By walking the beat, Kalamazoo officers nurture genuine … – Michigan Radio

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Stateside's conversation with Jeff Hadley, chief of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.

Have you ever seen an old movie where police officers are walking the beat in a neighborhood? It turns out foot patrols are more than just a movie trope. They can actually be a way for police and public safety officers to build closer ties with the people they serve and protect.

A recent study by the Police Foundation examines that tradition of foot patrols, and how its working in four communities, including Kalamazoo.

Jeff Hadley, chief of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, joined Stateside today.

The report from the Police Foundation singles out Hadleys department as taking a particularly innovative approach to build trust and enhance its relationship with the community.

Back in March 2014, the department launched its initiative by sending officers to knock on every single door in the city. Hadley said thats approximately 15,000 doors.

I mean, it was ambitious I will qualify that by saying not everybody answered the door or were home at the time we knocked on the door, but we figured wed reached a good number of our citizens, he said.

The department accomplished the task in 15 months time. Hadley said the experience was eye-opening for both the community and its officers.

"We have to humanize each other. And you cant do that on Facebook. You cant do that in a car. You have to do it connecting with people in a real way."

[Officers] really realized theres so many good people out here, in our community that support them, that need them, that want them. And, you know, that really came through in their discussions with the citizens during those contacts, he said.

This type of on-the-ground interaction with community members wasnt meant to be a one-time experience.

It really needs to be part of the everyday toolbox for any officer in any community, Hadley said. So it should become natural to them, right? Im going to get in my squad car, Im going to go to my district, Im going to answer my calls for service because thats part of what we do but in my free timeIm going to get out of my car, Im going to connect with people.

He said departments should be intentional about it until walking the beat and connecting with community members becomes part of the DNA of the organization.

We have to humanize each other, Hadley said. And you cant do that on Facebook. You cant do that in a car. You have to do it connecting with people in a real way and it has to be authentic and genuine thats what connects people and community together is their trust in you, their belief in you and their support of you. And this is just one way to do that from a grassroots organizational perspective.

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By walking the beat, Kalamazoo officers nurture genuine ... - Michigan Radio

12 on Tuesday: Leslie Orrantia – WISC – Channel 3000 – Channel3000.com – WISC-TV3

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Leslie Orrantia, right, poses with a hero of hers, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Leslie Orrantia, right, poses with a hero of hers, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Leslie Orrantia is the director of community relations at the University of Wisconsin, a post shes held since August. She has been on campus for four years, serving since 2012 in the School of Educations External Relations office and as assistant director for the Wisconsin Collaborative Education Research Network within the School of Education. Prior to her work with UW-Madison, she served as a caseworker in Madison for nearly five years, collaborating with area nonprofits, government institutions, community organizations and local media to best address client needs. It was her work as a caseworker that really taught her the value of listening to others.

Rank your Top 5 MCs. I listen to almost every genre. My mood changes with my music and my music with my mood, so this question is a tough one. For my top MCs, Ive decided upon those who make more than good music, those who remain relevant throughout time and those who politically engage and inspire their listeners to do the same.

1. Nina Simone, the original MC 2. Blackalicious 3. Killer Mike 4. 2pac 5. Salt-N-Pepa

Which motivates you more: doubters or supporters?

Without a doubt, I need supporters in my life to thrive. I surround myself with supporters in large part because if all my time and energy are invested into building up someone who will forever doubt me, themselves, or our world, then Im wasting what could otherwise be invested into making today better than yesterday and making positive change in the lives of others. Supporters are more likely to be thought partners and we need an even playing field to truly build community, empower ourselves and one another to best contribute to the collective good, and produce the most impact and sustainable change.

I believe perspective is critical. We may not have a lot of choices in life, but each day we can choose a positive outlook. Weve all had hardship, some greater than others, but its an intentionality around reflection upon that hardship to inform who you are and who youll continue to be. I choose to be positive. I feed off of other peoples energy, so on a day Im feeling bummed, I selfishly push out good energy because I know folks will send it back my way. And on the majority of days, when Im my optimistic self, I recognize some other folks may be feeling bummed and the least I could do is make them smile, even if its limited to that moment, so I give hugs, make jokes, smile big, and ask, then listen to, how people are. Kindness, consideration, and warmth feed good energy into people and they send it back your way. Yall are feeding this in me so Im always sure to return the favor.

Why do you live in Madison?

I want to make our community better.

I grew up in a large suburb outside of Los Angeles. Although my community surely had some positives, one very big challenge I recognized in my teens was that folks simply accepted hardship with an it is what it is mentality and were often politically and civically disengaged, keeping their heads down and living their day-to-day dis-empowered.

Madison is different. More people care here and more are involved. I love the shared governance structures, community-building efforts, marches, the greater voter turnout, so many folks being the change they wish to see, and the rowdy folks that inspire others to be more rowdy than theyd otherwise be.

I believe change is made and sustained by people. And since we reside in a smaller community than others in which Ive lived, I feel that change is more viable here. Madison is smaller, smarter, and less broken in many ways than other places Ive lived and I believe all of this makes change possible, but we need to bring light to the areas that are not well-lit, bring attention to the issues and areas that arent getting any, and this starts with relationships, leverage, and intentionality. I think we have this as a community and I believe my skills, capacities, and ambitions fit Madison to aid in this change making effort.

What three leaders in Madison under 50 have impressed you the most?

Karen Menendez Coller. Karen is a good friend, an inspiration, an advocate, a team player, and most importantly a role model. Shes strategic, visionary, patient, humble, immensely kind, and endlessly supportive.

Gerardo Mancilla. Im proud to know Lalo. Hes got more grit and tenacity than most and could be anywhere making change, especially with his doctorate in curriculum and instruction, changing today for tomorrows future, and yet he has chosen to make change in our community. Hes thoughtful and strategic about how his interests and capacities align for making much needed community change, he shows up, and he delivers.

M Adams. I dont know M well, but I do know she leads without ego. She recognizes that leadership is support for grassroots organizational growth and sustainable change is a product of grassroots civic and political engagement and top-down support. Shes immensely wise and lives an important role some leaders never learn, deciphering when we pick up the mic versus when we share it with others.

All these folks recognize our youth are our future, equity needs to be our first priority, we must organize and unite for sustainable change, and the answers to our challenges exist within our communities.

Whats the biggest stumbling block in Madison to turning the corner on our racial disparities?

First, race is a complicated political construct made further complicated by distinctions across cultures, class, histories, and a multitude of other factors. Im not sure I can capture such a complex issue in a few paragraphs, but Ill scrape the surface by saying this: Race relations are quite different here as compared to other places I have lived. I believe this is in part because our community has historically been predominantly white and mostly homogenous. As our minority communities have grown rather dramatically over the past decade, the majority communitys social justice theoretical mindset is now being challenged to be applied to our new reality. Much like any transition from theory to action, this process is awkward, difficult, takes practice and intentionality. Now that issues within our marginalized communities are becoming more widely known, many across our broad community recognize the need for addressing racial disparities, but have not deciphered their individual role in facilitating meaningful collective and culturally sustainable change.

I believe this plays a role in the biggest stumbling block in Madison to turning the corner on our racial disparities. This leads to the conflation of two purposes when engaging in community dialogs to move our community forward, if and when folks intentionally engage in these spaces. One purpose is to outline where we are at present, validate the challenges of our marginalized communities, and get on the same page so we build our next steps together from a shared foundation. The second purpose is to collectively identify our individual roles and establish our shared approach to making positive change and ensuring socially just, equitable outcomes.

What are your top three priorities at this point in your life?

Be better to others than I was the day before, myself included.

Keep learning.

Choose happiness.

Name three things you miss about living in Oxnard, California.

Outside of the obvious answer, my family, I deeply miss eating oranges and avocados off trees and visiting farmer-operated fruit stands; solo drives through the desert, fields, orchards, mountains, and along the coast; and the Latino influence on mainstream culture, between pan dulce at the chain grocery stores, Spanish in your ear in public spaces, huevos rancheros at every diner, and Banda or Norteo music on the radio.

There have been numerous challenges on the UW campus. As the Director of UW Community Relations, what four things would you like the community to know UW is doing to address the brown and black experience on campus?

One of the biggest challenges I tackle in my position is sharing everything of value happening on and off campus. Whether research, outreach, teaching, inclusivity, no matter the area, UW is a community of 65,000 faculty, staff, and students doing a ton of incredible work. There are a number of efforts, both top-down and bottom-up that are in development with regards to improving the student experience, but Ill highlight the following:

1. Our Wisconsin, piloted in fall 2016, is a program designed to build reflection, understanding, and community into the first-year transition for undergraduate students. The Division of Student Life worked with leading faculty to develop curriculum prioritizing reflection around identity, equity, and inclusion. The program was successfully implemented and recent evaluation confirmed its value to our students. Results indicate that compared to those who did not participate in the program, participants showed greater interest and openness to conversations and interactions with diverse groups. As a result, this summer, the program will be introduced to Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration (SOAR) to serve 99 percent of incoming students. This effort ensures all students participate in building community and alleviates the pressure on students of underrepresented identities from bearing the burden of educating the majority.

2. Many of these issues are deeply embedded in our institutionalized structures on and off campus. In recognition of this, last spring Chancellor Blank urged all units, academic and administrative, to prioritize equity and inclusion training. As a result of this effort, a few schools and colleges are leading the development of resource creation to bolster faculty and staff support for our students. Personally, the larger unit of which I am a part, University Relations, comprised of marketing, communications, corporate and government affairs, is collectively participating in a learning community through the remainder of the year. Similarly, units across campus are developing equity and inclusion training to address this need.

3. Last week in the good company of 150 members of our campus community, I was excited to participate in the soft-opening for UWs Black Cultural Center. In addition to a space for our Black students to call their own, it is an intentional space that has been designed collaboratively to celebrate Black culture and history on our campus. The Black Cultural Center will have an official opening later this year, so stay tuned.

4. We have a number of campus-wide efforts that have been implemented over the past few years and are in various stages of development. As I mentioned before, remedying some of these issues is only half the battle. Our institution is fortunate to have extensive engagement of alumni, students, staff, faculty, and others, all invested in sustaining our institution for the long term and improving it for future Badgers. With that said, communication of our efforts is equally critical. To address this need, we have created a campus climate website to keep folks updated on the progress of these priority initiatives. Check it out at http://www.campusclimate.wisc.edu.

What song that you really love would you be embarrassed to let people know you like?

I made a decision a long time ago that I wouldnt get embarrassed anymore. Obviously, this was one of the wiser decisions in my life, because lets be real life is too short. However, I think people might expect me to feel embarrassed about Electric Light Orchestras Mr. Blue Sky.

Would you rather be rich or have a position of power and why?

Wealth may provide comforts and security, but it can also cloud our pursuit of living a robust, purposeful, and fulfilling life. A position of power has the capacity to do the same, but with intentionality and reflection, I believe it can enable long-term and sustainable change for the better and, most importantly, you can always pass the mic to others.

If we asked some of your best friends about you, how would they explain you?

So I asked and was fortunate to hear what I hoped for: genuine, intentional, passionate, energetic, fun, and hilarious.

Do you believe there is a Latino and black divide? If so, how do we address that division?

Lets say ish. I believe there are clear cultural divides, though I believe they are a product of passive circumstance in lieu of active discrimination. I believe if and where we dont interact with other people unlike us, we either dont think about what we dont know or we fill in the blanks with guesswork. The truth is, day-to-day life is hard and logistics run the show. We dont always have time, money, or energy to do something outside of eat, sleep, work, and care for our families. We strive for balance, and while striving for balance is good to keep one on track, its hard to challenge ourselves to get out of our comfort zone. So, I believe our greatest divides exist at the working-class level because folks are busy working and caring for their families, and outside of libraries and grocery stores, there arent a lot of organically diverse places for adults to meet others unlike themselves.

To address this issue, I think we need a two-generation approach. We need to create spaces for our youth in our schools to reflect on the self, our individual role in making our society a better place, engage in meaningful community building conversations and discuss these larger societal issues. For adults, I think we need to meet people where they are by building free opportunities for folks to meet in familiar spaces like libraries, churches, schools, and break bread together in community, and be intentional about building a respectful discourse.

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12 on Tuesday: Leslie Orrantia - WISC - Channel 3000 - Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3

NEC develops reliable FPGAs for space travel – Electronics Weekly – Electronics Weekly

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Typically SRAM-based FPGAs when used in space, can experience the problem of changes to the information written in the SRAM due to the effects of radiation, says NEC.

For example, radiation can cause an electrical charge in the semiconductor substrate. As a result, a failure occurs to the SRAMs in FPGAs that record information based on the amount of charge, causing a change in the circuit configuration.

NEC claims its NanoBridge technology enables a tenfold improvement over the power efficiency of conventional FPGAs as well as providing them with high radiation tolerance.

NEC has conducted an operation demonstration jointly with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), using the newly developed NB-FPGA in a tough radioactive terrestrial environment.

As a result, it has confirmed that the ON and OFF states of the NanoBridge remain unchanged, whether radiation is delivered or not.

Yuichi Nakamura, general manager at NEC Research Laboratories, writes:

Based on the result, NEC expects that the NanoBridge will be able to reduce the frequency of errors caused by radiation to one percent or less and contribute to the creation of an LSI that offers high radiation tolerance and ultra-low power consumption simultaneously.

The next step is to validate the NB-FPGA by incorporating it in the Satellite Technology Demonstration 1, which will be launched in FY2018.

The NanoBridge uses the cross-link of metal atoms in a solid electrolyte to place the signals into the ON or OFF state (See Figure.1 right).

The ON or OFF state is maintained even after voltage is released. The cross-link created by metal atoms in the NanoBridge is free from the impact of electrical charges generated by the delivery of radiation.

Accordingly, the possibility of rewriting is extremely remote in the circuit of NB-FPGA, even in a space environment that is exposed to a large amount of radiation, which improves reliability, says NEC.

In the Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration 1, a demonstration experiment of compressing and transmitting camera-captured images through the NB-FPGA will be carried out in a harsh environment.

Image:Operation mechanism of NanoBridge (left), NB-FPGA chip (right)

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NEC develops reliable FPGAs for space travel - Electronics Weekly - Electronics Weekly

Make Fertility Great Again – returnofkings.com

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Should old ladies be having children outside of divine assistance? Former director of Londons Serpentine Galleries, Dame Julia Peyton-Jones, has become a mother via surrogacy, aged 64, prompting the country to question whether such a thing is ethical or even lawful.

As a strong libertarian, I believe an Englishmans home is his castle, but at these late stages of life, nature leaves a womans womb as nothing but a barren ruin. It makes sense to question how the child will fare when their support network has also come to ruin, if only on behalf of the childs potential estate, let alone for the effect this will have on society.

The real question is not why older women would want another woman to carry their baby to fruition. Perhaps it is just a valedictory pretence of vitality by those who bought the lie that every woman could and should have it allpostmenstrual howling at the moon, long after the biological clock grew silent. Rather, we must ask why we Europeans have [lost] the will to replace ourselves, as Prof. William Reville recently put it. How can we end this revolt against nature or voluntary demographic extinction? Of course, overpowering nature is how we come to not only survive but dominate and flourish on this planet, but ignoring scientific facts and natural laws in the face of expiration is the direct antithesis; it is simply degenerate.

More women are having their children over 50!

Sadly, Gramsci and Lukacs theory that Western culture must be destroyed for communism to emerge has been tested by leftists and neocons since the 1960s, when cultural Marxism came to dominate the cultural scene. From political policy to popular writing, half of Western populations have bought the idea that white procreation or even any sense of identity is about the worst thing imaginable. Whilst celebrities increasingly promote having children over the age of fifty, every week, another article is published by some young, damaged goods or other, trying to convince the world (by which I mean herself) that shes just fine without a family. The latest I read, from the ironically named Ms. Chatel, presents the usual platitudeschildren will ruin your lifebut, apparently of even greater importance, they could increase mankinds carbon footprint.

Yet, the fact is housewives are the happiest women around and I imagine their husbands are happiest too. Furthermore, traditional families are a great benefit to society as well; they are our most powerful bulwark against high crime rates. For a healthy society, we can only conclude that women at Peyton-Jones age should ideally be grandmothers. Grandparents are a valuable pillar of society the more time they spend with their grandchildren, the better it is for their development and thus, the greater benefit we all receive. Can we really be surprised that this is the case when this is how we have evolved? (N.B. Theres a good reason other familial structures havent survived.)

So, the closer we get to the natural order, the more sustainable our society becomes. If this were not the case, men would not have evolved to find youth so attractive and women would not have evolved to age sooner and worse than men, focusing our mating habits towards those stronger, healthier eggs. Of course, women age sooner but live longer because they do not readily outlive their usefulness as grandmothers. The reason we have evolved to find Peyton-Jones act so taboo, however, is that she will readily outlive her usefulness as a mother; to display this as acceptable is a direct threat to the society our children must inherit. The threat cultural Marxism poses must, therefore, be stopped.

The natural order is the goal of all Traditionalists

But, as I said, Im a libertarian; so, what about individual liberty? Well, of course, if you dont like the natural order of things, thats fine. By all means, go and raise a family of twelve in a highly radioactive environment at the age of 80. I will wish you the very best of luck and, whats more, I will politely disguise the futility I feel in doing so. But dont ask me to value what you do or to remain silent when you set about proselytizing society to your bizarre ideas. In order for my children and grandchildren (if youre capable of thinking that far ahead) to enjoy the liberties I desire for myself, were going to need a sustainable environment in which they can flourish. And the purposes for which you propose we use our medical advancements dont cut the mustard.

Instead, I propose we use our great scientific advancements to restore and enhance the natural order, for the benefit of us all. But how can we usher in a Spring, rather than the coming demographic Winter?

Could positive screening make child-rearing more popular?

In an interview I conducted with Prof. Richard Lynn, he suggested that states should stop imposing degenerating policies, promoting anything other than the traditional. However, he noted that this has only ever had a negligible effect in swaying the opinions of those Europeans who will not replace themselves. What is needed is neo-eugenics, that is, private services provided by the market, e.g. designer babies.

According to Lynn, such services could provide both an attractive and efficient way to improve demographics and even raise the average IQ of our populations by a standard deviation in just one generation. If the state were so inclined, it could promote the use of such services through subsidies, assistance or tax breaks; thus, encouraging those who were breeding to replacement levels and using these services to select preferable genes for their children, in much the same way that IVF screening currently allows us to avoid relatively undesirable qualities.

So, I ask you again, should grannies be having children? If you like civilization, you wont love this becoming normal, thats for sure. Whether it is through legislation or frowning upon this as a social taboo, this degeneracy must certainly be countered by the promotion and protection of traditional families and the freeing of the market to make the prospect of having children far more attractive to young Westerners. Lets explore every avenue to secure the future of Western civilization with the same vigour that was used to bring it to ruins.

Read More: How Mass Immigration Is Driven By Female Consumerism And Low Fertility

Feb 2, 2017Rik Storey

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Make Fertility Great Again - returnofkings.com

NYC’s Metrograph theater is running a sci-fi film series featuring Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and Metropolis – The Verge

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March is objectively the worst month in New York City for several reasons, mostly involving weather. But theres one bright spot for brooding New Yorkers this month, and thats The Metrographs latest film series, The Singularity.

The Singularity is a mini sci-fi film festival of sorts, running from March 17th to April 3rd. The series will feature an impressive range of films: classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner, campier movies like RoboCop and The Terminator, and art house features like Wong Kar-Wais 2046 and Lynn Hershman-Leesons Teknolust.

Youve got 10 days to prepare

A Metrograph press release says the series contemplates the ever-encroaching future moment when artificial superintelligence will overtake human intelligenceknown as the coming Singularitywith films spanning ninety years of moving image history.

Beginning on March 24th, the theater will also run a one-week revival of Mamoru Oshiis 1995 film Ghost in the Shell in advance of the Scarlett Johansson remake out the following week.

The theater hasnt yet announced times for The Singularity screenings, but the entire lineup is here.

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NYC's Metrograph theater is running a sci-fi film series featuring Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and Metropolis - The Verge

At the Spencer, surprises from new Asian artists – Pitch Weekly

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Jiayuan Mountain by Du Kun

In the West, the phrase Asian art typically evokes delicate rice-paper prints, robed women in minimal interiors, and sublime waves of Japanese landscapes: museum pieces. Its no surprise that imaginative contemporary works are being made in the East. But whats on view in Temporal Turn, at the University of Kansas recently renovated Spencer Museum of Art, nevertheless startles. The exhibition gathers arresting art that addresses the unstoppable march of time and the spiritual link between humanity and nature.

The show, divided into five categories, spreads out across the two-story gallery. The names of these rubrics Pulse, The Edge of Infinity, Mythopoeia, Human/Posthuman/Inhuman, Anthropocene risk shading the viewers impressions of the art gathered therein. But the verbal indulgence doesnt have to inhibit your intuition, and the visuals consistently stimulate.

New meaning is given to the expression rock god in Du Kuns Jiayuan Mountain, part of his portrait series of Chinese music stars imagined as colossal temples settled in mountain landscapes. Each in this run is breathtaking in its rich detail and luscious color palettes. Here, the musicians features, built from elements of Buddhist and Confucian architecture, conflate traditional and modern modes of identity; shoulder muscles are articulated by jagged vertical mountains dusted by a snowy fog, and the hair is rendered like a bank of sculpted clouds. A bird on the left edge, near the eyes, gives the viewer a sense of scale. The closer you are to the piece, the more details reveal themselves. The bridge of the nose, for instance, is an emperor in formal garb strumming an instrument. Du Kuns obsession with musicians has reached worship status, but his homage is rooted in traditional Chinese culture and deep history.

I wish there were a way to experience Konoike Tomokos Donning Animal Skins and Braided Grass in a different setting. The six-legged wolf is mirror-tiled, like a walking disco ball, and is the most attractive piece on the first floor. But its position in the gallery, beside a window, limits the full glittering effect on a sunny afternoon.

The sculpture coincides with an 11-minute black-and-white animation of wolf and a liminal creature called a mimio think sentient emoticon on a quest through the woods. The narrative emerges from a kind of dream logic, with bits of mythological ephemera strung across a loop that seems to have no beginning and no end. Wolves are extinct in Konoikes native Japan, where at one time indigenous Ainu people believed themselves born of a goddess and a creature that resembled a wolf. Donning Animal Skins alters and elevates the animal in a way that demands consideration of the myth and the reality as a single history: Reverent lore couldnt save the Hokkaido wolf from extermination.

As you make your way through the first floor, maniacal clicking periodically breaks your focus and lures you into the darkness of a side room. It comes from an old adding machine, stuck banging out the same command on a strip of thermal paper, which has become tangled and ineffective from the unyielding abuse. The installation Kansas Bokaisen Project, by Park Jaeyoung, is set up like a cluttered research lab, with an animal being pumped with air in a plastic bubble. The creature is a Japanese urban legend, called a bokaisen; under the steamy incubator in the middle of the lab, it resembles a possum. Paging through the notebooks on the table provides more information about an expedition to a land where the new animal was discovered, native to the fictitious world that unfolds as you paw through the interactive materials on the desk. A simulacrum of taut empirical research mingles with the scribbles of a mad scientist.

For images you didnt ask to see and will probably try to forget, move upstairs and sit in the curtained-off room in which Lu Yangs Uterus Man runs. In this surreal animation set to loud, jarring EDM the reproductive process mutates into a militarized nightmare. You will see weaponry and biology merged. You will see a baby roaring on the end of an umbilical-cord leash and a go-kart made of human bones, its elongated spine whipping around the back like the tail of a scorpion.

Told you.

The central character of the animation is a gender-ambiguous futuristic superhero wearing a suit that makes the human body transparent. Uterus Man procreates, graphically, and uses the child as a tool for destruction. Sexuality and gender are explored through an assault of violent images (Lus collaborator on the project is a Japanese artist who had his genitals removed and served as a meal to paying guests. Really), and even when physical violence is absent from the screen, the intensity of the music and animation leaves you no less unsettled. Uterus Man hammers home the Human/Posthuman/Inhuman subcategory name, hammers it right into your skull. Lu Yangs work challenges sexual and cultural conventions with an exhaustive rigor that borders on the murderous.

That said, Yangs anti-narrative storytelling implores you to consider time as a tangled line. And if there is a single theme in Temporal Turn, this is it. The film succeeds in intensifying the entire show by being its least contemplative, its least beautiful. This is art with the power to free artists who follow its wildly unpaved path.

Still, theres more to see in Temporal Turn. Walking through it, you understand that artists in Seoul, New Delhi, Tokyo and Beijing are producing imaginative work at a pace that mirrors the rapidity of the regions overall growth. Its an absorbing collection, one that even seems to be in conversation with the permanent collection just as the artists on view consider the timeline that connects their new with the unforgettable old.

Temporal Turn: Art and Speculation in Contemporary Asia

Through March 12 at the Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence

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At the Spencer, surprises from new Asian artists - Pitch Weekly

MacArthur leaving Zachary Chamber to head Ascension Economic Development Corp. – The Advocate

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Kate MacArthur, the executive director of the Zachary Chamber of Commerce, has been named president and chief executive officer of the Ascension Economic Development Corp.

She replaces Mike Eades, who left the AEDC in November after 7 years to take over as director of economic development for Lexington County, South Carolina.

MacArthur has been head of the Zachary chamber for four years. Before that, she spent five years as director of business intelligence for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, recruiting and retaining businesses in the nine-parish metro area. MacArthur also has served as the director of marketing and existing industry for the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. in South Carolina and as a business analyst for the Area Development Partnership in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

MacArthur, who is from the Philadelphia area, earned a bachelors in East Asian studies with a specialty in International Affairs from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and a masters in economic development from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

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MacArthur leaving Zachary Chamber to head Ascension Economic Development Corp. - The Advocate

Two Ascension residents honored with prestigious award – Weekly Citizen

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Brandie Richardson

March kicks off Women's History month, a month long dedication that highlights the importance of women in history and society. In the spirit of this annual celebration, the LSU Women's Center is hosting their fifth annual Esprit de Femme Award Sunrise Celebration.

Established in 2009, the Esprit de Femme Award is an annual acknowledgement of eight women and one man who has made remarkable strides towards the advancement of women in Louisiana.

Each fall the LSU Women's Center calls for nominations for anyone who wants to nominate someone in the community who has made advancements for women in the state. On average, the center receives between 25 and 30 nominations a year.

"We are looking for honorees who are trailblazers and/or who have made strides in advancing the status of women in Louisiana," said LSU Women's Center Director Summer Steib.

This year two extraordinary women from Ascension Parish, Tanya Whitney of Sorrento and Alsie Dunbar of Gonzales, are among those being honored at the celebration later this month.

"Ms. Whitney is an American hero and trailblazer for women in the military," Steib continued. "She is a decorated veteran who dedicated much of her life to serving our country. Even though she has retired, Ms. Whitney continues to support women veterans in Louisiana and across the country through her continued service."

This is the first award of this nature that Whitney has received and she said she is very honored to be recognized for the work she does with the Women Veterans of Louisiana, where she focuses on showcasing the work women have done in the military for our nation.

"This was a surprise, I didn't even know I had been nominated," the Sorrento resident said. "When you look at some of the past nominees and what they've done, I didn't really think I fit in that grain, but someone thought I did."

Whitney served nearly 30 years in the Army, where she retired in 2010 as a Master Sergeant. She is involved in many organizations and holds leadership positions such as in the VFW Post 3693 and the Women Veterans of Louisiana. She presents numerous educational workshops to schools and organizations in the state promoting the service of women in the military and in the aeronautical fields.

"A lot of it is bringing to the public to those who don't have a real grasp of how women serve in the military and how they have served," Whitney said. "To show that they have always been an integral part of the military, just like any other minority they have not got the recognition they should have in the past. We are trying to bring that to the forefront."

Dunbar, who has more than 18 years in the chemistry industry as a scientist and engineer, was nominated for her efforts in exposing young girls to the sciences, technology, engineering and math through her STEM GEMS Mentoring Project, which she feels is the biggest accomplishment she has achieved towards progressing women and young girls in the state.

"Being a female and a minority in undergrad and in the petrol-chem industry, there weren't a lot of my counterparts that looked like me, that's why I formed STEM GEMS," Dunbar said. "I wanted to reach back and tell young girls it's ok to be unapologetic for being brilliant or being strong or being yourself. There are no glass ceilings."

Dunbar has received the Greater Baton Rouge Business Reports Top 40 under 40 award, a proclamation from the City of Gonzales declaring Sept. 8, 2015, as STEM GEMS Day in the city and will receive a Key to the Parish later this month. She also received the Employee Performance Plan from Motiva Enterprises, which is the highest honor an employee can receive because it is merit based and voted on by majority stake holders.

"Ive gotten awards over the years, but this means a lot because it's sending myself a message that I'm doing the right thing and impacting the lives of others, especially women and young girls," she added. "There are some heavy hitters who have this honor. It solidifies that there is nothing wrong with being a women and being a pioneer in an industry or in your community."

"Ms. Dunbar was nominated multiple times this year and the selection committee was impressed by her STEMS GEMS initiative," the Women's Center Director added. "In addition to her work mentoring girls in the STEM fields, Ms. Dunbar is active in many community endeavors that support and advance women."

Others receiving this year's award includes Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, former College of Fellows of the American Theatre Dean Gresdna Doty, the first African American female to graduate from LSU in chemical engineering Del Dugas, Director Emerita of the Center for Academic Success Sandra Yancy McGuire, Bengal Belles President Aimee Simon, Founder and President of CPEX Elizabeth "Boo" Thomas and Channel ZerO Group managing partner Calvin Mackie.

The 2017 Espirit de Femme Award reception will be held March 30 at Boudreaux's in Baton Rouge.

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Two Ascension residents honored with prestigious award - Weekly Citizen

The AI debate must stay grounded in reality – Prospect

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Research works best when it takes account of multiple views by Vincent Conitzer / March 6, 2017 / Leave a comment

Are driverless cars the future Fabio De Paola/PA Wire/PA Images

Progress in artificial intelligence has been rapid in recent years. Computer programs are dethroning humans in games ranging from Jeopardy to Go to poker. Self-driving cars are appearing on roads. AI is starting to outperform humans in image and speech recognition.

With all this progress, a host of concerns about AIs impact on human societies have come to the forefront. How should we design and regulate self-driving cars and similar technologies? Will AI leave large segments of the population unemployed? Will AI have unintended sociological consequences? (Think about algorithms that accurately predict which news articles a person will like resulting in highly polarised societies, or algorithms that predict whether someone will default on a loan or commit another crime becoming racially biased due to the input data they are given.)

Will AI be abused by oppressive governments to sniff out and stifle any budding dissent? Should we develop weapons that can act autonomously? And should we perhaps even be concerned that AI will eventually become superintelligentintellectually more capable than human beings in every important waymaking us obsolete or even extinct? While this last concern was once purely in the realm of science fiction, notable figures including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Stephen Hawking, inspired by Oxford philosopher Nick Bostroms Superintelligence book, have recently argued it needs to be taken seriously.

These concerns are mostly quite distinct from each other, but they all rely on the premise of technical advances in AI. Actually, in all cases but the last one, even just currently demonstrated AI capabilities justify the concern to some extent, but further progress will rapidly exacerbate it. And further progress seems inevitable, both because there do not seem to be any fundamental obstacles to it and because large amounts of resources are being poured into AI research and development. The concerns feed off each other and a community of people studying the risks of AI is starting to take shape. This includes traditional AI researchersprimarily computer scientistsas well as people from other disciplines: economists studying AI-driven unemployment, legal scholars debating how best to regulate self-driving cars, and so on.

A conference on Beneficial AI held in California in January brought a sizeable part of this community together. The topics covered reflected the diversity of concerns and interests. One moment, the discussion centred on which communities are disproportionately affected by their jobs being automated; the next moment, the topic was whether we should make sure that super-intelligent AI has conscious experiences. The mixing together of such short- and long-term concerns does not sit well with everyone. Most traditional AI researchers are reluctant to speculate about whether and when we will attain truly human-level AI: current techniques still seem a long way off this and it is not clear what new insights would be able to close the gap. Most of them would also rather focus on making concrete technical progress than get mired down in philosophical debates about the nature of consciousness. At the same time, most of these researchers are willing to take seriously the other concerns, which have a concrete basis in current capabilities.

Is there a risk that speculation about super-intelligence, often sounding like science fiction more than science, will discredit the larger project of focusing on the societally responsible development of real AI? And if so, is it perhaps better to put aside any discussion of super-intelligence for now? While I am quite sceptical of the idea that truly human-level AI will be developed anytime soon, overall I think that the people worried about this deserve a place at the table in these discussions. For one, some of the most surprisingly impressive recent technical accomplishments have come from people who are very bullish on what AI can achieve. Even if it turns out that we are still nowhere close to human-level AI, those who imagine that we are could contribute useful insights into what might happen in the medium-term.

I think there is value even in thinking about some of the very hard philosophical questions, such as whether AI could ever have subjective experiences, whether there is something it would be like to be a highly advanced AI system. (See also my earlier Prospect article.) Besides casting an interesting new light on some ancient questions, the exercise is likely to inform future societal debates. For example, we may imagine that in the future people will become attached to the highly personalised and anthropomorphised robots that care for them in old age, and demand certain rights for these robots after they pass away. Should such rights be granted? Should such sentiments be avoided?

At the same time, the debate should obviously not exclude or turn off people who genuinely care about the short-term concerns while being averse to speculation about the long-term, especially because most real AI researchers fall in this last category. Besides contributing solutions to the short-term concerns, their participation is essential to ensure that the longer-term debate stays grounded in reality. Research communities work best when they include people with different views and different sub-interests. And it is hard to imagine a topic for which this is truer than the impact of AI on human societies.

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The AI debate must stay grounded in reality - Prospect

When We Explore Space, We Go Together – Slate Magazine

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Members of the Expedition 50 crew aboard the International Space Station celebrated the 2016 holidays together with a festive meal, among them NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

NASA

On Wednesday, Future Tensea partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State Universitywill host an event in Washington called Will Collaboration or Competition Propel Humans to Mars and Beyond? For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website.

The next NASA rover to Mars will launch in 2020. It will be built in the United States, and it will measure wind with a tool from Spain, study rock chemistry with an instrument partially built by the French, and examine the subsurface with a sounder from Finland. This kind of international mashup is actually fairly typical for space missions, which are typically composed of scientists and instruments from countries all over the world.

Partnerships with international space agencies have always been key to NASAs success. (Little-known fact: The first flag deployed on the moon was that of Switzerland, as part of a solar wind experiment with Apollo 11.) When you are exploring space, going it alone has never been, and will never be, an option.

When you are exploring space, going it alone has never been, and will never be, an option.

When it comes to peering outside our solar system, the partnerships continue. The stunning recent announcement of a seven-planet system around the star TRAPPIST-1, a mere 39.5 light-years away from Earth, involved a multinational team and telescopes, both in space and on the ground. A Belgian astronomer originally discovered some of the planets using a telescope in Chile, then further observations with the Paranal telescope in Chile and NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope confirmed the seven-planet system. Three of the planets are located in the habitable zone, where liquid water, critical for life, could be stable on the surface.

The flagship example of partnerships in space is literally the flagship: the International Space Station. The U.S., Russian, Japanese, Canadian, and European space agencies have been operating this amazing orbiting laboratory for more than 16 years, continuously human tended. The astronauts have come from 18 different nations, and experiments from 93 countries have been carried out on the ISS. Every day, astronauts on the International Space Station carry out research that will enable humans to travel to Mars and back. In the microgravity environment of space, our bones lose density, our muscles waste, our cardiovascular system undergoes change. Research carried out on the ISS is helping us develop ways to mitigate these human health effects, which will make it possible for humans to arrive at Mars, after a seven- to eight-month journey, healthy and ready to cope with any potential emergency.

Why Are India, Luxembourg, and Other Countries Getting Into the Space Race?

Your Cheat-Sheet Guide to the New Space Race

When Youre Exploring Space, Going It Alone Isnt an Option

If India or China Beats the U.S. to Mars, It Will Feel Like a Military Defeat

The International Space Exploration Coordination Group comprises 14 space agencies, including the expected bodies like NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Russian space agency. But it also involves space agencies from China, India, South Korea, and Ukraine. The group has produced a road map for human exploration beyond Earth and provides a forum for space agencies to coordinate efforts. While some nations are more focused on the Moon and some on Mars, all realize that no single agency is capable of such a large undertaking alone.

In addition to multilateral efforts like ISECG, NASA has bilateral cooperation with individual space agencies. For instance, the European Space Agency is providing the service module for the Orion capsule that will fly on the Space Launch System rocket to take humans beyond low Earth orbit. The first uncrewed test flight was to be in 2018, but NASA is now investigating how soon it could conduct the first test flight of SLS and Orion with a crew onboard.

The only space agency NASA cannot have bilateral agreements with is China, thanks to U.S. law. The Chinese space agency does work closely with most of NASAs foreign partner space agencies, and the previous NASA administrator, Charles Bolden, spoke publicly about his frustration with the policy. At a public forum with other space agencies in 2015, he stated, If we are not collaborating with everybody, well be on the outside looking in.

One of the chief barriers to international cooperation between space agencies is the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Some space technologies are covered under these regulations, which were put in place to prevent the export of weapons systems and related technologies. U.S. companies that sell launch services or satellites have complained about the restrictions, which they feel cause them to lose business to international competitors. Even NASA has come under scrutiny for possible ITAR violations. The ITAR restrictions are confusing and seem overly broad, making it more difficult to set up cooperation with international scientists on missions. The ITAR regulations are set up under U.S. law, making it ultimately the responsibility of Congress to decide how much to loosen or tighten the restrictions. Despite these challenges, when it comes to overall goals in exploration, NASA will lead, in part because its budget far exceeds the budgets of its partner space agencies.

While the head of the European Space Agency has called for a moon village to be the exploration priority, NASA continues to set its sights on Mars, with a plan for the first crewed mission to Mars in the early 2030s. NASA does plan to put the precursor for a Mars transfer vehicle in orbit around the Moon in the mid-2020s, providing a stepping stone for international or commercial partners that want to venture down to the lunar surface. But Mars remains the priority goal, with the first orbital mission followed by astronauts to the surface in the late 2030s, to search for evidence of past life on Mars. The private sector will play a key role in this venture, with SpaceX planning to send an uncrewed Dragon capsule to the Martian surface in 2018 in partnership with NASA. SpaceXs capability to land its first-stage rocket boosters back on Earth is helping them to develop the needed entry, descent, and landing capabilities for Mars.

Observing this planet is also a closely coordinated effort. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites and the Group on Earth Observations provide forums for space agencies or offices from around the world to discuss open data policies, coordinate observations, inter-calibrate instruments, and allow data comparison and validation. These coordination efforts are becoming even more critical, as we cope with changing weather and patterns of growing food, and sea level rise due to human-caused climate change. There can be more immediate payoffs, too, particularly when it comes to disasters. During humanitarian crises and natural disasters, the space agencies (more than 15 of them right now) with Earth-observing satellites that have signed the International Charter for Space and Major Disasters can shift their focus and prioritize processing of satellite data to aid rescue and recovery efforts.

While people often think of space exploration as a way to promote national pride, the truth is that the future of space is international. These partnerships are expanding our knowledge of the universe, helping us search for life on other worlds, making critical observations of our own planet, and moving humans outward into space in a much more rapid time frame, and more comprehensively, than would be possible otherwise. In addition, innovations in technology and science are not restricted to one country. Diverse, innovative teams solve problems, and no one country or company can go it alone when it comes to the final frontier of space.

This article is part of the new space race installment of Futurography, a series in which Future Tense introduces readers to the technologies that will define tomorrow. Each month, well choose a new technology and break it down. Future Tense is a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate.

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When We Explore Space, We Go Together - Slate Magazine

If India or China Beats the US to Mars, It Will Feel Like a Military Defeat – Slate Magazine

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Artwork of the Mars Rover leaving its lander.

NASA

On Wednesday, March 8, Future Tensea partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State Universitywill host an event in Washington called Will Collaboration or Competition Propel Humans to Mars and Beyond? For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website.

When young Charles Darwin stepped onto the Beagle, he wasnt planning to gather data for science, eventually changing the way humans view life. He had been a mediocre student in school and simply was hired on to be the gentleman companion of the captain. The main purpose of the Beagles voyage was to survey and produce better maps for trade.

Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, and everyone else who tried to find the Indies were doing so for trade and national expansion. Sure, they stumbled upon parts of North America and a lot of other handy things and places along the way, but those discoveries were accidents. Sir Francis Drake, John Cabot, and everyone else who tried to find the Northwest Passage were also doing so for trade and national expansion. They also discovered a lot of science along the way, but not by primary purpose.

We often connect exploration with discovery; unexplored wilderness; new understanding; data; and, of course, science. But science has seldom been the motivator for exploration. Science has been an add-on until very recently, when inquiry and wealth and an interesting twist in perception has made science appear to lead expeditions, at least in space. All our robotic missions beyond our planet appear to be motivated by scientific discovery. We plan our mission to Europa to discover whether life has arisen there. We send rovers to Mars to look for water and the potential for life. We seek scientific answers.

At core, robotic space exploration is more for inspiration than it is for science. Orbiters, landers, and rovers inspire people to dream and to take bigger steps in their own lives. More practically, robotic missions are preparation for human missions. We Americans pay for NASA willingly because we are inspired and proud of our national achievements and technological wonders.

And although robotic space exploration is inspiring, human space exploration is far more personal, far more narrative, filled with more relatable challenge and risk. Human space exploration is a way for nations to flex their muscles and compete without having to resort to war. Its our substitute for mutual assured destruction, and that has not changed since the Cold War. (Thankfully, it is an uplifting and constructive substitute.)

Why Are India, Luxembourg, and Other Countries Getting Into the Space Race?

Your Cheat-Sheet Guide to the New Space Race

When Youre Exploring Space, Going It Alone Isnt an Option

If India or China Beats the U.S. to Mars, It Will Feel Like a Military Defeat

Americans have been thrilled by our Apollo successes. For 47 years, we have been the only nation to put a person on another celestial body, and we have been resting on that glory all that time. But that is about to change. The Chinese have an ambitious, progressive plan for landers, humans, and finally a colony on the moon. Multiple private companies, from the United States, India, and elsewhere, have lunar plans. What is going to happen to the American psyche when the Chinese, the Indians, and the European Union put people on the moon, and we are no longer the only ones? How will we react if other nations beat us to Mars?

After the Apollo era, we let the technology that enabled travel to the moon go out of production, in particular the Saturn V, the huge rocket needed to lift the big loads. Not until 2004 did that change, when President Bush announced we were going back to the moon, as a stepping stone for Mars. We began to build the Ares I and V rockets to enable those big launches. But then that program, in whole called Constellation, was canceled in 2010.

Next, also in 2010, the NASA Authorization Act laid out a plan to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s. NASA, the science community, and the aerospace engineering powerhouses jumped on this new vision and began work. The graphic designers outdid themselves with inspirational timelines and visions of transport and habitation.

And now the Trump administration says we are going back to the moon perhaps helped by some increasingly influential and inspirational private companies, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Orbital, Blue Origin, Bigelow, and the like.

But wait! Where are we going? The moon, asteroids, Mars, space stations? What are we really striving for? If we cant commit to one human exploration target in our solar system, then we must conclude that there is no single overriding purpose compelling humanity to reach one celestial target over another. Yet we feel compelled. Science, clearly, is not the driving impulse. Not even commerce is driving it, despite speculation about riches in asteroids.

Having no consistent target means that the going is the point, not the getting there. And if making the journey itself is the point, then the purpose is showing courage and innovation and being first and fastest and bestin short, its a competition. Human space exploration is about national greatness as compared to other nations. Were still firmly in the Cold War mindset.

When other countries succeed, then, rather than joining together in a positive view of human progress, we will feel that we have failed, and we may be angry and bitterand dangerous.

One concrete solution is not to fail, that we as a nation need to go to the moon and to Mars.

And another solution is to collaborate. Imagine the Americans, from NASA and SpaceX and other private organizations, and the Chinese, and the Indians, and the Russians, and the European Union, are all living in nonstandardized modules at some safe distance from one another on Mars. Would they want to stay apart in such an extreme environment, or would they want to communicate and collaborate (even if thats not the case back on Earth)?

Lets not just hope for collaboration. Lets take more and better steps now to create and foster a space collaboration. We can make private-public space partnerships easier, including those that cross national borders. We can work harder at the international meetings on space topics to create multinational collaborative bodies. We can work harder at developing globally beneficial international standards.

Exploration started out about nations and wealth. Space exploration could be about moreit could be about our species. When we go to Marsit will happenlets make sure it is a step deeper into human civilization as we do it.

This article is part of the new space race installment of Futurography, a series in which Future Tense introduces readers to the technologies that will define tomorrow. Each month, well choose a new technology and break it down. Future Tense is a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate.

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If India or China Beats the US to Mars, It Will Feel Like a Military Defeat - Slate Magazine

Canaccord Genuity Cuts Nanotech Security Corp (NTS) Price Target to C$1.75 – Chaffey Breeze

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Canaccord Genuity Cuts Nanotech Security Corp (NTS) Price Target to C$1.75
Chaffey Breeze
Nanotech Security Corp logo Nanotech Security Corp (CVE:NTS) had its price objective reduced by Canaccord Genuity from C$2.00 to C$1.75 in a report released on Thursday morning. They currently have a speculative buy rating on the stock. Canaccord ...

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Canaccord Genuity Cuts Nanotech Security Corp (NTS) Price Target to C$1.75 - Chaffey Breeze

New Nanotech Material Could Solve On-Vehicle Hydrogen Storage Problems – The Green Optimistic (blog)

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Yet, the importance of nanoconfinement is not only this. Researchers from Mahidol University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have found that nano-hydrides can alter the nano-interfaces, which are phases that occur when the material is cycled.

Consequently, the researchers decided to apply nanoconfinement into Lithium Nitride hydrogen storage system. At the end, it was proved that nano-interfaces completely changed the pathways of the reaction pathways, and made the charging unit much faster and reversible.

The results were published in the Advanced Materials Interfaces journal on February 23rd. Regarding the results Brandon Wood, an LLNL materials scientist and lead author of the paper, commented:

The key is to get rid of the undesirable intermediate phases, which slow down the materials performance as they are formed or consumed. If you can do that, then the storage capacity kinetics dramatically improve and the thermodynamic requirements to achieve full recharge become far more reasonable.

In this material, the nano-interfaces do just that, as long as the nanoconfined particles are small enough. Its really a new paradigm for hydrogen storage, since it means that the reactions can be changed by engineering internal microstructures.

The paper has also opened an important door for the research on about solid-solid phase reaction in energy storage and the contribution of the nanoconfinement in this matter through thermodynamic modeling method. Tae Wook Heo, another LLNL co-author on the study, said:

There is a direct analogy between hydrogen storage reactions and solid-state reactions in battery electrode materials. People have been thinking about the role of interfaces in batteries for some time, and our work suggests that some of the same strategies being pursued in the battery community could also be applied to hydrogen storage. Tailoring morphology and internal microstructure could be the best way forward for engineering materials that could meet performance targets.

[via llnl]

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New Nanotech Material Could Solve On-Vehicle Hydrogen Storage Problems - The Green Optimistic (blog)

Nanotech incubation centre inaugurated – NYOOOZ

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Harkesh Mittal (left), advisor and head of National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, inaugurates the PSG Nanotech Research, Innovation and Incubation Centre in Coimbatore on Monday. L. Gopalakrishnan, Managing Trustee of PSG Sons and Charities is seen in the picture . | Photo Credit: S. Siva Saravanan With efforts to encourage commercial production of innovative products in areas such as biotechnology, internet of things, and nano technology, about 30 % companies at the technology business incubators in the country are in such high-end technologies, Harkesh Mittal, advisor and head of National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), told presspersons here on Monday. He inaugurated here the PSG Nanotech Research, Innovation, and Incubation Centre, which is a collaboration of the PSG Institute of Advanced Studies, PSG College of Technology, and PSG-STEP and is supported by the NSTEDB. This is the only incubation centre so far for nano technology and it will focus on smart textiles, healthcare, renewable energy, and plastic electronics. The area of nano technology is new and lot of research is happening in this field. There is a need for transfer of technology, taking ideas to the market. The incubator will support such an effort, he said. The NSTEDB aims to start 20 new technology business incubators every year in different verticals. There are 110 technology business incubators in the country and 50 of these give seed support to the incubatees. The NSTEDB gives ?10 crore to each of these incubators and the amount is disbursed as loan or equity in two to three years. The National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations was launched last year. Under this initiative, an incubator gets seed support, has the scope to upscale, and will get support to covert ideas into prototypes. PSG STEP will launch shortly an entrepreneurial residential programme. It is among the 10 incubators in the country that will offer fellowship for a year to students who are entrepreneurs. A student can receive up to ?30,000 a month. E...

News Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/nanotech-incubation-centre-inaugurated/article17381285.ece

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Nanotech incubation centre inaugurated - NYOOOZ

Why Would People Without Diabetes Monitor Their Blood Sugar? – A Sweet Life

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Earlier this month, Gizmodo published a story about Sano Intelligence, a healthcare startup that is making a continuous glucose tracker that sticks to a users skin and monitors blood sugar elevations through a mobile app. The news Gizmodo wanted to make a point of is that Sano plans to market the product to people without diabetes. If youre wondering what the tech publication thought of it, their headline says it all: Nobody Needs This Silicon Valley-Made Blood Sugar Tracker.

My first instinct was also that it sounded ridiculous and in my head I poked fun: Ooh, look what this slice of pizza does to my blood sugar. Cool! I couldnt imagine why anyone with normal body functions would want to be privy to their short-term spikes and dips. It appeared that Sano was taking short cuts. Instead of focusing on changing the lives of people with diabetes, the company was looking to make a quick buck. (Quick in medical-device land is still far from quick.)

After my initial reactionary response, I spent time thinking about why anyone would want to be tethered to physical updates like those of us with diabetes (myself included). Are people without diabetes curious to learn more about their deeper metabolic functions? And, is it worth it to those of us with diabetes to keep an eye on new product launches like the one from Sano Intelligence?

But first, what is it? The Sano tracker is a small stick-on sensor that feels like a piece of Velcro. Its covered in hundreds of tiny microstructures that are less than half a mm in length, says Ashwin Pushpala, CEO of Sano Intelligence. The daily-use patch goes into the skin with the help of an applicator and is far less invasive than the Libre or other CGMs currently on the market. Pushpala hopes to have it available later this year.

Going this route, as a lifestyle-enhancement tool versus a diagnostic one used to make insulin-dosing decisions, allows the startup to get to market quicker and instead of a rigorous FDA approval, it can apply for a simpler form of regulatory sign off for what the FDA considers to be a low-risk device. This category refers to technology thats intended to promote, track, and/or encourage choice(s) which, as part of a healthy lifestyle, may help living well with certain chronic diseases or conditions.

Currently, there are no solutions on the market that provide a painless, discreet, or affordable way for people with pre-diabetes to monitor their glucose levels to make more informed diet and exercise choices. We feel very strongly that we want to build a product that fits their needs, says Pushpala.

With type 2 diabetes on the riseundiagnosed and diagnosedand vast numbers categorized with pre-diabetes (some say 50% of Americans), its reason enough to view what Sano is planning as potentially good for everyone. This population needs a simpler tech solution that they can adopt with minor inconveniences. The once-a-day patch from Sano could be the answer, and even if it isnt, who are we to say it shouldnt be attempted? Sano gets a return on years of research, a larger pool of consumers to sell to and it avoids lengthy clinical trials and years of red tape.

While I was considering this idea of a world of people wearing glucose trackers, I reached out to Geoffrey Woo, CEO and co-founder of Nootrobox, a nootropics-based startup located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Woo started his company with a desire to improve cognition. His goal: to grow more neurons in the brain. There was a misperception that you couldnt grow new ones, says Woo.

Much like vitamins, nootropicssmart drugs or cognitive enhancershas both believers and naysayers. Early adopters that have warmed to this field call themselves biohackers and theyre looking to re-engineer their bodies to be smarter, more creative and more alert. One of the ways they do this is by obsessively watching their intake of food.

How do we watch our bodys reaction to food? By wearing a CGM. Woo wears an Abbott FreeStyle Libre and loves it. Youre more thoughtful in your biometrics, says Woo. Woos goal is to track his mental claritywhere he is at a normal state and how he can get to an enhanced state. Why do you crash after a big meal? asks Woo. By tracking his meals Woo feels that he can refer back to the truth, which will enforce good behavior.

We all know a Coke, fries and hamburger arent good for us, but seeing my blood sugar spike to 13.4 (241) is like, Thats an insane jump! says Woo. For help in understanding his bodys mechanics, Woo has Dr. Manual Lam, Nootrobox science and clinical lead. Lam also works at a hospital in Palo Alto, and is a believer in many of the things that Woo holds dear, namely our ability to re-boot our bodies at a cellular level.

A lot of chronic diseases are due to nutrition and diet. Its funny that doctors are the ones teaching it and weve only gotten four weeks of nutrition or one semester of biochemistry, says Lam. As a hospitalist at a government funded hospital, Lam sees a wide range of sick patients, including those with type 2 diabetes. I think there are some fundamental principles that have been propagated, says Lam. If were all doing the right thing, why is there an increase in obesity and diabetes?

While Nootrobox, which currently doesnt market anything for people with diabetes, wasnt able to get funding on a recent episode of Shark Tank, the company is growing. It might take time for nootropics to go mainstream, but its believers, those who want to gain valuable insights into their bodies, could be the first wave in diabetes tools gaining tractioneven with those of us with diabetes.

Sano Intelligence is committed to casting a wide net with its technology. Our beta release that we are targeting for later this year is step one, says Pushpala. As we continue to test and conduct clinical trials, we are absolutely taking all the steps necessary for FDA approval of future device designs that will target the diabetic market.

If the increased attraction in specialty diets like Whole30, Ketogenic and Paleo are any example, it wont be long before more people are embracing what were previously considered to be tools for people with diabetes. I use [the Libre] all the time, its important to have a visual reminder. Everyone is going to be diabetic or obese and we need more tools to help us. A CGM is a good alarm clock to pull us back, says Woo.

Larissa Zimberoff was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 33 years ago. She is an avid cyclist and a passionate supporter of bike lanes, free WiFi and the Affordable Care Act. She lives in New York City and writes about the intersection of food and technology. You can follow her on Twitter or read more of her published work

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Why Would People Without Diabetes Monitor Their Blood Sugar? - A Sweet Life

The 5th Holi Reloaded festival will feature trance legends Above … – Gizmodo India

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At its fifth iteration, one of Indias largest Holi-centric EDM festival is getting larger than ever. Hosted by Nikhil Chinapa and featuring artists like Above & Beyond, Pearl, Avneesh, Beyond 120 and more, the festival will be unleashed in Mumbai on the day of the festival of colours itself- March 13th.

And to add more flavour to the festival, Huaweis subsidiary Honor has partnered up with the festival. The brand recently launched the dual camera equipped Honor 6X which comes with the ability to bring DSLR-like blur to photos and will be just the perfect companion to capture the colour filled moments in the festival.

Honor has always been a brand for the youth and Holi is a festival that is widely celebrated by Indians. We at Honor intend to connect with our young audience and have therefore associated for the second time with Indias biggest EDM festival. Like Honor, Holi-reloaded speaks to fun and vibrant audiences and we look forward to associating with more such events in the future as these help us connect and understand the pulse of Indian youth, Allen Wangguodong, Director Product Center at Huawei India said in a statement.

Last year, the Holi Reloaded recorded a massive footfall of over 5,000 and featured an intense lineup of international and local artists. This year, the festival is going even bigger by roping in trance legend Above & Beyond. The band started the year with a party-anthem Balearic Balls and were sure enough the group is going to make the party as groovy as it can get.

Tickets for the festival start from Rs 1499 and goes up to Rs 2800. Also you can get a group of five (I see no reason why not!), you can get one ticket free.

Also Read: Above & Beyond will be touring India this Holi

Apart from Above & Beyond and the artists mentioned above, progressive techno sensation Helium Project, deep techno duo Nosh & Sj, progressive house and trap duo Audio Addict will also be performing among others.

Above & Beyond will also be doing a four city tour from 10th to 13th March in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and finally, Mumbai. The band said in a statement, India has always been a special place for us, its the birthplace of Group Therapy Radio and the spiritual home of our Anjunabeats label. Visiting our friends and fans during Holi a colourful celebration of togetherness will be a truly special thing

A pre-party is also happening in Delhi on March 10th.

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The 5th Holi Reloaded festival will feature trance legends Above ... - Gizmodo India

INcoming Artist Corner: Darin Epsilon – Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

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On 10th MarchBlue Frog, Punein association withDeep Dictionaryis set to host a House music legend namedDarin Epsilon. Darin is a well known name in the electronic music scene for various reasons. In addition to being a fantastic music producer, he is also a music critic & huge radio personality.

Entry Rs 600(including Rs 300 cover)

Originating from the land of House music (Chicago), Darin Epsilons career began in 2006 since then he has gained massive strides in House music and has gained acclaim from industry heavyweights such as Hernan Cattaneo, Nick Warren & Paul Oakenfold.

Currently residing in Berlin, Mr. Epsilon has been tauted has the leader of the underground Progressive & Tech House scene. In addition to his renowned label Perspectives Digital, his soundcloud page is a major hit as it amasses a whopping 1 million subscribers and 10,000 plays per month.

Pune is really lucky to host an artist of such stature and Blue Frog is probably the best place to host him. The frog team is currently on an all-time high after their last months heroics, in which they successfully hosted a series of Supersonic after-parties & the mother of all gigs, Cirez D.

On support duties to Darin Epsilon are our local boys, Collective Frequency. The year is just getting better for them month on month. They are following up their set at Supersonic by opening for such a brilliant artist. We can write a lot of stuff about his upcoming gig, but after all its music and we are supposed to hear it. So do yourselves a favor come down nice and early at Blue Frog on 10th March, and prepared to have good time .

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.

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We are just 5 days away from another iconic Above & beyond India tour. 4 cities,...

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INcoming Artist Corner: Darin Epsilon - Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

Achieve TMS Open House Event at New Location in Portland … – Benzinga

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Achieve TMS invites mental health service providers and the public to an open house on March 16th, 2017. Come and get acquainted with the doctors and staff, and tour the beautiful new office location in Portland, OR.

Portland, OR (PRWEB) March 08, 2017

Achieve TMS invites mental health service providers and the public to an open house on March 16th, 2017. Come and get acquainted with the doctors and staff, and tour the beautiful new office location in Portland, OR. Achieve TMS is the largest provider of deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) in the U.S. for the treatment of depression.

Deep TMS is an exciting new alternative treatment for medication-resistant depression, offering hope to those whose depression symptoms were not relieved with antidepressants. In over 60 clinical studies worldwide, dTMS has been shown to be both safe and effective in improving the symptoms of major depressive disorder.

"This event is a perfect opportunity for both medical personnel and prospective patients in the Portland area to see what TMS is, learn how it works and hear from doctors and more importantly patients who are benefiting from this state-of-the-art treatment after struggling with other treatment modalities that have not worked for major depressive disorder." Dr. Rick Christie

The open house event will be held at:

Achieve TMS 516 SE Morrison Street Suite 309 Portland, Oregon 97214

Click here to RSVP

For questions about dTMS for the treatment of depression, please contact:

Laura Segall, Chief Marketing Officer LSegall(at)AchieveTMS(dot)com (760) 533-2784

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/achievetms/portland/prweb14131199.htm

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Achieve TMS Open House Event at New Location in Portland ... - Benzinga

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TEA Introduces The TMS-5000 – Yahoo Finance

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SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Thermal Engineering Associates announces the TMS-5000, a new thermal measurement system for evaluating and testing Thermal Interface Materials (TIM).

Included in the TMS-5000 are the TTV-410X, the TMM-100, a USB controlled power supply and the software to control the system components. The TTV-410X is a Thermal Test Vehicle (TTV) offered with two different sizes of Thermal Test Chip (TTC) which are mounted on a Thermal Test Board (TTB). The TTB includes a backing plate, heat spreader plate, heat sink and integrated cooling fan with power supply, and an edge connector for I/O.

The TMM-100 is a Thermal Measurement Module with the capability to read 8 temperature sensing diodes, 2 thermistors, and two thermocouples.This module is driven through a USB connection for data collection.

Included with the TMS-5000 is a software program which runs in the Windows environment for control of temperature sensing, diode calibration, automated measurement, and data logging.

The measurement capabilities of the TMS-5000 are nicely integrated and easily learned and displayed in the Windows environment. For more information about this new TIM measurement system, contact TEA at sales@thermengr.net for a TMS-5000 data sheet.

SEE THERMAL ENGINEERING ASSOCIATES IN BOOTH 501 AT SEMI-THERM 33 ON MARCH 14 AND 15 AT DOUBLE TREE HOTEL, SAN JOSE, CA.

About Thermal Engineering Associates:

TEA's president, Bernie Siegal, has been providing thermal test and measurement hardware, software, and consulting services since 1973. Siegal has been chairman of the JEDEC JC15 committee and is the principal author of many MILSTD 750 thermal test methods. All major semiconductor companies, packaging companies, and many system level OEMs have utilized TEA equipment and/or services during its long history. Siegal is a founding member of IEEE SEMI-THERM and has delivered numerous papers and articles on thermal testing, simulation, and evaluation methods and techniques and is frequently sought out as a lecturer and expert in the field. http://www.thermengr.net

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tea-introduces-the-tms-5000-300417524.html

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TEA Introduces The TMS-5000 - Yahoo Finance

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At Satellite 2017, TMS Touts Expanding Satcom Offerings as Multiple Business Units Integrate Satcom Expertise – Business Wire (press release)

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This week at Satellite 2017, Teledyne Microwave Solutions (TMS) is featuring a wide range of innovative Satcom offerings reflecting the companys ongoing integration of Satcom expertise across many business units.

Each of the business units of TMS have long had Satcom capabilities and engineering expertise, including Teledyne Cougar, Teledyne MEC, Teledyne Defence & Space, Teledyne Paradise Datacom, Teledyne Labtech, and the former Teledyne Microwave and Teledyne KW Microwave. As a result of the operational consolidation of those companies under the TMS roof, the company now has a very broad and expanding range of leading-edge Satcom products and offerings.

The TMS Satcom portfolio now covers applications for Air, Sea, Land and Space for all bands and power levels. Products and capabilities are available for both commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and Near COTS applications, but also for full Mil-Spec requirements. The deep and experienced engineering resources available across the company can also manage De-rating and Worst Case Circuit Analysis.

Satellite 2017: Featured TMS Offerings

ABOUT TELEDYNE MICROWAVE SOLUTIONS

Teledyne Microwave Solutions (TMS), your single source for microwave electronics, delivers the worlds most advanced microwave technologies for the most demanding aerospace, military, commercial, and industrial applications. Forged from the consolidation of seven leading microwave companies, TMS leverages its expansive R&D capabilities to research, design, develop, and manufacture products from RF through 220 GHz. http://www.teledynemicrowave.com. TMS is a business unit of Teledyne Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of sophisticated instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace and defense electronics, and engineered systems. http://www.teledyne.com.

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At Satellite 2017, TMS Touts Expanding Satcom Offerings as Multiple Business Units Integrate Satcom Expertise - Business Wire (press release)

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