Category Archives: Cloning

Caryl Churchills two-hander zips along in an hour, so most evenings theres a talk scheduled beforehand. Presented with the Edinburgh international science festival, each of these conversations picks up on the playwrights theme about the meaning of identity in a hi-tech world. On the night I was there, it was social psychologist Aleks Krotoski and musician-cum-thinker Pat Kane considering the many faces we present to the real and online worlds.

Can we define ourselves as the sum total of our Facebook profiles, Twitter feeds and Instagram selfies? Is any one version of ourselves more true than the others? Or is it that, with or without technology, our sense of self has always been fluid, circumstantial and provisional?

If you leave that talk feeling uncertain of who you are, youll be set even further adrift by the teasing speculations of A Number. Directed with a crisp combination of stillness and urgency by Zinnie Harris, Churchills 2002 play begins with a simple premise: the idea that cloning could produce any amount indeed, a number of genetically identical human beings. That being the case, she asks in a sequence of fraught, unresolved encounters between genetic father and multiple sons, what would it do to the childs sense of self?

How would the cloned Bernard react if he met one of his identical brothers? Could they really be said to be the same person? How can you make sense of the world when youre not even sure youre the genuine article yourself? What role do environmental factors play in a childs developing individuality? Why do we think being unique is such a big deal anyway?

These are more than just abstract questions. Thanks to Churchills formal playfulness, we must scramble to catch up with which version of Bernard were watching at any one time. In this way, the characters uncertainty becomes our own. On the one hand there are the ethical questions about Dolly-the-sheep-style cloning; on the other are the existential questions about who we think we are.

Its dizzying stuff, not least because Fred Mellers telescopic set, with variants of the same DNA-string wallpaper appearing on successive walls, suggests we may be viewing just one austere living room among many. You can imagine cloned variations of Churchills play stretching into the distance.

Adding to the unease is the absence of women. The scenario is purposely all male. We are told about a mother, but she is long out of the picture and the cloning has taken place after her death. That leaves Peter Forbes as a father full of typically male regrets about heavy drinking and absenteeism, and Brian Ferguson as the sons who are variously angry, violent and placid.

They inhabit a masculine world, brooding, confrontational and aggressive. Giving tight, on-edge performances, Forbes and Ferguson circle and pace like caged beasts as if forever searching for the archetypal feminine balance denied them by a morally provocative technology.

At the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, until 15 April. Box office: 0131-248 4848.

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A Number review dizzying double-take on the question of cloning - The Guardian

Lucknow: Probe in the mass cloning cyber fraud has thrown up names of four bank branches in the city. For the past 10 days, Hazratganj-based cyber cell has been flooded with complaints about fraudulent transactions through debit card even though the ATM card remained in possession of the victims throughout. It was found that the money was withdrawn in Vadodara, Gujarat, in all the cases and a majority of transactions were valued Rs 40,000. The fraud occurred between April 1 and 5. As at least 60 complaints have been received, police coordinated with the bank. "The customers who have been targeted had savings account in one of the four branches which are located at Ashok Marg, Jawahar Bhawan, Secretariat or Aminabad," said in-charge of the cell, VVS Sirohi. The chief manager of the said bank, Ashish Mishra, is expected to furnish details of all such cases in the next few days. Though cloning is becoming commonplace with the use of skimmers at commercial establishments, securing PINs is not possible without placing snooping devices inside ATM booths. "The only ways to go about this kind of a fraud is either by installing some electronic devices at ATM booths or by hacking into the database of the bank," said additional superintendent Triveni Singh who heads the cyber wing of the special task force.

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Probe shows cloning victims had a/c in four branches | Lucknow ... - Times of India

Similar to Instagram Stories, Facebook has also rolled out its Facebook Stories on mobile allowing users to share multiple photos and videos as part of a visual collection above the News Feed.

In addition to the story feature, Facebook also announced a new camera with advanced features in the app would begin rolling out this week for users on both Android and iOS devices.

Once you get access to stories, you'll find a camera icon in the top left corner of the Facebook app.

This modification indicates for the fourth time that Facebook has copied basic Snapchat features like photo and video montages that disappear in 24 hours. The camera has brand new effects and two additional ways to share your creative photos and videos.

The mode also works with Direct messaging that allows you to share things with specific people for a limited time. Once those photos or videos are viewed once, a person can reply or react before they disappear. You can also swipe right from News Feed to try out the new in-app camera.

In a series of updates, Facebook has introduced three new features to its app.

After introducing stories on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, Facebook has finally released the feature for everyone on Facebook.

Facebook is back at it releasing borrowed features from other social media platforms.

Facebook will keep updating filters and masks for users.

Facebook has also been reported to add in camera effects that will feature various movie teasers such as "Despicable Me 3", Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", "Alien: "Covenant", "Wonder Woman" and "Smurfs: "The Lost Village" to name a few.

Beyond that, Facebook has partnered with a number of major films to bring new masks to its camera.

"The way people create content is changing to be from text to photos and videos", product manager for Facebook stories Connor Hayes said. Of course, none of this is that new, as we've seen plenty of these features on Snapchat first, then Instagram.

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Facebook is cloning Snapchat AGAIN! - Alive For Football

Patch.com

Woodbury Police Need Your Help In Credit Card Cloning Case Patch.com Woodbury police are trying to solve a credit card cloning case, and need the public's help. Can you identify this individual? By William Bornhoft (Patch Staff) - April 4, 2017 3:20 pm ET. Woodbury Police Need Your Help In Credit Card Cloning Case. Police seek help identifying woman suspected in credit card cloning caseWoodbury Bulletin all 2 news articles »

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Woodbury Police Need Your Help In Credit Card Cloning Case - Patch.com

By the time theyre 50, 85 percent of American men will have significant hair loss, according to the American Hair Loss Association.

Now, an international team of hair restoration doctors is turning to cutting-edge science to grow more hair through cloning.

Ric Ortega has dealt with hair loss for a while. For him, it's a health concern.

Im outside a lot because I work in the construction industry, and I worry about skin cancer on the top of my head, explained Ortega.

Ortega is considering a hair cloning clinical trial with Kenneth Williams, Jr. D.O, a hair restoration surgeon with Orange County Hair Restoration in Irvine, California.

Williams is working with Hair Clone, a British company that believes it will perfect the science of cloning hair.

The typical candidate would be someone who has had multiple surgeries and cant have any more hair transplantations, but they do have lots of areas of balding, Williams said.

Doctors would harvest 50 hair follicles and send them to a cryopreservation tank in England. Surgeons there would remove the hair shaft from the bulb, which holds cells that control growth. Then, the cells are multiplied in a special cell culture.

Then, when the patient is ready, they have the actual transplantation," Williams explained. "They would let us know and wed go through the process of replication, and shortly, those 50 cells will now turn into 1,500 cells.

The trial would cost Ortega between $4,000 and $10,000, plus airfare to England, where hed get his cloned hair. England is the only western country that allows this type of treatment.

Williams said hair cloning is the next biggest frontier in hair science.

Hair Clone hopes to start a small trial in England later this year.

The good news is, companies around the world are racing to start hair cloning trials as soon as they can.

Published 2 hours ago

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Hair Cloning is Happening - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Lucknow: Analysing profiles of those duped by a Gujarat-based gang involved in cloning of debit and credit cards, police found majority of them were government employees. 12 FIRs have been lodged since April 1 and over 50 complaints have been received. In what seems to be the job of an organised gang of cyber criminals with countrywide reach, debit cards of Lucknow residents were cloned and money withdrawn in Vadodara on April 1, 2 and 3 though the cards remained in possession of their original owners throughout. Policemen at Hazratganj-based cyber cell found out that on April 1, bank accounts of 11 government employees were hacked to bungle close to Rs 3 lakh on a single day. Eight of these are working at government offices located in Indira Bhawan or Jawahar Bhawan in Hazratganj while remaining three worked at other government offices in Hazratganj. "Their complaints have been clubbed and FIR had been lodged at Hazratganj police station as that will make it easier to claim money for these victims. Others have also been directed to register FIRs at the nearest police stations," said VVS Sirohi, in-charge of cyber cell.

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Most victims of card cloning govt employees - Times of India

In molecular biology, subcloning is a technique used to move a particular DNA sequence from a parent vector to a destination vector.

Subcloning is not to be confused with molecular cloning, a related technique.

Restriction enzymes are used to excise the gene of interest (the insert) from the parent. The insert is purified in order to isolate it from other DNA molecules. A common purification method is gel isolation. The number of copies of the gene is then amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Simultaneously, the same restriction enzymes are used to digest (cut) the destination. The idea behind using the same restriction enzymes is to create complementary sticky ends, which will facilitate ligation later on. A phosphatase, commonly calf-intestinal alkaline phosphatase (CAIP), is also added to prevent self-ligation of the destination vector. The digested destination vector is isolated/purified.

The insert and the destination vector are then mixed together with DNA ligase. A typical molar ratio of insert genes to destination vectors is 3:1;[1] by increasing the insert concentration, self-ligation is further decreased. After letting the reaction mixture sit for a set amount of time at a specific temperature (dependent upon the size of the strands being ligated; for more information see DNA ligase), the insert should become successfully incorporated into the destination plasmid.

The plasmid is often transformed into a bacterium like E. coli. Ideally when the bacterium divides the plasmid should also be replicated. In the best case scenario, each bacterial cell should have several copies of the plasmid. After a good number of bacterial colonies have grown, they can be miniprepped to harvest the plasmid DNA.

In order to ensure growth of only transformed bacteria (which carry the desired plasmids to be harvested), a marker gene is used in the destination vector for selection. Typical marker genes are for antibiotic resistance or nutrient biosynthesis. So, for example, the "marker gene" could be for resistance to the antibiotic ampicillin. If the bacteria that were supposed to pick up the desired plasmid had picked up the desired gene then they would also contain the "marker gene". Now the bacteria that picked up the plasmid would be able to grow in ampicillin whereas the bacteria that did not pick up the desired plasmid would still be vulnerable to destruction by the ampicillin. Therefore, successfully transformed bacteria would be "selected."

In this example, a gene from mammalian gene library will be subcloned into a bacterial plasmid (destination platform). The bacterial plasmid is a piece of circular DNA which contains regulatory elements allowing for the bacteria to produce a gene product (gene expression) if it is placed in the correct place in the plasmid. The production site is flanked by two restriction enzyme cutting sites "A" and "B" with incompatible sticky ends.

The mammalian DNA does not come with these restriction sites, so they are built in by overlap extension PCR. The primers are designed to put the restriction sites carefully, so that the coding of the protein is in-frame, and a minimum of extra amino acids is implanted on either side of the protein.

Both the PCR product containing the mammalian gene with the new restriction sites and the destination plasmid are subjected to restriction digestion, and the digest products are purified by gel electrophoresis.

The digest products, now containing compatible sticky ends with each other (but incompatible sticky ends with themselves) are subjected to ligation, creating a new plasmid which contains the background elements of the original plasmid with a different insert.

The plasmid is transformed into bacteria and the identity of the insert is confirmed by DNA sequencing.

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Subcloning - Wikipedia

LUCKNOW: In an unusual development, March 31, the closing of banking operations, coincided with large scale cyber frauds in the city. More than 50 cases of cloning have been reported with 36 complaints being brought to the notice of Hazratganj-based cyber cell on April 1, 2 and 3. In what seems to be the work of an organised cyber gang with countrywide reach, a common plot has been detected in such frauds. Cyber cell incharge VVS Sirohi said at least Rs 10 lakh has been swindled from bank accounts in three days. "We feel that some hackers managed to get their hands on confidential customer information of a particular bank branch in Hazratganj. A report will be forwarded to the data center of the bank in Mumbai for further clarity," said Sirohi. While debit cards of the customers remained in their possession, they got text messages about withdrawals. Miscreants used the card twice to take out Rs 40,000, in most of the cases. Sub-inspector Sudheer Kumar Gautam was also targeted by the gang on April 1. "I started following up on the case and found that many more people have been duped. Two other constables had Rs 40,000 withdrawn from their accounts," said Gautam. On Tuesday, a police team inspected the ATM booth outside the Ashok Marg branch of the bank, the place where 60% of the victims hold savings account. Fraudulent transactions have been undertaken in Vadodara in all the cases. Sirohi said earlier too a gang which skimmed debit card data had been busted in city. "We are finding out if the same miscreants have come out on bail," said Sirohi.

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Series of cloning cases reported in city | Lucknow News - Times of ... - Times of India

So, you've just installed VS 2017. Now you want to "copy" that setup and share what you installed with your coworkers, say you're trying to create a standard work or class setup...

How do you capture what you installed? You're sure there's some kind of command line switch or something, some way to export your currently installed VS 2017 setup/package/workload?

Nope.

There is a cool new VS 2017 Setup API, Setup Configuration, though, with code samples and everything. Maybe that can be used?

Yep!

Today's quick and dirty project from Tim Sneath uses the Setup Configuration API to capture and export your currently installed packages, generating the command line parameters that you can use to install a like looking VS setup on another PC.

timsneath/vs-clone

Clones a Visual Studio 2017 installation so it can be reproduced on another machine. Run this on a machine that already has Visual Studio 2017 installed, and it will interrogate the instance of Visual Studio to identify what workloads and components were selected, and attempt to create a command line that recreates the same installation.

Syntax:

...

... [Click through for the repo]

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Cloning Your VS 2017 Packages - Microsoft - Channel 9 (blog)

CHATHAM, Va. (WSET) -- Virginia State Police are warning Virginians of a recent phone scam going around.

State Police say within the past 24 hours, they have received calls from two Virginians and one New Yorker about IRS-impersonation telephone calls linked to a Virginia State Police Area 43 Office in Chatham.

They say the scammers have cloned the state police offices main number - (434) 432-7287 - as a tactic to help convince a caller that they are legitimate. VSP spokeswoman, Corrine Geller says this is a common ploy utilized by scammers as the annual IRS filing season comes to a close.

State Police want to remind you that the Internal Revenue Service will never:

Call to demand immediate payment using a specific payment method such as a prepaid debit card, gift card or wire transfer. Generally, the IRS will first mail you a bill if you owe any taxes. Threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying. Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

According to the IRS Website, the aggressive and sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, has been making the rounds throughout the country. Callers claim to be employees of the IRS, using fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. They may know a lot about their targets, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling.

Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer. Victims may be threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or drivers license. Or, victims may be told they have a refund due to try to trick them into sharing private information. If the phone isn't answered, the scammers often leave an urgent callback request.

In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting.

Some con artists have used video relay services (VRS) to try to scam deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Taxpayers are urged not trust calls just because they are made through VRS, as interpreters dont screen calls for validity.

For more details see the IRS YouTube video: Tax Scams via Video Relay Service.

If a taxpayer receives an unsolicited email that appears to be from either the IRS or an organization closely linked to the IRS, such as the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), report it by sending it to phishing@irs.gov. Learn more by going to the Report Phishing and Online Scams page.

Originally posted here:

State Police warn of IRS phone cloning scam - WSET