Warren Buffett: Artificial Intelligence Will Decide Whether Humans Live or Die – Video


Warren Buffett: Artificial Intelligence Will Decide Whether Humans Live or Die
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says that the decision on whether humans live or die will be left to artificial intelligence when self-driving cars become a reality.

By: Rob Trent

View post:

Warren Buffett: Artificial Intelligence Will Decide Whether Humans Live or Die - Video

BBC Science Documentary* Robotic Innovation Artificial Intelligence New 2015 * Full HD – Video


BBC Science Documentary* Robotic Innovation Artificial Intelligence New 2015 * Full HD
bbc documentary, bbc space documentary, documentary, discovery chanel, sapce documentary, UFO documentary, bbc UFO documentary, science documentary, bbc science documentary, bbc ...

By: HD 01

Read the rest here:

BBC Science Documentary* Robotic Innovation Artificial Intelligence New 2015 * Full HD - Video

G350 NC-Simulation Aerospace structure part / NC-Simulation Aerospace Strukturbauteil – Video


G350 NC-Simulation Aerospace structure part / NC-Simulation Aerospace Strukturbauteil
5-Axis Machining of an Aerospace structure part on a G350 using high-strength Aluminium, simulated with VERICUT. 5-Achsen Bearbeitung eines Aerospace Strukturbauteils aus hochfestem ...

By: GROB-WERKE GmbH Co. KG

Go here to read the rest:

G350 NC-Simulation Aerospace structure part / NC-Simulation Aerospace Strukturbauteil - Video

Canada is not a Christian country

In a letter to the editor (The NEWS,March 17) it was stated that Canada was a Christian nation. Canada is a democracy, and all forms of religion, including both atheism and agnosticism, can be freely practised here.

There are more than a dozen forms of Christian religion recognized in Canada. They include the Red Cross, which is known for providing aid to victims of natural or man-made disaster. Most groups have their own rites and dogmas, but all believe in a Creator with whom mankind has some type of relationship.

Science is based on facts and on occasions these contradict points of dogma. If the facts are sufficiently persuasive it is the dogma which has to change. For example, during the Middle Ages you could be burned alive for questioning any part of the Bible. Recently, the Pope indicated that the Catholic Church may be prepared to accept scientific explanations of both homosexuality and evolution.

There are two ongoing science studies which may bear on religious dogmas. The fossil record shows that evolution is a fact, but does not explain how life began. The indications are that the earliest life consisted of simple single-celled animals, and these are not preserved as fossils. Scientists already have data to show that these animals could have formed naturally, and in the near future may be able to produce synthetic forms of life.

Recent astronomical observations have determined that many stars have planets, and that at least some have Earth-like orbits and significant amounts of water. It follows that life probably developed quite widely in the universe.

There is a saying that there are no atheists in fox-holes. Scientists tend to feel the same way when they consider the awesome complexity of the Earth and of space. Science can generally analyze the how but never the why of natural phenomena. Such questions involve faith, and are best left to religions.

Jim Drummond Qualicum Beach

Read more:
Canada is not a Christian country

Fairly scientific

Students that qualify for the state competition on May 1 and 2 at Southern Illinois University are:

Adam Brown in Behavioral Science, with his Color Me Confised experiment: Concordia Lutheran

Baylee Johnson in Earth Science, with her Effect of Water on Landslides experiment: Knoxville Jr. High School

Brianna Honeycutt in Earth Science, with her Effect of Water on Landslides experiment: Knoxville Jr. High School

Hannah Jones in Biochemistry, with her Got Milk, Plastic experiment: Knoxville Jr. High School

Deora Inniss in Environmental Science, with her Soil Acidity design: Knoxville Jr. High School

Prescott Jeckel in Botany, with his Got the Drift? experiment: Delavan CUSD 703

Brenna McConnell in Consumer Science, with her What Soda Makes the Highest Fountain? experiment: Illini Bluffs Middle School

Ethan Gillis in Physics, with his Why so tense? experiment: Concordia Lutheran

GraceThompson in Behavioral Science, with her Stroop Effect...myth/fact experiment: Concordia Lutheran

See the rest here:
Fairly scientific

Quartet Health Closes $7M Series A Financing Led By Oak HC/FT

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 02, 2015

Quartet Health Inc., a New York-based technology company, has raised $7 million in new funding. The investment was led by Annie Lamont at Oak HC/FT with participation from Shulman Ventures, Fidelity Biosciences, Polaris Partners and a number of leading current and former industry CEOs who are serving as advisors to the company.

Annie Lamont, Managing Partner at Oak HC/FT, joins Steve Shulman, former CEO of Magellan Health and Prudential Healthcare, and Quartet Healths CEO, Arun Gupta, on the Board of Directors. Annie is ranked the number one healthcare investor on the Forbes Midas List and has previously backed companies such as Castlight Health (IPO 2014), Benefitfocus (IPO 2013), and Athenahealth (IPO 2007).

Quartet Health was launched in 2014 by Arun Gupta and Steve Shulman. The company has developed a secure, cloud-based technology platform that addresses the problem of access to behavioral health care resources. Quartets platform allows medical and behavioral health clinicians to work collaboratively on shared treatment goals, while giving patients access to technology-enabled care. The platform is backed by sophisticated data science tools that give health insurers and provider systems population health insight on gaps in care, provider network quality, and utilization patterns driven by behavioral/medical comorbidities.

Access to high-quality behavioral healthcare is a profoundly important issue and Im excited to support a company that is leading the charge toward a better model, said Lamont. There is a huge opportunity for innovation in this space, and better integration of behavioral and medical health will benefit health plans, providers, and most importantly the patient.

The financing will enable Quartet to expand its product offering as well as add key healthcare operators, technologists, and behavioral health thought leaders to its team.

About Quartet Health Quartet Health is a behavioral health technology company. Our suite of products enables a proven model that integrates care for patients with chronic medical and behavioral health conditions. By aligning a quartet of key stakeholders patients, behavioral health clinicians, medical providers, and payors we are delivering improved outcomes that also lower total cost of care. We are committed to a clinician-led quality improvement effort that makes healthcare work better.

About Oak HC/FT Partners Oak HC/FT (http://oakhcft.com/) is the premier venture growth-equity fund investing in Healthcare Information & Services (HC) and Financial Services Technology (FT). We are focused on driving transformation in these industries by providing entrepreneurs and companies with strategic counsel, board-level participation, business plan execution and access to our extensive network of industry leaders. Oak HC/FT is led by the Healthcare and FinTech team of Oak Investment Partners as part of Oaks strategy to develop sector-specific funds and continue its legacy of building best-in-class businesses.

Read more from the original source:
Quartet Health Closes $7M Series A Financing Led By Oak HC/FT

Bungie Used Science to Hook Players on Destiny

Share.

There's a purely scientific reason why people keep taking their Guardians back into the world of Destiny.

Speaking at GDC 2015, Bungie's John Hopson discussed how the developer so carefully created a game meant to hook players and keep them coming back time after time. The answer? Behavioral game design, the study of linking behavioral psychology to the tasks and rewards in game and observing a person's reactions and behaviors once faced with them.

Three years before Destiny's release, Bungie began testing it with a large group of people. After hours of play and data collection, the developer discovered there were five different player types in Destiny:

Known for being the ones who would dabble in all types of content, Bungie focused on appealing to the so-called "omnivores" of the group.

GamesRadar reports that during this test, players were told to provide contextual feedback by using specially-mapped buttons assigned to different emotions. Players within the testing group had the option of admitting they were confused, frustrated, or happy, depending on how the last encounter had made them feel.

Using his expertise in Behavioral Psychology, Hopson played a role in helping the team create something that would provide players with satisfying rewards after taking so many risks.

It turned out to be a successful approach for Bungie, as Destiny was one of the best-selling games of last year and the average player's time spent in-game comes out to about 77 hours.

To learn more, check out IGN's Destiny review or the Fireteam Chat podcast.

Cassidee is a freelance writer for various outlets around the web. You can chat with her about all things geeky onTwitter.

Read the original post:
Bungie Used Science to Hook Players on Destiny

LUTRONIC's Innovative Aesthetic and Medical Products Featured at the 13th Anti-Aging Medicine World Congress

Fremont, CA (PRWEB) April 02, 2015

Lutronic, a leading innovator of aesthetic and medical technology, announced today that it expands its portfolio of innovative medical solutions in Europe with ACTION II Petit Lady at the 13th Anti-Aging Medicine World Congress (AMWC) in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, from March 26-28, 2015. ACTION II is a device that provides a new dimension in Er:YAG laser technology applied for both gynecological and aesthetic indications. It received CE mark clearance for treatment of vaginal relaxation syndrome (VRS) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in June 2014, which expands its clinical applications and builds on the success of the original ACTION II device which primarily focused on aesthetic treatments.

I have seen that ACTION II Petit Lady increases the elasticity of the vaginal wall with a significantly short downtime. Patients suffering from vaginal relaxation syndrome are very satisfied with Petit Lady because this 15-minute non-surgical treatment successfully rejuvenates the vagina and enhances sexual gratification, said Dr Fabio Marini, a surgeon at the Skin Laser Clinic, in Italy. Dr Marini was presenting on the Petit Lady system at a special dinner Symposium during the AMWC, Symposia L, hosted by Lutronic. Dr Marini also presented his one year clinical study on ACTION II Petit Lady for vaginal atrophy and vaginal relaxation syndrome, which showed significant improvements in both sets of patients.

The well-attended symposium, which was moderated by Dr R Glen Calderhead, VP Medicoscientific Affairs for Lutronic, also featured Dr. Matteo Tretti Clementoni, a plastic surgeon at Skin House in Italy Dr Clementoni, a world-renowned physician, shared his knowledge of the INFINI for treating neck and low face laxity with its High Intensity Focused RF. "The device is very easy to use, and it is possible to perform full face and neck treatment in less than 15 minutes. With varying energy, pulse duration, depth of needles penetration and number of passages, it is possible to customize the treatment for the specific skin needs of each patient on an individual basis. Finally, we have a device/treatment that really allows us to obtain good results on the lower 1/3 of the face and the neck, he added. Another presenter of INFINI, Dr Harryono Judodihardjo, a dermatologist from the Cellite Clinic, UK also shared his clinical experiences with the title, How to Smooth Out Accordion Lines (Smile Lines).

Another star speaker was Dr Christine Dierickx, a world-wide respected dermatologist from Skinperium, Belgium, who presented on the Q-switched Nd:YAG-based multiplatform, SPECTRA XT, which is the latest edition of the cutting-edge SPECTRA family of lasers, already best-known and appreciated for its versatility and reliability.

The symposium was a great success, judging from the many favorable comments from the attendees who were most impressed by the practical and solid nature of the presentations and the range of topics covered by the well-appreciated presenters. This symposium built on the success of the similar event at last years AMWC, and many of those present stated that they would definitely be looking to attend again next year, hoping that it will become a tradition to be established by Lutronic at subsequent AMWC meetings.

About ACTION II Petit Lady The Lutronic ACTION Petit Lady is a 360 solution for cosmetic gynecology. The treatment is gentle, simple and fast. The ACTION II Petit Lady 360 handpiece is specially designed for VRS. It delivers multiple micropulses to the vaginal mucosa to stimulate collagen remodeling and tighten the vaginal canal. The ACTION II Petit Lady 90 handpiece is intended for SUI, providing an enhanced thermal and shrinkage effect in the endopelvic fascia, ligaments, and mucosal tissue of the anterior vaginal canal.

To learn more about the ACTION II Petit Lady, please visit: http://www.petitlady.net/

About LUTRONIC Lutronic, a leading innovator in advanced aesthetic and medical laser and related technology, was established over 18 years ago to bring intuitive, robust, versatile devices that are affordable and efficacious to the worldwide medical community. Committed to improving medicine, Lutronic partners with key opinion leaders to advance science and ensure the efficacy of its systems. All systems are versatile and offer multiple setting and treatment options for customized treatments, which optimize outcomes for a wide variety of conditions and treatments including melasma, tattoo removal, soft tissue incision, vascular lesions, hair removal, wrinkle reduction, skin resurfacing, body/facial contouring, chronic pain and more.

With a focus on physician needs and patient outcomes, Lutronic dedicates time and funding toward the development of devices that offer features and improvements not found in todays market. Devoting more than 20% of revenues to R&D, Lutronic holds more than 240 intellectual properties including current and pending patents worldwide. With more than 250 employees worldwide, Lutronic has offices in the US, Korea, China, Japan, and Europe, a worldwide network of distributors, and is ever expanding.

Read the original:
LUTRONIC's Innovative Aesthetic and Medical Products Featured at the 13th Anti-Aging Medicine World Congress

At Meduza, self-exiled Russian journalists avoid Kremlin censorship

The office of the Meduza Project brims with light and open space, a metaphor for the freedom that the dozen journalists who left Russia to avoid censorship feel in their newfound home.

The white-washed interior walls of a 200-year-old former grain warehouse where the reporters work are cut with faceted windows overlooking the Daugava River and the sun-splashed plains east of Riga. Ochre and pink bricks forming the building's arched windows and pitched, crenelated roofline evoke the architecture of the Hanseatic League that in the late Middle Ages united Northern European ports from Rotterdam to Tallinn in a trade and defense confederation.

Inside, the 11 a.m. news meeting is running overtime as the journalists ponder how best to present the latest actions of Russian state media censors in outlawing reports on the motives behind suicide.

The edict is intended to prevent a Meduza Project report from spreading to publications in Russia: It says that at least 12 cancer sufferers in Moscow took their lives in February because government-run hospitals denied them pain management medications.

"We were looking into why the government has gotten involved in determining who gets pain medications and who doesn't," said Konstantin Benyumov, editor of Meduza's English-language edition.

Eventually, the meeting adjourns and reporters disperse to their laptops on sleek blond-wood desks atop wrought-iron sawhorses. Some dash downstairs first to the wind-swept courtyard for a smoke or the daily call home to family in Moscow.

Meduza's reporters and editors are an outgrowth of the late Lenta.ru investigative news organization that, like most independent media in Russia, has been subverted by politically motivated firings and stifled by government edicts criminalizing reporting on embarrassing issues.

Like its namesake mythological Greek monster whose severed head retained the power to turn into stone all who gazed into her eyes, the Meduza Project's self-exiled Russian staff lives on, bedeviling Kremlin efforts to control and manipulate information.

A year ago, Lenta editor Galina Timchenko was fired, reportedly for publishing an interview with a member of the Ukrainian nationalist militia Right Sector.

"It was just the pretext for her firing, as it wasn't banned at that time," Benyumov said of the Ukrainian paramilitary now battling pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Here is the original post:

At Meduza, self-exiled Russian journalists avoid Kremlin censorship

Retail

The debate over violent games and censorship wound down some years ago, as it always inevitably would; as a generation raised on games grew into adulthood and it became increasingly undeniable that this medium was enjoyed significantly if not primarily by adults, the "won't someone think of the children" hand-wringing subsided and the threats of censorship fell away. Just as "video nasties", rap music, comics and even - in the far-distant past - novels and ballroom dancing had once been condemned as the harbingers of the downfall of society for a few short years, only to take their place in the broader pantheon of entertainment and creativity once all the fuss died down. Such backlashes are really nothing to do with violence, or sex, or the protection of innocent minds; they are, at their most fundamental, a way for an older generation to say "look, these younger people are doing a thing I don't understand, and therefore I hate it and want it stopped."

So, videogames won. Now we can all play as Trevor Philips and embark on murderous, sexually violent rampages across Los Santos; can enjoy the spine-ripping finishers of new Mortal Kombat games with a hint of golden nostalgia on the side; can even, should we so desire, play something so morally bleak and devoid of human empathy as Hatred, an unironic attempt to create something that lives down to the "murder simulator" epithet which the right-wing media used to love to throw at games. Hatred is controversial, of course, but its most vocal and intelligent opponents don't say "ban this filth"; rather they say, of the developer, "what the hell is wrong with you?" Nobody seeks to censor; nobody seeks to say, "you can't make this". Like many people, I find Hatred disgusting and devoid of redeeming factors, and its petulant, infantile developers to be beyond contempt - but their right to make the game I equally consider to be sacrosanct. That's what "winning" looks like; no censorship, but plenty of debate.

"The reality is that some of the industry's biggest publishers are still proving themselves to be flat-out, inveterate liars by turning around and licensing the creation of children's toys based on those same games"

The thing is, winning the censorship debate doesn't absolve everyone of all responsibility. It doesn't make this into a free-for-all, not least because there are people out there who genuinely do have to "think of the children" - parents, for one. Teachers, to think of another. It was a group of teachers in England who recently reignited discussion around this topic, when they sent letters to the parents of children at their schools (a group of schools in Cheshire; I believe that those involved are all primary schools, so we're talking about children under the age of 12 here) stating that they had been advised to contact the police and social services if they had evidence of children playing inappropriate games.

My instinct here is to recoil in horror. This is a clear example of overreach; while I absolutely believe that ratings are important and that parents should be given all the tools possible to help them control the games and media their young children access, I also think that parents are entitled to make informed decisions that run contrary to the ratings. One can be a perfectly good parent and still find that a 15- or 18-rated movie is perfectly fine for your younger teen; the same applies to game ratings. There absolutely has to be leeway for parents to make informed choices based on their knowledge of their own children, without busybody schools trying to involve social workers or accusing them of "neglect".

Sadly, there's a lot of evidence stacked up against my instinctive reaction in this case. There are the retail workers who can all tell the same story; refusing to sell GTA or CoD to a child of 8 or 9 results in an angry tirade a few minutes later when the child fetches their parent. In some cases, it's incredibly clear that the parent has no idea what's actually in these games - I know a few store workers who report absolute shock from parents upon being told exactly what's in the game they're buying for their pre-teen. Most, though, will simply do their job quietly and sell the game, even if it's apparent that it's being bought for such a young child; Amazon, of course, doesn't even have a way of checking that. These aren't parents making informed decisions; they're parents absolutely blinded by their own ignorance, certain that the age rating on the box can't mean it's all that bad, because after all, it's "only a game".

Then there are the even tougher stories - those of friends and acquaintances who have children of their own in that age bracket, who have introduced them to games through Nintendo and Skylanders and Minecraft, and who are now at their wits' end because the children have lost interest in those things far, far earlier than they ought and are demanding instead to be given access to Call of Duty, GTA and their ilk. Why? Because their friends play them. Because they're the talk of the school yard. Because no matter how good you are at parenting your child and keeping them on the straight and narrow with the games they play, as soon as they go to a friend's house, they're outside your control - and if their parents are of the "it can't be so bad, it's only a game" variety, you're screwed.

In essence, this is a bit like the "herd immunity" concept upon which vaccination relies so heavily - and which is now being threatened by the appearance of another class of (much more dangerous) ignorant parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, oblivious to or uncaring of the risks this creates for the other children around them. If the vast majority of parents are exercising good judgement with regard to the games they let their children play, then that creates a web of support among them; it means that the expectation among children is that Minecraft and Pokemon are just what they play, and that's fine. This isn't what seems to be happening, though; it's fairly clear that a majority of parents are not doing this, because those parents who actually attempt to do so find themselves stymied at every turn by the fact that so many children are playing sexually and graphically violent games at a young age that denying them access is a source of enormous stress and upset, not to mention ultimately being pretty much impossible, since they'll just play a friend's copy.

It's not just peer pressure and the poor choices of ignorant parents making life tough for parents who are trying to make informed decisions about games, though - because there's another source from which kids get the idea that they should be playing adult games, and it is, unfortunately, the game publishers themselves. The final, damning piece of evidence that convinces me that my knee-jerk reaction against the letter sent by the Cheshire schools needs more thought is the reality of walking into just about any large toy store. There, you'll find toys quite clearly aimed at young children - shelved alongside toys from franchises that are exclusively child-focused - and yet based on games that you're meant to be 15 or 18 to play. After years and years of claiming with big, innocent, "who me?" expressions that they did not market their adult games to children, the reality is that some of the industry's biggest publishers are still proving themselves to be flat-out, inveterate liars by turning around and licensing the creation of children's toys based on those same games. Don't try and fob this off with the claim that the toys based on Call of Duty are for "adults who collect toys", either, because you'd have to be a pretty damned uniquely creepy adult collector to want Call of Duty branded child-sized clothes and school rucksacks in your collection.

"What could be wrong with young Jim playing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare after he gets home from primary school, given that he wore a t-shirt with its logo all day?"

Read more:

Retail