Daily Archives: August 9, 2017

Lonely Planet has a new app for travel enthusiasts. Called Trips, the app uses an Instagram-like design populated with beautiful images of far away places.

Much like Lonely Planets website, the idea behind Trips is to offer travelers an easy way to share their experiences and discover new areas of the world this time on their smartphones.

However, Instagram already has a healthy amount of travel enthusiasts uploading photos of fantastic places for viewers to check out on a daily basis. National Geographic, a personal favorite, is one of the most popular on the platform, with a following of nearly 80 million. Lonely Planet, by comparison, has about 1.4 million followers on the platform.

Like Instagram, you can heart, share and follow profiles on Trips, as well. But Lonely Planets Daniel Houghton says the intention is not to compete with the social media giant, but to complement it.

Lonely Planet is an O.G. travel site and has its own loyal niche of travel enthusiasts. Perhaps an app focusing precisely on their passion will be well received.

Trips is Lonely Planets second app. The online destinations site launched its first app Guides last year, which provides tips and advice from on-the-ground experts. More than one million people have since downloaded Guides. Lonely Planet hopes Trips will be met with the same success.

So why not just roll Trips features into Guides and make one app? Houghton tells TechCrunchGuides is more of a tool, whereas Trips is geared for sharing content.

The app is pretty easy to use; just download, select profiles that suit your interest and scroll through the feed. From there you can pick from a number of the populated stories, many of which will come with maps, photos and some information on tours and things you might want to check out. I was personally checking out Rainbow Mountain in Peru posted about a day ago while scrolling through the app.

You also can hit the discover icon at the bottom of the app, to the right of the home icon, to search for categories like Adventure or Wildlife and Nature. From there it will lead you to a feed similar to the home feed but with certain trips in mind.

Its pretty easy to publish your own trips, as well. Like Instagram, you just hit the plus-sign icon at the bottom of the screen. The app will require access to your phone camera and then youll be able to add your photos. The app will automatically populate a map of the area and allow you to add content and more info about your trip from there.

The one thing I would say Trips lacks is a search tool. Its fine to scroll through the places the app provides in the feed, but its difficult to look up specific places you are thinking of visiting. If you are like me, youll want the ability to look up a place before planning your trip to see what others have to say about it and look at the photos they took.

For those interested in checking it out yourself, Tripsis now available for free oniOSand will be available on Android later this year.

Read this article:

Lonely Planet launches an Instagram-like Trips app - TechCrunch

Last updated13:36, August 9 2017

The pictures you post on social media could offer clues into the state of your mental health, according to new research.

Just short of 44,000Instagramimages were examined in a study of 166 people, who were also asked questions about their history of mental health.

Filters, if used at all, prevalence of coloursand how many comments and likes each post received were examined.

Those who had depression typically posted images with darker hues and had fewer faces in their posts. They were also less likely to use filters when editing and uploading photos.

LEV DOLGACHOV/123RF

What you're sharing - or not sharing - on Instagram can offer insight into your mental health state.

READ MORE: *How to useInstagramand Snapchat on a computer *Instagramis the worst social network for young people's mental health *How much cash could you make with yourInstagram?

"When depressed participants did employ filters, they most disproportionately favoured the 'Inkwell' filter, which converts colour photographs to black-and-white images," the authors wrote in the paper published in the journal EPJ Data Science.

Healthy participants favoured the Valencia filter, which lightens the photo.

Chris Danforth

Images with the Valencia filter are likely to be used by those with sound mental health.

For people with depression,theirworld-view is often darker, they added, which could explain the photo filters they tended to choose. Those with a more positive frame of mind posted more frequently.

The researchers were eventually able to create an algorithm that could determine whether or not an Instagramuser would have depression. It had a 70 per cent success rate.

The algorithm studied people with similar qualities, like the fact theywere active on social media and willing to submit information on their mental health, making it difficult to know if it could be applied to the average user.

Chris Danforth

Images with darker hues are more likely to be shared by those suffering depression.

Study author and University of VermontComputational Story Lab co-director Chris Danforth told The Huffington Post:"It shows some promise to the idea that you might be able to build a tool like this to get individuals help sooner".

"The end goal of this would be creating something that monitors a person's voice, how they're moving around and what their social network looks like all the stuff we already reveal to our phones," he said.

"Then that could give doctors a ping to check in or at least some insight. Because maybe there's something going on that even the individual doesn't recognise about their behaviour."

Where to get help:

Lifeline (open 24/7) 0800 543 354

Depression Helpline (open 24/7) 0800 111 757

Kidsline (open 24/7) 0800 543 754. This service is for children aged 5 to 18. Those who ring between 4pm and 9pm on weekdays will speak to a Kidsline buddy. These are specially trained teenage telephone counsellors.

-Stuff

Go here to see the original:

How Instagram posts reveal whether you have depression: study - Stuff.co.nz

Earlier this year marked the25th anniversary of the airing of The Inner Light, an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation that focused on the brain and the adaptability of the human mind. It may be time to add it to the expanding list offuturistic developments forecast by the iconic television series.

Indeed, our growing understanding of how memories are formed is pushing us toward a day when well be able to scrub disturbing memories from our minds, or even replace them with experiences and skills that would normally take years to learn.

The television episode deals with what happens after the USS Enterprise encounters an alien probe in deep space, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) finds himself on a planet with a humanoid civilizationknown to have gone extinct 1,000 years earlier. The starship commander spends some six decades in his new environment, gradually embracing his new life. He becomes a community leader, a father and grandfather, and a virtuoso on the native flute. Over time, he mourns the death of a close friend and then his wife. He also copes with the reality that the planets changing climate will deny his grandchildren a full life. None of this, however, is real.

After seeing a space probe launch the very probe that the Enterprise encountered in space Picard wakes up on the Enterprise bridge. What felt like 60 years in Picards mind actually transpired over the course of just 25 minutes, during which he appeared to be in coma. The probe was carrying a rather uniquemessage it consisted of the experience of being part of the dying civilization.

Neural interface technology had packed 60 years-worth of experiences into Picards brain, and not just images of people and events. Inside the probe was a Kataanian flute, and Picard was able to play it with the expertise that he had developed in his simulated life. Imagine getting an upload of a new talent or skill into your brain as easily as uploading a computer file.

Could we develop a similar capability? That may depend heavily upona handful of ambitious attempts at brain-computer interfacing. But science is moving in baby steps with other tactics in both laboratory animals and humans.

Thus far, there have beensome notable achievementsin rodent experiments, that havent doen so well withhumans. We dont have a beam that can go into your mind and give you 60 years worth of new experiences. Nevertheless, the emerging picture is that the physical basis of memory is understandable to the point that we should be able to intervene both in producing and eliminating specific memories.

At MITsCenter for Neural Circuit Genetics, for example, scientists have modified memories in mice using an optogenetic interface. This technology involves genetic modification of tissues, in this case within the brain, to express proteins that respond to light. Triggered by implants that deliver laser beams, brain cells can be triggered to be more or less active. In research that has been published in the prestigious journal Nature, the MIT team used the approach in specific brain circuits important to memory consolidation. The researchers wereable to enhance the development of negative memories for instance a shock given to an animals leg and also to covert those negative memories into positive memories. The latter was achieved by letting male mice enjoy some time with females, while nerve cells that usually deliver the negative impulses associated with the former shock were stimulated through the optogenetic interface.

In humans, work with memory modification has involved N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, which function like little doors for positive ions to move through the membranes that surround neurons. NMDA receptors are affected by glutamate, a neurotransmitter whose effect on the NMDA receptors is enhanced by an antiobiotic called D-cycloserine (DCS). When this happens in an area of the brain called the amygdala, memory consolidation (the stabilization of newly developing memories) is strengthened. Researchers have thus found that DCS can increase effectiveness of whats called exposure therapy, if given within a few hours before commencement of each therapy session. Used to treat anxiety disorders, exposure therapy involves the intentional exposure ofpatientsto the thing that provokes their anxiety. If you fear snakes, for example, the therapist will will show you a snake, from a distance at first. Eventually, you will be asked to hold the snake. The implication of the research is that DCS improves the learning that removes the anxiety in exposure therapy, which also should have implications for other therapies that work based on learning and formation of new memories and associations

Theoretically, [DCS should] facilitate learning processes, so if you can use it to facilitate extinction learning, thats got fantastic clinical implications, noted Mark Bouton, PhD, a University of Vermont professor of psychology was quoted in a review from the American Psychological Association.

But using drugs like DCS could be really tricky, requiring precise adherence to very specific timing and dosage that could vary significantly depending on the clinical setting and even between patients. A 2012study, for example, on patients with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) found that DCS actually made things worse.

The same is true when researchers try to exert the opposite effect on memory by way of the NMDA receptors, namely blunt memory consolidation. The agent under study in this case is xenon gas, an anesthetic used in humans. When given to laboratory animals within an hour after after a traumatic event, xenon blocks the memory consolidation that can lead to long-term trauma equivalent to PTSD in humans. Exercise and nutritional factors also play roles in blocking the processes that make psychological trauma worse.

So what we have here is an immature, but real, tool bag of agents that can help and inhibit formation of long-term memory. But it is very incomplete and must work in concert with outside factors includingpsychotherapy or the experiences of ones life. Still, given the rapid development of virtual reality technology its not hard to see thatsupplying theouter stimuli we may very well be toward a time when were able to manage the brains memories.

David Warmflash is an astrobiologist, physician and science writer. BIO. Follow him on Twitter @CosmicEvolution.

See original here:

Our brains as hard drives could we delete, modify or add memories and skills? - Genetic Literacy Project

YouTube star Joey Graceffa, with his upswept mane, arched eyebrows and just a glint of madness in his eyes was a natural choice to play the enigmatic host of YouTube Red original series Escape the Night, a mega-collab in which a famous cast member gets killed off each week.

Now in the middle of the season 2 run, Graceffa said he had even more fun the second time around with Escape the Night (for which he also served as executive producer) while continuing to pump out daily comedy vlogs for the 8 million-plus subscribers on his YouTube channel.

Graceffa, whose audience skews three-fourths female and is largely between the ages of 13 and 25, has evolved his YouTube material to keep with the zeitgeist while avoiding controversies that can stir up internet trolls and unwanted publicity. I kind of like to stay out of the drama, he says. I feel like if youre in the drama, yeah, it will get you attention now but that will fade.

And the multihypenate recently added another title: young-adult novelist. Elites of Eden, the second book in his dystopian trilogy, will be released Oct. 3, 2017. The first book in the series, Children of Eden, debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Best Sellers young-adult hardcover list in October 2016 and remained on the chart for 10 weeks.

Graceffa, 26, sat down with Varietyto talk about his life as a YouTuber, his dream of turning the Eden books into movies, how he manages social media, and his expanding line of merchandise (including nail polish). An edited transcript:

Where do you see yourself in your career right now? I think the cool thing about being a YouTuber is that fact that you arent limited to anything. I mean, you can put your own limits on yourself Im one of the people that doesnt. My channel is a variety of all sorts of things. Its constantly evolved, and I think thats how Ive stayed relevant on the platform for so long, because Im constantly changing what Im doing. Currently, right now, I think its so cool I get to do fun, crazy stuff on my channel daily, but I can also do big projects like Escape the Night with YouTube Red. I think thats where my true passion lies: being a creative, and creating big worlds and stories, and seeing them come to life.

How did you start the Children of Eden book series? Its something that I have had in my mind for a few years. It started as a short film idea. So I had it all in my head; it was just a matter of getting it down. Its just been really cool to start with a small scene, and slowly build up this world, and Ive just finished the second book [Elites of Eden]. Its crazy to think I have one of these out in the world after being an avid reader of the genre in my teenage years. YouTubes allowed me to create this universe that I hope will be able to be turned into a movie like Hunger Games and The Maze Runner and Divergent thats the goal with that, and where I kind of where I want to see myself go.

What happens in the third book?Well, I havent started that. [Laughs] Im still working on it! As Im creating this, its all as if its a movie. I see things very visually. When I sit down, I can just imagine a scene taking place and I trust my instinct.

Have you pitched the books to studios? Not really. Were kind of going the route of trying to attach a producer or a writer, someone I can take with me into these meetings. Its kind of in the beginning phases.

Would you star in it? Id have a role in it, just because I have a love for acting. But its mostly just the creating. I dont mind having other actors play the main characters, as long as I get to have a small little part.

What was your original career goal? Obviously this has been evolving over the years. Before this was even a possibility to be a career, I wanted to go the traditional route of maybe being an actor or being in film somehow. Slowly, I just started to realize that what Im doing is what I love. And why am I trying to go out and attain something that maybe was the mentality of a few years ago of what was the thing to want. After realizing that, I kind of homed in on my channel, and figuring out what I love to do without having to go out and wish for things. And just make them happen myself.

Right after you came out [in 2015], you talked about your concern beforehand about revealing your sexual orientation publicly you said, The internet is full of trolls and haters. Do you still think thats the case? Maybe theyre still there but I just dont see them. YouTube has some tools, you can block out certain comments. I never really see it on Twitter. Of course, when youre a little controversial online, thats when the strangers find you and thats when the hate comes. I think right now Im in a place where I just really have the people who have found me are looking at me, and Im not getting a lot of outside attention from strangers from me acting wild, or being a crazy YouTuber and causing controversy and being problematic. I kind of like to stay out of the drama. I feel like if youre in the drama, yeah, it will get you attention now but that will fade.

How is season 2 of Escape the Night different from the first one? Oh, my gosh. We learned so much from the first season, the second season we could make bigger and better. It was just a bigger production. We also have a great cast this seasontheres a lot more lighthearted moments, because we have such a comedic cast. We have Liza Koshy, the Gabbie Show, and Tyler Oakley who gave so many funny moments. We didnt take ourselves so seriously. Season one was more like murder-mystery vibe; this is more like a group escape.

Who are some YouTubers you would love to get for season 3 of Escape the Night? Well, I havent gotten the OK for season three. [Laughs] But there are a few people I really, really would love. I would love Jenna Marbles I dont know, I dont want to put it out there! Its tough, its a big ask for YouTubers to dedicate the time. Its five days filming straight with night shoots although, if you get killed off the show, you dont have to stay all five days.

How has it done for your brand?For me personally, its opened me up to a newer audience. Just because with all the marketing YouTube is throwing at it. The show is almost like a giant collaboration. With 10 YouTubers, theyre all bringing their audience to the show. Since it lives on my channel, they have to subscribe to get notified, so that was a benefit to me. The first couple days [after Escape the Night season 2 premiered in June], I think I got 100,000 subscribers within the first two days of when it launched.

YouTube is your main platform. How do you think of other platforms in terms of reaching audience?Its day to day, I post daily. Its almost like a routine. Throughout my day, Ill post on Instagram Stories, and Ill throw to my most recent video. I dont use SnapchatIll use the filters and put it on Instagram, but I dont really use the platform. Facebook Ill use just to promote videos. Twitter is really my main place to connect with my audience. They all have their own unique purpose.

Why arent you on Snapchat? Just too much. I mean, Snapchat and Instagram stories are pretty much the same thing. Since I already use Instagram to post pictures, I dont knowits all too much. [Laughs]

How do you manage having to be constantly online? Do you take breaks, like, After 9 p.m., Im not checking anything? The only time its turned off is when Im sleeping. Thats my break. When I was on The Amazing Race [in 2013], I was forced to be disconnected. I had someone else working my social-media accounts for like a month, uploading my videos. I definitely had some moments when I really just wanted to check in. But I dont feel like Im too consumed with my social media. Im pretty good at keeping my phone down.

Would you want to do a network show like Amazing Race again? Yeah, if it fit well and they were open to my world on YouTube, and making sure I can keep that going.

You were a big presence at this years VidCon. How has it changed over the years? What do you like about it, and what do not like about?VidCon, the obvious thing is, its just gotten bigger and bigger. For me personally, its become more of a work thing as opposed to, Im going to go to this event to hang out with my friends, which is what it was the first few years. Its become so work-heavy, doing press, doing panels. Its always amazing to meet your viewers, and I love that part, but its still a business thing. I love going, and this year especially with having my face all over the outside of VidCon, I felt like I was the King of VidCon. But yeah, its work.

For your YouTube channel, where do you draw your ideas? Its a lot of researching YouTube and seeing whats going on, what are the trends, seeing someone elses ideas will inspire an original idea of mine. Its taking ideas from everywhere.

To what extent do you try to create trends? There was one I brought back: men wearing nail polish. I was one of the first guys to bring that back, maybe a year and half ago. It developed into my own line of nail polish, which has been really fun I never thought that would happen.

Any other merchandise? Yeah, it started with [Crystal Wolf] jewelry. Then its slowly growing, Im adding new things I have sunglasses, T-shirts, and pins. I just love wolves, and I love crystals, so: Crystal Wolf.

But you dont want to just push merch on people. Its definitely a delicate balance of not being too in their face. But you know, when I get excited about it, I just want to keep talking about it. So sometimes I feel I can be annoying but its coming from a genuine place because its my own excitement and love for my products.

Graceffa is repped by UTA and managed by Addition LLC.

Original post:

Q&A With Joey Graceffa: YouTube Showman, Dystopian Novelist, Nail Polish Thought-Leader - Variety

The designers say the app has been developed toimprove information gathering after an accident and speed up any subsequent claim.

UK software company Lightstone Systems has launched a new app that sends the details of a drivers motor accident directly to their broker in real time.

Called Mercury Incident Reporter, the app delivers information such as damage to vehicles, injuries, persons involved, witnesses and police attendance coupled with notes, photographs and video recordings direct to thebroker.

The information is stored on a cloud-based dashboard platform calledAurora.

According to the makers, to help and provide guidance to motorists at the time of an incident the app includes an automatic vehicle registration number lookup tool, address lookup, incident location pinpointing, uploading of dash-cam video and roadside recovery telephone number.

Easy Road traffic incidents can be stressful, often involving emergency services, witnesses and third parties, said Andrew Ayres, development lead at Lightstone.

With this in mind, we designed the Mercury app to be very easy to use, allowing the driver to gather quality data in whatever order is most convenient at the time. Weve also automated input wherever possible, to minimise the time and effort needed to collect data.

According to the firm, the appimproves information gathering, speeds up any subsequent claim and provides a powerful compliance tool for fleet customers.

For all the latest industry news direct to your inbox,sign up for our daily newsletter.

Continued here:

InsurTech Futures: App designed to notify brokers of motor accidents - Insurance Age