DefCon level REDUCED to SAFEST rank despite North Korea WW3 threat – Express.co.uk

Posted on by

GETTY

The lowered threat level comes despite continued tensions in the Korean peninsula between the hermit state of the North and the United States and South Korea.

The DefCon Warning System is a private intelligence organisation which has monitored and assessed nuclear threats against the US by national entities for more than 33 years.

According to reports on the site, South Korea has not expressed any desire for war with its neighbouring country, causing the United States to re-evaluate its plans for the region.

The statement added the public should make their own evaluations and not rely on the DefCon Warning System for strategic planning, adding all citizens should learn what steps to take in the effect of a nuclear attack.

North Korea has repeatedly flouted United Nations and international sanctions to test a range of long-range ballistic missiles - with experts claiming the despot nation could potentially launch a missile test every two weeks for the rest of the year.

Last months launch of the Hwasong-12 rocket is believed to have had the capability of reaching the US mainland.

AFP/Getty Images

1 of 8

The ground-to-ground medium-to-long range ballistic missile

Only last week, the reclusive state fired what appeared to be several land-to-ship missiles off its east coast, just one day after the South Korean military postponed full deployment of a controversial US anti-missile system designed - THAAD - to deter a North Korean attack.

Compared to the different types of ballistic missiles Pyongyang has tested in recent months, the missiles launched last week are considered to be more defensive in nature, designed to defend against threats such as enemy warships.

In recent weeks, a US expert claimed that Kim Jong-un is only one step away from developing a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), to which the Trump administrations head of missile defence expressed great concern.

North Korea has stated that it has accomplished high precision in newest missile test, which if true, would mark significant progress in the countrys ballistic programme.

Tensions in the Korean peninsula have been running high for weeks, with Washington refusing to rule out a military strike against the dictatorship in response to any attacks.

North Korea has carried out five nuclear tests in the last 11 years and is widely believed to be making progress towards its dream of building a missile capable of delivering a warhead to the continental US.

GETTY

Since assuming office, Kim Jong-un greatly increased the number of tests he authorised from eight in 2012, to an averaged total of 15.3 tests per year up to 2016.

Each Spring, the regime raises the tone of its warnings in response to joint exercises carried out by Washington and Seoul.

The regime has condemned these military exercises, accusing them of being rehearsals for an invasion.

Read the original post:

DefCon level REDUCED to SAFEST rank despite North Korea WW3 threat - Express.co.uk

Posted in Ww3

‘Changing Our Minds’ explores psychedelic drugs and spiritual healing – Religion News Service

Posted on by

book By Kimberly Winston | June 13, 2017

BERKELEY, Calif. (RNS) In his new book, Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy, award-winning author and former religion reporter Don Lattinlooks at how therapy sessions with psychedelic drugsare helping heal the psychological and spiritual woes of cancer patients, alcoholics, war veterans and the seriously depressed.

As Lattin details in the book, there are sometimes positive spiritual and religious changes for those who take these drugs under clinical supervision a key component of the treatment.During sessions to treat addictive behavior, post-traumatic stress disorderand depression, some patients report everything from a greater oneness with the universe to visions of Jesus on the cross.

Lattin, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area,is about to embark on a summer book tour that will take him from the Telluride Mushroom Festival in the Rocky Mountains to a psychedelic consciousness convention in London. He sat down with RNS to discuss the changing attitudes toward these drugs psilocybin (magic mushrooms), ayahuasca (a psychoactive tea brewed from two Amazonian plants), MDMA (ecstasy) and more and how they can bring religious and spiritual insight to some.

This interview has been edited for space and clarity.

Members of an ayahuasca church taking psychedelic tea as a sacrament in Brazil. Photo courtesy ofTom Hill

Well, the first difference between recreational use and the clinical trials now underway into psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is a difference of legality. Taking these drugs for fun is illegal, not to mention dangerous because when you buy psychedelics on the street you are never sure what you are getting. The clinical trials are legal approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. The purity and the dose are clearly established. Many people in my book are trying to overcome some serious psychological problem, or they are people in ayahuasca churches who are seriously trying to commune with God. Both are in it for the long term and will tell you this was not always a fun or easy experience. But it was cathartic. It was healing. This is not the way most people take psychedelics many thousands of people take MDMA (ecstasy) every weekend and most have a good time. The difference here is the intention healing or insight and that those who take these medicines or sacraments are being guided through the experience and get help to integrate whatever insights they have into their real lives.

Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy by Don Lattin. Image courtesy of Synergetic Press

There is some truth to that critique. Someone in my book calls the psychedelic experience gratuitous grace. In a recreational drug context, it is too easy, and it becomes too easy to just dismiss it as some weird experience. But people in some of the clinical trials I write about say what they experienced in a couple of sessions with a therapist and psychedelics was like 10years of normal therapy. It can take less time. But psychedelics are not a magic bullet. They can show you another way to be. They can be an opening, that is all. The goal of a lot of this work, whether it is therapeutic or spiritual, is to help people make some lasting changes in their lives. They (researchers and spiritual guides) are trying to take psychedelics more seriously than one does at a party or a concert or a festival. Even though it can take one to a mystical place, the goal is to bring all this back down to earth.

You can have a mystical experience through lots of different means. You can have it by fasting a very accepted practice in almost every religious tradition. What happens when you fast? Things happen in your brain, a biochemical reaction. If you go on a hardcore meditation retreat with sensory deprivation, you are having a biochemical reaction in your brain. So whether it is through fasting or meditation or drugs or plant medicines, I believe what is happening in your brain is the same an alteration of consciousness through brain chemistry. It can happen through prayer and through meditation, and it can happen with psychedelic drugs. That is why the experiences are so similar. But the rubber hits the road with what you do with the experience. Does it make you a better person, kinder, more aware? (Religion scholar and mystic) Huston Smith used to say of psychedelics, It is not about altered states, it is about altered traits.

Don Lattin, author of Changing Our Minds, discusses the therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs at Books Inc. in Berkeley, Calif. RNS photo by Kimberly Winston

There are actual churches in the U.S. that can legally have psychedelic communion with ayahuasca under a 2006 Supreme Court ruling, but they must be affiliated with one of two Brazilian sects. Outside of those brands of organized religion, I dont see much destigmatization. Religious leaders, like a lot of other people, have a very black-and-white attitude toward drugs. Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins is doing a study of religious professionals with clergy burnout to see if these substances could revive their interest in their calling through a mystical experience that might hit the reset button for them. But he has found it very hard to find clergy who want to volunteer. That said, I think psychedelics are slowly are being destigmatized by the universities and medical centers across the country that are sponsoring research. Peoples minds are changing about these substances when used in the proper context. The media coverage of the clinical trials has been very positive. At the same time, I think it is important to say these drugs are not for everyone. They are probably not for most people. But there are a large number of people these medicines can help.

Faithful Viewer logo. Religion News Service graphic by T.J. Thomson

Kimberly Winston is a freelance religion reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She covers atheism and freethought for RNS.

More here:

'Changing Our Minds' explores psychedelic drugs and spiritual healing - Religion News Service

What it’s like to take psychedelics in small doses at breakfast – New Scientist

Posted on by

By Sam Wong

Microdosing, the practice of regularly taking small amounts of psychedelic drugs to improve mood and performance, has been taking off over the past few years. But the fact that these drugs are illegal makes it difficult to research their effects and possible health consequences. There are no rigorous clinical trials to see whether microdosing works (see Microdosers say tiny hits of LSD make your work and life better).

Instead, all we have are anecdotes from people like Janet Lai Chang, a digital marketer based in San Francisco. She will present her experience of microdosing at the Quantified Self conference in Amsterdam from 17to 18 June.

I started in February 2016. I wanted to understand how my brain works and how it might work differently with the influence of psilocybin [the active ingredient in magic mushrooms].

I had been struggling with a lot of social anxiety. It was really preventing me from advancing professionally. I was invited to give a talk at Harvard University and a TedX talk in California. I didnt feel ready. I felt all this anxiety. I procrastinated until the last minute and then didnt do it. It was one of my biggest regrets.

At first I was taking 0.2 grams of mushrooms every day, with a day or two off at the weekend. In August, Ihad a month off. From October to April, it was a few times a week.

I was less anxious, less depressed, more open, more extroverted. I was more present in the moment. Its harder to get into the flow of the focused solo work that Im normally really good at. But its good for the social aspect.

I have some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder left over from childhood abuse. Pretty much the only other negative thing was being more aware of negative emotions I had. I have a repressed anger response, according to my therapist. When I was microdosing I felt like I could really feel it; I felt the anger.

Occasionally, but Ive stopped the experiment. I dont want to be dependent on a substance to enable me to achieve certain desirable states of productivity.

I think everyone would benefit fromhaving at least one kind of experience with psychedelics. Thedosage really depends on the individual and what theyre looking toget out of it.

This article appeared in print under the headline Leading the high life

More on these topics:

See the article here:

What it's like to take psychedelics in small doses at breakfast - New Scientist

Entheogen

Posted on by

This is Entheogen. Elevate the Conversation.

Its March 12, 2017, and we are discussing psychedelic healing with Dr. Neal Goldsmith.

Neals book Psychedelic Healing: The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy and Spiritual Development provides copious discussion points for our conversation today.

Neal's therapy practice, and how his use of psychedelics has informed his practice of psychotherapy

Imago therapy

LSD is a tool: Charles Manson becomes more Charles Manson; Richard Alpert becomes Ram Dass.

The substitution of the eucharist as a proxy for the original psychoactive sacrament. Can we please go back to the active version? What are the consequences of inactive substitutes in religious ceremonies? How have alternative spiritual practices sprung up in the absence of sanctioned Entheogenic rituals?

George Carlins Modern Man.

Are we in the midst of McKennas Archaic Revival? Is this another way to internalize the unfolding ecological apocalypse?

If were going to be post-post-modern, if were going to be integral, we cant have a fight between tribalism and modernity. We cant have a fight between spirituality and the material world.

Meditation, mindfulness, yoga, breathing

Deep breathing to expel carbon dioxide in addition to inhaling oxygen.

McKennas conjecture that its possible to get to the same state of consciousness that psychedelics provide access to, using meditation or chanting or drumming, but who has time for that?

What do you recommend to listeners who might be interested in some form of psychedelic therapy, present company included?

The dichotomy of tribalism vs. modernism: our human ancestors living naturally but for shorter time, vs. modern humans living longer but disconnected from nature. Spiraling up vs. retreating to tribalism.

Spirituality vs. science. The concept of rational mysticism. Einstein quote via Rick Doblin: There's no real conflict between science & religion; there's a conflict between bad science & bad religion.

Please support Entheogen by making a donation on Patreon. Become a Patron for as little as $1. Pledge just $3 or more, and get early access to new episodes, plus exclusive Patron-only features. Head over to EntheogenShow.com and click on Support.

Find the notes and links for this and other episodes at EntheogenShow.com. Sign up to receive an email when we release a new episode. Follow us @EntheogenShow on Twitter and like EntheogenShow on FaceBook. Thanks for listening.

Read more here:

Entheogen

Trance hits which turn 20 in 2017 – Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

Posted on by

Trance music came into existence in the early 1990s in Germany & Goa. Since then genre has been a musical therapy for millions of listeners. They say Trance heals and some tracks are accurate representation of that thought. Hence it makes perfect sense to take a trip down memory lane and talk about a time which was golden and unadulterated.

Team Trance Hub has listed down a few tracks which turn 20 in 2017, classics which have cemented their legacy in the sands of time.

A track which literally starts with the wordsLets go to the beach cannot be missed. With a peppy bass line the track also has the ability to make you fly. A definite classic which still brings a smile on your face.

Perhaps the prime example of progressive trance, Flaming June sees two absolute legends combine. The track name is no way connected to the famous 1895 painting but according to Brian, he got the name courtesy a cab driver who termed the weather as Flaming June

Produced by Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne, the track is of real beauty as it has the melodious vocal of Dominique Atkins. With lyrics that speak about heartbreak, this song had a huge debut on the UK charts. Noteworthy mention to the fast paced Ascension remix as well.

A 21 year old young boy from Netherlands took over the world with a storm by producing a tune that laid the foundation of his legacy. 20 years later Armin has leapfrogged everyone and become number 1, but pretty sure after countless hits Blue Fear will always remain close to his heart as it kick-started his career.

Pacific Melody was the reason for Johan Gielen to change his groups name from Body Heat to Airscape. This 1997 tune with Peter Ramson reached the UK top 50 charts. With a lot of highs and lows the tune is a wonderful listening experience.

If you are sucker for vocal trance, this is definitely one tune you should not miss. This is one of the most iconic tunes from the house of British producers Ricky Simmons & Steve Jones. With a slightly eerie background the vocals of Kate Cameron give the tune a perfect emotive feeling.

This aint our normal trance tune, but something different. Since the start Nick loved experimenting with new sounds, and Sunstroke is a beautiful example. With a laidback vibe & a sample of an angelic voice, this downtempo tune is perfect lullaby for trance listeners.

Spice of life, is one tune which flirts nicely with two high paced genres of dance music. Citadel of Kaoss have always had a lot of techno & breakbeat influence in all their songs. But for this classic, it was slightly different, as this build up from a tech trance sound to a slightly more psychedelic one.

Robotic samples echoing the words Freak Tonight, Alien Factory were so much in love with their creation that they created three different styled mixes for this. But one thing which remains common through all the mixes is the wonderful use of synth.

Curator of Edm4Pune, sports enthusiast assisted by having a taste bud for delicious food. Open to all genres of music yet staying close to his first love, Trance.

Next Post

Were just a few days away from Luminosity Beach Festival a 4 day...

Read the original:

Trance hits which turn 20 in 2017 - Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

Trance Over The Years at EDC Las Vegas – EDM Identity (blog)

Posted on by

From circuitGROUNDS to quantumVALLEY, trance has always had a special place at Electric Daisy Carnival

Over the years,Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas has played home to almost every genre of dance music. Of all the sounds that have graced the EDC Las Vegas stages, there is one that has taken us on quite the exhilarating and momentous rollercoaster ride: trance. Though there have been many ups and downs, as the winds of popularity and demand are continuously changing, trance has been rebirthed from the ashes to take its rightful place, staking its claim as one of the most sought after genres at one of the biggest dance events on the planet.

Is trance dead? If we take a look at its history over the years at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, I can firmly tell you that that trance isnt going anywhere. In fact, it is now bigger than it has ever been before!

In 2011, EDC Las Vegas hosted artists such asCosmic Gate, Above & Beyond, Paul Oakenfold, John OCallaghan, Markus Schulz, Simon Patterson, Sean Tyas, Ferry Corsten, and ATB.They took trance fans on a journey of ethereal beats solidifying the genre as one that simply refused to die. Reminding the dance universe that trance was a genre unlike any other, these DJs took listeners on a true musical journey of melodic beats and ethereal rhythms. It was in these moments that a movement would be sparked in the souls of many as 2011 was the first year EDC was hosted in Las Vegas.

In 2012, history would be made as both A State Of Trance and Group Therapy would take over the circuitGROUNDS stage for a full weekend of pure unadulterated trance insanity. With the trance family representing if full force, the electricity in the air resounded louder at circuitGROUNDS than at any other stage that whole weekend.

A freak sandstorm put a hold in the festivities on night two except for a small art car in the middle of the speedway. Who stuck around to make sure that the music would live on? None other than Coldharbour King, Markus Schulz, kept the music goingwith an impromptu performance that sparked life back into a disastrous situation.

Although the trance greats like Bryan Kearney, ATB, Armin van Buuren, Markus Schulz, and Ferry Corsten were on the ticket, what was happening to our beloved trance scene at EDC Las Vegas? The trance family was left confused and disappointed to say the least. How could a genre that touches so deeply be ignored or forgotten? The mainstage sound was quickly changing into big room house and the lineup reflected this greatly.

EDC Las Vegas 2014 Mainstage Photo Credit: Insomniac Events

The following year, 2014, proved to be slightly better but still lacked the type of trance lineup from years before. Trance artists were experimenting with the mainstage sounds, such as Ferry Corsten and Markus Schulz partnering to form New World Punx. With passion in tow and a voice that would not be ignored, the trance family would come together to shout their disappointment with the lack of trance presence.

In true Pasquale Rotella fashion, he answered back letting headliners know that in 2015 trance would have a full day dedicated to some of the most celebrated names in trance. This would be the beginning of a beautiful resurgence of trance at EDC.

Dreamstatewas announced as a 2-day trance extravaganza that would take place at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, California on Thanksgiving Day weekend. Since the announcement of the Dreamstate event, the trance presence at EDC Las Vegas would forever be changed as 2016 played host to a brand new circuitGROUNDS design. Dreamstate took over the massive 360 entity for one wild celebration on day three, which marked a resurgence for trance.

With Ben Nicky kicking off the trance extravaganza, Sunday would be the night that the trance family would come together as one. People came together linking their spirits together to celebrate a genre that gloriously beat out all of the odds that once seemed to be on its last heartbeat.

This year Pasquale announced Dreamstate would expand even further for Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas. The biggest and best trance artists from all over the globe will take over the airwaves for three, yes THREE full days, at a brand new dedicated stage called quantumVALLEY hosted by Dreamstate! As history has shown us, we are continually blessed with bigger and better stages and lineups. With quantumVALLEY designed specifically for our beloved trance family, this will be the year that trance will be properly represented at Electric Daisy Carnival.

When were coming up with new ideas and experiences, we draw inspiration from all different places including from within our amazing community. Our newest stage at EDC Las Vegas this year exists because of the energy, passion and love many of you have for the trance sound and culture. After a late night of planning and perfecting, the team and I are finally ready to officially debut our newest addition to the EDCLV family of stages: quantumVALLEY. A few of you spotted some designs last week on my Insta but I wanted to make it official. Dreamstate will be hosting all 3 nights Under the Electric Sky.

Pasquale Rotella

EDC Las Vegas 2017 is just days away and I hope to see you at quantunVALLEY to celebrate trance in all of its glory this year. Check out my top five trance must-sees for EDC Las Vegas 2017 righthere!

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Event Page

Maria first fell in love with electronic music in the early 2000's when she heard a little tune called "Satisfaction" by Benny Benassi. Since then she has dived head first into the scene and become passionate about the trance, techno, and tech house genre's. Festival's like EDC, Dreamstate, and TomorrowWorld hold the key to her soul and dance music will always and forever be a major part of her life.

Read this article:

Trance Over The Years at EDC Las Vegas - EDM Identity (blog)

E3 2017: The Last Night revealed, shows off an incredibly stylized Cyberpunk world – GameZone

Posted on by

With all of the big game announcements that were made at Microsoft's E3 2017 presser, a little game called The Last Night debuted in what is perhaps the most stylish trailer of all. The Last Night is described as a post-cyberpunk cinematic platformer that takes place in a dystopia where humans are slowly destroying themselves through the creation of AI that does everything for them. Work and creativity have all but disappeared and many people find themselves caught in a hopeless quest for meaning.

Here is the debut trailer:

It's certainly a more novel approach to dystopian worlds in games, which typically lay blame at the feet of mega corporations and tyrannical governments for the undoing of humanity. What's creepy about The Last Night's narrative setup is that it's completely plausible. An announcement post on the game's Steam page describes people "defining themselves by what they consume, not what they create," which adds a much more refreshing spin on the whole humanity going to hell trope.

The Last Night doesn't have a release date at the moment, but it is currently scheduled to arrive sometime in 2018.

Read the rest here:

E3 2017: The Last Night revealed, shows off an incredibly stylized Cyberpunk world - GameZone

UCLA doctors use magnetic stimulation to ‘rewire’ the brain for … – UCLA Newsroom

Posted on by

Americans spend billions of dollars each yearon antidepressants, but the National Institutes of Health estimates that those medications work for only 60 percent to 70 percent of people who take them. In addition, the number of people with depressionhas increased 18 percentsince 2005, according to the World Health Organization, which this year launched a global campaign encouraging people to seek treatment.

TheSemel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA is one of a handful of hospitals and clinics nationwide that offer a treatment that works in a fundamentally different way than drugs. The technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation, beams targeted magnetic pulses deep inside patients brains an approach that has been likened to rewiring a computer.

TMS has been approved by the FDA for treating depression that doesnt respond to medications, and UCLA researchers say it has been underused. But new equipment being rolled out this summer promises to make the treatment available to more people.

We are actually changing how the brain circuits are arranged, how they talk to each other, saidDr. Ian Cook, director of the UCLA Depression Research and Clinic Program. The brain is an amazingly changeable organ. In fact, every time people learn something new, there are physical changes in the brain structure that can be detected.

Nathalie DeGravel, 48, of Los Angeles had tried multiple medications and different types of therapy, not to mention many therapists, for her depression before she heard about magnetic stimulation. She discussed it with her psychiatrist earlier this year, and he readily referred her to UCLA.

Within a few weeks, she noticed relief from the back pain she had been experiencing; shortly thereafter, her depression began to subside. DeGravel says she can now react more wisely to lifes daily struggles, feels more resilient and is able to do much more around the house. She even updated her resume to start looking for a job for the first time in years.

During TMS therapy, the patient sits in a reclining chair, much like one used in a dentists office, and a technician places a magnetic stimulator against the patients head in a predetermined location, based on calibrations from brain imaging.

The stimulator sends a series of magnetic pulses into the brain. People who have undergone the treatment commonly report the sensation is like having someone tapping their head, and because of the clicking sound it makes, patients often wear earphones or earplugs during a session.

TMS therapy normally takes 30 minutes to an hour, and people typically receive the treatment several days a week for six weeks. But the newest generation of equipment could make treatments less time-consuming.

There are new TMS devices recently approved by the FDA that will allow patients to achieve the benefits of the treatment in a much shorter period of time, saidDr. Andrew Leuchter, director of the Semel Institutes TMS clinical and research service. For some patients, we will have the ability to decrease the length of a treatment session from 37.5 minutes down to 3 minutes, and to complete a whole course of TMS in two weeks.

Leuchter said some studies have shown that TMS is even better than medication for the treatment of chronic depression. The approach, he says, is underutilized.

We are used to thinking of psychiatric treatments mostly in terms of either talk therapies, psychotherapy or medications, Leuchter said. TMS is a revolutionary kind of treatment.

Bob Holmes of Los Angeles is one of the 16 million Americans who report having a major depressive episode each year, and he has suffered from depression his entire life. He calls the TMS treatment he received at UCLA Health a lifesaver.

What this did was sort of reawaken everything, and it provided that kind of jolt to get my brain to start to work again normally, he said.

Doctors are also exploring whether the treatment could also be used for a variety of other conditions including schizophrenia, epilepsy, Parkinsons disease and chronic pain.

We're still just beginning to scratch the surface of what this treatment might be able to do for patients with a variety of illnesses, Leuchter said.Its completely noninvasive and is usually very well tolerated.

Learn more about the UCLA Brain Research Institute andtheDepression Grand Challenge.

Read the original:

UCLA doctors use magnetic stimulation to 'rewire' the brain for ... - UCLA Newsroom

Posted in Tms

Neurotechnology Wins Fisheries-Focused Computer Vision Competition – findBIOMETRICS

Posted on by

Posted on June 14, 2017

Neurotechnology researchers have won first place in a competition designed to find AI solutions for fisheries monitoring.

The competition was organized by Kaggle, an online crowdsourcing platform aimed at the tech and research communities. Organized by The Nature Conservancy and aimed ultimately at applying sophisticated computer vision technology to the fight to protect global fisheries from overfishing and other threats, the Nature Conservancy Fisheries Monitoring competition essentially asked participants to develop algorithms that could automatically detect and identify different species of fish and other marine life.

A group composed entirely of members of Neurotechnologys AI development team, working under the team name TROLL (Towards Robust Optimal Learning of Learning), beat 2,292 other teams to take the companys $50,000 first prize with their algorithm solution.

Its extracurricular as far as Neurotechnologys business goes, but the Kaggle win highlights the talent at work in the company, which recently announced a new version of its MegaMatcher Accelerator platform, which Neurotechnology says is now the fastest biometric engine in the world.

June 14, 2017 by Alex Perala

Excerpt from:

Neurotechnology Wins Fisheries-Focused Computer Vision Competition - findBIOMETRICS

Neurotechnology Researchers Win Kaggle Competition with Deep Neural Network Solution for The Nature … – PR Newswire (press release)

Posted on by

The Fisheries Monitoring competition was one of the biggest Kaggle competitions. According to The Nature Conservancy, which initiated this competition, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing practices are threatening marine ecosystems, global seafood supplies and local livelihoods. By using computer technology to aid in monitoring fisheries, human capital can be re-allocated to management and enforcement, helping local, regional and global partners preserve the integrity and viability of these fisheries today and into the future.

2,293 teams submitted algorithms for the identification of fish and other marine species from video streams. Competing solutions were evaluated based on an unseen test set that resembles a real-life scenario.

The Neurotechnology employees, who entered the competition independently under the team name "Towards Robust-Optimal Learning of Learning," used state-of-the-art deep neural networks to solve the problem and provide the best overall solution in the competition. The winning team is comprised of Gediminas Peksys, Ignas Namajunas and Jonas Bialopetravicius, all of whom work on Neurotechnology's AI development team, which designs and delivers a range of products and services based on deep neural networks, including computer vision and object recognition.

"This was one of the first Kaggle competitions that was comprised of two stages, which means that models developed during the first stage were frozen and evaluated on unseen data that was made available during the second stage," said Gediminas Peksys from the Towards Robust Optimal Learning of Learning team. "In such a setting, it is very easy for a team's models to overfit the data by using too many trainable parameters. We were able to utilize our team's experience using deep neural networks to come up with a robust model that performed a lot closer to the original estimate from stage one and generalized in a predictable manner on unseen data."

"We congratulate our employees who won this difficult competition," said Dr. Algimantas Malickas, owner of Neurotechnology. "These individuals along with many other excellent employees working on our client projects demonstrate the qualifications of our Neurotechnology staff and their ability to solve the most complex pattern recognition and neural network training problems."

About Neurotechnology

Neurotechnology is a developer of high-precision algorithms and software based on deep neural network (DNN) and other AI-related technologies. The company offers a range of products for biometric fingerprint, face, iris, palmprint and voice identification as well as AI, computer vision, object recognition and robotics. Drawing from years of academic research in the fields of neuroinformatics, image processing and pattern recognition, Neurotechnology was founded in 1990 in Vilnius, Lithuania and released its first fingerprint identification system in 1991. Since that time the company has released more than 130 products and version upgrades. More than 3000 system integrators, security companies and hardware providers integrate Neurotechnology's algorithms into their products, with millions of customer installations worldwide. Neurotechnology's algorithms also achieved top results in independent technology evaluations including NIST MINEX and IREX.

Media ContactJennifer Allen Newton Bluehouse Consulting Group, Inc. +1-503-805-7540 jennifer (at) bluehousecg (dot) com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neurotechnology-researchers-win-kaggle-competition-with-deep-neural-network-solution-for-the-nature-conservancy-fisheries-monitoring-300473515.html

SOURCE Neurotechnology

http://www.neurotechnology.com

Read the rest here:

Neurotechnology Researchers Win Kaggle Competition with Deep Neural Network Solution for The Nature ... - PR Newswire (press release)

Neurotech panel shares successes from first year – Cornell Chronicle

Posted on by

Faculty from Cornell Neurotech shared stories of technologies and tools they have developed in their first year of operation at a Reunion 2017 panel, Unlocking the Brain: Cornells Search for the Key.

University Photography

Arts and Sciences Dean Gretchen Ritter '83, Engineering Dean Lance Collins and Stephen Mong '92, MBA 02, MEN 93, take in the panel discussion June 9.

The June 9 discussion featured Joseph Fetcho, director of Cornell Neurotech and professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior; and Chris Xu, M.S. 93, Ph.D. 96, the Mong Family Foundation Director of Cornell Neurotech and a professor in the Department of Applied and Engineering Physics.

In the first year alone, Cornell Neurotech is already realizing many newfound research collaborations, said Gretchen Ritter 83, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences. These multidisciplinary partnerships have developed several key advances in our understanding of the brain and in the tools we can use to further decode its mysteries.

Cornell Neurotech a joint initiative of the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences launched with a multimillion dollar seed grant from the Mong Family Foundation, through Stephen Mong 92, MBA 02, MEN 93. The initiative aims to build tools that enable scientists to better understand and treat disorders such as Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia and depression.

Fetcho brought the presentation to a personal level by sharing videos of his mother, who no longer recognizes her children. He said research into diseases like hers needs to answer questions such as: Have the nerve cells in his mothers brain died? If not, where are they? Have their connections been damaged? Has the pattern of activity in the brain changed?

To find the answers, scientists are developing tools to look deep into the brain with high-resolution imagery, to look at neurons as they fire, as they search for connections, as they gain and lose synapses and to try to connect that brain activity to various behaviors and conditions, he said.

Fetchos lab does brain research using young zebrafish, whose transparency is a huge advantage in viewing brain activity.

Transferring this research from transparent fish to mammals has been one of the challenges given to Xu, who is developing tools and techniques that see deep into the brains of mice and can image several different regions of the brain at the same time.

Our Laboratory for Innovative Neurotechnology at Cornell is using technology to enable answers to currently impossible neuroscience questions, Xu said.

Along with support for labs and research, one feature of Cornell Neurotech is the Mong Fellowship Program, which pairs life scientist postdocs with postdocs in engineering, physics or chemistry to work together on a pressing problem.

We havent solved the brain yet, but we have done some remarkable things with respect to tools to understand it, Fetcho said of the first years progress.

Lance Collins, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering, said the neurotech initiative began, and will continue to grow, because of the natural curiosity and collaboration of Cornell faculty.

This idea nucleated through interactions happening within the faculty and was taken to the next level by an outstanding alumni gift, Collins said. Faculty did this because they were genuinely and intrinsically interested in the problem, so they brought their expertise together. Thats how we do it here.

Kathy Hovis is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Read more from the original source:

Neurotech panel shares successes from first year - Cornell Chronicle

Neurotechnology Releases MegaMatcher Accelerator Extreme, the Fastest Biometric Engine in the World – PR Newswire (press release)

Posted on by

MegaMatcher Accelerator Extreme edition includes enhanced functionality and reliability compared to the previous MegaMatcher Accelerator version, with more fingerprint, face and eye iris capabilities and significantly faster speeds. It provides bigger capacity, handling up to 160 million fingerprints, up to 40 million faces and up to 200 million eye iris templates on single server.

Neurotechnology is offering a simple upgrade path into the Extreme edition from other MegaMatcher Accelerator editions for the existing customers.

MegaMatcher Accelerator is available through Neurotechnology or from distributors worldwide. For more information and trial version, go to: http://www.neurotechnology.com.

About Neurotechnology

Neurotechnology is a developer of high-precision algorithms and software based on deep neural network (DNN) and other AI-related technologies. The company offers a range of products for biometric fingerprint, face, iris, palmprint and voice identification as well as AI, computer vision, object recognition and robotics. Drawing from years of academic research in the fields of neuroinformatics, image processing and pattern recognition, Neurotechnology was founded in 1990 in Vilnius, Lithuania and released its first fingerprint identification system in 1991. Since that time the company has released more than 130 products and version upgrades. More than 3000 system integrators, security companies and hardware providers integrate Neurotechnology's algorithms into their products, with millions of customer installations worldwide. Neurotechnology's algorithms also received top results in independent technology evaluations such as NIST MINEX and IREX.

Media ContactJennifer Allen Newton Bluehouse Consulting Group, Inc. +1-503-805-7540 jennifer (at) bluehousecg (dot) com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neurotechnology-releases-megamatcher-accelerator-extreme-the-fastest-biometric-engine-in-the-world-300472075.html

SOURCE Neurotechnology

http://www.neurotechnology.com

The rest is here:

Neurotechnology Releases MegaMatcher Accelerator Extreme, the Fastest Biometric Engine in the World - PR Newswire (press release)

Comparing Stryker Corporation (SYK) & Accuray (ARAY) – Markets Daily

Posted on by
Comparing Stryker Corporation (SYK) & Accuray (ARAY)
Markets Daily
The Company offers a range of medical technologies, including orthopedic, medical and surgical, and neurotechnology and spine products. The Company's segments include Orthopaedics; MedSurg; Neurotechnology and Spine, and Corporate and Other.

and more »

The rest is here:

Comparing Stryker Corporation (SYK) & Accuray (ARAY) - Markets Daily

NeuroHacking – Home | Facebook

Posted on by

Your alcoholism will kill you before your HIV does, says a doctor to one of our characters. Worldwide, alcohol abuse kills more people than HIV, nearly 3.3 million per year. Yet what the public believes, and Alcoholics Anonymous purports, Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, is not as true as you think. Nor is the fundamental principle for treating alcoholism that we all take as truth; abstinence.

Science has shown that abstinence not only doesnt take away the addicti...on, but also increases the craving. So why has one modality dominated our thought since the 1930s? Why are profitable rehab facilities reluctant to change? And why are millions of people still being denied the opportunity of a simple life saving method and drug that have been FDA approved since 1994?

One Little Pill takes an in depth look at a simple, safe method with success rates of 78%, the suppressing obstacles surrounding it, and those people just now finding it. This character driven film will leave you compelled to help spread the word that "Options Save Lives."http://play.google.com/store/movies/details

Read the original here:

NeuroHacking - Home | Facebook

Cloning to the rescue – New Scientist

Posted on by

Having cloned sheep and who knows what else, wouldnt it be a good idea for scientists to begin cloning the worlds endangered species? Is there any reason not to?

Cloning technology has improved dramatically since 1996 when Dolly the sheep became the first mammal to originate from a somatic cell (any cell of a living organism other than the reproductive cells). We now have a better understanding of nuclear reprogramming, a process that gives a cell the capacity to generate all the different types of cells that make up the organism called totipotency. As a result, many species have been successfully cloned, including those of amphibians, fish, insects and mammals. But cloning is still inefficient, with a maximum of 5 per cent of cloned embryos developing into healthy offspring.

There have been several attempts at cloning endangered or even extinct species, such as the gaur and the Pyrenean ibex. These have been largely unsuccessful. Generally, hundreds of embryos have to be created, of which only a handful can be implanted. And of those, only a couple are born, but these often die soon after birth.

The problem in most cases is sexual isolation, which is part of the speciation process, in which one species eventually evolves into two separate ones. These become incapable of reproducing with each other because their reproductive cells are no longer compatible or the embryo of one species cannot be carried by a mother of the other. Both issues affect cloning.

One species where cloning has been successful is the African wildcat. Although wild, this species is still genetically close enough to the domestic tabby for interspecies embryo transfer to be slightly more efficient. More importantly, cloned animals were then able to mate and reproduce among themselves.

But the main problem with cloning remains: it eliminates genetic diversity. The whole point is to reproduce an exact copy of an individual, such as a champion racehorse. Most higher organisms, however, reproduce sexually, which leads to the offspring bearing a combination of characteristics from both parents. This genetic mix and match allows species to adapt to their environment and reduces negative traits or diseases within the population. A diverse genetic pool is essential for a species to survive in the wild.

So although cloning might help preserve some species in critical times, the best way to avoid their extinction is to protect their environment and stop senseless poaching of wild animals.

Alena Pance, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK

We pay 25 for every answer published in New Scientist. To answer this question or ask a new one email lastword@newscientist.com. Terms and conditions apply.

Please keep your answers concise and include a postal address in order to receive payment for answers, and a daytime telephone number and email address if you have one. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style.

New Scientist Ltd reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material that has been submitted by readers in any medium or in any format.

You can also submit answers by post to: The Last Word, New Scientist, 110 High Holborn, London WC1V 6EU, UK.

Here is the original post:

Cloning to the rescue - New Scientist

The Thorny Truth About Spine Evolution – Quanta Magazine

Posted on by

Nevertheless, the team does not insist that their results prove insects were the primary reason that plants developed spines, prickles and thorns. To the contrary, Kariyat said, We think that spines evolved against mammalian herbivores. But they suspect that at some point in history, the horsenettles and other plants found an even more effective weapon toxic alkaloids in their tissues and mammals stopped eating them regularly. The caterpillars, which were largely unaffected by the alkaloids, became specialists at preying on the plants. Evolution may then have co-opted the plants spines for a new defensive purpose, a phenomenon known as exaptation. So over time, these spines have started to have an additional benefit, helping the plant win the arms race against the insects, he said.

The unexpected results were a bit hard for others in the field to swallow. When I first read this paper, my overwhelming response was: Oh, thats just [nonsense] there are so many problems! said Angela Moles, a research professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia, who studies the ecological strategies of plants. Then the more I read it, the more I was, like, Actually, its right. Her sentiments were echoed by Mick Hanley, an associate professor at Plymouth University in the United Kingdom, who was lead author on a 2007 review paper about plants structural defenses. I looked at it atfirstand Ithought,hmm. Then I read it again, and I saw that it all sort of hangs together, he said.

Others are less convinced. Im not sure that we can conclude from their results that spinescenceis an adaptation against insect herbivory, said Tristan Charles-Dominique, a plant-evolution specialist at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden in China. He and William Bond, emeritus professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, used phylogenetic methods to show in 2016 that the diversity of spiny plants in Africa coincided with an uptick in bovid mammals, such as wildebeests and gazelles. That finding supports the traditional view that spines defend against large mammals.

I think they did a good job at showing that the feeding rate of caterpillars is indeed slowed down as their movement is disrupted, said Charles-Dominique, but I think that there is quite a lot of information to be gathered before being able to test the potential coevolution between spiny plants and insects.

Kariyat does not disagree. One of the things we want to see is whether this effect is just on the caterpillars, he said. He explained that they also want to better quantify how insects are affected by impaired movement: How much does it affect their growth and development and pupation, and how does that affect them long term?

But Kariyat and Meschers findings arent the first to suggest a potential role for spinescence in deterring insects. Moles noted that the results are consistent with paleontological evidence that spines evolved before large herbivores. She pointed to a 1970 review paper by the late British paleobotanist William Gilbert Chaloner, in which he noted that a number of plants from more than 400 million years ago showed small apparently non-vascularized appendages on the stem, distributed more or less randomly and variously termed spines, emergences, teeth or enations.

So weve got a lot of species with these funny prickles that we dont know what they do, Moles explained, and its, I dont know, at least 10 or 20 million years before the first terrestrial vertebrate herbivores start appearing.

The results highlight a tricky issue in the study of evolution and adaptation: Because of exaptation, understanding the current function of a trait is very different from inferring the evolutionary pressures under which it initially evolved. Its impossible to track why a defense that works now might have evolved millions of years ago, Hanley said. Those spines could have evolved for a completely different reason that has nothing to do with herbivory.

Indeed, hypotheses about the original purpose of plant spines range far beyond the deterrence of herbivores of various sizes. Its been theorized that the spines might have boosted plants surface area to enhance photosynthesis, or that they helped to direct water to the plants roots. Or that they first helped plants to sprawl and climb. Other than being able to replay the evolutionary tape over millions of years, Hanley said, weve got no real way of knowing.

Go here to see the original:

The Thorny Truth About Spine Evolution - Quanta Magazine

The Zig-Zagging Evolution Of Search Engine Algorithms – Forbes

Posted on by

Forbes
The Zig-Zagging Evolution Of Search Engine Algorithms
Forbes
Is the complexity of Google's search ranking algorithms increasing or decreasing over time? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Nikhil ...

See the original post here:

The Zig-Zagging Evolution Of Search Engine Algorithms - Forbes

‘Pro Evolution Soccer 2018’ continues to be a pleasure to play – Engadget

Posted on by

For one thing, the gameplay feels smoother than ever before, something you'll notice the moment you start a match, pass the ball around and try to score some goals. The players are much easier to control and their general body movement isn't as stiff as in past editions of the game. Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 is still powered by Konami's Fox Engine, which has been featured in franchises like Metal Gear Solid. This time around, though, the company says it wanted to focus on more than simply improving the gameplay. As such, the menus are now much easier to browse and look at, while the new "enhanced visual reality" makes the players closer resemble their real-life appearance.

In what's a marketing plot more than anything, Konami is bringing none other than Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt into PES 2018. What that means is you'll be able have him on your My Club team, playing alongside Messi, Neymar and the rest of the football stars in the game. Bolt, a Manchester United supporter, has always said he wants to be a pro soccer player, so at least now he'll have that chance in a virtual world. "We wanted to do things differently, a little bit crazy," says Adam Bhatti, the game's product and brand manager. That's the reason Argentina legend Diego Maradona will also be a part of Pro Evolution Soccer 2018.

I don't know if I'll be playing it over my football game of choice, FIFA, as I have done in the past. But, based on the few matches I played here at E3 2017, it's great to see Konami's franchise continuing to get better every year, even if it may not even on the same level as FIFA yet. You can make that call for yourself when Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 arrives September 14th in the US, and a couple days later in Europe. The game is going to be available for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Read the original post:

'Pro Evolution Soccer 2018' continues to be a pleasure to play - Engadget

Iconic Guitars Releases New Evolution S Series – Guitar World Magazine

Posted on by

Southern California based Iconic Guitars has released the Evolution S Series line of guitars.

Iconic Guitars launched The Evolution line as a follow up to their popular Vintage Series line of guitars. These new models take their visual cue from the classic S shape and expand the tonal capabilities and playability to otherworldly new heights. The distinctive looks, impeccably selected tone woods, remarkable finishes, and contemporary appointments all combine for an amazing guitar with rich, pure, articulate tone.

The Evolution Series S and S Limited offer a unique array of custom options including pickup configuration, neck profile and wood configuration, fret size and body tone woods. The Evolution S models are available in an extensive palette of pearl and candy colors.

The Evolution S Limited models feature Master Grade, book-matched maple or other exotic tone wood tops, each uniquely dyed and masterfully finished with matching pearl or candy back, sides and head stock.

The Evolution S is a spectacular guitar designed to perform well beyond the expectations of the discerning player and exceed the needs of professional, touring and recreational musicians alike.

Standard features on the Evolution S and Evolution S Limited models include: Select Alder body 5A Flame or Quilt Maple or other exotic tone wood tops (Limited models) Quartersawn Maple neck with Maple, Indian Rosewood or Ebony fretboards 10 14 Compound Radius Fretboard 1.687 nut width with hand cut Tusq Nut .047 X .104 Jescar Nickel Silver frets (Stainless optional) Lollar or Bare Knuckle pickups standard (HH, HSS, HSH) Hipshot Contour bridge Hipshot Open Back Locking Tuners Emerson Electronics with Schaller 5-way Megaswitch

Retail pricing for the Evolution S model starts at $2099 and $3099 for the T Limited and includes a G&G Deluxe Embroidered hard shell case or Reunion Blues Gig Bag.

Available at select dealers nationwide or for more information on the Evolution S Series guitars and more see iconicguitars.com

See the original post:

Iconic Guitars Releases New Evolution S Series - Guitar World Magazine

The Health 202: Trump’s health care evolution can be traced in his tweets – Washington Post

Posted on by

THE PROGNOSIS

President Trump has showered praise upon the GOP bill to overhaul Obamacare. He threw a big Rose Garden celebration once the House passed it. He promised it would transform the nations health-care system into one ofthe worlds finest.

And yesterday, behind closed doors, he told a group of Senate Republicans it is mean.

Trump apparently critiqued the health-care bill passed by House Republicans in front of more than a dozen senators he hosted for lunch at the White House. The president said the senators should make their own version more generous, according to congressional sources who leaked to the Associated Press. That's pretty different from whatTrump said when the cameras were turned on. He had some tart words for Democrats, instead:

Of course, the GOP senators didn't share those comments with the press, either. Conference Chair John Thune (R-S.D.), who attended the lunch, said Trump talked about making sure that we have a bill that protects people with preexisting conditions and how to design a tax credit for purchasing insurance that works for lower-income and elderly people in particular, my colleagues Kelsey Snell and Sean Sullivan report.

I think he realizes, you know, our bill is going to move, probably, from where the House was and he seems fine with that, Thune said. He talked about making sure that we have a bill that protects people with preexisting conditions.

It's hardly surprising that Trump would privately feel this way about the House's American Health Care Act, which is projected to leave 23 million more Americans without health coverage. After all, Trump was a longtime advocate of government-runhealth-care programsin many other developed countries. In his book "The America We Deserve," Trump praised Canada's single-payer system and wrote that the United Statesmust similarly have universal health care.

But Trump has publicly bragged about the AHCA in such sweeping terms and with such outward confidencethat his candid moment yesterday dramatically emphasizes the incongruity of his past personal views and the outlook of Republicans he's trying to work with to sweep much of Obamacare aside.

Unsurprisingly, the president's zigzag health-care evolution can be traced in his tweets. Let's take a tour of what he's said about the GOP health effort:

From right after the House bill passed:

Then, a strange nod to the Australian health-care system during the same time period:

And a helping hand for Senate Republicans embarking on the politically perilous process:

But suddenly, a shift (about three weeks after applauding the AHCA's House passage):

Now -- as senator struggle to pass their own version of health care -- Trump has characterized the version passed in the lower chamber as "mean."

The president may -- or may not -- be referring to the fact that many experts believe that allowing states to opt out of certain insurance requirements and allow insurers to charge more to cover sick people (see my colleague Glenn Kessler's fact check on the subject). Trump could also be talking about criticism that the House bill allows insurers to charge older people (who are likely to be sicker) up to five times more than younger ones (the healthier part of the population).

Or Trump could be referring to something else entirely.

Twitter was aflame over the comment:

From CNBC's Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood:

From the New York Times's Chief Washington Correspondent Carl Hulse:

BREAKING NEWS THIS MORNING: A gunman opened fire this morning on Republican lawmakers practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game in Alexandria, Va., "possibly injuring several including at least one lawmaker, Steve Scalise, the majority whip, according to police and a congressman. Alexandria police would only confirm that a shooting had occurred and that one person was in custody," reports Peter Hermann, Paul Kane and Patricia Sullivan. For more real-time updates, check the Post website.

AHH, OOF and OUCH

AHH: One insurer is expanding into more Affordable Care Act marketplaces instead of withdrawing from them -- and could help fill some holes. Health insurer Centene announced plans Tuesday tostart offering coverage on exchanges in Missouri, Kansas and Nevada. It also will expand its presence in Florida, Ohio, Texas and Washington, among other states, the AP reports.

"This growth spurt could fill some big holes that have developed in the exchanges, the only place where people can buy individual coverage with help from an income-based tax credit," according to the AP. "Currently, 25 counties in Missouri, 20 in Ohio and another two in Washington have no insurers lined up to sell coverage on the exchange in 2018."

OOF: Mandatory new nutrition fact labels have been delayed indefinitely, the FDA announced yesterday. "The labels, championed by former first lady Michelle Obama, were supposed to add a special line for 'added sugars'and emphasize calorie content in large, bold text," the Post's Caitlin Dewey reports."They had been scheduled for rollout in July 2018, with a one-year extension for smaller manufacturers."

"The delay is the latest reversal ofthe Obama administrations nutrition reformsunder Trump," Caitlin writes. "On April 27, the FDA also delayed rules that would have required calorie counts on restaurant menus. A week later, the Department of Agriculture loosened the minimum requirements for the amount of whole grain in school lunches and delayed future sodium reductions....Consumer groups are already slamming the Nutrition Facts delay as an attack on public health. The largest groups in the food industry, meanwhile, is celebrating what it calls a win for 'common-sense'regulation."

OUCH: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congressional leaders to undo federal medical-marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014, according toa May letter that became public Monday, my colleague Christopher Ingraham reports. The protections, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment,prohibit the Justice Departmentfrom using federal funds to prevent states from implementing their own lawsauthorizingthe use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana.

In his letter, Sessions citeda "historic drug epidemic" to justify a crackdown on medical marijuana. But that's at odds with what researchers know about current drug use and abuse in the United States. The epidemic Sessions refers to involves deadly opiate drugs, not marijuana, Chris writes.

HEALTH ON THE HILL

--Several top Senate Republicans sought to temper expectations yesterday that theycanproduce a final health-care draft by the end of the week -- or even by the end of the month. Finance Committee Chairman OrrinG. Hatch (R-Utah)chuckled quietlywhen we asked if they'll be ready to vote on a bill before the July 4 recess.

"I think we're a ways away," Hatch said. Asked when legislation might be done, he laughed again. "When we get it done," he said.

--Other Republicans emerging from their health-care huddlesaid theres an openness to retain some of the ACAs taxes in order to pay for more generous benefits. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said thats the big question. It depends on what its going to take to get to 50 [votes], he said. So thats really the timing and thats the deciding factor. Conservatives would not be happy, as I wrote yesterday.

But Hatch said he would prefer to repeal all of the ACAs taxes. Id like to have no taxes, he said.

--But as senators downplayed their rate of progress, a top House Republican dialed up expectations. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) predicted to the Wall Street Journal's CFO Network meeting yesterday that afinal bill will pass the Senate and land on the presidents desk before August. Waldenadded that there's been "radio silence" from his Senate colleagues as they've been drafting their own bill.

--The effort has grown increasingly dependenton the fragile alliance between Senate GOP leaders and a man they have clashed bitterly with for years: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Kelsey and Sean report.

"Senate leaders are struggling to build conservative support for their emerging bill, with GOP aides and senators voicing growing skepticism that hard-right Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) can be convinced to back it," they write. "Conservative organizations, meanwhile, are complaining that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is offering proposals that would not sufficiently dismantle the law known as Obamacare."

"But Cruz, after building a national brand stoking tensions with McConnell and his top deputies, is, in his own words, trying to get to yes.' The former presidential hopeful has spoken positively about the negotiations, which he helped kick-start. His investment in the talks has generated cautious optimism among many Republicans that he wont walk away from a delicate effort from which McConnell, with a 52-seat majority and Vice President Pence as a potential tiebreaking vote, can afford only two defections," my colleagues report.

--Democrats had an unexpected opportunity yesterday to press even harder on their criticisms of Republicans for writing their health-care bill behind closed doorswhen television reporters covering the Capitol were told midday Tuesday to stop recording interviews in Senate hallways. What would have been adramatic and unexplained break with tradition that was soon reversed amid a wide rebuke from journalists, Democratic lawmakers and free-speech advocates, my colleague Elise Viebeck reports.

"The controversy started Tuesday around noon, when staffers from the Senate Radio and Television Correspondents Gallery, which operates workspace for networks in the Capitol, told reporters from major television networks, with no warning, to stop recording video in the hallways," Elise writes.

"Gallery staffers blamed the shift on the Senate Rules Committee, which has official jurisdiction over media access in the upper chamber, according to journalists who shared detailed accounts of the developments on Twitter....The directive touched off a day of confusion as the Rules Committee denied issuing new restrictions and gallery staffers refused to explain their part in the drama."

Rules Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) eventually issued a statement saying there will be no policy shift onwhere reporters can go on the Senate side of the Capitol building. But that was after many Democrats tried to link it to how Republicans aren't being transparent on health care:

Hillary Clinton even chimed in yesterday:

PRICE CHECK

--Republicans who have been trashing the Congressional Budget Officelately for its unflattering score of their health-care bill might be more pleased with an estimate out from the actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The actuary says the House-passed bill would strip health coverage from 10 million fewer people than projected by the CBO -- and estimates it willsavethe federal government $328 billion instead of $119 billion the CBO estimated.

The New York Times' Margot Sanger-Katz took note:

Why are the estimates so different? Politico's Paul Demko explains that CMS and CBO made some different assumptions:

"The disparity is a result of differing assumptions about whether cost-saving measures in the House bill will work," Paul writes. "The CMS actuary and CBO have disagreed in the past on the budgetary effects of legislation, including surrounding the enactment of Obamacare. The new actuary's analysis does not estimate the effects of taxes repealed."

--Vice President Pence pulled a Paul Ryan yesterday when he used a chart to reinforcehis arguments against the ACAin aspeechat the Department of Health and Human Services. Here's what Pencesaid (while gesturing to his chart):

"Back when Obamacare was first passed, just over seven years ago, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 23 million Americans would be covered by now. Thats the blue line on the far left. It quickly became apparent that this was far-fetched to put it mildly."

But Pence'schart didn'ttell the full story, according to a fact-check from theAP's Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar.

The facts: It's true that only 10.3 million people are enrolled this year in the subsidized health-insurance markets, not the 23 million the Congressional Budget Office had originally projected.

The details:The chart omitted this relevant information: Ofthe new enrollees, 12 million were supposed to get coverage through the law's Medicaid expansion. But 19 states have refused to expand Medicaid because of opposition from Republicans, a big contributor to why enrollment fell so short of the CBO's initial projection. "Together, the Medicaid expansion and subsidized private health insurance have reduced the number of uninsured by about 20 million people, bringing the uninsured rate to a historic low of about 9 percent, according to the government," Ricardo writes.

INDUSTRY RX

A cottage industry has sprung up to instruct people on how to tamper with drug formulations to get high.

Laurie McGinley

STATE SCAN

Many companies have said theyll leave the marketplaces, citing rising costs and Trump-fueled uncertainty.

Kim Soffen and Kevin Uhrmacher

Advocates say the report needs further study to determine whether there have been broader improvements for low-income residents or if they have left a gentrifying city.

Michael Alison Chandler

California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said Tuesday that he supports a proposal for California to adopt a single-payer health plan and believes it will eventually be enacted because consumers will become fed up with the current system that he said is unaffordable to many.

LA Times

DAYBOOK

Today

Coming Up

SUGAR RUSH

Watch President Trumps full remarks about health care in Milwaukee:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said during his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that the "suggestion that I participated in any collusion ... is an appalling and detestable lie":

Here'sa fact check on President Trump's claim thathis nominees faced record-setting long delays:

And on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a First Lady Melania Trump got emotional about finally moving into the White House:

Read the original:

The Health 202: Trump's health care evolution can be traced in his tweets - Washington Post