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Supreme Court: Freedom of speech wins; political correctness loses – GOPUSA

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court on Monday struck down part of a law that bans offensive trademarks in a ruling that is expected to help the Washington Redskins in their legal fight over the team name.

The justices ruled that the 71-year-old trademark law barring disparaging terms infringes free speech rights.

The ruling is a victory for the Asian-American rock band called the Slants, but the case was closely watched for the impact it would have on the separate dispute involving the Washington football team.

Slants founder Simon Tam tried to trademark the band name in 2011, but the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied the request on the ground that it disparages Asians. A federal appeals court in Washington later said the law barring offensive trademarks is unconstitutional.

The Redskins made similar arguments after the trademark office ruled in 2014 that the name offends American Indians and canceled the teams trademark. A federal appeals court in Richmond put the teams case on hold while waiting for the Supreme Court to rule in the Slants case.

In his opinion for the court, Justice Samuel Alito rejected arguments that trademarks are government speech, not private speech. Alito also said trademarks are not immune from First Amendment protection as part of a government program or subsidy.

Tam insisted he was not trying to be offensive, but wanted to transform a derisive term into a statement of pride. The Redskins also contend their name honors American Indians, but the team has faced decades of legal challenges from Indian groups that say the name is racist.

Despite intense public pressure to change the name, Redskins owner Dan Snyder has refused, saying it represents honor, respect and pride.

In the Slants case, government officials argued that the law did not infringe on free speech rights because the band was still free to use the name even without trademark protection. The same is true for the Redskins, but the team did not want to lose the legal protections that go along with a registered trademark. The protections include blocking the sale of counterfeit merchandise, and working to pursue a brand development strategy.

A federal appeals court had sided with the Slants in 2015, saying First Amendment protects even hurtful speech that harms members of oft-stigmatized communities.

This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.

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Supreme Court: Freedom of speech wins; political correctness loses - GOPUSA

True altruism seen in chimpanzees, giving clues to evolution of human cooperation – Science Magazine

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

A pair of studies suggests the evolutionary roots of humanlike cooperation can be seen in chimpanzees, albeit in rudimentary forms.

curioustiger/iStockphoto

By Michael PriceJun. 19, 2017 , 3:00 PM

Whether its giving to charity or helping a stranger with directions, we often assist others even when theres no benefit to us or our family members. Signs of such true altruism have been spotted in some animals, but have been difficult to pin down in our closest evolutionary relatives. Now, in a pair of studies, researchers show that chimpanzees will give up a treat in order to help out an unrelated chimp, and that chimps in the wild go out on risky patrols in order to protect even nonkin at home. The work may give clues to how such cooperationthe foundation of human civilizationevolved in humans.

Both studies provide powerful evidence for forms of cooperation in our closest relatives that have been difficult to demonstrate in other animals besides humans, says Brian Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who was not involved with the research.

In the first study, psychologists Martin Schmelz and Sebastian Grneisen at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, trained six chimps at the Leipzig Zoo to play a sharing game. Each chimp was paired with a partner who was given a choice of four ropes to pull, each with a different outcome: give just herself a banana pellet; give just the subject a pellet; give both of them pellets; or forgo her turn and let her partner make the decision instead.

Unbeknownst to these partner chimpanzees, the chimp that always started the gamea female named Taiwas trained to always choose the last option, giving up her turn. From the partners point of view, this was a risky choice, Grneisen says, as Tai risked losing out entirely on the banana pellets. Over dozens of trials, after Tai gave up her turn, the six partners pulled the rope that rewarded both themselves and Tai with a treat 75% of the time, indicating they valued her risking her own treats to help them.

But the researchers also wanted to see whether the subjects were willing to give up some of their own reward to repay Tai for her perceived kindness. That kind of reciprocity is often claimed to be a landmark of human cooperation, and we wanted to see how far we could push it with the chimps, Grneisen says.

The team repeated the experiment, except this time when Tai passed the turn to the subjects, the subjects had the option of either giving themselves four banana pellets and Tai none, or giving both themselves and Tai only three banana pellets. The subjects chose the sacrifice option 44% of the time, compared with 17% of the time when the experimenters, not Tai, made the initial decision. This suggests that the chimps frequently felt compelled to reward Tai for her perceived unselfishness, even at their own expense, the researchers report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

We were very surprised to get that finding, Grneisen says. This psychological dimension to chimps decision-making, taking into account how much a partner risked to help them, is novel.

The second study, also published today in PNAS, looked at what motivates male chimps to risk life and limb on patrol missions. Male chimps in the wild often team up and silently stalk the groups boundaries single-file, sniffing for intruders. These can be costly excursions: About a third of the time, they meet chimps from a rival group, and occasionally the encounters turn bloody. So patrolling chimps risk injury or even death.

According to classic behavioral theories, chimps should put themselves in such peril only if they have offspring or close maternal relatives in the group. Yet, after analyzing behavior and relationship data from 3750 male chimps in Ngogo, Uganda, collected over the past 20 years, researchers learned that although that was true for most chimps, more than a quarter of the patrollers had no close relations in the group. Whats more, males who didnt join these all-male patrols didnt appear to face any repercussions, says the studys lead author, anthropologist Kevin Langergraber from Arizona State University in Tempe. So, it was a bit surprising that so many chimps risked it.

He and his colleagues suggest that a theory known as group augmentation best explains these findings. This theory posits that by patrolling to protect the groups food supply and expand its territory, the entire group becomes more attractive to females and improves each individual males chances of reproducing.

Anne Pusey, another evolutionary anthropologist at Duke who is unaffiliated with the studies, agrees its a reasonable hypothesis. Protecting and expanding the groups territory, she says, would secure or increase the space and food supply for resident females, as well as future immigrant females, with whom [the males] will eventually mate and have a chance of siring offspring. More and healthier females means each individual male has a greater chance at producing offspring.

Langergraber adds that such behavior might serve as an evolutionary basis for human cooperation within huge, diverse communities. One of the most unusual things about human cooperation is its large scale, he says. Hundreds or thousands of unrelated individuals can work together to build a canal, or send a human to the moon. Perhaps the mechanisms that allow collective action among chimpanzees served as building blocks for the subsequent evolution of even more sophisticated cooperation later in human evolution.

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True altruism seen in chimpanzees, giving clues to evolution of human cooperation - Science Magazine

Digital reconstruction of ancient chromosomes reveals surprises about mammalian evolution – Science Magazine

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

Among all mammals studied thus far, the orangutans chromosomes are the most like those of the first placental mammal.

USO/iStockphoto

By Elizabeth PennisiJun. 19, 2017 , 3:00 PM

Humans have 46 chromosomes. Dogs have 78. And a small South American rodent called the red viscacha has a whopping 104. Geneticists have marveled at the chromosomal diversity among mammals for decades, and now, they may know how it happened. A new digital reconstruction of the chromosomes of the ancestor of all placental mammals reveals that these tightly packed structures of DNA and proteins have become scrambled over timea finding that may help pinpoint possible problem sites in our genomes that underlie cancer and other disease.

The work "helps us to understand how chromosomes have changed over time, which chromosome rearrangements may have led to the formation of new species, and what might be driving chromosomal rearrangements," says Janine Deakin, a geneticist at the University of Canberra who was not involved with the work. "This was a very elegant study."

There are three kinds of mammals: egg-laying monotremes such as the platypus, marsupials like kangaroos and opossums, and the majorityplacental, or eutherian, mammalsincluding humans and about 4400 other mammal species. The earliest members of this larger group were mouse-sized, lived in trees, and ate insects about 105 million years ago. To figure out how chromosomes of placental mammals have changed over time, researchers need to know what those early eutherians started with. And that required putting some complicated puzzle pieces back together.

To do that, Harris Lewin, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of California, Davis, and colleagues compared 19 genomes of various mammals at different spots in the eutherian family tree, including several primates. But genomes usually dont reveal how an animals DNA is distributed into chromosomesthey just give you the DNA sequence.

So team member Jaebum Kim, now at Konkuk University in Seoul, and colleagues wrote a sophisticated computer program that was able to reconstruct the original eutherian chromosomes based on what parts of the chromosomes are together today in those 19 species. The researchers came up with 21 pairs of ancestral eutherian chromosomes, they report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A few of those chromosomes have stayed intactwith their genes in the same orderover the past 105 million years, at least in orangutans and humans. "I find the stability of some of the ancestral chromosomes remarkable," Deakin says.

But many have broken apart, swapping places between and within chromosomes, Kim, Lewin, and their colleagues found. These exchanges "are the footprints of changing the order of the packaging of 22,000 vertebrate genes," says Stephen O'Brien, a geneticist at SaintPetersburg State University in Russia who was not involved with the work.

All told, the scientists found 162 break pointsplaces where a chromosome broke open so the DNA between those points could move around. They found that this chromosome scrambling varied over time and from mammal group to mammal group. "The big surprise is how the chromosomes evolved differently in different lineages, Lewin says. "It's one of the most splendid examples of stepwise changes that led to the evolution of new species, he says.

This new study shows that as mammals evolved early on, the rate at which chromosomes broke apart was stable, and relatively low, with eight per 10 million years. But 65 million years ago,the rate jumped, averaging 20 per 10 million years in primates other than the orangutan. So the orangutan chromosome setup looks the most like the ancient ancestor revealed by Kims team, with eight ancient chromosomes intact. Humans have five such chromosomes and mice have just one.

The researchers also showed that ancestral chromosome 20 is completely conserved in primates, but very much changed in goats and cows because of rearrangements within chromosomes. Rat chromosomes, too, are very different than the early eutherians, but for a different reason: Their chromosomes swapped pieces between chromosomes rather than within a given chromosome.

Lewin thinks sections of repetitive basesthe letters that make up DNAtend to make chromosomes susceptible to scrambling. Goats and cows, as well as rodents, had many so-called retrotransposonsrogue invading DNAand many rearrangements, whereas primates have far fewer of both.

In some ways, the implications of the many chromosomal changes suggested by the new analysis is obviousjust look how different an ant-eater is from a whale.But in other ways, researchers have much to learn about exactly how chromosomal changes influence the course of evolution. The changes were clearly advantageous and perpetuated through time in different mammalian groups, Lewin says.

Though O'Brien says he's impressed with this study's detail,he's holding out for more comprehensive comparisons, wherein the genomes of many more than 19 species are matched up. "That is what is really required to get a full history of our chromosomes, he says. Until that scale is achieved, we will still be poking around in the dark matter of evolutionary processes."

That work is coming, says Lewin, as a project at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is sequencing 150 more mammals. And with those genomes, as well as the genomes of marsupials and monotremes, he and his collaborators plan to tackle the ancestral genome of the first mammal next, which lived about 185 million years ago. "I'm looking forward to seeing this analysis expanded to include a detailed look at all mammals, Deakin says.

Meanwhile, these break points may help guide researchers trying to understand disease. "There are a score of medical syndromes involving chromosome rearrangements," says OBrien, and there may be others not yet discovered.

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Digital reconstruction of ancient chromosomes reveals surprises about mammalian evolution - Science Magazine

Creationist views declining, but many think God had hand in evolution – The Garden City Telegram

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

(TNS) Views about evolution are changing, but a new Gallup poll shows that Americans havent given up a belief in divine intervention in science.

The belief in young-Earth creationism that God created mankind in its present form within the past 10,000 years has declined to a new low since Gallup began asking people in 1982 about the origin of humanity.

At the same time, most Americans believe God had some role in humanitys development, whether creation looked like the biblical book of Genesis or evolution over millions of years.

Some see the poll results as positive. Others see them as a sign that religion has been stripped from the classroom, including in a place like Kansas, where supporters and skeptics of evolution have clashed for years.

The poll

The Gallup poll, released in May, reported that 38 percent of Americans believe in young-Earth creationist human origins, down from a high of 47 percent in 1999 and 1993.

People who answered the question by saying that man developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but with God guiding the process, also were at 38 percent.

Only 19 percent answered that man developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life without involvement from God, equal to the response in 2014.

This was the first time since Gallup began asking the question in 1982 that belief in Gods creation of man in his current form has not been the most common response. This year it tied with the belief that God guided the process of evolution.

The reason why

Its not easy to teach an evolution course at a Christian school, said Alan Maccarone, professor of biology at Friends University. For him, the results of the poll are a reason to be excited.

Raised Catholic, Maccarone considers himself an evolutionary biologist and said he sees no conflict between his faith and evolution.

Often, he deals with students rejecting or showing antipathy toward evolution, he said.

People dont really understand what evolution is, Maccarone said. They just know they dont like it.

Perhaps education is making the change, Maccarone said. Another reason could be the amount of public information available in television series, movies, the media and more.

Maybe people are just reading more and seeing more and coming to accept to a greater extent the idea that evolution is a valid concept, Maccarone said.

Robert Lattimer also pointed to education as a reason for people becoming more comfortable with evolution, something his organization has fought.

Lattimer is president of Citizens for Objective Public Education, a group that filed a legal complaint in 2013 about Kansas science standards, saying they use incremental, progressive, comprehensive and deceptive methods to establish a non-theistic religious worldview that is materialistic/atheistic and that promotes the core tenets of Religious (Secular) Humanism.

Eventually, the Tenth Circuit Court determined that parents and students were not personally injured by adoption of the standards. The U.S. Supreme Court denied reviewing the petition on Nov. 14.

Public school science standards in recent years have emphasized unguided evolution, so probably more students are learning about it, Lattimer wrote in an e-mail. At the same time, the schools have been downplaying theistic beliefs resulting in a loss in religious faith in the younger generation.

Evolution in Kansas

Citizens for Objective Public Educations 2013 complaint hasnt been the only challenge to evolutionary teachings in Kansas.

A 2013 article by the Associated Press reported that Kansas has had six different sets of science standards in the past 15 years, as conservative Republicans skeptical of evolution gained and lost board majorities.

In 1999, the Kansas Board of Education voted to remove references to evolution and the age of the Earth from science standards, a decision that was overturned in 2001.

In 2005, the board approved standards critical of evolution guidelines that were repealed two years later.

In 2013, Kansas adopted the Next Generation Science Standards, which teach evolution, the subject of the lawsuit.

Changing views

As vice president of the Discovery Institute, John West thinks the poll is a positive development.

The Discovery Institute advocates for intelligent design, the belief that life was designed and created by an intelligent entity. In 2005, the Seattle-based group played a critical role in the Kansas evolution hearings.

Intelligent design is a belief not necessarily encompassed by the Gallup poll, and West points out that his own beliefs wouldnt fit into any of the three categories in the poll. Although he believes the universe is billions of years old, he is more skeptical of whether humans evolved.

Yet West notes that the last time the poll was taken in 2014, the people who chose an answer that involved God came to a total of 73 percent. Today, the number is 76 percent.

What didnt change ... is the percentage of people believing that human beings developed without any guidance is stuck at 19 percent, said West, previously an associate professor of political science at Seattle Pacific University. I think that probably the primary thing it says is how high a bar or what a tough challenge it is for people trying to argue that a non-intelligent process can produce us.

Many religions and denominations view their beliefs as compatible with evolution, including Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism, the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Other groups such as the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Southern Baptist Convention have rejected the theory of evolution in favor of the literal Genesis account of creation or intelligent design.

When he taught, Harry Gregory, who serves on the board of Kansas Citizens for Science, tried to stay away from arguments about whether a deity was involved in evolution. Gregory describes himself as nontheistic but spent about 10 years teaching biology and environmental science including evolution at Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School.

Kansas Citizens for Science was founded in 1999, largely in reaction to the states anti-evolution science standards. Gregory testified several times as a teacher.

Since in the last 20 years since this issue became public, more biology teachers are teaching about evolution in the classroom, Gregory said. Prior to that and even still a little bit today, biology teachers generally stayed away from evolution because they didnt want to create controversy.

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Creationist views declining, but many think God had hand in evolution - The Garden City Telegram

Pokmon Go’s huge multiplayer update is the game’s next evolution – Polygon

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

Pokmon Gos biggest update ever will begin to roll out to players across starting today. Nearly a year after the iOS and Android game launched, Pokmon Gos gyms have been majorly reworked, and a major cooperative multiplayer feature is on the way too.

Polygon got the chance to try Pokmon Gos new gyms during E3 2017, and I came away feeling cautiously optimistic. I wasnt a huge fan of how gyms worked prior to the update; they suffered from top-tier players camping out at them forever and lacked the competitive incentives of the traditional games gyms. These are among the things Pokmon Gos gym update is meant to correct.

Gyms will now have way more to offer players who may not like fighting in them. Every gym is getting a photo disc to spin, just like PokStops, so players can collect items from them. Whats most interesting is a new mechanic that gives pacifist players a reason to visit gyms. Every Pokmon thats housed at a gym now up to six instead of the original three has something called a motivation factor, which is represented by a heart that fills up or depletes over time. To keep a Pokmon at a friendly gym happy and strong, players can feed them berries. Anyone can do this, as long as theyre on the right team so even if you dont like fighting, you still have a reason to visit a gym.

One of the main issues with Pokmon Gos gyms initially was that battles would become increasingly difficult as players climbed the ladder. This became repetitive, as members of Niantic described to us during our demo; it also meant that lower-leveled trainers stood little chance of making it to the top. The revamped gyms have players take on Pokmon based on the order in which they were placed at the gym. The goal there is to make it possible for anyone to finish an entire gym.

Fighting at a gym can still feel like a bland or solitary affair, all these new additions aside. Its still just tapping the screen repeatedly, swiping left and right to dodge attacks, fighting with a mechanic that doesnt work as well as the turn-based battles of traditional Pokmon games. Niantic hasnt really done anything to change up the fiddly nature of fighting in Pokmon Go, but another big content update addresses the asynchronous single-player nature of it.

Dataminers found hints that raids were coming to Pokmon Go earlier this year, and I got to try out how this new mode works in the actual game. Its the first truly cooperative system Pokmon Go has: A countdown timer randomly appears above gyms, and when it goes off, a giant, very strong Pokmon will appear. Approaching it will commence a Raid Battle, which supports more than a dozen players at once, all of whom work together to take that Pokmon down. Everyone is given a ticket to participate in one of these a day, while premium passes let players play more than one Raid daily.

The Raid Battle system even has public and private lobbies, so friends who have happened upon a Raid Battle together can work side-by-side, no random trainers allowed. After defeating the Pokmon still with the usual screen-tapping players have the chance to actually capture it, adding a high-leveled monster to their team. (Theyll also get a bunch of items, including some mysterious new TM items that Niantic declined to tell us anything about.)

Theres no getting around the fact that battles in Pokmon Go just arent as fun as they could be, because of how reductive that core mechanic is. But playing a Raid Battle alongside a few other journalists and my Pokmon Go-obsessed editor-in-chief did feel closer to what I wanted this game to be back when it was in beta. Defeating the same Pokmon at the same time, seeing other team members Pokmon on-screen while doing so, is an exciting bonding experience. Its a group achievement unlike anything else in Pokmon Go.

Every player also gets something to be personally proud of: Winning against a Raid Boss nets you a badge and the chance to catch that Pokmon you just defeated. I managed to capture that super-strong Machamp we took down after the battle ended, while Chris Grant just couldnt get it to stay in the special Premier Ball. (Sorry, bud.)

It will be interesting to see just how much Raids and the wide-ranging gym updates shake up the game. Will it bring more people back into the fold, especially now that the weathers picked up? Pokmon Go isnt hurting for daily users it recently crossed the 750 million mark but for lapsed trainers, the ability to actually play alongside people and approach those intimidating gyms could be a reason to return.

It also helps that Niantic is also working with Ingress players to finally add more portals into that game, which translate as PokStop locations in Pokmon Go. Those in more isolated areas can hope to actually find more places to go and Pokmon to catch in the coming months.

Were eager to see how this latest evolution of Pokmon Go plays out. Keep checking your phone to see if the gym update is live in your area; maybe well see you in a Raid sometime soon.

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Pokmon Go's huge multiplayer update is the game's next evolution - Polygon

New model backs controversial idea of how evolution works – Cosmos

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

American Palaeontologist Stephen Gould.

Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

In 1972 the eminent palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould and his colleague Niles Eldredge proposed an idea about the way evolution worked and, in so doing, sparked a fight of almighty proportions.

New modelling revealed by Michael Landis and Joshua Schraiber of Temple University in Pennsylvania, US, however, adds considerable extra weight to their case.

Gould and Eldredge sought to explain so-called gaps in the palaeontological record missing fossils assumed to represent transitional phases between ancient species and the modern ones into which they evolved by suggesting they were an illusion.

Evolution, they proposed, wasnt a gradual process, marked by the slow accumulation of new characteristics. Rather, they said, the history of evolution is not one of stately unfolding, but a story of homeostatic equilibria, disturbed only rarely by rapid and episodic events of speciation.

Two important principles underpinned their explanation, which they dubbed the theory of punctuated equilibria.

The first was that once a species evolved, it tended to stay pretty much the same from thereon in until extinction ended its run. The second was that when part of a species became isolated from the rest and thus fell under new selection pressure, if it was going to evolve into something new it would do so very quickly (at least, on a geological scale).

If new species arise very rapidly in small, peripherally isolated local populations, the pair wrote, then the great expectation of insensibly graded fossil sequences is a chimera.

The theory was roundly attacked by some other prominent voices in the field. In his book, The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins said punctuated equilibrium was an idea that "does not deserve a particularly large measure of publicity".

Philosopher Daniel Dennett, in his book Darwins Dangerous Idea, also slammed Gould who responded by calling him Dawkins lapdog. Dennett shot back that in doing so Gould was turn[ing] up the volume of his vituperation.

Gould died in 2004, Dennett is now 75, and the debate is still a long way from settled.

However, Landis and Schraiber, publishing on the preprint site bioRxiv, push the argument back in favour of speciation as a comparatively rapid, rather than gradual, process.

The title of their paper serves also as its bold conclusion: Punctuated evolution shaped modern vertebrate diversity.

The pair constructed a mathematical model based on random probability distribution and fed in datasets derived from the morphological characteristics of about 50 clades (genetically-related groups of animals) covering mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians.

The results fitted best within a framework of punctuated development, with long periods of stasis averaging around 10 million years between jump processes of pulsed evolution lasting as little as 100 generations.

All of the data used concerned modern species. Landis and Schraiber suggest that future work integrating their work with the paleontological evolutionary research kick-started by Gould and Eldredge will throw up more detailed evidence about how rapid spurts of evolution and speciation are related.

The reactions of professors Dawkins and Dennett remain unknown, but might be memorable.

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New model backs controversial idea of how evolution works - Cosmos

Four Reasons Why people believe in Evolution – Pike County News Watchman

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

We have proven time and again in our Wednesday night apologetics class that the Theory of Evolution is an illogical lie. Yet, the vast majority of the world still believes that every living thing in existence is the result of time and chance. Why would intelligent and logical beings choose to believe something as ridiculous as evolution, over the more logical and factual creationism? There are several reasons this might be the case.

First, for the past 50 years, evolution has been the only thing taught in schools. It is not taught as an unproven theory, but as scientific fact. As a result, many do not question the validity of the Evolutionary Theory and just assume that it is factual.

Second, it has been portrayed in popular culture and the media that the most intelligent people believe in evolution. Those who do not believe in evolution are labeled as stupid or ignorant. Men are prideful. We want people to think we are well educated and smart. So people claim to believe in evolution, not based on facts and evidence, but because it will make them appear to be in the same league as those who are educated and intelligent.

Third, it is claimed that the vast majority of scientists believe in evolution. Popular scientists like Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson have broken into the mainstream and spew their evolutionary beliefs, claiming that all true scientists believe in evolution, making it seem that all experts believe in this theory as fact, and those with little to no scientific knowledge follow their words. Just because someone is loudest, doesnt make them right. Even if the majority of scientists believe in the theory of evolution, that doesnt make evolution any less of the lie that it is. You are a free-thinking human being, not a sheep following the masses. As Guy N. Woods correctly stated: It is dangerous to follow the multitude because the majority is almost always on the wrong side in this world.

Fourth, there are many who accept evolution because they have rejected God. They dont want there to be a God, so they accept an illogical theory over the logical and factual truth. No one believes in evolution because of the evidence. Why? Because there is virtually no evidence to back the theory up! Even those who believe in evolution must admit this. For example, Professor D.M.S. Watson, who held the position of the Chair of Evolution at the University of London for more than 20 years, stated that evolution itself is accepted by zoologists, not because it has been observed to occur or can be proven by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is incredible. This statement and many like it make it clear that many people believe in evolution simply because they already made up their mind that there isnt a God, no matter what the evidence says.

Consider the evidence. Creationism has evidence while evolution is void of any. Creationism is logical while evolution is improbable. Dont be a sheep. Dont follow the masses as they lead you down the path of destruction. Look at the proof, follow where it leads, and come to your own conclusion. When one does that, the only conclusion that exists is the fact that God is, and He created the heavens and the earth and everything in them.

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Four Reasons Why people believe in Evolution - Pike County News Watchman

The company that builds the robots that make Teslas wants to build home robots – Recode

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

Industrial machines that build cars and the machines that work in your home are worlds apart.

But the CEO of Kuka, one of the biggest industrial robot makers, said in an interview in the Financial Times on Sunday that the company is planning to make a personal consumer robot.

Germany-based Kuka was bought by Chinese home appliance maker Midea last year in a $5 billion deal. Industrial robots from Kuka are used to build cars for Tesla and airplanes for Boeing.

Midea is not doing any robotics or automation, so Kuka is automation for Midea, said CEO Till Reuter And they are very well connected to the consumer industry. So together we want to do consumer robotics.

Right now, most digital assistants for the home dont leave the tabletop, and are essentially internet-connected speakers with adroit voice-enabled artificial intelligence software, like Amazons Echo and Googles Home.

But Kukas expertise in building machines that move on their own, combined with Mideas deep understanding of home appliances, could be the right combination for making a consumer home robot thats actually useful.

Home robots that move generally only do one chore, like vacuum or mop, but they continue to sell. Last year, the market value of domestic robots grew nearly 26 percent from the year before, according to research from Loup Ventures and the International Federation of Robotics. By 2025, the market for home robots is expected to grow to $4.4 billion. To put that growth in perspective, the market value of domestic robots in 2016 was $1.4 billion.

Midea isnt the only company poised to enter the home robot market. Earlier this month, the Japanese company SoftBank announced that it is buying Boston Dynamics, as well as Japanese legged-robot maker Schaft, from Google parent company Alphabet for an undisclosed amount. Boston Dynamics is considered one of the best robotics firms in the world for its versatile, legged robots that can maneuver over diverse terrain, as well as environments made for humans. But those robots have been primarily built for military research, not for the home.

Since it acquired a majority share of robot maker Aldebaran in 2012, SoftBank has been working to bring its humanoid Pepper robot to more retail settings, and even to some homes in Japan. Pepper has a wheeled base so it cant climb stairs and only uses its hands to gesticulate. The robot is mostly at work in stores, helping shoppers find things and answering basic questions. Combining Boston Dynamics ability to build agile machinery with the team behind the friendly-looking Pepper could position SoftBank to build a robot thats much more useful.

Japanese carmakers Honda and Toyota have also been working on robotic assistants for the home. Their inventions, so far, have primarily focused on addressing the needs of Japans growing elderly population.

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The company that builds the robots that make Teslas wants to build home robots - Recode

Summer Camps teach kids about robotics, coding, and programming in Minecraft – KTNV Las Vegas

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

KTNV Las Vegas

Summer Camps teach kids about robotics, coding, and programming in Minecraft
KTNV Las Vegas
To help kids develop an interest in STEM fields, Code Central is offering summer camps centered around robotics, coding, and programming in Minecraft. Students as young as 7 years old and as old as 17 are eligible to enroll in the weeklong camps, which ...

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Summer Camps teach kids about robotics, coding, and programming in Minecraft - KTNV Las Vegas

Nuclear decommissioning: sending the robots in – Power Technology

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

The Surrey Technology for Autonomous Systems and Robotics (STAR) Lab is currently conducting a four-year research project into the potential uses of robotics within the nuclear sector, funded by the UK Nuclear Industry and Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)s Impact Acceleration Account. The team is working in collaboration with Sellafield and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) to examine how robotics could be used within nuclear decommissioning specifically.

The project, known as Automated Robot Waste Processing, began last year and is making fast progress. As the worlds nuclear fleet ages an increasing number of reactors will need to be decommissioned, a traditionally expensive and hazardous process. The STAR Lab is hoping to help by using robust robotics running autonomously to dismantle and clear nuclear sites.

Their robots combine a number of technological advancements to suit nuclear decommissioning, taking inspiration from space robotics. They include high-performing visual imagining systems, along with robotic arms, combinations of which are entering the testing stage of the project.

STAR Labs main focus since its inception in 2007 has been space robotics, and the new research reflects this. But according to Professor Yang Gao, who leads the Surrey team, nuclear sites and space actually have a lot in common. Space is remote and hostile, and overcoming these problems has provided many clues for working within nuclear sites.

One area [of comparison] is autonomous software, as you can imagine space missions tend to deal with locations that are very, very far from earth so remote operation in many scenarios is not feasible, says Gao. So were developing software that can potentially do the models which involve the mission goals and then make decisions. Essentially autonomous software.

"Space is remote and hostile, and overcoming these problems has provided many clues for working within nuclear sites."

Because of the very high requirements of space missions, software has to be very reliable and robust, so we have techniques while designing autonomous software to take into consideration robustness and reliability.

The nuclear decommissioning process, which can cost anything from $13m to $19m, currently takes years and necessitates humans working to dismantle the site and decontaminate the waste. This is often made more challenging by the remote location that nuclear plants are often purposefully situated in, and the hazardous residual radiation.

Another aspect of comparison is probably more in line with what is happening with the hardware of the robotics systems, says Gao. It needs to be radiation proof, so the mechanisms we develop, the different actuators, the different censors, they all need to be able to cope with that sort of environment. These challenges are very much shared with the space environment, there's a great synergy in that respect.

The obvious and most important benefit of robotics in nuclear decommissioning is removing humans from harms way. The environment is classified as an extreme environment as there are many hazards, so using humans to perform those tasks is risky, says Gao. Using machines, using autonomous systems to replace humans from that sort of environment is definitely more desirable.

This is particularly relevant for nuclear sites which have deferred dismantling, and have instead enclosed the site for anything from 40 to 60 years. When such a site is eventually dismantled, surveys must be undertaken to ensure that the radiation level has dropped as much as expected and is below 25 millirem per year, the level required for the site to be redeveloped for other uses. When entering a site, however, it is difficult determine the amount of residual radiation, and whether it will affect the humans undertaking the survey. Using robotics would remove this danger.

There are other benefits to increased use of robotics, too, such as accuracy and productivity. Sometimes there are some anomalies in sites that, although they are visible the human eye, could [be] quite hard to see, because either they are quite small or because some of the facilities are actually very homogeneous, says Gao. For the human eye to react to that sort of homogeneity is not easy. The machine would do a better job.

The robots are equipped especially for this, with 3D light scans and cameras. We can also introduce measuring techniques such as deep-learning to allow us to very reliably map the site and detect what has changed, says Gao. Even though this change could be very, very small and probably quite difficult for human eyes to detect, with our learned-visual model we can achieve this anomaly detection reliably.

Decommissioning nuclear sites requires a lot of monotonous dismantling, tasks well suited to robots whose productivity is not deterred by fatigue or boredom. For the decommissioning task we envision using robotic arms, which could definitely improve productivity because it's actually just repetitive work, says Gao. A machine cannot be annoyed by that because there is no emotion, they will actually be able to keep to the same rate of productively.

The project has already overcome challenges, but Gao is expecting more as integrated trials begin at the NNLs testing facility. We'll never stop facing challenges I'm afraid that's just reality. In the research phase, and currently in the development phase, there have been a lot of challenges in terms of getting the actual hardware working at the actual conditions that we anticipated.

These challenges were created not just by the environment but also by the integration of technologies. Once you start putting different hard components together, integrating different software packages, you start to find some real problems, says Gao. Some of them are due to communication issues, and some of them due to signal issues within some of the components.

"We envisage that challenge might come from the culture of such a traditional sector."

Whilst this research collaboration only began last year, it relies on theoretical elements Sellafield and STAR have been working on for years; it is often in fitting these aspects together that things do not run smoothly.

A further challenge may be the nature of the nuclear industry, as change can take a long time to be accepted. I think we envisage that challenge might come from the culture of such a traditional sector. Of course people need to get used to things, even if they know, they agree and they appreciate that this is coming in to help, says Gao. But you can imagine when you introduce new machines into a sector people are not used to, there will always be some cultural impact.

Professor Gao and her team are working on nuclear decommissioning but there are several projects running parallel to each other tackling different elements of the nuclear industry. The current project is to try and solve decommissioning problems, so waste management, but I also want to mention that at the same time we're running projects looking into other areas, for example atomic fusion, says Gao.

As such she believes that robotics is set to play a much bigger role in the nuclear industry in the future. Gaos team is currently running subsection trials, with full integrated system trials coming up in the next couple of months, and hopefully a full test within an actual nuclear site by the end of the year. If successful this technology could soon become commonplace in the nuclear industry.

Looking ahead, the success of robotics also relies on training a new generation of engineers. At the moment we work closely with engineers and scientists at NNL, but what we want to do next, probably towards the end of this year or early next year, is to help also train the site engineers and operators, says Gao. This will eventually allow STAR to step back, and allow others to use the robots for decommissioning, site maintenance and other areas.

The STAR Labs research is progressing at an impressive rate thanks to collaboration. At this rate, it seems that robots are likely to become a key tool in nuclear decommissioning.

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Nuclear decommissioning: sending the robots in - Power Technology

Group names northern Colorado hospital first, only Center of Excellence in Robotics Surgery in state – Greeley Tribune

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

Surgical Review Corp. named the McKee Medical Center in Loveland the first and only Center of Excellence in Robotic Surgery in Colorado.

The designation is based on volume, outcomes and the different types of procedures offered within a program, according to a news release.

Robotic surgery offers a minimally-invasive surgical option to patients facing an open procedure. It offers the surgeon magnified and high-definition vision. It also allows the surgeon to control surgical instruments to see and access anatomy. This allows surgeons to operate as if they were doing open surgery, but through much smaller incisions, according to the release.

The Surgical Review Corp. certified surgeons John Crane, Jennifer Rubatt, Thomas Blomquist and Kurt Strom as Robotic Surgeons of Excellence.

At McKee, those four surgeons offer robotic-assisted surgery for hysterectomies, uterine prolapse, fibroids, gynecological cancer staging, prostate and kidney conditions, hernia, colon and other general surgeries.

Surgical Review Corp. is a nationwide organization that provides accreditation, consulting, education, and data for surgeons and medical facilities, according to its website.

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Group names northern Colorado hospital first, only Center of Excellence in Robotics Surgery in state - Greeley Tribune

Google backing off robotics, but Japanese firm banks on robots with … – News & Observer (blog)

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

News & Observer (blog)

Google backing off robotics, but Japanese firm banks on robots with ...
News & Observer (blog)
Meet Pepper, Handle and SpotMini. These new robots are cute, frightening and useful but may require an attitude adjustment.
SoftBank buys robotics leader Boston Dynamics from AlphabetNewburgh Gazette
SoftBank acquiring Boston Dynamics as Alphabet finally sells off ...Leicester Post

all 3 news articles »

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Google backing off robotics, but Japanese firm banks on robots with ... - News & Observer (blog)

Snake on a Plane! Don’t Panic: It’s Probably Just a (Soft) Robot – Fortune

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

Robots are getting softer.

Borrowing from nature, some machines now have arms that curl and grip like an octopus, others wriggle their way inside an airplane engine or forage underwater to create their own energy.

This is technology that challenges how we think of, and interact with, the robots of the not-too-distant future.

Robots are big business: by 2020, the industry will have more than doubled to $188 billion, predicts IDC, a consultancy. But there's still a lot that today's models can't do, partly because they are mostly made of rigid metal or plastic.

Softer, lighter and less reliant on external power, future robots could interact more safely and predictably with humans, go where humans can't, and do some of the robotic jobs that other robots still can't manage.

A recent academic conference in Singapore showcased the latest advances in soft robotics, highlighting how far they are moving away from what we see as traditional robots.

"The theme here," says Nikolaus Correll of Colorado University, "is a departure from gears, joints, and links."

One robot on display was made of origami paper; another resembled a rolling colostomy bag. They are more likely to move via muscles that expand and contract through heat or hydraulics than by electricity. Some combine sensing and movement into the same componentjust as our fingertips react to touch without needing our brain to make a decision.

These ideas are already escaping from the lab.

Rolls-Royce, for example, is testing a snake-like robot that can worm its way inside an aircraft engine mounted on the wing, saving the days it can take to remove the engine, inspect it and put it back.

Of all the technologies Rolls-Royce is exploring to solve this bottleneck, "this is the killer one," says Oliver Walker-Jones, head of communications.

The snake, says its creator, Arnau Garriga Casanovas, is made largely of pressurized silicone chambers, allowing the controller to propel and bend it through the engine with bursts of air. Using soft materials, he says, means it can be small and agile.

For now, much of the commercial action for softer robots is in logistics, replacing production-line jobs that can't yet be handled by hard robots.

Food preparation companies and growers like Blue Apron, Plated, and HelloFresh already use soft robotics for handling produce, says Mike Rocky, of recruiter PrincetonOne.

The challenge, says Cambridge Consultants' Nathan Wrench, is to overcome the uncertainty when handling somethingwhich humans deal with unconsciously: figuring out its shape and location and how hard to grip it, and distinguishing one object from another.

"This is an area robots traditionally can't do, but where (soft robots) are on the cusp of being able to," said Wrench.

Investors are excited, says Leif Jentoft, co-founder of RightHand Robotics, because it addresses a major pain point in the logistics industry. "E-commerce is growing rapidly and warehouses are struggling to find enough labor, especially in remote areas where warehouses tend to be located."

Some hope to ditch the idea that robots need hands. German automation company Festo and China's Beihang University have built a prototype OctopusGripper, which has a pneumatic tentacle made of silicone that gently wraps itself around an object, while air is pumped in or out of suction cups to grasp it.

The ocean has inspired other robots, too.

A soft robot fish from China's Zhejiang University swims by ditching the usual rigid motors and propellers for an artificial muscle which flexes. It's lifelike enough, says creator Tiefeng Li, to fool other fish into embracing it as one of their own, and is being tested to explore or monitor water salinity.

And Bristol University in the UK is working on underwater robots that generate electrical energy by foraging for biomatter to feed a chain of microbial fuel-cell stomachs. Hemma Philamore says her team is talking to companies and environmental organizations about using its soft robots to decontaminate polluted waterways and monitor industrial infrastructure.

This doesn't mean the end of hard-shelled robots.

Part of the problem, says Mark Freudenberg, executive technology director at frog, a design company, is that soft materials break easily, noting that most animatronic dolls like Teddy Ruxpin and Furby have rigid motors and plastic casings beneath their fur exteriors.

To be sure, the nascent soft robot industry lacks an ecosystem of software, hardware components, and standardsand some companies have already failed. Empire Robotics, one of the first soft robot gripper companies, closed last year.

RightHand's Jentoft says the problem is that customers don't just want a robot, but the whole package, including computer vision and machine learning. "It's hard to be a standalone gripper company," he says.

And even if soft robots find a niche, chances are they still won't replace all the jobs done by human or hard-shelled robots.

Wrench, whose Cambridge Consultants has built its own fruit picking robot, says he expects to see soft robots working with humans to harvest fruit like apples and pears which are harder to damage.

Once the robot has passed through, human pickers would follow to grab fruit hidden behind leaves and in hard-to-reach spots.

"It's a constant race to the bottom, so there's a pressing business need," Wrench said.

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Snake on a Plane! Don't Panic: It's Probably Just a (Soft) Robot - Fortune

Narooma High School Robo Rebels robotics team keeping busy – Narooma News

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

20 Jun 2017, 11:38 a.m.

Narooma High Schools Robo Rebels junior and senior teams have been busy and have a demonstration at the Plaza this Saturday.

Narooma High Schools junior and senior Robo Rebels robotics teams have been busy with training running twice a week at lunchtime and after school.

The Robo Rebels are planning a display by junior and senior teams conductingrobotdriving demonstrations from 10am until 12 noon this Saturdayunder the Dome at Narooma Plaza.

The Narooma junior robotics teamentered the Robocup at Moruya high last week in the Rescue division with two teams, NED and the Gas Monkeys.

Students had to program their Lego EV3 robot to follow a line maze, move around obstacles and enter a chemical spill to save a civilian after an earthquake.

We competed against other schools in the region and team NED managed to come first in this division, teacher Gayle Allison said. Congratulations to both teams on their commitment and steady improvement throughout the day.

Both junior teams have now qualified for State Robocup at University of NSW, Sydney in August. The high school congratulatedNarooma Public School and Miss Symons who entered their first robot competition and had great success on the day.

Senior Robo Rebels meanwhile competed in the March South Pacific Regionals in Sydney where the competition was all about Steamworks. The aim of the game was to deliver cogs to the airship, shoot balls of fuel into the boiler and finally climb on board the airship for take-off.

We were selected to the playoffs, making it to the quarter finals for the first time. In preparation for the final rounds we were cheesecaked by the Marsden Ramjets and Komplete Kaos teams, Mrs Allison said.

Thats when a more experienced team quickly makes modificationsto help a robot perform better. In this case they helped add a climbing device so we could climb.

We combatted through a best of three competition. First round our robot couldnt move due to the new program and complications with conflicting code.

Second round, more coding problems and our robot shot forward in the autonomous mode and crashed into the opposition, wiping them out. Victory, although not quite deliberate. Third round was a great competition which went down to the last 30 seconds and we lost narrowly after an attempt to climb.

The Narooma High School robotics teamswould like to thank our sponsors FIRST, Macquarie University, Wollongong University, Ford, Agrosy, Google, Narooma Quota and Narooma IGA.

Your help is invaluable in supporting this very expensive but exciting adventure, Mrs Alison said Special thanks to an anonymous local business who has kindly donated 10 iPads , which will be used to run our workshops, junior robotics and publicity of all events.

Seniors are currently working on Bunsen, their robot for the next FRC competition in the July school holiday. The Duel Down Under will be on at Macquarie University from July 3-5, good luck Robo Rebels.

To assist with funding students to these upcoming Sydney regionals we will be once again be holding its EV3 Robotics workshops at Narooma High School. The following dates are now open for bookings online: Eventbrite.com, search for RoboCamps. Camps cost $15 per person, payable on the day.

All workshops are suitable for beginners to more experienced students in primary school, Years 4-6 with 20 places available in each workshop, cost is $15 with all funds raised goingto the robotics program at Narooma High School.

Please contact Gayle Allison at Narooma High School for further information on4476 4377 ex 121.

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Narooma High School Robo Rebels robotics team keeping busy - Narooma News

RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY/INNOVATION: ITS Fiber brings fast connections, data center services to local business – TCPalm

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

Richard Westlund, For Progress & Innovation 8:00 a.m. ET June 19, 2017

Jeff Leslie is CEO of ITS Telecom and ITS Fiber, LLC.(Photo: HOBIE HILER/FOR PROGRESS & INNOVATION)Buy Photo

If you were listing Floridas technology hubs, Indiantown is probably not the first name that comes to mind. But ITS Fiber, LLC, has brought national recognition to this small Martin County community for its state-of-the-art data center, high-speed fiber network and array of managed services.

Businesses today need powerful, secure IT solutions, along with the ability to easily send and share large data files, such as videos and presentations, said Jeff Leslie, president and CEO. We support their operations by offering enterprise-level network, broadband, voice, data center and cloud services.

In 2013, ITSopened its co-location facility and network operations center in Indiantown, following its deployment of a high-speed fiber network for the region.

That year, the company was honored with the Smart Rural Community Award from NTCA the Rural Broadband Association, and received an innovation awardfrom Calix, a national telecom supplier and an expansion award from the Business Development Board of Martin County.

ITS Telecom and ITS Fiber's Customer Service & Sales Center is in Indiantown. The sister companies offer services in Martin, St. Lucie and northern Palm Beach County.(Photo: HOBIE HILER/FOR PROGRESS & INNOVATION)

ITS is an early adopter and industry leader in the growing movement toward edge computing, and should be an example for other rural telephone companies to follow, said Mark Hurley, data center solution architect withSchneider Electric, which partnered with ITS Fiber in deploying the data center.

Leslie says ITS was the first company in South Florida to offer symmetric bandwidth with speeds up to 1 gigabit (1000 mbps) to both residents and businesses, rivaling large national competitors.

Thathigh speed is important for uploading large digital files, as well as streaming videos at home or at work, he said.

Rudy Hernandez, voice engineer, works at his desk at ITS Telecom and ITS Fiber.(Photo: HOBIE HILER/FOR PROGRESS & INNOVATION)

ITS Fiber, along with its sister company, ITS Telecom, offers a full suite of communications services in Martin, St. Lucie and northern Palm Beach County.

Using the Indiantown network operations center, the company also offers hosted voice services in seven states.

We can put voice service on any device desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet so its available wherever you travel, Leslie said. Its like putting everyone in the same office, even if the business has locations outside Florida.

Thats one of the many ways ITS Fiber is growing in the cloud services market.

Many small to mid-size businesses dont have the capital to constantly invest in their on-premise infrastructure, Leslie said. We can take care of their network needs and offer software as a service . With our fiber connections, its like having our data center right there on site.

Currently, ITS has about 30 employees, a number that Leslie expects to grow in the next few years as the company expands its fiber network on the Treasure Coast and adds more business and residential customers.

We think the Treasure Coast is an excellent place for technology companies in todays digital era, he said. Fiber is the key to connectivity and collaboration, and we bring that to a region with a warm climate and a great lifestyle.

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RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY/INNOVATION: ITS Fiber brings fast connections, data center services to local business - TCPalm

AROUND TOWN: GOP chairman questions Ossoff’s London office – MDJOnline.com

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

TODAYS RUNOFF between Republican Karen Handel and Democrat Jon Ossoff has generated such interest that it has spread across the pond.

Cobb GOP Chairman Jason Shepherd, who has been traveling in Germany with his family, said he planned the trip back in December. To save money, while his wife and children flew to Berlin, he used miles to fly to London, planning to use cheap regional carriers to fly on to Berlin and meet them.

Originally, Shepherd said he planned only a quick visit to Oxford to turn in some paperwork at the university where he has been studying, but when the congressional election ended in a runoff, another idea crystallized.

Shepherd emailed the Georgia Republican Party, asking if it knew where Ossoffs London office was, and enlisted a friend who works for a member of the U.K. Parliament.

The two met in front of Ossoffs office a few hours after Shepherd landed in London. Shepherd said he edited the video on his iPhone before uploading it to the internet (www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW0jg5STJZY&feature=youtu.be).

The video begins with Shepherd reading an Ossoff campaign pamphlet about bringing jobs to Georgias 6th District.

But today, Im in London, England, Shepherd says, looking into the camera. And whats behind me? Jon Ossoffs London business. Jon Ossoff doesnt live in the 6th District, and he doesnt even bring his own business to the 6th District. How can we count on him to create jobs in the district?

The GOP chairman ends the piece by placing a Karen Handel campaign sign at the gate of Ossoffs London office.

And well just go ahead and leave this right here for Jon Ossoff to remind him to move to the 6th District, Shepherd says.

Michael Owens, chair of the Cobb Democratic Committee, said while he can appreciate Shepherds dedication in attempting to win this election, he hardly sees what the London trip has to do with the Ossoff campaign or the issues that affect 6th District voters.

Jon has stated many times that he is the co-owner of Insight TWI, a company that produces investigative documentaries. This means that Jons company works and partners with local investigative journalists around the world, Owens said. Just this year, one of Jons teams uncovered mass killings and sexual slavery by ISIS on the front line in Iraq while producing a documentary for the BBC. The BBC is in London, so Im not sure why Jason finds it so troubling that Jon may have a presence there. Again, I appreciate Jasons effort, but I think he wasted a bunch of money to take a Karen Handel sign across the Atlantic.

(Owens said he wasnt aware Shepherd was in London anyway because he didnt mention it in the video.)

In any case, as chair of Cobbs Democratic Party, Owens said he has chosen to spend his time in the district working directly with the voters and volunteers to help send Ossoff to Washington.

If Jason, as the chair of the Cobb GOP thinks its more effective to go leave the district at this crucial time and track down leads about the good work that Jon Ossoff has done in London then that is up to him. I along with Jon, the campaign and our volunteers are focused on issues that matter and affect the people of the 6th District, Owens said.

Yet Shepherd said thats the beauty of technology.

While I may be in Europe, I am still able to coordinate the Cobb GOPs GOTV (get out the vote) efforts to recruit volunteers for our team captains, get our message out via email and social media, and receive reports via text and phone, Shepherd said.

FLUNKED. A school choice group awarded state Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-west Cobb, an F in its report card for the 2017 legislative session. The grade is of particular interest given that Tippins is chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

Calling themselves the Georgia Center for Opportunity, the group graded lawmakers on such things as expanding the current tax credit scholarship program through HB 217 and HB 338, which would create so-called education savings accounts that allow the tax money to follow the child to charter or private schools.

Cobb school board member Randy Scamihorn, a Republican, had a few things to say about the report card. Scamihorn said he reviewed what scores the other members of Cobbs Legislative Delegation received.

And one of the things on several of them that I saw got an A-plus grade they may not be anti-public school, but they certainly give the indication that they are not for public schools, that theyre more for school choice, charter schools and vouchers, Scamihorn said. So for Lindsey to get a Grade F along with others that are strongly for public schools trying to do what they can do to help us at least thats my indication I dont see that as a negative grade. I went down through all of the senators and some of the representatives and this might be somewhat anecdotal, but I glanced at Democrat and Republican, and those that got the poor grade in my mind tended to be the ones that are strong public school supporters.

The report considered very few bills lawmakers voted on in arriving at its grade, Scamihorn believes.

I think Lindsey, if not wearing it as a badge of honor, should look at it as a skewed report from a group wanting to push an agenda, Scamihorn said.

Theyre just supporting school choice, and the question I would like to ask if I was part of the group or addressed the group is what is your group doing to help public schools? They say public schools are failing but how are we failing?

Other senators who represent parts of Cobb County received the following grades from the report: Hunter Hill, R-Smyrna: A plus; Bruce Thompson, R-White: B; Horacena Tate, D-Atlanta: C; Michael Rhett, D-Marietta: F.

In the House, John Carson, R-northeast Cobb, received an A-plus, as did Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, and Sam Teasley, R-Marietta.

Receiving an A were Sharon Cooper, R-east Cobb, Matt Dollar, R-east Cobb, Rich Golick, R-Smyrna, and Bert Reeves, R-Marietta.

Don Parsons, R-north Cobb and Sheila Jones, D-Atlanta, both received a B.

Stacey Evans, D-Smyrna, Michael Smith, D-Marietta, and Erica Thomas, D-Austell, received a D.

And Roger Bruce, D-Atlanta, and David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, received an F.

Senior Assistant Solicitor General Latonia Hines has been named prosecutorial liaison to SunTrust Park and the Battery.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: Senior Assistant Solicitor General Latonia Hines will be spending time at the Atlanta Braves new stadium but not in the way most baseball fans would want to. Hines, who works in Cobb County Solicitor Barry Morgans office, has been named prosecutorial liaison to SunTrust Park and the Battery. In that position, Hines handles the investigation and prosecution of misdemeanors and code violations in and around the stadium. She said since taking the position most of her cases have been . you guessed it . alcohol-related.

Hines lives less than two miles from the ballpark and said shes already seen the positive impact of having the Braves in Cobb.

I truly have a vested interest in keeping the area safe and enjoyable for everyone, the Cobb attorney said. Hines also serves as editor in chief of Justicia, the official magazine of the Cobb Bar Association.

SILENCE IS GOLDEN: Whether you Hurrah for Handel or Jump for Jon, everyone can agree what a mercy it is that the tiresome political ads that have choked television, phone lines and social media for far too long are coming to an end. Its reason to celebrate until coming across these lines by MDJ reporter Ross Williams in todays MDJ: Whoever wins tonight will have little time for confetti and champagne. The winner will have to fight for their seat once again in November 2018 as the remainder of (Tom) Prices term expires at the end of that year.

What?!

The sequel is coming real soon, the article quotes KSU professor Kerwin Swint as saying.

And the beat goes on. The beat goes on.

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AROUND TOWN: GOP chairman questions Ossoff's London office - MDJOnline.com

360-Virtual Reality: The Ultimate Storytelling Platform – Forbes

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

Forbes

360-Virtual Reality: The Ultimate Storytelling Platform
Forbes
The art of marketing is essentially the art of storytelling. The basic goal of marketing, its raison d'tre, is to tell a story that will create an emotion in order to influence an action. I strongly believe as many around the world do that virtual ...

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360-Virtual Reality: The Ultimate Storytelling Platform - Forbes

Maine Teachers Demo Groundbreaking Virtual Reality Education Technology UPDATED – WABI

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

Maine educators got to demo some groundbreaking virtual reality technology at the State Library in Augusta Monday.

As this technology advances, and becomes less expensive and more commonplace, schools across the country are expected to be implementing these exciting education tools.

The Department of Educations Virtual Reality expo brought educators from across the state to discuss how theyre using virtual technology in their curriculum.

The idea is to be able to create an environment where learners at all levels can use gestures and natural movements of their hands to make and explore mathematical figures, said Justin Dimmel, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education & Instructional Technology at the University of Maine.

The University of Maines Immersive Mathematics in Rendered Environments lab showed off their new Hand Waver program.

Developed by students and recent graduates, it utilizes virtual reality to create learning experiences for those studying math and science.

We are 1 of 4 medical schools in the world who are using this technology, said Marilyn Gugliucci, Professor & Director of Geriatrics Education & Research for the University of New England.

The University of New England is beta testing an exciting geriatrics program called We Are Alfred.

They become 74-year-old Alfred, an African American male. He has macular degeneration and hearing loss, said Gugliucci.

It gives students the opportunity to experience what life is like for someone suffering from those conditions.

A few years back, my dad was diagnosed with macular degeneration, so sitting there for seven minutes allowed me a seven minute walk in his shoes, said Jaimie Pelletier, a Fort Kent Instructor.

They just get this sense of WOW. I had no idea, and now I know what some of my patients may experience, said Gugliucci.

Its just now sinking in that my dad is going through some of these same conditions and I had no idea. It really hits home, said Pelletier.

Educators say these state-of-the-art education tools are not only providing students and teachers with challenges and experiences that were not possible before the advent of the technology, but also present endless possibilities for the future.

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Maine Teachers Demo Groundbreaking Virtual Reality Education Technology UPDATED - WABI

Virtual reality audiences stare straight ahead 75% of the time – The Register

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

A YouTube heat map of where viewers devote their attention during a virtual reality video

YouTube's revealed the secret to making an engaging virtual reality video: put the best parts right in front of the audience so they don't have to move their heads.

Google's video vault offers that advice on the basis of heat maps it's created based on analysis of where VR viewers point their heads while wearing VR goggles. There's just such a heat map at the top of this story (or here for m.reg readers) and a bigger one here.

The many heat maps YouTube has made lead it to suggest that VR video creators Focus on whats in front of you: The defining feature of a 360-degree video is that it allows you to freely look around in any direction, but surprisingly, people spent 75% of their time within the front 90 degrees of a video. So dont forget to spend significant time on whats in front of the viewer.

YouTube also advises that for many of the most popular VR videos, people viewed more of the full 360-degree space with almost 20% of views actually being behind them. Which sounds to El Reg like VR viewers are either staring straight ahead or looking over their shoulders, with very little time being devoted to sideways glances.

Google therefore offers the following sage advice for those who want to set heads swiveling: Get their attention The more engaging the full scene is, the more likely viewers will want to explore the full 360-degree view.

Which gets The Register celebrating, yet again, that it's possible to harness countless thousands of servers so they analyse countless thousands of videos and then tell us that getting people interested in movies can best be accomplished by making good movies.

What a time to be alive.

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Virtual reality audiences stare straight ahead 75% of the time - The Register

SeaWorld’s new ride combines virtual reality and a REAL roller … – The Sun

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Danzig

AN OLD roller coaster at SeaWorld Orlando has been given the ultimate makeover, turning it from a 17-year-old ride into a cutting edge virtual reality experience.

By attaching headsets and earphones to the old Kraken ride, the theme park has turned an already terrifying coaster into a heart-stopping journey to the bottom of the sea.

Facebook / Orlando Informer

Kraken Unleashed is Americas first virtual reality roller coaster, where guests are chased by hungry sea monsters while riding at 65mph for real on a leg-dangling coaster.

As riders fly along the powerful track, complete with dives, corkscrews and seven loops, an immersive VR story unfolds in perfect sync with the rides movements.

Guests can now scream their way through a fantastical voyage past gigantic underwater beasts, including the legendary Kraken sea monster.

Facebook / Orlando Informer

The virtual voyage begins in a futuristic underwater laboratory, then plunging guests into the deep sea.

At first things seem peaceful, with a pod of dolphins following you up a steep underwater canyon before it all takes a terrifying turn for the worst.

As the ride speeds up, guests encounter angry giant crabs and other massive monsters, then finally coming face to with the mystical ancient Kraken.

The ride is over in a matter of minutes but with so much happening on screen and multiple viewing angles depending on which way youre looking, most guests will want to dive right back in.

Facebook / Orlando Informer

SeaWorld expect the ride to be wildly popular, so in keeping with the high-tech theme, holidaymakers will also be able to skip the queue by waiting in line virtually with a new app.

Called Spot Saver, the mobile site will allow thrill-seekers to join a queue with a smartphones and turn up when its their turn to ride.

Brian Morrow, Vice President of Theme Park Experience and Design said:By creating a custom digital overlay and using technology to tell the story, we developed an entirely new virtual reality coaster.

The result is a seamless and completely unique expedition on a well-loved roller coaster.

If riders arent ready to brave the deep, theres also the option to enjoy the ride the old school way.

Link:

SeaWorld's new ride combines virtual reality and a REAL roller ... - The Sun

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