Category Archives: Singularity

On this lunch-break edition of the Cult of Colt podcast, Bryan and Gumbi are revving the engines on the podcast machine as we gear up for our second season on the 1s and 2s here at Hogs Haven. Our mission is simple as the NFL gets set to kick off this week get on the record with our predictions for the 2021-22 NFL season.

While Bryan already did this with the other writers, Gumbi takes the opportunity to get in on the action despite not having a cheat sheet to work off of, there was a lot of overlapping consensus on our divisional winners (though the two of us have spent MANY years talking Washington Football Team football together, so theres bound to be an eventual singularity at some point...)

After a brief sojourn to discuss Gumbis impressions on the Tanya Snyder interview and potential name options still in the mix, we dust off everyones favorite segment (they are all favorites, right?) Hail Yeah!/ Hail Naw! to guess the over/unders on some WFT-specific predictions for this season before diving back into the rest of the workday. Let us know your thoughts by taking the polls below and sound off in the comments to support your POV.

If you havent already, be sure to subscribe to the Hogs Haven Podcast network on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and Spotify. (Also, we made a podcast Twitter! Follow us at @TheCultOfColt.)

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The Cult Of Colt: Going On The Record - Hogs Haven

Global warming is a big challenge for warm-blooded animals, which must maintain a constant internal body temperature. As anyone whos experienced heatstroke can tell you, our bodies become severely stressed when we overheat.

Animals are dealing with global warming in various ways. Some move to cooler areas, such as closer to the poles or to higher ground. Some change the timing of key life events such as breeding and migration, so they take place at cooler times. And others evolve to change their body size to cool down more quickly.

Our new research examined another way animal species cope with climate change: by changing the size of their ears, tails, beaks, and other appendages. We reviewed the published literature and found examples of animals increasing appendage size in parallel with climate change and associated temperature increases.

In doing so, we identified multiple examples of animals that are most likely shape-shifters. The pattern is widespread, and suggests climate warming may result in fundamental changes to animal form.

Its well known that animals use their appendages to regulate their internal temperature. African elephants, for example, pump warm blood to their large ears, which they then flap to disperse heat. The beaks of birds perform a similar functionblood flow can be diverted to the bill when the bird is hot.

This means there are advantages to bigger appendages in warmer environments. In fact, as far back as the 1870s, American zoologist Joel Allen noted in colder climates, warm-blooded animals (also known as endotherms) tended to have smaller appendages, while those in warmer climates tend to have larger ones.

This pattern became known as Allens rule, which has since been supported by studies of birds and mammals.

Biological patterns such as Allens rule can also help make predictions about how animals will evolve as the climate warms. Our research set out to find examples of animal shape-shifting over the past century, consistent with climatic warming and Allens rule.

We found most documented examples of shape-shifting involve birdsspecifically, increases in beak size.

This includes several species of Australian parrots. Studies show the beak size of gang-gang cockatoos and red-rumped parrots has increased by between four percent and ten percent since 1871.

Mammal appendages are also increasing in size. For example, in the masked shrew, tail and leg length have increased significantly since 1950. And in the great roundleaf bat, wing size increased by 1.64 percent over the same period.

The variety of examples indicates shape-shifting is happening in different types of appendages and in a variety of animals, in many parts of the world. But more studies are needed to determine which kinds of animals are most affected.

Of course, animal appendages have uses far beyond regulating body temperature. This means scientists have sometimes focused on other reasons that might explain changes in animal body shape.

For example, studies have shown the average beak size of the Galapagos medium ground finch has changed over time in response to seed size, which is in turn influenced by rainfall. Our research examined previously collected data to determine if temperature also influenced changes in beak size of these finches.

These data do demonstrate rainfall (and, by extension, seed size) determines beak size. After drier summers, survival of small-beaked birds was reduced.

But we found clear evidence that birds with smaller beaks are also less likely to survive hotter summers. This effect on survival was stronger than that observed with rainfall. This tells us the role of temperature may be as important as other uses of appendages, such as feeding, in driving changes in appendage size.

Our research also suggests we can make some predictions about which species are most likely to change appendage size in response to increasing temperaturesnamely, those that adhere to Allens rule.

These include (with some caveats) starlings, song sparrows, and a host of seabirds and small mammals, such as South American gracile opossums.

Our research contributes to scientific understanding of how wildlife will respond to climate change. Apart from improving our capacity to predict the impacts of climate change, this will enable us to identify which species are most vulnerable and require conservation priority.

Last months report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed we have very little time to avert catastrophic global warming.

While our research shows some animals are adapting to climate change, many will not. For example, some birds may have to maintain a particular diet which means they cannot change their beak shape. Other animals may simply not be able to evolve in time.

So while predicting how wildlife will respond to climate change is important, the best way to protect species into the future is to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent as much global warming as possible.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image Credit: Free-Photos from Pixabay

The rest is here:

New Research Reveals Animals Are Changing Their Body Shapes to Cope With Climate Change - Singularity Hub

Between the grim outlook reported by the IPCCs Sixth Assessment Report last month and frequent reports of extreme weather events all over the world, the climate crisis feels like its getting more dire by the week. Accordingly, calls for action are intensifying, and companies and governments are scrambling for solutions. Renewables are ramping up, innovative energy storage technologies are being brought to the table, and pledges to go carbon-neutral are piling up as fast as, well, carbon.

South Koreas Hyundai Motor Group has joined the fray, but on a path that diverges a bit from the crowd; theyre going all-in on hydrogen. At the companys aptly named Hydrogen Wave Forum this week, it unveiled multiple hydrogen-powered concept vehicles, as well as a strategy for building up its presence in the hydrogen space over the next few years (and decades).

The company unveiled a ground shipping concept its calling the Trailer Drone, which sits on a fuel-cell-powered chassis called the e-Bogie. The e-Bogies, named after the frames train cars sit on, have four-wheel independent steering that lets them move in ways normal cars and trucks cant, like sideways (in crab fashion) or in circles. The modular e-Bogies can be combined to carry different-sized trailers, and can go an estimated 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) on a single fill-up. The system would be autonomous, and the concept doesnt include a cab or seat for a human driver.

Hyundai also unveiled a hydrogen-powered concept sports car called the Vision FK. The car is a plug-in hybrid, meaning the fuel cell charges a traditional battery. The 500-kilowatt fuel cell gives the car the ability to go from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in under 4 seconds. The carmaker didnt give a timeline for when (or whether) the Vision FK would enter production, though.

Finally, Hyundai said its working on hydrogen-powered versions of its existing commercial vehicles, and plans to bring those to market by 2028.

Hyundai is by no means new to the hydrogen game; the company already has fuel-cell-powered trucks and buses on the roads, including its Xcient truck, which is in use in Switzerland, and its Elec City Fuel Cell bus, which is on roads in South Korea and being trialed in Germany.

One of the technologys biggest detractors is none other than Elon Musk, who finds hydrogen fuel cells extremely silly. But Toyota would disagree with Musks take; the company is building a hydrogen-powered prototype city near the base of Mount Fuji called Woven City.

For its part, Hyundai is aiming to get its fuel cell powertrain to a point where it can compete cost-wise with electric vehicle batteries by 2030.

A study released earlier this year by McKinseys hydrogen council found that when you factor in the relative efficiencies of the power sources and lifetime costs of a truck, green hydrogen could reach cost parity with diesel by 2030. A paper published in Joule last month laid out a road map for building a green hydrogen economy.

Despite these promising outlooks, its still highly uncertain whether hydrogen will become a widespread, cost-effective energy source. But it seems were getting to a point where its worth looking into any option that could make the future of the planet look brighter than it does right now.

Image Credit: Hyundai

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Hyundai Goes All-In on Hydrogen With Its 'Trailer Drone' and More - Singularity Hub

A little over four years ago, the worlds first commercial plant for sucking carbon dioxide out of the air opened near Zurich, Switzerland. The plant was powered by a waste heat recovery facility, with giant fans pushing air through a filtration system that trapped the carbon. The carbon was then separated and sold to buyers, such as a greenhouse that used it to help grow vegetables. The plant ran as a three-year demonstration project, capturing an estimated 900 tons of CO2 (the equivalent to the annual emissions of 200 cars) per year.

This week, a plant about four times as large as the Zurich facility started operating in Iceland, joining 15 other direct air capture (DAC) plants that currently operate worldwide. According to the IEA, these plants collectively capture more than 9,000 tons of CO2 per year.

Christened Orca after the Icelandic word for energy, the new plant was built by Swiss company Climeworks in partnership with Icelandic carbon storage firm Carbfix. Orca is the largest of existing facilities of its type, able to capture 4,000 tons of carbon per year. Thats equal to the emissions of 790 cars.

The plant consists of eight collector containers each about the size and shape of a standard shipping container. Their fans run on energy from a nearby geothermal power plant, which was part of the reason this location made sense; Iceland has an abundance of geothermal energy, not to mention a subterranean geology that lends itself quite well to carbon sequestration. Orca was built on a lava plateau in the countrys southwest region.

This plant works a little differently than the Zurich plant, in that the captured carbon is liquefied then pumped underground into basalt caverns. Over time (less than two years, according to Carbfixs website), it turns to stone.

One of the biggest issues with direct air capture is that its expensive, and this facility is no exception. Climeworks co-founder Christoph Gebald estimates its currently costing $600 to $800 to remove one metric ton of carbon. Costs would need to drop to around a sixth of this level for the company to make a profit. Gebald thinks Climeworks can get costs down to $200 to $300 per ton by 2030, and half that by 2040. The National Academy of Sciences estimated that once the cost of CO2 extraction gets below $100-150 per ton, the air-captured commodity will be economically competitive with traditionally-sourced oil.

The other problem that detractors of DAC cite is its energy usage relative to the amount of CO2 its capturing. These facilities use a lot of energy, and theyre not making a lot of difference. Granted, the energy they use will come from renewable sources, but were not yet to the point where that energy is unlimited or free. An IEA report from May of this year stated that to reach the carbon-neutral targets that have been set around the world, almost one billion metric tons of CO2 will need to be captured using DAC every year. Our current total of 9,000 tons is paltry in comparison.

But Climeworks and other companies working on DAC technology are optimistic, saying that automation and increases in energy efficiency will drive down costs. This is a market that does not yet exist, but a market that urgently needs to be built, Gebald said. This plant that we have here is really the blueprint to further scale up and really industrialize.

Image Credit: Climeworks

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The World's Largest Direct Air Capture Plant Is Now Pulling CO2 From the Air in Iceland - Singularity Hub

Our complete podcast series is available on these fine platforms and on Mixcloud + Soundcloud - below at the end of the post is our complete Ambient Meditation Series and Spotify Playlist that is updated weekly:

Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Acast | TuneIn | Pocket Casts | Breaker | Stitcher

Ambient Meditations S2 Vol 48 - Rena Jones

Getting back into gear after Labor Day is no easy task, especially when it still feels like summer (well, it technically is). To help you downshift into the fall work grind or back to school grind or whatever grind you are attempting to tackle, we have tapped Emancipator collaborator Rena Jones. Her new single "A New Dawn Awaits" is out today, and you can check it out below, and her full-length album will be coming up on November 5th. The album is called Allegories and is just in time for long computer screen halls, holiday shopping clicks, cold weather, and of course, that post-Thanksgiving have for all the Americans out there. So wind down into your weekend with this lovely mix from Rena Jones - it pairs well with Pumpkin Beer, don't knock it until you try it!

Check out other mixes in the Ambient Meditations Series HERE

Ambient Meditations 48 Tracklist - Rena Jones

1. Helene Vogelsinger - Contemplation - "Astral Projection"

2. Emancipator, Rena Jones, Flowerpulse - Xylem- "Thus"

3. Oona Dahl - Re:Luminate EP - "Wait Lifted" David Last Remix

4. Jako Jako - Aequilibration - "Resilienz"

5. Matt Robertson - Enveleau - "Kalimba"

6. John Hopkins - Singularity - "Singularity"

7. Catarina Barberi- Fantas Resynthesized for 808 And 202 (feat. Carlo Maria)

8. Emancipator, Rena Jones, Flowerpulse - Xylem - "The Sleeping Princess Stairs"

9. Rena Jones - Allegories - "A New Dawn Awaits"

Soundcloud Complete Season 2 Playlist

Soundcloud Complete Season One Playlist

Spotify Playlist (Weekly Updates)

Rena Jones in the studio

More about Rena Jones:

Multi-instrumentalist and sound engineer Rena Jones is a force to be reckoned with. At age 30, she boasts more than 30 collaborative albums, 3 full length solo albums, 20 years of classical violin study, and 12 years of cello, and she is considered one of the leading women in audio engineering today."-Strings Magazine 2007Her extensive background in music and sound engineering covers a colorful spectrum.As a freelancer, she composed music for the award-winning video game Dance Dance Revolution and Adobe software, as well as designing patches for Twisted Tools and Keith McMillen Instruments. She also worked for Avid, supporting the development of Pro-Tools audio software. As an audio engineer, she mixed for Beats Antique, co-produced, engineered and mixed Lynx's album "On the Horizon",engineered in Sylvia Massy's legendary RadioStar studio, Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco, and Brighton U.K.'s Metway Studios. Similarly, she's collaborated on projects as an engineer in her home State in Oregon at Wildwood Studios, Cloud City Sound and her own private studio. Passionate about musician's rights and the state of the industry, she also serves as a voting member at the Recording Academy in the Producer and Engineers wing and is currently serving as a District Advocate at the Recording Academy. Known for her unique ambient-electronic chamber music, Rena released original compositions on groundbreaking labels such as Loci Records, Disco Geko, Iboga, Spun Records, Aleph Zero, 1320 Records, Addictech, Ultimae and Schematic Records, while also running her own label Cartesian Binary Recordings.

In her vast audio catalog, two of Rena's studio albums were chosen amongst the top 25 essential albums of the year on Echoes Radio in 2006 and 2009, and her recent collaborative release with Emancipator and Flowerpulse was featured on Echoes Radio in 2021. With over two decades of experience as a seasoned studio musician, Rena's highly sought-after string playing has landed her on albums with Emancipator, STS9, edIT (Glitch Mob), Funckarma, Beats Antique, Sophie Barker and Grammy nominated artist J. Viewz. Leaning into her love of collaborative music from her recent experiences with "Echoes", collaborations with artists Sophie Barker (Zero 7 and Groove Armada), Matt Robertson (Bjork, Lamb, Batt for Lashes) Earl Harvin (Seal, Air),and following the success of her collaborative album "Xylem" with Emancipator and Flowerpulse, Rena delivers a potent new album "Allegories",her most live and collaborative album to-date. Featuring lifetime collaborators including multi-instrumentalist Jeff Thomas Potts, Jason McKenzie on tablas, Asher Fulero on drum kit and Marc Sciglimpaglia on live bass, Rena continues to evolve her unique approach to electronic and organic instrumentation. "Literally one of the best experimental artists currently making tracks. Layers and layers of experimental-electronic goodness, focus constantly shifts from leads to bridges to the beat and back around again, using sounds in Ableton Live that many others would have difficulty with, but instead forms an analog/virtual opus."-Women's Radio

Allegories -Rena Jones - OutNovember 05, 2021 | Cartesian Binary Recordings

The sixth full-length album from Rena Jones - 'Allegories', is a sonic-emotive exploration of the transformative power of storytelling.

This year she has already drawn wide-reaching support from the likes of FIP, KEXP, Echoes, WorldwideFM and Openlab at radio, in addition to multiple Spotify editorial placements via her recent collaboration with Emancipator.

Similar to music, storytelling is a uniquely beautiful way to engage with history, art and culture, continuing Rena's tradition of conceptual albums, 'Allegories' takes a deep dive into sound design with music as metaphor and allegory. The new album draws heavily on Greek Mythology and classical allegorical tales, with the ultimate journey left to the listener.

Waxing poetic through 'Allegories', Rena Jones delivers her most live and collaborative album to-date. Bringing in lifetime collaborators like multi-instrumentalist Jeff Thomas Potts on strings, Jason McKenzie on live tablas, Asher Fulero on live drums and Marc Sciglimpaglia on live bass, 'Allegories' finds its way into uniquely luscious grooves.

Rich with sonic-multiverses that unfold with unyielding beauty, 'Allegories' is a landmark addition to Rena's catalog of thought-provoking and emotive music.

She conjures up the relaxing and introspective vibe of the Vienna school of chillout and lounge music, yet the sound is infused with her own unique classical and world influences from her well-versed strings background. The result is a wonderful plethora of styles happily coexisting in a laid back stage.

I felt inspired to write "Allegories" by searching for stories that imagine a better future, while also understanding the unique power of music and art to transform culture. Struck by this simple thought, that we have to imagine a better future before we can start to create it, I hope to engage listeners to become curious about ways to dream of a better world, while also drifting through a deeply immersive, emotive and powerful sonic journey. Unlike metaphors, parables or narratives, Allegories are unique in how they can be applied to multiple concepts. I wrote "Allegories" for you, the listener, to find your own story within the crevices of melody and sound I carefully crafted.

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it." Bertolt Brecht

Go here to see the original:

Wind Down This Weekend With Ambient Meditations S2 Vol 48 - Rena Jones - Magnetic Magazine

The Artemis Project remains one of my favorite games. Now, its sequel is here, and promises to be just as good a game.

GeekDad Approved The Artemis Odyssey is a game for 1-5 players, ages 14 and up, and takes about an hour to play. Its currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, with a pledge level of $55 for a copy of the game.

The Artemis Odyssey was designed by Bruno Faidutti and Serge Laget and published by Grand Gamers Guild, with illustrations by Josh Cappel.

New to Kickstarter? Check out our crowdfunding primer.

Note: My review is based on a prototype copy, so it is subject to change and may not reflect final component quality. In particular, the playing pieces in the prototype, shown below, do not resemble the planned final pieces at all.

In the box, you will find:

As noted above, none of the playing pieces in the box resemble at all the final artwork for the game. Instead, the prototype merely uses pieces recycled from other games. However, given past products from this publisher, in particularThe Artemis Project, I have no doubt that the final version of the game will have gorgeous playing pieces.

The artwork on the other pieces is presumably closer to finished.

The planning board shows a row of ten spaces for cards used during the game, and a score tracker below that. As playing cards to this board is one of the key mechanics in the game, its nice that this is kept simple. The score tracker makes it easy to see where youre at during the game, and the hexagonal spaces will match the eventual final pieces used on the board.

Each player has an action deck in their color. The distribution of the cards within each deck is the same: each player gets four scoring cards, three production cards, two travel cards, and one each of the trade and build cards. However, the resource and travel cards are different within each deck; Ill explain more on that in the How to Play section. Here again, the art is simple and focused: the bottom half or so of the card features a large icon showing which type of card it is, while the top portion shows icons with the details of how that card plays. The lower section with the card type icon is in the player color, making it easy to tell at a glance whose card this is.

The backs of the cards feature a drawing of an alien race. This isnt at all important for the game, but the pictures are very nicely done, and the style of art fits into the bigger Artemis gametic universe.

The star and planet tokens are also nicely done. The stars represent our sun and eight other stars, each named for a sign of the zodiac: Aquarius, Aries, Libra, Pices, Cancer, Leo, Scorpio, and Sagittasius. These names have no bearing at all on game play either, but in addition to the symbol printed on each planet, there is also a cool representation of what the star itself might look like. Its all visual flair, but its much more interesting than just having nine stars that all look like normal suns.

The planets show what the planet would look like, with a small icon for the resource type produced by the planet. Theyre all nicely color coded, but one small quibble with the artwork of the game I would have is that the resource icons on these should be a lot bigger and easier to see, as thats the important element for game play.

The resource cards simply show a large drawing of each resource. Two, I think, are obvious representations: water and energy. Two of the ore types are likewise obvious. The rest are more abstract, with food looking like some kind of weird green plant, and the final ore being some kind of purple blob. At first glance theyre all kind of weird, but players can generally figure them out quickly, with the only potential lasting confusion being differentiating the three ores. However, thats not really an important factor, as the ores all serve identical roles in the game. And most importantly, the icons are color-coded to their matching planets.

Unlike the action and resource cards, which are 44mm x 68mm, the alien cards are closer to poker-sized. They feature the alien planet on the back, but the front of each card is unique, showing a large piece of art and then instructions on how and when the card can be used.

For the solo and 2 player variants, the game includes a set of singularity cards and a singularity token. The solo game also relies on a set of mission cards.

You can download a draft of the rulebook here.

The goal of the game is to be the player with the most points when the last planet is discovered or when a player reaches or passes 77 points.

Each player chooses a color and takes the components of that color. This includes the deck of action cards, the starships, colonies, factories and terraformers, and their score marker.

If playing with three people, two alient planets are returned to the box. With four players, one alien planet is returned.

Then, all nine stars are placed on the table. The positioning doesnt matter at all, but they need to be placed far enough from each other that planets can be placed around them.

Take one of each of the six resource planets (not including an alien planet) and place it face-down around the sun. Then, each player, in any order, chooses one of these planets, flips it over, and places a starship and a factory on it. The remaining planets are returned to the supply.

All of the remaining planets, including the unused ones from the sun and the alien planets, are flipped to their back sides, shuffled, and distributed around the other stars. Each star needs no less than three planets and no more than seven, but the actual distribution should be as random as possible. The resource cards are then separated into individual decks, which are placed in reach of everyone. The alien artifact deck should be shuffled and placed nearby. The planning board is placed somewhere on the table within everyones reach. Several of the spaces on the board have icons indicating that they are not used with certain player counts (for example, the 10 spot is only used in a 5 player game); a terraformer piece from an unused player color should be placed on these spots so that they are not accidentally used.

Each player takes one of each resource card, and places their scoring token on the 7 spot on the score track. A starting player is chosen at random.

The game is played over a series of rounds, with each round divided into phases.

In the planning phase, each player will take one of their action cards and place it, facedown, on the planning board. The phase starts with the starting player and proceeds clockwise. On their turn, each player places a single card in an open space on the board. The spaces do not need to be filled consecutively, but they will be resolved in numerical order.

One every available slot on the planning board is filled, the first card is flipped over and resolved. Then, each additional card is flipped and resolved. Once all of the cards have been resolved, a new phase begins unless the end condition is met.

As noted above, each player has three production cards in their deck. Each of these cards shows two of the possible resources. When the card is revealed, the plannerthe person who played this cardchooses one of the two resources on the card.Every player then receives that resource if they have planets that generate it. They get one card for each starship or colony they have on a matching planet, and two for each factory. Alien planets never produce resources regardless of the assets on them, and terraformers never produce resources even if they are on a production planet. Its important to note that while all players have three of these cards, the distribution of the resources among the cards varies.

Each action deck also has two travel cards. Each card shows three of the systems. The planner chooses one of the systems on the card and may them move one of their starships to a planet in that system. Note that the distance between systems is irrelevant; all starships can reach all systems regardless of their starting point. One the planner has either moved or chosen not to, each other player may move on starship to thesame system. The planner, however, determines the order in which the other players may move, and it may not be possible for everyone to move.

You may only travel to a planet that either has no assets on it or other assets you own; you may never travel to a planet owned by someone else. You may travel to an undiscovered planet (one that is facedown) or to one that has been discovered (face up). When traveling, you may peek at each planet in the system before deciding to which planet they wish to travel.

It is possible for the planner to choose a system one of their starships is already on simply to move to a different (available) planet, and possibly, to prevent other players from being to move at all if that would mean that there are no other planets available. Players can also choose to abandon a planet that only has a starship on it by moving that starship somewhere else; that planet would then already be discovered but available for others to move to later.

When you discover a production planet by flipping a facedown planet over, you immediately gain one of that type of resource from the bank. When you discover an alien planet, you draw one card from the alien artifact deck for each alien planet on which you currently have assets. You choose one card to keep and discard the rest.

A key strategy point here: each player has two travel cards, and each card has three systems. This means that there are two systems that you cannot travel to by playing one of your cards; you can only get there when another player who has that system on one of their cards chooses to travel to it. You should therefore be aware of the systems you can get to, and make sure that you take the opportunity to travel to those other systems when those cards are played. The starting system (ours) cannot be traveled back to, as it is not represented by any action card (although there is one alien artifact card that will let that player get back there.)

Each deck contains one of each of the trade and build cards. The trade card allows the planner to offer and negotiate any trades with any other players (although those players may not trade amongst themselves). If they cant work out a deal, they can trade with the bank. They can trade multiple times with the bank, but at an increasing cost: the first trade is any one resource for any one other resource, but the second trade is any two resources for any one resource from the bank, the third trade is three-for-one, and so forth.

When the build card is revealed, the planner may build two assets. Then, each other player, in an order determined by the planner, may build one asset of their choosing. Starships cost one energy and one of each of the three ores, and can be placed on any planet where the player has at least one other asset. Colonies cost one food, one water, and one of any type of ore. A colony can be placed on any planet where the player has a starship or terraformer, but not where they already have a colony or a factory. Factories cost two energy and 1 ore of any kind, but may only replace an existing colony. (In an example of play, the rules do state that the planner, who gets two builds, could in one turn build a colony, and then immediately replace that with a factory, as long as they had the resources to do it.) Terraformers cost two water and two food, and may only be placed on a water, food, or alien planet, and on a planet that already has a starship, colony, or factory on it.

Building any asset other than a starship on an alien planet immediately scores three points, but note that they will never produce resources. Terraformers do not produce resources regardless, but the player does earn three points immediately when they are built on any planet.

The final four decks in each deck allow the players to score points. Each score card has two scoring conditions, and as with other action cards, the planner chooses which one will take effect for all players. One of these cards scores 1 point for each colony and 2 for each factory, or 2 points for each starship. Another scores 2 points for each alien planet that players occupy (with at least one asset), or 3 for each terraformer. The third card scores 2 points for each asset in the system in which the player has the most assets, or 1 point for each system where they have at least one asset. The final card scores for players discarding resources from their hard: either 1 point for each card in a matching set of at least two cards, or 2 cards for each set of different resources they discard.

The player whose score card is revealed first in a round takes the first player marker for the following round.

Any time a player discovers an alien planet, they gain an alien artifact card. Each card grants the player a special power, but each can only be used once before being discarded from the game. The cards all state when they can be used.

The first time any player reaches 42 on the scoring track, the player with the lowest number of points draws artifacts equal to the number of players. They look at the cards, keeping from hidden from everyone else, and choose one to keep. They then pass the remaining cards to the second-lowest scorer, who repeats this, until the highest scorer (the one who passed 42) gets the remaining card.

Once all of the cards have been revealed and all actions have been resolved, there is a brief end-of-round phase. First, everyone counts their resource cards and must discard cards of their choosing down to 10. Then, you should check to make sure the proper player has the first player marker (it will be whomever played a score card in the lowest slot on the planning board; if no one played one, it remains with whomever had it last.) Then, any score cards that were played and removed from the planning board and returned to their players but placed in a discard pile,not their hand.Finally, all other action cards are returned to each players hand. Players may only pick up their score cards and return them to their hand once all four are in their discard pile.

Unless an endgame condition has been met, players begin a new round.

The game ends at the end of the current round when either the last planet is discovered or a player reaches or exceeds 77 points. Whomever has the most points wins; in case of a tie, all tied players win.

While the game is officially for 1-5 players, the rules do provide for a team variant for 6 or 8 players. In this scenario, you follow the setup rules for either 3 or 4 players, but form players into teams, who sit across from each other at the table. Players on a team share components, acting as one player in everything except that at the beginning of a round, the action cards are shuffled and dealt evenly to each player. When playing cards during the planning round, teammates are not allowed to indicate which card they played or suggesting which card their partner should play. In the action phase, the teammate who played the card is the planner, and again, the teammate may not make suggestions as to how the action should be played. The planner chooses one partner from each team to perform the action, and that team member must act alone.

Note that I did not have a chance to play the game with this variant.

The game varies slightly for two players. During setup, two alien planets are removed. The singularity deck is shuffled and placed near the planning board, and the singularity token in placed in space 3 of the planning board. During the planning phase, no cards may be put in the slot with the token. During the action phase, when the tokens spot is reached, the top card of the singularity deck is revealed and resolved. When using the trade action, the planner may trade with the bank as normal, but the other player may also trade, although they begin with a two-for-one trade and work up from there. Finally, when traveling to an alien planeteven one that has already been discoveredthe player may peek at the top card of the singularity deck.

As with the team variant, I did not have a chance to play the two-player version of the game.

The game also includes rules and components for solo play. To play alone, select a single color and take its components. Take four planets of each type, the sun, and the six stars that appear on your travel cards. Place one planet next to the sun at random, and place the others around the six suns. Place one factory and one starship on the starting planet, and take one resource of each type. Remove the Black Hole Grenade, Black Hole Bomb, Hypnotic Device, and Amnesia Beam cards from the alien artifact deck, then shuffle the remaining cards. Shuffle the singularity deck and place the token on the third space on the planning board. Either select a mission card or shuffle that deck and choose one at random.

During the planning phase, you place three action cards of your choosing on the empty slots on the planning board. Theres obviously no need to place them face down. During the action phase, you resolve the actions as normal. When you reach the singularity token, take the top card from the singularity deck and resolve it before moving on.

When traveling to a system, you may peek at the planets as normal, but you may not look at undiscovered planets later; you just need to remember which ones are where.

The game ends after thirteen rounds, when the singularity deck is exhausted. You win if you completed the mission cards objective.

At first glance, the core mechanic ofOdyssey is very similar toCatan: you are building things that allow you to generate resources to build more things, which gives you points. In fact, when I was first teaching the game to my gaming group, I found myself saying kind of like inCatan, you do this

However, while it turns out that describing elements of the game as Catan-like was a useful shorthand for teaching it, once we got into the game, the similarities to that other game very quickly disappeared.

For starters, while yes you need to build things on planets to generate resources to build more things, the generation of those resources is completely strategy based. The only luck in the game comes when youre choosing a system to travel toif youre looking for a particular resource, you may or may not discover the right planet in that system. But even that luck-based element slowly diminishes as the game progresses, since more and more of the planets will already be discovered and you really can just travel to exactly the planet you need.

But the game also includes a somewhat unique twist on a programming mechanic. Each round, youre choosing two or three (depending on how many players you have) actions that youre going to perform, and at least within your cards, the order youll perform them. The game doesnt have the normal gotcha that exists in many other programming games where a card played by someone else may render your next action mootyoure definitely going to get to play all of your actions. But, youre also going to get to play all of the actions from the other players as well, and this is where the game gets very interesting strategically.

As an example, when you play a travel card, you not only have to decide which system is the best one for you to travel to, you also have to decide which one is perhaps the worst for your opponents. Its possible that youll have a system with fewer planets than there are players, so if you travel there, one or two of your opponents will not also be able to travel there. And best of all,you as the planner get to decide who doesnt get the benefit.

Producing resources is even trickier. When a resource card you played is revealed, you can choose which one to produce. But you have to remember that just because you played the card, you arent necessarily going to produce a resourceits easy to mess up and, for example, plan to get a water because you have a starship on a water planet, but then eariler in the round take advantage of someone elses travel card and move that starship to another planet, having forgotten that you needed to leave it there to produce the water. Or, you may have thought you wanted water, but then you notice that another player will get more water than you, and so you choose the other resource on the card.

The scoring cards are where you have the most decisions to make. Each one has a pair of criteria, but only one will count and as always, you get to pick which one. So do you take those four points for your factories, even though doing so gives an opponent eight points for theirs, or do you take the single point for the starship, denying the other players their bigger points? And then add to the mix that every time you play a scoring card, you lose that card for at least a round or two, but at the same time, if you dont play your scoring cards, and instead rely on others to do so, you can never get the first player token, which at times can have a big impact.

So while the game without question shares a certain amount of DNA withCatan, it is very decidely its own game. Its a deep, pure strategy game that combines and twists several different mechanics, resulting in a very fun, if very cerebral game. Its also a game that may take a bit to grow on peoplewhen we played it, one of my friends wasnt too impressed by it for the first round or two, but by the end was thoroughly enjoying the game.

I personally cannot wait to see the final version of the game. I know from past experience that Grand Gamers Guild does a fantastic job of producing absolutely fantastic games with very high quality components, and Im sure this one will be no different. Id highly recommend that you back the game on Kickstarter. I know I am.

For more information or to make a pledge, visit The Artemis Odyssey Kickstarter page!

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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.

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Jon Hopkins will release a new album, Music For Psychedelic Therapy, on February 11 via Domino. Following his albums Immunity and Singularity, Hopkins said, It felt like time for a reset, to wait for music to appear from a different place. A life-changing trip to the Tayos Caves in Ecuador in 2018 inspired the the album.

What grew from this experience is an album with no beats, not one drum sound, something that is closer to a classical symphony than a dance / electronica record," says Jon. "Something that is more like having an experience than listening to a piece of music. Maybe something far more emotionally honest than I had been comfortable making before - a merging of music, nature and my own desire to heal. The freedom from traditional rhythmic structures unlocked so much - it felt like I was free to explore a new form of rhythm, one that you discover when you just allow things to flow without letting yourself get in the way."

Hopkins continues: Music ForPsychedelicTherapy is not ambient, classical or drone but has elements of all three. For me its a place as much as it is a sound. It works for the sober mind, but takes on a new dimension entirely when brought into a psychedelic ceremony. In my own psychedelic explorations testing thismusic, I found a quote I had read would keep coming to mind. Music isliquid architecture, architecture is frozen music.I love this idea of music as something you inhabit,something that works on you energetically. In fact, it was while in that state that the title appeared to me. Psychedelic-assisted therapies are moving into legality across the world, and yet it feels like no one is talking about the music; the music is as important as the medicine.

You can listen to the album's closing track, Sit Around The Fire, now. It's a collaboration between Hopkins, and "producer and ceremony guide East Forest and legendary guru," the late Ram Dass. Sit Around The Fire exists from one of the deep synchronicities that ushered this thing (Music For Psychedelic Therapy) into being, says Hopkins. I was contacted by East Forest, who had spent some time with Ram Dass in Hawaii before he passed. He was given access to several lesser-heard talks from the '70s, and asked to set them to music. He sent me some starting points, including the beautiful choral vocals he recorded which open the piece. I put my headphones on and with Ram Dass voice inside my head, I sat at the piano and improvised. What you hear is the first thing that came out - it just appeared in response to the words.

You can listen to "Sit Around The Fire," and check out the album's artwork and tracklist, below.

Hopkins will present aMusic For Psychedelic Therapy event at Austin's Fair Market on September 21. It's a collaboration with author and podcast host Aubrey Marcus, and willfeature a ceremonial concert performance from East Forest followed by "an immersive playback" of Music For Psychedelic Therapy in full. There will also be a live Q&A between Marcus, Hopkins and East Forest. Tickets are on sale.

You can pick up Immunity and Singularity on vinyl in our shop.

Music For Psychedelic Therapy tracklist1. Welcome2. Tayos Caves, Ecuador i3. Tayos Caves, Ecuador ii4. Tayos Caves, Ecuador iii5. Love Flows Over Us In Prismatic Waves6. Deep In The Glowing Heart7. Ascending, Dawn Sky8. Arriving9. Sit Around The Fire (with Ram Dass, East Forest)

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Jon Hopkins preps 'Music For Psychedelic Therapy,' shares Sit Around The Fire - Brooklyn Vegan

by Dan Kobialka Aug 30, 2021

SentinelOne now offers Cloudflare and Zscaler zero trust security solutions via its Singularity XDR Marketplace, the endpoint detection and response software company says.

Together, SentinelOne and Cloudflare enable their joint customers to leverage Singularity XDR to develop and execute network access policies, the companies said. As such, these customers can ensure only secure and trusted devices can access their networks.

Also, SentinelOne and Zscaler joint customers can utilize Singularity XDR to simplify security for hybrid work, the companies stated.Zscaler automatically verifies a customers devices are protected by SentinelOne before granting access to a sensitive corporate resource.

The the integrations ensure organizations can use the Singularity XDR platforms autonomous protection, detection and response capabilities across zero trust architecture, said Ruby Sharma, head of SentinelOnes technology partner ecosystem.

The Singularity XDR Marketplace provides security teams with the ability to integrate their security tools into Singularity XDR without coding or scripting, SentinelOne said. That way, security teams can leverage the marketplace to extend Singularity XDRs capabilities across their IT stack.

SentinelOne announced its Singularity XDR Marketplace in February 2021.In addition to Cloudflare and Zscaler, other cybersecurity companies have launched Singularity XDR Marketplace integrations, including:

Singularity XDR leverages behavioral artificial intelligence to monitor, map and contextualize data across endpoints, cloud workloads and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It also empowers organizations to identify and address cyber threats in real time.

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SentinelOne Partners with Cloudflare, Zscaler for Zero Trust Integrations - MSSP Alert

Today, wireless charging is little more than a gimmick for high-end smartphones or pricey electric toothbrushes. But a new approach that can charge devices anywhere in a room could one day allow untethered factories where machinery is powered without cables.

As the number of gadgets we use has steadily grown, so too has the number of cables and chargers cluttering up our living spaces. This has spurred growing interest in wireless charging systems, but the distances they work over are very short, and they still have to be plugged into an outlet. So, ultimately, they make little difference.

Now though, researchers have devised a way to wirelessly power small electronic devices anywhere in a room. It requires a pretty hefty retrofit of the room itself, but the team says it could eventually be used to power everything from mobile robots in factories to medical implants in people.

This really ups the power of the ubiquitous computing world, Alanson Sample, from the University of Michigan, said in a press release. You could put a computer in anything without ever having to worry about charging or plugging in.

Efforts to beam power over longer distances have typically used microwaves to transmit it. But such approaches require large antennas and targeting systems. They also present risks for spaces where humans are present because microwaves can damage biological tissue.

Commercial wireless chargers instead rely on passing a current through a wire charging coil to create a magnetic field, which induces an electric current in a wire receiving coil installed in the device you want to charge. However, the approach only works over very short distancesroughly equal to the diameter of the charging coil.

The new approach, outlined in a paper in Nature Electronics, works on similar principles, but essentially turns the entire room into a giant magnetic charger, allowing any device within the room that has a receiving coil to draw power.

To build the system, Sample and colleagues from the University of Tokyo installed conductive aluminum panels in the rooms walls, floor, and ceiling and inserted a large copper pole in the middle of it. They then mounted devices, called lumped capacitors, in rows running horizontally through the middle of each panel and at the center of the pole.

When current passes through the panels, its channeled into the capacitors, generating magnetic fields that permeate the 100-square-foot room and deliver 50 watts of power to any devices in it.

Importantly, the capacitors also isolate potentially harmful electric fields within themselves. As a result, the team showed the system doesnt exceed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) guidelines for electromagnetic energy exposure.

This is actually the second incarnation of this technology. Sample first introduced the idea in a 2017 paper in PLOS ONE while working for Disney. But the latest research solves a crucial limitation of the earlier work. Previously the system produced a single magnetic field that swirled in a circle around the central pole, resulting in dead spots in the corners of the square room. The new setup creates two simultaneous magnetic fields, one spinning around the pole and another concentrated near the walls themselves.

This way the researchers were able to achieve charging efficiency above 50 percent in 98 percent of the room compared to only 5.75 percent of the room for the previous iteration. They also found that if they only relied on the second magnetic field, they could remove the obstructive pole and still get reasonable charging in most of the room (apart from right at the center).

While thats a significant improvement, it still means that on average 50 percent of the power coming out of the wall socket is wasted. Such low efficiencies are a common problem for wireless charging, as an investigation by OneZero found last year.

Given the small amount of power required to charge everyday devices its unlikely to have an especially notable impact on most users power bills, according to the report. But at a society-wide scale it could be significant waste of power and source of unnecessary carbon emissions.

This is only a prototype though, and considering the dramatic increase in efficiency between the first and second versions, this efficiency gap could be closed. A more pressing concern might be the cost and complexity of retrofitting buildings with massive aluminum plates in the walls.

Indeed, the researchers are working on both issues. Weve just developed a brand-new technique. Now we have to go figure out how to make it practical, Sample told Scientific American.

Still, while this kind of seamless wireless charging wont be ubiquitous in the near term, the technique could soon be used in niche situations, like charging cabinets for power tools, and ultimately, the researchers think it could be make the factories of the future cable-free.

Image Credit: The University of Tokyo

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This Room Can Wirelessly Charge Devices Anywhere Within Its Walls - Singularity Hub

Apex Legends September 2, 2021 / 4:22 pm

Respawn has officially announced the full list of teams who have been invited to compete in the Apex Legends Global Series 2021-2022. The massive 200 team league will be comprised of 100 invited squads and 100 who will earn their spots via the Preseason Qualifiers from September to October. Each of the five regions will have a total of 40 teams participating in their ALGS Regular Season Splits with the top 10 from NA, EMEA, and APAC North and the top 5 from SA and APAC South qualifying for the ALGS playoffs.

ALGS Pro League is set to begin in September. With 100 of the 200 teams already confirmed, both players and fans alike are eagerly anticipating the start of the season. (Image Credit Respawn)

All of the invited teams were chosen either due to their results in the first ALGS season, their reputation as a squad throughout competitive Apex, or a combination of the two. The full list of 100 teams can be found here. Every regions inaugural season Champions are listed first in the tables.

Notable North American ALGS teams include Cloud9 and TSM who are coming off of second and third place finishes in Season 1. Other top-tier competitors from the region include NRG, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, and defending champions Team Kungarna. In Europe, all eyes will be on SCARZ Europe who will be looking to defend their title as well. There are plenty of top-tier teams contesting them such as Gambit Esports, Alliance, Natus Vincere, and runners-up ZETA Division, formerly known as Fire Beavers.

APAC North will also be an incredibly competitive region. COUQUE DASSE who won Season 1 under Fennel Korea will need to stave off the incredibly talent rosters of Crazy Racoon, Fennel, and LFTpko, formerly under T1. As for APAC South, WOLFPACK Arctic, Tom Yum Kung, Dire Wolves, and Reignite are some of the candidates to come out swinging for the limited five playoff spots. Lastly, South America will also be a tight race for their five playoff seeds. The defending champions Team Singularity, formerly of Paradox Esports will have to work hard against All4 Esports, Dynamics, and Horus.

The first ALGS 2021-2022 qualifier begins on September 11 with the regular season kicking off on October 16th. The stakes could not be higher as the biggest Apex Legends competition ever approaches rapidly.

Originally posted here:

All Invited ALGS Pro League Teams Revealed by Respawn - Hotspawn