Watch some of mind-hacking cyberpunk horror Observer, from the devs behind Layers of Fear – PCGamesN

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The next title from Layers of Fear developers Bloober Team (theres an L in there, get your mind out of the gutter) has been shown off at E3 with 10 minutes of gameplay. Titled Observer, its a cyberpunk, trippy survival horror with blood, guts, and neural hacking. Jacking into the mind of a dying man can reveal some horrible stuff.

There don't seem to be any zombies in Observer, but if you want some, we've got a list of the best zombie games you can play.

The game was first revealed at last years E3, and this new gameplay shows its coming along nicely. Youll be playing a cop in futuristic Poland, where, as an Observer, you can solve crimes by jacking into and invading other peoples minds. Mind cop.

Similarly to Layers of Fear, what you see in the game is going to be figments of imagination, brought on by both the Observers and his subjects thoughts, fears, and so on. When they start walking into the light, what will the Observer see?

Its a lot more varied than Layers of Fear, at least, with the memory jumping giving some opportunities to explore completely new locations and experiences that the protagonist wouldnt have otherwise known.

The ending to the gameplay does show off some possibilities for the story, so if youre the type who wants to analyse every frame, pay some close attention at about 10:15. Theres almost certainly some story hints in there.

I just havent analysed it because its scary.

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Watch some of mind-hacking cyberpunk horror Observer, from the devs behind Layers of Fear - PCGamesN

Helping or Hacking? Engineers, Ethicists Must Work Together on Brain-Computer Interface Technology – Government Technology

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In the 1995 film Batman Forever, the Riddler used 3-D television to secretly access viewers most personal thoughts in his hunt for Batmans true identity. By 2011, the metrics company Nielsen had acquired Neurofocus and had created a consumer neuroscience division that uses integrated conscious and unconscious data to track customer decision-making habits. What was once a nefarious scheme in a Hollywood blockbuster seems poised to become a reality.

Recent announcements by Elon Musk and Facebook about brain-computer interface (BCI) technology are just the latest headlines in an ongoing science-fiction-becomes-reality story.

BCIs use brain signals to control objects in the outside world. Theyre a potentially world-changing innovation imagine being paralyzed but able to reach for something with a prosthetic arm just by thinking about it. But the revolutionary technology also raises concerns. Here at the University of Washingtons Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) we and our colleagues are researching BCI technology and a crucial part of that includes working on issues such as neuroethics and neural security. Ethicists and engineers are working together to understand and quantify risks and develop ways to protect the public now.

All BCI technology relies on being able to collect information from a brain that a device can then use or act on in some way. There are numerous places from which signals can be recorded, as well as infinite ways the data can be analyzed, so there are many possibilities for how a BCI can be used.

Some BCI researchers zero in on one particular kind of regularly occurring brain signal that alerts us to important changes in our environment. Neuroscientists call these signals event-related potentials. In the lab, they help us identify a reaction to a stimulus.

Examples of event-related potentials (ERPs), electrical signals produced by the brain in response to a stimulus. Tamara Bonaci, CC BY-ND

In particular, we capitalize on one of these specific signals, called the P300. Its a positive peak of electricity that occurs toward the back of the head about 300 milliseconds after the stimulus is shown. The P300 alerts the rest of your brain to an oddball that stands out from the rest of whats around you.

For example, you dont stop and stare at each persons face when youre searching for your friend at the park. Instead, if we were recording your brain signals as you scanned the crowd, there would be a detectable P300 response when you saw someone who could be your friend. The P300 carries an unconscious message alerting you to something important that deserves attention. These signals are part of a still unknown brain pathway that aids in detection and focusing attention.

P300s reliably occur any time you notice something rare or disjointed, like when you find the shirt you were looking for in your closet or your car in a parking lot. Researchers can use the P300 in an experimental setting to determine what is important or relevant to you. Thats led to the creation of devices like spellers that allow paralyzed individuals to type using their thoughts, one character at a time.

It also can be used to determine what you know, in whats called a guilty knowledge test. In the lab, subjects are asked to choose an item to steal or hide, and are then shown many images repeatedly of both unrelated and related items. For instance, subjects choose between a watch and a necklace, and are then shown typical items from a jewelry box; a P300 appears when the subject is presented with the image of the item he took.

Everyones P300 is unique. In order to know what theyre looking for, researchers need training data. These are previously obtained brain signal recordings that researchers are confident contain P300s; theyre then used to calibrate the system. Since the test measures an unconscious neural signal that you dont even know you have, can you fool it? Maybe, if you know that youre being probed and what the stimuli are.

Techniques like these are still considered unreliable and unproven, and thus U.S. courts have resisted admitting P300 data as evidence.

For now, most BCI technology relies on somewhat cumbersome EEG hardware that is definitely not stealth. Mark Stone, University of Washington, CC BY-ND

Imagine that instead of using a P300 signal to solve the mystery of a stolen item in the lab, someone used this technology to extract information about what month you were born or which bank you use without your telling them. Our research group has collected data suggesting this is possible. Just using an individuals brain activity specifically, their P300 response we could determine a subjects preferences for things like favorite coffee brand or favorite sports.

But we could do it only when subject-specific training data were available. What if we could figure out someones preferences without previous knowledge of their brain signal patterns? Without the need for training, users could simply put on a device and go, skipping the step of loading a personal training profile or spending time in calibration. Research on trained and untrained devices is the subject of continuing experiments at the University of Washington and elsewhere.

Its when the technology is able to read someones mind who isnt actively cooperating that ethical issues become particularly pressing. After all, we willingly trade bits of our privacy all the time when we open our mouths to have conversations or use GPS devices that allow companies to collect data about us. But in these cases we consent to sharing whats in our minds. The difference with next-generation P300 technology under development is that the protection consent gives us may get bypassed altogether.

What if its possible to decode what youre thinking or planning without you even knowing? Will you feel violated? Will you feel a loss of control? Privacy implications may be wide-ranging. Maybe advertisers could know your preferred brands and send you personalized ads which may be convenient or creepy. Or maybe malicious entities could determine where you bank and your accounts PIN which would be alarming.

The potential ability to determine individuals preferences and personal information using their own brain signals has spawned a number of difficult but pressing questions: Should we be able to keep our neural signals private? That is, should neural security be a human right? How do we adequately protect and store all the neural data being recorded for research, and soon for leisure? How do consumers know if any protective or anonymization measures are being made with their neural data? As of now, neural data collected for commercial uses are not subject to the same legal protections covering biomedical research or health care. Should neural data be treated differently?

Neuroethicists from the UW Philosophy department discuss issues related to neural implants. Mark Stone, University of Washington, CC BY-ND

These are the kinds of conundrums that are best addressed by neural engineers and ethicists working together. Putting ethicists in labs alongside engineers as we have done at the CSNE is one way to ensure that privacy and security risks of neurotechnology, as well as other ethically important issues, are an active part of the research process instead of an afterthought. For instance, Tim Brown, an ethicist at the CSNE, is housed within a neural engineering research lab, allowing him to have daily conversations with researchers about ethical concerns. Hes also easily able to interact with and, in fact, interview research subjects about their ethical concerns about brain research.

There are important ethical and legal lessons to be drawn about technology and privacy from other areas, such as genetics and neuromarketing. But there seems to be something important and different about reading neural data. Theyre more intimately connected to the mind and who we take ourselves to be. As such, ethical issues raised by BCI demand special attention.

As we wrestle with how to address these privacy and security issues, there are two features of current P300 technology that will buy us time.

First, most commercial devices available use dry electrodes, which rely solely on skin contact to conduct electrical signals. This technology is prone to a low signal-to-noise ratio, meaning that we can extract only relatively basic forms of information from users. The brain signals we record are known to be highly variable (even for the same person) due to things like electrode movement and the constantly changing nature of brain signals themselves. Second, electrodes are not always in ideal locations to record.

All together, this inherent lack of reliability means that BCI devices are not nearly as ubiquitous today as they may be in the future. As electrode hardware and signal processing continue to improve, it will be easier to continuously use devices like these, and make it easier to extract personal information from an unknowing individual as well. The safest advice would be to not use these devices at all.

The goal should be that the ethical standards and the technology will mature together to ensure future BCI users are confident their privacy is being protected as they use these kinds of devices. Its a rare opportunity for scientists, engineers, ethicists and eventually regulators to work together to create even better products than were originally dreamed of in science fiction.

Eran Klein, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Neurology at Oregon Health and Sciences University and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Washington and Katherine Pratt, Ph.D. Student in Electrical Engineering, University of Washington

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Political Correctness Won’t Fix Uber’s Problems – Bloomberg

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Time to focus more on strategy.

There's a disconnect between the way Uber, the ride-hailing company, is trying to transform itself and what it really needs to fix to become a sustainable business. Instead of reconsidering its business model and protecting itself against a regulatory backlash, it has decided to go politically correct.

Uber's Ex-Communications Chief on Kalanick Taking Leave

As a result of much highly public soul-searching, caused by accusations of mistreating women and fostering a testosterone-fueled internal culture, Uber nowhas no chief financial officer, chief operating officer, chief business officer or chief marketing officer, and its chief executive officer Travis Kalanick has gone on indefinite leave. But it's going to have achief diversity officer. That may be the first for a taxi company (which is ultimately what Uber is) and that's fine; but it won't address the root problem.

At a recentall-staff meeting, board member Ariana Huffington suggested that once a woman gets on a company's board, "there's a lot of data that shows" more women tend to follow. Fellow director David Bonderman retorted, "Actually, what it shows is that it's much more likely to be more talking." Predictably, this caused an outcry and Bonderman was forced to step down from the board. But he was right, not because women are more prone to idle talk than men -- they aren't -- but in the sense that the changes the company is making are about more vacuous talk than much else. The lasting image to illustrate it, supplied byHuffington herself, is Kalanick -- a driven macho who, in running Uber, has tried to bend every rule he encountered on his path -- headinginto a lactation room to meditate.

Thereporton the company's culture, written by former attorney general Eric Holder and Tammy Albarran, contains a set of standard corporate governance recommendations for startups that have lost their way: Less of a role for the founders, more seasoned executives, more independent directors, formal review, feedback and compensation-setting procedures, mandatory training for managers, a robust complaint process. But it also calls for reformulating Uber's 14 cultural values as set out by Kalanick. Uber, it says, should "eliminate those values which have been identified as redundant or as havingbeen used to justify poor behavior, including Let Builders Build, Always Be Hustlin',Meritocracy and Toe-Stepping, and Principled Confrontation."

The Sharing Economy

Uber is a company that sacrificed everything to super-fast expansion. It doubled its gross bookings -- the total amount passengers paid for its taxi service -- to $20 billion last year. "Always hustlin'" and "principled confrontation" is how that growth happened: Uberhas tried to steamroll over competitors and sidestep regulators, includingbydevioustechnicalmeans, to get where it is today. Its business model and its narrative to investors, who have made Uber the most highly valued startup in the world have depended upon that ruthless expansion.

It has beenarguedthat Uber's strategy in the urban transportation market has been to destroy the competition rather than simply muscle into hundreds of cities' low-margin taxi markets. If that hadn't been the plan, it would have made no sense for Uber to engage in debilitating price wars and subsidize rides, as it does in every city it enters.

In the process, of course, Uber lost$2.8 billionlast year, not counting the money spent trying (unsuccessfully) to conquer the Chinese market. That's more than any other startup has burned through in a year. But is putting in a mature company's corporate governance procedures and appointing a chief diversity officer the way to fix those losses?

If the company's business strategyremains the same -- growing the business at a breakneck pace to dominate every market -- then it's a mistake to reconsider the company's culture as radically as Uber appears poised to do with all the expensive consultants it's been hiring. Replacing a focus on achievement atany price with more meetings, meditation and new-age rhetoric while still trying to be aggressive can only lead to cognitive dissonance, flagging employee morale and more painful staff departures.

It would make far more sense to rethink the strategy first. Uber could focus on profitability rather than expansion. That would mean cutting costs, phasing out subsidies and perhaps leaving markets -- primarily European ones -- where the regulatory climate is only going to get tougher for "gig economy" companies. It could also mean doing the math in case Uber drivers are eventually recognized as employees, not independent contractors, in many markets. Fareincreases -- and not necessarily cleverly packagedones such as the current price differentiationplan-- would also be on the cards. The company could decide to spend more on its driverless car push rather than on trying to win dominance in specific cities: Gaining an edge in automated driving could differentiate Uber from competitors who now have pretty much the same technology as it does, from a customer's point of view.

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The internal culture would inevitably shift in line with a more prudent new strategy. Uber wouldno longer be a privateer running a black flag -- it would be a reasonably cautious player, attracting a different type of employee. Perhaps the new management team, when it's hired, will move in this direction -- but then the culture-altering moves should be left to that new team. Instead, Uber is tearing itself apart before it decides where it's going as a business. That's putting the horse ahead of the cart; culture change should be organic and constructive, and a highly public political correctness show definitely isn't.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Therese Raphael at traphael4@bloomberg.net

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Maybe Bernie Sanders and political correctness are signs of the … – New Jersey 101.5 FM Radio

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Maybe, just maybe, the Antichrist isnt a man, Jim Gearhart says. Maybe, just maybe, its an ideology.

And maybe the latest controversy whipped up by Sen. Bernie Sanders is just another sign of it, Jim says.

Wait what?

Jim was incensed a lot of people were when he read about Sanders questions of Russell Vought, nominated by President Trump to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. In a hearing earlier this month, Sanders suggested Voughts belief that non-Christians are condemned to hell amounted to Isamaphobia and perhaps anti-Semitism.

Do you believe people in the Muslim religion stand condemned? an account by NPR quotes Sanders saying. What about Jews? Do they stand condemned, too?

Vought answered over and over again: Im a Christian.

Jim references a column by Fox News Todd Starnes that shares his indignation. Jim says he suspects a Muslim or other non-Christian would have never been subjected to the same sorts of questions. But he says the politically correct forces of the left see badgering a Christian over his faith as perfectly OK.

What earthly or celestial difference does it make who believes what, really? Jim asks in the latest edition of the Jim Gearhart Show podcast, which comes out every Thursday on iTunes, Google Play and the New Jersey 101.5 app. Were talking about beliefs. Now, putting things into practice is another matter. But you can believe anything that you really want. The important thing is the existential predicaments of mankind, I would think personkind, sorry about that and the inevitability that wed better get our acts together before our mutual annihilation, which, if you watch cable television, you will know is imminent.

In that case, Jim says, certainly all theology is moot, and theres nobody left to believe anything.

But hows that get us to the Antichrist?

Youll need to check out the full podcast for the answer.

The video just part of the latest installment of the Jim Gearhart Podcast, available every week on New Jersey 101.5 and in the New Jersey 101.5 app. You can alsosubscribe with your favorite podcasting app for iPhones, Android devices or your computer:

Get The Jim Gearhart Show on Google Play

Get Jim on iTunes

Love podcasts? Also check out Forever 39, Annette and Megans new podcast about turning 40 and loving life along the way. This week, they explore the average number of sexual partners men and women have.

Also: The New Jersey Guys, Chris and Dan, ask talk about the best sports trophies and top sports rivalries. And in Speaking Millennial, Bill Spadea, Jay Black and Jessica Nutt meet to discuss how millennials shop for groceries, Jays hate of both the National Spelling Bee and hipsters, and the shocking reveal of Jessicas fathers secret life as a spy.

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Political correctness is about more than being polite – St. Cloud Times

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Adam Ulbricht, Times Writers Group 7:30 a.m. CT June 13, 2017

Adam Ulbricht(Photo: Submitted photo)

One can little doubt the power of language. We learn our vocabularies at a young age and continue picking up phrases and beliefs as we go through life.

Like many things, language is learned beginning with family. As we grow, we attend school. Literature and pop culture eventually lend a hand in expanding our knowledge base.

But language is also susceptible to change. The norms of today are vastly different than in the 90s when I was a young kid. We are currently living in a time of change where political correctness is the prevailing movement.

The notion of political correctness was defended in an editorial on May 27 by Times Writers Group columnist Ben Ament (Relish refusing to be politically correct? Thats just rude). Here, Mr. Ament argued that the PC movement is nothing more than just being polite to one another.

This over-simplified explanation doesnt address the full reality, though. Youll get no argument from me that we should strive to be civil in our interactions with other people. However, this is not whats necessarily playing out everywhere.

Political correctness has played a role on college campuses for around a decade now. Since then, there have been plenty of examples of student groups across the country shutting down speakers in a rather not-so-polite manner. Be it Charles Murray or Milo Yiannopoulous, members of the PC crowd have shown they will act to silence opposing speech.

A free society is dependent on our ability to express ourselves and disagree with one another. Sometimes thoughts, words or ideas that we dislike, or outright reject, are unpleasant.

The recent photos of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a fake severed head of the president serves as a good reminder of that lesson. Although you may disagree with her, she has the right to such expression.

But it doesnt just stop there. Political correctness can also find itself devoid of logic at times. For example, the accepted term undocumented immigrant has replaced illegal immigrant in order to provide greater dignity for those that fall into this category. The problem is that we do document those who are here without legal status. The Pew Research Center says the illegal immigration population remained at a little more than 11 million in 2016 for the eighth consecutive year.

Mr. Ament also touched upon a larger philosophical debate. According to his article, the long held Golden Rule is a bit too self-serving. Instead, he introduced the Platinum Rule in which he wants to treat others as they would like to be treated.

On the surface this may sound pleasant. After all, theres nothing wrong with being respectful to others. However, the idea that you can somehow abandon your self-serving ways is misguided.

Everything that we do is self-serving in some form or fashion. If you give to charity, help a stranger or call someone by the gender pronoun they identify as, do you not receive self-gratification?

What makes the Golden Rule successful is that humans are self-interested. This acts as a powerful incentive when following the Golden Rule. Being self-interested and treating others with respect are not mutually exclusive ideas.

I believe that we can live in a mutually beneficial society based on the belief of individualism. The average entrepreneur serves as a great example. If someone takes the risk and starts up a company that hires employees and provides a product or service of value, are they not serving both themselves and fellow humans? Their success provides employment and a tax base to communities, which reaches to other areas like local schools, libraries or churches.

Will there be people who violate rules? Absolutely. There will always be those who take advantage of others. Im certain that this new Platinum Rule has its own limits, which people will test.

Again, Ill say that political correctness is about a lot more than just being polite. Its a political philosophy as much as its a way to control the meaning of words and language. If language didnt hold such powerful meaning, Mr. Ament and I wouldnt be writing our columns and you wouldnt be reading.

This is the opinion of Adam Ulbricht, whose column is published the second Tuesday of the month.

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Comedians can strip away political correctness to expose heart of the matter – DesMoinesRegister.com

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Jamison Lewis, Charles City, Letter to the Editor 5:15 p.m. CT June 13, 2017

Comedian and writer Kumail Nanjiani gives the commencement speech at Grinnell College Monday, May 22, 2017, where he graduated from in 2001. Described as "the future of funny" by GQ magazine, the Pakistan native earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and philosophy before moving to Chicago then New York City. He became a go-to guest on popular TV shows such as "The Colbert Report," "Veep" and "Portlandia." Since 2014, he's been playing the role of Dinesh, a witty but hapless software engineer, on the HBO hit "Silicon Valley."(Photo: Rodney White/The Register)Buy Photo

Daniel Finney writes that comedy is confused in its purpose when it mixes political messages with laughter [Comedy's missteps are killing the political left, June 8]. That "confusion" is called satire and it can be traced back through Lenny Bruce, to Mark Twain, and on to Aristophanes.

Comedians have stepped into the shoes of journalists as truth-tellers because comedians have the license to strip away political correctness and liesto expose the heart of the matter.

Two of the three professors Finney quoted, who moonlight as stand-up comics, must certainly be aware that in either role they are vulnerable to political attack. That's why most of Finney's article sounded like the cautionary wisdom of those who may be hearing footsteps and anticipating loud bangs on their doors. Lenny Bruce went from straight comedy to performances where he read from law books. His "degree in free speech" was a baptism by fire.

Pity the poor wretch whose speech transgressions become political fodder. For an Iowa example, look up Carl Childress, an English professor at University of Northern Iowa who in 1970 assigned his class to write about selected forbidden words. Chuck Grassley, as I recall, pounced like a cat that had stumbled on a free meal.

Jamison Lewis, Charles City

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What Are Our Best Clues To The Evolution Of Fire-Making? – NPR

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Remember the movie Quest For Fire?

It's an iconic Hollywood moment: Ancient humans discover how to make fire. It happens pretty quickly, and there's a chase scene starring a saber-toothed tiger to heighten the suspense.

Off the big screen, though, evolutionary changes, including cognitive-behavioral changes that would underpin our species' control of fire, often happen in fits and starts over lengthy periods.

In papers just published in a supplement to the journal Current Anthropology devoted to human evolution and fire, we see just how lengthy that process may have been.

In his contribution, "Identifying and describing pattern and process in the evolution of hominin use of fire," Dennis Sandgathe of Simon Fraser University notes that it's quite challenging to distinguish between the archaeological signature of fire use by our early ancestors and that of naturally-occurring fires:

"The probability seems vanishingly small that the location of any open-air Early Stone Age-Lower Paleolithic site would not have natural fires pass over it at least once (and probably many times) in the period of time since its deposition. If the site is not too deeply buried, artifacts and bones can be altered by the heat of a passing natural fire, and charcoal and ash from natural fires can be introduced into the site sequence."

In other words, what looks like evidence for human use of fire may actual be evidence of a natural process.

Sandgathe continues:

"Even in cases where it seems very clear that the fires were the result of hominin behavior, there still remains the possibility that they acquired the fire from natural sources and did not create it themselves. This possibility seems to be consistently overlooked, underappreciated, or simply dismissed out of hand."

While acknowledging the possibility that the site of Gesher Benot Ya'akov in Israel indicates the first repeated fire use by our ancestors at around 800,000 years ago, Sandgathe concludes that "the earliest unquestionable examples" of continuous, long-term fire use come later, between 350,000 and 200,000 at the cave sites of Hayonim, Qesem, and Tabun, also in Israel. There, hearths and burned lithics occur in such abundance as to reasonably preclude other explanations. Sandgathe notes, however, that "continuous" doesn't necessarily mean "habitual," that is, "there may still be decades, centuries, or in some cases even millennia between fire-use events."

We can, Sandgathe says, take the date of 400,000 years ago as a kind of milestone in our ancestors' use of fire. But even then, fire use wasn't anything like a key behavioral adaptation for a long while, as he explained to me via email:

"The current evidence does suggest that, while there may have been rare, isolated fire-use events prior to 400,000 years ago, no hominins were regularly using fire prior to this and, in fact, it seems pretty clear from my (and colleague's) research that at least some Neanderthal populations in Europe were not regularly using fire as recently as 50,000 years ago and perhaps even later...[Fire use] continued to be intermittent, opportunistic, involve the exploitation of natural fire sources, and was not an integral part of any hominin adaptations until sometime after 50,000 years ago."

A non-human primate model may help us understand the evolution of fire behavior, too. Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University and Nicole Herzog of the University of Utah in their paper Savanna Chimpanzees at Fongoli, Senegal, Navigate a Fire Landscape explain why Fongoli is an unusual site for wild chimpanzees: There, in a savanna-woodland setting with environmental pressures quite similar to those our early ancestors may have faced, chimpanzees encounter wildfires quite regularly, some extensive in size. This situation sets the Fongoli chimpanzees apart from all other habituated chimpanzees who live in forested environments where fire is rare.

The Fongoli fires are mostly anthropogenic, set by people in order to clear land for cultivation or to make hunting, or even just walking through the grassland, easier. But those fires impact the chimpanzees' daily lives, too.

The data collection that Pruetz and Herzog carried out shows, first, that the Fongoli chimpanzees spent more time foraging and traveling in burned areas compared to unburned areas. That's smart thinking on the apes' part, because it's an efficient use of their energy. Second, the primatologists conclude that the apes "can accurately predict the leading edges of fire and assess other aspects of fire behavior" such that they seem to be quite unconcerned with smoldering fires or even early flaming fires, but avoid more serious fires.

Pruetz, via Messenger app, described for me a memorable experience she had a few years ago at Fongoli that highlights chimpanzees' fire knowledge:

"I almost violated my own rule of 'follow the chimps' when we're in close proximity to a wildfire. The three adult males I was following first skirted the fire but then watched it for some minutes and went down into the ravine it was moving through. I thought we'd all be burned up and almost turned around but found that they'd crossed a spot in the ravine where there was still some green vegetation at the bottom, and the fire died out there and moved around while we quickly crossed. Note to self: Don't doubt the chimps!"

Writing in Current Anthropology, Pruetz and Herzog conclude that the chimpanzees "appear strategically to use burned landscapes and exhibit cognitive abilities necessary for interacting with wildfires, which tentatively provides support for the early fire-use theory."

Here we have a key insight about our own past: In the periods before the confirmed, repeated fire use that Sandgathe pinpoints, our ancestors may very well have understood fire and incorporated the effects of fire into their normal routines in intelligent ways. The process of fire manufacture and control would then have evolved quite gradually.

Sandgathe himself concludes something that aligns beautifully with the primatologists' perspective. He writes in Current Anthropology:

"In some regions (and time periods) high frequencies of natural fires may have provided some hominin groups with constant, reliable access to fire, limiting any pressure to develop fire-maintenance techniques or fire-manufacture technologies."

Not as sexy, perhaps, as Quest For Fire but good solid science.

As the headline to a recent post of mine here suggests, new evidence in human evolution is being announced at a "dizzying" rate. Just last week the news broke that, based on fossil finds from Morocco, our species Homo sapiens may be over 100,000 years older than we thought.

Often though, the slow-and-steady, behind-the-headlines work such as that discussed in the Current Anthropology issue on fire is where advances in paleoanthropology come.

Barbara J. King is an anthropology professor emerita at the College of William and Mary. She often writes about the cognition, emotion and welfare of animals, and about biological anthropology, human evolution and gender issues. Barbara's new book is Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat. You can keep up with what she is thinking on Twitter: @bjkingape

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Angry Birds Evolution Takes The Birds Vs. Pigs Battle To A Weird Place – Kotaku

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Angry Birds Evolution, out today on iOS and Android, is a flick-and-spin style mobile game in which players collect and evolve characters like Dolores, the avian doctor with a penchant for vicious rectal exams.

Something is causing the pigs to flock to Bird Island in droves, and its up to the player to form teams of collectible characters and flick the pigs back to whatever bacon-scented hell they hail from.

Like most non-core Angry Birds games, Evolution is a licensed take on a different popular mobile genre. In this case, its those games where you launch characters Beyblade-style into an arena, bouncing off enemies to do damage.

Players collect and evolve bird characters as they play. Each falls into a color categoryred, yellow, blue, black, white and suchand each category has its own special ability that activates during play. Black birds can become targeted bombs. White birds pass through enemies in a straight line, damaging all.

Its a solid entry in the mobile sub-genre. The game plays well, and theres plenty of strategy and angling involved in taking out the various pigs players are pitted against.

The action is fine, but the tone is a bit off. The Angry Birds franchise is popular with kids. Hell, were just coming off a major animated motion picture. The humor here is definitely adult-leaning. Look at Wade here.

Maybe its just me, and that bird is not talking about his penis. And hey, everybody gets rectal exams, right?

For the most part the new characters created for the game are culled from various pop culture sources, and theyre mostly harmless.

Adult humor aside, Angry Birds Evolution is a nifty little game so far, especially if youre into slamming things against other things and collecting characters. Just known that you might have to explain some grown-up words to your kids should they get their hands on it.

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Angry Birds Evolution Takes The Birds Vs. Pigs Battle To A Weird Place - Kotaku

The Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) Review: Evolution – AnandTech

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The Microsoft Surface Pro has undeniably carved out a new segment in the PC space. But what was once a powerful, but heavy, thick, and unwieldly tablet when it was first launched, has become a thin, light, and even more powerful tablet in the following years. It was really the launch of the Surface Pro 3 that finally changed Microsofts fortunes in the hardware game. This was the first Surface Pro that was able to bring the weight and thickness into check, and the 3:2 aspect ratio screen was a revelation in this product category where 16:9 or 16:10 displays were really all that was offered in the Windows world.

In October 2015, Microsoft launched the refreshed Surface Pro 4 which was a bigger improvement than you would have guessed. The overall dimensions and look of the tablet were similar to the Pro 3, but the display was a big step forward, offering 267 pixels per inch, and outstanding color reproduction. The new keyboard launched with the Surface Pro 4 was really one of the biggest highlights though, offering an edge to edge keyboard with island keys, and a far more useable trackpad as well.

Now approaching the summer of 2017, its been a while since the Surface Pro 4 launched, but its successor has finally come to market: the Microsoft Surface Pro (2017). Yes, Microsoft has dropped the numbering system and this is probably the the most appropriate time to do it, I feel but far more important than whatever name Microsoft picks is the hardware. Although on the outside it may seem to be a small refresh, Microsoft has over 800 new custom parts inside, improving their flagship 2-in-1 device in several key areas.

The Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book were the first devices launched with Intels Skylake-U series processors, and Microsoft had to work overtime to sort out some power management issues with the then-new Skylake platform and Modern Standby. So its perhaps not that surprising to see them sit out the initial launch of Kaby Lake until they could ensure they had all the bugs worked out.

But with the launch of the Surface Pro this year, theyve now moved onto the latest Intel CPUs, which offer both improved performance and thermals. Microsoft has not made any other dramatic changes for processing though, and the Surface Pro keeps the same CPU lineup as the outgoing model, but with 7th generation replacing 6th generation. That means there is a Core m3-7Y30 4.5 W CPU in the base model, a Core i5-7300U in the mid-range, and a Core i7-7660U in the top end. However Microsoft has also extended the passive cooling configuration to the Core i5 as well. This change comes thanks to some important improvements in the cooling system, which well take a look at in a bit.

Intel Core i5-7300U (2C/4T, 2.6-3.5GHz, 3MB L3, 14nm, 15w)

Intel Core i7-7660U (2C/4T, 2.5-4.0GHz, 4MB L3, 14nm, 15w)

The new Surface Pro is certainly evolution rather than revolution, but considering the success Microsoft has seen with the Pro, its hard to argue with the company's choice. In fact, despite the older generation CPU, it wouldn't be a stretch to state that the Surface Pro 4 wasstill the top of its category, with the best display, good battery life, and great performance. The new Surface Pro makes more subtle improvements, keeping many of the successful attributes of the outgoing model.

One of the features that many will be happy to see is that Microsoft will finally be offering a 4G LTE model as well, although it wont be available for a couple of months. Its one of the requests theyve had from many of their customers, so its great to see it as an option.

Accessories have been one of Microsofts strongest suits, especially with the keyboard and pen that launched with the Surface Pro 4. Both the keyboard and pen have seen continuous improvement, and once again, Microsoft has released new versions as well. The flip side to that however is that the one accessory that was included with previous Surface Pros, the Surface Pen, is no longer included. This is a process that started with the Surface Pro 4 where Microsoft introduced some mid-cycle SKUs that dropped the pen for a lower cost and has now been extended to the entire lineup.

Overall it's tough to make massive changes when you already have one of the most successful products in a category, but well dig into the changes that are here and see how the latest Surface Pro stacks up both against the competition, as well as the outgoing model.

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The Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) Review: Evolution - AnandTech

The Evolution of the Lana Del Rey Persona in 7 Videos – Pitchfork

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Like so many post-MTV pop stars who elevate image cultivation to a discrete art form, Lana Del Rey is at her best in music videos. While her songwriting recipe hasnt changed much over the years (sad girls + Americana + string sections + quotes from other famous songs), her artistry has slowly revealed itself in a series of promo clips and short films that registered the evolution of what once appeared to be an absurdly thin persona. Were no closer to knowing the real Lizzy Grant than we were almost six years ago, when Video Games premiered, but the 25 videos she's released since achieving fame as Lana Del Rey have endowed her alter ego with more depth than once seemed possible.

Now, shes preparing to release her fourth album, Lust for Life, next month. Naturally, she's pushing her aesthetic forward with a few new videos, so it seemed time to have a look back at the LDR persona on film.

Most of us got our first glimpse of Lana Del Rey in this self-directed video, which juxtaposes pouty closeups of the singer with nostalgic shots of Hollywood landmarks, American flags, mid-century home movies, and black-and-white footage of skater boys. At first glance, Video Games seems shoddily constructed and a touch juvenile, like a Pinterest board collecting all the images Del Rey hoped to incorporate into her nascent persona. Even her smartest critics found her campy in an unintentional, trying-too-hard way at first.

But if you look closely enough at Video Games, youll see that Del Rey has always been cannier than she let on. Mixed in with all that Instagram-friendly imagery of pretty Lana and idyllic California is a clip of the deeply intoxicated actress Paz de la Huerta falling over in a beaded gown, as paparazzi halfheartedly mumble You OK? and keep snapping photos. Considering were looking at de la Huertaa minor actress whose drunken antics had already made her a cultural punchline by 2011rather than, say, Marilyn Monroe, this isnt a vision of glamorous dissipation. Like the lyric Its you, its you, its all for you repeated in a listless monotone, the de la Huerta nod suggests that even a pre-fame Lana Del Rey understood Hollywood to be just as cruel and humiliating as it is alluring.

Del Rey used to bill herself as a gangster Nancy Sinatra, a phrase that evoked some combination of big hair, vintage dresses, and the frisson of danger inherent in depictions of organized crime, from Scarface to American Gangster. She played that persona to the hilt in her first big-budget video, for the title track of her debut album, Born to Die. Shot at Frances Palace of Fontainebleau and directed by Yoann Lemoine (who recently made Harry Styles fly in Sign of the Times), it intersperses shots of Del Rey on a throne, flanked by tigers, with flashbacks to a date with a tattoo-covered boyfriend that turns deadly. Shes in the afterlife now, is the eventual implication, a martyr to romance in a flowing white dress and flower crown.

The two halves of the video reflect the two simplistic extremes of the Lana Del Rey archetype: the virginal Coachella queen and the sexy bad girl in denim cutoffs and Converse. Its narrative, meanwhile, captures everything that is romantic and clever and problematic about her at once. From a feminist perspective (which supposedly doesnt interest Lana much in comparison with, you know, SpaceX and Tesla), the story of an abused woman who is rewarded for her suffering with a place in heaven is noxious to the core. And yet, the affectlessness with which Del Rey plays her character, especially in those scenes from beyond the grave, can also read as an acknowledgment that the myth shes rehashing in Born to Die is essentially hollow.

The most heated arguments about Lana Del Rey tend to revolve around one question: Is she playing to male fantasies (and female fantasies shaped by patriarchal visions of ideal womanhood), or is she mirroring them in ways that are actually supposed to be disconcerting? She digs her heels into that thin line in the ten-minute short film for Ride, from her Paradise EP. Directed by the frequent Rihanna, Drake, and Taylor Swift collaborator Anthony Mandler and scripted by Del Rey, it pairs the songs lonely-drifter lyrics with classic symbols and characters of the American road: bikers, hookers, seedy motels, an unfortunate and perhaps intentionally outrage-baiting feathered headdress, convenience stores where you buy a 20 oz. of orange soda and drink it against a wall as you inhale gasoline fumes.

In the end credits, Del Rey labels her character in the film an artist. Its a bold title to bestow upon a woman who, as far as we can glean from both the visuals and the monologues that bookend the song, seems to have left a middling music career for life on the road as a prostitute and biker chick. It takes getting everything you ever wanted and then losing it to know what true freedom is, she intones before the music starts playing. Again, her relationship to fame is unhinged: How bleak is the entertainment industry when a transient life of rest stops and rough-looking johns is preferable? Judging by how sad Del Rey looks in the scenes where shes singing onstage, the difference between performing and turning tricks is that at least the latter makes you an active participant, rather than a pretty face to be worshipedor perhaps more aptly for LDR, criticizedfrom afar.

More than anything else, Lizzy Grants Lana Del Rey project is a long, slow meditation on the archetypes America holds dear. Some of the most prominent onescowboys, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jesus, Del Reys own Virgin Mary figureappear in the opening moments of her most ambitious video project, Tropico. From there, she and model/actor Shaun Ross play Eve and Adam, getting down in a pink-hued Garden of Eden. Set to Del Reys Whitman-quoting Body Electric, the first of three Paradise tracks that appear in the 27-minute film, its a sequence that subtly draws out the parallels between all of these gendered ideals.

But its the final two sections of the Tropico triptych, another Del Rey-Mandler collaboration, that really bring her worldview into focus. Amid her readings of I Sing the Body Electric and Allen Ginsbergs Howl, she and Ross reappear as a modern L.A. couple embodying exaggerated visions of contemporary masculinity and femininityhes a gangster and shes a stripper (who, it must be acknowledged, is coded as Latina in a way that is just as uncomfortable as the headdress from Ride). They regain the bliss they experienced in Eden by abandoning society and heading for the hills, where they dance in golden fields straight out of a Terrence Malick movie. The visuals are sappy, but they also seem like clues that Del Rey isnt really celebrating the characters she inhabits in Ride and Born to Die. They have to escape from the ancient archetypes that shaped and trapped them before they can be free.

Compared with the ambitious short films that accompanied Paradise, the music videos Del Rey made to accompany her second album, Ultraviolence, seem almost slight. By then shed had time to process her polarizing effect on music fans, so what makes Italian director Francesco Carrozzinis iPhone-shot clip for the records title track worth revisiting is the way it incorporates the audience.

Dressed as a bride, Del Rey wanders a garden path. Theres someone with her, but the only glimpse we get of him is a pair of male hands that feed her cake and stick their fingers in her mouth. The camera follows her, in a point-of-view shot, as she enters an empty church and proceeds to the altar. In the videos final seconds, she turns around to look nervously into the lens. This is a lonely, uneasy wedding, and it forces the viewer into the role of the unseen groom. While her early videos were about communicating Del Reys aesthetic and philosophy, Ultraviolence confronts us with the desires and prejudices that we project on herand on beautiful women in general.

The real Lizzy Grant was born and raised in New York, but Lana Del Rey is a California girl. While her debut riffed on 50s Hollywood glamour, her third album, Honeymoon, embraced the iconography (but not really the sound) of the Golden States psychedelic 60s counterculture. No matter what you think of Father John Misty, theres no denying that he and Del Rey make perfect co-cult leaders in Freak, which she also directed. The video surrounds the pair with a bevy of white-clad women as they take hits of acid and suck down Kool-Aid in a none-too-subtle nod to Jonestown.

Del Rey always has occupied a strange space between the musical mainstream and the indie worldshes less a classic crossover success than a pop artist who uses the signifiers of the underground to lure in savvier listeners (or, more cynically, to brand herself). In that sense, enlisting Misty and scattering her album with drug references might read as a predictable play for authenticity, but theres a bit more than that going on in Freak. Its not clear whether she, FJM, and their followers are tripping or dead in the second half of the 11-minute clip, as the soundtrack switches to Debussys Claire de Lune and they all float blissfully underwater. In true Lana style, the line between fantasy and tragedy isnt blurred so much as nonexistent.

Early in her career, many wondered whether Lana Del Rey was kidding. As became clear with the 2014 release of Ultraviolence cut Brooklyn Baby (sample lyrics: Well, my boyfriend's in the band/He plays guitar while I sing Lou Reed/I've got feathers in my hair/I get down to Beat poetry), the better question wouldve been: Is Lana trolling? The rollout for her fourth album, Lust for Life, has felt especially mischievous, from a title lifted wholesale from Iggy Pops greatest solo record to Coachella Woodstock in My Minda single whose title is actually embarrassing to say out loud.

Although shes already released videos for the title track and Love, the most distinctive imagery associated with Lust for Life appears in the trailer. Del Rey has probably always been more self-aware than shes given credit for, but this preview, directed by Clark Jackson, finds her actually having fun with her odd, aloof starlet image. In a black-and-white clip embellished with eerie, sci-fi sound effects, shes a witchy figure living in a secret apartment inside the H of the Hollywood sign, delivering a sort of meta-monologue on her own creative process that makes elliptical reference to our sad current political reality: When Im in the middle of making a record, especially now, when the world is in the middle of such a tumultuous period, I find I really need to take the space for myself far away from real life, to consider what my contribution to the world should be in these dark times.

Theres a throughline of dark SoCal iconography connecting this Lana with the one we met in Video Games, who looked as if she were nervously auditioning to be an Urban Outfitters model. Regardless of whether that, too, was an act (and it probably was), now that shes established her aesthetic and fan base, the Lust for Life trailer doesnt do anything that could be construed as pandering. Instead of promoting the Lana Del Rey persona, it capitalizes on the humor inherent in this constructed identityand doesnt seem to mind losing anyone who doesnt get the joke. Whether you buy into it or not, Del Reys schtick is so simultaneously simple yet totally immersive that its always threatening to exhaust itself. Four albums into her career, going all-in on self-awareness may be the best choice she couldve possibly made to ensure her longevity.

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The Evolution of the Lana Del Rey Persona in 7 Videos - Pitchfork

For the Public School Biology Teacher, Zombie Science Makes an Outstanding Resource – Discovery Institute

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Imagine youre a public high school biology teacher in a state where you are permitted to share objective scientific critiques of evolutionary theory in the classroom the strengths and weaknesses of Darwinism. Where do you turn for a reliable, responsible resource to help you clarify the issues for your students?

Heres a great idea: check out biologist Jonathan Wellss new book, Zombie Science: More Icons of Evolution. Dr. Wells and fellow biologist Ray Bohlin talk about that in a new ID the Future podcast.

Listen to it here now, or download it here.

Dr. Bohlin was closely involved with recent revisions to science standards in Texas, and he describes what happened in his state. So lets say youre a 9th grade biology teacher there. You want to talk with students about the consistent pattern of abrupt appearance of species in the fossil record an observation inconsistent with Darwinian predictions; about the mystery of where biological information in DNA comes from, or the puzzle of whale evolution.

Zombie Science covers all of these subjects. The idea, obviously, isnt to use it as a textbook. Its written (very accessibly) with the thoughtful adult in mind, not for a 9th grader. But teachers will find the book very useful for the background it provides.

Wells and Bohlin do note that in a public high school setting, it would be very ill advised to take the discussion some steps further to the question of design in lifes origins. If Darwinism is hobbled as an explanation for biologys grandeur, however, what then? Dr. Bohlin admits that as a teacher, hes uncomfortable saying I dont know. But this is the wisest response.

For more on evolution instruction and public schools, see our Science Education Policy.

Photo: Jonathan Wells at the national book launch for Zombie Science, by Andrew McDiarmid.

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For the Public School Biology Teacher, Zombie Science Makes an Outstanding Resource - Discovery Institute

How to Be a Winner in the Consumer Robotics Revolution – Entrepreneur

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Smart robots playing the role of personal assistants, in-home caregivers, even pet sitters used to be fantasies that played out only in the realm of science fiction -- but not anymore. The robotics market is taking off and will continue to grow, with worldwide spending on robotics predicted, according to an IDC study, to reach $139 billion by 2019.

Related: These 5 Robotics Startups Are Changing The Way Work Gets Done

Already we're beginning to see multi-purpose robotic devices on the market. An example is the Jisiwei Smart Vacuum Cleaning Robot, which doesn't just clean your house but is also a home-security device with surveillance monitoring capabilities. Then there's Xiao You, a service robot designed to teach children, take care of household chores and monitor various aspects of daily life.

Finally, there's Domgy by ROOBO, the first "intelligent" pet robot, which aims to be a family companion that plays with your kids, reads your expressions and gestures and even breaks into dance. Imagine that at your next party.

With robots becoming more ubiquitous in many areas of our lives, and with so much opportunity and promise, it's no surprise that more entrepreneurs are jumping into the market.

In fact, entrepreneurial innovation is fueling the demand for robotics. Research from the International Federation of Robotics states that startups less than five years old already make up 15 percent of all companies engaged in the Services Robotics market. A lot of investment is pouring in, only adding to the number of companies in this space.

Robotics startups have raised more than $2.6 billion since 2012, with most VC and angel funding in this category going to early-stage startups. Other growth points include:

The good news for entrepreneurs in the robotics space is the plethora of resources available to help on all aspects of this type of business, including financing and manufacturing. Organizations involved in the industry include Silicon Valley Robotics, a meta accelerator for startups in the robotics space in Northern California; the Robot Lab in Paris, an incubator that provides designers with tools and resources needed for the creation and development of their products; and our organization, IngDan, a one-stop IoT hardware innovation platform for consumer testing and feedback, to acclerate brand recognition and product adoption among Chinese consumers.

Related: Cuban to Trump: The U.S. Needs to Invest in Robotics to 'Win'

If you're an entrepreneur in the robotics space, here are five beneficial ways to approach the industry:

Robotics is no longer just for the luxury market or limited to certain industries. It's a global opportunity ripe for innovation in the areas of education, entertainment, health care and defense. For example, countries worldwide are investing in personal-assistance robotics initiatives to better support the needs of their aging and mobility-impaired populations.

Today, China is the fastest-growing robotics market, followed by Japan and the United States. The opportunities are numerous, but it's also important to understand the differences in each market. For example, in a country like the United States, consumers tend to seek out high-value products, with data privacy and security being important issues needing to be addressed .

In China, meanwhile, customers tend to be drawn to more cost-effective robotics products.

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How to Be a Winner in the Consumer Robotics Revolution - Entrepreneur

GE Aviation Acquires OC Robotics For On Wing Engine Servicing – Seeking Alpha

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Quick Take

GE Aviation (GE) announced that it has acquired OC Robotics for an undisclosed amount.

OC Robotics designs and manufactures commercial snake-arm robots and related control software for hazardous and confined environments.

The addition of robotics technology will help GE Aviation improve its On Wing support business while reducing employee risk, and should continue to differentiate the business unit in the market it operates in.

While the impact on GEs bottom line is small, the acquisition points to smart management willing to adopt robotic technologies to drive efficiencies and remove employees from risky environments.

Target Company

Bristol, UK-based OC was founded in 1997 to develop flexible robotic arms that do not have prominent elbows, allowing them to be more supple and agile in confined spaces.

Management is headed by Managing Director Craig Wilson, who has been with the company since July 2013 and was previously CEO of We Care and Repair, a home repair service for elderly persons.

Below is a brief demo video about the companys snake arm system:

(Source: OCRobotics)

OC says its robots are used in various environments such as nuclear, aerospace, construction, and security. Its customers include the UK Ministry of Defence, Airbus (OTCPK:EADSY), Areva (OTCPK:ARVCY), US Dept. of Defense, Ontario Power Generation, and others.

OC Robotics was capitalized by both private investors and the UK government.

Acquisition Terms and Rationale

Neither company disclosed the amount or terms of the transaction, nor did GE Aviation discuss any changes to financial guidance or file an 8-K that might have provided additional details on the deal.

Accordingly, I presume the transaction was not material to GE Aviations financial condition.

The acquisition rationale is to add OCs snake arm technology to the GE Aviation Service business group, which provides engine repair services to general aviation and commercial aviation customers worldwide.

As Jean Lydon-Rodgers, vice president and general manager of GE Aviation Services stated in the deal announcement,

OC Robotics will play an important role in how we service our customers engines. This acquisition will expand our component repair development capabilities and increase the efficiency of the On Wing Support team as they perform inspections and repairs on our customers engines.

The On Wing support team helps customers avoid flight delays and schedule interruptions by repairing minor engine issues without having to remove the engine. The group performs more than 4,500 rapid repairs annually for more than 250 customers.

The OC Robotics snake arm has a reach of more than 3 meters and a cumulative bend of more than 180 degrees, improving the inspection, fastening, and cleaning processes when it is integrated with tooling.

On Wing repair support will likely become an even greater emphasis for airlines, as fleet usage increases and airlines look to maximize profits while reducing downtime and delays.

It is also part of a growing trend in commercial and industrial business to deploying robotic devices in order to reduce hazards to human operators. The devices increase productivity while reducing risk of injury, so are a win-win for employers and employees.

GE Aviation is just one division of parent company GE, but acquisitions such as that of OC Robotics will serve to position it as a leader in the markets it operates in.

I write about M&A deals and IPOs. Click the Follow button next to my name at the top or bottom of this article if you want to receive future articles automatically.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Editor's Note: This article covers one or more stocks trading at less than $1 per share and/or with less than a $100 million market cap. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.

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GE Aviation Acquires OC Robotics For On Wing Engine Servicing - Seeking Alpha

Colorado robotics team takes world championship, eyes next opponent – The Denver Post

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In the basement of a Highlands Ranch home, in a neighborhood of winding streets and cul-de-sacs, the Millennium Falcon sits shrouded in Roswell-type secrecy.

Its rail-thin designers and marketers who range in age from 14-18 form a tight circle around their creation. They block a photographer from taking images of the Falconscustom chassis and four-motor chain drive.

They fear photos of their latest design will leak into cyberspace and inform rivals of what theyre cooking up for the impending Super Bowl of high school robotics.

We really dont want anyone to see any recent changes we have made, said Spencer Gregg, whose mother is the coach of Team #6929 Data Force and is harboring the Falcon. She takes Spencer aside to make a case for a news photographers access to the teams hard work, but he holds firm. Visitors can observe the robot in action, but there will be no photos today.

No doubt, Data Force team members are nervous about the upcomingFestival of Champions,scheduled July 28 and 29 in New Hampshire. There, the teens and the Falcon will meet TeamRedneck Robotics, made up of students from Fairfield, Great Falls and Sun River Valley in Montana.

They are ranked just a few percentage points above us, said Spencer Gregg.

About 15,000 K-12 students from 33 countries face off in the annualFIRST robotics championships. The students design, build and program robots in a matter of weeks to compete in specific challenges.

Robots in the FIRST Robotics Competition, the highest level, are challenged to hang gears on hooks and climb a rope while fending off potential blocks from rival robots.

Data Forcewon the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in St. Louis in April. The event featured 128 national and international teams, narrowed from a field of 5,000. Rednecks Robotics won the FIRST Tech Challenge in Houston in April.

FIRST organizers hope to crown an ultimate world champion when the teams meet at the New Hampshire competition.

Hence, Data Forces secrecy. Coach Paree Gregg, whose two sons are on the team, said this is one of few Colorado teams to come away with a world championship in the 25-year history of the robotics showdown.

This is a big deal for these kids, and a big deal for the state, said Gregg.

Like its movie namesake, the Millennium Falcon is built for speed.It scoots along at about 2.5 mph and can shoot out four particle balls in 1.53 seconds. Its equipped with a small forklift that can scoop up and deposit a 2.5-pound yoga ball into a nearly 6-foot-high tower in 4 seconds.

The robot weighs 30 pounds and is the size of a large cardboard box. Its built to maneuver in a 12-by-12-foot square enclosed with foot-high walls, a space it must share with as many as three other robots.Theobject of competition is to successfully perform several tasks and thereby outscore your opponent.

At times, drivers control the robots. During the rest of a match robots operate only according to pre-programmed instructions. The matches can draw thousands of spectators, and although the robots are not equipped with phasers or flame throwers, opponents are known to bump each other to throw off a shot.

It can get pretty intense, said Spencer Gregg.

The Falcon is brimming with new equipment that should give it an edge in July, say team members.

Its really an improvement over what we built last year, said Kaushik Kaja, 14, the youngest member of Data Force. And thats the whole idea behind the competition, to change and improve from the past year.

Engineer Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, started FIRST the acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology in 1989 in hopes of sparking interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics among kids.

Besides learning how to design, code and build robots, FIRST competitors also must employ soft skills, including producing a business plan, raising money and conducting community outreach for their project.

So far, Data Force members have raised $7,000 for their endeavor. They have also recruited sponsors, including State Farm, Baxter, Ingram Machining, RC Hobbies, Macys and King Soopers.

This is not just technical work, saidGregg. Theyve also had to harness and learn new skills to make this work.

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Colorado robotics team takes world championship, eyes next opponent - The Denver Post

Kids learn robotics during week-long camp – Scottsbluff Star Herald

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After last weeks Kids in the Kitchen, Ally Berggren brings kids another week of fun with WNCC and ICE Enrichments Robotics Week.

Kids, in first through seventh grade, get the chance to go "nuts and bolts" for the world of robotics during Berggrens four-day camp.

On the first day of camp, the children got to create their own robot posters and create their own designs.

Young camper, Alison Miller said, My favorite thing about camp was definitely making my poster.

As the camp progressed, the kids got the chance to learn how to build levers, pulleys and machines. Those robotics basics paved the way for the campers to build drawbridges, carnival rides and planes out of robotics kits.

Weve just been getting familiar with the (robotics) kits and it has evolved into building actual robots, Berggren said.

The third day of camp, the campers got in teams of two built their own robots and created a user guide for it. The teams then switched robots and tried to assemble the other teams robot by following the user guide they created.

While Berggren has put on other camps in the past, this is the first year for the robotics camp.

Since it is the first year, we have to play things by ear, Berggren said.

The activities for day four of the camp were dependent on how the beginning of the week went.

Berggren said there were some difficulties with having such a large age range with different learning levels, but she said the kids usually group together to help each other out.

In its first year, the camp seems to be a success and the kids seem to love it.

Its really fun, Kaylee Kinnan said, while Alison Miller chimed in. And its difficult all at the same time.

WNCC and ICE Enrichment will be putting on kids camps throughout the whole summer.

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Kids learn robotics during week-long camp - Scottsbluff Star Herald

First season holds success for Highland Robotics Club – Belleville News-Democrat

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Belleville News-Democrat
First season holds success for Highland Robotics Club
Belleville News-Democrat
The Highland Robotics Club aced their first season; the team placed third out of 16 teams at the First Regional Lego League competition in the robotics section. The club, which is made up of middle school students from the Highland area, participated ...

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First season holds success for Highland Robotics Club - Belleville News-Democrat

Rise of the machines: Canadian retailers on ‘cusp’ of using more robotics – CBC.ca

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Back in 2009, Sobeys found itself at a crossroads.

Labour costs were rising, employee productivity was waning and the grocer knew that it had to keep building bigger distribution centres to accommodate the growing number of items being sold in its supermarkets.

So instead of building out and hiring more workers, the national grocery chain built up and replaced many employees with robots.

"The combination of labour costs going up and SKUs (stock keeping units) being on the rise kind of forced us to start thinking outside the box and try to find a technology to help us resolve those issues," said Eric Seguin, senior vice-president of distribution and logistics for Sobeys, during a tour this week at the company's largest warehouse in Vaughan, Ont.

Eric Seguin, Senior Vice President of Distribution and Logistics, watches products go by at the Sobeys Vaughan Retail Support Centre, equipped with robotics for automation in Vaughan, Ontario on Monday June 12, 2017. (Mark Blinch/Canadian Press)

Sobeys is one of a small number of Canadian retailers that have embraced robotics technology. Others have been reluctant to follow suit, experts say, due to a lack of investment, a lack of access to the technology and for a long time, a lack of competition.

Today, Sobeys operates four robotics distribution centres: two facilities north of Toronto spanning 750,000 square feet, another in Montreal and one in Calgary that opened earlier this month.

Unlike its 21 traditional warehouses, the mostly-automated centres rely on robotics instead of workers to pull items off the shelves and pack them onto pallets to ship to its 1,500-plus grocery stores.

The robots, which whiz up and down rows of stacked products piled up to 75 feet high for 20 hours a day, have resulted in reduced employee costs and quicker and more accurate deliveries, Sobeys says. It's also allowed the Stellarton, N.S.-based grocer to double the amount of items that can be stored.

One robot does the work of four employees, according to Seguin.

Products go by at the Sobeys Vaughan Retail Support Centre, equipped with robotics for automation in Vaughan, Ontario on Monday June 12, 2017. (Mark Blinch/Canadian Press)

"The robots don't get tired," Seguin said.

"They always show up the morning after the Stanley Cup final. They are always there the morning after the Super Bowl. It doesn't matter if it's 35 (Celsius) and a beautiful weekend."

The company has spent between $100 million to $150 million on each of its robotics facilities. Seguin says retailers, especially those in the grocery industry, have been slow to adapt due to the high upfront investment costs.

But that attitude is changing and fast, says retail consultant Doug Stephens.

"Retail in this country has enjoyed for many decades a bit of a dearth of competition, which is coming to an end now," said Stephens, who recently wrote a book called Re-Engineering Retail.

"With the influx of U.S. players in the last decade and certainly with the presence and impact of Amazon, Canadian retailers are really having to awaken to the idea that if we don't adapt and change and compete we're going to be in big trouble."

Behemoth multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart have raised the stakes for Canadian retailers, offering lower prices, as well as quick and often free delivery or pickup services.

A tray crane is seen in operation at the Sobeys Vaughan Retail Support Centre, equipped with robotics for automation in Vaughan, Ontario on Monday June 12, 2017. (Mark Blinch/Canadian Press)

Last year, Canada's oldest retailer, Hudson's Bay Company, said it was spending more than $60 million in robotic upgrades to its 725,000-square foot Toronto distribution centre. Online orders that would've taken up to 2 1/2 hours to locate and pack manually are being shipped out of the warehouse and onto a truck within 15 minutes.

"We're really just on the cusp of the capabilities of these technologies," said Stephens.

While manual labour jobs are being lost in retail, the types of positions that survive the wave of automation will evolve and likely be more focused on loyalty and analytics, says Marty Weintraub, a partner in retail at consulting firm Deloitte.

"Robots can be much cheaper to implement and execute, and they don't come with some of the challenges that humans would face such as making errors or having poor judgment," he said.

"But technology cannot replace certain skills that computers can't do today, like jobs that require problem solving, intuition, the art of persuasion and creativity."

A man operates a forklift at the Sobeys Vaughan Retail Support Centre equipped with robotics for automation in Vaughan, Ontario on Monday June 12, 2017. (Mark Blinch/Canadian Press)

According to documents obtained by The Canadian Press in March, federal government officials were warned that the Canadian economy could lose between 1.5 million and 7.5 million jobs in the next 10 to 15 years due to automation.

In a report, Sunil Johal of the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto estimates that the retail sector employs about two million people and between 92 per cent to 97 per cent of those who work in sales or as cashiers are at risk of losing their jobs.

"We're just scratching the surface of how technology can affect the retail sector," said Johal. "That's a cause of concern."

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Rise of the machines: Canadian retailers on 'cusp' of using more robotics - CBC.ca

Google Drive will soon make it easy to Backup and Sync PCs, Macs – SlashGear

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The cloud storage wars just got a bit more interesting. Box just recently announced its Box Drive offering to practically replace shared network folders at work. Now Google is also expanding the scope of its own Google Drive cloud solution but with a nod towards regular consumers instead of the enterprise. With the upcoming Backup and Sync tool, users on Windows and macOS will be able to select whole folders to sync with Google Drive, making it easy as pie to store all your data on the mothership.

The way Google Drive traditionally works is that you upload files to the cloud. Desktop apps offer the convenience of making it look like Google Drive is part of your local storage but, in reality, it is just smoke and mirrors. You really are still uploading files to Drive, which updates a local copy of the file sitting inside a special folder on your local storage.

The new Google Drive attacks the problem from a different angle but still keeps the seamless syncing convenience. Instead of uploading to Drive, you select which of your folders on your local drive that you want to sync up with Google Drive. You then use the files in those folders as normal. Theres nothing special about them other than the fact that Google keeps them always in sync with the copy on Drive. It turns Google Drive from a yet another storage you have to mind into a bona fide cloud backup solution. It also makes it easier to run out of space, especially on a free subscription.

The Backup and Sync tool that launches on 28th June isnt actually a separate piece of software but is just the latest and enhanced version of the Google Drive software for PCs and Macs. It will also integrate the separate Google Photos desktop uploader so that you wont have to juggle two or three different pieces of software just to interact with Drive.

Google is targeting this new feature at regular consumers, suggesting that its enterprise customers wait for a similar feature coming in a new Drive File Stream package. Users who do want to gain the Backup and Sync feature will have to install the new Drive for PC/Mac application themselves, as Google wont automatically update it at this time.

SOURCE: Google

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Google Drive will soon make it easy to Backup and Sync PCs, Macs - SlashGear

Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti Says Being a Good Astronaut is All About Teamwork – Fortune

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Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti being interviewed by Trish Halpin, Editor-in-Chief, Marie Claire U.K, at Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women Summit at the Dorchester Hotel in London on June 13 2017. Pictures by Peter Dench for Fortune Magazine.

Being a good astronaut is not about your personal achievements, says Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman to go to space. What matters most is how well you work in a team.

Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Tuesday, Cristoforetti said that over the past 10 to 15 years, the emphasis on astronauts having a "go-go personality" has shifted.

Instead, she said, a major requirement is for men and women to bring something to the team and not throw the group off balance. "It's more valuable to be someone who can empower others to work at their best than to be an individual achiever," Cristoforetti told interviewer Trish Halpin, editor-in-chief of Marie Claire U.K.

Cristoforetti said that she had become fascinated by space as a young girl. "I was a Star Trek fan and I grew up in a tiny village in the Italian Alps where the night sky was present with little light pollution," she told the Summit attendees. "As I grew up, I developed more mature interests and passions that kept me on the path for science and technology."

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The 40-year-old first went to space in 2014, five years after she was officially selected as an astronaut by the European Space Agency. Although embarking on such a dangerous 10-month mission would be enough to make anyone anxious, Cristoforetti said she felt quite calm on launch day.

"Taking off was a moment of peace," she told the Summit. "At the end [of the pre-launch preparation], the pace really picks up. I was juggling travel, media work, and was at the center of a lot of demands from many people, which was all well meant, but it consumed all my energy. I was looking forward to [them closing the] hatch and being sealed off from the rest of the world."

After a nine-minute assent into space and then a six-hour journey to the International Space Station, Cristoforetti said she was pleased to arrive. The astronaut gradually became known for uploading quirky videos onto YouTube from the ISS that demonstrated everyday life in space, from making a snack in zero gravity to doing her nails and hair.

"Although I was extremely well trained, [training] is a little different to actually learning to live in weightlessness," Cristoforetti said. "Its the coolest thingeverything is effortless and light."

She explained to the Summit that learning to live in zero gravity requires going through three stages: the first being "losing everything," the second "crazily attaching things" and the third being finding yourself "in a state of awareness where you let something float and you keep it in the back of your mind."

Cristoforetti is hoping she'll make her next flight to the ISS within the next decade and is interested in talks about future lunar missions. She told the Summit she'd also love to participate in a mission to Mars one day, but quickly added: "I'm not sure if I'd move there!"

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Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti Says Being a Good Astronaut is All About Teamwork - Fortune

Virtual reality can help alleviate pain – The Mercury News

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When I think of virtual reality, I think of playing games or being immersed in a 360 degree video experience where the action takes place all around me. But when Kim Bullock and Andrea Stevenson Won talk about VR, they have something else in mind helping patients cope with pain. Bullock, a psychiatrist, is the founder and director of Stanfords Neurobehavioral and Virtual Reality clinics and laboratories. Won directs Stanfords Virtual Embodiment Lab.

I had a chance to speak with both researchers during a recent visit to Stanfords Virtual Reality-Immersive Technology Clinic, where I learned about some proven techniques and promising research when it comes to using VR for pain management. You can listen to the entire interview at larrysworld.com/vrpain.

Bullock and Won are working on ways to use VR to help people with psychosomatic pain remap the way they visualize those parts of their body where they experience the pain so thats its less prevalent and less debilitating.

The technology builds on what is known as mirror therapy where doctors traditionally used a mirror to create what Psysiopedia refers to as a reflective illusion of an affected limb in order to trick the brain into thinking movement has occurred without pain. But VR is much more powerful than a mirror because it allows the patient to visualize more than just the swapping out of, say, a left foot for a right foot.

If I move my right hand in real life and I cant move my left hand in real life, I can transform the movement of my right hand so that I see both my left hand and right hand moving freely and naturally, said Bullock. But with virtual reality you can push it even further so you can move your hand in real life and see your foot move in virtual reality, she added.

The Stanford researchers are focusing on psychosomatic pain, but virtual reality has already been shown to distract patients from physical pain, such as when cleaning burn wounds to prevent infection.

Our interdisciplinary team is putting burn patients (especially children and teenagers) into VR during wound care and physical therapy, wrote University of Washington cognitive psychology research scientist Hunter Hoffman. In preliminary research Hoffman and colleagues found huge drops in how much pain the patients experience during their short visit to virtual reality, that exceeded the pain relief from morphine according to research summarized on the website of the Human Photonics Laboratorys website, vrpain.com.

During our interview at Stanford, Bullock described the VR effect as going well beyond distraction.

Instead of just having your head and eye movements tracked, your whole body is tracked and now you can create the illusion that your inside another body, youre inhabiting an avatar, Bullock said.

Its about tricking what Bullock describes as our reptilian brain, which reacts to injuries through pain as a mechanism to discourage movement of an arm or a limb.

The brain says we better turn up the pain, so well have time to recover and not have any movement, so were programmed that movement and pain are intimately connected and they feed on each other, Bullock said. With VR ,we can stop the vicious cycle of immobility and pain, and give the body the illusion of movement.

Im not a medical doctor and I dont play one on TV or even on the web, but I have experienced the power of persuasion when it comes to managing physical symptoms. A couple of years ago I suffered an intestinal blockage and, after I posted about it on Facebook, a friend of mine, Dr. Danielle Rosenman, advised me to imagine a river flowing freely through my intestines. Although my results are anecdotal, the technique has been effective. On her professional website, Rosenman writes that she uses neuroplasticity, imagery, meditation, psychotherapy, and other techniques in her medical counseling practice.

Ive used distraction as a way of dealing with occasional discomfort, pain and anxiety by watching TV, playing games or even working at my computer, literally taking my mind off what was bothering me, and that turns out to be a well documented remedy. But when you add in the element of virtual reality, youre going way beyond distraction because of the transformative impact it can have on the way youre experiencing the world.

You dont need to feel pain to understand VRs emotional impact. Try donning a VR headset and running an application that has you standing on the ledge of a building. When I experienced this at the Facebook headquarters when they were about to launch their Oculus Rift VR headset, I found myself stepping back to avoid falling over. The intellectual part of my brain knew that I was safe on the ground floor but the emotional part of my brain was convinced that I would fall to my death if I took a step forward. That was actually anxiety inducing, so its pretty easy for me to imagine turning the tables and using VR as a way of reducing anxiety or even pain.

Dr. Bullock is a psychiatrist, not a pain specialist, and only sees patients dealing with psychosomatic disease.

She is bullish on augmented reality, which which allows you to superimpose computer generated images over your real world visual experience. She said they have a program for spider phobia that allows you to experience virtual spiders in your actual environment. She said that she looks forward to enabling patients to experience the real world plus the virtual world, without stumbling into things.

I too am excited about doctors using virtual reality to help us cope and perhaps recover from medical and psychological illnesses. If only we could figure out a way to virtualize the way we pay for medical care.

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Virtual reality can help alleviate pain - The Mercury News