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Ascension Ventures backs Intelligent Medical Objects – PE Hub (subscription) (blog)

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Ascension Ventures has made an undisclosed investment in Illinois-based Intelligent Medical Objects Inc, a provider of medical terminology solutions for electronic health record systems. The transaction follows Warburg Pincus recent investment in IMO.

PRESS RELEASE

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Feb. 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ Intelligent Medical Objects, Inc. (IMO), a market leader in medical terminology solutions for electronic health record (EHR) systems, today announced that Ascension Ventures (AV), a strategic investment firm that invests on behalf of 13 of the nations leading health systems, has agreed to make a strategic investment in the company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Alongside a recent growth capital investment from Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing, this investment will position the company for continued innovation and expansion.

IMO is the leading provider of medical terminology content and services supporting clinical workflow. The companys core products allow physicians to easily find and enter medical terminology at the point of care with an EHR system using solutions built on IMOs proprietary content of over 800,000 clinical concepts and mapping to five million terms and more than 100 code sets. IMOs core team of clinicians, software engineers and HIM professionals combine computer science and medical expertise to help healthcare providers leverage high quality health information quickly and easily to improve total patient care.

We are pleased to receive the additional support of Ascension Ventures as a strategic investor at this important time in IMOs growth, said Frank Naeymi-Rad, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board and co-founder of Intelligent Medical Objects, Inc. In diverse enterprise environments such as those of AVs partner health systems, IMOs technology and terminology can provide interoperability of health information without loss of clinical intent. In this way, we not only protect and preserve the patient story, but also provide foundational security to AV to ensure that the data collected by its system will be of the highest quality and useful for years to come.

Medical semantics pose one of the most important yet poorly appreciated challenges that healthcare providers face, said John Kuelper, Principal at Ascension Ventures. As AVs health system partners build system architectures that are increasingly complex and interdependent, it has become critically important that the clinical intent of the physician and the integrity of underlying data are preserved, wherever and however that data is ultimately used. IMOs innovative semantic infrastructure is empowering AVs partners and their IT vendors to deploy sophisticated automation and analytics functionality that improve the efficiency, quality, and safety of patient care.

About IMO Intelligent Medical Objects, Inc. (IMO), is the developer of the most widely-accepted medical terminology solution for the management of medical vocabularies and software applications at healthcare organizations worldwide. IMOs terminology is used by more than 3,500 hospitals and 450,000 physicians daily, and this trusted terminology platform supports innovations by provider systems. IMO medical vocabulary and mapping products effectively capture clinical intent and help EMRs preserve and communicate this across the entire spectrum of care. IMO clinical terms are mapped to all standard coding systems including ICD-9, ICD-10, and SNOMED. The accuracy of IMOs interface terminology was found to be nearly perfect in an independent study published by the US Centers for Disease Control. Read more at http://www.e-imo.com. Visit IMO at HIMSS17 in Orlando February 20-22, 2017 Booth 4651!

About Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a leading global private equity firm focused on growth investing. The firm has more than $44 billion in private equity assets under management. The firms active portfolio of more than 130 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector and geography. Warburg Pincus is an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value. Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 16 private equity funds, which have invested more than $58 billion in over 760 companies in more than 40 countries. Warburg Pincus has been an active investor in the health technology sector, with current investments including DocuTAP, Helix, Specialists On Call, A Place For Mom and Sterigenics.

The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Mauritius, San Francisco, So Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore. For more information please visit http://www.warburgpincus.com.

About Ascension Ventures Ascension Ventures (www.ascensionventures.org) is a strategic healthcare investment firm with four funds and more than $800 million in capital under management. The firm was launched in 2001 by Ascension, the nations largest Catholic and non-profit health system, and today invests on behalf of thirteen of the nations leading community health systems. These health system limited partners collectively operate 474 hospitals, have 578,000 employees and generate $88 billion in annual revenue. Ascension Ventures collaborates with these partners to identify, invest in, and grow strategically aligned private companies that are best positioned to transform the healthcare industry and significantly enhance the experience for patients, their families and their caregivers.

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Ascension Ventures backs Intelligent Medical Objects - PE Hub (subscription) (blog)

One huge step: Trump’s plans to privatize ‘low Earth orbit’ and send NASA into deep space – Yahoo News

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

In perhaps the most poetic passage from his inaugural address, President Trump said, We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space. So, how does Trump intend to do that?

Former Congressman Robert Walker, R-Pa., who was tapped to draft Trumps space policy during the campaign, spoke to Yahoo News about the administrations plan to place low Earth orbit missions predominantly in the hands of the private sector, with exceptions for military and intelligence satellites. The government would not compete with commercial interests in this region of space; instead, NASA would concentrate on deep-space exploration with the long-term goal of having humans explore the entire solar system by the 22nd century.

A number of private entities, such as Axiom Space and Bigelow Aerospace, are interested in creating commercial space stations and have technologies under development such as constellations of satellites for Earth observation or new communications tools that they believe can be profitable in low Earth orbit, the region of space up to an altitude of about 1,200 miles. Its the easiest orbit to enter and maintain. The International Space Station (ISS) is in low Earth orbit.

There are already commercial organizations prepared to lift supplies that NASA needs for deep-space exploration into low Earth orbit for assembly.

As we look toward going back to the moon, going to Mars or further, well want to have space resources that would be assembled in orbit so we could make them large enough and capable enough to do real deep-space activities, Walker said.

Walker has extensive experience in the space sector. He was the first sitting member of Congress to receive NASAs Distinguished Service Medal, the agencys highest honor, and has been heavily involved in presidential commissions on the aerospace industrys future and space exploration.

Walker believes space policy must acknowledge that the space community is far bigger than NASA or the military and that private investors should take the opportunity to participate in achieving national goals. He is calling for the National Space Council, a policy-setting body disbanded in 1993, to be reconstituted under the leadership of the vice president to set national goals for all three stakeholders in space: commercial, military and civilian interests.

The questions to address, he said, are Whats the best way for us to access space in the future? And what opportunities exist if youre truly innovative about how your approach a space future?

Michael Suffredini, another recipient of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, has more than 30 years of human space flight experience, has managed the ISS for 10 years and is CEO and president of Axiom Space, which is currently developing the first private, commercial space station. It is intended to be the successor to the ISS after its retirement in 2024.

Along with providing a facility for research, Axiom plans to offer human space flight programs for countries that wish to send their own astronauts into space and for space tourists who want to orbit the Earth for 7 to 10 days.

According to Suffredini, NASA has already been on a path toward commercializing low Earth orbit, and the Trump administration is interested in continuing this process.

We think the time is right for an almost completely from a development, launch and operations standpoint commercial platform in low Earth orbit that can replace what the ISS brings to the table when its ready to retire, Suffredini told Yahoo News. The Trump administrations plan forward really supports what were interested in doing.

Hes hopeful that the administration will support commercial endeavors moving out to cislunar space (the area between the Earth and the moon) as well as to the moon or even Mars. We can all debate, he said, how much commercial activity will happen beyond low Earth orbit in the near future.

[The administrations] thrust is to look at more and more ways to look at commercial entities to participate where they want to in space, Suffredini said.

Robert Bigelow, the founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace, said major aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Lockheed Martin the big guys have always had a lock on NASA and therefore on government money. He said privatizing low Earth orbit is a tremendous opportunity for the little guys to survive and build a thriving business.

This is a completely new era. The circumstances have been changed, because NASA is cash-poor, Bigelow said. Not only does it make sense, but its an absolute necessity.

Bigelow, who has argued that NASAs roughly $19 billion budget should be doubled, recalled conservations with William H. Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Directorate at NASA, indicating that the agency does not have the resources to return humans to the moon (or accomplish similar lofty goals) without help from the private sector.

Bigelow Aerospace, based in North Las Vegas, Nev., develops expandable space station modules and other resources that could assist human space exploration whether to low Earth orbit, the moon, Mars or deep space. Bigelow said NASA and other national space agencies worldwide are prospective clients.

Aside from unmanned satellites, there are at this time no moneymaking, private operations in low Earth orbit, other than those catering to the ISS, such as the BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module).

There is nothing that private enterprise cant successfully take on, do more affordably and more quickly than any government operation can, Bigelow said. Private enterprise hasnt had the chance.

He said three things are necessary for any space activity: money, technology and legal permission, which itself requires political wherewithal.

The private sector invents technology and generates huge amounts of money, so the political permission is the stopping point, he continued. Up until the current time, aside from satellite communications, space has always been the domain of NASA as far as the United States is concerned. That is changing.

On Wednesday, Robert Lightfoot, the acting administrator for NASA, said in an agency update that the transition under the Trump administration is going smoothly. He also asked NASAs human exploration and operations mission directorate to look into the feasibility of adding astronauts to Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), the first planned flight of the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and second flight of the Orion spacecraft, accelerating human exploration in deep space. With EM-1, NASA is developing the technologies that would be needed for a journey to Mars.

While speaking to a conference of suppliers for the SLS and other projects, Lightfoot emphasized the importance of private and public space industries in reaching the countrys goals.

We must work with everyone to secure our leadership in space and we will, he said.

According to NASA, the SLS and Orion missions (together with record levels of private investment in space) would ensure the United States leadership role in exploring the cosmos and put us closer to unlocking the mysteries of space.

Back in October, the Trump campaign called Walker and asked him to draft its space policy. He agreed and said he could come up with one in a few days, but the Trump team said they needed it much faster. Walker and Peter Navarro, Trumps chief trade adviser, put together what they consider a cohesive space policy within 48 hours.

I was thrilled to help them. This has been a long-duration mission of mine to get our space program as robust as possible, and I have been particularly an advocate for commercial space for a long time, Walker said.

Navarro would run their ideas by Trumps team, and they would offer suggestions that ultimately wound up in the policy, such as a focus on hypersonics (speeds of Mach 5 and above).

Afterward, Trump would mention space as part of his larger vision for the country. Vice President Mike Pence also held a roundtable in Florida during the campaign in which he outlined a space program that resembled Walkers outline.

At a campaign rally on Oct. 25 in Sanford, Fla., roughly an hours drive from the Kennedy Space Center, Trump said, I will free NASA from the restriction of serving primarily as a logistics agency for low Earth orbit activity big deal. Instead, we will refocus its mission on space exploration. Under a Trump administration, Florida and America will lead the way into the stars.

He said the expansion of public-private partnerships would result in maximum investment in space exploration creating thousands of jobs.

Trump has mentioned space as one of the places where we can demonstrate that America is attaining its greatness, Walker said. As hes gone out to some of these rallies, postelection, space was in a couple of his remarks.

In December, Trump named Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and of SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer dedicated to colonizing Mars and reducing the cost of space transportation, to his Strategic and Policy Forum.

Still, certain aspects of Trumps space policy are bound to trouble liberals and scientists concerned about climate change. In an October op-ed for SpaceNews, Walker said NASA spends too much time on politically correct environmental monitoring.

Late last month, employees for more than a dozen government agencies reportedly launched rogue Twitter accounts to take a stance against what they see as Trumps attack on climate science research. These included scientists with the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Park Service and NASA.

Amid the barrage of Trump news, Walker said he has already seen some of his own ideas misconstrued and attacked. Walker said critics falsely accused him of wanting to eliminate NASAs Earth Science programs. He insists that he merely wanted to move them to another agency considered more appropriate for these projects, such as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The suggestion was that we were eliminating the Earth Science programs that NASA is doing. And thats absolutely wrong. The reason for looking for a transfer was because we were taking NASA out of low Earth orbit, and most of the space-based assets for Earth Science are in low Earth orbit.

Though Walker is advising the Trump administration and drafted its space policy, he was not a formal member of the transition itself. With every new administration, some policies diverge from campaign rhetoric when confronted with the realities of governance. Consequently, as with other areas, its still too early to assess Trumps space initiatives.

Walker also serves on the board of directors for Space Adventures, a space tourism company, and was chairman of the board for the Space Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for the space industry.

Brendan Curry, the vice president of Washington operations at the Space Foundation, said the conversation around private operations in space is nothing new. For instance, commercial communication satellites have been operating and generating revenue in geostationary orbit, at an altitude of 22,300 miles, for decades.

The idea of making money in space has been around almost as long as the Space Age has, he said.

NASAs commercial crew and cargo program, established in 2004 under former President George W. Bush, enjoys bipartisan support. Curry does not see any political efforts to derail or curtail it but said policymakers will need to account for the ISSs planned retirement. This raises a slew of questions: Should it be extended? Should there be a successor platform?

Were asking these companies to make investments in systems and capabilities to go to a destination that might not be around after 2024, he said, so weve got to decide: Are there going to be other opportunities for these companies to develop or maintain systems and capabilities to go to low Earth orbit to provide private services or a service to the federal government.

Robert Jacobs, the deputy associate administrator for NASAs office of communications, told Yahoo News that the agency has helped to create a robust commercial space economy by turning orbital resupply missions for the ISS over to commercial industry. He also said that NASA will soon return to the launching of American astronauts from U.S. soil aboard commercial spacecraft, as the agency focuses on pushing human and robotic exploration further into the solar system.

President Trump said in his inaugural address that we will unlock the mysteries of space, Jacobs said. Accordingly, it is imperative to the mission of this agency that we continue to work hard to do just that.

Republicans Aim to Prioritize NASA Space Exploration Efforts Over Environmental Research – Independent Journal Review

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Republican lawmakers have begun working to fund space exploration projects over environmental research within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a hearing on the future of NASA on Thursday morning. Two former astronauts and two other NASA experts testified before the committee.

Delivering his opening statement, Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, a former NASA astronaut, derided what he viewed as a lackluster past eight years:

One of the key issues confronting the new Congress and the new administration will be how to go forward with restoring Americas preeminence in space after what, frankly, for nearly eight years, have been lost opportunities."

Stafford's comments align with what many Republican lawmakers argued throughout former President Barack Obama's administration. Under Obama, funding within NASA for planetary science and exploration waned while funding for the earth science program, which focuses on environmental research, grew by almost 50 percent.

Republicans, many of whom doubt the validity of concerns surrounding climate change, took issue with the move. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the SenateSubcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, emerged as a leader in the fight to re-prioritize space exploration.

Cruz introduced a bipartisan NASA reauthorization bill in the last Congress that increased funding for planetary science and emphasized NASA's exploration projects. The bill passed in the Senate, but was unable to make it through the House before the end of the 114th Congress.

The Senate could pass Cruz's NASA reauthorization legislation once again as early as Friday. Speaking about the bill, Cruz told Independent Journal Review on Wednesday:

I think it is critical that NASA get back to its core mission of space exploration. Under the Obama administration, space exploration was not given the emphasis and priority it deserves.

Republicans in both houses of Congress are in agreement with Cruz's priorities for NASA. A spokesman for Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), a member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, told IJR about his goals for NASA in the new Congress:

The shift back towards NASA should be focused on space exploration. We have one agency that studies space. We have something like sixteen others that focus on climate issues.

While Republicans maintain that NASA's fundamental mission should be one of exploration, supporters of the earth science program point to the recent work it has done in satellite technology and weather forecasting that millions of Americans rely on today.

Beyond funding disagreements, however, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle tend to agree that returning to space is a worthwhile goal, not only for scientific discovery, but also for national security.

Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), one of President Donald Trump's potential candidates for Administrator of NASA, spoke at length during Thursday's hearing about the threats that advancing Chinese space operations pose to American security. He described the Moon as critically important for the geopolitical position of the U.S.

Likewise, Posey has introduced a bipartisan bill that would direct NASA to return to the Moon by 2022. A portion of the bill's text reads:

Space is the worlds ultimate high ground, and returning to the Moon and reinvigorating our human space flight program is a matter of national security.

While some members of the 115th Congress clearly have ambitious plans for space policy moving forward, their first move will be to shift the focus within NASA from environmental research and other programs to space exploration by allocating increased funding to the planetary science program.

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Republicans Aim to Prioritize NASA Space Exploration Efforts Over Environmental Research - Independent Journal Review

Tech.Co Top Stories: Birthdays, Nanotech, Snapchat, and Black History Month – Tech.Co

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

February 17, 2017 5:50 pm

Sure, the weekend is a time for relaxing. After a long week of work, theres nothing better than sitting back with a binge-worthy Netflix show and vegging out until Monday morning. However, if you missed out on some of Tech.Cos top stories this week, wouldnt you rather catch up on those? Well, now you can thanks to this super handy list of the biggest stories of the week. From the future of marketing on Snapchat to the best ways to celebrate Black History Month, we really hit all the bases in the last few days. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the top stories from Tech.Co!

Remember! Apply now to Tech.Cos Startup of the Yearcompetition, which will give you a chance to join us atInnovate! and Celebrate 2017! Register now and get ready for a fantastic 3-day journey.

Need more Tech.Co? Sign up for the Tech.Co newsletter today, and get the weekly wrap-up direct to your inbox. Interested in coming to a Tech.Co event? Check out our Tech.Co calendar here.

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Conor is a writer, comedian and world-renowned sweetheart. He has been writing since first grade when his novel "A Robot and Me" hit the top of the refrigerator. Since then, he has written coupons, training modules and listicles about his favorite bars for fun and paychecks alike. His background in comedy ranges from stand-up to sketch, and he runs a very popular stand-up show in Chicago called Rat Pack Comedy, which he's very proud of. In his spare time, he thinks about how to properly pronounce the word "colloquially." Conor is the Senior Writer at Tech.Co. You can email him at conor@tech.co.

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Evoqua Water Technologies, Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics … – Yahoo Finance

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Evoqua Water Technologies announced they will join the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (GT-IEN), in presenting an Introduction to High-Purity Water Standards Seminar on Feb. 23, 2017, as part of IENs industry seminar series.

Using IENs state-of-the-art cleanroom capabilities as a case study, a team from Evoqua will discuss implications of high purity water. The seminar will also cover the varied high-purity water treatment standards, sampling techniques and their implications on water treatment system designs. The water system requirements and design considerations play a critical role in the planning, development and operation of nanotechnology research and other semiconductor related facilities.

To register please visit: http://ien.gatech.edu/ISSEVOQUA

Evoqua Water Technologies has developed multiple patented technologies to produce the ultrapure water needed in the water-sensitive nanotech and semiconductor markets. Evoquas Vanox system usesanadvanced oxidation process fortotal organic compound (TOC) reduction in semi-conductor manufacturing, especially for geometries of less than 28 nanometers (nm). One nanometer is one billionth of a meter (0.000000001m).

Evoqua Industrial Division President, Rodney Aulick said, Evoqua is committed to remaining a leader in ultrapure water. Were excited to partner with universities in the nanotechnology field, where we can work together to learn how these advanced technologies can optimize manufacturing quality, uptime and reduce operational cost.

Georgia Tech is a renowned academic leader in electronic and semiconductor devices, components, micro and nano systems packaging, testing, and circuits. Georgia Techs IEN has also become a national front runner in nanoscience, nanomaterials, and nanotechnologies. IEN has dedicated expertise and facilities for a broad range of micro and nanofabrication and characterization projects including a focus on applications to bioengineering and biomedicine. The fee-based shared-user laboratories are available to external academic, industry, and government clientele, thus offering a unique and comprehensive nanotechnology laboratory and teaming environment for researchers in the electronics and nanotechnology space. For more information about IEN, visit http://www.ien.gatech.edu.

About Evoqua

Evoqua Water Technologies is the global leader in helping municipalities and industrial customers protect and improve the world's most fundamental natural resource: water. Evoqua has a more than 100-year heritage of innovation and industry firsts, market-leading expertise, and unmatched customer service, where it continues to transform water and wastewater. Its cost-effective and reliable treatment systems and services ensure uninterrupted quantity and quality of water, enable regulatory and environmental compliance, increase efficiency through water reuse, and prepare customers for next-generation demands.

Evoqua's unparalleled portfolio of proven brands, advanced technologies, mobile and emergency water supply solutions and service helps cities across the world provide and discharge clean water, and enable leisure and commercial industry to maximize productivity and profitability. For more information, visitwww.evoqua.com.

For more information on Vanox and other UltraPure Water Products visit: http://www.evoqua.com/en/markets/Microelectronics/

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170217005085/en/

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Evoqua Water Technologies, Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics ... - Yahoo Finance

Elevacity Introduces Smart Coffee: "Elevate" – Press Release … – Digital Journal

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

A nootropic infused, weight loss, instant coffee.

This press release was orginally distributed by ReleaseWire

Dallas, TX -- (ReleaseWire) -- 02/17/2017 -- Elevate coffee is the latest breakthrough product to be introduced to Elevacity's unique health and wellness line. Elevate coffee is a delicious dark roast, Colombian instant coffee infused with a proprietary formula of nootropics, focusing on weight loss and cognitive functions.

Most "weight loss" coffees are typically the same, using only ingredients intended to promote a thermogenic response (speed up metabolism to burn fat). They fail to address a root cause of overeating due to uncontrolled cravings. Elevate was crafted to work differently. It is formulated to replace that "feel-good" feeling people experience when eating unhealthy foods, often referred to as comfort foods, by triggering positive brain responses with nootropics.

Elevacity's nootropic ingredients are powerful cognitive enhancers and stimulants that elicit neuro-positive chemical responses in the brain, which elevate your mood and clarity, increase energy, and boost your memory and overall mood. These nootropic stimulants help you skip the foods you crave to get there. Additional natural ingredients are also included to promote fat burning effects and can lead to weight loss.

"We're excited to launch the first nootropic coffee in the direct selling industry." Says Donna Valdes, President of Elevacity. "Having marketed coffee products for almost 10 years, I can tell you I have never seen a response or results like this. Within minutes, you're clear-headed, laser focused, and the hunger is gone! People actually feel this coffee working and they get results fast. That's what matters."

You can learn more here: http://www.elevatebrew.com or watch this video.

About Elevacity Elevacity is a social selling company distributing cutting edge nutritionals and skin care including Elevate, the world's smartest weight loss coffee infused with nootropics. The company is headquartered in Plano, TX with offices in Largo, FL.

For more information about Elevacity's products or opportunity, visit http://www.elevacity.com or contact info@elevacity.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/elevacity-introduces-smart-coffee-elevate-772867.htm

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Elevacity Introduces Smart Coffee: "Elevate" - Press Release ... - Digital Journal

Music Review: Psychedelic Trance – The Point News

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Another week, another local artist reaching out to The Point News with food for The Squawk Hawk. This time, it was Ross McGuire, an electronica producer seeking a review of the flagship track off of his upcoming first album. McGuire describes his style as Psychedelic Trance, which seems appropriate once youve lent him an ear.

The 25-minute long demo consisted of some interesting tunes that are great to listen to while you hunker down into homework. The Crisis in Circadia is probably the best place for new listeners to start sinking into the music with, and works great for study sessions when you catch yourself falling asleep. Beats like this send you into hyperdrive, and even the long research essay youve been putting off can feel like a super-secret mission in a cool spy movie if you put these tracks on while you (finally) get it done. Id also highly recommend the faster-paced tracks, like Arcade, for an energy boost at the gym.

The music is definitely cool, this coming from someone who is rather uneducated when it comes to the genre. I reached out to a friend (also anonymous) for a more insider review on the tunes and all he had to say was It bumps. Seems like a thumbs up to me.

Psyberscenic is the perfect local artist to promo at your next party or rave if your speakers (and your friends) can handle it.

How does one come up with this, you might ask? A staffer of The Point News speculates that McGuire probably plays Kirby and whatever buttons he presses he writes down, and then that translates into song. Good thoughts, but these rhythms feel a little bit more intentional than that.

Before I make my next comment, let me say that this review is not meant to be a hack job. I really appreciate whats being done on this album, but am unequipped to really describe it aside from vague metaphors. It feels like Im in that weird episode of SpongeBob SquarePants where you dont really know whats going on, but you know that its a little threatening to the norm.

If youre looking for some cool new noise, and unafraid of the potential for an out of body experience, consider checking out Psyberscenic. I give this album talons, and would listen again.

The album will be free to download when it comes out. You can follow McGuire on facebook (@psyberscenic), Soundcloud (@Pantarhei.allthingsflow), and BandCamp (@psyberscenic).

If you or someone you know is interested in having music reviewed for TPN, email submissions to Scott Zimmerman (managingeditor@thepointnews.com).

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Music Review: Psychedelic Trance - The Point News

Andrew Rayel Announces ‘Moments’ Album & World Tour – Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Unstoppable. Ferocious. Magical. The live DJ-performances ofAndrew Rayel are an art form and all the worlds a stage. Rayels ever-expanding legions of admirers have been clamoring for his next full-length studio album since 2014s Find Your Harmony. After a three year period of nonstop touring and stints of intense focus in the recording studio, Rayel is ready to release his second studio album, Moments (Armada) on May 5th, accompanied by a world tour. The first single from the album is out now and its titled, Andrew Rayel featuring Eric Lumiere, Ill Be There.

Listen to Andrew Rayel feat. Eric Lumiere Ill Be There

From the angelic vocals of Emma Hewitt (My Reflection) and Christina Novelli (Lighthouse) to the swirling thrust of Max Vangeli (Heavy Love) and KhoMha (All Systems Down), Rayel harnesses his musics forward propulsion to get at the core of emotion that ties this album together. Add vocal contributions from Johnathan Mendelsohn (Forgiven, Home) and Eric Lumiere (Ill Be There) and the album is as well-suited for singing along to as it is for dancing. The first single from the album is Ill Be There featuring Eric Lumiere, a piano-laden number with reverberating bassline and a bouncy beat that drives the song forward.

The North American leg of the Moments tour kicks-off at Ultra Music Festival in Miami on March 26th on the A State of Trance (ASOT) stage. The tour features headlining DJ-performances at leading concert arenas, music festivals and nightclub venues from coast-to-coast with the first tour dates recently revealed via Andrew Rayels social media.

Tracklist for Andrew Rayels Moments:

01. Andrew Rayel Moments 02. Andrew Rayel feat. Eric Lumiere Ill Be There 03. Andrew Rayel & KhoMha All Systems Down 04. Andrew Rayel & ATB Connected 05. Andrew Rayel feat, Kristina Antuna Once In A Lifetime Love 06. Andrew Rayel feat. Emma Hewitt My Reflection 07. Andrew Rayel feat. Jonathan Mendelsohn Forgiven 08. Andrew Rayel & Max Vangeli feat. Kye Heavy Love 09. Andrew Rayel feat. Jonathan Mendelsohn Home 10. Andrew Rayel & Jochen Miller feat. Hansen Thomas Take It All 11. Andrew Rayel Let It Be Forever 12. Andrew Rayel feat. Mike James Back To The Moment 13. Andrew Rayel & Christina Novelli Lighthouse 14. Andrew Rayel feat. Angelika Vee Never Let Me Go 15. Andrew Rayel Tacadum 16. Andrew Rayel with Digital X & Geert Huinink feat. Sylvia Tosun Winterburn

Co-Founder of Trance Hub, Curator of The Gathering events in India and ALT+TRANCE in Czech Republic. By day, a Digital Marketing Enthusiast with love for Food and Technology. By night, a dreamer who wants to grow the Trance scene in India.

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Andrew Rayel Announces 'Moments' Album & World Tour - Trance Hub (satire) (press release) (blog)

Voices on wellness: Hypnosis and the trance of everyday life – Richmond News

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

In recent columns, weve explored the evolutionary development and potential of the human brain and how new approaches, including mindfulness can use this knowledge to better manage our emotions and chronic pain.

Clinical hypnosis is a technique used by specially trained health professionals to help an individual engage the subconscious mind to reinforce positive thoughts, emotions and behaviours.

It can help you visualize a positive healthier future.

The hypnotic or trance state is an altered state of consciousness that we naturally fall in and out of each day.

Remember the last time you were in a movie theatre totally engaged in the characters and story on the screen?

Remember awakening from that trance when the credits rolled and you walked out of the theatre?

How often have you walked or driven home when your mind was elsewhere and you found yourself at home sooner than you expected without thinking about it?

You were in trance as an impressionable toddler and child, during emotionally charged experiences in the past, in a new place that engaged your senses, when you fell in love for the first time, and when you were lost in thought earlier today.

In these uncontrolled trance states, our unconscious is highly sensitive to suggestion.

We may have accepted incorrect beliefs about the world, other people and ourselves and these incorrect or maladaptive beliefs shape the stories we tell ourselves.

In turn, our personal stories affect our outlook on life and our conscious perspective.

Having suffered from chronic pain in the past, Ive recognized how easy it is to fall into negative thinking traps or cognitive distortions that actually increased my suffering. Negative thoughts about our pain can include the following.

The pain is just going to get worse.

I have to take something (drugs or alcohol) to manage the pain.

I have to find the right test or treatment to cure the pain.

Because the pain gets worse with activity, I must be causing harm and I have to lie down and rest.

Our subconscious mind can accept these beliefs without question.

Similarly, negative beliefs and assumptions we accepted in the trances of early life, can contribute to anxiety, depression and unhappiness throughout our adult lives.

Im not good enough.

I have to be perfect.

The world is a dangerous place.

Somethings wrong with me.

People cant be trusted. Life is unfair.

With mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy, we can uncover maladaptive thoughts and beliefs, and step-by-step replace them with those that are more accurate, adaptive and empowering.

We can become conscious and aware co-authors of our own life stories and agents of positive change in our personal lives and in our world.

All hypnosis is self-hypnosis. We allow the conscious mind to relax and engage the subconscious mind using imagery.

We often start with deliberate relaxed breathing. Unlike mindfulness meditation, we control rather than simply observe the breath.

In hypnotic inductions, we use the breath as a vehicle of progressive relaxation and imagine the whole body letting go with each successive breath.

When we reach a stage of deep relaxation, we offer positive suggestions to the subconscious.

These suggestions reinforce the new more adaptive neural pathways that will enhance our coping with lifes challenges and allow us to visualize ourselves mastering our lives and achieving our personal potentials.

This creates a positive blueprint for our minds.

Because clinical hypnosis is not appropriate for every person and every psychological or physical health condition, it should only be used by experienced and appropriately trained professionals.

If you would like to find one, contact the Canadian Society of Clinical Hypnosis (BC Division) online at Hypnosis.bc.ca.

This non-profit society offers training to professionals in medicine, psychology, dentistry and other allied professions including a training workshop in February of each year.

In upcoming columns, well explore how you may use the practical strategies of cognitive behavioural therapy to manage chronic pain or difficult emotions.

Davidicus Wong is a family physician and his Healthwise columns appear regularly in this paper. For more on achieving your positive potential in health, see his website at DavidicusWong.Wordpress.com.

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Voices on wellness: Hypnosis and the trance of everyday life - Richmond News

Political correctness weaponized in face of unpopular opinion – The Vermilion

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Photo via Huffington Post

One of the big buzzwords this past year has been political correctness.

This is the obsessive fear that all our language and actions are going to be policed so no ones precious feelings are ever hurt. Accusations of political correctness are automatic conversation-killers because no one wants to be accused of it. Its synonymous with the thought police. But theres a dirty secret to being politically correct: everyone is guilty of it in some way.

Most often, the charge of political correctness is leveled against leftists and liberals, who can be quick to accuse others of sexism or racism. Theyve been nicknamed snowflakes because theyre supposedly unique and fragile.

And sure, not every accusation is accurate. Ive even seen far too extreme cases of university students demanding college curricula be altered to avoid anything potentially offensive, which isnt fair. College is supposed to challenge you and present uncomfortable ideas, but is there anything wrong with telling students the controversial material to let the student drop the class if they dont want to hear it? Challenging, even offensivematerial should be presented, but students should be able to make an informed decision about it.

Much of this political correctness has had positive effects. By encouraging more diversity and greater awareness, it has allowed for better representation of women and minorities and opened larger debates about race, gender and other societal divisions.

But people on the right can be politically correct, too. Its just that they have different values, so they are protective of a different set of beliefs. For example, I have seen people complain about my column and say some of what I write is offensive. Well, isnt atheism politically incorrect? Arent I expressing an unpopular idea?

Or consider Colin Kaepernicks protest by kneeling during the anthem instead of standing. For many people on the right, this was hugely offensive. Kaepernick was doing something immensely politically incorrect. Or how so many people on the right complained when people wanted to remove the Confederate flag, despite its origins in the slaveholding South. Should their feelings be considered when they claim others feelings should be dismissed?

There is a double standard here. The people who most often denounce political correctness often seem to be unable to handle it when that incorrectness is aimed against their values. So it isnt a concern about correctness as much as silencing the opposition.

Now, you can say that the left is trying the same thing, but I think theres a crucial distinction in play. History is often the struggle between dominant and minority groups, with the dominant group being the one that determines what is socially acceptable. However, a free society requires the ability for all voices to have a chance to be heard. If cries of political correctness are used to continue to silence people who historically have been silenced, then we should be skeptical.

We also have a First Amendment, which says we have the freedom to say what we want without penalty. Only under very extreme circumstances is speech prohibited, but this says nothing about other peoples reactions. They have the right to complain, protest and condemn. We have to balance having freedom of speech both ways, while at the same time being vigilant in watching which groups that speech is being used to oppress.

challenge first amendment material political correctness Politically correct

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Political correctness weaponized in face of unpopular opinion - The Vermilion

PewDiePie: Alt-Right Nazi, Victim of Political Correctness, or Just an Idiot? – Reason (blog)

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Aftonbladet/ZUMA Press/NewscomPewDiePie, the biggest Youtube star you've probably never heard of (especially if you're older than 30), just lost his Disney contracta source of millions of dollars in revenueover allegations of anti-Semitism.

It's an easy, even obvious, storyline for this season of Life as We Know It Right Now, given increasing awareness of the alt-right movement and its penchant for overt pro-Nazi displays. The kids are not alrightthey're flocking to their computers to share Pepe the frog memes and tell jokes about sending Jewish writers to the gas chambers. And on and on.

For many, PewDiePie's downfall will probably feel gratifying: yes, there are limits to how far this sort of behavior can progress. For others, his belated comeuppance is insufficient, and does nothing to address the toxicity of teenage (particularly white) male online culture. In a lengthy essay for BuzzFeed, writer Jacob Clifton laments "that 'edgelords,' the boys and men who group together online for the explicit proliferation of hate speech and misogyny, will almost inevitably keep pushing the line until they end up in a truly dark place."

"This is about understanding what lies beneath this dark side of the internet, and how to stop it," writes Clifton.

But Clifton's essay makes little effort to understand the phenomenon he's describing. And he offers absolutely no advice for how to stop it. Here's how his article ends:

PewDiePie is a symptom of a majority illness, but because he accidentally got rich, we seem content to let the buck stop with him. His downfall feels anti-capitalist, it feels nonconformist, it makes us feel all the things we love to feel when trying to prove we're better than. But the truth is that the soil this stuff grows in is the reality of our country and world, and we will go on encouraging this behavior, and these thoughts, until they bear their fruit.

The reason for that is terrible, and quite simple: because the whiny self-importance and self-indulgence of white male rage from Gamergate to Anonymous, WikiLeaks to the Fappening, all the proliferating forms of alt-right confusion and rage you couldn't possibly discern from that of even the least radical right is so repugnant that it's nearly impossible to see through. But we won't heal, and they won't heal, if we don't try. Their pain is pathetic, but watch how it spreads.

The reason Clifton doesn't actually offer a solution to this problem is probably because there isn't one: it's just so much broader, and more permanent, than Clifton notes here. Young men have always acted out in unpredictable and frustrating ways: the alt-right is just the current manifestation of "white male rage."

That's not an excuseI'm not saying boys will be boys as if it isn't a problem, because sometimes it is. Rather, I'm saying that boys doing stupid, irksome things has always been a problem. We don't really have any evidence that the problem is getting more substantialand I'd have a hard time believing that the average white male between the ages of 15 and 25 is worse behaved now than he was 50 years ago, given the decline in violence and crime in generalbut we're paying more attention to it now because it's chosen the form of an easy political narrative: ahhh, look at all the Nazi kids who love Trump!

When I was in high school, other boys loved to draw penises on everything. It's a weird fact, but there it is. If you left your notebook unsupervised, even for a moment, you would soon find it covered in dicks. Why a bunch of teenage boysall of whom insisted, loudly and frequently, that they weren't gaywould enjoy drawing pictures of the male reproductive organ mystified me at the time, as it still does today.

Teenage boys are probably still drawing dicks, but they're also writing #MAGA and Build the Wall and creating Pepe memes. Teachers call it the Trump effect, as if young men were perfectly well-behaved until Trump came along. Again, we don't know that bullying has gotten worse, and to the extent we can measure it, schoolyard bullying seems to be falling over time, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

It's true that a certain kind of bullyingthe anti-Semitic, pro-Trump, alt-right kindis more noticeable than it was before. We probably shouldn't discount the possible political implications of this. It would be wrong, of course, to pretend that white nationalism isn't making any sort of comeback. But we also shouldn't pretend that the kids are doomed because they currently prefer a different kind of sick humor than they used to. Again, teenagers were always laughing at incredibly inappropriate thingsthat thing just happens to be PewDiePie's awful jokes, at the moment.

This was, essentially, the defense offered by PewDiePiereal name Felix Kjellberg, who made $15 million last year saying dumb things on the internet. Kjellberg is a blond-haired blue-eyed Swede, but as far as I can tell, he's not actually an anti-Semite, Trump supporter, alt-right, member, or Breitbart contributor. He landed himself in hot water because, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported, he made as many as nine anti-Semitic jokes in his videos.

The following example is illustrative. There are online services that allow you to pay random people halfway around the world to do or say whatever you want. PewDiePie decided to test one of these services outlong story short, two tribal-looking fellows unfurled a banner that read "Death to All Jews" as PewDiePie exclaims "I didn't think they would actually do it." He recorded both thingsthe incident, and his own reactionand posted in on Youtube.

Funny? Not really. Offensive? Sure. Evidence of deep-seated anti-Semitic animus? Well, that might be a stretch. Here's how PewDiePie defended himself:

Mr. Kjellberg defended himself from criticism in a Jan. 17 video, saying "I think there's a difference between a joke and actual like... death to all Jews. If I made a video saying"Mr. Kjellberg then quickly cuts to a close-up of his face illuminated brightly"Hey guys, PewDiePie here. Death to all Jews, I want you to say after me: Death to all Jews. And, you know, Hitler was right. I really opened my eyes to white power. And I think it is time we did something about this." The video then zooms back out and he adds: "That is how they're essentially reporting this, as if that's what I was saying."

One gathers, if you believe PewDiePie's explanation, that he could have used any edgy statement, like "Bush did 9/11." Why can't anyone take a joke anymore? is the underlying theme.

I'm reminded of the most recent season of South Park (spoilers to follow). One of its main plots involved Gerald Broflovski being unmasked as an internet troll. He enjoys shrieking at people online, telling them to kill themselves, and photoshopping penises over their faces. Why? Because it's funny, he claims. Later, when other trolls try to recruit him into their group, he insists he isn't one of them. What they do to people is horrible and stupidhe's not like them at all. What Gerald does is funny, he claims. Still later, when the villain of the season attempts to troll the entire U.S., Gerald challenges him. Join me, the villain offers Gerald, and together we will troll the world. But Gerald is horrified by the villain's plans and kills him. "Fuck you," Gerald says. "What I do is fucking funny, bitch."

This gagGerald insisting that his actions are fundamentally different because his horrible trolling is funnyperfectly encapsulates the teenage male attitude, and PewDiePie's humor. Stupid, random, shitty things are selectively funny to kids, and always have been. There's no ideology here beyond typical teen nastiness.

Disney, of course, is well within its rights to can PewDiePie for any reasonand not wanting to be associated with Nazi humor is a reason I support. It is not censorship when one private actor refuses to endorse or fund the speech of another private actor. It's just business. We shouldn't treat Kjellberg like a victimof political correctness, or of anything else. Even without Disney and Youtube, he's still a 28-year-old millionaire with a sizeable audience. He can clean up his act and try again.

Nor should we forget the fact that the White House is currently occupied by someone whose foremost advisor was the boss of an online media hub that deliberately and successfully catered to an alt-right audience. I share some of Clifton's concern that "the whiny self-importance and self-indulgence of white male rage" has taken a particularly pernicious form at the moment. But I wouldn't be surprised if it fizzles out on its own and the kids go back to drawing dicks.

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PewDiePie: Alt-Right Nazi, Victim of Political Correctness, or Just an Idiot? - Reason (blog)

Ferguson Political Correctness – The Missourian

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Ferguson is still in the news. Its a political correctness issue now and its amazing how long the reach is of out-of-control sensitivity.

Ferguson officials are being criticized for using a Humvee in a police program to educate children about the dangers of drugs. Residents told the city council that using a Humvee for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program is insensitive. Police vehicles, including Humvees, were used to restore peace during the protests over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in 2014.

The police chief said the Humvee was chosen because it is an attention-grabber. Good idea, we say.

Should police be banned in Ferguson because they are a reminder of the shooting incident?

Then another concern in Ferguson is about the name of the DARE mascot, called Daren the Lion. The officer who shot Brown was Darren Wilson, who resigned over the shooting death. He was cleared of any wrongdoing. Police Commander Frank McCall says the name is used nationally and has no connection to the shooting.

Whats next? Change the name of Ferguson because the name is a reminder of the protests that occurred after the shooting?

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Ferguson Political Correctness - The Missourian

20 years after Dolly: Everything you always wanted to know about … – Source

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Its been 20 years since scientists in Scotland told the world about Dolly the sheep, the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult body cell. What was special about Dolly is that her parents were actually a single cell originating from mammary tissue of an adult ewe. Dolly was an exact genetic copy of that sheep a clone.

Dolly captured peoples imaginations, but those of us in the field had seen her coming through previous research. Ive been working with mammalian embryos for over 40 years, with some work in my lab specifically focusing on various methods of cloning cattle and other livestock species. In fact, one of the coauthors of the paper announcing Dolly worked in our laboratory for three years prior to going to Scotland to help create the famous clone.

Dolly was an important milestone, inspiring scientists to continue improving cloning technology as well as to pursue new concepts in stem cell research. The endgame was never meant to be armies of genetically identical livestock: Rather, researchers continue to refine the techniques and combine them with other methods to turbocharge traditional animal breeding methods as well as gain insights into aging and disease.

Dolly was a perfectly normal sheep who became the mother of numerous normal lambs. She lived to six and a half years, when she was eventually put down after a contagious disease spread through her flock, infecting cloned and normally reproduced sheep alike. Her life wasnt unusual; its her origin that made her unique.

Before the decades of experiments that led to Dolly, it was thought that normal animals could be produced only by fertilization of an egg by a sperm. Thats how things naturally work. These germ cells are the only ones in the body that have their genetic material all jumbled up and in half the quantity of every other kind of cell. That way when these so-called haploid cells come together at fertilization, they produce one cell with the full complement of DNA. Joined together, the cell is termed diploid, for twice, or double. Two halves make a whole.

From that moment forward, nearly all cells in that body have the same genetic makeup. When the one-cell embryo duplicates its genetic material, both cells of the now two-cell embryo are genetically identical. When they in turn duplicate their genetic material, each cell at the four-cell stage is genetically identical. This pattern goes on so that each of the trillions of cells in an adult is genetically exactly the same whether its in a lung or a bone or the blood.

In contrast, Dolly was produced by whats called somatic cell nuclear transfer. In this process, researchers remove the genetic material from an egg and replace it with the nucleus of some other body cell. The resulting egg becomes a factory to produce an embryo that develops into an offspring. No sperm is in the picture; instead of half the genetic material coming from a sperm and half from an egg, it all comes from a single cell. Its diploid from the start.

Dolly was the culmination of hundreds of cloning experiments that, for example, showed diploid embryonic and fetal cells could be parents of offspring. But there was no way to easily know all the characteristics of the animal that would result from a cloned embryo or fetus. Researchers could freeze a few of the cells of a 16-cell embryo, while going on to produce clones from the other cells; if a desirable animal was produced, they could thaw the frozen cells and make more copies. But this was impractical because of low success rates.

Dolly demonstrated that adult somatic cells also could be used as parents. Thus, one could know the characteristics of the animal being cloned.

By my calculations, Dolly was the single success from 277 tries at somatic cell nuclear transfer. Sometimes the process of cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer still produces abnormal embryos, most of which die. But the process has greatly improved so success rates now are more like 10 percent; its highly variable, though, depending on the cell type used and the species.

More than 10 different cell types have been used successfully as parents for cloning. These days most cloning is done using cells obtained by biopsying skin.

Genetics is only part of the story. Even while clones are genetically identical, their phenotypes the characteristics they express will be different. Its like naturally occurring identical twins: They share all their genes but theyre not really exactly alike, especially if reared in different settings.

Environment plays a huge role for some characteristics. Food availability can influence weight. Diseases can stunt growth. These kinds of lifestyle, nutrition or disease effects can influence which genes are turned on or off in an individual; these are called epigenetic effects. Even though all the genetic material may be the same in two identical clones, they might not be expressing all the same genes.

Consider the practice of cloning winning racehorses. Clones of winners sometimes also will be winners but most of the time theyre not. This is because winners are outliers; they need to have the right genetics, but also the right epigenetics and the right environment to reach that winning potential. For example, one can never exactly duplicate the uterine conditions a winning racehorse experienced when it was a developing fetus. Thus, cloning champions usually leads to disappointment. On the other hand, cloning a stallion that sires a high proportion of race-winning horses will result very reliably in a clone that similarly sires winners. This is a genetic rather than a phenotypic situation.

Even though the genetics are reliable, there are aspects of the cloning procedure that mean the epigenetics and environment are suboptimal. For example, sperm have elegant ways of activating the eggs they fertilize, which will die unless activated properly; with cloning, activation usually is accomplished by a strong electric shock. Many of the steps of cloning and subsequent embryonic development are done in test tubes in incubators. These conditions are not perfect substitutes for the female reproductive tract where fertilization and early embryonic development normally occur.

Sometimes abnormal fetuses develop to term, resulting in abnormalities at birth. The most striking abnormal phenotype of some clones is termed large offspring syndrome, in which calves or lambs are 30 or 40 percent larger than normal, resulting in difficult birth. The problems stem from an abnormal placenta. At birth, these clones are genetically normal, but are overly large, and tend to be hyperinsulinemic and hypoglycemic. (The conditions normalize over time once the offspring is no longer influenced by the abnormal placenta.)

Recent improvements in cloning procedures have greatly reduced these abnormalities, which also occur with natural reproduction, but at a much lower incidence.

Many thousands of cloned mammals have been produced in nearly two dozen species. Very few of these concern practical applications, such as cloning a famous Angus bull named Final Answer (who recently died at an old age) in order to produce more high-quality cattle via his clones sperm.

But the cloning research landscape is changing fast. The driving force for producing Dolly was not to produce genetically identical animals. Rather researchers want to combine cloning techniques with other methods in order to efficiently change animals genetically much quicker than traditional animal breeding methods that take decades to make changes in populations of species such as cattle.

One recent example is introducing the polled (no horns) gene into dairy cattle, thus eliminating the need for the painful process of dehorning. An even more striking application has been to produce a strain of pigs that is incapable of being infected by the very contagious and debilitating PRRS virus. Researchers have even made cattle that cannot develop Mad Cow Disease. For each of these procedures, somatic cell nuclear transplantation is an essential part of the process.

To date, the most valuable contribution of these somatic cell nuclear transplantation experiments has been the scientific information and insights gained. Theyve enhanced our understanding of normal and abnormal embryonic development, including aspects of aging, and more. This information is already helping reduce birth defects, improve methods of circumventing infertility, develop tools to fight certain cancers and even decrease some of the negative consequences of aging in livestock and even in people. Two decades since Dolly, important applications are still evolving.

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

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20 years after Dolly: Everything you always wanted to know about ... - Source

Antiquities Minister inaugurates first Pharaonic cloning center in Luxor – Egypt Independent

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anany and Luxor governor Mohamed Badr inaugurated on Friday the first center for cloning the tombs of Pharaonic kings and queens.

The officials inaugurated as well the Stoppelaere House near the Valley of the Kings, west of Luxor.

The Ambassador of Switzerland to Egypt, Markus Leitner, attended the inauguration.

An archaeological Egyptian source told DPA agency that the project was held in collaboration with the Spanish and Swiss governments and aims to train Egyptians on the uses of the three-dimentional survey and compound photography which are used in cloning pharaonic tombs such as King Tutankhamun's cloned tomb, which was constructed by Spanish Factum Arte Foundation.

The Center aims to implement two projects to clone King Seti the First's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and the tomb of Queen Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens, so that tourists can visit the two imitated tombs in case the original ones are closed.

The two original archaeological tombs are periodically closed to protect their inscriptions.

Stoppelaere House belongs to deceased Italian restorer Alexandre Stoppelaere who was head of the Restoration Department of the Egyptian Antiquities Authority in the mid-20th century. It was designed and built by Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in 1950.

The house will serve as headquarters for training Egyptian archaeologists and restorers as part of the cloning project.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Antiquities Minister inaugurates first Pharaonic cloning center in Luxor - Egypt Independent

How to obtain and use the new evolution items in Pokemon Go – BGR

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

BGR

How to obtain and use the new evolution items in Pokemon Go
BGR
Dozens of new Pokemon arrived in Pokemon Go this week, but in order to acquire some of them, you'll have to make use of the new evolution items that Niantic added to the game. In the following post, we're going to explain how exactly each of those ...

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How to obtain and use the new evolution items in Pokemon Go - BGR

How The New Evolution Items Work In ‘Pokmon GO’ – Forbes

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Forbes

How The New Evolution Items Work In 'Pokmon GO'
Forbes
Evolution got a bit more complicated in Pokmon GO last night. Originally it was a pretty straightforward affair: you got candy for catching, walking and transferring Pokmon, which you then used to turn your Squirtles into Warturtles, your Bellsprouts ...

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How The New Evolution Items Work In 'Pokmon GO' - Forbes

Pokmon Go – How to evolve, use Special Items, when to evolve or Power Up your Pokmon – Eurogamer.net

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

New items, Evolution and Power Up mechanics explained with a flowchart.

By Chris Tapsell Published 17/02/2017

Once you've started collecting enough Pokmon, you'll want to turn your attention to evolving and Powering Up to discover new creatures and make them strong enough to defend and capture Gyms. It's a surprisingly complicated decision to make, now that we know more about how complex Pokmon Go can be, so we'll start at the beginning by explaining how the evolution process works and what you should be paying attention to, before talking about when you should evolve and when you should Power Up those Pokmon.

The higher the CP, the more powerful a Pokmon will be in battle. As you play and collect Pokemon, you'll discover that not every capture has the same CP level. You can read on what CP means in Pokemon Go and how to get the highest values for your team, but in short, CP is one of the most important factors when it comes to fighting, and aside from collecting it's likely the driving force behind your desire to Power Up or evolve.

Because of those complexities surrounding your Pokmon's CP, Powering Up and evolving is more than just a case of picking the one with the highest CP and throwing your Stardust and Candy at it until you run dry. As you'll see below, sometimes you should Power Up your Pokmon first, sometimes you should evolve it first, sometimes both, and sometimes you should leave it alone.

Powering up and evolving Pokmon requires in-game resources known as Stardust and Candy. Stardust is a shared resource you receive for each Pokmon you catch, for storing Pokmon at Gyms and leveling up, while Candy is an item specific to that species - so Pikachu Candy, Pidgey Candy and so on. We've assembled some quick tips on how to get Candy in Pokmon Go here, plus how to get Stardust easily to strengthen your Pokmon.

In short, the more Pokmon of one type you catch, the more Candy you get to power up and evolve that species in its family, so it's well worth catching those low level Pidgeys to get that eventual Pidgeot evolution. Remember you can use in-game radar to locate and catch the Pokemon nearby, as well as discover Pokemon Type by location using real-world habitats.

As well as using Candy to evolve creatures, as part of the Gen 2 update certain evolutions - for existing and new Pokemon - also require a special item to evolve into certain forms. These are:

There are several important points worth bearing in mind for when you're looking to Power Up your Pokmon:

As with Powering Up, there are some important things to bear in mind for evolving your Pokmon.

We've decided to put together a flowchart, which should hopefully clear up what is a fairly complicated decision-making process for you! All the information you need is here - such as an IV calculator, CP and IVs explained, and a list of the best Pokmon in Pokmon Go - if you need it. Beneath the chart are the rules we've applied, but in text form.

You should Power Up your Pokmon if:

Want more help with Pokmon Go's Gen 2 update? Our list of new Gen 2 Johto Pokmon can teach you where to find each one, what you need to know about new Pokmon Go Berries, Special Items to evolve Pokmon such as King's Rock, Sun Stone, Up-Grade, Dragon Scale and Metal Coat, and how to get Eevee evolutions Umbreon, Espeon, and updated Egg distances and best Pokmon charts, as well as other Pokmon Go tips, tricks, cheats and guides.

You should evolve your Pokmon if:

You should avoid Powering Up your Pokmon if:

You should avoid evolving your Pokmon if:

Essentially, the Power Up and evolving decisions that you make depend on what you want to achieve. For the collectors it's fairly simple - just evolve the Pokmon whose evolutions are particularly rare - but for those interested in getting the absolute most out of their Pokmon's battling capabilities, it's certainly less so.

Pokmon Go - How to evolve, use Special Items, when to evolve or Power Up your Pokmon - Eurogamer.net

Evolution Items – IGN

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

New with the release of the Johto Pokemon Update, many new and old Pokemon can evolve into advanced form Pokemon - but only through the use of specific Evolution Items. These items have a rare chance of being found at any Pokestop, and can be used along with specific Pokemon Candy to evolve a Pokemon.

This even works with Pokemon who have different evolution paths, as an additional evolution button will let you choose which path you'd like to take if you meet the requirements. Dragon Scale

There are currently 5 new Evolution Items introduced with the latest update:

The Dragon Scale is one of the new Evolution Items that can be used in conjunction with Pokemon Candy to evolve some of the Gen 1 Pokemon to new Gen 2 evolutions.

Currently, the applicable Pokemon for this item is Seadra, who can be evolved into Kingdra using a Dragon Scale and 100 Horsea Pokemon Candy.

The Kings Rock is another of the new Evolution Items that can be used in conjunction with Pokemon Candy to evolve some of the Gen 1 Pokemon to new Gen 2 evolutions.

Currently, there are 2 applicable Pokemon who can use this item: Slowpoke can use the Kings Rock and 50 Slowpoke Candy to evolve into Slowking - or just the candy to evolve into Slowbro. Poliwhirl can also use the Kings Rock and 100 Politwag Candy to evolve into Politoed - or just the candy to evolve into Poliwrath.

The Sun Stone is another of the new Evolution Items that can be used in conjunction with Pokemon Candy to evolve some of the Gen 1 Pokemon to new Gen 2 evolutions.

Currently, the applicable Pokemon for this item is Gloom, who can evolve into Bellossom using the Sun Stone as well as 100 Oddish Candy, or into Vileplume using just candy.

The Metal Coat is another of the new Evolution Items that can be used in conjunction with Pokemon Candy to evolve some of the Gen 1 Pokemon to new Gen 2 evolutions.

Currently, there are twp applicable Pokemon for this item: Onix, who can now be evolved into Steelix using 1 Metal Coat and 50 Onix Candy. Scyther can also use 1 Metal Coat and 50 Scyther Candy to evolve into Scizor.

The Upgrade is another of the new Evolution Items that can be used in conjunction with Pokemon Candy to evolve some of the Gen 1 Pokemon to new Gen 2 evolutions.

Currently, the applicable Pokemon for this item is Porygon, who can use an Upgrade along with 50 Porygon Candy to evolve inyo Porygon2.

Evolution Items - IGN

Congo River fish evolution shaped by intense rapids: Genomic study … – Science Daily

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Danzig

Congo River fish evolution shaped by intense rapids: Genomic study ...
Science Daily
New research provides compelling evidence that a group of strange-looking fish living near the mouth of the Congo River are evolving due to the intense ...

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Congo River fish evolution shaped by intense rapids: Genomic study ... - Science Daily