Letter: Political correctness is akin to golden rule – The Buffalo News – Buffalo News

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Political correctness is akin to golden rule

Im always perplexed when I hear folks complain that political correctness is out of control. A Google search defines political correctness as the avoidance of forms of expression or actions that are perceived to exclude, marginalize or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against. Way back in my early childhood, this was expressed very simply and effectively as do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Failure to follow this golden rule would result is swift punishment from a parent, teacher, grandparent or other authority figure.

If I am to function in the 21st century and shed this oppressive cloak of political correctness, Im going to need the list of groups it is now permissible to exclude, marginalize or insult. Anybody?

Mike Lukasik

Kenmore

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Letter: Political correctness is akin to golden rule - The Buffalo News - Buffalo News

The Politically Correct Presidency of Donald Trump – The Atlantic

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During the 1990s and again over the last several years, the United States engaged in an intense, wide-ranging argument about the contested concept of political correctness. For its most incisive critics, political correctness was a problem insofar as it elevated deference to political sensibilities overstating or acting on the truth.

Last year, numerous supporters of Donald Trump declared over the course of the presidential election that they supported the billionaire in part because they were tired of political correctness, a phenomenon they associated with the political left. A small portion of those voters were itching to engage in hateful speech. In contrast, many others merely hoped that if elected, Trump would govern as a hard-headed businessman who spoke plain truths about problems that the United States faces. No longer would politically tinged falsehoods shape the presidents words or actions.

Alas, that isnt what happened.

Yes, President Trump is gleeful in offending the political sensibilities of his opponents on the left and right. Sometimes, as with his attacks on the Iraq War, his irreverence is even useful. But Trumps lodestar isnt truth. It is an alternative dogma shaped by his peculiar coalition. And it distorts his words and actions as much as any Washington politician. Rather than address the problems that face America, political correctness be damned, Trump constantly utters falsehoods to gain political advantage, coddles Vladamir Putin, and panders to the sensibilities of Breitbart News, the website formerly run by Steve Bannon, his chief strategist.

Since his political correctness is informed by different orthodoxies of thought, it is aimed in a different direction, but its most dangerous attribute is exactly the same: It is grounded in a refusal to deal with the world as it is. Whats more, complaints from across the political spectrum are long overdue, because Trumps political correctness is already causing him to fail at governing.

This may be most consequential in the realm of counterterrorism.

The United States ought to be on guard against acts of terrorism perpetrated by radical Islamists. And it ought to be on guard against terrorists with other motives, too. Given the scale of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, al-Qaedas ambition to top it, and the rise of ISIS, many intelligent observers have concluded that Islamist terrorism is the sort that poses the biggest threat to the West. If that judgment is correct, there is little doubt that the next biggest threat to the West, judged using the same standards, is the one posed by right-wing extremism.

The body count illustrates why that threat is not to be ignored.

The second most deadly terrorist attack in American history occurred on April 19, 1995, when Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols used a truck bomb to blow up an Oklahoma City federal building, killing 169 people and injuring hundreds more. A New America Foundation study released in June 2015 found that right-wing terrorists killed 48 people on U.S. soil in the period after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. For example, on June 17, 2015, the white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine people at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina. And Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old with ties to neo-Nazi and white-supremacist groups, killed six and wounded four in a 2012 shooting attack on a Sikh temple.

In Europe, Anders Behring Breivik, an anti-Muslim and anti-feminist radical, killed eight people with a bomb in Oslo, Norway, then shot 69 people at a youth camp for future leaders of his nation, hoping to draw attention to his right-wing manifesto. After extensive study, the Terrorism Research Initiative attributed 303 deaths to right-wing extremist terrorism in Western Europe from 1990 to 2015.

Most recently, on January 29, Alexandre Bissonnette, a 27-year-old, allegedly burst into the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City and killed six Muslims at prayer, The Economist reports. The victims included a university lecturer, a pharmacist and a halal butcher. More than a dozen other worshippers were wounded. A friend of Bissonnette said the killer was enthralled by a borderline racist nationalist movement.

During Barack Obamas presidency, critics repeatedly charged that Obama was unable to effectively keep America safe because he refused to use the term Islamic terrorism. They saw his reticence as political correctness run amuck. Obama retorted that he of course understood the nature of the threat, but that he chose his words carefully to avoid legitimating the religious claims of extremists or helping them to drive a wedge between moderate Muslims and the West. There is no doubt, and I've said repeatedly, where we see terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda or ISIL, they have perverted and distorted and tried to claim the mantle of Islam for an excuse for basically barbarism," Obama said. "What I have been careful about ... is to not lump these murderers into the billion Muslims that exist around the world, including in this country, who are peaceful who are fellow troops and police officers and fire fighters and teachers and neighbors and friends."

Obama ordered lethal action against terrorists inspired by a radical interpretation of Islam on hundreds of occasions. Drone strikes approved by his White House killed thousands of people suspected of ties to Al Qaeda or ISIS in majority Muslim countries (along with hundreds of innocent people in those same countries). Regardless, some Obama critics argued that to adequately protect America from a terrorist threat, a president had not only to act, but to name the threat explicitly.

Trump has yet to name right-wing extremism.

He said nothing about the attack in Quebec City. His press secretary, who did mention that attack, suggested that it showed the need for recent security measures taken by the Trump administration, though those measures were targeted narrowly and exclusively at stopping foreign threats from seven majority-Muslim countries. It was as if the press secretary could only conceive of Islamist terrorism.

That is the politically correct posture under Trump.

And Trump hasnt just failed the conservative call terrorism by its name litmus test. It appears his White House will act to reduce right-facing counterterrorism efforts.

The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, Reuters reports, citing five people briefed on the matter as sources. The program, Countering Violent Extremism, or CVE, would be changed to Countering Islamic Extremism or Countering Radical Islamic Extremism, the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

Those groups will nevertheless remain a threat.

Just three months ago, in fact, Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen were charged with conspiring to detonate a truck bomb in a Kansas apartment complex where more than 100 Somali immigrants lived, Nick Wing of Huffington Post notes. All three were members of a white supremacist group called The Crusaders. The group espoused sovereign citizen, anti-government, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant extremist beliefs, according to an FBI agents affidavit All pleaded not guilty.

Once one understands that Trump is inclined to pander to the Breitbart-loving wing of his base, in place of the progressives to whom Obama and Clinton tried to appeal, examples of political correctness within the Trump administration abound. Trumps executive order on travel into the United States didnt flow from a rigorous analysis of flaws in the existing system, or a diligent attempt to study, understand, and improve upon any shortcomings in consultation with people whove worked within the system and understand how it operatesrather, it was a rushed attempt to placate those who want a Muslim ban. While popular at Breitbart, it was executed in a manner so blind to opportunity costs that it likely made America less safe.

Trumps tweet, Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flagif they do, there must be consequencesperhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail! was not a response to an epidemic of flag burning. Indeed, it likely resulted in more American flags being burned than wouldve otherwise been the case. And given the First Amendment and relevant constitutional law, it did not articulate penalties that can realistically be imposed. It was, in other words, factually dubious but politically correct, given a coalition that includes nationalists with authoritarian inclinations.

With regard to Russia, Trump seems to be taking great care to avoid micro-aggressing against its leader. On the alt-right, Vladamir Putin is something of a hero. When confronted by Bill OReilly with the charge that Putin is a killer, a reference to attacks on his domestic political opponents, Trump bizarrely retorted that the United States is not so innocent and that America has lots of killers itself. In fact, domestic political opponents are not murdered in America. Trumps words made no sense as an attempt at clarity, but they make perfect sense if one understands the way Trump has tied his political fortunes to Putin. Rather than say what is true about Putin, Trump says what is politically correct.

In this case, a side-effect is moral nihilism.

Now consider the unusual White House statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Its failure to mention Jews, the group for whom the Final Solution was developed, struck many as incompetence until CNN asked if the omission was deliberate.

Hope Hicks, the White House Director of Strategic Communications, declared that despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered. She then referenced all the non-Jews killed in the Holocaust, as if it wouldve been politically incorrect to explicitly mention Jewish victims. Politico later reported that the State Department drafted its own statement last month marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day that explicitly included a mention of Jewish victims, according to people familiar with the matter, but President Donald Trumps White House blocked its release.

The White Houses behavior doesnt make much sense if it prizes common sense over political correctness. But it makes perfect sense if a White House staffer wanted to maintain plausible deniability while catering to the sensibilities of the alt-right, a community where diminishing the relative suffering of Jews in the Holocaust is politically correcttransgressing against Holocaust norms gives them a special thrill. Or even if the original omission was inadvertent, but the White House didnt want to offend those sensibilities by changing the statement.

While Bannons project involves trying to foster white identity politics in countries across the West, Trump himself cares less about the alt-right than an even smaller constituency: himself. He often strays from facts in deference to his own sensibilities.

Prominent among them is vanity.

The plain truth is that Trump lost the popular vote by a wide margin. The politically correct fiction among Trump and his subordinates is that voter fraud cost him the popular vote. And Trump has called for a massive, nationwide investigation into the matter, though he won the election, the Republican Party won both the House and the Senate, and there is no evidence of significant fraud. Rather than adhere to facts, Trump grasps at conspiratorial fictions to coddle himself.

The plain truth is that Trumps inauguration was less well-attended than the inauguration of Barack Obama eight years prior. On the morning after Trumps inauguration, acting National Park Service director Michael Reynolds received an extraordinary summons, the Boston Globe reported. In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous days crowds on the National Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation. The president believed that they might prove that the media had lied in reporting that attendance had been no better than average. He pressured this underling to reach a false but politically correct finding.

Whats more, Trump also expressed anger over a retweet sent from the agencys account, in which side-by-side photographs showed far fewer people at his swearing-in than had shown up to see Barack Obamas inaugural. The tweet was factually accurate. The photos werent misleading. But they were incorrect, politically speaking.

I believe that a majority of Trump voters dont give a damn about Breitbart and its ideological project. And they dont care about Trumps vanity either.

They wanted a leader who acted on and spoke the plain truth.

But Trump cant handle the truth. He cannot squarely face the degree to which he is disliked. And Bannon or other advisors seem to have somehow persuaded the president that shamelessly pandering to the alt-right serves Trumps interests. In fact, it makes him more disliked.

A critic of political correctness who planned to vote Trump told me, months before the election, it's almost impossible to have polite or constructive political discussion. Disagreement gets you labeled fascist, racist, bigoted. It can provoke a reaction so intense that youre suddenly an unperson to an acquaintance or friend. Say things online and they'll try to find out who you are and even get you fired. Being anti-PC is not about saying, I want you to agree with me. It's about saying, Hey, I want to have a discussion and not get shouted down because I don't agree with what is considered to be politically correct.

Now that Trump is in power, it is almost impossible to have a constructive political disagreement with the president. Criticism gets one labeled a failing liar who peddles fake news, or a so-called judge. It provokes a reaction as intense as the public ire of the president. His surrogates are trying to get people fired for what they say about him. For Trump, its not about having a discussion, its about agreeing with him. As he admits, he says nice things about people who say nice things about him. And he reverses course not based on the truth, but on if others criticize him.

As if unaware of sounding like a parody of a catastrophizing college student, Trump even went so far as to complain that Mike Pence was criticized in a safe space:

He would have Americans believe that a 57-year-old man with a Secret Service detail was unsafe because cast members of a Broadway show made a statement criticizing him!

Trump displays all the flaws attributed to Social Justice Warriorsthin skinned, quick to take offense, a bullying presence on Twitter, aggressively disdainful of comedy that pokes fun at him, delighting in firing peoplejust without any attachment to social justice. On matters as grave as counterterrorism and as inconsequential as the size of crowds, Trump is more contemptuous of the truth, and as driven by what is politically correct, than any president of recent years. That shouldnt bother those who only complained about political correctness as a cover for bigotry. But everyone who complained on principle, knowing a country cannot thrive when disconnected from reality, should demand better.

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The Politically Correct Presidency of Donald Trump - The Atlantic

Watch out for this crazy Facebook cloning scam! – Komando

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We all know what cloning is. Scientists have been experimenting with physical cloning, and there are even experiments with "mind cloning" that some believe could be the key to immortality.

But, it goes without saying, the concept of cloning can be pretty scary. While science may still be decades away from accomplishing the impossible with physical cloning, scammers are using a form of digital cloning to trick people online.

This particular form of cloning is appearing primarily on Facebook, but can also show up on other social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. For the purposes of this article, we'll refer to it as "Facebook cloning," but keep this in mind so you can watch for it on other sites across the internet.

What is Facebook cloning, exactly? It's the act of copying someone's Facebook profileand using it to conduct scams across the web. The scary thing is, anyone could be targeted and have their profile photos and details stolen. In most cases, without even knowing about it.

Note: Facebook cloning isn't the only Facebook scam you need to watch out for. Click here and read this article before you take another Facebook quiz.

By stealing your photos and details from your profile, such as where you work, where you went to school, when you were born and your relationship status, cybercrooks are often able to convince your real contacts to accept your "Friend request." Any that do accept have just given hackers the permission they need to snoop through their photos and clone their profiles too. And the cycle continues from there.

The cloning itself is only part of the scam, which could take months or even years to pull off. Hiding behind their fake profiles, the scammers study and mimic the communication styles of your true contacts, until eventually, they've learned enough to put on an even more convincing act.

Imagine receiving a private message from an old roommate from college. She's in trouble. She's trying to get home, but her purse was just stolen. She couldn't think of anyone else to reach out to but you.

For many, this request would stand out as odd, but under the right circumstances, there are plenty of people who fall for it. This old "friend," of course, isn't truly a friend at all. It's a wolf hiding in sheep's clothing.

The first way to avoid this scam, and the most obvious, is to confirm that all profiles are real before you accept anyone's friend request. Use the search feature on Facebook to pull up their page and see how many friends the person has, and when the account was created. Fake accounts will likely have just been created within a few weeks or months, and chances are, the scammers won't take the time to build up a massive Friends list.

If you see anything that looks suspicious, don't accept the friend request. If you have the contact information (either a phone number or an email address) of the real person, reach out to confirm outside of Facebook.

Next, you need to edit your Facebook profile to ensure that it's private. (Click here for 3 essential Facebook privacy checks you need to do right now.) You also need to remove any unnecessary information about your private life. Delete your phone number, home address, and these three additional details that put your privacy at risk.

Lastly, if you have a Facebook account that you no longer use, you need to delete it. Old, unused accounts leave you at risk of having your private information stolen by hackers, and even through massive data breaches. If you're not sure how to delete your old Facebook account, click here and we'll walk you through the steps.

How to sell your stuff on Facebook Marketplace instead of Craigslist

How to see (and erase) your Facebook search history

5 ways to lock down your Facebook account for maximum security

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Watch out for this crazy Facebook cloning scam! - Komando

Crustacean Cloning – ScienceBlog.com (blog)

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Split into two,

I glisten in the shallow shore.

Split into two;

A bitter taste of dj vu.

You guard me with a tender claw,

Before deciding Im worth more

Split into two.

This is a Rondelet, inspired by recent research that investigates the relationship between the Lybia crab and a sea anemone species belonging to the genus Alicia.

Lybia crabs are often referred to as boxer crabs or pom-pom crabs because they are almost always seen carrying a pair of sea anemones in their claws. However, until now it was not known how the crabs acquired their adornments. Over a period of several years, researchers studied over 100 Lybia crabs from the shallow waters of the Red-Sea on the south shore of Israel in Eilat. As well as observing that the sea anemone only appeared in the wild in association with the Lybia crabs (i.e. no specimens were found away from the crabs), the researchers also found that these sea anemones reproduced via crab-induced cloning. Genetic analysis revealed that when a crab acquires a single sea anemone they tear it in two, creating an identical clone in the process. Furthermore, if a crab is in a position where they have no sea anemones in their claws, then they will steal one (or part of one) from another crab, and then go on to clone this stolen sea anemone.

Further investigations are necessary to determine why the crabs have such an attachment to the sea anemones, but for now this research has revealed a unique case in which one animal induces asexual reproduction (i.e. reproduction by which offspring arise from a single organism) of another, affecting its genetic diversity in the process.

An audio version of this poem can be heard here.

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Crustacean Cloning - ScienceBlog.com (blog)

‘Goldilocks’ genes that tell the tale of human evolution hold clues to variety of diseases – Science Daily

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'Goldilocks' genes that tell the tale of human evolution hold clues to variety of diseases
Science Daily
The implication here is that wider variations in the number of gene copies may evolve and persist in benign CNVs, but not in disease-linked CNVs -- the effects would be too physiologically serious to be passed on by an individual to his/her children ...

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'Goldilocks' genes that tell the tale of human evolution hold clues to variety of diseases - Science Daily

Chimpanzee feet allow scientists a new grasp on human foot evolution – Phys.Org

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February 8, 2017 The researchers painted markers on the feet of both humans and chimpanzees in order to figure out how different bones and joints within the foot move in 3-D. Credit: Stony Brook Primate Locomotor Laboratory

An investigation into the evolution of human walking by looking at how chimpanzees walk on two legs is the subject of a new research paper published in the March 2017 issue of Journal of Human Evolution.

The human foot is distinguished from the feet of all other primates by the presence of a longitudinal arch, which spans numerous joints and bones of the midfoot region and is thought to stiffen the foot. This structure is thought to be a critical adaptation for bipedal locomotion, or walking on two legs, in part because this arch is absent from the feet of humans' closest living relatives, the African apes.

In contrast, African apes have long been thought to have highly mobile foot joints for climbing tree trunks and grasping branches, although few detailed quantitative studies have been carried out to confirm these beliefs.

But now, Nathan Thompson, Ph.D., assistant professor of Anatomy at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM), is one of the researchers questioning some long-held ideas about the function and evolution of the human foot by investigating how chimpanzees use their feet when walking on two legs. The research team, including members Nicholas Holowka, Ph.D. (Harvard University); Brigitte Demes, Ph.D. (Stony Brook University School of Medicine); and Matthew O'Neill, Ph.D. (University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix), conducted the research and collected data while all were at Stony Brook University (2013-2015).

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Most researchers studying human evolution assume a stark dichotomy between human and chimpanzee feet. One is a rigid lever that makes walking long distances easy and efficient. The other one is a grasping device, much more mobile and less effective at walking on two legs. Fossil feet of early human ancestors are nearly always compared with chimpanzee feet, making knowledge of their foot biomechanics crucial for understanding how the human foot evolved. However, prior to this research, no one has been able to actually investigate whether differences existed between humans and chimpanzees in how the foot works during walking on two legs.

To find out, this research team used high-speed motion capture to measure three-dimensional foot motion in chimpanzees and humans walking at similar speeds. They then compared ranges of midfoot motion between species.

Contrary to expectations, the researchers found that human feet are morenot lessmobile than chimpanzees walking on two limbs.

"This finding upended our assumptions about how the feet of both humans and chimpanzees work. Based on simple visual observation, we've long known that human feet are stiffer than those of chimpanzees and other apes when the heel is first lifted off the ground in a walking step. What surprised us was that the human midfoot region flexes dramatically at the end of a step as the foot's arch springs back into place following its compression during weight-bearing. This flexion motion is greater than the entire range of motion in the chimpanzee midfoot joints during a walking step, leading us to conclude that high midfoot joint mobility is actually advantageous for human walking. We never would have discovered this without being able to study chimpanzees with advanced motion capture technology," said Holowka, with Harvard's department of Human Evolutionary Biology.

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Ultimately, according to the findings, the fact that the traditional dichotomy between humans and chimpanzees has been disproven means that researchers may have to rethink what can be learned from the fossil feet of humans' earliest ancestors. "The presence of human-like midfoot joint morphology in fossil hominins can no longer be taken as indicating foot rigidity, but it may tell us about the evolution of human-like enhanced push off mechanics," said NYITCOM's Thompson.

Based on these findings, the researchers encourage future studies to consider the ways in which human foot morphology reflects longitudinal arch function throughout the full duration of stance phase, especially at the beginning and end of a step.

Thompson added, "One of the things that is really remarkable about this project is that it shows us how much we have still to learn about our closest relatives. It seems like the more we learn about how chimpanzees move, the more we have to rethink some of the assumptions that paleoanthropologists have held on to for decades."

Explore further: Why we walk on our heels instead of our toes

More information: Nicholas B. Holowka et al, Chimpanzee and human midfoot motion during bipedal walking and the evolution of the longitudinal arch of the foot, Journal of Human Evolution (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.12.002

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Chimpanzee feet allow scientists a new grasp on human foot evolution - Phys.Org

Non-Chromosomal DNA Drives Tumor Evolution – The Scientist

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Non-Chromosomal DNA Drives Tumor Evolution
The Scientist
Individual tumor cells have a unique spectrum of mutations, and this heterogeneity is known to drive tumor evolution and resistance to cancer treatments. Now, in a study published today (February 8) in Nature, Paul Mischel of the Ludwig Institute for ...

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Non-Chromosomal DNA Drives Tumor Evolution - The Scientist

With Darwin Day Approaching, It’s Time for a Look Back at Evolution … – Discovery Institute

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Darwin Day is coming up -- February 12, this Sunday, marking the birthday of Charles Darwin and celebrated by us as Academic Freedom Day. Yes, that means we'll be introducing you to a new Censor of the Year. Feel free to submit nominations, but frankly we've already got a leading contender. Visit us again on Sunday when we'll reveal the winner.

With the historical context in mind, in any event, the following is interesting and relevant. English professor and historian Randall Fuller has a new book out called The Book that Changed America (Viking, 2017), referring to Darwin's Origin. The following comments are based on a review in Science by Myrna Perez Sheldon, "Darwin's American Ascendancy," and an interview with Fuller in National Geographic by Simon Worrall, "Darwin's Theory of Evolution Roiled U.S. on Eve of Civil War."

To understand the author's perspective, consider Fuller's response to Worrall's final question in the NG interview:

Great question! Though I tend to think that those figures you've mentioned are, hopefully, a last gasp of denial. It's certainly true that there's an increasing resistance to Darwin's theory. But that exists simultaneously with, almost every month, new data showing the validity and overall soundness of Darwin's theory. The question is, how long can one deny a growing empirical body of facts? [Emphasis added.]

I grew up in public school in the late 1970s in Missouri, and natural selection was taught as an accepted, and completely settled, scientific question. There have been periods between the 1920s and 2014 where the opposite has obtained. But that pendulum will always swing back again. Just recently Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's conviction that evolutionary theory is valid.

The citation of Pope Francis is not accurate, but let it pass. Knowing the author's bias will justify our attempt to follow Darwin's dictum, "A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question." Fortunately, we have two excellent sources with which to obey Darwin's advice. The first is Darwin Day in America by Center for Science & Culture associate director John West. The second is Tom Bethell's new book, Darwin's House of Cards.

We learn from the interview that Origin arrived on American shores quickly after its publication in November 1859, when the U.S. was on the verge of civil war. Hardly a month had passed after John Brown's futile raid on Harper's Ferry that escalated tensions between North and South. Fuller tells an interesting story about how the first copy landed at a house in Concord, Massachusetts, having been carried from Boston by a "red-hot abolitionist," Charles Loring Brace. Gathered on this "extremely cold, New England winter evening" were notable intellectuals gathered to discuss two topics: slavery, and Darwin's book. Attendees included abolitionist Franklin Sanborn (one of the funders of the raid on Harper's Ferry), along with two leading lights of transcendentalist philosophy: Bronson Alcott (father of novelist Louisa May Alcott and friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson), and Henry David Thoreau. Now some 14 years past his first experiences at Walden Pond, Thoreau was "beginning a kind of second career as a scientist," Fuller says. What was his reaction?

Sheldon's review provides an important contrasting response:

Fuller makes a big point that American abolitionists initially embraced Darwin's views. How could this be, since Darwin did not discuss human evolution until The Descent of Man over ten years later?

A number of prominent American scientists at the time argued that God had created black people, brown skinned and white people separately, and each of them were different, had different capacities, and there was a hierarchy. Some went so far as to suggest that black people were a different species, and that they were not only different, but inferior. These scientists were praised in the South and provided the perfect rationalization for slavery. Darwin's argument that all living things shared a common ancestor provided the abolitionists with a great rebuttal of the dominant, American science of the time.

A couple of observations here. First, Fuller says that it was "scientists" who argued for polygenism (separate creations of races); he specifically points to Louis Agassiz as a leading polygenist. Second, the "dominant American science" belief "that God had created" separate races deviated sharply from Genesis, which speaks of a single creation of the first human pair. In that regard, Jewish and Christian believers of the period had exactly the same grounds for opposing slavery, believing that all humans had descended from "one blood" (cf. Paul's message to the Athenians, Acts 17:26). Fuller indicates that it was the American scientific community, not the religious community, that justified slavery on the grounds of "modern racial science." In all fairness, it must be acknowledged that pro-slavery churches found other pretexts for supporting slavery in their scriptures, just as anti-slavery churches found Biblical support for their views. Whether in labs or pulpits, there was plenty of racism to go around -- and plenty of abolitionism, too. The point is that Darwin did not bring any unique, new argument for abolitionism that was not already in the Bibles of the churches and in the Declaration of Independence, with its statement that "all men are created equal."

If the abolitionists found support for their cause in Darwin, however, it was short-lived. Within months, America plunged into its Civil War, shredding the optimistic idealism of Emerson and Thoreau in the clash of swords. The implications of Darwin's views also began dawning more clearly on intellectuals. In Darwin Day in America, John West explains how Darwin's cautious naturalism in Origin developed into full-fledged materialism with his publication of The Descent of Man in 1872. West quotes leading American scientists in the early 20th century who used Darwin to promote eugenics and race purity. "Bluntly put," he says, "the evolutionary process had led to the development of superior and inferior races." Consider that Darwinians to this day believe that different populations of humans must have remained genetically isolated for many tens or hundreds of thousands of years, providing ample opportunity for groups to advance in "fitness" over others. By contrast, any church holding to the "one blood" doctrine, even if prone to racist tendencies, would have to acknowledge human exceptionalism as a consequence of their doctrine of imago Dei (humans created in the image of God). No such leash could restrain natural selection's racist implications. Fuller acknowledges this, when asked why racism remains a problem to this day:

Today, you only hear the term social Darwinism with a very negative inflection. However, like all ideas, over time they become absorbed or, to quote you, become part of the cultural wallpaper. So I would hazard the guess that the idea of the inherent superiority of some races is still, unfortunately, with us today.

Tom Bethell pulls the rug out from under the notion that Darwin helped the anti-slavery movement. In Chapter 4 of Darwin's House of Cards, he documents growing evidence against universal common descent -- a single tree of life -- the very idea that Thoreau, Alcott, and the others felt gave scientific credibility to their abolitionist views. Had those people ruminated a little more, they might have realized how silly the argument was anyway. What? All men are equal because they had the same bacteria ancestors? In Darwin's tree of life, branches at the tips could deviate significantly from one another even if they shared a common root hundreds of millions of years earlier. That realization aimed the trajectory that Social Darwinism quickly took after The Descent of Man, bringing horrendous consequences documented in West's book.

This leaves Fuller -- evolutionist that he is -- in a precarious position. He knows that Darwinism led to some nasty consequences. Among the milder examples, he tells how P.T. Barnum, having "his finger on the pulse of his native country," dressed up a disabled man with microcephaly and exhibited him as "a missing link between gorillas and human beings." Fuller knows that Social Darwinism left "a very negative inflection" on the "cultural wallpaper" of America to this day. He knows about the unending controversies Darwinism created.

But evolution is a fact, isn't it? Certainly it's a called that by many, but the "growing empirical body of facts" Fuller thinks lends validity to Darwinian evolution is, as Bethell shows forcefully, a "house of cards."

Photo credit: http://www.cgpgrey.com [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

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With Darwin Day Approaching, It's Time for a Look Back at Evolution ... - Discovery Institute

Rethink’s Robots Get Massive Software Upgrade, Rodney Brooks So Excited – IEEE Spectrum

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Photo: Rethink Robotics Rodney Brookss startup Rethink Robotics is releasing software to make its collaborative robot Sawyer more versatile and easier to program.

Rethink Robotics is taking the wraps off a massive project that the company has been working on for two years. Its been a big part of our development that the world hasnt seen, says Rethink founder and CTO Rodney Brooks. Ive been so excited about this because I know what it can do.

A little over a year ago, Rethink started shipping Sawyer, a collaborative robot designed to be faster, stronger, and more precise than the companys first cobot, Baxter, which didnt sell like hotcakes, as Brooks had expected. But developing a brand-new robot was just part of Rethinks post-Baxter plans: Another goal was completely rebuilding its software platform, called Intera, which is responsible for controlling all of Sawyers functions as well as allowing users to program the robot.

Intera 5, which the company is announcing today, is a big jump from previous versions and will make Sawyer more versatile and easier to program, Brooks tells IEEE Spectrum. Itscompletely new, he says, adding that 30 people worked on the software platform, which is based on ROS.None of my code anymore. My code is gone.

At the heart of the new system is what Brooks calls a behavior engine that lets users program complex tasks based on simpler ones. While in previous Intera releases large sequences of tasks were difficult to modify, now all tasks are graphically arranged as abehavior tree, making it easierto visualize, understand, and adjust what the robot is doing at every step.

The new software is critical for Rethinks bid to gain more traction in the rapidly growing collaborative robots market. The Boston-based startup, which was founded in 2008 and has raised $131.5 million in VC funding, hasnt disclosed sales numbers, but it says Sawyer is selling much better than Baxter, helping the company triple its revenue last year.

Other robot makers, including startups like Franka Emika, which plans to launch a cobot this year, are also devoting a lot of attention to their user interfaces and software features. Analysts credit an easy-to-use interface as a major factor in helping Danish firm Universal Robots dominate the cobot market, with thousands of robots shipped per year.

Rod Brooks says Rethinks experience with Baxter showed that software is just as important as hardware when it comes to convincing manufacturers to embrace automation. With earlier versions of Intera, it was easy to get the robot to do most simple tasks, especially by using its teach-by-demonstration feature. But what Rethink found out is that many customers actually want to do much more complex tasks, and while Sawyer was in principle capable of carrying them out, programming the robot was the biggest hurdle.

We were concentrating on teach by demonstration, and it was producing an internal representation which wasnt visible to the user, Brooks explains. And the more sophisticated you were, the more frustrating the opaqueness of what was happening inside was.

Intera 5s behavior trees aim to solve this problem. The new interface provides an explicit visual diagram of the sequence of tasks the robot will run through. Every node of a behavior tree, you can click down and get every possible parameter, every possible detail [of the robot], Brooks says. Theres nothing hidden.

Brooks hopes the new system will help users master Sawyers advanced vision and force-sensing capabilities to tackle complex automation jobs, especially in the electronics manufacturing sector. To illustrate the point, Brooks likes to show off videos of Sawyer performing challenging tasks. In one, the robot uses its Cognex camera and force sensingto inspect switches, bolts, and wires on a water pump:

In another video, Sawyeris seen inserting a DIMM memory module on a motherboard. First, the robot positions the module on the socket by feeling its corners; it then gently pushes the DIMM down, measuring the force to detect whether it clicked or not. We exposed a lot of the force control, Brooks says. So you can say, Press down with 2 Newtons, but no more than 2 centimeters downwards, and be compliant in x and y, but rigid in rotation about the vertical z-axis.

Another challenge Rethink wants to solve with Intera 5 involves coordinating Sawyer and all the other assembly line componentsconveyor belts, equipment to feed and sort parts, machines like drills and CNCs. Factories typically connect things using programmable logic controllers, or PLCs. And PLCs suck, Brooks says. You can quote me on that. A company would buy a Sawyer and put it to run right away, he says, but getting the PLCs and all the rest connected could take weeks and months. Nowin typical Internet of Things, or IoT, fashionusers will be able to plug a variety of assembly-line equipment directly to Sawyer and then control that with the same behavior tree that controls the robot on Intera.

Ultimately Brooks wants to focus on automating ever more complex tasks, disregarding the relatively simple applications that other cobot companies are currently pursuing, a market he believes will soon be taken over by cheaper robots from China. I want to go somewhere different, thats a much more interesting place to be, and which I think is the bigger market.

At the same time he explains that making robots easier to use is much more than a business strategy for him. Its something thats been with me since Day 1, he says, noting that our consumer goods require no training and the same should apply to robots. How many people need to be trained to use this? he says, waving his iPhone. It trains the person.

IEEE Spectrum's award-winning robotics blog, featuring news, articles, and videos on robots, humanoids, drones, automation, artificial intelligence, and more. Contact us:e.guizzo@ieee.org

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Rethink's Robots Get Massive Software Upgrade, Rodney Brooks So Excited - IEEE Spectrum

Rehab robotics field promises to return control, mobility to aging population – ScienceBlog.com (blog)

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For many seniors and stroke victims, a trip to Disneyland with the little ones is physically out of reach.But Thomas Sugar, an ASU mechanical engineer who specializes in wearable technology, predicts that in the next five years, older people and others with mobility problems will be able to rent robotic exoskeletons that make dream vacations as well as mundane tasks a possibility.

Were on the cusp of making these technologies available and affordable for the general public, Sugar said Tuesday. His ASU spin-out company, SpringActive Inc., aims to have a robotic prosthetic ankle in production for the general population within the next year.

Sugar and more than 300 other rehab robotics researchers, clinicians and industry leaders gathered this week at ASU for the fifth annual Rehabilitation Robotics Conference.

There has been increased interest in the rehab robotics driven by an aging population dealing with the aftermath of debilitating health problems based on the promise of restored physical movement and control. Most rehab robotic therapies originated to help military veterans, but the next generation will seek to serve the general public.

The field covers a range of assistive therapies and devices, including exoskeletons that support walking and lifting, treadmill-like robots that help stroke survivors use their arms and legs, and prosthetics that allow users to sense space and dimension.

The conference provides our junior investigators with an unprecedented opportunity to hear about three decades of research from the people who created the field, said Marco Santello, a neurophysiologist and director of the School of Biological Health Sciences. We have collected research on neuroplasticity, locomotion dynamics and a myriad of other body-machine interfaces. The next phase will bring a new generation of rehabilitative technologies.

Widespread clinical acceptance of rehabilitation robotics is the most significant change well see in the next decade, said Neville Hogan, a mechanical engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who spoke at the conference.

Tech-savvy therapists recognize the value of assistive robotics and see the standardized data collection they afford as a major benefit, Hogan said.

Its far less subjective than the clipboard methods of the past, and enhances our ability to tailor therapy to individual patients, he said.

Dario Farina, chair of neurorehabilitation engineering at the Imperial College of Londons Department of Bioengineering, also presented at the workshop.

His research has enabled the simultaneous processing of hundreds of motor neurons the signals the brain sends to muscles without invasive procedures. The breakthrough has challenged classic views on the neural activity that drives steadiness in the performance of precise tasks and is expected to result in prosthetic devices that give patients unprecedented levels of fine motor control.

In the near future, it will be possible to fully decode the neural information sent from the spinal cord and build man-machine interfaces for the natural and dexterous control of bionic limbs,Farina said, explaining that patients will be able to control prosthetic devices with the same, automatic mental commands used to control their natural hands.

Because health problems affect patients differently, fine-tuning rehab therapies is the next focus for Panagiotis Artemiadis, an ASU mechanical engineer whose research includes mechatronics and human-robot interaction.

In the next five years, he said, well be able to adjust robotics to be patient specific.

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Rehab robotics field promises to return control, mobility to aging population - ScienceBlog.com (blog)

Raspberry Pi-powered arm: This kit aims to make robotics simple enough for kids – TechRepublic

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Image: Mime Industries

Think it's tricky to build and program a robot arm? Think again.

Powered by the Raspberry Pi, the MeArm Pi is a robot arm designed to be simple enough that kids aged 11+ can build and program it.

The lightweight plastic arm, which can pick up small objects such as Lego bricks, comes as a kit that keeps the number of screws to a minimum and is relatively straightforward to assemble using the included hex keys. It can be controlled via the Pi, either using joysticks attached to the included Pi HAT add-on board or by programming it from the Pi.

Programming the arm is possible using drag and drop programming tools like Scratch or Blockly, or for more experienced users, using the Python or JavaScript programming languages. Ultimately any programming language that can be used to interact with the pins on the Pi should be able to be used. For those unfamiliar with the command line, the MeARM can be programmed via a web app in the browser.

SEE: Raspberry Pi in 2017: New boards, new OSes and more

There's also a Node.js app that performs various functions, including allowing users to control the servos in the arm via the Pi's General-Purpose Input Output (GPIO) pins and even to control the arm remotely via a web browser.

The MeARM's add-on board is compatible with the Raspberry Pi Model B+ form factor, and should work with the Pi Zero but won't fit in the case.

The company behind MeARM also makes Mirobot, a build-it-yourself WiFi drawing robot that teaches children about technology, programming and mathematics.

The MeARM is available in orange or blue has already passed its 10,000 funding goal on Kickstarter, raising 14,770 with 28 days to go. The standard kit costs 60 ($75).

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Raspberry Pi-powered arm: This kit aims to make robotics simple enough for kids - TechRepublic

Derby Middle School robotics club competes at high school competition – The Derby Informer

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More than 20 sixth through eighth graders come to school early Thursday mornings for Derby Middle Schools Robotics Club.

The club started in November and had its first competition on Jan. 21 at Hesston High School.

For being the first middle school to compete in a high school competition, the team came home with a Sportsmanship Award.

Dave Brown, Project Lead the Way instructor at the middle school, saw the interest his students had in his automation and robotics class.

We didnt finish first, but we didnt finish last, Brown said.

They competed against 28 high school teams and had little time to prepare. They won two out of their seven matches and placed 25th overall.

Mentors for the club are professional engineers.

Kenya McConico from The Pando Initiative reached out to Spirit AeroSystems to see if its employees would be interested in mentoring students in the club.

Jeremy James, stress engineer at Spirit, is one of the four volunteers that come to the school every Thursday morning.

James received an email about the club at work, and he saw it as an opportunity to give back to the community.

I like helping the kids out and seeing their interest, James said.

As far as Brown knows, this is the only middle school robotics team in the area. Students dont pay anything to participate in the club, but the biggest challenge for Brown is raising money so it can stay that way. As of now, the club is borrowing a robotics field from Derby North Middle School, but DNMS plans to start a team next year.

Brown said he envisions the middle school team as a training ground for Derby High Schools team.

Their first meet behind them, students have their eyes set on the state robotics competition on March 4.

Seventh grader Laci Simon said that the first meet was overwhelming because they had 25 people in one team and most teams had three people per team.

We were rushed a lot, Simon said.

The club will have two teams of 12 compete at state, but Brown said he does not have enough equipment to make the teams any smaller. He would prefer having six students per team, but he would need enough materials to make four robots.

Now that there are two smaller teams, seventh grader Alexis Silva said it is easier for her to participate.

At first, I didnt touch the robot because there were all the guys around it, and they were arguing a lot so I was stuck making posters and signs, Silva said.

Now, Silva is in charge of building the scissor lift.

When they grow up, Silva and Simon both want to have jobs where they use science and math to build things.

Brown said the teams are taking baby steps and continue to do their best with what they have.

Simon said her goal for state is to win at least half of the matches.

Although students learn a lot from competing against high school teams, they wish they could level the playing field.

We want other middle school teams to have robotics clubs so we can go against people our same age, Silva said.

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Derby Middle School robotics club competes at high school competition - The Derby Informer

Donation will cover costs for Sequim robotic competition – Peninsula Daily News

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By Erin Hawkins

Olympic Peninsula News Group

SEQUIM Just before the Sequim High School Robotics Club started gearing up for the FIRST Robotics Competition 2017, it received a $10,000 grant from Praxair Inc.

Brad Moore, Sequim High School teacher and Robotics Club faculty adviser, applied for the grant last fall.

The Sequim High School Robotics Club has been designing, programming and building robots to compete against high school students across the Northwest for seven years since the clubs first inception.

Moore applied for the grant through Praxairs Global Giving Program in 2015, a program that contributed millions of dollars to provide scholarships to community colleges and technical schools for critical skills that are needed in local workforces.

The grant money will be used to cover costs associated with robotic competition. The students are allowed to spend up to $4,000 on a robot for this years competition, Moore said, starting March 17-19 in Mount Vernon, March 31-April 2 in Auburn and then to Cheney if the students qualify for the championships from April 5-8.

Its a very expensive venture to run, Moore said. He explained that just to get the club started seven years ago, it cost $10,000.

The club has received a couple of grants from Praxair in previous years, but the amount it received this year has been the most the club has been awarded with so far.

It also has received grants from other organizations over the years such as Boeing, Pacific Northwest FIRST, OSPI and the Sequim Education Foundation in order to maintain club costs. The robotics club also raised money this year from fundraisers such as the luau and silent auction the club hosted.

Thirteen students are involved in the Robotics Club 10 boys and three girls. Moore said last year, the team had a lot of senior students, but this year he is working with several freshmen.

Last year, we were super senior-heavy, and this year were very young, he said.

Moore tries to encourage his younger students to jump in on the designing, programming and building process, which is what the club is all about.

I want [students] to not be afraid to make a mistake; thats part of life, he said.

The club also consists of several volunteer mentors, such as Sequim High School teacher Stuart Marcy, retired Boeing engineer Martin Cahoon, retired software engineer Pat Volk, retired programmers Mike Becker and Jerome Bileck, retired Navy physician Gary Henriksen, contractor/inventor Brad Griffith and teacher and Moores spouse, Kathy.

Every year, the FIRST Robotics Competition is different. The students and mentors have six weeks to build and construct a robot that must be able to perform a variety of tasks within certain time restrictions for robotic competition.

The kids have to design and work with problems, Moore said of the designing, programming and building process.

This year, the competition will feature a steampunk theme, and students must come up with not only a design for the robot but all the engineering and electronics needed to meet competition guidelines, such as building a robot that must fit into two different volumes at all times, some that are horizontal while others are more vertical.

Moore said on day one, the students decide on a strategy and will build a robot to meet that strategy.

For me personally, the kids get to go through a real engineering process, Moore said. You go from nothing to a completed robot and system that can play the game.

He explained that from start to finish, designing, programming and building the robot is a very time-consuming process.

Were here till 8 oclock every night. Some of these kids put in five hours every day, Moore said.

Riley Chase, Sequim High School senior and president of the Robotics Club, said he has put in an estimated 80 hours so far.

The big goal for the team is not just to get to the FIRST Robotics Competition championships but to get to the world championships in Houston. Last year, Moore said they were three teams away from making the world championships.

The Robotics Club officers include Chase, Vice President Riley Scott, Safety Officer Max Koonz, Treasurer Bailey Rux, Secretary Brenton Barnes, Public Relations Xavier Conway and Parliamentarian Nick Charters.

________

Erin Hawkins is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at ehawkins@sequimgazette.com.

Volunteer mentor Martin Cahoon, center, shares a schematic on the laptop in the school shop with Robotics students Max Koonz, Nick Charters and Josh King, from left. (Patsene Dashiell)

Sequim High School teacher and Robotics Club faculty adviser Brad Moore shows components of one of the robots the club constructed for last years FIRST Robotics Competition. (Erin Hawkins/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

Sequim High School senior and Robotics Club President Riley Chase works on the electronics board for this years robot that will compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition 2017. (Erin Hawkins/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

Sequim High School senior and Robotics Club President Riley Chase works on the electronics board for this years robot that will compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition 2017. (Erin Hawkins/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

One of the robots the Sequim High School Robotics Club constructed last year to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition. (Erin Hawkins/Olympic Peninsula News Group)

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Donation will cover costs for Sequim robotic competition - Peninsula Daily News

Five ways to ensure your kids are safe as they go ‘online’ – The Standard (press release)

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2017-02-08 14:46:19 2017-02-08 08:00:00 The Standard : Eve Woman 40 58

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ALSO READ: Eight quick steps to get your baby to sleep

A worrying 44% of children aged six are using the internet alone in their bedrooms and 41% of them are using it at home without supervision

Six-year-old children are as digitally advanced today as 10-year-olds were three years ago and nearly half of them use the internet for general online browsing, new research reveals.

A worrying 44% of children aged six are using the internet alone in their bedrooms and 41% of them are using it at home without supervision.

They are using social media , streaming content, and even uploading their own videos to YouTube.

To mark Safer Internet Day, web safety group Internet Matters are urging parents to take action at an early age and keep their children safe online.

Alarmingly the number of parents saying they are always present to supervise their child aged six when they are online, using computer devices, has gone down in the last three years from 53% to 43%.

Mum-of-four Zoe Holland, 39, from Uckfield, East Sussex, has noticed the changes first hand as her children Morris, 12, Leon, 10, Daisy, six and Logan, one, have gravitated towards spending more time online.

She and husband Matt, 37, are constantly learning when it comes to monitoring their children on the internet.

ALSO READ: Super mum designs dolls with disabilities to fit all children

She says: Daisy mostly uses my tablet so I manage the device that shes on and shell mostly use the tablet for going on cartoons on Netflix and games.

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Safer Internet Day 2017 arrives with special events at WW2 codebreaking base Bletchley Park

"But my older children are interested in making their own YouTube videos and have their own YouTube accounts.

"Theyre so technology savvy, were not always aware of what theyre up to. I can see them becoming more advanced at understanding the internet in the future.

It can be isolating for children if you dont let them have the smart phones that their friends at school have, theres a lot of peer pressure.

Zoe, who runs blog jugglingonrollerskates.com, reveals that she worries about what her kids can be exposed to online.

It terrifies me what they can just look up on Google, she says. I would hate them to come across something that is shocking.

ALSO READ: Five life saving tips to consider when handling toddler

"Weve made it a rule that theyre not allowed to delete their internet history so we have that awareness. But its a learning curve.

"We are looking in to accountability apps - where you monitor and control what the children use on the phone. For peace of mind and visibility we want to know whats going on. Its all about trust.

EastEnders actor Danny-Boy Hatchard, who plays Lee Carter in the BBC soap, thinks that internet safety should be taught in schools.

Child in a hospital bed playing a computer game on a digital tablet

Internet safety should be taught in schools

The star, working with Safer Internet Day, told the Mirror: Social media safety should be on the national curriculum.

Children need to be taught about these tools to educate them and make sure theyre in a safe environment when theyre online. Parents need to monitor their kids use closely.

Pyschologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos, author of Unfollow: Living Life On Your Own Terms, says: This research shows just how quickly young children are advancing in the digital world.

It also serves as a stark reminder why parents need to be extra vigilant and arm their children with the tools to stay safe online.

As well as setting up the relevant parental controls, its important to make sure you set boundaries when it comes to how your children use the internet at home.

How to keep your children safe online

1. Ask your child what they are doing online. Its important you understand what websites, apps, and social media platforms they are on.

2. Check their privacy settings. Make sure they know how to make their profiles private so they are not sharing personal information to strangers. Facebook have a Privacy Healthcheck feature.

3. Make sure they know when and how to report and block any malicious or inappropriate messages or posts.

4. Check your parental controls on your home broadband and safety filters that block inappropriate content across any devices.

5. Talk to your children about the risks they may be exposed to and how to deal with them, such as cyberbullying and grooming, and ensure they feel able to come and talk to you if they see anything upsetting.

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Five ways to ensure your kids are safe as they go 'online' - The Standard (press release)

Ideal Flatmate promises to stamp out all roommate worries – The Tech Portal

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Ideal Flatmate, a UK-based startup, can help Londoners out in a no-roommate crisis.The startup is using the principles of dating-style personality matchmaking to enable strangersto zero in on acompatible house mate. Its functioning is mind-blowingly simple: users take an on-site survey,responding to a series of statementswith ascaled response (from strongly agree to strongly disagree), on the basis of which they are then matched with potentially compatible flatmates.

There are some startups in the US that work on the algorithmic roommate matching model, such as college student-focused platformroomsurf, but Ideal Flatmates claim to fame is that it is the first to market in the UK, catering to any and all members of the public. For now, its operations are limited to London, although nationwide expansion is currently charted out for later in the year.

Soft launching its website last October, it is officially launching now, already boasting 3,000 registered users at this nascentstage, 1,000 listed properties, and a total of around 30,000 unique visitors so far. Development has beenfunded by thefounders and a few unnamed private investors. Co-founder Tom Gatzen said:

Were looking to run a further round of funding later in the year. Given that more than half of the 20-39 age group is projected to be renting privately by 2025, the market is growing significantly.

Speaking about their demographic, Gatzen said:

There have been a mix of flathunters using the site and landlords uploading their properties.The highest proportion of users are in the 20-35 bracket but there are also a significant number of 40+ flathunters, indicative of the growing number of this age range living in shared rental accommodation as a result of societal changes.

The sites matchmaking survey has got its users covered, questioning them on potential areas of in-house disharmonies, such as socializinghabits and attitudes to cleanliness. Its also going much deeper and treading the waters of personality, quizzing users to identify how extroverted or introverted they are, and generate matches accordingly. The survey has been developed with the help of two psychologists from the University of Cambridge. Gatzen continued:

We ran market research on over 500 flatsharers asking them 100 questions which we felt were the most relevant in working out whether you are compatible flatmates.After running a factor analysis with our Cambridge professors and testing the answers we received, the 20 questions we have were found to be the most important.

Although it is a bit early in the game for the company to produce hard data regarding the effectiveness of its scheme, Gatzen claimsanecdotal feedback so far looks positive with userssaying theyfeel theyre getting matched with like-minded people, adding:

A key part of our progression will be around fine-tuning and testing the matching to ensure people are getting paired up with suitable flatmates.

Their business model works such that its free to browse Ideal Flatmate casually, but the ability to contact potential flatmates requires users to subscribe to the platform. Pricing starts at4.99 for a weeks access, for which they get deliveredmatches with the most compatible potential flatmates and properties for their criteria (location, budget, and personality). It also allows themaccess to the on-site messaging feature to enable matchedusers/groups of users to chat to see whether they want to meet in person totalk abouta possible flatshare.

A second strand of the monetizing strategy is poised to launch soon, withGatzen saying they willstart charging landlords and letting agents a fee to advertise on the site this spring.

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Ideal Flatmate promises to stamp out all roommate worries - The Tech Portal

10 reasons to not miss John Bender at El Club this weekend – Detroit Metro Times

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1. He was first.

That minimal electric body music that has all the cool/weird kids wandering blind through fog to envelope their hearts with distorted waves pulled toward some cosmic magnet? The ever present drug-like drive to spend your hard-earned tip money and overseas medical industry plasma payout on euro-crack synth modules to make your 16-step sequences sound weirder? Bender did it first, on his own terms. Minimal, abstract, beautiful. A pioneer.

2. He's not faking it.

At a time when the monster polyphonic keyboards were becoming the norm, Bender took out a $2,400 loan to obtain an ARP 2600 and EML 401 in order get the most bent microtonal riffs you've ever heard (He passed on the Prophet 5). When drum machines were reaching their plateau (808, Linn), he made his beats with the same hodgepodge electronics.

3. He only recently started performing after a 30-year hiatus.

Right around when Bender started a family in the mid- to late 1980s, he stored his synths in a closet and settled into an honorable life as a father and therapist. His return to form was spurred by a rediscovery of his music by the minimal outsiders coming up in the golden age of synthesizers we're now experiencing.

4. Those dubbed-out vocals

Ever wonder where the muddy, echoed, psychedelic vocals movement began? Dub. Then Bender. He's on record saying he was heavily influenced by dub when it came to vocals, back in the 1970s.

5. He was his own label.

Bender released three albums via his DIY label Record Sluts at the height of corporate excess in the music industry. He sent the art objects to zines in hopes of review. He sold them, in person, to record stores that dealt in "imports" around the Midwest. Coming off Frampton Comes Alive, Star Wars, and all manner of success-based expansion of corporate control over the arts, Bender strived for fierce independence even if that meant stamping his own card stock covers or executing elaborate production experiments involving cellophane and plaster of Paris.

6. A sense of unpredictability

Bender has admitted to never performing without some sort of technical difficulty, planned or otherwise. If you're all in for some flashy, put-together brain drain, then get to your local EDM festival to have your mind wiped clean of true live underground DIY art. If you want authentic, real-time execution of ideas centered on complexity and chaos, don't miss this set.

7. He was (heavily) into krautrock before you.

A list of acts that Bender dug when they were actually happening will make the Spotify playlist your romantic interest was so impressed with seem pedestrian. Velvet Underground, Can, Faust, Suicide, Pere Ubu, Swell Maps all held their sway with Bender's inspiration decades before it was hip in the blogosphere. He famously covered a Faust song on his I Don't Remember Now LP. When pressed for information on his father years ago, Max Bender shared how, growing up, his friends would often ask him why his dad had the vanity license plates NEU and NEU 2 in succession.

8. He opened for Nico.

Bender is quick to declare his 10-minute set a disaster with some regret, but doesn't forget to mention she wasn't exactly on the positive side of put together either.

9. This is not your parents' overlooked legend.

Rediscovered folk-rock legend Rodriguez, fairly recently, captivated the minds of middle-aged white people in the United States who felt sub-conscious guilt over injustice and longed for a catchy tune and a captivating yet tragic story of a Mexican immigrant's son who spoke to those guilts with psych-folk music that they felt like they had discovered themselves.

This is not that. This is a man who made art because he had to. He made music and records that haven't been overlooked because "success" eluded it. Success was wrought in the forging of his ideas. Bender remains the same man had no one outside of his family ever heard his music. This music was born from the fascination with progressive artistic achievement. The search for that "something new." He continues this search to this day, posting sonic experiments on his SoundCloud almost weekly that rival the most abstract of sounds today's patcher jacks are uploading.

10. Barely Human Fest

If you're not already on this trip you must be residing under a rock. ESG, Adult, Pylon, and many other colder, synthetic yet vibrant acts, all under one special Mexicantown roof through a $100,000 sound system, an imported Italian pizza oven, and Club Mate?! How could you miss it? (Full disclosure: My own band plays Saturday.) With this and Trip Metal Fest last year, I'm beginning to feel extra excited about this much-needed trend for live music in Detroit.

John Bender plays El Club for Barely Human Festival with Pylon and more on Sunday, Feb. 12; music at 8 p.m.; 4114 Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclubdetroit.com; $20 advance, $25 door, $50 three-day-passes.

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10 reasons to not miss John Bender at El Club this weekend - Detroit Metro Times

These Shows Understand Why TV Cannot Survive Without The Internet And They’re Doing Something About It – Decider

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Want to know the dirty little secret of the TV industry? In 2017, no matter how unique your show is, it is only as good as your digital department. Sure, the pundits are telling us that were living in the Golden Age of Television, aka Peak TV, but we all know what that really translates to is I dont have time to watch all these new TV shows. So how do we decide which of the thousands upon thousands of shows to watch? The Internet. Thats what matters.

If you star in or host or produce or write a television show, you should know this: We need you and we love you. That said, as great as your show may be, the Internet is where people hear about your show. Sometimes from the stars or the network, but more often from their friends and their social media timelines. Its how they discover a new show, with an image, a tweet or, best of all, a viral clip. People want to feel like they are a part of something, like theyve witnessed the same thing their friends have, so as soon as a television shows content hits the Internet, in whatever form it may take, it is liked, retweeted, commented on, and absorbed. (Hopefully!) Some shows get this, and some are, shall we say, experiencing a bit more resistance to this change.

The thing is, your TV show lives and dies by the Internet now. The end. If you want your show to do well, youve got to figure out what this means for your show specifically, because what works for a comedy doesnt always work for a drama, what works for weekly premium cable shows doesnt always work for streaming originals, and talk shows are in a league of their own. Clips are the currency of the Internet, and networks must provide these in order to boost the conversation (which, in turn, boosts ad dollars). Being involved with social media is no longer a novelty, its a necessity for any show. A TV show doesnt just live in a screen anymore, it has to flood all of our screens, essentially. These shows must be accessible, available, tweetable, and most of all, malleable to all of these factors.

The Internet owns your show now, whether you want them to or not. Give the Internet your show. Let them have it, let them watch it, let them absorb it. People have got to be able to access your content, whether its a full hour-long drama or even a silly gif response to a tweet on any portable wifi-connected device they carry with them.

We spoke to the people behind the shows that get it, that are using the Internet to their advantage, and its paying off in a real way for them. As the lines continue to blur between television and the Internet, these are the keys to keep in mind, from the people who know best.

Gone are the days where networks could simply spend a whole bunch of money on posters and promo spots and audience would show up and tune in. Now, shows must first identify and then directly seek out their fans wherever they congregate to make sure that theyre impossible to ignore.

Especially when youre a new show, you want as many people as possible to see it. Fewer and fewer people are watching in real time on their TVs and watching the next day instead, so I think its incredibly smart that the show has made such an effort to make the show available in all the places where people view content, Carol Hartsell, Managing Digital Editor of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, explained to Decider. Her colleague Mitra Jouhari, Digital Producer/Writers Assistant, echoed that sentiment, saying From the beginning of the show there was a priority to make sure everything got online as quickly as possible after the show aired so that the most people possible can see it. For their show, this means uploading clips to YouTube at 2am EST, immediately after the show has aired on the west coast.

Desus & Mero on Viceland doesnt even wait until the show is over, its available on YouTube at the same time its airing on TV. If its a new show, people dont know exactly what it is. You want to be as accessible as possible so people can see it and get drawn in, Mero said. Now you see people talking amongst themselves on social media like How do I get Sling? So people end up going back to the old school version of it, but even if they dont, theyre still aware of the show. Other networks, they dont do that. They make it really hard to access, which is counterproductive to making a show blow up.

His co-host Desus went on to say, Its about the content coming to you, not you going to the content. Were not punishing you for trying to watch the show. We have a lot of people who do not watch cable, who dont have cable, because who can afford cable nowadays, its really expensive! Even the fans cant believe how easy it is to watch the show, and because its so easy to watch, I think that also helps people put other people on to the show. Its just like, yo go to YouTube, its right there. If you just make it easy for people to watch what they want to watch, theyre gonna stick with it and tell more people about it.

Making a show so easy to watch and surely benefitted Desus & Mero which launched this past fall and is growing rapidly. I feel like a lot of our success has been based on word of mouth, so Vice is really good about putting up entire episodes but also about putting up little 4 or 5 minute segments that really hit, that will really hook a new viewer. If Im your friend and Im like. Yo you gotta watch this dope show, they did this amazing joke, and then I give you that moment, youll see that moment and youre like Yo I want to watch the rest of this shit, and then you can watch the whole 22 minute episode.

Which is why HBO remains such a conundrum in this conversation. The network made the wise decision to make clips from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver available after each Sunday nights show, but thats it. No other show on the network provides shareable clips from episodes (save for trailers and behind the scenes stuff). Like, where is the clip of Lena Dunham pulling a Sharon Stone Basic Instinct on last season of Girls? I mean, a censored clip, sure. But the whole Internet was talking about that moment the next day, and being able to share that clip could mean new viewers to the series.

The same goes for this falls buzzy comedy Insecure, a show that did a good job with their social media, as many viewers took to the Internet to share their thoughts on the latest relationship ups and downs of the show. So, why do 3 other YouTube accounts have more views on a Broken Pussy clip than the official HBO account? Something went wrong here, because imagine the reach it couldve had if HBO promoted it, especially the fact that it aired within weeks of what is now known as the Billy Bush debacle. They couldve had a worldwide meme on their hands! To its credit, the show did make the first episode of the series available on YouTube, but to follow up with clips (like Issa and Mollys fancy day!) wouldve been a home run.

FX also saw the benefit of putting the first episode of Atlanta up on YouTube. The show did well with critics, at the Golden Globes, and for the network. But again, this is the same place that made it a near puzzle to see the most recent season of The Americans leading up to its nominations at both the Emmys and the Golden Globes. Come on, FX! Give the Internet a little taste of the delicious ice cream sundaes that are your programming.

Clips have proven to be essential for a show like Conan as well. Team Cocos head of digital, Steve Beslow, attributes this to the many different kinds of fans of the show. We have a few different types of audience and we try to get our content to all of them. Weve got that core audience that is Conan-centric and loves seeing everything he does. Weve got a general comedy audience that just likes comedy bits whether Conans in them or not, and then weve got your general talk show audience, people interested in celebrities, the people hes talking to, and then stand-up comedy and music. All those different categories of audience connect and engage with different things. Conan has, and for the most part always has had, the youngest audience in late night and with that brings really, really savvy comedy fans. But also brings the audience thats the least likely to consume our content in a traditional way.

It will come as no surprise that Conans best performing YouTube videos feature his driving segments with Kevin Hart and Ice Cube in the top 3, with his adventures joining Tinder with Dave Franco and visiting a Korean spa with The Walking Deads Steven Yeun not far behind. Everyone likes to see Conan in unusual, out-of-the-studio experiences, and TBS has apparently noticed (at least judging from some of the rumors around a potential re-jiggering of the shows focus and production schedule).

By making his content so widely accessible, its not just people who are choosing to watch online rather than on the TBS channel they have at home; its also people who have never heard of TBS. Conan moving around has spawned, especially the travel shows, a whole different type of engagement. When he went to Korea, the amount of excitement for his arrival was just incredible because were not on TV in Korea. Were not on the air. So the only way these people knew him, and most of them were under the age of 20, these were not older folks, they know him from his Internet bits, especially his remotes and the pieces that we do. The Conan of it all has become much more engaging, and people are aware that he is on the move more than the competition and hes willing to still do things that no one else is doing out there and those are the things we get certainly the most response to.

Not every show has to look far from home to find the fans. In the case of The Mindy Project on Hulu, the fans are right there, working on the platforms digital team. It really starts with us being superfans of the show ourselves, Lindsey Pearl, head of social media at Hulu said. We really understand what it is that fans of the show love about Mindy Lahiri and this world that Mindy Kaling built for her. We know that its the fashion, its the family, its the love, her romances, its food and its wine. Its clear as day to us at this point what it is that fans really love about the show and thats really what we like to lean in to.

That they do. The Mindy Project, which jumped from Fox to Hulu after season 3 of the show, is certainly a different example as Hulu is not a television network that comes in your cable package. You need to have a smart TV and a subscription to the site to access its content, which includes original programs such as The Path (which they just made the entire season 1 available on YouTube ahead of the season 2 premiere), Casual and Shut Eye, as well as network shows like The Bachelor, This is Us, and NBC late night shows. But what The Mindy Project and, to a greater extent, Hulu as a whole understands so well about the Internet is how to target an appeal directly to the fans of their shows on social media. There is no shortage of Mindy gifs, fashion pics, and short clips highlighting jokes from the show. As Pearl broke it down, the strategy includes showing the diehards that you get them and youre one of them, so much that it intrigues noobs, gets them curious, and eventually brings them into the show. If you can curry favor with the existing fans really, really well and prove out how well you know the audience with a ton of engagement on your content, then that signals to the friends of the superfans or someone who might not be initiated, that theres a lot of love for this show. While the intent is always to build as much love with that superfan, we know that if we can do that really, really well, we have a chance at bringing in new people.

Not long ago, heres how the conversation cycle went: a show would air, youd go to bed, recap it with your friends and coworkers in the morning, and then move on with life until the next week. Well, not so much these days. As Ana Breton, Digital Producer at Full Frontal noted, Since were only once a week, one of the strategies was to spread our content throughout the week and come up with original things throughout the week to keep people engaged with our content. Plus, thats not the only way the former correspondent for The Daily Show is keeping viewers engaged with the topics she discusses on the show. One of the cool things that this show does I havent really seen other shows do, because theres such a heavy research component to each episode, every show and every clip from the show has extras associated with it on the website, Hartsell said. So if you want to read more on the topics, you can scroll below the video and find all these cool articles that will give you a deeper understanding of what were talking about.

Theoretically, a show like Full Frontal can keep viewers engaged long after the show has finished airing on TV. But what about a show like Desus & Mero, which airs half-hour episodes Monday through Thursday nights on Viceland; are viewers reacting at 11pm eastern when its live, or the next day, or even later in the week? The response is always big live which is dope to witness because it doesnt happen a lot, Mero revealed. Its usually these big shows, like a big Game of Thrones that get people to really watch live. A lot of people watch this show live and then they also just take the Internet segments and digest those throughout the week which is ill. Youll do a show on Monday and people are still talking about it on Wednesday, even when you did 2 episodes in between. People just are watching it live and then re-watching it online.

If you can curry favor with the existing fans and prove out how well you know the audience by getting a ton of engagement on your content, then that signals to the the uninitiated that theres a lot of love for this show.Lindsay Pearl, Head of Social Media at Hulu

Pearl has found a similar situation to be true for fans of The Mindy Project, noting that, While we do see that some fans do flock to the episode the moment that it becomes available on the service, they really can watch it anytime and that does inspire this longer tail of engagement, where the fan isnt so focused on that one tune-in moment. They can pick and choose the moments where theyre consuming the show and therefore theyre probably more likely to engage across platforms in the same way that they watch whenever they want.

Ah, engaging across platforms. Now heres where it gets tricky. Yes, a TV show needs an Internet presence. But it doesnt need to have every Internet presence possible. For The Mindy Project, Pearl has found that Instagram seems to be the best place to focus their resources.

Now with Instagram Stories, there so much more that we can do and theres longer-form storytelling that we can do. For example, through Instagram stories, with new episodes launching on Tuesdays, on Fridays we will do a tap to reveal an upcoming outfit. Its super fun and the fans love it, we see a ton of engagement on those. It is a really good example of how we are doing something unique on that new emerging platform.

The key here is realizing that what works so well for Mindy on Instagram might not work the same on say, Snapchat. When its a property that in its fifth season, to expand to new platforms isnt always the best approach. While sometimes it can seem like a shiny new object and there a lot of lure to being on Snapchat, to invest the time and energy and the resources into doing something really kickass on that new platform, might not be the best use of everyones time, essentially when we know that on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Hulus YouTube channel and on Tumblr, that we already have very rabid audience. And if it aint broke dont fix it.

Beslow has a similar strategy for Conan, explaining, The editorial team and the digital team, we sit and watch the show everyday and clip out the show essentially minute by minute, clip by clip and, then assign those individual clips to platforms. That doesnt mean that the clip that shows up on YouTube will be exactly the same as the clip that shows up on Facebook. We might have a segment thats four and a half minutes long, but theres a really great 30-second chunk that stands on its own. Thats not gonna fly on YouTube, especially if you have to watch a 15-second pre-roll before it, but its a perfect piece of content for Facebook or Instagram and so were certainly not afraid and were very happy to portion out different pieces of content to different platforms.

But in a few months? Its looking like Facebook will be the best place to get all things Conan. I think by the end of this year, that will be the vast majority. It seems like thats the biggest growth area for us, and the inroads weve made there have been great, Beslow predicted. Everyday theres another social media platform that you can invest in content wise and so it;s really about making smart picks and there are definitely more opportunities to waste your time than there are to invest properly.

A show like TruTVs Billy on the Street has really thrived by putting clips on Twitter. Recently, a segment celebrating the end of the show Bones was a huge hit, and involved host Billy Eichner running around with a bone in his hand and catching NYC pedestrians off guard; equally, a bit where he asks gay people how they feel about John Oliver, while Oliver awkwardly stands next to him, also went viral. They dont need much explanation or commentary, people just want to retweet and share them to their timelines with a small Love this or So funny.

While Hulus got a great grip on how to use social media for a show like Mindy, that doesnt mean it translates to all the other originals they promote online. Its understanding that not every show is going to be a social show, theres no such thing as a one size fits all content strategy for every single show, Pearl pointed out. Dramas behave very differently in the digital space than comedies do. We have to tailor our plans to understanding the differences in those audiences and understanding what their behaviors are. Its what keeps us up at night and what makes every campaign unique. It definitely impacts which platforms we decide to lean in to. It impacts the volume of micro-content we make available. The willingness of talent to partner with us and engage also impacts the decisions that we make in our social strategies.

No matter how talented a given networks digital department might be, the ultimate key to online and social success rests with the shows talent. They have to be willing to promote the show, to remind their followers when and where to watch it, and they have to be personable and give us a look at their own lives, really. For Mindy, Instagram is a really strong platform. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Mindy herself is very active. Its clearly there for you when you look at The Mindy Projects own social channels, you can see just how engaged and involved the cast is and it just makes it all sing and we really do take a lot of cues directly from Mindy, shes a wonderful partner to us. The fact that she has such a strong foundation in social makes our jobs so much more fun and a lot easier, Pearl said.

Ever since Conan landed at TBS and Team Coco was born, hes used the Internet wisely. It goes back to Conan announcing tour dates for the tour he did after The Tonight Show on Twitter and using that to become what you would recognize as the Louis C.K. model, Beslow said. Just directly addressing fans and directly communicating to them; he would do direct address YouTube videos to fans well before that was a normal thing in the run up to the TBS show. Just the general sense of knowing that the Internet in general, and obviously social media in particular is such a great way to access your fans directly. Conan has always been one of the first and one of the best at doing that.

Because fans have gotten the chance through the web to connect and feel like they know Conan, it could be the key to those ultra successful Conan in the wild videos that continue to perform for the show. Because we are just completely assaulted with content all the time, I think people really respond to the authenticity of Conan out on the street interacting with real people. Even though hes just as funny in the studio, its something theyre a little more used to seeing and that other people are also capable of doing. There are very few If any people who are capable of going out into a real life environment and being as funny as Conan OBrien.

I think he would do everything we ask him to do. I think our audience has seen a lot more of Conan this past year than before, weve done a ton of YouTube and Facebook Live Q&As, every time he goes on a travel show well do a Q&A, hes taken over our Instagram account, he started that with the Korea trip and has continued in the nine months since then and I think that the audience has really responded to that. If theres one thing they want more of its just more Conan.

Heres the less fun part. Most TV shows still depends on Nielsen ratings, which helps determine how much they can charge advertisers for spots that will run during the show. Its how they make their money, along with sponsorships and brand deals. But how well is your show really doing on TV if people arent interested, arent talking, or even arent accessing it on the Internet? While at the end of the day you have to have (linear) ratings thats the currency of TV but the engagement levels online, thats very important to Vice, Desus said. You have networks that were established and then at some point they had to spin off and create their digital unit and their social media stuff, where as Vice, they had the social media in place before they even had the network. So they come up with strategies and theyre aggressive on social media but not in a way where its spammy. Theyre not forcing the show on people. So we get the numbers, and theyre very happy with both [the ratings and digital numbers]. And I dont want to get my Trump on and brag but were winning bigly online and offline, huge numbers.

From Beslows perspective, We have a two-fold mission where which is obviously be as successful as possible digitally, but we are also the digital marketing arm of the TV show. So its really important to us that people know this is on four nights a week at 11 oclock on TBS and making sure that they get a chance to actually watch the show the way it was designed. Late night shows in particular, and Conan especially, are ripe for clipping and getting the best pieces of content to the audience that will appreciate them the most. Back in say 2010, we were much more attached to a traditional business model of pre-roll, getting as many people to look at display media on teamcoco.com. Were very lucky to have teamcoco.com, most of our competitors are forced to associate themselves with huge network websites but were able to run our own website. If you go to teamcoco.com/korea, you get a much more in depth experience on everything from interactive maps and behind the scenes footage and extra social media content than youd be able to get at a lot of other places. But as the model for digital has changed and become much more sponsorship and branded related and a little less reliant on traditional pre-roll and display media, weve pivoted to become much more platform agnostic, which has really helped us reach our audience. Since theyre so young, they tend to be on a variety of platforms, so well go and find them where they are instead of trying to force them to come to us.

While at the end of the day you have to have (linear) ratings thats the currency of TV engagement levels online are very important to Vice. I dont want to get my Trump on and brag, but were winning bigly online and offline. Huge numbers.Desus, co-host of Vices Desus & Mero

So has the actual TV show changed at all, with digital in mind? I do think whether its conscious or subconscious, the timing and pacing of pieces has become even more digital friendly, Beslow admitted. While you can feel the energy in the studio theres no doubt that the writers are seeing the responses and the view counts online and realizing that those are resonating with people. And for how much the ratings involve his job in the digital department at a show like Conan? I would certainly say the ratings have little to nothing to do with any way that I think of my job. We are extremely lucky to have a ton of high quality comedy every day and how that plays on television is almost irrelevant to anything that we do. I would hope that no digital department is really effected by those things. I think were thought of completely separately, and certainly in my interactions with our executive producer Jeff Ross and Conan I dont know that the word ratings ever gets mentioned when we talk about the digital side. Essentially we have our own ratings system that is instantaneous and we know generally when weve done something that resonates with our audience or something that doesnt.

So what about digital ratings? How do shows interpret the social engagement they are seeing with clips, with tweets and with other online tools? Pearl was straight up in stating, We look at everything. All digital engagement is engagement to us. We do see it as a strong signal of a consumers affinity for the Hulu brand and for that Hulu subscription. Its the wild wild west of engagement metrics out there when it comes to social media. We love a partner called ListenFirst. We love their methodology because they really do look at digital engagement holistically, across platforms. Theyre not just looking at tweets or just looking at Facebook likes, they look at the larger ecosystem and show you how your content is performing in digital engagement compared to other shows. Our audience has only so much time in their day, we can only hope to earn so much love and so much of that mindshare and so we try to use competitive metrics and benchmarking to understand how well we are engaging our audience.

Hartsell at Full Frontal admitted, I personally get excited when I see our column on Tweetdeck moving really fast right after we tweet something, but Im not gonna get disappointed if I dont see that. And how do they know if that might be in their future? If its something thats making everyone in the office laugh their heads off, its going to do well online.

Bottom line? The relationship between TV and Internet needs to be symbiotic. A TV show gets its inspiration from the Internet, and the Internet is where the TV show can do things they didnt have the time, among various other reasons, to pull off. What Desus brings from the Internet to TV, Its whatever we see, so it might be something from the Bronx or something hood, like a video trending on Black Twitter that hasnt hit peak Internet saturation yet and hasnt gone viral yet but you know early on its going to. Something like that we definitely jump on and talk about. And this is at the network that he says knew right off the bat how to handle the shows social media presence.

Digital was being utilized terribly at the other place that we worked (before Vice), Mero admitted. They werent using digital to reinforce the show. To bring awareness to the show, give you the best parts of it. Early on when we were first starting with Viceland, they would put in the promos who we are, where we come from, our sense of humor, all that stuff displayed. They laid the groundwork with that before we even had our first episode. And when we came out with the first episode, all that shit was made available immediately to everybody. It wasnt like sign up to get this, it wasnt little teasers and sign up and youll get the rest. It was like, heres the show in its entirely, enjoy it. The strategy is making good stuff that people are gonna want to come see as opposed to just chasing eyeballs like what is everybody else doing. Its risky but it worked out really well.

Again, Vices experience with the Internet is what the talk show hosts point to when it comes to the social strategy of promoting the show. But it should also be noted that the hosts of this particular TV show are products of the internet with continuously funny Tweets and podcasts. Desus explained, They knew exactly because they got a sensibility that a lot of people at Vice already followed us on Twitter and knew of us and they were waiting for us to come. It was a no-brianer for us to end up at Vice. As far as the marketing strategy integration with social media, all we had to do was sit back. We didnt have to say, Hey set up this account, and do this and take a picture like this and tweet like this. They set all that up, it runs flawlessly, we have very few issue with social media stuff. Theres nothing on the social media side that we see and think we would never do this or this is off brand. Thats the important thing, as long as they get the brand and keep it consistent, were happy with it.

Just as a TV show feeds the Internet content, the Internet also feeds a TV show content. Beslow has certainly noticed the difference at Conan, noting Probably our most favored digital-only series are these scraps that we do that are essentially just outtakes and funny moments from rehearsal and things like that. It started just out of a goof, but thats another great example of something that fans respond to. They are definitely a fan favorite to the point where now every year for the past 2 or 3 years, weve done a Scrapisode where TBS actually airs a full episode of these outtakes set up by Conan. Now, when a funny thing happens in rehearsal or someone embarrasses themselves or a sketch just flops, youll hear someone scream Scraps! more often than not, and theres this realization that this is no longer just for us. Even these moments behind the scenes are a very real part of how we engage with our audience.

So yes, something might be labeled a web exclusive but that doesnt mean its not good enough to be part of the show. The rule with Sam and Jo and the digital department is that it has to be as good of a joke that would go on the show. Its not the leftovers, it has to be a quality joke in the voice of the show, Hartsell said. The main focus is on creating good half hour of television. The web is there for that extra content. At other shows, you generate tons and tons of content and a lot of it ends up on the floor because you dont have time for it in the show, and I love that theres such a value placed on the work thats created here that it doesnt have to be lost if its good and funny and is important.

Everything we do online is aimed to be an extension of the voice of the show, even the original content that we put out, its all in the same voice, her co-worker Caroline Schaper, Digital Producer at Full Frontal said. It might be a little snottier because the internet is full of little snots, but it is still a reflection of how we feel at the show.

One thing thats different from last year is that the digital department has grown, Breton from Full Frontal pointed out. If that gives you any indication that more things are going to be produced, more things are going to happen. They sure are. And theyre happening online. Stay tuned.

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These Shows Understand Why TV Cannot Survive Without The Internet And They're Doing Something About It - Decider

8 Real Success Tips From Women Building The Future With Virtual Reality – Forbes

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8 Real Success Tips From Women Building The Future With Virtual Reality
Forbes
This is a first! Eight inspirational 30-second clips on leadership by women, recorded in virtual reality. Technology artist Drue Kataoka created a parallel universe in VR where women from across the country came together to say Yes! Now Is The Time to ...

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8 Real Success Tips From Women Building The Future With Virtual Reality - Forbes

What parents need to know about virtual reality – Deseret News

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What comes to mind when you hear or see the term virtual reality? Another niche gimmick to boost sales of home entertainment equipment, like the now-defunct 3D TV? Or maybe it excitedly recalls Star Trek's famous holodeck, the leisure space on the starship Enterprise where crew members escape in a room that instantly re-creates any person and place they wish?

Today's virtual reality isn't quite that slick yet, but the technology was intriguing enough for Minneapolis college student Jacob McDonald to head down to VR Junkies, a virtual reality arcade just outside the Twin Cities on a Wednesday evening.

Some buddies of mine had tried in-store demonstrations at Best Buy and they said it was awesome, McDonald said.

Jonathan Krone of Dallas drives a race car while playing "Vir Zoom" at VR Junkies in West Valley City, Utah, on Feb. 3, 2017. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Like a lot of people who are new to the latest VR craze, McDonald wasnt sure what to expect when he put on a headset at the arcade. I didnt think it would be that different from a video game.

Now, McDonald says, he understands the hype. An avid video gamer, he lived a sci-fi fans fantasy through Lightblade, a game at VR Junkies closely resembling a light saber fight from Star Wars.

I didnt expect it to feel so real. That was the main thing that surprised me, McDonald said.

His reaction is not unique and partly explains why last year was dubbed the year of virtual reality, prompting projections that the industry would top $22.8 billion by 2019. The Wall Street Journal reported that investors have so far put about $10 billion into the developing technology.

While its mostly being used for gaming at the moment, scientists and professionals from a variety of industries see VR as having potential to revolutionize life as Americans know it: VR has proven its potential for treating drug addictions, PTSD, autism symptoms, as well as revolutionizing surgical techniques and training and space exploration.

But the wealth of possibility brings with it concerns for some experts questioning when is the technology safe for children, whether or not VR may be addictive, and how some VR content may affect viewers of any age.

For parents looking to catch up on what VR is and what it may mean for their families, the Deseret News spoke to experts to answer some questions surrounding a technology that immerses its users in a graphically generated environment.

What exactly is VR?

Virtual reality came to the mainstream in 2016, but the technology is hardly new. According to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigns National Center for Supercomputing Applications, VR was first developed in the 1950s by electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart. A former radar technician in the U.S. Navy, Engelbart wanted to make interacting with a computer possible without learning complex programming languages. For that, he knew computers needed a way to project graphically represent data onto a screen so anyone could understand it.

With the Cold War in full swing, the military began using Engelbarts ideas to make radar systems work faster and develop realistic simulators to train pilots and tank drivers. The U.S. Army still uses cutting-edge VR today to train soldiers for combat.

In the 1990s, video game companies Sega and Nintendo each developed VR headsets, but both efforts failed due to glitches and graphics that limited games to a black and red color scheme.

Today, computer graphics have improved dramatically, which makes the experience far more realistic and immersive. Thats part of the reason some think the excitement around VR is different this time around the high-resolution graphics and the support of Silicon Valley make VR much more likely to revolutionize many industries beyond gaming.

In medicine, doctors and scientists at universities across the country are developing a potpourri of VR therapies to help people with pain management, therapy to treat debilitating phobias and phantom limb pain. Researchers in California and the United Kingdom have also explored VRs capability to assess brain damage and aid in rehabilitation.

For now, VR is mostly dominated by gaming, with a variety of apps, along with console platforms like Playstation, offering a roster of VR games. But the headsets can also view content like YouTube videos, as well.

Associated Press business writer Ryan Nakashima prepares to ride The New Revolution, a virtual reality roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif., on June 27, 2016. | Christine Armario, Associated Press

Current VR is basically divided into two camps: Passive and interactive. Some VR experiences, like movies and YouTube videos, are considered passive, where the user sits back and observes a 360-degree view. Other VR options require additional equipment (usually hand controls and sensors) to allow users to interact with their surroundings created by the program.

Apps like VRSE allow users to watch movies, documentaries and news programs that have been shot and designed for VR headsets to reduce eyestrain, and musicians like Jack White and Paul McCartney have released VR productions of concerts and songs that put fans on stage with the performers.

What researchers dont know

Theres no definitive evidence yet that VR harms children or impacts their development, but researchers say theres a lot they don't know, yet. This is likely why VR headset manufacturers, like Sony and Oculus, have implemented a self-imposed age restriction, usually 12 or 13 years old.

It is early days and we really are trying to be conscious of health and safety, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said at the 2015 Code Conference. He added that 13 made sense, because thats the legal threshold for when many children are allowed to adopt other forms of technology, like social media, into their daily lives.

According to the Advisory Group of Computer Graphics in the United Kingdom, VR can cause significant eyestrain and visual stress at any age as it employs stereoscopic 3D graphics, which gives the user the illusion of depth and dimension. However, these images can be difficult for the brain and eyes to process, and can result in vergence-accommodation conflict, or when the eyes cannot align their focus on an object.

But beyond physical considerations, some researchers are still figuring out how VR impacts developing minds and cognition.

Jeremy Bailenson and his team at Stanford Universitys Virtual Human Interaction Lab are studying the potential impacts of VR on childrens lives.

There isn't much published research in this area, but what we do know from our preliminary research is that children respond to the world and the characters in a similar manner to the real world, as if they are real, he said.

In a 2009 study Bailenson conducted, elementary school age children were given VR helmets and their digital doppelgangers swam with orcas. A week later, the children had incorporated the experience as memory, certain that they remembered it happening in the real world, not virtual reality.

Bailenson said that while research dating back as far as the 1990s has consistently found that children around age 5 are able to distinguish fantasy from reality in television, immersive VR may make it more challenging for children to distinguish fiction from reality. VR creates the illusion of being surrounded by the content, which can blur the lines between real life and the virtual world.

There may be serious implications for how VR impacts childrens memory and their perception of real life, he said, but more research is needed before any conclusions are drawn.

VR and digital addiction

Much has been written by psychologists and doctors about internet addiction and how reward-based media like video games and the nearly ubiquitous access to online pornography can become full-blown addictions for people prone to dependencies.

But internet addiction experts aren't sure yet if or how VR will play into the equation, partially because so little research has been done on it.

"VR is a question for us because it's not just interactive, but immersive, so it has the potential to be even more seductive for people who are prone to addiction," said Michael Rich, a Harvard University pediatrician and founder of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. "But I don't know that it will push a bunch more people into internet addiction. If they're susceptible, there are just too many other ways to be exposed."

While theres no scientific evidence that VR itself is addictive, some experts theorize that VRs immersive qualities may amplify digital experiences that some experts consider addictive, such as gaming or online pornography.

"If anything, it's a more intense 'high,' if you will, rather than something that will recruit more people into this problem," Rich said. "I don't think this is going to push more people over that edge into internet addiction."

Theoretically, VR may deepen the confusion between fantasy and reality that can, in some teens and adults, lead to digital addiction.

It's the longing for an alternative reality where reward systems are both short and long term, rewarding the brain and giving a sense of accomplishment, which triggers all kinds of happy emotions and reactions. The player is able to be 'their best self,' or a version of themselves they're not able to be in real life, said Melissa Meyer, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cape Town's Center of Criminology and a video game and VR enthusiast. VR simply allows the sensation of immersing in one's virtual fantasy world to be stronger.

Meyer cited PokemonGo as an example in an article for Huffington Post.

(PokemonGo) enhances reality rather than replacing it with a completely fabricated environment, Meyer wrote. These people will begin to blur the boundaries between real, augmented and virtual reality. Their real world life may suffer as a result.

The suspension of reality may seem absurd for anyone whos seen clunky early demonstrations of some VR experiences. But not all VR experiences are equal, and VRs immersive qualities can aid in the suspension of disbelief. Some test users have reported that the situations become highly realistic very quickly.

VR is more than just another iteration. It doesnt just change the frame. VR erases it. It allows us to exist inside the environment, Wireds Peter Rubin wrote. With VR, youre not watching a scene anymore. Youre inhabiting it.

Hacking risks

Some VR systems, like the HTC Vive and Oculus sets, are equipped with sensors that detect motion, which translates into the VR experience. While that sounds complicated, the sensors are essentially just cameras that constantly take pictures to make the experience as lifelike as possible.

Recently, Vice Medias technology website Motherboard and a researcher from the University of California, Davis, discovered that its relatively easy to pull images from Oculus sensors. Perhaps this wouldnt be of significant concern to the average gamer or VR user, except that Oculus is owned by Facebook, a company with a track record of taking ownership of photos shared on its site and be used elsewhere and of conducting social experiments on unknowing users.

For some time now, Facebook has been developing facial recognition and artificial intelligence features for its site to change how users search and use photos on the site and, potentially, from other applications it owns, like Instagram or Oculus.

That could be good or bad, depending on how and if the photos are collected and used in the future perhaps as targeting data for advertising, or simply making it impossible for anyone to disappear in a crowd. If the idea of that makes you nervous, a piece of tape over the VR motion sensor when it's not in use should do the trick.

For its part, Oculus has responded to customer privacy concerns in the past year, saying that it does not sell user data or share it with Facebook.

Online privacy may or may not be a primary concern for individual VR users a 2016 Pew Research Center survey found that the number of Americans who considered NSA surveillance acceptable or unacceptable were evenly split but its important for parents to understand the risk if they are concerned about one of the world's biggest companies having access to candid pictures of their children and families.

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What parents need to know about virtual reality - Deseret News