with their emotional-spiritual message. They convey powerful truths, and my work is to help people identify and integrate those truths For the purposes of the work, it doesn't matter what I believe."

Carhart-Harris agrees that therapeutically, the reality of the content of the vision doesn't matter all that much. "Even though I don't believe that he transcended time and space, I do believe that the experience is of George's mind, and I also believe it's meaningful."

If someone forms a sincere belief about life after death in the context of healing from depression or trauma, Carhart-Harris adds, what counts most is that recovery and its robustness and longevity. He explains, "I think it has an emotional meaning and value that I wouldn't want to depreciate. But equally, I wouldn't want to lose my scientific integrity by sort of playing into the experience and saying that it's real."

Mark Kleiman, professor of public service at New York University's Marron Institute and an expert on drug policy, doesn't view psychedelic experiences as "truth," even though he says the drugs have significant potential. "I'm still stuck in the Enlightenment," he says. "It matters." In other words, if many Americans are determined to reject "fake news" and "alternative facts," we need to separate religious ideas from empirical reality.

But Roland Griffiths, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, is less certain. "You're asking the unanswerable," he tells me. In 2000, Griffiths actually won US government approval to conduct the landmark study of psilocybin experience in healthy participants, which began the research renaissance in this field.

"Encountering one's deceased relative is a variation of the mystery of what happens upon death," he says, noting how the same types of reports are common in near-death experiences. He acknowledges that reductionists interpret such an experience as a psychological response generated by the brain, but in fact, he says, the mystery of consciousness remains.

"What are we doing here, anyway? How did we come to be conscious? What really happens when we die? We don't know. Don't act like you do. So, I'm very comfortable even as a scientist to say there are things we simply don't know. I'm willing to rest in the mystery."

Another important and more practical question is raised by the visions and emotions people report while under the influence of these drugs. That is, does the psychological experience of feeling as though you have, say, healed your relationship with your father actually cause brain changes that lead to psychological recoveryor is that just a side effect of pharmacological alterations in brain receptors, which make the real difference?

The pharmaceutical industry and government agencies like the National Institute on Mental Health are betting these are mere side effects. In other words, they are trying to develop new medications that have the lasting healing effects of psychedelics without the ordeal or mystical experience recreational users have tended to seek.

For example, there is ongoing research aimed at developing a drug that would have the same depression-lifting effect of ketamine, but without the out-of-body trip. (Success here would also have the financially convenient effect of creating products thatunlike existing psychedelics could be patented.) Johnson & Johnson, Naurex, and AstraZeneca have all been testing such drugs.

Lisa Monteggia, professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, has studied how ketamine works to fight depression. Based on her own research, she thinks the trippy effects can be dissociated from the therapeutic ones. The right dose of the right compound, correctly timed, could "enable the design of treatment strategies against neuropsychiatric disorders without the unwanted side effects of these drugs," she tells me.

But many of the psychedelic researchers think this quest is unlikely to bear fruit: indeed, so far, ketamine-like compounds without trippy effects haven't reliably beaten placebo.

This suggests that the emotional experience, its psychological content, and the way you make meaning out of the trip may really matter. Several studies now show that people who have the most intense elements of a "mystical" experience during psychedelic sessions are more likely to experience positive change.

These features include feeling a sense of "oneness" with others and the universe, a dissolution of the self ("nonduality"), a feeling of awe or sacredness, the sense that time and space have been transcended, an experience of great peace, bliss, and calmnessand an overwhelming sense that what has occurred is meaningful and represents a deep truth.

For example, in a study that used psilocybin to help smokers quit, success was strongly linked with having a complete mystical experience. In this research, 80 percent successfully quit smokinga rate that is far higher than seen with other methods.

Similarly, research on psilocybin use for anxiety and depression associated with terminal cancer also found a strong link between feeling these mystical emotions and long-term reduction in distress. And a study of ketamine found that greater "out of body" feelings were linked with better odds of depression relief.

"It's theoretically possible, but it strikes me as being improbable," Griffiths says of the idea of taking the "trip" out of psychedelic medicine. "Part of the nature of the experience that people have and the way people explain why they change has to do with their interpretation and the meaning of the experience so this is very much about meaning-making."

"I think it's wishful thinking," agrees Carhart-Harris. However, he notes that reports about mood lifting effects of "micro-dosing" do suggest that at least some change may be possible without a full-blown trip.

"I think the core factor here is, 'Is the mind being loosened?'" he adds. "Even with micro-dosing and with the higher doses, it's all about a loosening of mental constraintsand with that loosening an enhanced possibility for insight."

In fact, one possible explanation of how these drugs work could bridge the psychology of the experience and the neuroscience of receptor change. The idea is that the receptor changes temporarily allow conscious access to part of what you might call the brain's "operating system," (OS) which is normally inaccessible.

This part of the OS includes ideas and beliefs we adopted as children to make sense of the world, which structure how we experience everything that follows. If these beliefs are harmfulperhaps shaped by trauma or otherwise distortedaccessing them during a vision might help integrate and update them in a way that leads to lasting change.

By the mid-1960s, over 1,000 papers had been published on LSD alone before increasing levels of recreational use by hippies sparked a worldwide panic and an international ban. Even though much of this data did not meet the standards used today, it did show promise, suggesting that psychedelic therapy could potentially have lasting positive results on those suffering from alcoholism and other addictions, as well as anxiety related to cancer.

Crucially, today's studies suggest fears about long-term damage from the classic hallucinogens like LSD and psilocybin are overblown, and relate to use of inappropriate doses in uncontrolled settings without careful preparation and support during and afterwards.

"There certainly are risks and it's important not to minimize those risks," says Griffiths. "But they are not as devastating or prevalent as would have been imagined based on the media coverage and the cultural impressions that emerged from the 1960s."

A common fear, for many, is that they will experience hell rather than heavencoming away not with a sense that the universe is benign and kind, but instead overwhelmed by an encounter with a howling existential void in which life is pointless and fate is cruel. Griffiths himself had concerns about inducing such experiences, particularly when treating dying people. "I had a lot of trepidation," he says, despite the positive reports in the earlier literature.

Being depressed and anxious about impending death would seem to be a set-up for such a bad tripor what researchers prefer to call a "challenging experience."

"You would think that people with life-threatening cancer would be deeply primed for that, but in fact, what frequently occurred among patients in our study were experiences of deep meaning, connection and integration," Griffiths says, adding, "That's another mystery." Although many study participants have transient fear and even terror, less than 1 percent reported any lasting issues, according to Griffithsand those problems that were reported were not severe.

Nonetheless, researchers and supporters like Sarlo recognize that it is important not to let hype and hope overrun data. After all, a massive cultural backlash like the one that ended nearly all research on these substances for decades is always a possibility, as the history of American drug policy and psychiatry makes clear.

"Every new treatment in the history of psychiatry, going back thousands of years, does very well at the beginning, then doesn't do so well," explains Dr. Allen Frances, professor emeritus at Duke who chaired the DSM-IV task force that categorized diagnoses in psychiatry in the 1990s.

"Original hype will always exaggerate the potential benefits and minimize very realistic risks," he says. "It's certainly promising enough to have careful study" of the emerging data on psychedelic medicine, he adds, before cautioning that what works well in small, selected samples can also do serious harm if misused by a larger, unscreened group. He has particular concerns about how ketamine is already being widely used for depression, without larger, longer, and higher quality trials on repeated use.

For his part, Sarlo wants to help other people find the relief he's experienced. He's realistic about the advantages he enjoys and the importance of the therapeutic context and ability to integrate insight into normal life to the effectiveness of these drugs. Still, his story raises the question: If a skeptical venture capitalist with a degree in electrical engineering can overcome decades of Holocaust-related trauma by careful use of these medicines, what else might they be able to do?

To prevent harm or backlash, careful science and caution is essential. But these days, the need for remedies that can decrease selfishness and maximize empathy and kindness is more urgent than ever.

"I think psychedelics should be seen as a kind of 'transformative medicine,'" Sarlo says. "They really do have the potential to change the world."

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The Refugee Funding America's Psychedelic Renaissance - VICE

Majority of Americans ready to embrace psychedelic therapy – YouGov US

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Higher education linked to increased support of trip treatments

Several controversial psychedelic drugs now show promise as powerful therapeutic treatments for depression, anxiety, and PTSD.New data from YouGov suggests that public support for these therapies may have something to do with education level.

A studyby researchers from New York University and Johns Hopkins University showedthat a single treatment with psilocybin (the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms) reduced anxiety and depression in 80% of cancer patients. Another controlled trialshowed that on average,after threedoses of MDMA, patients experienced a 56% decrease inseverity of PTSD symptoms. More importantly, 66% no longer met the criteria for PTSD by the end of the trial. Studies at Yale, Mount Sinai and the National Institute of Mental Health suggest that ketamine relieves depressionwithin sixhours, especially in patients who were resistant to conventional antidepressant medicine.

Despite the stigma surrounding these controlled substances, new data from YouGov shows that many Americans are ready to embrace psychedelic therapies.Whats more, a relationshipappears to exist between higher levels of education and increased support for psychedelic research and treatments.At each increasing level of education, there's a corresponding increase in support for medical research into the potential benefits of psychedelic substances, such aspsilocybin mushrooms, MDMA, and ketamine. 53% of all respondents support medical research into psychedelic drugs, and this number increases to 69% for respondents with graduate degrees.

While more than half of all Americans may support research into psychedelics for therapeutic use, a 63% majority also said they would personally be open to medical treatment with psilocybin, ketamine, or MDMA if faced with a pertinent medical condition assuming the substance is proven safe. The curve of support for all three substances increased with each respondents education level. On average, respondents with a post graduate degree were 21 points more likely to try treatment with psilocybin, ketamine, or MDMA than those with a high school diploma or less.

Full survey results available here

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Majority of Americans ready to embrace psychedelic therapy - YouGov US

Trance encounter – Camden New Journal newspapers website

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Camden New Journal newspapers website
Trance encounter
Camden New Journal newspapers website
Elliotson, who taught Charles Dickens to put people in a trance, features in a fascinating new book, The Mesmerist, by Wendy Moore. The doctor was convinced that many illnesses were all in the mind and could be cured by auto suggestion. What's more, he ...

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Trance encounter - Camden New Journal newspapers website

Cyberpunk 2077 Job Hiring Details Proprietary Level Design Through RedEngine 4 – One Angry Gamer (blog)

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(Last Updated On: June 23, 2017)

A new Cyberpunk 2077 job listing has appeared and this time CD Projekt Red dives into the open world and level design spectrum. Cyberpunk 2077 level design is said to focus on unique open world spaces where gameplay flow and visual composition form memorable experiences.

Levels really do tell how a game will play out, for instance the more open and circular a map may be the more spontaneous and lax the gameplay will turn out due to the lack of emotion present in that particular map. The more narrow a map is constructed with choke-points and strategical objects scattered around a stage the more tactical the game will play out. The above description for open and linear maps are most noticeable in FPS PvP games, which means how do you create an open world game that features both lax and strategical gameplay?

According to CD Projekt Reds latest job hiring that seeks out a Level Designer and a Lead Level Designer, the game will have both named jobs using a proprietary level editor in the RedEngine 4. This means that the unique level editor specifically designed for future CDPR games (that includes Cyberpunk 2077) will be able to reflect different compositions and memorable experiences through astonishing in-game levels by using flexible tools in the new engine, as seen below.

The first job hiring details what CDPR is looking for in a Level Designer and what this person of interest must do, which is described below.

CD PROJEKT RED in Krakw is looking for a creative and talented Level Designer. By joining us you will be a part of the newly-formed level design team in Krakw and will be responsible for creating astonishing in-game levels for great Cyberpunk 2077.

CDPR also posted up the usual bulleted list that explains what that specific job will be doing in this case a Level Designer:

The second job listing comes a Lead Level Designer. The same setup as the Level Designer is used to explain the role of the former job.

CD PROJEKT RED is currently looking for a Lead Level Designer who will be leading the Level Designers team in day-to-day operation of designing, prototyping, iterating on and polishing in-game levels including level geometry, enemy encounters and other gameplay elements, using proprietary game engine. The person on this position will work closely with the Design Producer to help ensure proper balance between quality, deadlines and technical requirements.

Once again, the same concept as the last bulleted list explains the role and job of a Lead Level Designer, as seen below:

This news about level design is rather interesting in that the tools used for the map creation are proprietary to the RedEngine 4, meaning that the devs have full control of using this new powerful engine to create flexible maps for people and vehicles on ground and fly vehicles, too.

The images above are actually from Cyberpunk 2077, however they stand to be a CGI model of a flying police car and concept for a street-way.

Expect more job listings in the months to come given that the devs are hard at work on Cyberpunk 2077. Something worth mentioning before signing out is that although 2017 is the year of GWENT, it doesnt rule out that you might receive info from the devs on Cyberpunk 2077 when Promised Land roles around in d on September 3rd-6th.

Cyberpunk 2077 is et to come out when its ready.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Job Hiring Details Proprietary Level Design Through RedEngine 4 - One Angry Gamer (blog)

‘Cyberpunk 2077’ release Date: The game is far bigger than ‘The Witcher 3’ – Blasting News

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"#The Witcher" series has become such a huge franchise that it will be pretty hard to follow it up and introduce another IP. That's exactly what #CD Projekt RED is doing, with its upcoming sci-fi RPG called "#Cyberpunk 2077." It is quite difficult to get information about the studio's next game, as they are pretty mum about it themselves, but here is everything we know about the highly anticipated game so far.

CD Projekt Red had once said that "Cyberpunk 2077" is a huge project for the studio and the title will certainly benefit from their experience with "The Witcher 3." According to visual effects artist Jose Teixeira, during his interview with MCV in 2015, the game is far bigger than anything else that the gaming studio has done before.

Studio Head Adam Badowski also said during CD Projekt's 2015 financial results that the game will be "even better, even bigger, even more revolutionary." With the way the studio had described the development of the game, gamers should pretty much expect a really ambitious game once it's released.

A huge hint pointing to possible vehicles in "Cyberpunk 2077" was seen on CD Projekt Red's jobs page. According to one of their job openings on the site, the Polish studio is looking for a vehicle gameplay programmer who will "create the whole architecture of vehicle-related code, and the physics of driving and flying in those vehicles" with the rest of the members of the gameplay and level design teams.

The game will give the players an option to take advantage of the driving and flying vehicles traversing the world.

There was a released animated GIF claiming to be part of the project although it was not confirmed whether it is official or not.

CD Projekt Red has remained quiet about the launch date of "Cyberpunk 2077," but a release date window may have just been hinted based on the developer's government funding application.

Information on CD Projekt's site, which was spotted by Neogaf forumer Boskee, mentioned that the timeline will run from January 2016 and January 2017 until June 2019. Based on this, fans should expect the highly anticipated game by the first half of 2019. The forumer noted, however, that this could still be a tentative release date window, as CD Projekt Red can still apply for an extension of the deadline.

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'Cyberpunk 2077' release Date: The game is far bigger than 'The Witcher 3' - Blasting News

Pigeons, buses and mixing up fielders: TMS will miss Henry Blofeld – The Guardian

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Henry Blofeld, right, says he leaves the Test Match Special programme in the safest of hands led by Jonathan Agnew. Photograph: Visionhaus/Corbis via Getty Images

The expectation was they would carry Henry Blofeld out of the Test Match Special commentary box in a coffin. He has always loved the cricket and the microphone in equal measure. And he is one of lifes great troupers. Yet now we learn that, at 77, he has announced his retirement from TMS in September. It is a bit of a shock.

His last game on air is scheduled to be Englands third Test against West Indies at Lords. When he bids farewell expect something more flowery than John Arlotts final sentence on TMS in 1980, which was: After a word from Trevor Bailey it will be Christopher Martin-Jenkins. For Henry, pigeons will presumably assemble around St Johns Wood like the Red Arrows.

Henry has adorned the TMS box for 45 years with a few interruptions (like the good freelance, he had a go with Sky TV for a while before returning to the fold). I have had the good fortune to sit alongside him now and again for more than 25 of those years, marvelling at his energy, his preposterous ability to spot butterflies and buses, and his intimate knowledge of the game of cricket. While Henry may struggle to identify the exact name of the bloke fielding at third man, he could give you every last detail of the England team that won the Ashes in 1956 or in 1981 when he was commentating at the end of the famous Botham Test at Headingley.

Henrys zest for life is remarkable. In the 1960s this was reflected by his decision to drive to India in a vintage Rolls-Royce to cover an England tour with John Woodcock of the Times as one of his travelling companions. On one distant subcontinental tour he almost played for England as sickness hit the dressing room. He was easily the best qualified among the press corps to do so since he was a prodigious young batsman and wicketkeeper at Eton and Cambridge. My impression is he played a few shots. In this decade he is still tearing around the country and will continue to do so treading the boards, talking of cricket and anything else that takes his fancy. He loves an audience.

That zest sometimes necessitated the odd early departure from a cricket ground. Henry wrote about cricket for the Guardian regularly in the 1980s. Once at a routine county match at Chelmsford he left a little early for a pressing engagement having dutifully filed his copy, which focused upon Essexs innings of 287 and with the last sentence reading: and at the close Surrey were _ for _. Unfortunately Surrey were bowled out for 14 in the last hour. Fortunately a young Matthew Engel was on the desk and did a little more than simply add the numbers 14 and 10 to Henrys copy.

He has written for most newspapers, adjusting to fresh demands and equipment along the way. The sight of him counting the words of a piece he had written on a newly acquired laptop springs to mind. It just seemed to spoil the fun to inform him of a button called word count. But perhaps his most memorable work has been for the BBC.

I have witnessed many epic broadcasts, sometimes when there has been no cricket happening at all. In Brisbane in 1998 there was a biblical thunderstorm when Henry was on air. Suddenly his antennae were triggered. This was something exceptional and off he went on an extraordinarily vivid monologue. Within days this was compulsory listening on Pick of the Week.

His stock phrases can be easily interpreted. My dear old thing came about because he could not remember names infallibly. Watch out for youre absolutely right, which means I havent been listening to a word youve been saying for the last few minutes but its my turn now.

This lovable old rogue, who knows the game inside out, will be genuinely missed on the airwaves. Women and children were often special fans. There is still a twinkle in the eye and mischief in the voice. And if his absence is hard to bear, do not worry; the old trouper will be appearing at some theatre near you very shortly.

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Pigeons, buses and mixing up fielders: TMS will miss Henry Blofeld - The Guardian

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‘Pokemon Go’ Technical Machine: How to Use a TM to Learn a New Move – Heavy.com

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(Niantic)

One of the new features that Niantic has now added toPokemon Goare technical machines. TMs come in two types: Fast Training Machine and Charged Training Machine. Each item can be used to teach a new move to one of your Pokemon.Pokemon trainers are really excited about these new items, since theyve been waiting a long time for the ability to teach their Pokemon new moves.

According to Pokemon Go Hub, youll need to be at least level 15 to use a Fast TM, and at least level 25 to use a Charged TM. The Fast TM will teach your Pokemon a random fast move, and the Charged TM will teach your Pokemon a random charged move. Both TMs are among the new items that will drop after you win a raid battle. Raid battles are still in beta and you must be at least level 35 to participate in one. But starting at some point in July, raid battles will be available to everyone, and so will TMs.

Teaching your Pokemon a new move with a TM is pretty easy. First, just go to your bag, find the TM, and select it. At this time, your Pokemon screen will appear and you can scroll through and select the Pokemon that you want to use the TM on. You can only get moves that are currently available when youre using a TM. The Go Hub DB provides a nice list of TM-eligible moves here.

As far as which Pokemon you can use a TM on: the skys the limit. You can use as many TMs as you want on the same Pokemon, and you can use TMs on any level or gender. All Pokemon are eligible for TMs. But remember: youll always get anewmove when you use a TM on a Pokemon. There will be no chance of getting the same move you already have. And legacy moves are not among the current possible outcomes.

See photos and videos of what raid battles in Pokemon Go look like. The beta raids are available to level 35 players and up.

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'Pokemon Go' Technical Machine: How to Use a TM to Learn a New Move - Heavy.com

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EDAP TMS SA (EDAP) has a mean analyst rating of 2.00 – Stocks Gallery

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EDAP TMS S.A. (EDAP) Snapshot:

In recent trade; EDAP TMS S.A. (EDAP) snatched the consideration from Investors, when its current damaging picture was seen that is promoting bad performance. The stock price is showing discouraging image with current unsupportive move of -3.22% at trading price of $3.31. Active Investors often maintain a close study on trading capacity of EDAP stock. Investors who observing the volume trend of EDAP TMS S.A. (EDAP) over recent time; they noted that 0.16 million shares changed at hands contradiction to its average trading volume of 0.1 million. Traders and technical analysts have the ability to use volume to help measure the strength of a particular move. Investors may also view volume levels when the stock price is nearing significant support or resistance levels, in order to confirm a breakout in either direction.

Performance Evaluation of EDAP TMS S.A. (EDAP):

EDAP TMS S.A. (EDAP)s bearish picture have been built after taking the consideration of last five trading activity. Shares of EDAP TMS S.A. (EDAP) weakened with poorly motion. EDAP saw its unproductive stir of -9.56% in last week. The stock uncovered monthly dynamic performance with growing progress of 11.82%. This ascending monthly return given optimistic signal for Investors. The quarterly performance is giving indications that stock is trading with a tendency toward upward trend. The stock surging with rising stream of 29.80% in recent 3 months. When analyzing at performance throughout recent 6 months we have seen that EDAP TMS S.A. (EDAP) is surging with an upward movement of 0.91%. Here we perceived that this stock is healthy for investors as it is growing larger in last half year duration. If we move further to the full year performance, we identified that EDAP is promoting good health as stock gained with positive stir of 6.43%.

Now we see the performance from the period beginning the first day of the current calendar or fiscal year up to the current date. The stock is noticeable among investors as EDAP reported favorable performance of 0.91%. This performance is known as YTD and it is useful for analyzing business trends or comparing performance data.

Is EDAP Stock is Risky?

You invest to earn a return on your money, but returns are not the only consideration. Risk and return are connected. Generally, the higher the risk of an investment, the higher the potential return. Here beta measures how the stock is doing compared to a given benchmark, such as the S&P TSX Composite Index. A beta of 1.0 tells you that a stock has been going up and down with the overall stock market. A stock with a beta between 0.0 and 1.0 has smaller ups and downs. A beta greater than 1.0 has wider price swings. Stocks with a negative beta are moving opposite to the index. When you invest in a stock, you could lose all of your money in some cases, more than you invested. Before you buy a stock, understand the risks and decide if they are risks you are comfortable taking. Currently EDAP TMS S.A. (EDAP) has beta value of 1.00.

Analyst rating about EDAP TMS S.A. (EDAP):

EDAP has a mean analyst rating of 2.00. This rating score is based on a 1-5 scale where a 5 would reveal a Strong Buy, a 4 indicates a Moderate Buy, 3 would equal to a hold, 2 means a moderate sell, and a rating of 1 would display a Strong Sell.

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EDAP TMS SA (EDAP) has a mean analyst rating of 2.00 - Stocks Gallery

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Vacation without Children – Childfree Getaways – TripSavvy

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You're finally alone, ready to start your vacation. You turn to your beloved, about to speak. But then... "WAAAAH!" Suddenly, the sounds of silence are punctuated by a fretful, crying baby -- and the child is wailing as if it may not stop until it reaches college age.

When one travels, this happens all the time....in airports, on trains, planes, in restaurants, even in hotels with thin walls. Peace of mind is shattered by ear-piercing cries from OPBs (Other People's Babies).

What can you do?

Even if you have children, love kids, or are planning to start a family, you shouldn't have to spend a romantic vacation surrounded by the sticky-fingered set. The good news is, you don't have to. There are plenty of places that offer vacations without children; you just have to be selective.

Many all-inclusive resorts such as Sandals, SuperClubs, and Iberostar Grand Hotelsrestrict guests under age 16 or 18 -- so any immature people you may encounter on a vacation at such properties will be emotionally, rather than chronologically, immature.

Also, numerous fine inns, especially those furnished with treasured antiques, do not accept youngsters.

I don't know of any cruise line that restricts children, but if you want to avoid the little darlings, your best bet is a river cruise. More expensive than ocean cruises, they have zero facilities for children and tend to attract an older crowd.

(The one exception is AmaWaterways, which partners with Disney on a few sailings and is launching some custom-built ships for family travelers.)

On an ocean cruise, sailing a longer itinerary to distant ports at times other than summer and school breaks certainly cuts down on the likelihood you will encounter toddlers to teens.

Large cruise ships are starting to make concessions to adults:

I've spoken with many hoteliers and they tell me the best times to travel are what they call the "romance months" of May and September when kids are in school and couples season, which begins after Labor Day and ends before Thanksgiving. Personally, I've found October and early June relatively childfree times to travel as well. Also, immediately before a major holiday, such as the first two weeks in November or in February before spring break is a safe bet.

The term "family-friendly" is a red flag for me and should be for others who'd rather not vacation among children. If you book such a resort, expect children to be seen and heard throughout your stay.

We once took advantage of a Valentine's Weekend package at a family-friendly resort expecting a reprieve from the shrieks of infants, but we were out of luck.

That's because it coincided with President's Day weekend. And further to the consternation of childfree couples, new parents towed newborns along on what was intended to be a romantic interlude. One of the contributors to this site calls it "stroller shock."

Still, some multi-generational resorts do make a concerted effort to keep romantic couples and rambunctious families separate. The more upscale a place you select, the more likely it will have facilities that segregate children from grown-ups. Most hotel spas are off-limits to kids, for example, and better hotels and cruise lines feature adults-only pools. Among them:

Beware of hotels that have adults-only swim hours, though: While you won't have to put up with screams and splashing, you will be swimming in the same water where diapers may have dipped earlier.

Let the resort manager know how much you appreciate being in a serene, childfree space. The more you patronize places that cater exclusively to adults, the better it will be for everyone who likes to unwind without the presence of children.

Now if Disney would only make one day a month for adults on vacation without children, we'd be delighted.

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Vacation without Children - Childfree Getaways - TripSavvy

Puppies cloned from ears arrive in Russia for genetic research … – RT

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Published time: 24 Jun, 2017 08:49 Edited time: 24 Jun, 2017 10:16

Lab-produced dogs cloned from bio material taken from the two best representatives of the Yakutian Laika species have arrived in Russia from South Korea for genetic research. One met its original mother as a Ruptly crew filmed the moment.

The puppies, which were cloned by South Koreas Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, one of the worlds leading dog cloning laboratories, arrived in Yakutsk, the capital of Siberias Yakutia Republic, on Friday. The research was led by Dr. Hwang Woo Suk and his team.

The scientists succeeded in cloning the Yakutian Laikas, a type of hunting dog from Northern Russia and Russian Siberia, from a 12-year-old male and a 6-year-old female.

One of cloned puppies is a two-month-old girl named Kyrachana, which means beautiful in the Yakutian language. Another is a 3-month-old boy named Belekh, which means present.

Ruptly visited the farm where Kyrachana is now living when she met her original mother for the first time.

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I cant really believe that it [the puppy] is a clone. If you look at the original, you can see that they both look alike,the dogs owner Dmitry said, adding that the puppy had been cloned from a part of the mother dogs ear.

The collaboration with the South Korean scientific laboratory is aimed at saving the original Yukutian Laika breed, whose population has seen drastic decline over past decades due to cross-breeding.

The canines were cloned in the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, which is focused on advanced biotechnology for industrial and biomedical applications using animal cloning and pluripotent stem cells combined with transgenic technology, the companys website says.

However, not all of the cloned dogs are pets. The laboratory has replicated the best military and police dogs to assist the South Korean police, and many cloned dogs currently work in police forces in the US and China.

In November of 2016, the company sent three cloned Belgian Malinois to join police forces in Yakutsk.

Animal cloning is not allowed everywhere in the world. In 2015, the EU Parliament banned the cloning of animals, as well as importing their descendants.

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Puppies cloned from ears arrive in Russia for genetic research ... - RT

Magnified: Cloning – The Hawk Eye (blog)

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Cloning: gathering a persons DNA to make a replica of them. This topic can go into more depths than just the first cloning case of Dolly the sheep. Cloning is often related to the Illuminati and people they are trying to reach. Many conspiracy theorists believe clones of celebrities are used to influence the public in a mind controlling way.

Physical attributions and actions of many celebrities have changed over the years. These changes of famous celebrities are believed to show cloning in action. Celebrities are known to have experienced many cloning glitches during their performances or daily lives.

Does the Illuminati really have anything to do with all this cloning drama? Many theorists, including myself, believe that many celebrities have been killed by the Illuminati and are being replaced by clones. The ever rising list of these celebrities include Eminem, Al Roker, Beyonc and more.

The Illuminati sends out small symbols which are connected to the organization like triangles, fake satanic-like rituals, the eye, and snakes. You can see this through many music performances of artists like Ariana Grande, Beyonc, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, and many more. These signs can also be found in necklaces, rings, cloaks, and any attire. Many celebrities have been seen showing the ever famous triangle with their hands.

By killing, cloning, and replacing these celebrities, the Illuminati is subtly influencing the public. They are changing the government in order to promote the New World Order. This group wants to infiltrate other organizations and make people act like their slaves.

Beyoncs actions during a basketball game show us a possible zoned-out clone, almost looking as if she was receiving instructions. There were alleged claims that she was killed and then cloned to prevent the possible mass hysteria her death could bring.

The same glitch occurred to news reporter Al Roker during a news story. His fellow reporters said the words Holy Ghost and he started staring into the camera. This very creepy look on his face stayed for a good 50 seconds, which is not a normal thing to occur during a broadcast story. This was later reported as just a bet between the producer and Roker, but they could just be covering up the possibility of cloning.

This glitch may have also affected the famous rapper Eminem. After being checked into rehab, he was believed to have died there and been cloned. This brought a lot of controversy to the topic and the legitimacy of Eminem.

All of these cloning incidents bring some humor into the whole conspiracy world. I mean, come on, look at those faces.

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Magnified: Cloning - The Hawk Eye (blog)

Turkey to stop teaching evolution in high school – My Champlain Valley FOX44 & ABC22

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan survived a coup attempt last year and solidified his power in April in a referendum that handed him sweeping powers. Erdogan has been vocal about wanting to raise "a pious generation." President Recep Tayyip Erdogan survived a coup attempt last year and solidified his power in April in a referendum that handed him sweeping powers. Erdogan has been vocal about wanting to raise "a pious generation." Related Content

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) - Turkish high school students will no longer be taught the theory of evolution.

The subject has been cut from the curriculum under changes made to eliminate "controversial" topics, the head of the national board of education, Alpaslan Durmus, announced in a video address.

"If our students don't have the background, the scientific knowledge, or information to comprehend the debate around controversial issues, we have left them out," Durmus said.

The new curriculum will go into effect for the 2017-2018 school year.

It was crafted to emphasize national values and highlight contributions made by Turkish and Muslim scholars, Durmus said.

History classes will look beyond "Eurocentrism" and music classes will focus on "all colors of Turkish music," he said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan survived a coup attempt last year and solidified his power in April in a referendum that handed him sweeping powers.

Critics view the changes in the education system as another step in the ruling Justice and Development Party's ambitions to make Turkey more conservative. Erdogan has been vocal about wanting to raise "a pious generation."

The argument that evolution is too difficult for ninth-graders to comprehend is not a reasonable explanation for removing the unit from high schools, according to Ebru Yigit, a board member of the secular education union Egitim-Sen.

"The curriculum change in its entirety is taking the education system away from scientific reasoning and changing it into a dogmatic religious system," Yigit said in a phone interview with CNN. "The elimination of the evolution unit from classes is the most concrete example of this."

Darwin's theory of evolution has been at the center of the Turkish culture wars over the last decade.

The government-run Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, or TUBITAK, enflamed the debate in 2009 after recalling a magazine issue featuring a spread on evolution proponent Charles Darwin.

The controversy is based in a conservative and hard-line approach to the scientific theory that equates evolution with atheism, according to Mustafa Akyol a fellow at the Freedom Project at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

But the theory in its most basic form doesn't have to pose a problem for Muslims, he said.

"There are various progressive theologians in Turkey who argue that evolution is the way God created life via natural means," Akyol said.

The decision to eliminate evolution from the curriculum "implies that more conservative, parochial and anti-intellectual Islamic views are more ascendant," he said.

Eliminating evolution from high schools takes information away from students and reveals a worrying trend of getting rid of anything that challenges tradition, he said.

"They could have been still conservative, but also wise," Akyol said. "The students could have been informed, rather than uninformed."

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Turkey to stop teaching evolution in high school - My Champlain Valley FOX44 & ABC22

Courtney Kemp of ‘Power’ on Shakespeare and Ghost’s Evolution – New York Times

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Ghost isnt exactly a saint. Still, many probably didnt expect his past to catch up to him via his ex-girlfriend and federal prosector, Angela, for a crime he didnt commit.

At the end of the pilot episode, we promised that someday he would get arrested and she would do it. So its more of why did we do it now? Its really about me as a writer wanting to write myself into a corner to see if I could write my way out. I really try to plot in a fearless fashion. I try not to care about not knowing the answer before I get there, I just jump in first and see what happens.

Were you able to get out of the corner?

We got way better stuff by doing it this way, because we forced ourselves to look at the characters more closely. We forced the characters to look at the characters more closely. Self-discovery is a universal quest, so immediately the characters are more relatable.

Youve said that Ghosts character is based on your father and Curtis Jackson (a.k.a. 50 Cent), one of the shows executive producers. As his character has evolved over the series, who is Ghost based on now?

I steal some pieces of Omari. Ghosts commitment to his family is very much Omari. I think all the characters are me to some extent.

How so, as it relates to Ghost?

This is going to sound a little strange, but I think theres a large part of being a working mom that I put into Ghost, which is that youre never in the right place at the right time. We show Ghost in a lot of situations where he really shouldve been elsewhere. When Im at work, I want to be with my daughter and when Im with my daughter, I probably should be working and it just is what it is.

As the show and characters have evolved, how are you approaching your role as a showrunner?

My approach to plotting, storytelling and writing hasnt changed. I definitely have the writer of the episode on set, but I probably should delegate more.

I dont hire anyone for my assistant job or any low-level writer job in the writers office who isnt an aspiring writer. A lot of people will say that they want to be my assistant, because they want to be an actor on the show and Im not interested in that. I definitely want to hire people who want to know how to make TV, you know what I mean? Im in a unique position to be able to teach you how to do that.

I try to spend as much time in Los Angeles as I can throughout the year and less time in New York on the set, just because my daughter is getting older.

What are some references youve used to frame the storytelling on the show and move the characters and narratives forward?

A lot of Shakespeare. Ive used Richard III because hes ruthless in getting what he wants and then ghosts of the people he killed start haunting him. I think thats very much Ghost.

You recently signed a multiyear deal with Starz and Lionsgate (which bought the network last year). What kind of projects are you looking to produce?

Im hoping to develop more television shows with people of color and women in front of and behind the camera. I want to tell some more personal stories. I want to tell more stories about lying, dual lives, self-deception those are my favorites.

When youre not working on Power, what are you watching?

Ru Pauls Drag Race, Im a long-term fan. Master of Nones season was amazing. I love Archer, thats one of the best-written shows out there.

A version of this article appears in print on June 24, 2017, on Page C4 of the New York edition with the headline: Shes Keeping a Promise on Power.

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Courtney Kemp of 'Power' on Shakespeare and Ghost's Evolution - New York Times

Evolution: Torres Strait exhibit on national tour to celebrate history of ceremonial mask-masking – ABC Online

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By Will Higginbotham

Posted June 25, 2017 05:27:41

In the Zenadth Kes, also known as the Torres Strait Islands, the art of ceremonial mask-making has been around for centuries.

Made from materials such as woods, shells and feathers, the masks play an important role in uniting the diverse groups of the Torres Strait together.

"Through these masks we know our stories, our ancient ways of life, our families, clans and tribes," Cygnet Repu, from the Torres Strait Regional Authority, says.

"In them we see our ancestors, our heroes, our totems and the connection back to the land and sea country."

Evolution: Torres Strait Masks is a new exhibit at the National Museum of Australia that celebrates the historic and spiritual significance of the ceremonial mask.

Ceremonial mask making is a common practice in the Pacific, especially in neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

The cultural linkage is not surprising at their closest point, Papua New Guinea and the Torres Strait are only four kilometres apart.

"When you study the face carvings [on the masks] you see and notice similarities [between PNG and Torres Strait masks], in the deepness of the grooves and the way the eyes are drawn and carved," Mr Repu says.

"But both of us use the same material, the same style and really, for the same purposes."

The new exhibit focuses on Torres Strait mask making by showcasing twelve contemporary masks created by artists at the Gab Titui Cultural Centre on Waiben island [Thursday Island].

The contemporary masks are displayed next to ancient examples of the practice.

Lead curator, Letha Assan, says the exhibit shows how Torres Strait culture and artistic practice has evolved over time.

"It takes you on a journey from time immemorial when masks were used in ceremonial rituals involving art, theatre and dance by our ancestors," Ms Assan said.

"And we show how these historic artefacts have inspired new works that are constantly developing and changing."

Ms Assan told the ABC that the exhibit highlights the resilience of Torres Strait culture after European colonisation.

"We wanted to show that our cultural practices are still very much alive, even though a lot of our masks were taken away post-colonialism," she said.

"[And] we wanted to show the journey of them coming around, and that our artists continue to make these masks and that they continue to be used."

Director of the National Museum, Matthew Trinca says the exhibit is timely and that it speaks to a broader Australian story.

"The story of Australia's first peoples is a deep important part of our collective cultural experience," Mr Trinca said.

"It is important to honour that, especially at this time in what is an anniversary year for all Australians."

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum and the 25th anniversary of the Mabo land rights decision.

Evolution will be at the National Museum Canberra until July 23 before embarking on a national tour.

Topics: indigenous-culture, arts-and-entertainment, torres-strait-islands, australia, pacific

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Evolution: Torres Strait exhibit on national tour to celebrate history of ceremonial mask-masking - ABC Online

Angry Birds Evolution Review: A Fun But Strange Flock – Gamezebo

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Even after a tip of the cap to Rovio for making the original Angry Birds gameplay as durable and long-lived as it has been, its understandable that the company would want the franchise to spread its wings in order to keep going and no, thats probably not the only bad avian pun in this review. Angry Birds Evolution definitely succeeds in pushing the brand forward, but with mixed results as it combines gameplay you didnt know you wanted with a story you probably dont.

The set-up for Angry Birds Evolution is about as classic as it gets, assuming that word applies for a franchise that is less than 10 years old. Pigs are threatening eggs, so the grown-up birds need to do something about it and fight back. Theres a lot more to the narrative behind your adventure as well, with the gist of the plot being that you need to convince a legendary team of bird heroes to come back into the fold and help you defeat the Pigs leader, whos obviously been watching some iconic movies as motivation.

But the details of the story dont grab you as much as the sense that for the most part, these arent any Angry Birds youve encountered before in other games, animation or even the movie. They look like the characters from the film, but the game designers worked overtime to come up with a whole bunch of new birds when the familiar ones probably would have sufficed. On top of that, theyre more scary than cute, despite being beautifully rendered and animated.

If you can accept a whole new flock into your life, you might be impressed with the way Rovio created a turn-based RPG and still managed to preserve the one thing that screams Angry Birds to anyone. That is, when your characters attack, you pull them back, find the right angle to let them go and watch as they bounce off enemies, blow stuff up and generally wreak havoc until they come to a rest. Power-ups and special attacks add to the strategy as you pick your targets and try to eliminate them before they have a chance to do harm to your squad. Its somewhat reminiscent of Angry Birds Action in terms of the perspective from behind your birds, but otherwise its all its own thing.

Theres also a PvP mode where these same mechanics are combined with the simple goal of shoving as many birds onto your opponents side of the playing field for as long as possible. Its nice that the game doesnt ask you to learn a whole new way of doing things for multiplayer, and the matches usually tend to be fast and frantic.

In-between battles, there are plenty of very standard mobile game things to do to create a more powerful team of birds. Lower rarity birds can be used to power up the ones you plan on using regularly, and several different currencies give you a chance to hatch new characters in the time-tested gacha style. The different colors of birds all have different types of special attacks and can form sets that unlock extra abilities, so theres definitely a hunt and collect element to the whole thing. Extra birds can also be sent on resource-gathering missions if you so desire. Clans provide a social hook, as they often do.

One aspect of Angry Birds Evolution you might not expect is that its not geared toward kids, or at least theres a conscious effort to make this one more adult. One of the old heroes youre trying to recruit is named Major Pecker, which gives you an idea of the type of humor involved. Thats not to say the game is objectionable as a lot of whats going on will fly right over the head of younger players, and it does make one wonder exactly who the intended audience is supposed to be.

Then again, maybe O.G. Angry Birds players are mostly grown up now, or at least on their way. Evolution was probably inevitable, and it plants the Birds flag in a genre that works well on mobile in a unique manner, but it also jettisons a lot of what many would probably expect, right down to the birds themselves. If you simply adore turn-based RPGs or are down to glide with this IP all the way until the end, you need to try it, but otherwise, it feels like more of a curiosity than an essential.

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Angry Birds Evolution Review: A Fun But Strange Flock - Gamezebo

Evolution, revolution, smevolution: The future of classical music – Los Angeles Times

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Classical music may be the art of the sublime, liquid architecture and all the rest, but it has nonetheless always been a long-suffering kingdom of kvetching. Born to serve the church, Western music became in the Middle Ages an ideal medium of sacrilege, and the art form has continued over the centuries to bite the hands that have fed it, be they the aristocracy, ruling powers, philanthropists or the public. However high-minded, the history of classical music is riddled with worry and an obsessive desire for reinvention.

Music Academy of the West the summer training program for young musicians on an elegant campus nestled among Montecito mansions and overlooking a scenic stretch of shoreline held a two-day conference this week called Classical Evolution/Revolution. Eighteen movers and shakers, young and seasoned, working in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, New York and London, took part in six panels surveying the state of the field.

The curriculum for such symposiums is expected to ask all the pressing questions. What horrors will disruptive digital unleash next? How can we develop new audiences without teaching music in schools? Can classical music, that sliver of a sliver of the modern zeitgeist, possibly matter? Where, everyone in the business desperately wants to know, will the next dollar come from?

If anyone should be anxious, its Graham Parker. Last July he was appointed president of the U.S. division of Universal Music Classics, which includes such fabled classical record labels as Deutsche Grammophon and Decca. The classical market has long been expected to die on the vine. Classical buyers still want CDs but cant readily find them. To top the charts, a new classical release once needed to sell tens of thousands. Now a few hundred units makes for a coveted bestseller.

But that doesnt mean the classical music baby need be thrown out with the the CD bathwater. A cheerfully upbeat Parker ended the conference raising eyebrows with the claim that in any given month an extraordinary 30% of the U.S. population listens to classical music on some device. That translates to 100 million people in our country alone! Another happy number he threw out is that more than 40 million Americans sing in a chorus (an estimate that includes church choirs).

Of course, how you best reach these millions is another matter. There are also millions more who dont know what they are missing. Classical music might just supply the spiritual nourishment they seek.

Technology is ever the elephant in the room. The history of sharks out to cheat musicians is long and dishonorable. Today its Silicon Valleys ability to redirect profits from the creators and producers to the likes of Apple, Amazon and Spotify. Equally troubling is the power of technology in the form of virtual reality, holograms and things we may not yet know about, to suck the life out of live music making.

Again, such dire predictions are nothing new in classical music. And yet so much classical has been around for so long that it would be hard to get rid of it all. Live performance has lasted, furthermore, because, as Los Angeles Opera head Christopher Koelsch said Tuesday, The human creature craves the communal.

For his part, Sam Bodkin asked what the world needs and rapidly answered his own question: It needs more substance, beauty and intimacy, and classical music checks all those boxes.

So Bodkin founded Groupmuse, which uses social media to build audiences for intimate concerts in homes, breaking down the barrier between listener and performer. People are looking to go places they cant find in contemporary commercial society, he said. Beethoven in your living room or grungy basement as far as Bodkin is concerned, any place can provide a newbies aha moment.

What is maybe new to our time is the necessity for everyone the creators, the practitioners, the producers and the audience to become determinedly flexible. The ways to make and consume classical music keep expanding. The technological wonders of the modern world take, but they also give. It is not just good but essential to be adaptable and open. And wary.

The idea of putting faith in the artists was another central point. Luke Ritchie and Toby Coffey, who respectively head digital innovation and development departments for the Philharmonia Orchestra and the neighboring National Theatre at the Southbank Centre in London, are working at the cutting edge of virtual reality and did a fairly convincing job of making that seem a less scary reality. Both demonstrated concern with enhancing content and disdain for digital trickery.

Ritchie has the advantage of the orchestras tech-savvy principal conductor and artistic advisor Esa-Pekka Salonen. He takes viewers hooked up to those clumsy VR masks on an illuminating tour of the orchestra that you really could never get any other way. The National Theatre is more radical, with its immersive storytelling. An audience member can wear VR goggles that create a 360-degree spatial environment that feels completely interior and dreamlike, and at the same time interact with live actors, resulting in intense situations, where the theatrical confusion between reality and dream state weaken emotional defenses. The implication for opera is terrifying and thrilling.

However encouraging the fact that artists may have a chance to help mold VR technology, which is still in its infancy, that is a future as yet out of reach. And it is coming up against what is a much bigger trend of reviving, as Bodkin is doing, the physical connection between performer and audience.

The value of discovery in an audience is diminishing, lamented Kristy Edmunds, executive and artistic director of the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. But her solution is simply listen to and support the artist. She said that her guiding principle is something that the French director Ariane Mnouchkine once told her: For somebody in the audience, this will be their first experience with theater, and for somebody it will be their last.

One of the great contributions of Mnouchkines avant-garde company, Le Thtre du Soleil, has been the understanding of the importance of space as the place. She took over former munitions factory in eastern Paris where she could create a uniquely communal environment for a revelatory new ritualistic theater. Yuval Sharon, founder of the Los Angeles opera company the Industry, described how masterminding operas in Union Station or in limousines driving through downtown L.A. offered a unique engagement between city and artists, allowing audiences to find all kinds of unexpected resonances.

Though Sharon may be a paradigm shifter, he distinguished his approach as a director from that of a disruptor. The dictates of the work is everything, he said, and, no, Wagner should not be done in Union Station, although his next project will be the creation of a play-opera hybrid of Brechts Galileo, with music by Andy Akiho, to be staged in September around a bonfire on the beach in San Pedro.

How to improve the world without making matters worse? Would a holograph of Yuja Wang playing at Walt Disney Concert Hall broadcast to audiences in Kansas yes that was suggested provide people access to something they would not otherwise have, or would it make classical music creepy?

Few students turned up for the conference. They were busy with lessons and practicing. Their duty is to become artists we can trust. Our duty is to create a world in which they can be trusted. That is not out of the question.

The news from picture-perfect Montecito is that however great the challenges may be for classical music, the possibilities are greater. And there are a lot of people who care.

mark.swed@latimes.com

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Evolution, revolution, smevolution: The future of classical music - Los Angeles Times

The Beauty of Pixar’s Evolution is in the Environments They Create – Nerdist

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While a lot of people may only think of theheavy-hitter franchises likeToy Story,Finding Nemo,andMonsters Inc., Pixar has been steadily producing CGI animations forover30 years. And between each feature-length film comes a bevy of animated shorts that, when viewed one after the other, really show the progress theyve made in just over three decades.

This recent super cut by YouTubes Burger Fiction placed everything Pixar has done in chronological order and, as youd expect, its absolutely gorgeous. In just under 15 minutes, the super cut gives us a look at what the animation studio has been able to accomplish over the years. Theres a lot to love inthe familiar faces you see and its impossible not to notice how things have improved for character design over the yearsbut make note of the environments to really see the real magic that Pixar creates.

Pixar continually pushes the needle forward of what can be done with CGIin every film and short they create but will likely always limit their characters to more cartoon-ish designs. This is actually a good thing since it leaves more room for expression, otherwise impossible movements, and (thank goodness) avoiding the uncanny valley. And as characters remain lovable cartoons, the worlds become so much more realistic. Compare the lighting effects and environments inLuxo Jr.orToy Story to the hyper-realistic vistas they created for their Pipershort or evenjust for the the end credits of The Good Dinosaurto see how far theyve come.

Theres a lot to love about Pixar characters and story but one of the most beautiful things about their films are the worlds they create.

Whats your favorite Pixar movie or shorts? Lets discuss in the comments below!

Featured Image: Disney/Pixar

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The Beauty of Pixar's Evolution is in the Environments They Create - Nerdist

Botany: He made plants a profession – Nature.com

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Hooker (1849-51). The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya. London; Reeve, Benham and Reeve.

Specimens featured in Joseph Hooker's The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya, illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch.

Joseph Dalton Hooker, born 200 years ago this month, made extraordinary contributions to science over a life (18171911) that spanned the Victorian era and beyond. Royal Society president and director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, he was knighted in 1877 for scientific services to the British Empire.

Hooker presided over his own empire, too a global network of botanic gardens, from Sydney to Calcutta and Trinidad, which were used to investigate economically vital plants such as rubber and to arrange where they could be cultivated profitably. Hooker's numerous expeditions took him to remote regions, and he wrote foundational works on plant classification, such as The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in 18391843 (184460); Handbook of the New Zealand Flora (1864); and The Flora of British India (187297). Even in the weeks before his death in December 1911, the 94-year-old Hooker was still hard at work on a comprehensive reclassification of the genus Impatiens (the Himalayan balsams; see page 474). And, as Charles Darwin's closest friend, Hooker was part of a collective effort that, in the decade after the 1859 publication of On The Origin of Species, shifted opinion radically towards acceptance of the idea of evolution by natural selection.

Hooker was one of the first to pursue a paid (and successful) scientific life and make doing so respectable, which paved the way for the careers of modern scientists. In fact, he sounded all too much like a modern scientist in 1868, in an address to the delegates and guests of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS), of which he was president. He complained that he would have liked to sketch the rise and progress of Scientific Botany, but was stymied by the pressures of official duties. As the administrator of a large public department he had to drag a lengthening chain of correspondence and could not spend his brief holidays on research.

Hooker's first love was plants. Aged just seven, he began attending the Glasgow University botany lectures of his father, William Jackson Hooker, and joined the students on field trips. As soon as Joseph had obtained his medical degree from Glasgow, he boarded HMS Erebus as official botanist on a four-year expedition to the southern oceans. Over the course of his life, he travelled from Antarctica to the Himalayas, and from Africa's Atlas Mountains to the North American Rockies, in search of plants.

Among the legacies of Hooker's Indian travels was the profusely illustrated The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya (1849), whose stunning hand-coloured plates helped to ignite a rhododendron craze in Britain. However, his most lasting legacy was probably the Genera Plantarum (186283), which he co-wrote with George Bentham and which laid the foundations for much of modern plant classification.

Historians have tended to lump Hooker in with Darwin's other young supporters. The biologist Thomas Henry Huxley and physicist John Tyndall, for instance, took every opportunity to attack what they saw as the corrupt Anglican hierarchy that held back the progress of British science. Huxley, Tyndall and Hooker were all members of the slightly shadowy X Club, working behind the scenes to support Darwin and reform science. Yet a closer look at Hooker's life suggests that he was the odd one out.

In the early 1870s, for instance, Hooker became embroiled in a public spat with Acton Smee Ayrton, the government minister responsible for Kew. Hooker railed that Ayrton (who was famously rude) had interfered in the running of the gardens and had lied to the prime minister about it. The press in general rallied to Hooker's defence. The Globe newspaper described Ayrton as someone whom the thick breath of a turbulent suburban democracy has blown for a moment into patronage and power, threatening a public servant whose loss to the interests of universal science would be absolutely irreparable. In calmer terms, The Times reported that a politician had told Parliament to treat naturalists as gentlemen, with consideration, delicacy, refinement, and courtesy.

The truth about this disagreement was more complex. Hooker objected to Ayrton's demand that applicants for clerical positions at Kew take the civil-service examinations rather than be appointed on Hooker's whim. Ayrton had also insisted that all building work at Kew be put out to tender; Hooker used the same firm he and his father had always used. If anyone was trying to put science on a more professional basis, it was Ayrton.

Hooker had to find a way to make a living from botany without compromising his gentlemanly status.

Unlike Darwin, whose father's wealth spared him the need to earn his own money, Hooker had to find a way to make a living from botany without compromising his gentlemanly status. The world of science was changing rapidly. When William Hooker was appointed to the chair at Glasgow in 1820, he had never heard much less delivered a university lecture. He owed the position to the support of his aristocratic patron Joseph Banks, de facto director of Kew under King George III. Half a century later, the Darwinian young guard were supposedly committed to eradicating such practices, yet Joseph Hooker privately referred to Kew's herbarium collections (which his father had created) as future estates comparable to inherited land. The government's reluctance to lose these valuable collections was crucial in ensuring that when William died in 1865, Joseph stepped into the post.

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Joseph Hooker, photographed in his youth.

Hooker became the first scientist to publicly embrace Darwinism, in 1859. In his 1868 BAAS speech, he reflected on the fate of Darwin's theory: although criticisms continued, he asserted that by this time, less than a decade after its first publication, almost every philosophical naturalist accepted natural selection. Even The Guardian (a conservative Anglican newspaper, not its current liberal namesake) acknowledged Darwinism's triumphant and almost unopposed reign. Such was the debt of Darwinism to Hooker; but what did Darwinism do for him?

During his first voyage to Antarctica, Joseph had written to his father, if I cannot be a naturalist with a fortune, I must not be too vain to take honourable compensation for my trouble. One of the many problems Hooker faced as he worked for that compensation was that botany had little status at the time; it was seen as too heavily focused on collection and description. Darwinism offered the prospect of real, applicable scientific laws. In Origin, Darwin argued, for example, that community of descent is the hidden bond which naturalists have been unconsciously seeking. That provided a sound scientific basis for what had previously been largely a matter of individual, often idiosyncratic, expertise. For Hooker, using evolution to put plants in their proper place within the system of classification was also a way of putting botany into a better place within science.

Yet being a naturalist with a fortune would have been his first choice, as the argument with Ayrton shows. Hooker's career bridged the old world of patronage and the new one of government-funded science. The latter opened careers to the relatively poor, but at the cost of bureaucratic interference and that lengthening chain of correspondence. In Hooker's youth, there were no clear scientific paths, so careers had to be improvised against a background of rapidly changing expectations. The men (for it was almost all men) of Hooker's generation struggled to earn a living, persuading others that they were still gentlemen receiving an honorarium rather than a salary. Hooker's aristocratic values may seem slightly absurd today, but some of science's core ideals such as suspicion of profit-driven secrecy instead of the free exchange of knowledge are a legacy of his need to act like a gentleman.

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Botany: He made plants a profession - Nature.com

What’s Working: Davidson Robotics Team Using Summer to Prepare for State Competition – WKRG

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MOBILE, AL (WKRG) It may be summertime, but the Davidson High School Robotics Team is busy preparing for next years state competition. The team won state last year, and they have had many victories in regional competition in the past. The students know summer isnt a time of rest if they want to take the top spot again. The Robotics moderator, Mike Fletcher, equates summer time to spring practice for a sports team. His team has lay some groundwork now, to be successful in the fall. Fletcher says the Robotics program at Davidson has been helpful to many students for choosing a career. The reason we have that type of competition that recognizes math, science and engineering, is to get kids excited about that sort of thing in the same way they they might get excited about a soccer team, or football team or something else.

Senior, Justin Parker, says they have had a lot of interest in the robotics program from underclassmen who heard about the programs state win. The goal is to bring home a second year-in-a-row win. It really boosts morale for students who were somewhat interested, but didnt want to pay attention. Now they are saying, I want to be a part of something that won statewide.' They have had ten new students apply to be a part of the team for next year.

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What's Working: Davidson Robotics Team Using Summer to Prepare for State Competition - WKRG