Daily Archives: April 7, 2017

Rubio Announces 5-EP Series With Two Bone-Chilling New Tracks – Remezcla (blog)

Posted: April 7, 2017 at 8:29 pm

In this musical landscape of on-demand streaming and disposable playlists for every mood and occasion, its really a blessing when an artist gives us the opportunity to slow down and really listen to their music. That is part of the beauty of Rubios new EP series. Rubio is the solo electronic project of drummer, singer, and Chilean national treasure Fran Straube, who is best known for fronting and drumming in electronic rock band Miss Garrison. Following last years self-titled debut EP, Straube has just released atwo-song EP, with promises of four more to come in 2017 through Jungla. Its a way ofexploring her sound on this project while keeping fans involved in the experience for a whole year. Plus, the strategy gives us time to fully explore each song.

The first of this series, titled R, consists of Luz and Indonesia, two songs that warrant repeated plays and engaged listening. With this new material, Straube reminds those who follow her many musical endeavors that her gift for rhythm applies to digital beats just as much as it does to analog percussion. The first Rubio EP pushed the envelope for stylish downtempo and dabbled in dembow, managing to be simultaneously cool and sultry. This new EPcito is even more experimental in some ways, and a touch more minimal. (If you must playlist these songs, slide them in between the latest Arca and Nicolas Jaar.)

If R can be taken as a kind of digital seven-inch, then Luz, featuring a vocal assist from Carlos Cabezas of seminal Chilean electronic group Electrodomsticos, is the A side. Together, the two avant savants deliver a smooth electrobolero, their smoky, intertwined vocals haunting the track like a ghost in a shell. Much like Al Sol de Noche, Straubes most recent album with Miss Garrison, the sci-fi vibes are thick here. Luz would be perfect for soundtracking a Bladerunner-style android adventure film set in present-day Santiago de Chile. Lado B Indonesia holds its own by being both more challenging and more pop. With just the right amount of auto-tune on an anthemic vocal hook, Straube becomes a transhuman chanteuse, riding a jazzy production with subtle Southeast Asian references.

Its hard not to look ahead and wonder what othersurprises the EP series will reveal. You can probably figure out what the next four EPs will be titled. The only other thing we can tell you is that, once this journey is over, all the songs will be put together as a limited physical release.

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How Scarlett Johansson Became Our Finest Post-Human Movie Star – Vulture

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Illustration: Maya Robinson/Vulture

Back in the early years of the new millennium, Scarlett Johansson seemed to have a lane: She starred with Thora Birch in Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowess teen-angst classic Ghost World, with Bill Murray in Sofia Coppolas ennui-soaked classic Lost in Translation, and in the ensemble cast of Paul Weitzs In Good Company. She was a character actor whose existential angst seemed to be in constant combat with the way men saw her, a lead who never overshadowed or overwhelmed the film. And she did not appear to be the kind of actor who would, ten years later, be playing a killer cyborg, right on the heels of playing a drug mule turned superhuman, right on the heels of playing a killer alien.

Johansson has had one of the stranger career shifts of any major female actor in recent memory. Shes gone from indie darling to mainstream action star, and in relatively little time; at just 32, shes already had more phases than some performers double her age. But if you go through her filmography, the transition actually begins to make sense and if you subtly shift the focus of how were considering her, you discover that it isnt that unusual at all.

After debuting, at the age of 9, in North, Johansson steadily picked up steam until she blew up in her late teens, becoming a go-to ingnue for directors like Robert Redford, the Coen brothers, Coppola, Brian De Palma, Christopher Nolan, and Woody Allen, who cast her three times between 2005 and 2008. In the bulk of these films (excepting Redfords The Horse Whisperer), Johansson plays an attractive young woman who motivates the male lead in some way, and though her performances received plenty of critical praise, they tended to blur together in retrospect. Of all her work from this period, Lost in Translation truly stands out not coincidentally, the product of a female director as does Match Point, the peak example of the type of role she was being given in those days.

Aside from the period pieces that most young female actors find themselves in at some point in their early careers, Johanssons first major step in a different direction came with Michael Bays sci-fi flop The Island in 2005. Along with Nolans The Prestige in 2006, The Island indicated a glossier direction, away from the more human intrigues of the films that shed been known for up to that point. That period also coincided with her Allen collaborations, and the contrast between the two worlds, though not uncommon for a marketable actor, indicated that Johansson hadnt yet quite settled on the direction she would go in. However, they did suggest that she had an interest in physicality and spectacle that hadnt been shown before.

The shift began in earnest in 2008, when Johansson starred in the now-forgotten Frank Miller adaptation The Spirit, an attempt to capitalize on the success of Sin City. While that movie turned out to be a disaster, it functioned as a sort of dry run for the role that would change her career: Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, whom she first played in 2010s Iron Man 2. The part was Johanssons decisive leap into the blockbuster world: Unlike other tentpole action films, the Marvel movies tend to transform their actors, due both to the number of times they reprise those roles and the enormous visibility of the films. But the strangest thing about Johanssons experience is that the roles that came next would offer an indirect commentary on those that came before.

Since Iron Man 2, Johansson has played the Black Widow in four more movies. And aside from Marvel, shes made ten other films. Only two of these, Don Jon and Chef, feel like roles that she wouldve played before Iron Man 2. Two more Hitchcock and Hail, Caesar! saw her appear only briefly, and another two were voice roles. Excluding Ghost in the Shell, which just had a ghastly opening weekend, the trio of films that remain makes up her most successful work to date, and the most effective exploration of Johanssons singularity as an actor: Under the Skin, Her, and Lucy.

All three of these movies are very different, but they have a shared gene that makes Johansson feel so natural in them. Jonathan Glazers Under the Skin is an enigmatic exploration of identity and human desire, with Johansson playing an alien who seduces, kidnaps, and then kills men. In Spike Jonzes Her, Johansson never actually appears onscreen, voicing the operating system that Joaquin Phoenixs Theodore Twombly falls in love with. And in Lucy, Johansson turns the typical story of an American woman abroad who runs afoul of a criminal element into a strange riff on the action hero, in which Johanssons character essentially becomes God.

In none of these films does Johansson play a regular person. Instead, with a savvy awareness of her own distinct physicality, Johansson and her directors riff on the nature of personhood, taking advantage of her power as a screen presence to isolate certain elements and call attention to their removal. In Under the Skin, its humanity; in Her, its the body; and in Lucy, its the limitations of natural law. These films explore and subvert the concept of what a woman on film can be, and especially how a beautiful woman appears to a male viewer; in that sense, they can almost be read as a direct response not a refutation, necessarily, but a reaction to or progression from the work of her earlier career. And it doesnt seem like a coincidence that, while Johanssons more conventional performances in Don Jon and Chef were well-received, neither came to define her career like these other films did.

With these films, Johansson has become our leading avatar for characters exploring the line between human and nonhuman. Although far less effective than Under the Skin, Her, and Lucy, Ghost in the Shell is no different, placing Johansson in the place of a robot with a human mind a metaphor for an actor inhabiting a role. While the evolution of her career appears to be unique in comparison to most other major female actors the closest analogues might be Angelina Jolie and Keira Knightley, who also successfully turned themselves from ingnues into action heroines it actually feels quite common when you consider her next to men, who often make this kind of transition. (See: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling.)

Of course, most men arent given the same imperative to explore the way the world interacts with their bodies and selves nor do they tend to do it with the kind of ingenuity and experimentalism that Johansson has. And with her next film, Rough Night, being a comedy, we could soon get a reminder that there isnt any one lane Johansson wants to work in. If her characters tend to explore the edges of what it means to be human, than she seems interested in exploring the edges of what it means to be a movie star.

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In honor of Going in Style, Vulture assembled the ideal cast of old guys to get their mojo back.

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Another problem with cannibalism: Humans actually aren’t very filling – Washington Post

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Scientists know that our ancient human cousins ate one another, at least on occasion. At a handful of European sites scattered across some 250,000 years, researchers have dug up hominin bones that bear telltale markings: blade scratches, teeth marks, burns.

What they can't be sure of is why. Modern humans have long practiced cannibalism for avarietyof ritual reasons to frighten enemies, cure illness, honor the dead but anthropologists have no evidence that Neanderthals or other hominin specieshad a cultural motivation for consuming their kin.So, for the most part, researchers assumed ancient cannibalism was nutritional, or purely for the purpose of survival.

Which got University of Brighton archaeologist James Cole wondering: If hominins ate each other for nutrition, then how nutritious were they?

For a paper published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, Cole calculated the number of caloriesthat could be gotten from one adult human male. Compared to other creatures our ancient cousins ate mammoths, steppe bison, deer it turned out that hominins were a pretty low-calorie snack.A 150-pound person provides about32,376 calories, enough for a troop of 25 adult Neanderthals for about a third of a day. A mammoth, on the other hand, could feed the group for a month.

[Could cannibalism be 'perfectly natural? This scientist thinks so.]

Doing research into the subject, I found that no one had ever defined a calorie value for the human body, and if they did, they were kind of throwaway numbers with no indication of how they arrived there, Cole said.

Cole's calculations, on the other hand, are unnervingly specific. His paper contains a chart listing the estimated weight and calorie value for every component of the human body. Head and torso: 5,418.67 calories. Upper arms: 7,4571.16 calories. Thighs: 13,354.88 calories. Skin: 10,278 calories. Teeth: 36 calories.

When you stack up muscle values in terms of weigh, we actually fall right where we should rightbetween saiga and roe deer, which are animals roughly about our same size, Cole said, impressively matter-of-fact for someone essentially writing anFDA nutritional facts label for members of hisown species.

Neanderthals and other ancient hominin species, he noted, were far bulkierthan modern humans, with big muscles and sturdy builds. They might have been a bit more filling than a Homo sapiens meal, but not by much.

It's interesting because if youre labeling these acts as nutritional cannibalism and you compare how nutritional we are compared to game, we actually arent a very good return, Cole said.

Of course, the Neanderthals weren't calorie counters. But they would have been able to tell that a person didn't provide as much sustenance as a boar or a horse. And unlike a boar or a horse, a hominin would be exactly as cunning and skillful as the person who'd like to eathim meaning he's much more difficult to kill.

To Cole, this suggests that ancient hominins could have had ritual motivations for consuming members of their own species, just as modern humans did. This shouldn't be surprising he said Neanderthals are already known to have made art, worn jewelry, and developed sophisticated communication.

Clearly these are complex and diverse human species and their attitude to cannibalism I would suggest is going to be as complex and diverse as our own, he said.

Paola Villa, a Neanderthal expert and researcher at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said that Cole's calculations offer some interesting information, but should not change our understanding of ancient hominin cannibalism. A person may not have offered the same caloric return as a deer, she said, but hominins weren't hunting each other the way they hunted deer anyway.

There never was a suggestion that humans were hunted as food animals, she wrote in an email. Eaten as food, yes, but the cause has always been described as either aggressive cannibalism (well-documented in mammals including primates) or starvation or as a ceremonial mortuary practice.

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Human Thigh Bones Found Dumped Outside North London Pub – Huffington Post UK

Posted: at 8:29 pm

An investigation is underway after two human thigh bones were found displayed prominently on the pavement outside a north London pub.

Dan Gardner told the Islington Gazette he had noticed the bones as he headed back from his local The Crown in Cloudesley Square, Barnsbury on Sunday afternoon.

The 44-year-old said: I tried to ignore it, telling myself they were animal bones.

Eventually, Gardner called the police.

They reckoned the bones were femurs. It certainly made for an interesting Sunday.

Its just odd, as whoever laid the bones there clearly wanted them to be found. The bag was open and it was in broad daylight with people walking about.

A Met Police spokesman said the force had been advised by a specialist that the bones appeared to be human and are not believed to be ancient.

He added: It is also too early at this stage of enquiries to confirm if the discovery is suspicious or not. No arrests have been made.

Femur bones are both the longest and strongest bones in the human body, extending from the hip to the knee.

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The Relationship of The Future: A Man Married a Robot He Built Himself – Futurism

Posted: at 8:29 pm

In BriefA Chinese engineer facing the realities of a widening gendergap in China, and the pressure to marry found a creative andcontroversial solution: he built himself a robot bride. Yingying

While Tindr and other apps might be the height of how technology is shaping human relationships, an engineer in China has taken it to the next level:Zheng Jiajia has married a robot he created.

Zheng, an artificial intelligence expert, spent two months dating Yingying, who he built late last year. Hemade their relationship official in asimple ceremony with his mother and friends in attendance. Or at least as official as the government would allow. Local authorities do not actually recognize the union, through the ceremony did follow Chinese tradition.Click to View Full Infographic

Zhengsdecision to wedthe robot was spurred bymounting pressure for the 31-year-old to marry. Due toChinas one-child policy,sex-selective abortions are common (and preferential to male offspring). China, therefore, has oneworst gender gaps in the world. There are 113.5 men for every 100 women in the country, according to the World Economic Forum. That fact, combined with views on matrimonyamong Chinas middle class, is making itdifficult for men to find wives.

As for Zheng and Yingying, the first hurdle in their relationship may be not dissimilar from human relationships: communication. Yingying is capable of reading some Chinese characters and images and can even speak a few words. Zheng is already working on an update which would hopefully allow her to walk (as of now she must be carried everywhere), do household chores, and converse at a higher level.

Reactions around the world to this unprecedented union have, of course, been mixed but its a very clear demonstration of how relationships and intimacy are evolving in the context of advancing technology.

Futurism explored this concept in previous report:

Technology is pushing human sexuality into uncharted terrain. Its transforming how we express love and intimacy, and holds tremendous potential for deeper emotional and physical connections. While everyone stands to benefit, this is perhaps especially true for those who face sexual challenges due to distance, loneliness, discrimination, or disability.

For many people faced with physical, emotional, and geographic challenges that impact their relationships, turning totechnology for emotional and sexual fulfillment may be their only option. And there are a number of options in that vein, many of which involve the use of remote sex tech, such as long-distance kissing devices, VR haptic body suits, or connected pillows for couples who are in two different geographic locations. Other avenues include adult virtual worlds where users create avatarsand join in virtual gatherings. Similar to Zhengs idea, there are also those creating robotic prototypes equipped with the illusion of sentience and human augmentation which provide companionship for human users.

If anything, these emerging technologies are able to provide context for the integral role that relationships play in human interaction. How these innovations will one day shape human connection and intimacy, however, is very much still evolving.

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Scientists Just Created a Material for Self-Healing Smartphones – Futurism

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In BriefInspired by Wolverine, the ultimate self-healing hero, aresearcher has created a self-healing polymer that conductselectricity. This material may one day be used in smartphones thatcan repair themselves. Wolverine-Inspired Material

A researcher inspired by the X-Mens self-healing hero, Wolverine, has created a self-healing polymeric material for use in soft robotics and electronic devices like smartphones. Chao Wang, Ph.D. presented his teams research yesterday at the 253rd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

When I was young, my idol was Wolverine from the X-Men, Dr. Wang said in a press release. He could save the world, but only because he could heal himself. A self-healing material, when carved into two parts, can go back together like nothing has happened, just like our human skin.

Chemical bonding is the key to self-repair, and materials can have two types of bonds: covalent bonds, which are stronger and dont easily reform once they are broken, and non-covalent bonds, which are weaker but more dynamic. The challenge with many non-covalent bonds is balancing that desirable flexibility with the ability to conduct electricity. Most self-healing polymers form hydrogen bonds or metal-ligand coordination, but these arent suitable for ionic conductors, explained Dr. Wang.

Wangs team looked for an alternative approach and settled upon an ion-dipole interaction. Ion-dipole interactions have never been used for designing a self-healing polymer, but it turns out that theyre particularly suitable for ionic conductors, said Dr. Wang. To that end, the team combined a stretchable, polar polymer with a mobile, ionic salt. The polymer, poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene), contains polar groups that interact with the ionic salt to create the ion-dipole force.

The result is a material that is conductive and extremely flexible, capable of stretching up to 50 times its starting size and stitching itself back together again completely within the space of a single day after being ripped in half. The material is also conductive enough for use with electronics and artificial muscles.

The researchers plan to alter the polymer to improve its properties next. For example, they are working toward achieving functionality in very humid conditions and other harsh environments. Previous self-healing polymers havent worked well in high humidity, Wang said. We are currently tweaking the covalent bonds within the polymer itself to get these materials ready for real-world applications.

The team also acknowledged that, while the material was able to self-heal without the application of intense pressure, exactly how much pressure must be applied for it to self-heal is unknown. This remains an area for further study.

All of the materials used to create the polymer are commercially available, so manufacturing it should remain inexpensive, especially at scale. However, the researchers acknowledge that there are many practical hurdles to clear before the material will be available commercially. I think we still have a lot of things to do before we can really use it for smartphones, Wang said at yesterdays press conference.

However, if this material lives up to its promise, dropping your expensive phone might not be such a tragedy one day soon.

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With Afro-Futurism, Octavia Butler created her own reality: Larry Wilson – The Daily Breeze

Posted: at 8:29 pm

Lotta good writers out there.

Lotta good novelists.

Few craft an entirely new genre, though. One who did, Octavia Butler, who thousands of acolytes credit with creating Afro-Futurism, left her papers to the Huntington Library, which in a new show celebrates her amazing writing and wonderfully American life story of self-creation after a childhood of poverty in the Northwest Pasadena ghetto.

Telling My Stories, which runs through Aug. 7, is one of those roomful-of-arcana museum biopics that I suppose you have to come to with at least a little interest beforehand in the subject. But once visitors wander past the West Hall of the main library exhibit space at the Huntington, many who otherwise just wanted to get a gander at the Gutenberg will be pulled into Butlers room, first by the oversized black and white portrait of the formidable, 6-foot-tall author staring out, and then by all thats contained on the walls and in the display cases.

This isnt like a visit with the papers of some Ivy League tweedster. Octavia Butlers widowed mother was a maid in a wealthy Pasadena household. Octavias exposure to books but for the Bible was not going to happen at home. But, thanks to the childrens section then known as the Peter Pan Room of the Pasadena Library, she discovered reading for pleasure. She began to scrawl little escapist stories about horses and romance. And then, according to Natalie Russell, the Huntingtons assistant curator of literary collections, Butler saw the 1954 B movie Devil Girl from Mars, and had a simple inspiration in reaction to the dumbed-down tale: I can write better than that.

Once she graduated from Muir High and Pasadena City College, and began hanging out at the Los Angeles Library downtown, reading more science fiction, Russell says Butler grew tired of stories featuring only white male heroes. I can write my own stories and I can write myself in, Butler often said after that.

It almost looks easy, or at least inevitable, a writers life in hindsight. But a shy, gangly girl such as Butler had zero role models for her craft. This exhibit shows the Benjamin Franklin-esque manner in which Butler created herself through the national pastime of over-the-top motivational imagineering. I am a bestselling writer, she wrote in ballpoint on lined three-hole-punched papers in the show. I write bestselling books and excellent short stories. Both books and short stories win prizes and awards.

And so she did. Eventually, because she willed it, she was mentored by Harlan Ellison, the Sherman Oaks sci fi giant, and gained entry to the Open Door Program for minority writers of the Writers Guild of America, West. Not that it was easy. No MFA programs or scholarships for her. In a Dear Mama letter Butler typed but never sent from a workshop, she wrote, Im afraid I cant write and I know I cant do anything else. Im blocked. ... Im alone here. I mean, Im the only Negro. That shouldnt mean anything. It means a lot.

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She unblocked, and, working menial L.A. office jobs by day, she wrote at night. She was 28 when she sold her first novel, Patternmaster, to Doubleday in 1975. As she gave me a preview of the show on Thursday, curator Russell noted of Butlers astounding Kindred, in which an African-American woman of today time travels back to a slave plantation, that only a woman protagonist such as the novels Dana had a chance of flying under the radar of the antebellum South and and making it home.

Butler won the Hugo, Nebula and a MacArthur genius grant. The big one. Like a salary, leaving her free to write. The only thing she ever wanted to do.

Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.

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Elon Musk’s Attempt to Merge to the Human Brain With AI May Have Serious Problems – Futurism

Posted: at 8:29 pm

Musks Neural Lace

When Elon Musk confirmed last week that hes working on a way to combine humans and machines, it wasnt exactly a surprise. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has long been in favor of a human-machine merger in order to keep up with artificial intelligence (AI) development. Not to mentionavoiding the end of humankind at the hands of machines.

Neuralink is Musks unconventionalproposal forpreempting thatfear.The budding company will build a deviceto be implanted into the human brain. This device which is likely to be called aneural lace would give the human brain the ability to directly interface with gadgets and other devices. It could also improve the human brains memory by increasing its storage capacity. Such brain-computer implants could also lead to improved treatments for neurological diseases and cognitive disorders.If that wasnt impressive enough, such a device could potentially be used toreprogram a persons neural code.

In an piece he wrote for CNBC, Dustin McKissen wondered aloud how such a technology would be introduced quite literally into the public consciousness: one question Musk hasnt answered (and in fairness, it may not be his responsibility to answer) is who will have the privilege of getting a neural lace? McKissen is the founder and CEO of PR and strategy firm McKissen + Company, whose work includes analyzing the effects of politics in the U.S. business climate.

If the essentialness of maternity care is up for debate, it goes without saying Elon Musks neural lace probably wont be covered under your insurance plan, McKissen wrote, referring to the Obamacare repeal that has been at the forefront of U.S. political debate as of late. In other words, not only do the rich seem to get richerthey may get the benefit of having a computer-enhanced brain.

McKissen warns of how social inequality could render Musks neural lace beneficial only to a select few, rather than the human race on the whole. What will income inequality look like if only the very wealthy get an upgrade? And will children be able to get a neural lace?, he asked. Such a society is reminiscent of one featured in the science fiction film Elysium, where only the privileged few had access to technologys benefits.

McKissenadded: Research has shown there is already a digital divide contributing to chronic poverty in low-income and rural communities. That digital divide will only grow when some of us can afford a brain enhanced with artificial intelligence. [] most of us are going to have to compete with computer-enhanced peers in an already unequal world.

McKissen isnt arguing that some people would be more deserving of access to advanced technology like a neural lace, but rather, he points out theneed to improve the current playing field whichone could argue extends beyond the question of who gets a neural lace.

As he said, In a world thats growing increasingly class conscious, the ability for a relatively small number of people to become more than human could be a disaster for everyoneespecially if that technology arrives in a time when income inequality is even worse than it is today.

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A Space Station That Orbits the Moon May Be on the Way – Futurism – Futurism

Posted: at 8:29 pm

In BriefAs the ISS winds down its mission and scientific work, the aninternational team considers a station in lunar orbit to replaceit. A lunar outpost would support the same scientific research andserve as a way station along the route to Mars. ISS is Passing the Baton

In the latest instance of our human obsession with the Moon, the International Spacecraft Working Group (ISWG), the agency architects of the International Space Station (ISS), recently met to discuss how to replace the station, which is set to be decommissioned in 2024. A plan to construct a space outpost in lunar orbit is evolving, and at this latest meeting the participants agreed to a tentative orbit trajectoryto be finalized by 2018.

The ISS was created as an international scientific laboratory for astronauts to conduct experiments in space. Despite our many technological advances, the environment of space is impossible to recreate on Earth, yet the drive to explore and even colonize space demands scientific experimentation in that environment.

The ISS has also been the center of private, commercial research in support of space colonization initiatives. The work conducted on ISS has greatly improved life back on Earth, supporting global water purification efforts, growing high-quality protein crystals for use in medical research, and providing new technologies for use in a wide range of industries.

A space station in lunar orbit poses significant challenges, but, compared with the ISS, holds more opportunity for testing technologies for deep space missions and greater scientific potential. Much ISS research centers on microgravity, studieswhich could be supported within a lunar outpost. The station would also allow for more study of the Moon itself thanks to its proximity to our natural satellite. A lunar orbit station could also serve as a stepping stoneon a journey to Mars.

Members of the ISWG agreed that the stationshould utilize plug and play parts so that new components can be adapted to existing infrastructure. They also want to make the development of common standards a priority.

At this time, designs for the new station incorperatethe Canadian robotic arm from the ISS, a Russian airlock, and propulsion and power systems from the U.S. Although Russia favors a lunar surface base, NASA is pushing for a higher orbit because of its convenience forMars access. Thus far, the plans cite a Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit, a widened oval path 1450 km (900 miles) from the Moon at its closest and 69,000 km (43,000 miles) at its furthest, taking a week to complete one rotation.

Additionalbenefits of a station in this orbit would include good communication with Earth, constant sunlight for solar panels, and reduced need for departing spacecrafts to use height boosts that consume large amounts of fuel. The primary drawback of the design is that trips to the Moons surface would be somewhat difficult based on the distance, which has left Russia carrying on with its investigation of a Moon base. Solutions might include compromising with a modular design, or changing the orbit periodically.

The timeline right now plans for construction throughout the 2020s. This would have the new station ready to serve missions to Mars and elsewhere in the 2030s. Interestingly, if this timeline holds true, by the time the station is in orbit, private companies may already be on the Moon or in orbit around it.Bigelow Aerospace hopes its inflatable space station will be in orbit around the Moon by 2020, and SpaceX may be there even sooner.

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What Does the Launch of a $300 Sneaker Mean for Under Armour … – nwitimes.com

Posted: at 8:28 pm

Under Armour(NYSE: UAA) (NYSE: UA) recently launched a limited-edition shoe that represents some important steps for its footwear strategy. The Architech Futurist sneaker features a 3D-printed heal section that's said to provide a better quality of support. It also retails at $300 -- making it the company's most expensive shoe ever.

The footwear and apparel retailer is making a bigger push into premium product offerings, and the Futurist shoe looks to be a testing ground for the company on multiple fronts. It's already been a hit from a marketing perspective and generated plenty of media coverage, and it might signal the emergence of a useful new manufacturing technology, however the broader push into high-end could be complicated by Under Armour's recent signings with discount retailers.

Image source: Under Armour.

Under Armour made its limited-edition Architech Futurist sneaker available on March 30, and the shoe's initial production run quickly sold out. Exactly how many pairs hit the market is unclear, but investors probably shouldn't count on the new sneaker to have a big impact on the company's sales this year.

The shoe is only available through Under Armour's website and a small number of the company's branded retail outlets for the time being, so sales volume will likely remain small. Rather than being a big revenue driver, the Futurist will probably be more meaningful as a branding tool that reinforces the notion of Under Armour as a premium, high-tech brand.

It could also serve as a testing ground for integrating 3D-printing into larger production runs.The Futurist is the second shoe in the Architech line and the second shoe from the company to feature a 3D-printed heel.Making the 3D-printed section of the shoe reportedly takes a full day, and the application of the technology for footwear and apparel is still in its infancy.

In a move that resembles Nike's (NYSE: NKE) strategy for some of its limited-edition sneaker releases, Under Armour is aiming to create a sense of excitement around its 3D-printed Architech shoes that extends to the rest of the brand. Scarcity drives interest among sneaker enthusiasts, and demand for premium and rare shoes can create a halo effect for other products in the brand line.

Under Armour styles itself as a clothing company with a heavy technology component, and CEO Kevin Plank believes in a "What does it do?" approach to making footwear and apparel. Innovation is a core part of the company's identity and brand appeal, and maintaining a high-tech, cutting-edge product line is important for its performance -- particularly as the company eyes becoming a major player in the unfolding wearable technology space and tries to command higher prices for premium products.

Under Armour Sportswear Draft Day Rowing Blazer, which retails through the company's website at $219; Image source: Under Armour.

In September 2016, the company launched Under Armour Sportswear (UAS) -- an offshoot brand that specializes in high-fashion clothing. Under the UAS brand, the company sells high-end shoes, blazers, pants, shirts, and even a $1,500 trench coat.

Happening concurrently with the push into premium, Under Armour has recently signed deals with discount retailers DSWand Kohls. While pushing into new distribution channels is seemingly a win for the Under Armour, it's possible that these moves could devalue the brand and work against the company's efforts to move upmarket.

Here's Kevin Plank on the importance that succeeding with high-end products has for the company, and how this plays with the company's presence in discount retailers:

We learned that our segmentation strategy could be sharper, that being premium at every price point and having the right product for the right consumer at the right time is the price of admission. And we learned that when we play in a discounted environment, we can drive volume, and win, but the role both we and our retailers expect us to play is as a premium, full-price brand.

Under Armour is under pressure after disappointing sales results have thrown some kinks in the company's growth story. Domestic sales growth lagged in the last quarter, and overall sales growth came in at 12% when previous guidance called for roughly 20% growth. With the company now guiding for sales growth between 11% and 12% for the current fiscal year, there are concerns that its brand appeal could be softening. If momentum is weakening, too much presence in discount retailers could worsen unfavorable trends.

Last year, Nike's LeBron 13 sneakers launched at $200, while Under Armour's Curry 2 shoes hit shelves at $130. With NBA stars LeBron James and Stephen Curry at similar levels of popularity, much of the pricing disparity between their respective sneakers likely comes down to the strength of the underlying brands.

While premium offerings like the Architech Futurist shoes and the Under Armour Sportswear line might become meaningful sales contributors, they could potentially have an even bigger impact by raising the perceived value of the Under Armour brand and allowing the company to command higher prices from its core product releases.

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Keith Noonan has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nike, Under Armour (A Shares), and Under Armour (C Shares). The Motley Fool recommends DSW. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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