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Mechs and greater space exploration are on the way in Starbound’s … – PCGamesN

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Looking to explore more of outer space, developer Chucklefish have been revealing additional information on an upcoming patch for Starbound. This patch is all about exploring the space between planets, so it will see players blasting off to check out travelling merchant ships, derelict space stations and outlying systems.

For more cosmic adventures, check out these PC space games.

To aid exploration in the freezing blackness of space, this update is adding giant mech suits for players to pilot. These bulky robots are designed for extra-vehicular activity, perfect to use while exploring the ruins of an abandoned space station or a spooky wrecked ship. These suits can be equipped with different weapons systems, as well as painted with custom paint jobs to personalise them. As you blast off for the deeper reaches of space, keeping your mech suit updated will be key to surviving dangerous excursions. I can only imagine what vile horrors may be lurking in the depths of some of these abandoned ships.

With this upcoming patch enacting galactic level change, interplanetary travel is getting a massive revamp with the addition of a new navigation interface. The interface does somewhat resemble the Galactic Map seen in No Mans Sky, with astronauts being able to zoom all the way out to see nearby stars in your section of the galaxy. However, this new map is not static, as ships can linger in orbit as moons and space stations fly past. You can freely move around when you are inside a solar system, flying between different planets to spot other ships travelling round.

You could just wait and watch the worlds go by while in space, observing ships coming to and from different planets. You may have to wait around as you look for a specific merchant ship to bring their wares to your current planet, but patient space captains could be rewarded with sick loot. I imagine that ship to ship battles may also come in this update, with space pirates possibly appearing in orbit, looking to pillage nearby vessels.

There has been no exact announcement on when this cosmic update is coming, but keep your scanners locked on the Starbound website for up to date information.

Thanks Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

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Mechs and greater space exploration are on the way in Starbound's ... - PCGamesN

Part 2: The brains behind Trump and WW3 – Independent Online

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Steve Bannon is arguably the second most powerful man in the world, but his vision for where America and the world are headed is World War Three, writesShannon Ebrahim.

Steve Bannon is arguably the second most powerful man in the world, as the chief strategist in the White House and the kingpin on the US National Security Council. But Bannons vision for where America and the world are headed is World War Three.

For those that think one man cannot navigate the US into what Bannon calls a cleansing apocalyptic war against Islam, they should think again.

Bannon is a shrewd strategist who masterminded President Donald Trumps path to the White House. Since starting Breitbart news in 2012 an online news site and radio station, Bannon frequently invited Trump as a guest on his radio talk show. Trump admired Bannon for his impressive background at Goldman Sachs, a degree from Harvard Business School, and the fact he was independently wealthy.

Trump, traditionally conservative but not Republican, was easily sold on the ideology of the alternative right, commonly known as alt-right. Breitbart news was started as a platform to spread this ideology.

Alt-right proponents disavow human rights, and seek to rid America of anyone who does not conform to Christian values and way of life. Its proponents are proudly anti-Islam, anti-immigrant, and also happen to be anti-abortion, homophobic and patriarchal.

Diversity and multiculturalism are the very elements of modern western liberal culture that the alt-right want to destroy. Bannon subscribes to the idea that a successful society should not be based on human rights, social justice or equality.

In August 2016, Bannon left Breitbart news and took over the reins of Trumps campaign. It was Bannon who drafted Trumps inaugural speech, which was a synopsis of everything Bannon perceives as wrong with America crony capitalists in bed with the political establishment at the expense of the middle class.

From the first day of Trumps administration, it is Bannon who has been instrumental in drafting the slew of executive orders from banning Muslims from seven countries, revisiting torture and American black sites, and drafting a ban on immigrants with disabilities, to mention a few.

But his coup was ensconcing himself at the apex of the National Security Council (NSC). Bannon drafted the executive order for Trump to sign that made him a principal member of the NSC, while downgrading the role of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Director of Intelligence. Trump has even said that he doesnt need to read daily intelligence briefings, likely due to the fact that Bannon will provide him with everything he needs to know.

So what of the checks and balances in American society on the power of the executive? They still exist the judiciary, the attorney general, the congress but all are under threat from Trumps inner circle, which have embarked on a process of purging those with dissenting views. For those with opposing views that the White House is not in a position to fire, there are concerted campaigns to discredit and denigrate them.

Bannon has publicly called himself a Leninist saying, Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and thats my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of todays establishment. For Bannon that means the destruction of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

But Lenin was not an ardent racist who wanted to plunge the world into bloody violent conflict in order to remake the world according to a dark and exclusivist worldview, built on white supremacy and the Christian religion.

Perhaps most concerning is that Bannon wants to take the US into a cataclysmic war far more brutal than anything America has experienced. He believes there are four turning points in American history the American revolution, the American civil war, World War Two, and now World War Three.

In an interview Bannon did with professional historian David Kaiser, Kaiser recalled that Bannon emphasized more than once the fact that each of the preceding crises involved a great war, each increasing in scope and brutality. Bannon told Kaiser he expects that the time has come for a much bigger war as the US is in an existential crisis with Islam.

Bannon also suggested on Breitbart news that World War Three with China was around the corner. In March 2016 he asked one of his radio talk show guests, Were going to war in the South China Sea in 5-10 years arent we? If that seems farfetched, consider the fact that Trumps new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said the US would consider blocking access to islands in the South China Sea. This for China is a redline.

Breitbart News and its grand ideologue have extended their reach beyond the US, into strategic centres of Europe, with a view to popularizing the alt-right ideology and ushering in extreme right wing parties. Breitbart France has hired Marine le Pens niece Marion le Pen to run its operation, to whip up anti-immigrant and Islamaphobic sentiments.

Breitbart London had worked closely with Nigel Farage's UKIP prior to the last British elections with the same objectives. Spreading alt-right ideology in Germany is already underway with a view to destroy Chancellor Merkel and everything she represents.

We must remember what the New York Times said about Adolf Hitler in 1922 that Hitlers anti-semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, but he was using propaganda to catch the masses.

If we are to learn from history, we should realize that dark men pursue dark agendas, and just as Hitler sought to annihilate Jews, so Bannon seeks to annihilate Muslims, and all others who fail to conform to his worldview.

The warning signs are there, but too often we downplay them in the nave belief that the world has changed since Hitler, and the checks and balances to dictatorial power will save us in the end.

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Part 2: The brains behind Trump and WW3 - Independent Online

WW3 fears as Iran launches ANOTHER missile test JUST DAYS after President Trump’s warning – Express.co.uk

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

GETTY

Although Trump warned Iran that they were playing with fire, officials told Fox News that the short-range air missile was released from the same launch pad as the last set of missile tests.

This latest test comes days after the US placed new sanctions on Iran.

The White House gave Iran a formal warning earlier today, which read theres a new President in town and the administration would not sit by to allow the Islamic republic to pursue its military ambitions.

Sean Spicer added: I think the Ayatollah [Irans Supreme Leader] is going to realise theres a new President in office.

Getty Images

1 of 14

Trump signs an order to review the Dodd-Frank Wall Street to roll back financial regulations of the Obama era.

This Presidents not going to sit by and let Iran flout its violations, or its apparent violations, to the joint agreement, but he will continue to take action as he sees fit.

The previous test launch on January 29, which featured a new type of medium-range ballistic missile, sparked fearful and furious reactions from officials.

Mike Flynn, Trumps National Security advisor, declared they were putting Iran on notice a day after the launch.

President Trump decided to threaten the Arab state as he tweeted: Iran is playing with fire - they dont appreciate how kind President Obama was to them. Not me!

GETTY

Senator Dianne Feinstein agreed with Trump and said Irans test launch at the end of January was very dangerous and should not have happened.

Trumps relationship with Iran got off to a bad start when Irans Supreme Leader made his first speech since Trumps inauguration to dismiss the US.

GETTY

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: We are thankful to (Trump) for making our life easy as he showed the real face of America.

"He says 'You should be afraid of me'. No! The Iranian people will respond to his words on February 10 and will show their stance against such threats."

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WW3 fears as Iran launches ANOTHER missile test JUST DAYS after President Trump's warning - Express.co.uk

Buy psychedelics online : Chinglabs.com

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

A psychedelic is a substance with the primary action of altering an individuals perception and cognition. Many chemicals of this classact by being serotonin receptor agonists. Theyare considered to be part of a larger class of psychoactive drugs called hallucinogens, which also includes unrelated substances such as medications that induce delirium and dissociative drugs. Unlike drugs such as opioids and stimulants which produce familiar states of consciousness, psychedelics cause the individual to experience things out of the realm of consciousness.

Psychedelic experiences are often also called trance states, yoga, meditation, dreaming, near-death experiences, and religious ecstasy. Most psychedelic drugs cause these states and fall into three main categories: Phenethylamines, tryptamines, and lysergamides. Most psychedelic drugs are illegal throughout the world unless they are being used in a religious or medical context, such as the use of medical cannabis. Despite the fact that these drugs are regulated, they are often used illicitly under recreational circumstances.

Psychological Effects

Generally, people on psychedelic drugs experience the world in bright and intense colors. Things in the environment that werent otherwise noticed are seen for the first time and develop a sense of importance. Colors become increasingly intense, contours are sharpened, music seems more profound, and textures seem richer.

The person may feel an increased perception of their body and changes in experiences. There is an increase in depth perception and objects that are normally inanimate become more expressive. Time may slow down or may stop altogether. There are vivid images, even when the eyes are closed.

There are strong emotional effects when the person is on this kind of drugs. The user becomes increasingly sensitive to the gestures of others, to their faces, and to minor changes in the environment. As all things in the users world become more conscious and important, the user feels and increased sense of love, joy, gratitude, despair, terror, lust, and pain. Feelings become overwhelming and difficult to tolerate. The individual may feel intense feelings of paranoia, panic, and a sense of losing control.

There is usually an impairment in the short term memory. Long forgotten occurrences from the distant past may come to the forefront and be relived in vivid detail. The individual may develop new insight into themselves and ponder the nature of the universe and humanity. Boundaries between the environment and the self may disappear.

Childhood memories may be relived and the person may regress into childlike behavior. They may go into a dream world in which other individuals, images, and actions take on a new significance. The person may experience a loss of self and may feel as though they have died and have been reborn. It may feel as all the questions of the world have been answered all at once.

Traditional Uses

This kind ofdrugs have long been used traditionally in religion and in the medical field, where they are used for their ability to improve mental and physical healing. Native American doctors have used peyote and other psychedelic agents to help cure a person from alcoholism. Mazatec doctors use mushrooms containing psilocybin for healing and religious purposes. DMT is an agent used in Peru and in other areas of South America for physical and spiritual healing and in certain religious festivals.

Examples

There are numerous types of agents. Some of them include the following:

Empathogen-Entactogens

These include MDMA, MDEA, and MDA. The use of these drugs cause feelings of euphoria, love, openness, increased self-awareness, and distortions of hearing and seeing. They are commonly used at raves for their ability to enhance the musical experience and to increase sociability. MDA is used to cause hallucinations and has other effects.

Cannabinoids

THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and similar compounds can have psychedelic effects. These include alterations in consciousness, some distortions of vision, and unusual hallucinations. In high doses, they bring on brightly flashing images, especially in dim lighting. There is a sensation of well-being, euphoria, reduction of stress, and feelings of relaxation. Users have enhanced memory, feelings of hunger, and an increase in feelings of sensuality. Some users can become paranoid, suffering from anxiety and agitation. There is an enhanced awareness of patterns, sounds, and colors.

Dissociative Drugs

Some dissociative drugs act by antagonizing NDMA and therefore induce psychedelic effects. Dissociative and serotonergic hallucinogens are somewhat different from one another in that the dissociative drugs result I a more intense experience of derealization and depersonalization. Ketamine, for example, causes feelings of being disconnected from the body with the environment feeling unreal. There are perceptual changes as is often seen with other agents.

Legal Implications

In spite of the fact that most psychedelic drugs are not addictive and have no long term detrimental effects on mental health, many psychedelic drugs are illegal, according to the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, developed in 1971. Some countries also ban synthetic compounds that have this kind ofproperties, even if they are not considered dangerous. In general, this kind ofdrugs are classified by the US government as being Schedule I drugs that have no medically-accepted use.

Because of governmental policies, there are severe limitations of the research of this drugs. Those wishing to do research on this agentsmust go through a great deal of red tape until they can be allowed to study the drugs. Even so, scientists have studied thisdrugs and have found that they have the potential to treat certain addictions, psychological traumas, and even cancer.

Facts

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When Will They Purge Indian History Of Political Correctness And Teach Us As It Is? – Swarajya

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

During Indias Independence movement, there was much admiration for ancient India, emphasising the continuity of India as a country and a dharmic civilisation. From Swami Vivekanandas Yoga-Vedanta revival, to Lokmanya Tilaks back to the Gita message, to Sri Aurobindo and his honouring of the Vedas, to the Ram Rajya ideal that extended to Mahatma Gandhi, this respect for Indias past was prominent and proud. Images of Bharata Mata, and songs like Vande Mataram expressed such inspiration. The founders of Indias constitution emphasised India as Bharat to show an identity between older and modern India, with no division between the two.

However, after Indias independence occurred, leftists and Marxists, including members of the Communist Party, rewrote the countrys history books. Like leftists everywhere, they deconstructed Indias history and rejected the native religion and culture of the land. They reduced Hinduism to disparate cults and Bharatiya civilisation to a modern myth not reflecting any historical reality. For them, India as a nation was mainly a product of the British and the Mughals that took shape only under Nehru.

In their accounts of history, they turned Islamic invaders, intent on converting the country by force, into secular leaders with a progressive outlook. They gave credence to the British and colonial rule as benefitting the country and its peoples.

New Views Of History

Recently Shashi Tharoor wrote a brilliant book exposing the crimes of the British in India. The British created a colonial narrative that they helped modernise and liberalise India, while in fact they allowed millions to die in famines, engaged in regular brutal atrocities, and suppressed traditional education, learning and culture.

However, similar books as Shashi Tharoors exposing British rule in India as tyrannical could also be written about the Mughals and other Islamic invaders. Mughal rule commonly practised genocide of Hindus and destruction of temples, not merely by Aurangzeb. Such studies could be made on Tamerlanes genocide of north India and on the older Delhi Sultanate overall notably Alauddin Khilji, who pillaged India north and south. They could be written on many Islamic invaders and rulers in India over the centuries, some of whom are portrayed as heroes in Indian history books today. But most scholars would not dare conduct such research, as political motives override their willingness to tell the truth.

Some scholars have said that these atrocities, even if true, should not be highlighted today because it may cause discrimination against current Muslims in India who had nothing to do with the brutalities of centuries ago. Yet one could just as well say that Tharoor should not have criticised the British as it might cause discrimination against Christians and hatred of westerners in India today.

Yet history should not be denied, even if unpleasant. The history of the Nazis is not denied to protect the sensitivities of Germans or Europeans today. In addition, it should be noted that Pakistan history books glorify these attacks on India as religiously inspired and their leaders as religious heroes, with Hinduism as degenerate, and India without any great pre-Islamic civilisation.

Enter Bollywood Into Historical Debates

Meanwhile, Bollywood has taken up the cause of rewriting Indias history in a way that whitewashes or glorifies the invaders, even turning them into romantic literary figures. Whatever the reasons behind these depictions, they distort history and demean the fierce resistance demonstrated against such attacks. Indias resistance to foreign rule and religious conversion goes back to the eighth century, and is not just a fact of the British era.

The Vijayanagar Empire pushed the Delhi Sultanate of Khilji back from the South, and the Marathas defeated the Mughal empire centuries later. Yet, little is portrayed in a positive light about their courageous efforts.

Similar Religious Wars In Europe

Some scholars go so far to say that the Mughals were secular because they had Hindus in their armies that they fought against other Muslims, and that Hindus were also fighting among each other, so religion should not be made into the main motive of their wars. Let us compare this situation to what was happening in Europe at the same time.

When Turkish armies were at the gates of Vienna in the seventeenth century, boasting that they would make Europe Islamic, and the Christian armies, with the support of the Pope were fighting on the other side, there were also some Christians among the Islamic armies and some Muslims among the Christian armies, and the French were attacking the same Holy Roman Empires to the west for their own local advantage. But all this was secondary to the real battle. One cannot doubt that conversion was the prime focus and it was a religious war.

Need For New Historical Research

Today when scholars try to expose the brutality of Muslim rule, they are judged as politically incorrect, biased or uninformed. But the criticism against them is mainly polemical and personal, distorting or ignoring the actual facts that are to the contrary.

Why does this distortion of history occur? Because it is advantageous to certain political persuasions in India in promoting divisive vote bank politics. It is not a matter of historical accuracy, but a drive for power and a lack of regard for Indias dharmic civilisation. This deception must be thoroughly exposed, not to target one group or another, but to reveal the truth. When the truth of history is denied, the future is also put at risk.

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When Will They Purge Indian History Of Political Correctness And Teach Us As It Is? - Swarajya

Letter to the editor: The truth doesn’t require political correctness – Anniston Star

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Which is preferable to be polite or to be right? Is it more desirable to win an argument or be correct?

Our president makes a lot of seemingly sweeping statements and takes a bunch of hits for it. Hes a no-nonsense, common-sense, git er done guy, causing some to buck up and bow up. But why? Because the truth doesnt require political correctness and doesnt need to prove itself. It is the foundational rock by which all other confusing and confounding thought breaks against.

In campaigning to put America first, our president simply follows the Biblical principle found in 1 Timothy. There, we are told to care for our own families and then others conversely, we are worse than unbelievers. Under this precept, America can be viewed as an extension of the individual family unit.

Anyone who genuinely loves his or her family seeks its security, health and happiness; its welfare is top priority even at the point of sacrificing ones own. Not to mention, anything that prevents their heads from being lopped off is helpful, too.

Sounds funny when phrased that way, but we all know deep down theres nothing funny about it.

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Letter to the editor: The truth doesn't require political correctness - Anniston Star

Trump’s Right-wing Political Correctness Makes Us Less Safe – Huffington Post

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Political Correctness. PC. The right has wielded that phrase going on three decades now, and popular vote loser Donald Trump made it a major part of his presidential campaign. They claim that PC shuts down certain ideas and elevates others based on how they make people feel, rather than the actual truth. And theres no better way to describe the Trump Administrations approach to terrorism and Islam thus far.

Lets start with the ban on all nationals from seven Muslim countries (but not the ones with whom Trump does significant business) entering the U.S., and the blocking of all Syrian refugees from our shores. The fact that this policy violates basic morality and some of our core values as a nation is a vitally important reason why many of us oppose it, but lets leave that aside for a moment. Lets examine the truth about its necessity and effectiveness.Guess how many people have died on our territory in an attack carried out by someone from one of those seven countries since 9/11?Zero. How about since 1975? Also zero.

But thats not all Trump has been up to. On Thursday, sources indicated that the new Administration plans to radically alter the Countering Violent Extremism program initiated under President Obama. Currently, the program works to combat violent extremism, i.e., terrorism, in the U.S., no matter what the underlying ideology. Regarding Muslims, CVE encourages community groups to work together with the government.

Trumps new plan? He wants to limit the programs focus to Islam, and change the name to either Countering Islamic Extremism or Countering Radical Islamic Extremism. What about white supremacist killers, or terrorists who murder Muslims while they pray? Apparently, theres no need for a federal effort to counter them any longer. Furthermore, does anyone think this change will make American Muslimsthe overwhelming majority of whom reject terrorist violencejust a wee bit wary of joining hands with a program, not to mention a government, that targets their faith specifically?

We have some evidence on that front already. One group, Leaders Advancing & Helping Communities, just decided to turn down a CVE grant they won because of the current political climate and cause for concern. And they arent the only ones. Its definitely a cause for concern if Muslim American groups feel alienated by Trumps counterproductive policies.

So why did Trump enact these measures, in particular given that numerous experts believe they will weaken, not strengthen, our national security? Feelings. Nothing more than ...sorry. Trump, and many other Republicans, have long sought to fire up their base with charges that, for example, President Obama wouldnt use the words radical Islam when talking about terrorist acts committed by Muslims. That was 100 percent about politics, about playing on fear to gin up anger.

Obama, like George W. Bush before him, made a sober, strategic assessment that not saying those words would make us safer, stronger, and help us in the fight against ISIS, al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups acting in the name of Islam. Would you like to know who else agrees with Obama and Bush, and thinks Trump is just plain wrong? Vladimir Putin:

Putin is an authoritarian thug, to be sure. I am loathe to cite him for, well, anything. The point is that if he, Bush, and Obama all agree on which approach works best on this issue, that says something. What it says is that Trumpno doubt influenced by his own personal Rasputin, i.e., Steve Bannon, is pursuing a policy that makes the American people less safe. Hes doing so because it makes a segment of his base feel good, feel like they are the ones whose ideas are in charge. Its nothing more than right-wing political correctness.

Along similar lines, Judge James Robarts order that blocked Trumps travel ban gave him another opportunity to play to the emotions of his base. He attacked the judge, and thus the constitutional principle of an independent judiciary, in incendiary terms. The clear message hes able to send is that he wants to keep you safe, but the establishment just wont let him.

If Democrats want to beat Trump, its not enough to talk only about the fact that his policies are immoralas important as that is. People are scared of terrorism, specifically coming from Muslims, especially after San Bernadino and Orlando. From the perspective of political strategy, to deny that reality is unhelpful to say the least. We must talk about morality and American values, but we also have to talk about effectiveness.

Like it or not, there are Americans who are willing to sacrifice their morality for their safety. We can convince them that Trump is making them and their loved ones less safe by targeting Muslims with his policies, and that hes doing so in a cynical way to appeal to their fears and win their votes. In a close election, that could make the difference between a one-term failed Trump presidency that discredits everything he stands for, and a re-election that is painful to even contemplate.

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Trump's Right-wing Political Correctness Makes Us Less Safe - Huffington Post

Cloning – The Hastings Center

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

By Christopher Thomas Scott and Irving L. Weissman, MD

Most cloningthe process of making an exact genetic replica of a cell, a tissue, or an organismhappens naturally. When the fertilized egg first divides, occasionally each daughter cell goes on to form separate embryos. The result: identical twins, each one a clone of the other. Organisms that reproduce asexually, such as aphids, brine shrimp, yeast, and bacteria, are clones. Horticulture uses the term clone for a form of propagation that involves cutting up one plant into pieces that are used to grow hundreds or thousands of identical seedlings.

Scientific cloning takes up where nature leaves off. Genetic, or molecular, cloning makes copies of genes or segments of DNA. They can be used to create colonies of genetically modified bacteria or viruses, which can produce drugs and vaccines. Laboratory culture methods can clone a single cell into a population of cells, comprising a limitless number of identical progeny. Various techniques to make copies of whole animals are called reproductive cloning. Finally, there is reprogramming, in which the genes from adult cells are reset to an embryonic state. The hope is that these cells can help scientists understand genetic disease mechanisms and create stem cell-based therapies for diseases and injuries that are genetically matched to individual patients. As of this writing, no such therapies exist.

Cloning technologies are essential tools; without them modern biology would still be the stuff of science fiction. Cloning has led to scores of important drugs and newly developed therapies, such as human insulin, interferon to fight viral infections, and blood growth factors such as erythropoietin to generate new red blood cells.

The ethical debates surrounding cloning pivot on several issues. One controversial method of cloningsomatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)involves the production of a two-to-four day-old blastocyst (a preimplantation embryo), whose cells are then removed to make a line of embryonic stem cellsa process that destroys the embryo. Another concern is over what might be done with these embryos prior to deriving a stem cell line. Because the technique employs some of the same culture methods used by in vitro fertilization clinics, some fear a cloned human embryo could be transferred to a woman, possibly resulting in a baby. And experience with animal reproductive cloning suggests more ethically troubling issuesearly implantation of these clones always results in their death and often causes maternal death or morbidity. With cloning that involves human embryos, still another concern is assuring that the process for obtaining human eggs for research involves proper informed consent from the donors.

How does the embryo control development by gene expression, the process by which genes turn on and off? Could a developmentally older or differentiated cell have its genes reset to an earlier version of itself by being put into an embryo?

Researchers first addressed these questions in the 1950s (see box, Cloning and Stem Cell Milestones: A Timeline). A nucleus from an unfertilized frog egg cell was removed by sucking it out with a very fine, hollow needle called a micropipette. In the same fashion, a nucleus was removed from a cell inside a developing frog embryo. Injecting it into the empty egg began the process of embryogenesis. This process rarely resulted in tadpoles, a few of which grew into frogs. This was the earliest version of nuclear transfer, the cloning technique in which a nucleus without a cell is inserted into a cell without a nucleus. The evidence of the eggs power to reprogram genes was an important result, and the research moved to mammals.

Until the appearance of Dolly, a cloned sheep, most animal clones resulted from nuclei taken directly from embryos. Ian Wilmut, a Scottish researcher, inserted a somatic cell taken from the udder of a six-year-old sheep into an unfertilized sheep egg whose chromosomes had been removed. After the procedure, the proteins in the eggs cytoplasm reprogrammed the developmental instructions contained in the DNA. The genes switched from their fully differentiated mammary cell program to a program that produced a baby sheep. This is an enormously inefficient method for producing offspring, presumably because there is not enough time for the eggs cytoplasm to correctly reprogram all the genes from the udder cell to a pluripotent state. Over 99% of such clones die after implantation. Also, animals made in this fashion are not true genetic clones. The egg contains genetic material outside the chromosomes in organelles called mitochondria. The resulting organism or cell line is a clone at the chromosomal level, but has a mixture of mitochondrial genes.

The same method used to produce an animal cloneSCNTcould theoretically be used to make a cloned line of human cells with a near genetic match to any person who needed them. The nucleus from a donor cell would be inserted into an egg stripped of its nucleus. Then, just as in animal cloning, the egg would divide, and an embryo might be cultured to the blastocyst stage and have its stem cell line harvested.

Another hope is that reprogrammed cell lines made by SCNT could be powerful tools for studying the genetic basis of human development and disease, as well as for drug discovery. In the most optimistic scenario, cloning could produce a lifetime supply of therapeutic stem cells genetically matched to a patient and, therefore, posing minimal risk of immune rejection. Unfortunately, the mitochondrial mismatches usually lead to immune rejection, albeit at a slower rate than when the chromosomal genes are also unmatched. As in other dimensions of stem cell research, the promise of therapeutic stem cells has proven difficult to realize due to moral and technical obstacles.

These difficulties came into sharp focus with the South Korean stem cell scandal. A research team announced in 2004 and 2005 that, using somatic cell nuclear transfer, they had established the first patient-specific human embryonic stem cell lines. Moreover, the researchers claimed to have accomplished the cloning with astounding efficiencies, easing worries that hundreds or thousands of human eggs would be needed. It was later revealed that thousands of eggs were indeed used, and some were obtained under questionable circumstances from women working in the laboratories. The lines themselves were not made by SCNT; they were derived from parthenoteseggs treated in a way that causes them to divide without being fertilizedor possibly directly from IVF embryos.

This fraud fueled efforts to find uncontroversial substitutes for cloned human cells. First, experiments in which somatic and embryonic stem cells were fused successfully reprogrammed the genes in the somatic cell nucleus. This meant that genes expressed in embryonic cells keep them pluripotent, or able to make any cell or tissue in the body. More recently, researchers have reprogrammed skin cells with subsets of these embryonic genes by introducing them with mouse leukemia virus vectors. These experiments make cell lines with embryonic qualities (see chapter 34, Stem Cells ). These linescalled induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS)express markers and genes indicative of embryonic stem cells; they also possess the ability to redifferentiate into adult cell types. If they are found to be equivalent to embryonic cells, then they couldin principlereplace nuclear transfer as a means of generating pluripotent lines that genetically match a patient. Since both the chromosomes and the mitochondria come from the induced cell, iPS cells are a better match than stem cells from SCNT. Though several labs have now made human iPS lines, experiments with mouse iPS cells show that the genes and the vectors that carry them cause cancer. Elimination of these oncogenes is a goal of many reprogramming labs.

Blastocyst In humans, a two-to-four-day-old embryo, roughly the diameter of a human hair.

Embryo An early stage of human development. Medical texts describe embryonic development as a gradual process, beginning when the blastocyst attaches to the uterus and ending eight weeks later, as the organs begin to form.

Differentiation The process by which stem cells make other kinds of cells and tissue in the body.

Stem cell A cell that has the capacity to make new copies of itself and differentiate.

Somatic cell A differentiated cell of the body, such as a skin or intestinal cell.

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells Stem cells derived from somatic cells following transfer of reprogramming genes taken from embryonic stem cells. The cells exhibit pluripotence, or the ability to copy themselves and change into different types of cells.

Reprogramming The molecular and chemical mechanisms at work in SCNT and iPS cell experiments that reset genes in differentiated cells (such as skin cells) to an embryonic state.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) Also called nuclear transfer. A technical step in which a somatic cell nucleus (containing the genetic material) is removed and transferred to an egg with no nucleus.

Therapeutic cloning A popular term for the anticipated application of SCNT to make genetically-matched embryonic stem cell lines for therapies.

Nuclear transfer is a crude disruption of a delicate and barely understood biological process. Most cloned animals die during gestation and, because of abnormal placentas or abnormally large fetuses, can kill the surrogate mother. Of the few reproductive clones that survive, many are unhealthy, most likely due to failures of reprogramming. Skeletal abnormalities and arthritis are common, as are malformed organs, circulatory disorders, respiratory problems, and immune system dysfunction. Cloned animals often suffer from either abnormally high or low birth weight. For these reasons alone, attempting to clone a human being would be clearly unethical. As a result, every major national and international ethical and scientific body condemns human cloning.

However, even if cloning humans could be done as safely as IVF, opinions on whether it should be allowed are divided. Would we deny an infertile couple a chance to have a cloned child? Are there other personal and private reasons for humans to clone a lost loved one, and should we deny them that possibility? Critics maintain that research cloning may lead to a slippery slopecondoning the process for research purposes could eventually result in condoning it for reproductive purposes. Cloning babies also creates life without sexual reproduction, which some believe undermines a vital dimension of humanness.

These arguments are based on an imagined world without societal checks or balances invoked by a moral consensus against the practice of cloning humansthe same pressures that condemn unethical treatment of human subjects in clinical research or payment for organs used in transplant procedures. Once it was clear that a stem cell line could make all tissues, we would certainly have a moral responsibility to use the line of cells to understand disease. These cells could also eventually provide therapies and cures. The moral justifications rest on the positive principle of beneficence: the research may reduce human suffering due to aging, injury, and disease, especially for those who may have a very short window of opportunity for treatment.

Resource constraints join funding restrictions as major hurdles to producing human stem cell lines by somatic cell nuclear reprogramming. Current technology requires the use of thousands of surplus or donated human eggs. The egg retrieval procedure is invasive and not without risk to women, raising concerns about obtaining proper informed consent. Whether women should be paid for removal of their eggs is hotly debated among ethics and policy scholars; national and state guidelines prohibit paying women for eggs over and above reasonable expenses related to the clinical procedure. Others point out inconsistencies in social policy that permit women to sell their eggs for reproductive purposes. Nevertheless, research using human and primate eggs may dramatically improve the efficiency of reprogramming, and, unlike the creation of iPS cells, nuclear transfer does not involve introduction of cancer genes.

The United States is the only nation conducting human embryonic stem cell research that does not have a federal law prohibiting human reproductive cloning. This incongruous fact springs from legislative wrangling in Congress since 2001. Opponents of human embryonic stem cell research introduced measures that would criminalize both human reproductive cloning and production of such lines by nuclear transfer. The tightly bound issues prevented a majority rule against reproductive cloning that would have carried easily in other countries. The vacuum in federal policy has led to a welter of state laws, some of which are permissive and others restrictive. It also leads to border dilemmas (by restricting the movement of eggs and cloned lines from permissive to restrictive states and vice versa) and, in South Dakota and Michigan, the threat of jail and other penalties for researchers. The regulatory environment is uncertain in the majority of states that are either silent on cloning or have laws that consider donated IVF embryos separately from embryos made for research purposes, including embryos made by nuclear transfer.

What is lost in the discussion about human embryonic stem cell funding restrictions is a longstanding federal prohibition on funding of embryo research generally, a legislative action that swept essential questions about infertility, reproductive medicine, and prenatal diagnosis beyond the reach of many American clinicians and scientists. Just as political controversies surrounding abortion and assisted reproductive technologies are used as proxies for restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, lines made by nuclear transfer are presumably bound by the same prohibitions as frozen embryos, despite national ethics committees and advisory groups such as the National Academy of Sciences recommending that the research proceed.

The future of cloning research faces at least four major scientific and policy questions.

Christopher Thomas Scott is a senior research scholar at the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University and Irving L. Weissman, MD, is a professor at Stanford University.

Christopher Thomas Scott and Irving L. Weissman, Cloning, in From Birth to Death and Bench to Clinic: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book for Journalists, Policymakers, and Campaigns, ed. Mary Crowley (Garrison, NY: The Hastings Center, 2008), 25-30.

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Cloning - The Hastings Center

Drive cloning in Windows 10 with free tools – Computerworld

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

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Cloning a drive comes in handy for a variety of reasons, but primarily when you want to replace one drive on a PC with another that is either bigger or faster than the original drive, if not both.

Such a cloning operation becomes critical on Windows PCs when the drive to be replaced is the boot/system drive, meaning it contains the files used to boot up the machine when it's starting up or restarting, as well the operating system files used to run Windows itself. Its critical because its proper outcome is a machine that boots and runs when that operation is complete, the old drive removed, and the new drive put in its place.

[ Enter the brave new world of Windows 10 license activation ]

By definition, disk cloning means creating a true and faithful copy of one computer storage device onto another. The name comes from a time when this meant a spinning hard disk of some kind. But today, with solid-state disks (SSDs) as common as hard disks (HDs), this can mean copying the contents of one storage device onto another storage device, where both source and target can be either an HD or an SSD. In fact, it's still often the case that the source is an HD and the target an SSD when a boot/system disk is the focus for cloning, because of the improved performance that such a changeover invariably delivers.

See the Evolution of Movie Magic With Every Oscar Winner for Visual Effects in History – Gizmodo

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

GIF

The Academy Awards are almost here and many people will be talking about red carpet fashion, comedic monologues, and who got robbed. But few will be paying attention to the most important awards categoryBest Visual Effects. This supercut pulls together all the past winners into a nice little reminder of how much has changed in the field, and how much visual effects changed the way movies are made.

Technically, the Oscar for Best Visual Effects has only been around since 1963. Before that, there was a category for Best Special Effects, an award that was shared by the visual and sound effects teams. But going back to the beginning of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, effects were recognized as a crucial part of filmmaking and in 1927, Wings received a special honor for Engineering Effects.

Along the way, thereve been a lot of no-brainer winners that set a new bar for effects like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and Jurassic Park. But there were also some surprising choices in there. Do you remember Innerspace? Id forgotten about it entirely but I think it was good. And can we talk about E.T. beating out Blade Runner? I love E.T. as much as anyone but I just dont see its effects as anywhere close to the Ridley Scott classic.

In two weeks, Deepwater Horizon, Doctor Strange, The Jungle Book, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will face off for the award. Until then, catch up on all the past winners below.

[Burger Fiction]

J. Albert C. Uy speaks on evolution, biodiversity in bellied flycatcher population – The College Reporter

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

By Shira Gould || Staff Writer

This weeks Common Hour was given by J. Albert C. Uy, a biology professor at the University of Miami. He spoke about climate change, the process of evolution, and the benefits of having diversity within a species. According to Uy, science is not enough to reverse the effects of climate change, but rather, applied science is necessary. He did research in the Solomon Islands in order to see the effects of mixed breeding in achieving diversity, and in turn continuing evolution.

Uy began his talk by outlining the logic behind evolution. He said that diversity allows an organism to exploit its environment. For example, there is diversity in communication and food needs, which then leads to survival. The question which guided his research was the way in which diversity happens, and how it continues. According to Uy, there have been five mass extinctions in the past four billion years. The most famous one, he asserts, was the extinction of the dinosaurs. Most scientists agree that we are heading straight into the sixth one, which would be entirely different from the last five because humans are the ones that are causing it. The current environmental climate is increasing the rate by which various species are becoming extinct.

Uy discussed Charles Darwin, who was the first scientist to explain evolution in terms of natural selection. According to Uy, Darwin went to the Galapagos Islands and noticed that birds who looked similar to one another had small discrepancies in appearance throughout the area. He postulated that the birds were of the same family, but were different due to small mutations. Darwins theory of natural selection states that individuals in any given population are variable, and that some species do better than others. Those who survive, mate, resulting in a new species.

Uy studied the bellied flycatchers in the Solomon Islands, which are located in the South Pacific coast of New Guinea. The birds feed on insects, are socially homogenous, and are variable in the Solomon Islands. Uy noticed that the birds with different colored stomachs also sang different songs. One type of bird had a chestnut colored belly and another had a black belly. Uy wanted to test how the black bellied birds would react to the chestnut bellied birds, and found that birds with bellies of the same color tended to become more aggressive to one another than to those with different colored bellies. Uy hypothesized that this was a result of competition in mating. Uy then wanted to determine the cause for difference in color, and what would happen if the colors were mixed. He found that breeding a black-bellied bird with a chestnut-bellied bird resulted in a bird with a mixed-colored stomach. He also found that there are 70,000 genetic markers, and that one gene can begin an entirely new species.

Uy concluded his talk by discussing the loss of tropical forests due to logging. Logging causes damage to lagoons, rivers and forests, which causes a drastic and rapid loss in wildlife in those areas. Additionally, because carbon dioxide contributes to climate change, Uy asserts it is important to change the perspective of those who continue to lobby for logging, to donate money to research, and to focus on conserving energy.

First year Shira Gould is a staff writer. Her email is sgould@fandm.edu.

Photo courtesy of fandm.edu

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J. Albert C. Uy speaks on evolution, biodiversity in bellied flycatcher population - The College Reporter

More order with less judgment: An optimal theory of the evolution of cooperation – Science Daily

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

More order with less judgment: An optimal theory of the evolution of cooperation
Science Daily
Date: February 7, 2017; Source: University of Vienna; Summary: Mathematicians present a new optimal theory of the evolution of reputation-based cooperation. This team demonstrates that the practice of making moral assessments conditionally is very ...

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More order with less judgment: An optimal theory of the evolution of cooperation - Science Daily

Mariska Hargitay’s Evolution from ’80s Glam to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – TVOvermind

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Mariska Hargitays Evolution from 80s Glam to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

As I do with every single celebrity I can whos made an appearance on the show, I first enjoyed Mariska Hargitay when she appeared on Seinfeld in 1993. Like many people have appeared on that show, Hargitay went on to achieve great success as an actress. While her career began well before 1993, the 90s were really the decade that put her into the spotlight. Once she landed the role as Cynthia Hooper on ER she would forever be entrenched in television.

Then in 2000, yes 2000 she began her Law and Order career which shes dominated for 17 years now. In one way or another Hargitays played the role of Olivia Benson for what feels like a lifetime. In honor of Hargitays 20 plus years in the business, Entertainment Weekly just shared this awesome montage video of her evolving over the years.

One thing thats interesting about this video is that this woman has not aged. Seriously. While her hair and style may have changed, her face is undeniably the same.

Nat is the Co-Founder and Editor in Chief of BC Media Group and all its properties. He loves television, movies, fitness, playing piano, and writing great articles. Follow him on Twitter @nathanielberman

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Mariska Hargitay's Evolution from '80s Glam to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - TVOvermind

Evolution of baseball from power to speed has left SBs behind … – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Chicago Sun-Times

Evolution of baseball from power to speed has left SBs behind ...
Chicago Sun-Times
The Cubs' Javy Baez tags out the Indians' Francisco Lindor on a stolen-base attempt during Game 5 of the World Series last season at Wrigley Field. | Jamie ...

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Evolution of baseball from power to speed has left SBs behind ... - Chicago Sun-Times

Happy Darwin Day! German Natural History Museum Is Our 2017 Censor of the Year – Discovery Institute

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

The often-heard assertion that a scientific "consensus" exists in favor of orthodox Darwinian theory is true on the surface, but otherwise deceptive. Yes, a large majority of scientists if pressed, especially in public, would hastily affirm that neo-Darwinism explains the development of complex biological forms.

We know, however, that this apparent agreement conceals a great deal of intellectual and personal turmoil, just behind the facade. The unanimity is maintained by a tight discipline that includes outright censorship. That's why every year Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture recognizes a Censor of the Year, an outstanding example of a person or institution that contributed to this pro-Darwin "consensus" through intimidation, agitation, or professional retaliation.

Now, with the debate about intelligent design (ID) taking place on an increasingly international stage, we reach across the Atlantic to name Germany's Natural History Museum in Stuttgart as our 2017 Censor of the Year.

If you follow us at Evolution News, you'll already have an inkling of the story that lies behind this choice. On Friday we announced a new Senior Fellow with the CSC, the distinguished German paleo-entomologist Gnter Bechly, formerly curator of amber and fossil insects at the Natural History Museum. In welcoming Dr. Bechly, a specialist in dragonflies, we left out one thing. After coming out as an ID sympathizer in 2015, following his private exploration of the evidence for design in nature, Bechly was the victim of retaliation and censorship by his institution. Though the addition of Dr. Bechly to our scientific community is a wonderful boon to us, the ensuing parting of the ways with his museum came with heavy personal, professional, and health costs.

As told in the documentary Revolutionary (see an excerpt below), his doubts on evolution were first stirred in 2009 when he organized an exhibition to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. The exhibit included a display of a "scale" weighing the Origin against a collection of ID books by Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer, William Dembski, and others. Bechly's "mistake" was to actually read those books.

This commenced a journey for him, motivated by scientific curiosity, not religion. As he recalls in the film, he had no religion to begin with, but only a love of and fascination with nature and animals.

He kept his interest in and support of ID private until October 2015, when he broached the subject on Facebook and a personal web page. Even then, Gnter kept his ID writing strictly separate from his work for the museum. But word got out. He has shared it all with us, though some must be kept back, including names and positions, to protect innocent parties.

It began with strange smiles from colleagues, icy faces, and backstabbing gossip, moving on finally to open hostility. Without warning, his applications to acquire new fossil material -- say, a collection of mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber -- were blocked by unprecedented bureaucratic obstacles. He learned that a position he relied on, his amber preparator (handler), was proposed to go unfilled after its previous occupant retired.

Emails among his fellow scientists asked, "Have you already heard that Bechly has become a creationist? How shall we react and what can we do about it?" Conspiratorial meetings took place behind his back, as a colleague wondered, "How can we help Gnter?" as if he were unwell. Co-workers placed phone calls to scientists outside the museum to ask if they knew about Bechly's turn to "creationism."

He was told that the large amber collection he was responsible for as curator would be moved away from his office. He was directed to resign from a position as ombudsman for the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation), a research-funding group.

A colleague sought to draw out evidence of his heresy in a seemingly friendly email exchange, after which Gnter was summoned for a discussion of his future at the institution. Says Dr. Bechly, he was told that "as a big threat to the credibility and reputation of the museum," he was "no longer welcome, and that it would be appreciated if I would decide to quit." The museum also informed him that colleagues no longer want to collaborate with him.

To reinforce the impression that Bechly would no longer enjoy a comfortable, supportive, and productive professional life there, the museum deleted his webpages (which made no mention of ID) and erased him from its own website. It dismissed him as scientific head of a major exhibition he had conceived and designed, "Life in the Amber Forest." Dr. Bechly was now forced to report as an underling to a colleague with no expertise in his area. He asked if he was being accused of any misconduct, and received the answer that, no, that certainly wasn't the case. On the contrary, his 17 years of work at the museum had been exemplary.

Seventeen years of fine work! And he was being gradually forced out over privately held views. "After a few days of soul searching and long discussions with my wife," says Bechly, "I decided that it did not make sense anymore to continue working in a hostile environment that makes productive research and collaboration with colleagues impossible." He resigned this past December, and now joins us.

"It was offensive, humiliating, and unfair," Bechly concludes in an apt summary. A few weeks after his resignation he received a troubling medical diagnosis of severe heart problems. He faces heart surgery later this month.

His story reminds us of many other cases, some involving past Censors of the Year. It recalls in particular evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg's experience at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. That was after Dr. Sternberg published a peer-reviewed article by ID proponent Dr. Stephen Meyer in a journal that Sternberg edited, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. (I wrote about that in the Wall Street Journal and at National Review Online.) For his offense -- editing an article! -- Sternberg suffered retaliation including being denied access to specimen collections, having his master key taken away from him, and an internal investigation of his religious and political belief. As with Bechly, colleagues refused to work him, and he was eventually forced out of his position.

This is how the "consensus" for Darwinian evolution is maintained. Oh, not only or primarily through outright censorship. Vanity is the single most effective tool that ensures uniformity of opinion. Men are monsters of vanity -- males especially, but women too. The pressure to be on the prestige side of any significant disagreement is intense, a fact often unacknowledged unless you are pretty honest with yourself. This holds across science, the media, education, politics, religion, and other fields.

Dr. Bechly was among the contingent of ID-friendly scientists present at the Royal Society meeting ("New Trends in Evolutionary Biology") in London last November. Another scientist on hand, we noted, a senior figure with views on Darwin overlapping with ours but allergic to ID itself, was visibly skittish about even being seen talking with us. So it goes.

Doubts about Darwin are also held in check by fear of what will happen to you if the suspicion gets around that you're in league with the "creationists." That word alone -- a masterpiece agitprop tool in the hands of Darwin enforcers, applied to everyone from Biblical literalists to the most sophisticated scientists examining objective evidence of design in nature -- does all the work of intimidation needed to keep most people in line.

But fear of punishment is a major factor too. When a scientist really does cross the line, as Gnter Bechly did, the hammer almost always comes down, ruthlessly. So it proved at Stuttgart's Natural History Museum.

Gnter's case, like others, is revealing. We know of many science professionals whose career or research would be endangered if we said a word here about their ID sympathies. Instances like that come to our attention all the time, and prudence keeps us from saying more.

Someday, a tipping point will come. Numerous closets will open in a swell of confessions: "I've doubted the straight Darwin story for years." "I've long suspected that design or teleology of some kind must have played a role in evolution, but I would never admit it till now." And at that time we'll stop giving out Censor of the Year awards. But that day has not yet arrived.

I'm on Twitter. Follow me @d_klinghoffer.

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Happy Darwin Day! German Natural History Museum Is Our 2017 Censor of the Year - Discovery Institute

Face off: Marion students compete in robotics competition – The Exponent Telegram (press release) (registration)

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

FAIRMONT Building, planning and plotting, several Marion County students took it to the limit in last weekends 2017 VEX Robotics West Virginia Regional Tournament.

The Marion Comets team, which consists of seven members, is led by Fairmont Senior High School science teacher Ann Burns.

The Marion County robotics teams were made possible by the creation of West Side Robotics in 2009, a nonprofit organization that helps fund teams in the county and promotes an interest in the field.

We were finding that a lot of times with kids who were on LEGO Robotics teams, one of the things was, if you wanted to get sponsorship from other organizations or businesses, sometimes they wanted it to be tax-deductible, West Side Robotics President Cheryl Van Horn said. The reason we became a nonprofit was to provide a way to help fund and support the robotics teams.

The Comets were part of a 23-team field at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Center Feb. 4, all vying for a chance to go to the state tournament.

In VEX competitions, the teams are presented with an engineering challenge game, and they must build and develop robots to accomplish their goal. The teams usually compete directly with each other, trying to score as many points in a given game as possible.

During the regional tournament, two alliances, composed of two teams each, competed against each other to rack up points by scoring different items in each others zones and hanging robots from hanging bars.

Mobility is definitely important in this game, especially defensively, Marion Comets team member and FSHS student Sinead Tobin said. We talked with other teams a little bit. We were considering what would be the highest scoring elements in the game, and we built our robots around that. Originally, we had three groups that put together three robots and we had a small scrimmage. We just combined elements from each one.

The Marion Comets were split in half for the competition, with Team B led by Tobin.

Tobin said that VEX Robotics provides an outlet for middle school and high school students interested in science, technology, engineering and math to put their skills to the test in a fun and competitive way.

It really isnt that common, but theyre trying to bring more STEM activities to the youth because there is such a great need for those jobs, and there will be in the future, Tobin said. (My siblings and I) are all computer geeks, so it kind of runs in the family.

Indeed, promoting interest in STEM fields is a primary goal of the robotics competitions, according to NASA Program Manager Todd Ensign.

West Virginia faces an uncertain economic future if we do not adapt our business sector to focus more on high-technology industries, Ensign said in a previous interview. Our students are currently not adequately prepared to engage in the high-tech job sector and are leaving our state for opportunities elsewhere.

We need to empower our educators to provide the necessary career, STEM and 21st-century skill training to our students in order to counter these trends and entice businesses to our state. The No. 1 concern of employers considering locating or relocating in West Virginia, and in particular this area, is a labor-ready workforce.

While the Marion Comets didnt win the regional competition, theyll have another chance to go to the state competition during another qualifier on Feb. 25 in Charleston.

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Face off: Marion students compete in robotics competition - The Exponent Telegram (press release) (registration)

What went seriously wrong with Lily Robotics – VentureBeat

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

Lying in general is a bad idea, but lying to your would-be customers is an especially awful thing to do. Thats the lesson allegedly being learned by Lily Robotics, which, at the end of January, was raided by San Francisco police as part of a potential criminal investigation.

Lets back up. Why is the SFPD raiding the headquarters of a robotics company? Its been a long, strange road, but lets go back to the beginning.

In 2016, Lily Robotics took more than 60,000 preorders for an upcoming product preorders valued at more than $34 million. Naturally, these customers expected the product to be delivered within the specified time frame and to work as depicted in the companys promotional videos.

Lily Drone had generated a wave of positive press because it promised to be a no-nonsense, easy-to-use drone that required little experience with technology and not much effort to set up. The drone was also eagerly anticipated due to a unique feature known as auto-follow, which is exactly what it sounds like: You could simply send the drone into the air, and it would follow you autonomously, shooting footage as you go. A small handheld tracker would continue to draw the drone toward you as you went about your activities.

The company also promised rugged construction, even going so far as to claim the drone would be waterproof, which would further set it apart from other commercially available drones. Between the waterproofing claims, auto-follow, and throw-and-go, which would have allowed customers to simply throw Lily Drone into the air to activate it, it was shaping up to be an intriguing product, even in the burgeoning Wild West atmosphere of the drone market.

Unfortunately, with waiting customers growing restless, on Jan. 12, 2017 things finally came to a head. Authorities raided Lily Drones San Francisco headquarters in preparation for a criminal investigation, alleging the company had lied to customers, in addition to slipping past the promised delivery date.

The story of Lily Drone turns tragic on two fronts. The first was a lack of funding. Despite raising about $34 million by taking preorders, the company was eventually forced to email customers with a notice that their money would be refunded. Manufacturing and shipping a product this complex is expensive, and the company simply ran out of money to do so.

That would have been a familiar story weve all heard of failed startups and wildly successful crowdfunding campaigns that never get an actual product off the ground. However, the company is also accused of directly lying to customers about Lily Drones capabilities.

Allegedly, in the promotional video touting the drones unique capabilities, the company used footage shot not on Lily Drone prototypes, but on an existing product a much pricier, camera-equipped drone from an unaffiliated company. The suit brought against Lily Drone alleges the company deliberately misled their customers. Company founders Antoine Balaresque and Henry Bradlow are supposed to have been present at the filming themselves. The two met at UC Berkeley as engineering students.

Moreover, the two were found to have discussed the problem well before the video shoot even took place: Emails had been exchanged between CEO Balaresque and the third-party filmmaker theyd tapped to help make the promotional film. The emails leave little to the imagination. Wrote Balaresque: I am worried that a lens geek could study our images up close and detect the unique GoPro lens format I think we should be extremely careful it we decide to lie publicly.

When we hear about companies misleading their customers willingly and take your pick, because this has been a common refrain lately, from Energy Transfer Partners and Theranos to Wells Fargo and Volkswagen its a disappointing thing. Its slightly less common to hear this kind of story from smaller startups, but Lily Drones tale nonetheless is a reminder to always be on your guard, whether the company youre dealing with is large or small.

Had it come to market, Lily Drone would have carried a price tag of between $499 and $899, depending on the type of drone preordered. That might sound like a lot, but it was supposed to be packing some fairly impressive technology on board its compact design.

The implications for the concept were definitely interesting and could have impacted a number of industries far beyond consumer tech. The drone was to be largely autonomous and nearly effortless to pilot, unlike remote control vehicles (RCVs), which require a great deal of training to do something as simple as extend their arms and manipulate objects. But Lily Drone could have followed human counterparts into dangerous surroundings and provided a constant link back to safety, all without a pilot or expensive and time-consuming pilot training.

Eventually, somebody else will get there. Lily Drone may have squandered its chance at delivering this exciting new type of drone technology, but its only a matter of time before one of its would-be competitors releases an auto-follow drone of their own to fill this rather distinctive niche.

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What went seriously wrong with Lily Robotics - VentureBeat

Freshman Caldwell team takes first place in Regional Robotics Tournament – Idaho Press-Tribune

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

WEISER On Friday, a team of freshmen from Caldwell High School earned the top prize in a regional robotics tournament and a chance to compete in the upcoming state championship.

The tournament, made up of 38 middle school and high school teams, tasked students with designing and building a robot that can compete against other teams in a game-based engineering challenge.

The Caldwell High School senior team won the excellence award for the best overall robot design and student achievement.

Story continues below video

Coach Dennis Zattiero, who teaches pre-engineering at Caldwell High School, said this years victory is in keeping with tradition. He said the school has competed in the world championships three of the last four years.

The thing I find most interesting, is that the teams dont get the pieces to build their robot until the beginning of the school year, Zattiero said.

When they do receive the parts, students often devote up to 200 hours into building the robot, essentially from scratch.

The most unique thing about the competition, Zattiero said, is that students must take the knowledge they have learned in school and apply it to building their robot. The games are what he calls discovery-based learning, which allows students the time they need to work through the issues they face in a real-world setting. The process is difficult, however, and teams are often unable to complete their robot or make it operational.

Once completed, the robot is used to compete in 10 rounds of one-on-one strategy-based tasks. There are three separate tasks teams must complete in the span of two minutes.

The first task teams complete in that time frame is programming their robot to autonomously pick up foam jacks and move them over a fixed wall. The next phase involves putting as many jacks over the wall as possible with an opponent defending the other side with their robot. For the final task, the robot must grab to a certain point on a wooden post and lift itself as high as it can. Many teams dont get to this point due to its difficulty, Zattiero said.

Two minutes doesnt seem like much time, he said. But once the match starts it seems like forever because they have so much to do.

Tournaments are held year-round at the regional, state, and national levels, with local champions going on to compete against the best in the world at VEX World championships in April. The competitions are sponsored by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, a Texas-based organization dedicated to inspiring science and technology learning.

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Freshman Caldwell team takes first place in Regional Robotics Tournament - Idaho Press-Tribune

Ford invests $1B in robotics startup in driverless car quest – CBS News

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

SAN FRANCISCO - Ford Motor (F) is spending $1 billion to take over a robotics startup to acquire more of the expertise needed to reach its ambitious goal of having a fully driverless vehicle on the road by 2021.

The big bet announced Friday comes just a few months after the Pittsburgh startup, Argo AI, was created by two alumni of Carnegie Mellon Universitys robotics program, Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander.

Salesky formerly worked on self-driving cars at a high-profile project within Google- now known as Waymo - and Rander did the same kind of engineering at ride-hailing service Uber before the two men teamed up to launch Argo late last year. Argo had been considering whether to raise money from venture capitalists, the conventional fundraising channel for startups, before opting to become an independent subsidiary of Ford instead.

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Ford is spreading its $1 billion investment over a five-year period.

The alliance between Argo and Ford aims to combine the spunk and dexterity of a technologically savvy startup with the financial muscle and manufacturing know-how of a major automaker.

The unusual deal marks the next step in Fords journey toward building a vehicle without a steering wheel or brake pad by 2021 - a vision that CEO Mark Fields laid out last summer.

The decision to turn to Argo for help is a tacit acknowledgement that Ford wouldnt be able to pull it off on its own.

This is likely a realization that Ford is behind relative to companies like GM, Audi, Volvo, Waymo and Uber, and is trying to catch up, said Raj Rajkumar, a Carnegie Mellon computer engineering professor who leads the schools autonomous vehicle research.

Ford is counting on Salesky and Rander to hire about 200 employees during the next year while working on the core technology of its autonomous vehicle - the virtual driver system.

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On 60 Minutes Overtime, Charlie Rose explores the labs at Carnegie Mellon on the cutting edge of A.I. See robots learning to go where humans can'...

That will serve as cars brains, eyes, ears and senses, said Raj Nair, Fords chief technical officer who also leads the companys product development.

Competitors such as NVIDIA have developed artificial intelligence that learns about different situations as its tested on roads, something that is almost essential for an autonomous car to function in heavy traffic on city streets.

In return for its funding, Argo will design its driverless system exclusively for Ford and then have a chance to license the technology to other automakers in the future.

If Argos system turns out to be far ahead of anything else on the market, the subsidiary could eventually be worth substantially more than it is now. Argo employees, who will work from offices in Pittsburgh, Michigan and the Silicon Valley, will be given stock in the subsidiary as part of their compensation packages so they will be enriched if their Argos technology becomes a hot commodity.

Ford isnt the first company to spend huge sums to obtain more experience and skills in robotics. Uber bought autonomous trucking startup Otto for an estimated $680 million last summer primarily to get Ottos engineers on its team working on driverless vehicles. Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski, another former Google engineer, is now overseeing Ubers testing of driverless cars in Pittsburgh and Arizona.

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Ford invests $1B in robotics startup in driverless car quest - CBS News

Alice Shaw robotics team building invention to save wolves | Local … – Lompoc Record

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Danzig

The Eagletronics Robotics Team at Alice Shaw Elementary has been hard at work preparing to showcase their newest invention an alert to save wolves to the First Lego League.

Every year, the First Lego League determines a theme for the year that students have to design their competition projects around this year it's Animal Allies.

The yearly challenge has three facets: the robotic challenge, in which a team-built robot has to complete an obstacle course designed by the League; core values, which is how the students use teamwork and character traits like solution finding and respect while engaging in the robotic challenge; and a final project.

The Eagletronics team was meeting every Wednesday at lunch and after school on Fridays, as well as collaborating with a robotics team in New Mexico, to complete their project to save the wolves in and around Yellowstone National Park.

Our radio activated guard box has been modified with an infrared sensor for thermal detection of wolves, said Shaws robotics team adviser Valerie Trenev.

Trenev explained why the team decided to devote their project to helping wolves.

Wolves, unfortunately, are targeted as predators in the wild, Trenev said. They go to a ranchers property and eat their sheep or cattle. The wolves are a problem because theyre going in to the areas where the livestock and cattle are. The ranchers lose a lot of money when their livestock gets eaten, so they get really mad and shoot the wolves.

Were noticing a comeback of the wolves, she said. They were nearly exterminated in the early 1900s and now were seeing a huge comeback. Now, where they graze on federal land, were seeing a huge problem.

She explained that the presence of cattle drive away deer, which are typically what the wolves feed on. So, since they cant hunt deer, the wolves go after livestock on federal ranches, where there are typically no fences or boundaries for livestock.

The box is designed to sound alarms and strobe lights when it is activated by body heat as it crosses certain perimeters. Their hope is that by scaring the wolves, or other predators, they will be deterred from hunting livestock which will in turn save the wolves lives.

After competing in a regional competition through the FLL, the Eagletronics team came in the Top 25 out of 376 teams in Southern California. Although they didnt make the final cut, the team said they did a good job about spreading the word to other teams.

The project also won an award at the local competition the team entered.

After news spread about Eagletronics invention, FLL did a shout out blast about the team and their project that went to 25,000 teams around the world, leading a team out of New Mexico that is also working on a project about wolves, to reach out and offer help.

Eagletronics has been Facetiming the New Mexico team for development and technical ideas and support.

While Trenev said shes not sure when the project will actually be completed and showcased, they continue to work on it every chance they get, and experiment with different types of alarms.

Weve tried Metallica and radio talk show, she said, laughing, noting that theyve also recorded students yelling phrases to deter to the wolves.

A fifth-grader at Shaw and first-year robotics team member, Lillian Evans, said she has a lot of background knowledge on the project and that she finds it important to do this for wolves, cattle and ranchers.

Its mostly for the wolves, she said. Id be devastated if wolves died out.

Evans, who said she has been the team spirit throughout the project, works mostly with details related to the project, although she also creates props. Her latest props were wolf ears she made for the team to wear at competitions. She also wears a fur vest and carries a sign that says Save the Wolves.

Were very excited, she said.

Besides finishing their project, the Eagletronics Team will be attending a Spring Showcase in mid-May to compete beside other Southern California student robotics teams in the robotic challenge and core values arenas.

Krista Chandler covers education in Santa Maria for Lee Central Coast News. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @KristasBeat.

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Alice Shaw robotics team building invention to save wolves | Local ... - Lompoc Record

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