Daily Archives: June 1, 2017

Pondering Creativity, Immortality and Borders with a 100 Year Old Ad Agency – HuffPost

Posted: June 1, 2017 at 10:38 pm

Grey Advertising Agency just celebrated its 100th year anniversary. To put that in context, Mad Men looks like a young un. To kickstart the next 100, the company asked every employee to have an EEG scan of their brains while wearing a 3D-printed bio-sensing, brainwave-monitoring headset. The scans were done while the employee was solving a work problem. A series of art works called Brain Portraits were created from the colorful scans, a reminder of a companys greatest asset the diversity of its employees and the different skills they bring to problem solving. A forward-thinking notion coming from a company that named itself after the grey walls (and suits) in their office.

To amplify the theme of diversity, Grey invited a series of thought leaders, all exploring the boundaries of creativity to address their employees. I was invited to sit in and listen to a Q&A with Martine Rothblatt. Rothblatt is the extreme embodiment of creativity, diversity and a borderless future.

Born Martin Rothblatt, Martine underwent gender reassignment surgery in the 90s to become Martine. Today, she is the CEO of United Therapeutics and the highest paid woman CEO in the US. Rothblatt created the company to help find a cure for her daughters health problem, pulmonary hypertension. In the process of finding a cure she managed to get a helicopter pilots license and learn a lot about using pig organs for transplants, because it had to be done. Before United Therapeutics, Rothblatt worked on two other pioneering companies, Sirius XM and GeoStar, both based on heavy-duty satellite expertise.

But its Rothblatts almost religious belief in immortality that gave the audience the most to chew on. For Rothblatt, its an ongoing story of the difference between borders and boundaries. Claiming that we are acculturated to going with the flow, Rothblatt believes that life imposes borders and we can push them. Boundaries, she says, like the end of the universe are a bit more finite.

Death is optional, she says. In a world obsessed with borders she postulates that when we begin to question borders as finite that innovation happens.

Rothblatt pushes the borders of what it means to be human and conscious. Consciousness, she argues, is a just a border, not a boundary.

Her proof point is an ongoing experiment with porting consciousness into inanimate objects. BINA48 is its embodiment. BINA is an anthropomorphic replica of Martines spouse, whose name, not coincidently, is Bina. (Since Bina was 48 years old when the project began, the robotic head designed by Hanson Robotics is named BINA48.) The disembodied head has thirty motors beneath BINAs lifelike face that let her run through the gamut of human emotions as she holds a conversation with you. Hundreds of hours of interviews with the real Bina have allowed BINA48 to capture her essence. Rothblatt believes that its through creations like BINA we can all achieve some degree of immortality. Transcendence, she says, is breaking the border between life and death. The boundary becomes a border or, as Rothblatt likes to say, prodigy integrates pedigree as we begin to upload consciousness into cyber-consciousness.

Hanson Robotics

In the near future, we will be able to visit with the consciousness of loved ones whove left their bodily form. And, on a less sci-fi note, there may be a payoff for companies to set a little time aside to think more colorfully.

Robin Raskin is founder of Living in Digital Times (LIDT), a team of technophiles who bring together top experts and the latest innovations that intersect lifestyle and technology. LIDT produces conferences and expos at CES and throughout the year focusing on how technology enhances every aspect of our lives through the eyes of todays digital consumer.

Start your workday the right way with the news that matters most.

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To Be a Machine, book review: Disrupting life itself – ZDNet

Posted: at 10:37 pm

To Be a Machine: Adventures among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death Mark O'Connell Granta 242 pages ISBN: 978-1-78378-196-6 12.99

"We built ingenious devices and we destroyed things." These words are easy to imagine carved on the tombstone of the human race. In To Be a Machine, where these words appear after an alarming session with people working on artificial intelligence, they're just one of the many possible futures that Dublin journalist Mark O'Connell visits. None seem to appeal to him much.

A friend once observed that anyone who had ever watched a baby could see how limited AI really is. Here, O'Connell's new baby son helpfully provides him with a grounding biological balance as he ponders the work of people who, in one way or another, all want to transcend biology.

Many of the ideas O'Connell explores, and some of the people he interviews, will be familiar to those who who've read prior efforts, beginning with Ed Regis's Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition. It's probably a mark of some kind of social change that Regis, writing 26 years ago, couldn't avoid -- or rather, embraced -- a certain, "Oh, my God, are these people nuts or what?" tone, while O'Connell, writing now, can be more soberly reflective. The Singularity, mind uploading, cryonics, whole-brain emulation, real-life 'cyborgs', and escaping the surly bonds of Earth to colonise distant planets and save the future of humanity may be no closer to reality than they were in 1991, but the ideas are more familiar: twenty-five years of Wired magazine and Silicon Valley hegemony have had their effect.

Today, when Nick Bostrom predicts (in his book Superintelligence) that an AI might turn all the Earth's resources to making paper clips he may still seem crazy -- but he's an Oxford University professor and director of the Future of Humanity Institute. Colonizing space to save the human race may be a fringe notion -- but it's also been embraced by the physicist Stephen Hawking.

To embrace biology, O'Connell is told during his study of cryonics, is to buy into "deathist ideology". I sympathize here: visiting the leading cryonics company, Alcor, and learning the details of cryopreservation can make death seem almost cuddly. Cryonicists themselves admit that revival is a very long shot -- but it's the only non-zero option.

The one overtly comic section of To Be a Machine, therefore, is the one that's most embodied: O'Connell watches as robots try to complete DARPA's 2015 challenge -- there's a collection of the best pratfalls at Popular Mechanics. The hardest things to automate are the things humans learn earliest: the 2015 state of the art, after millions of dollars and millions of hours of human engineering, couldn't climb stairs or open doors as well as a two-year-old. So in that area, at least, we can feel smug.

Given that the technology industry famously loves disruption, it should be no surprise that it attracts people who favour disrupting life itself. In the end, however, O'Connell favours blood and bone.

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China to collaborate with FG on alternative medicine – P.M. News

Posted: at 10:37 pm

Ogbonnaya Onu, Minister of Science and Technology

Mrs Jian Yu, the Executive Director, Green Centre Academy (GCA), on Thursday said the academy was ready to partner with the Federal Government to boost alternative medicine application in Nigeria.

GCA is a training arm of Green Centre for Alternative Medicine (GCAMP) affiliated with Tianjin and Bejing Universities in China, which entered into collaboration with Federal Ministry of Science and Technology to advance natural medicine in Nigeria.

Yu said this on Thursday in Abuja when she led a team of Chinese investors to pay a courtesy visit to the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu.

She said that the academy was ready to enhance the production of trained and qualified personnel in natural medicine production and practice.

She said this would revamp the natural medicine industry through offering retraining and upgrading courses periodically.

The training which is practically oriented covers basic medical sciences and core natural medicine disciplines.

It is to empower practitioners with abilities to cope with modern day health challenges through utilisation of natural medicine principles.

The academy has facilitated about 20 Nigerian natural medicine practitioners to short time study in Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China for training, she said.

READ: SON warns against substandard chemical products

Yu said that the training was also to bring Chinese traditional/ natural medicine practice to the world acceptable standard.

She said that GCA with Nigerian Natural Development Agency (NNMDA), an agency under the ministry, had organised trainings for practitioners across geopolitical zones of Nigeria in herbal medicine research and development.

She said there was an ongoingtwo years diploma programme in herbal medicine production and alternative medicine practice as a result of collaboration with NNMDA and KAASTU International University of Sir-Lanka

According to her, the benefit of the training to Nigeria is that each student will graduate with a researched and developed herbal formula prepared and ready for NAFDAC listing.

Responding, Onu commended the academy for the effort to improve the Nigerian herbal medicine practitioners.

The minister vowed that the government would give any assistance needed to ensure GCA achieved its aim in Nigeria.

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Swiss study highlights horse owners’ desire for complementary and alternative therapies – Horsetalk

Posted: at 10:37 pm

Horse owners in Switzerland commonly turn to practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine when horses have orthopaedic problems, the findings of a study suggest.

The study focused on 357 registered Swiss Warmblood horses aged five and older who had been involved in an unrelated study on airway disease, during which owners had indicated their horse may have had an orthopaedic problem.

A total of 239 owners and caretakers of the horses were surveyed by telephone by a veterinarian, who identified a total of 222 orthopaedic problems in 170 of the animals.

Sixty-two horses were identified with a back problem, 96 horses with a lameness issue involving one or more limbs, and 12 had a combined back problem and lameness issue.

Complementary and alternative medicine was used commonly in this population, the researchers found. They were employed for 164 of the 222 problems (in 73.9% of cases) for both diagnosis and treatment. This treatment was rarely administered by a veterinarian in only 27 of the 222 cases, or 12%.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine was even higher if a back problem was suspected by the owner, in 68 of the 74 problems identified (91.9%).

However, the owners declared that a veterinary diagnosis had been established in 75.7% of all cases (for 168 of 222 orthopaedic problems), some of which had involved x-rays or scans.

The majority of the owners initially consulted a veterinarian, Catharina Lange and her colleagues from the University of Bern reported in the journal Veterinary Medicine and Science. If the problem did not resolve, they chose to consult a practitioner.

A complementary and alternative medicine practitioner was the first choice for initial consultation in only one-third of the cases, they reported, noting that this tendency was more pronounced in horses withsuspected back problems.

Osteopathy was the most frequently applied complementary discipline, in 52.9% of cases, followed by homoeopathy (22.2%), acupuncture (14.7%), chiropractic (11.6%), physiotherapy (11.1%), massage (8.0%), magnetic field therapy (5.3%), animal communication (1.3%), kinesiology (0.9%) and a natural healer (2.2%).

The results of this survey reflected the large demand for complementary and alternative medicine by horse owners, the researchers said.

A trained veterinarian administered complementary and alternative medicine treatments in only a small number of cases.

This, they suggested, underlined the need for an educational system for people with non-veterinary professional backgrounds that assured adequate qualifications regarding equine anatomy and pathology, and experience in handling horses. This was in addition to a thorough education in the complementary therapy they were employing.

The study team said it also showed the need for joint efforts to improve cooperation between the use of conventional medicine and complementary and alternative medicine and to develop new multidisciplinary approaches to equine orthopaedic problems.

As veterinarians, we need to increase our understanding of the potential merits and limits of each complementary and alternative medicine discipline and be able to critically assess their effects.

A complementary and alternative medicine practitioner was found to be the first choice in 66 cases (29.6%), and even more so in suspected back problem (48 of 74, or 64.9%) compared to cases with a lameness problem (18 of 149, or 12.1%).

There are about 80,000 Swiss Warmblood horses registered in Switzerland.

Lange, C. D., Axiak Flammer, S., Gerber, V., Kindt, D. and Koch, C. (2017), Complementary and alternative medicine for the management of orthopaedic problems in Swiss Warmblood horses. Vet Med Sci. doi:10.1002/vms3.64

The study, published under a Creative Commons License, can be read here.

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Presented by IV Solution: Treat Your Chronic Pain, Anxiety & Depression with Alternative Medicine – Michigan Avenue Magazine

Posted: at 10:37 pm

Its no secret that wellness is very much in right nowand with good reason. There are so many people struggling with things like anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and diseases who are ditching traditional treatments for alternative medicine that is safe and will make them feel better. Chicagos new IV Solution Ketamine Center (712 N. Dearborn St., 844-948-6337) is one place where locals can get their dose of alternative treatments. Here, we talk with chief medical officer Dr. Bal Nandra M.D. about all the pros and cons involved with opting for alternative treatments such as ketamine therapies and his advice for those who are still on the fence.

What are the pros of going the alternative medicine route with ketamine treatments?BAL NANDRA M.D.: Ketamine is effective in treating conditions that traditionally have had no silver bullet. For example, treatment-resistant or refractory depression can be very challenging to treat and many of these patients have not only failed multiple medication regimens and psychotherapy, but they may have even failed electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT). But now, ketamine can be a shining light for these patients and give them a chance at a better life with a safe and very fast-acting medication. Ketamine may not be for everyone, but patients who are not finding the relief they desire should speak with their doctor about this treatment because it could be their silver bullet.

Are there any cons?BN: Like with any innovative treatment that is off-label, most insurance companies will not cover the treatments so patients have to pay out of pocket. Although currently some organizations are pushing for approval, these things take time. Additionally, with any new therapy, more clinical studies always need to be done. However, some of the studies behind ketamine and depression came out of the NIH.

Will ketamine treatments decrease or eliminate the need for medications or other treatments? If so, how long after?BN: Patients will vary in their need for their regular medications after ketamine. Many patients are able to get completely off their drugs; others can only reduce their doses. We always recommend that patients only discontinue or adjust their medications with the guidance of their treating physician.

Do you find that ketamine treatments work better at relieving some ailments more than others?BN: The studies done have largely focused on major depressive disorder where ketamine has been shown to be around 75% effective and this has been duplicated by multiple studies. There are very few medications available that are this effective in treating any illness of any kind. So ketamine has been a real game changer in depression and has been called by experts as the greatest advancement in mental health in over 50 years.

Whats your advice to someone whos still a little skeptical about trying ketamine treatments?BN: If you are skeptical about trying ketamine, you should first discuss this option with your treating physician. After that, we are available to do a free consultation to discuss the treatment in more depth and what you can expect. We always take a health screening before we see you so that our conversation can be focused on you specifically and how we can customize the protocol to best fit your needs. We can often also put you in touch with one of our former patients as a resource.

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The Supplement Industry Is Devastating The EnvironmentCan Algae Fix It? – Fast Company

Posted: at 10:37 pm

Over the course of the last decade, the U.S. developed an obsession with omega-3 fatty acids. As study after study coalesced around the idea that this nutrient, found commonly in seafood, could alleviate a host of woes from cardiovascular issues to mental decline, Americans began popping omega-3 supplements, mostly in the form of fish oil pills, by the bushel. It became a multibillion dollar industry.

But the scramble to get the (still debatable) benefits of omega-3s has lead to devastating overfishing of fish species like menhaden, which are crucial to the aquatic ecosystem, and has landed others, like whale sharks, on the endangered species list. With Americans enthusiasm for omega-3s showing no signs of cooling, finding an alternative to fish-derived nutrients became imperative. AndQualitas Health, a Texas-based nutrition company, has landed on a solution: algae.

Weve got to be way more creative with how we think about food and nutrition, and where that comes from. [Photo: Qualitas Health]Fish oil supplements are produced by treating and processing mass-caught fish in order to extract the oil that fills the softgels you can buy at the drugstore. But as author Paul Greenberg noted in theNew York Times in 2009, the fish that become fish oil are the bottom-of-the-food-chain dwellers menhaden. Nearly every fish a fish eater likes to eat eats menhaden, Greenberg wrote. Bluefin tuna, striped bass, redfish, and bluefish are just a few of the diners at the menhaden buffet. All of these fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids but are unable themselves to synthesize them. The omega-3s they have come from menhaden. As more of thesefish disappear into softgels,the nutritional supply of more consumer-friendly fish has become threatened.

Around 19 million (8% of the total population) adult Americans, lured by the health benefits, take omega-3 supplements in the form of fish oil. Its far and away the most commonly consumed supplement in the country, and its ascent has been rapid: 8 million more people reported taking omega-3s in 2012 than did in 2007.As the demand for supplements continues to grow, Qualitas CEOMiguel Calatayud tells Fast Company, his company is setting out to offer a plant-based alternative to the fish and krill supplements currently driving that growth and dominating the market.

Eight million more people reported taking omega-3s in 2012 than did in 2007. [Photo: Qualitas Health]Qualitas has been cultivating algae in a 45-acre facility in Imperial, Texas, since 2012. It recently announced anexpansion to a100-acre facility in Columbus, New Mexico, in partnership with the commercial crop production company Green Stream Farms, which will more than triple Qualitass output.

In the companys early days, Qualitas VP of operations Rebecca White tells Fast Company, it was mainly about selling the omega-3s from algae as a bulk ingredient, and doing business-to-business sales. But in March of 2016, Calatayud came on board as CEO and brought with him years of experience in the nutrition startup realm, and a vision to turn commercially grown algae into a viable and sustainable player in the health and wellness scene.

The whole point is to use as much of the biomass as possible. [Photo: Qualitas Health]People have the idea that omega-3s come from fish, but really, theyre getting the nutrients from algae, White says. Qualitas, through cutting directly to the source, is capitalizing on a train of thought thatcultivating this briny plant could help preserve both ocean ecosystems and human health. As Catharine Arnston, founder of the supplement company EnergyBits, told Fast Company just a few months ago: In 10years, [algae] is going to be in everything. Algaes nutritional profile is hard to argue with: The compact, sea-smelling plant is packed with protein (around 40%), vitamin A, vitamin B12, and iron, and, as Qualitas has already capitalized on, omega-3. Were really trying to promote a different perspective on algaenot as a science project, but as an agricultural venture, Calatayud says. This is a super-crop.

In March, Qualitas introduced its inaugural line of omega-3 supplements, called alGeepa, to the Texas retail chain H-E-B, and plans to scale the availability of its products to the rest of the U.S. following its production expansion. And thats not the only part of the supplement industry its targeting: The company is also working on an algae-derived protein product, and a fiber supplement developed from the cell wall. The whole point is to use as much of the biomass as possible, White says. While the seafood industry currently has the monopoly on theomega-3 supplement industry, Qualitas, through scaling up its operations, is aiming to prove that nutritional elements like protein and omega-3, which are associated mainly with seafood and livestock, can come from a source thats entirely sustainable and vegan.

Especially in the arid climates of Texas and New Mexico, where few crops grow and livestock is the dominant industry, Qualitass operations represent a radical reimagining of what the land can do. [Photo: Qualitas Health]Concurrent to the rise of fish oil supplements has been a shift in interesttoward eating more seafood, which is positioned as a healthier and more nutrient-packed source of protein than beef or chicken. But whether delivered in supplement or fillet form, the health benefits of seafood eventually run up against the fact that the industry is not sustainable enough to support the demand for its benefits.

While the industry comes to terms with the nutritional value of the plant, companies like Qualitas are determined to prove its viability as a large-scale cropand the expansion to the New Mexico facility is at the forefront of that shift. Weve got to be way more creative with how we think about food and nutrition, and where that comes from, White says. A variety of companies are looking to peas and soy as alternatives to the protein derived from the climate-change-driving livestock industry, but algae, White says, is a more sustainable and efficient option.

Especially in the arid climates of Texas and New Mexico, where few crops grow and livestock is the dominant industry, Qualitass operations represent a radical reimagining of what the land can do. A handful of companies like TerraVia and ADM are using a fermentation process to grow algae in steel tanks, and while those processes are helping to grow the industry and pique interest in algae-based products, whats unique about Qualitas, says Matt Carr, executive director of the Algae Biomass Organization, is its progress in growing algae photosyntheticallyusing just the sun and carbon dioxide, like just another land-based crop, but doing so in a climate and region otherwise hostile to agriculture.

Because algae thrives in ocean-like climates, the Qualitas facilities, while water-intensive, utilize mostly brackish water. [Photo: Qualitas Health]To grow algaea distinctly aquatic plantin the middle of the southwestern deserts, Qualitas dug trenches (which they call raceways, because of their resemblance to a track) into the land. While other land-based algae production facilities, like Qualitas New Mexico facility line their ponds with plastic, Qualitas Texas farm takes advantage of the regions clay-like soil, and packs it tightly to form the base of the ponds. One acre of algae production on Qualitass facilities, White says, results in around 6,000 pounds of the essential amino acids found in protein; one acre of pea cultivation, in contrast, produces around 20 pounds.

And because algae thrives in ocean-like climates, the Qualitas facilities, while water-intensive, utilize mostly brackishwater. White estimates that each acre of production requires around five gallons of fresh water, but thats mostly reserved for staff drinking water and lab use; all of the water in the ponds is, essentially, sea water. Qualitass 150 production acres equates to the nearly 45,000 acres of land required to cultivate the same value of peas.

Qualitass expansion will put the viability of its model to a much more rigorous test. If they can demonstrate that their system works and doesnt crash, and can sustainably produce commercial algae volumes, well likely see a pretty rapid uptake of algae as a broader substitute, Carr says.

Eillie Anzilotti is an assistant editor for Fast Company's Ideas section, covering sustainability, social good, and alternative economies. Previously, she wrote for CityLab.

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Louisa County ISU Extension holds centennial celebration – Muscatine Journal

Posted: at 10:36 pm

WAPELLO As visitors worked their way through a handful of displays highlighting the various contributions of ISU Extension and Outreach to life in Louisa County on Thursday afternoon, they came across an unusual station: an empty room, painted in cheery mint-green and adorned with a sign.

It said dream a little.

In the coming year, that room will become the site of a business incubator, supporting and nurturing a small business.

Celebrating 100 years of service in Louisa County, staff at the ISU Extension office in Louisa County held the event to showcase their accomplishments and highlight their vision for the next 100 years.

In small counties like Louisa County, where agriculture is a major sector of the economy... extension can provide a lot for peoples homes, families and farms, said Kathy Vance, Louisa County program director. Were a big part of life in Louisa County and have been for 100 years.

And on Thursdays event, visitors learned from extension staff and volunteers about the services that the office provide, from science-centric camps that teach children to code to Master Gardner classes.

John Lawrence, interim vice president for extension and outreach, said the relationship between Louisa County and Iowa State University is a way of helping the county tackle not only the problems, but seize the opportunities.

Some of these opportunities, Vance said, include an emphasis on sustainability. Two months ago, they installed solar panels at the extension office, showcasing green energy and educating the public about it.

Solar energy, she said, can be a cost-effective way to decrease both reliance on fossil fuels and the expenses associated with consuming fossil fuels.

"Extensions job is to build a strong Iowa part of it is sustainability, Vance said.

Another priority for the extension office, she said, is tackling water quality.

Water quality is a huge issue in Iowa for agriculture and for people and in Louisa County not just clean water, but floodwater, she said. And Extension has worked extensively with Louisa County residents and the community through two huge floods in the last 100 years and we hope to never have to do it again.

Other priorities remain the same as they have since the extension office began its work, including agricultural education to help farmers increase their yields.

We still have hungry people and they need the livestock thats produced in Iowa, the crops thats produced in Iowa, so were here to help with that, she said.

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Is It Wrong for Old People to Receive Blood Infusions From Teenagers? – Reason (blog)

Posted: at 10:36 pm

Parabiosis, a nascent and unproven medical procedure that involves transfusing the blood of young people into the bodies of older people, is in the news once again.

CNBC reports that for $8,000, a startup called Ambrosia will transfuse blood from donors under the age of 25 to buyers over the age of 35.

And once again, folks are reacting with astounding contempt. You can take a look at the outrage here. In a nutshell: This is exploitation. This is vampirism. This is a profound misuse of money. This is where capitalism takes us.

We don't yet know if parabiosis reverses or even slows aging. Reason's Ron Bailey has chronicled the practice since it first popped up on his life-extension radar, after studies found that connecting the circulatory system of a young mouse to that of an old mouse "stimulates the worn-out stem cells in old mice to start proliferating again to repair damaged tissues." (Researchers are also studying the effects of umbilical cord blood plasma as a substitute for the blood of 20-somethings.)

Like Ron, I think this is fascinating and exciting science, even if it turns out to be the 21st century analog to Charles-douard Brown-Squard's experiments with the macerated testicles of guinea pigs and dogs. An elderly Brown-Squard injected said concoction into his own body thinking it would make him stronger.

His methods were sloppy and wrong, but his underlying assumption--that certain glands within the body secreted critical chemicals--were correct. Reviled across Europe and the U.S. in the late 1800s, his experiments nevertheless helped pave the way for treatments for hypothyroidism, Type I diabetes, and Addison's disease.

More than a century later, you'd think we'd be a little more tolerant of the circuitous routes that researchers take from hunch to value creation. Have you seen the Wright Brothers' first crack at a plane? It sucked. And yet, people are freaking out about parabiosis for reasons that don't stand up to scrutiny.

The blood Ambrosia uses comes from blood banks, which have always sold blood to cover their operating expenses. That means Ambrosia, and its customers, are helping offset the costs of collecting the blood that goes to people who will die without it.

The donors who provide the blood certainly aren't any worse off: According to the Red Cross, "plasma from your donation is replaced within about 24 hours. Red cells need about four to six weeks for complete replacement." I see nothing in the organization's FAQ that suggests a worse outcome for the donor if the recipient is a tech bro rather than a gunshot victim.

Might this be bad for the people buying the blood? Perhaps. Though if it's a problem for healthy people to receive vetted blood transfusions, I can't imagine it's any better for people whose immune systems have been compromised by the trauma of an accident or surgery. It is certainly not the most dangerous thing for which one can pay $8,000. (My entry would be this year's Yamaha SCR 950. Mama mia!)

Is it a scam to pay $8,000 for something that may have absolutely no effect on quality or length of life? I suspect if you have $8,000 to spend on this (it's not covered by insurance, obviously), you are also capable of conducting a cost-benefit analysis of an unproven, exploratory treatment. I don't care for Thiel, but I'm also not worried about him going broke buying blood.

Is it bad that rich people in Silicon Valley are spending money on this, when so many people with much less money are suffering from ailments more real and troubling than the prospect of not living to 120? That, I think, is what really drives people to say awful things about it.

Last year, Inc. magazine reported that "if there's one thing that excites Peter Thiel"--Silicon Valley's most prominent supervillain--"it's the prospect of having younger people's blood transfused into his own veins." A lot of people loathe Thiel, for some very good reasons. A few weeks back on HBO's Silicon Valley, that show's most prominent villain, insanely wealthy Hooli founder Gavin Belson, was seen receiving a transfusion from a beautiful young lad, whom the show's nominal hero refers to as a "blood boy." Belson, played by Matt Ross, once threw a sloth down a flight of stairs. He is the epitome of unlikeable.

And so parabiosis has become a stand-in for the things villainous rich people can buy that the rest of us can't. It's right up there with bigger houses, hired help, immunity from prosecution, gaudy weddings, and entire elections (you'd think we'd be happier when they can't buy those).

If parabiosis is bunko, then the people who'd prefer to control how rich people spend their money should rejoice. Rich people are going to do with their money what they want (because they always have); and in this scenario, they're wasting it.

But if rich people paying for parabiosis leads to some valuable insights about improving quality of life in old age, then please consider ordering the humble pie for dessert. Age-related disorders are pressing right now, and will become more so as we journey into a future in which humans live longer, but not necessarily better, lives.

There are nearly a billion humans over the age of 60 on the planet today. There will be more than two billion of them by 2050. I hope to still be around then. I'm sure many critics of parabiosis hope to as well. If the tech bros of Silicon Valley want to offer up their bodies and their money in hopes of making that possible, why would any of us discourage them?

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How the Conservatives made it back: 12 years that changed Britain – Financial Times

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How the Conservatives made it back: 12 years that changed Britain
Financial Times
The Tories then were a resistance movement against the zeitgeist. They bashed adulterers, gay people, working and/or single mothers ie most of the electorate. An extremely detailed post-election report called Smell the Coffee, funded by former ...

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SARSOUR AND THE PROGRESSIVE ZEITGEIST – FrontPage Magazine

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SARSOUR AND THE PROGRESSIVE ZEITGEIST
FrontPage Magazine
For instance, as Ian Tuttle reported in National Review, in 2014 Sarsour (who was then leading efforts to fuse the Black Lives Matter movement with anti-Zionism) published an article on CNN.com titled, My hijab is my hoodie. There Sarsour conflated ...

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