WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Captain Marvel #14, by Kelly Thompson, Lee Garbett, Tamra Bonvillain and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.

Vox Supreme, the powerful mutated Kree who nearly destroyed the Inhumans, is using Captain Marvel to kill her fellow Avengers in a bid to get their genetic material. Threatening the lives of innocents all around the world with a series of hidden bombs, the villain has forced Carol intoa new costume through which he can monitor her actions to ensure her compliance. However, Captain Marvel hasproven tricky so far, hiding Thor and Tony Stark/Iron Man inside Singularity's pocket dimension and substituting clones for her comrades to buy time as she figures out how to diffuse Vox Supreme's bombs.

As she continues her quest in Captain Marvel#14,Carol comes face to face with an Avenger she might not be able to match: Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk.

RELATED:X-Men: Whats In Marvels Next Wave of Mutant Comics

After explaining the situation to Thor and Tony in Singularity, Carol reports back to Vox Supreme, who threatens to kill more innocents if she doesn't work faster. The villain suspects Captain Marvel is attempting to undermine his operation due to the time she's spent in Singularity, where he's unable to monitor her. Ultimately, though, he decides he's still getting what he wants. His plans for the clones isn't entirely clear, but their genetic material is indeed furthering some nefarious goal.

Captain Marvel proceeds to pursue her next target: Avengers chairman T'Challa/Black Panther. Heading to find Black Panther just outside of Palo Alto,the Wakandan hero gets the jump on Carol, blasting her out of the sky. However, since he doesn't know his attacker is Captain Marvel due to her new suit, he's caught off guard by her immense powers and is knocked out.

That's when She-Hulk arrives.

RELATED: Marvel's She-Hulk Show Reportedly Starts Filming This Summer

Created by Stan Lee and John Buscema, Walters first appeared in 1980's Savage She-Hulk #1. She got her powers after receiving a blood transfusion from Bruce Banner/Hulk, her cousin. Although she's not as powerful as her unstoppable cousin in most conditions, She-Hulk is still incredibly formidable and retains more of her personality and sense. Currently, she's a member of the main Avengers team and has proven herself an absolute powerhouse in their battles.

When She-Hulk comes on the scene inCaptain Marvel#14, she hits Carol with a massive punch that sends her flying. Captain Marvel immediately admits that she wasn't expecting to take on She-Hulk.

With the clock ticking before Vox Supreme kills more innocents, Captain Marvel will now have to fight She-Hulk and subdue her long enough to get both her and Black Panther into Singularity. Jennifer Walters is definitely someone you don't want to fight without a plan, but Captain Marvel's anonymity may give her a major advantage. However, even if she does succeed, Carol is only making Vox Supreme stronger and furthering his malicious plans by bringing him Avengers clones. So unless she can figure out a solution soon, she'll have even bigger problems than a Hulk.

Captain Marvel #15 releases Feb. 19 from Marvel Comics.

KEEP READING:Captain America and Cyclops Join Marvel Snapshots in April

Captain Marvel Dies Recreating One of Her Finest Moments of the '90s

Tags:captain marvel,feature

Excerpt from:

Captain Marvel Faces the ONE Avenger Who Can Stop Her Rampage - CBR - Comic Book Resources

With the conclusion of the Infinity Saga and the exits of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has more question marks than its had in years. And with a dearth of real information, rumors are flying about whats in store for the future of the franchise.

The latest tantalizing piece of potential information concerns Captain Marvel. Showbiz CheatSheet, citing current narrative projections in the MCU and leaks from Marvel insiders, reports that in addition to the long-rumored A-Force, Captain Marvel is the natural choice to lead another rumored superhero team: The Ultimates.

Marvel head Kevin Feige has said that Captain Marvel will be a core piece of the puzzle moving forward, and leading both the all-female A-Force and the mixed-gender Ultimates would certainly make that a promise kept.

The A-Force came to be in a short-lived comic series published in 2015 and 2016. It includes Captain Marvel, Medusa, She-Hulk, Singularity, Nico Minoru, and Dazzler Thor.

How affectionate are you with your spouse around the kids?

Very.

Sometimes I am, sometimes Im not. It depends.

Not very. Were not overly affectionate people.

Thanks for the feedback!

She-Hulk is coming to her own Disney+ series. Jane Foster is taking on the mantle of Mighty Thor inThor: Love and Thunder. It would make sense to put Captain Marvel, a character played by an Oscar winner who already has a solo Marvel film under her belt, at the head of the team of characters whove already debuted in the MCU.

Like the A-Force, The Ultimates was also a limited comic book series published in the early aughts. It currently counts Black Panther, Ms. America (who will reportedly appear in a Disney+ show), Spectrum (who appeared inCaptain Marvel), and Blue Marvel as members. With the exception of the latter, an Ultimates movie would have the same advantage of featuring characters who already exist in the MCU.

It also seems likely that Marvel wants to get Captain Marvel and Black Panther on screen together, and an Ultimates movie would be a relatively easy way to do so.

Alas, however, these are just rumors, and whats at least as likely as an elaborate secret plan already being hatched is that Feige and company are still making decisions about the future.

Thank you for subscribing

Give us a little more information and we'll give you a lot more relevant content

Your child's birthday or due date

Add A Child

Remove A Child

I don't have kids

Thanks For Subscribing!

Link:

Captain Marvel Might Be Leading Two Superhero Teams in Future MCU Films - Fatherly

Oxford chemist Peter Atkins is an indefatigable atheist. He is as much of a fanatic as any of the New (mostly old, actually) Atheists. He was on the receiving end of perhaps the most devastating debate retort Ive ever seen in 1998 at the hands of William Lane Craig (the fun really begins at about a minute into the clip).

After Craigs reply to Atkinss bizarre claim that science holds all answers, one would have thought that Atkins would slink away in embarrassment. But no. Atkins has written a recent essay for Aeon: Why its only science that can answer all the big questions. Its standard atheist boilerplate theres no evidence for God, questions about meaning of existence and about the soul are a waste of time, religious belief is wishful thinking, religion is violent, and so on. Its just cut-and-paste atheist twaddle of the kind you might expect from a not-too-bright college sophomore in a state that just legalized marijuana.

Atkins is wrong, of course, as Craig pointed out with such stunning clarity. Many of the most important disciplines logic and mathematics, metaphysical truths, ethics and moral law, aesthetic judgements, and even basic axioms of science itself are not scientific questions and cannot be answered by scientific methods. Even the very arguments that atheists like Atkins employ are not scientific issues. The claim that science is the only way to answer all the big questions is itself not a scientific claim it is an epistemological claim. The assertion that science can answer all questions is self-refuting. The assertion itself is not science.

But we theists should not make the mistake of abandoning science to Atkins et al. In a restricted sense, Atkins is right about the power of the scientific method. Science is a remarkably effective way to answer many questions about existence. The problem for Atkins is that science provides powerful evidence for the existence of God. Heres why.

There are three ways we can know something about reality. We can perceive it with our senses the coffee cup on the table in front of us, for example. Or we can infer something by a priori logical reasoning. Much of mathematics is like this.

The third way is by a posteriori reasoning, which is inferential reasoning. A posteriori reasoning follows this pattern: we collect evidence about things that exist, and via a logical or mathematical process of reasoning we infer a truth about existence. This is the scientific method. This is also natural theology, which is the branch of theology that proves Gods existence using evidence and reason. It is distinguished from revealed theology, which deals with truths about God that are known from Scripture, tradition, etc.

Natural theology is science. It is exactly the same kind of knowing that is used routinely in natural science. For example, consider our scientific knowledge about the Big Bang. We collect evidence (the red shift, cosmic background radiation, etc.), and by a process of reason and logic (Einsteins general relativity, etc.) we conclude that the universe began as a singularity 14 billion years ago. Its good science solid a posteriori reasoning.

Now consider one of the many strong proofs of Gods existence Aquinas Second Way. We collect evidence (the fact that there are chains of essentially ordered causes in the universe), and by a process of reason and logic (the metaphysics of potency and act and Aristotles Law of the Excluded Middle) we conclude that the universe has an Uncaused Cause, which all men call God. Its also good science solid a posteriori reasoning.

And it wont do to object, as atheists commonly do, that inference to God cannot be drawn from evidence in the natural world because God is supernatural. After all, the singularity of the Big Bang is supernatural, in the very real sense that it is undefined in the natural world. Science infers all manner of supernatural (or extra-natural) things logic, mathematics, the laws of physics, etc., which are not tangible objects in the natural world. Yet they are very real and science uses them and points to them.

If you look carefully, the scientific evidence for God is much stronger than the evidence for the Big Bang or for any commonly accepted scientific theory. The evidence employed in the First Cause argument is the fact that change occurs in nature, which is undeniable, and the logical process that follows is recognition of the nature of potentiality and actuality and the impossibility of something existing and not existing in the same way at the same time. From this undeniable evidence and solid logic we infer that a First Cause exists. The a posteriori reasoning behind the scientific evidence for Gods existence is much stronger much more compelling scientific evidence than the evidence for any other theory in natural science.

We on the reality-based side of this debate must not cede science to the atheists. Atkins is right that science can answer some of the biggest questions we can ask, such as Does God exist? Atkinss problem is that he doesnt like the answer science provides: using the ordinary methods of a posteriori inference essential to the scientific method, scientific evidence and logic clearly demonstrate the existence of God.

Photo: Mystic Mountain, in the Carina Nebula, via NASA, ESA, M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI).

Go here to read the rest:

Can Science Answer All the Big Questions? - Discovery Institute

20-year old New York based artist Leyla Blue released her first EP this past November.The 3-track EP titled "Songs For Boys That Didn't Text Me Back" is concise yet full of emotional and powerful range. Blue is the biggest 90s/2000s R&B/pop fan: "I use the term bad bitch/sad bitch to describe it. So it's this idea that only through owning your sad bitch do you actually become a bad bitch."

Blue also grew up in New York City. To grow up in a city like New York, it's impossible to not be influenced by the inherent everyday hustle that the people embody. This is a city with such infamous and unique notoriety - there's a feeling that encompasses every corner, where you simply look around and it's dreamer after dreamer working really hard to make it happen. Blue is so consciously aware of the city's direct impact on her, she says "I think that growing up in a place where hustle and belief in yourself is normal, when I was a 13 year old who just decided on a weekend that she wants to be a singer, yes it seemed crazy - but it seemed somehow not out of this world. Growing up in New York I think is what made me believe in myself."

The singularity of Blue is in her ability to balance the power of her voice with raw and honest emotion. It's that thing that you can't fake, when an artist honestly makes you feel their pain, their joy, and their experiences - they're instantly in a different domain of artistry. One of Blue's favorite artists and influences is Amy Winehouse. She says "Her lyrics are really where she shines, in the sense that they're so personal and so confessional and just gut-wrenching." That soul combined with confessional and personal lyricism, and then bringing it into the pop-sphere is an extraordinary ability and talent that Amy Winehouse was able to showcase in her music. Similarly, Blue is well on her way to mastering that same significant balance.

"Peppa Pig" is Blue's first release of 2020 and her first release since her debut EP "Songs For Boys That Didn't Text Me Back". Produced by Y2K, Leyla definitely taps into a different side to herself on "Peppa Pig" - more of her "bad bitch" side. She is an artist that treats her music like her diary, with different moods and feelings expressed. "Peppa Pig" is an ode to that feeling that you can't really describe other than just saying "Bitch I feel like Peppa Pig".

There's such a fun bounce to the production - so on coming together with Y2K and making the track, Blue says: "Peppa Pig is just my absolute most carefree, feeling like a bad b*tch so I'm going to make a song that makes me feel like a stupid 5 year old bad b*tch. Y2K and I - we had coffee and we realized we had absolutely opposite tastes in music. We were like ok let's see what comes out of this. We got in the studio with my co-writer Jesse and we just started talking and watching weird 'Peppa Pig' videos, we ordered Mexican food and literally made the song in 3 hours (laughs). The vocals that you hear on there, have not changed since that night."

Blue has some new visuals and more music coming soon (she's aiming for a second EP release by early summer). She talks about the new music she's working on and says "This EP is the most personal stuff I've ever written. It's literally my brain, heart and soul in a body of work. It's basically like ok now that I've left this party and I've finally gotten over this guy, now I'm stuck with myself."

Her debut NYC show is on February 4th at The Slipper Room.For someone with such a powerful voice, it's exciting to see what her live performance would look like. "For me, a live show is really where I get to showcase how every song is a different chapter of my book and I get to show the whole book and tell the stories behind the songs - and how this is not just a random group of songs and made on Spotify." Blue's future is looking bright, as she continues to work on her craft: "I hope to be able to speak to as many lonely 13 year olds in their bedroom as possible because that's exactly what I needed. Me discovering music when I was 13 literally saved my life, I just hope to do that for as many people as possible."

Connect with Leyla Blue: Instagram | Youtube | Soundcloud

Originally posted here:

Leyla Blue is one of the most exciting new voices in pop [Interview] - EARMILK

Singularity enables users to have full control of their environment. Singularity containers can be used to package entire scientific workflows, software and libraries, and even data. This means that you dont have to ask your cluster admin to install anything for you - you can put it in a Singularity container and run. Did you already invest in Docker? The Singularity software can import your Docker images without having Docker installed or being a superuser. Need to share your code? Put it in a Singularity container and your collaborator wont have to go through the pain of installing missing dependencies. Do you need to run a different operating system entirely? You can swap out the operating system on your host for a different one within a Singularity container. As the user, you are in control of the extent to which your container interacts with its host. There can be seamless integration, or little to no communication at all. What does your workflow look like?

Its pretty simple. You can make and customize containers locally, and then run them on your shared resource. As of version 2.3, you can even pull Docker image layers into a new Singularity image without sudo permissions. Singularity also allows you to leverage the resources of whatever host you are on. This includes HPC interconnects, resource managers, file systems, GPUs and/or accelerators, etc. Singularity does this by enabling several key facets:

Jump in and get started. Have a publication or recently installed or updated Singularity on your cluster? Please tell us about it!

Register your Cluster Add a Publication

This release contains fixes for a high severity security issue affecting Singularity 2.3.0 through 2.5.1 on kernels that support overlay...

This is a bug fix point release to the 2.5 feature branch. Bug fixes Corrected a permissions error...

This release includes fixes for several high and medium severity security issues. It also contains a whole slew of bug...

Visit link:

Singularity | Singularity

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Computer Is Set to Complete Beethovens Unfinished SymphonyJustin Huggler | The GuardianIn the most ambitious project of its type ever attempted, a computer has been set to work to complete Beethovens unfinished 10th symphony. And they plan to put the results to the test in a public performance by a full symphony orchestra in Beethovens birthplace, the German city of Bonn, next year.

Scientists Are Edging Closer to Genetically Hacking a Christmas Tree That Doesnt Drop Its NeedlesChris Baraniuk | WiredMore than 100 million real Christmas trees are sold each year. Researchers are trying to unravel the vast and murky Christmas tree genome to create the perfect tree.

Here Are 19 Things That Made the World a Better Place in 2019Nicole Kobie | WiredMixed in amid the political chaos, climate crisis, and other human-made horrors, there have been shining moments in health, space, and even politics that suggest progress hasnt entirely halted. Here [is] our run-down of the most uplifting and inspiring news from 2019.

Watch a Full Flight Test of Liliums All-Electric Urban AircraftDarrell Etherington | TechCrunchThe race is clearly on to develop these vehicles in a bid to anticipate the next major sea change in how we get around cities, but what weve seen so far of these vehicles is usually quick clips and heavily edited highlight reels.Lilium,a Munich-based startup building their own urban air mobility vehicles, isshowing off a lot more than that today.

The 84 Biggest Flops, Fails, and Dead Dreams of the Decade in TechVerge Staff | The VergeTheworld never changes quite the way you expect. But atThe Verge, weve had a front-row seat while technology has permeated every aspect of our lives over the past decade. Some of the resultingmomentsandgadgetsarguably defined the decade and the world we live in now. But others we ate up with popcorn in hand, marveling at just how incredibly hard they flopped.

Image Credit: Denys Nevozhai /Unsplash

Read more:

This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through December 21) - Singularity Hub

The list of things robots can do seems to be growing by the week. They can play sports, help us explore outer space and the deep sea, take over some of our boring everyday tasks, and even assemble Ikea furniture.

Now they can add one more accomplishment to the list: grilling and serving a hot dog.

It seems like a pretty straightforward task, and as far as grilling goes, hot dogs are about as easy as it gets (along with, maybe, burgers? Hot dogs require more rotation, but its easier to tell when theyre done since theyre lighter in color).

Lets paint a picture: youre manning the grill at your familys annual Fourth of July celebration. Youve got a 10-pack of plump, juicy beef franks and a hungry crowd of relatives whose food-to-alcohol ratio is getting pretty skewedthey need some solid calories, pronto. What are the steps you need to take to get those franks from package to plate?

Each one needs to be placed on the grill, rotated every couple minutes for even cooking, removed from the grill when you deem its done, thenif youre the kind of guy or gal who goes the extra mileplaced in a bun and dressed with ketchup, mustard, pickles, and the like before being handed over to salivating, too-loud Uncle Hector or sweet, bored Cousin Margaret.

While carrying out your grillmaster duties, you know better than to drop the hot dogs on the ground, leave them cooking on one side for too long, squeeze them to the point of breaking or bursting, and any other hot-dog-ruining amateur moves.

But for a robot, thats a lot to figure out, especially if they have no prior knowledge of grilling hot dogs (which, well, most robots dont).

As described in a paper published in this weeks Science Robotics, a team from Boston University programmed two robotic arms to use reinforcement learninga branch of machine learning in which software gathers information about its environment then learns from it by replaying its experiences and incorporating rewardsto cook and serve hot dogs.

The team used a set of formulas to specify and combine tasks (pick up hot dog and place on the grill), meet safety requirements (always avoid collisions), and incorporate general prior knowledge (you cannot pick up another hot dog if you are already holding one).

Baxter and Jacoas the two robots were dubbedwere trained through computer simulations. The papers authors emphasized their use of what they call a formal specification language for training the software, with the aim of generating easily-interpretable task descriptions. In reinforcement learning, they explain, being able to understand how a reward function influences an AIs learning process is a key component in understanding the systems behaviorbut most systems lack this quality, and are thus likely to be lumped into the black box of AI.

The robots decisions throughout the hot dog prep processwhen to turn a hot dog, when to take it off the grill, and so onare, the authors write, easily interpretable from the beginning because the language is very similar to plain English.

Besides being a step towards more explainable AI systems, Baxter and Jaco are another example of fast-food robotsfollowing in the footsteps of their burger and pizza counterpartsthat may take over some repetitive manual tasks currently performed by human workers. As robots capabilities improve through incremental progress like this, theyll be able to take on additional tasks.

In a not-so-distant future, then, you just may find yourself throwing back drinks with Uncle Hector and Cousin Margaret while your robotic replacement mans the grill, churning out hot dogs that are perfectly cooked every time.

Image Credit: Image by Muhammad Ribkhan from Pixabay

Read more from the original source:

How Two Robots Learned to Grill and Serve the Perfect Hot Dog - Singularity Hub

The year 2019 was a fantastic one for theatre albums, but these nine stood out from the pack for their sound and singularity.

Cast AlbumsMoulin Rouge!Why its on the list: The ultimate pop playlist, sung by Broadways best, with explosive arrangements and orchestrations

Like the film that inspired it, Broadways Moulin Rouge! features a jukebox song list that covers decades of popular music, from Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend to Chandelier, among 69 others. But since its a Broadway cast recording, this album features all of those top 40 hits made their own by such Broadway favorites as Aaron Tveit, Tony winner Karen Olivo, and six-time Tony nominee Danny Burstein. Plus, original mash-ups like the Shut Up and Raise Your Glass, which combines Walk the Moons Shut Up and Dance with P!nks Raise Your Glass and Whitney Houstons I Wanna Dance With Somebody. The production of the Grammy-nominated cast album is aces, and the theatrical interpretation of the songs will make you hear the lyrics in a whole new light.

A Strange LoopWhy its on the list: A debut work from a fresh and exciting musical theatre writer

Michael R. Jackson may have written the worlds most meta musical; A Strange Loop tells the story of a black queer man writing a musical about a black queer man writing a musical about a black queer man. The show enjoyed its world premiere earlier this year at Off-Broadways Playwrights Horizons, where it quickly sold out and extended due to popular demand. The tuneful score takes a cue from subversive writers like Kander and Ebb, packing a punch by pairing insightful, bold lyrics with pop-infused music that youll be humming long after listening to this album. The work is Jacksons first musical to receive a major New York run, and was quite the debut.

HadestownWhy its on the list: The 2019 Tony winner for Best Musical and Best Original Score, the album of folk, funk, and jazz, proves musical theatre is no one genre

Though developed with a stage production in mind, most people first came to Anas Mitchells Hadestown through its concept album, released in 2010. The show has continued to develop and evolve through an Off-Broadway production (which was recorded live) and the current Broadway edition, fine-tuning Mitchells original vision to near perfection. Telling the mythical story of Orpheus and Eurydice (and Hades and Persephone) but with modern New Orleans-inspired flair, Hadestown is an emotional journey fully realized by Mitchell with a knock-out Tony-winning score and performances from such Broadway luminaries as Reeve Carney, Andr De Shields, Amber Gray, Patrick Page, and Eva Noblezada. As 2019s Tony Award-winning Best Musical (and now a 2020 Grammy nominee), Hadestowns Broadway cast album belongs on every theatre lovers shelf.Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish cast albumWhy its on the list: The only complete recording of Fiddler in Yiddish, plus bonus tracks of rarely heard cut songs in English

Any theatre fan worth their salt is liable to have at least one Fiddler cast album in their collection alreadyif not morebut this latest recording of the Bock and Harnick score makes a good case for adding yet another. Most importantly, the album preserves the score sung in Yiddish, the language that the denizens of Anatevka would have spoken themselves. Hearing Fiddler in Yiddish gives the entire affair another layer of authenticity and nuance, hearing the story of a people trying to hold on to their culture as their homes are being taken away in their language, a language that is in danger of disappearing completely in many parts of the world today. (Though the production was inspired by the recording of Shraga Friedmans Israeli production of Fiddler in Yiddish, that Israeli album does not contain every song and musical interlude.) The recording also preserves Steven Skybells Drama Desk-nominated performance as Tevye. This particular recording is also one of the most complete Fiddler albums ever released, with never-before recorded material from the show and several tracks of fully-produced songs cut during Fiddlers development period (some sung by orginal cast members like original Motel Austin Pendleton), making it a true must-have for Fiddler fans.BeetlejuiceWhy its on the list: A quirky, irreverent scoreand fan favoritethat put the show on the map, plus exclusive album-only material

This musical adaptation of the cult classic film is just as spookily hilarious as its source material, complete with a tour-de-force title role performance from its Tony-nominated leading man, Alex Brightman. Eddie Perfects score has quickly become a fan favorite, and the performances by Brightman along with Sophia Anne Caruso, Rob McClure, Kerry Butler, Leslie Kritzer, and the complete cast are, well to die for. The album also includes special lyrics changed exclusively for the Broadway album, and you cant hear them in the theatre or on any public performances. Any Beetlejuice fan will want the album, but this special material makes the album an even more unique memento of the Broadway show.

Solo/Duet AlbumsBen Platt: Sing to Me InsteadWhy its on the list: A Broadway performer for the ages meets original, soul-bearing songs

To say Ben Platt embarked on a meteoric ride to stardom after starring and winning a Tony for his performance in the title role of Dear Evan Hansen is a vast understatement. After making a splash on Broadway, Platt quickly came to lead such high profile TV and film projects as Run This Town and The Politician (and the upcoming 20-year film adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along). Theatre fans might have to wait a while to see Platt back on the stage, but he isnt letting his vocal chops go to waste. Platts debut solo album Sing to Me Instead, which he co-wrote, is a powerful mix of soulful original songs that show the Tony winners incredible vocal range. His music makes him a vulnerable yet relatable storyteller, his lyrics prove him an astute poet. Songs like Grow As We Go to In Case You Dont Live Forever make Platt seem wise beyond his years, yet bops like Share Your Address make you feel his youthful energy. A journey of romantic, familial, and self-love, Sing to Me Instead is a must-listen.

Watch Ben Platt Perform New Song to Celebrate His Album Drop

Brian Stokes Mitchell Plays With MusicWhy its on the list: One of the great remaining baritones of Broadway singing a symphonic album that includes the premiere recording of a Sondheim trunk song.

Whether starring on Broadway in Ragtime and Kiss Me, Kate or appearing in concert around the world, Brian Stokes Mitchell has a velvety-smooth voice that always makes for a wonderful album experience. In his latest solo album, Mitchell tackles some of the all-time great showtunes for Broadway baritones, including If Ever I Would Leave You and I Wont Send Roses; flips the script and covers several tunes usually sung by women, including Getting Married Today and Hello, Young Lovers; and even offers the premiere recording of Stephen Sondheims Flag Song, which was cut from Assassins. Not to mention the full symphonic album includes orchestrations and arrangements by Mitchell himself.

READ: Listen to an Exclusive Track From Brian Stokes Mitchells Upcoming Solo Album Plays With Music

Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley: Broadway & BeyondWhy its on the list: The epitome of duet albums and to remember a Broadway legend

Three-time Tony nominee and Broadway favorite Marin Mazzie sadly passed away in 2018, but thanks to a Kickstarter campaign started by Mazzies husband and fellow Broadway star Jason Danieley, a recording of their final New York concert performance together lives on. Captured live at the pairs 2017 concert series at Feinsteins/54 Below, this truly special album features both Mazzie and Danieley revisiting songs from their Broadway careersRagtimes Back to Before for Mazzie and Curtains I Miss the Music for Danieleyalong with their takes on works by Kander and Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and more.

READ: Jason Danieley Opens Up About His Last New York Performance With Marin Mazzie and the New Enduring Album

Musical Film ScoresFrozen 2Why its on the list: More original songs by winning team Bobby and Kristen Lopez sung by some of the best voices in the biz

With songs by Broadway writers Bobby and Kristen Lopez and voice performances by Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff, Frozen has been a favorite among theatre fans since the film premiered in 2013. The entire crew is back this year for the follow-up film Frozen 2, which sees Anna and Elsa in an action-packed adventure that features even crazier vocal pyrotechnics than the original. This time, Groff gets a boy-band-style solo, Gad reminds us of his stellar comedy, and both Bell and Menzel have everyone wondering When are they coming to Broadway? Elsas new anthem Into the Unknown has been shortlisted for Best Original Song and the score has been shortlisted for Best Score at the Oscars 2020though nominations have not yet been announced. The The album also features a pop cover of Into the Unknown sung by Broadway Kinky Bootsalum Brandon Urie.

READ: 5 Standout Theatre Albums of 2018

More:

9 Standout Theatre Albums of 2019 - Playbill.com

The robots are coming! The robots are coming! On our sidewalks, in our skies, in our every store Over the next decade, robots will enter the mainstream of retail.

As countless robots work behind the scenes to stock shelves, serve customers, and deliver products to our doorstep, the speed of retail will accelerate.

These changes are already underway. In this blog, well elaborate on how robots are entering the retail ecosystem.

Lets dive in.

On August 3rd, 2016, Dominos Pizza introduced the Dominos Robotic Unit, or DRU for short. The first home delivery pizza robot, the DRU looks like a cross between R2-D2 and an oversized microwave.

LIDAR and GPS sensors help it navigate, while temperature sensors keep hot food hot and cold food cold. Already, its been rolled out in ten countries, including New Zealand, France, and Germany, but its August 2016 debut was criticalas it was the first time wed seen robotic home delivery.

And it wont be the last.

A dozen or so different delivery bots are fast entering the market. Starship Technologies, for instance, a startup created by Skype founders Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla, has a general-purpose home delivery robot. Right now, the system is an array of cameras and GPS sensors, but upcoming models will include microphones, speakers, and even the abilityvia AI-driven natural language processingto communicate with customers. Since 2016, Starship has already carried out50,000 deliveriesin over 100 cities across 20 countries.

Along similar lines, Nuroco-founded by Jiajun Zhu, one of the engineers who helped develop Googles self-driving carhas a miniature self-driving car of its own. Half the size of a sedan, the Nuro looks like a toaster on wheels, except with a mission. This toaster has been designed to carry cargoabout 12 bags of groceries (version 2.0 will carry 20)which its been doing for select Kroger stores since 2018. Dominos also partnered with Nuro in 2019.

As these delivery bots take to our streets, others are streaking across the sky.

Back in 2016, Amazon came first, announcing Prime Airthe e-commerce giants promise of drone delivery in30 minutes or less. Almost immediately, companies ranging from 7-Eleven and Walmart to Google and Alibaba jumped on the bandwagon.

While critics remain doubtful, the head of the FAAs drone integration department recently said that drone deliveries may be a lot closer than [] the skeptics think. [Companies are] getting ready for full-blown operations. Were processing their applications. I would like to move as quickly as I can.

While delivery bots start to spare us trips to the store, those who prefer shopping the old-fashioned wayi.e., in personalso have plenty of human-robot interaction in store. In fact, these robotics solutions have been around for a while.

In 2010, SoftBank introduced Pepper, a humanoid robot capable of understanding human emotion. Pepper is cute: 4 feet tall, with a white plastic body, two black eyes, a dark slash of a mouth, and a base shaped like a mermaids tail. Across her chest is a touch screen to aid in communication. And theres been a lot of communication. Peppers cuteness is intentional, as it matches its mission: help humans enjoy life as much as possible.

Over 12,000 Peppers have been sold. She serves ice cream in Japan, greets diners at a Pizza Hut in Singapore, and dances with customers at a Palo Alto electronics store. More importantly, Peppers got company.

Walmart uses shelf-stocking robots for inventory control. Best Buy uses a robo-cashier, allowing select locations to operate 24-7. And Lowes Home Improvement employs the LoweBota giant iPad on wheelsto help customers find the items they need while tracking inventory along the way.

Yet the biggest benefit robots provide might be in-warehouse logistics.

In 2012, when Amazon dished out $775 million for Kiva Systems, few could predict that just 6 years later, 45,000 Kiva robotswould be deployed at all of their fulfillment centers, helping process a whopping 306 items per second during the Christmas season.

And many other retailers are following suit.

Order jeans from the Gap, and soon theyll be sorted, packed, and shipped with the help of a Kindred robot. Remember the old arcade game where you picked up teddy bears with a giant claw? Thats Kindred, only her claw picks up T-shirts, pants, and the like, placing them in designated drop-off zones that resemble tiny mailboxes (for further sorting or shipping).

The big deal here is democratization. Kindreds robot is cheap and easy to deploy, allowing smaller companies to compete with giants like Amazon.

For retailers interested in staying in business, there doesnt appear to be much choice in the way of robotics.

By 2024, the US minimum wage is projected to be $15 an hour (the House of Representatives has already passed the bill, but the wage hike is meant to unfold gradually between now and 2025), and many consider that number far too low.

Yet, as human labor costs continue to climb, robots wont just be coming, theyll be here, there, and everywhere. Its going to become increasingly difficult for store owners to justify human workers who call in sick, show up late, and can easily get injured. Robots work 24-7. They never take a day off, never need a bathroom break, health insurance, or parental leave.

Going forward, this spells a growing challenge of technological unemployment (a blog topic I will cover in the coming month). But in retail, robotics usher in tremendous benefits for companies and customers alike.

And while professional re-tooling initiatives and the transition of human capital from retail logistics to a booming experience economy take hold, robotic retail interaction and last-mile delivery will fundamentally transform our relationship with commerce.

This blog comes from The Future is Faster Than You Thinkmy upcoming book, to be releasedJan 28th, 2020. To get an early copy and access up to $800 worth of pre-launch giveaways, sign uphere!

(1) A360 Executive Mastermind:If youre an exponentially and abundance-minded entrepreneur who would like coaching directly from me, consider joining my Abundance 360 Mastermind, a highly selective community of 360 CEOs and entrepreneurs who I coach for 3 days every January in Beverly Hills, Ca. Through A360, I provide my members with context and clarity about how converging exponential technologies will transform every industry. Im committed to running A360 for the course of an ongoing 25-year journey as a countdown to the Singularity.

If youd like to learn more and consider joining our 2020 membership,apply here.

(2) Abundance-Digital Online Community:Ive also created a Digital/Online community of bold, abundance-minded entrepreneurs called Abundance-Digital. Abundance-Digital is Singularity Universitys onramp for exponential entrepreneurs those who want to get involved and play at a higher level.Click here to learn more.

(Both A360 and Abundance-Digital are part of Singularity Universityyour participation opens you to a global community.)

Image Credit: Image by imjanuary from Pixabay

View post:

Retail Robots Are on the Riseat Every Level of the Industry - Singularity Hub

Recent research on longevity is making the idea of an elixir of life sound increasingly plausible. But a startup thats started selling a $1 million anti-aging treatment is most likely jumping the gun.

Libella Gene Therapeutics says it will administer volunteers with a gene therapy that it claims can reverse aging by up to 20 years, according to OneZero. Despite the fact that this is the first human trial of the treatment, the company is charging volunteers $1m to take part. In an effort to side-step the FDA, the trial will take place in Colombia.

The therapy will attempt to repair peoples telomeres, the caps on the end of our chromosomes that shorten as people get older. Its long been thought that they play a role in aging, and efforts to extend telomeres in mice have shown that it can delay the signs of getting older and increase healthy lifespan, though its yet to be tested in humans.

Libellas therapy will use viruses to deliver a gene called TERT, which codes for an enzyme called telomerase that re-builds teleomeres, to the patients cells.

Experts told MIT Tech Review that the trial is unethical, poorly designed, and presents serious risks to participants, including the danger of activating dormant cancerous cells. But its also still unclear whether the trial will go ahead, because the company has made previous announcements before without following through.

Whether or not it does, though, medical treatments to head off the slow march towards death are likely to become increasingly common. A growing body of research suggests that aging is an entirely preventable condition and that there may be a variety of ways to treat it, from lifestyle changes to dramatic genetic interventions.

In 2017, scientists showed that using drugs to reprogram epigenetic markerschemical attachments responsible for regulating the genomein mice extended their lifespan by 30 percent. And in 2018, another team showed that using a combination of drugs to kill senescent cellszombie cells that leak harmful chemicals, damaging nearby tissuecould boost the longevity of mice by 36 percent.

Famous geneticist George Church has even launched a startup called Rejuvenate Bio that will use proprietary genetic treatments to prolong the lives of dogs, though he has admitted the ultimate goal is to extend its technology to humans. Last month Churchs group at Harvard also showed that using gene therapies to tackle three age-related diseases at once was effective in mice.

The first anti-aging treatments for people are already starting to appear as well. CEO of longevity company BioViva Elizabeth Parrish injected herself with a gene therapy similar to Libellas back in 2015, and the company has claimed it was successful in lengthening her telomeres, though results were never published.

Earlier this year a study on humans found that a cocktail of drugs could reset the epigenetic clock, epigenetic markers used to measure a persons biological age. The participants also showed signs of a rejuvenated immune system.

And more controversially, the FDA recently had to put out a public service announcement telling people to stop injecting blood plasma from younger people. The idea is built upon recent research that showed a rejuvenating effect in mice, but most experts say its far too early to apply it to humans.

Whether the FDA will be able to keep on top of this burgeoning and highly lucrative market remains to be seen, but given the potential side effects of many of these treatments, it should be a priority.

We also need to have a more in-depth conversation about what these longevity therapies mean for society. Assuming this new trial is effective, what does it mean if only those with $1m to spare get to extend their lives? If treating aging becomes trivial, how is that going to change the nature of our communities? These are questions that may become increasingly relevant in the coming decades.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.com

Read more here:

A New Anti-Aging Therapy Is Starting Its First Human Trialand It Costs $1 Million - Singularity Hub

At the helm of Bogots Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, director Ramiro Osorio brings the best in performing arts for the capital. As the theatre approaches its first decade, intercultural dialogue, audience formation, youth engagement in the arts are among the many guiding principles of a theatre that transcends physical space.

The City Paper (TCP): Mr. Osorio, how would you describe Teatro Mayors accomplishments as it nears its first decade?

Ramiro Osorio (RO): This cultural center is among the most important of the city and has the unique characteristic of being both a public and a private entity. This allows us to generate interesting synergies and open our programming to endless possibilities. Our library receives a public of 60,000 visitors each month, this without including the 50,000 students enrolled in district schools who come here every month as part of the Cien Mil Nios al Mayor (100,000 Children to Mayor) initiative. Teatro Mayor has the singularity that comprises a library, a public park, two theatre venues and grounds to host events.

We receive close to a million visitors during the year, with resources for the library exclusively donated by the District. The theatre is a public-private agreement and the first experiment of its kind in Colombia. In this way, during nine and a half years, we have strengthened a model of cultural administration that guarantees longevity.

TCP: Does the success of preserving cultural patrimony and identity depend on the private-public model of administration?

RO: Co-responsibility is a key element as it permits cultural entities such as ours to commit to a long-term program with artists beyond local government time frames. At Teatro Mayor, we are already planning our 2023 cultural agenda with international acts and cultural organizations as all parties involved require planning and guarantees. Bringing great entertainment to Bogot is an expensive undertaking from booking a renowned soloist to operatic co-productions.

TCP: What role has Teatro Mayor played in positioning Bogot as a world-class cultural destination?

RO: The Teatro Mayor JMSD has become a brand and a reference around the world for hosting exceptional performances. Without sounding pretentious, we are a window on Colombian culture from the festivals we host to participative cultural engagement with diverse audiences. The role of citizens to enjoy and experience culture is an essential right and essence of public cultural policy. In order to deliver exceptional performances, we have to meet several requirements: design a program that caters to the rights of the general public to participate in their cultural expressions, provide access in the best possible conditions of equality to public services and infrastructure.

As we are a very diverse nation, and Bogot is home to people from all regions of the country who have a right to enjoy artistic references of their cultures, at Teatro Mayor we launch the great music festivals of the nation that take place outside of the capital, among them the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata, Mono Nez, and the Festival del Pacfico Petronio lvarez. This generates an identity effect with audiences who find in our theatre space of cultural values and traditions.

TCP: How does cultural inclusion influence the yearly program?

RO: It is a fundamental issue and one that guides the way we come up with every event. We consider a scenario like ours to be an extraordinary vehicle for citizen formation in the arts and nation-building. This is also why we emphasize so much on the dialogue between the many cultures that make up Colombia with those of the world.

National artists work alongside international artists from opera productions to joint concerts and lyrical duets. Without a doubt, word of mouth among artists based overseas, who talk of their experiences at Teatro Mayor and reference the city, allows us to engage easily with world-class orchestras, dance companies and other renowned cultural entities.

TCP: Using the Metropolitan series of live opera transmissions as an example, tell us about Teatro Mayors online digital expansion?

RO: As we have two theatres with fixed seating the main venue for 1,300 spectators and Teatro Estudio for 340, we cant expand capacity. What we aim for is a multiplying effect with technology by transmitting performances with Caracol TVs network and streaming though our own platform http://www.teatrodigital.org.

This permits us to present high-quality live acts like other great concert houses in the world. As of next year, every Thursday, we will offer free streaming of a performance. There have been concerts in which we have had at any given moment 900,000 viewers. If we take into consideration our physical audiences and online guests, 10 million have had access to our cultural line-up. This gives us enormous satisfaction because we want audiences to have an experience.

TCP: How can a theatre maintain interest with large audiences without becoming a fixture of the cultural scene?

RO: Festivals play an important part in generating peaks of interest through-out the year, and tailored presentations to those with specific interests. Take our Fado Festival as one example. This Portuguese art form has very consolidated followers, but what we have seen are audiences grow because of this genres extensive repertoire and interpreters. The encounter between artists and the audience in a setting that delivers an experience, and is friendly and generous, opens up personal spaces for cultural reflection. We try hard to transmit this to youngsters: the transformative power of art and culture in their lives. Since 2014 when we started Cien Mil Nios al Mayor, we have received more than 300,000 youngsters, many from vulnerable households. Next year alone we expect 65,000.

TCP: How do you see changes in your audiences? Is there a specific trend?

RO: Audiences around the world are aging, and the great challenge is how to draw in younger spectators. As a result, we are synchronized with many of the cultural events that take place in the city that dont necessarily involve the theatres infrastructure, such as Rock al Parque, Jazz al Parque, the Bogot Film Festival (Biff). When in 2012 UNESCO designated Bogot a City of Music, we set out to devise ways to promote musical movements, music academies, and open up spaces for creation and production. In 2013 we started the International Music Festival to take a profound look at the repertoire of a composer or significant time in music history. Held every two years, and with 60 concerts over four days, we have delivered Bogot is Beethoven, Bogot is Romantic Russia, and Bogot is Brahms, Schubert and Schumann. Our next edition in 2021 is Bogot is Baroque with an engaging look at Bach, Hndel and Vivaldi.

TCP: While a classical repertoire is essential to any theatre, dance also figures extensively in Teatro Mayors year-long program. What is the objective of Alma en Movimiento?

RO: It was created five years ago to give dancers visibility and help them perfect their art form. Next year, Alma en Movimiento becomes Teatro Mayors young dance company, and one of the few spaces in the city where talented dancers can grow and take that great leap toward their professionalization. The majority of our dancers who have passed through Alma en Movimiento perform with famous ballet companies in the world. As part of this initiative, we invite international choreographers to give master classes in genres from classical to contemporary and experimental.

TCP: With 135 events in the 2020 program and Canada invited as Guest Nation of Honor, what are some of the highlights?

RO: As mentioned earlier, its continuing the cross-cultural dialogue and covering a broad artistic spectrum from festival launchings to our Great Pianists series, family events and two operatic co-productions: Beethovens Fidelio conducted by Martin Haselbck and Mozarts Don Giovanni with musical direction by Mexicos Jos Arean. As members of Ola (Latin American Opera), these two operas are part of the 250th celebrations next year of Beethovens birth. Canadas acclaimed theatre company Robert LePage will stage the award-winning Ex Machina. The Winnipeg Ballet joins the program as part of the Canada year.

Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler and Turkeys Burhan Ocal Oriental Ensemble are fabulous interpreters of specific musical genres. We also welcome next year great pianists, among them Canadas Alexander Panizza, Khatia Buniatishvili (Georgia) and French Philippe Jaroussky, one of the most acclaimed countertenors of our times.

TCP: In a city with well-known mobility issues, how does Teatro Mayor cater to specific audiences that require assistance?

RO: Our weekend performances at 11:00 am and 5:00 pm are very family-oriented and popular with seniors. Many of these performances are free to the public or have reduced admission prices. We have to remember that access to culture is an inherent right of belonging to a society, and we firmly believe that by offering the very best, with great quality, we can enrich and transform lives.

View post:

Ramiro Osorio of Teatro Mayor talks about the importance of inclusive culture for Bogot - The City Paper Bogot

There are certain beers that seem ideally suited to each season: fresh, light saisons and malty maibocks are perfect for spring; sessionable lagers, citrusy hazy ales and fruity sours cant be beat in the hot days of summer; while autumn is all about fresh hops, pumpkin beers and Oktoberfest mrzens.

And then there are the malty, woody, big and boozy beers that many breweries release in the darkest depths of winter: hefty barleywines and richly extravagant imperial stouts that turn the alcohol dial not just to 11, but often close to 12%, or even beyond. These small-batch behemoths demand extra care and attention from the brewers who make themsome spend time soaking up even more alcohol in bourbon barrelsand when they are finally released, beer geeks obsess over them, often buying several bottles to age in their cellars, building up verticals to compare vintages in coming years, and debating which years version offers the best flavour profile.

The English barleywine tradition dates back to the 1700s when brewers intended it to replace wine at the dinner table because of conflicts between England and wine-producing countries such as France and Spain. It was brewed to over 10% ABV and then laid down in wood for a year or more to mellow its character. Modern interpretations by craft brewers are often much hoppier than the original would have been, even dry-hopped much like a contemporary IPA.

Russian imperial stouts originated in 18th century England as well, brewed as extra stout porters for the imperial court of Czarina Catherine the Great in St. Petersburg. They proved to be popular both in Russia and at home in England, and continued to be brewed well into the 20th century. Contemporary craft breweries typically make them as dark, thick and rich as possible. The happy discovery that the roasty, chocolatey and coffee flavours in these big stouts taste even better with a bit of whisky added to the mix has led many brewers to age them in used bourbon barrels as well.

One of the leading producers of these styles in B.C. is Victorias Driftwood Brewery, which has produced its Singularity Russian imperial stout and Old Cellar Dweller barleywine annually since 2011. Put simply, co-founder and so-called Wizard of Wort Jason Meyer says, We like making them because we like drinking them.

Meyer acknowledges that these big, boozy beers are challenging to brew. High-gravity fermentations put extra stress on yeast and require longer conditioning periods.

Extraction efficiency is terrible when youre making super high-gravity beers, he explains. Youre leaving a shit-ton of sugar behind in the mash tun because youre usually sparging only minimally.

And then theres the artificial limit of 12% ABV, created by federal excise dutiesabove that, the tax rate jumps considerably. With Old Cellar Dweller, Meyer tries to brew it as close to 11.8% as possible.

Weve got an alco-meter that we paid handsomely for to make sure that we are not over the duty threshold, he says.

Singularity is even more of a wild card because it is aged in single-use bourbon barrels, which add additional alcohol along with flavour characteristics. Driftwood favours Woodford Reserve Double Oaked bourbon barrels.

Theyve been showing up every year nice and wet, not leaking, reeking of booze, Meyer says. Thats really what were looking for: we want them to smell heady and boozy like they just got drained the day before.

Singularity sits in these barrels for about six weeks, just long enough to gather as much bourbon character as possible without too much tannin.

Kent Donaldson, co-owner of Whitetooth Brewing in Golden, attended a beer festival in Sweden in 2015 where he tasted an imperial stout unlike anything hed had before.

The way it was described to me over there was that all the farms would grow their own malt and kiln it over an open flame, so it was invariably smoked, and then they used juniper boughs as a filter bed. The combination of the smoke and juniper berries seems to go together so well.

When he got back he sat down with Whitetooths brewer, Evan Cronshaw, and described it to him, hoping he could re-create it.

He pretty well nailed it right out of the gate, Donaldson says. Its such a big beer but its super smooth. Its got a subtle smoke, but then astringency from the juniper berries. So viscous you could almost stand a straw up in it.

The result, Truth Dare Consequence Nordic Imperial Stout (10% ABV), is the current reigning champion in its category at both the B.C. Beer Awards and Canadian Brewing Awards. Its an annual release that is very popular at the brewery.

We limit it to one 300-mL glass because we find its just over the top for some people. You have to be really careful with it. It is quite the punch in the head.

Sounds fantastic! Too bad its only available in Golden, but then again, maybe its time to plan a trip there this winter. I hear the skiing is pretty good there

Howe Sound Brewing // Woolly Bugger

Driftwood Brewery // Old Cellar Dweller

Central City // Thors Hammer

Sooke Brewing Co. // Barleywine

Persephone Brewing // Barleywine

Bomber Brewing // Russian Imperial Stout

Dead Frog Brewing // Commander

Driftwood Brewery // Singularity

Howe Sound Brewing // Pothole Filler, Megadestroyer

Moody Ales // Russian Imperial Stout

Parallel 49 Brewing // Russian Imperial Stout

Strange Fellows Brewing // Boris

Twin Sails Brewing // Str8 Flexin

Read more from The Growler

Read more from the original source:

Here's a list of the best B.C. beers to drink in winter - Vancouver Is Awesome

A new generation of deception-and-denial ideas is needed to counter global monitoring from space.

We are accelerating, on the wings of 5G and long-endurance drones and low-earth-orbit satellites, toward a future where everyone will have easy access to realtime geolocation and even video of U.S. military forces. The countermeasures of past decades, from shutter control to careful timing of sensitive force movements, are all but drained of their potency. Powerful states and non-state actors alike will soon be able to track U.S. and allied military equipment, detecting patterns of training andoperations.

This phenomenon Ive called it a GEOINT singularity was not unpredicted. Nearly 20 years ago, a thesis titled The End of Secrecy by U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Beth Kaspar discussed the implications of transparency to U.S. military competitiveness and recommended a variety of activities ranging from innovating new doctrine and developing fast decision-making processes to integrating camouflage, concealment, and deception both vertically and horizontally into military operations. In her work, Lt. Col. Kaspar wrote, DoD should go back to basics and actively incorporate deception into all organizational levels and all levels ofwarfare.

Typical deception and denial techniques, such as camouflage, are well known to military operators and warfighters. But these ideas must be advanced in ways that adjust to frequent and continuous monitoring in various bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hyperspectral sensors can identify chemical elements from space and could, in principle, make a camouflage canopy stick out like a sorethumb.

The national security communitys attempts to maintain levels of opacity or surprise by limiting commercial space-based imaging have created a false sense of security and neglected developments that are not under U.S. regulatory control. Even today, exercising shutter control that is, ordering an American company to limit its overhead image collection at a certain time and place is time-consuming and cumbersome. Such requests must pass from the military operator to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Secretary of Defense, and to the Secretary of Commerce, who then notifies the company operating the satellite. And these limits have no bearing on high-altitude pseudo satellites, i.e., balloons; airplanes; international space companies; or, of course, foreigngovernments.

Subscribe

Receive daily email updates:

Subscribe to the Defense One daily.

Be the first to receive updates.

Better deception and denial techniques would allow the military to dispense with the increasingly irrelevant tool of shutter control, lifting the regulatory burden on the domestic commercial remote sensing sector and helping compete on a global scale. It would also allow commercial imaging to support public messaging for national security without revealing the capabilities of governmentsystems.

U.S. military operators should be investing now in programs to mitigate the effects of a GEOINT singularity. Advancing and developing new deception and denial techniques may appear costly at first. But the alternative may be more expensive; indeed, restricting remote sensing licenses now would simply delay the cost to a later time when existing methods have become ineffective due to the growth of foreign remote sensingcapabilities.

A dont look at me approach to maintaining a military advantage is not feasible anymore. Instead, operators need to find new ways tohide.

Go here to see the original:

US Forces Can't Hide from Ubiquitous Satellites. They Need to Fool Them. - Defense One

But then I hesitated. Maybe Id been too hasty, nabbing the obvious suspect without interviewing Miss Scarlett and Professor Plum. Perhaps there was an antonym within psychology literature or the Babel of options beyond my own glossary. Time to consult the crowd. Wisdom, said Socrates, is knowing you know nothing and the Greek strikes me as an intelligent bloke.

Albert Einstein, another bright spark, defined coincidence as Gods way of remaining anonymous. Cool then, if we could divine how God declares Their name in a singular event, then Bob was our uncle. I tweeted the question just as cops beseech the public, and waited for words of interest to arrive.

A trickle turned to gush as suggestions filled the screen, from singularity to disparity, from choreography to planning. Certainty and consequence came next, followed by fate and synchronicity, but none seemed a snug fit. Neologisms lobbed, ranging from nonincidence to cooutcidence. Not for the first time, my word quest had entered a mirror maze.

Not every rough has a smooth, yet English is home to a horde of esoteric antonyms.

Thats when the philosophers joined the debate. Azed a crossword syndicate in Britain tackled the matter in earnest: What we usually mean by coincidence is the absence of a causal explanation for two or more events occurring close together, i.e. it can only be explained by coincidence. Therefore, they concluded, the antonym must be causality, being the alternative explanation.

Compare that argument to Auric Goldfingers aphorism, the Latvian super-villain who tormented James Bond at Fort Knox, back in 1964. His take was simple: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time, its enemy action. Meaning the flipside of coincidence must be happenstance. Or enemy action. I cant tell.

Soon I came to see the sense of another Twitter respondent: Your questions like asking after the opposite of humans or television. Just because theres X doesnt mean theres unX, so to speak. Not every rough has a smooth, yet English is home to a horde of esoteric antonyms.

Moontan, say, applies to pallid skin, just as aestivate counterweighs hibernate. Overdog translates as favourite, while kempt was revived as a wry joke, only to return to the dictionary as the equivalent of tidy, just as underwhelmed has overwhelmed popular speech lately.

Leaving me with the likelihood of incidence, my initial suspect if I recall. It also leaves me the chance to say happy holidays, as a stand-alone utterance, unless you happen to reciprocate the wish, which would then verge on coincidental. Possibly.

davidastle.com

Read more:

Wordplay: That's what I wasn't going to say - Sydney Morning Herald

Its hard to watch a loved one get sick. Their eyes go glassy. Their breathing is punctuated by body-wracking coughs. Feverish and aching, they struggle to get out of bed.

Hard as these symptoms are to witness, theyre so familiar you dont need a medical degree to know its probably a bad cold and maybe the flu. Get some rest, hydrate, pop some ibuprofen, see a doctor if the symptoms significantly worsenand wash your hands, for heavens sake.

For most of history, however, even the finest physicians only slowly advanced beyond the basics of biology and medicine we take for granted. There have long been forms of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, but these were rudimentary at best and superstitious at worst.

The history of innovation is not that excitinguntil you get to the 20th century, Jane Metcalfe, cofounder of Wired and founder of Neo.Life, told the audience at Singularity Universitys Exponential Medicine in San Diego this week.

Since then, biology and medicine have been on a tear, Metcalfe said. Early last century, doctors mastered blood transfusions and complex surgeries. They began controlling and eradicating infectious disease with sterilization, antibiotics, and vaccines and found drugs to manage pain.

Then, around the middle of the century, scientists began amassing a deep body of biological knowledgeknowledge were now using to manipulate the fundamental processes of living things.

Its a familiar story, but one that suggests something radical. Just as physics and chemistry have given humans power over the world of the inanimate, biology is giving us the ability to engineer living systems, from viruses and bacteria to animals and people.

Which is why Metcalfe thinks design could be the next big thing in medicine.

Well combat disease and improve human health by designing biological systems from the ground up. We can design embryos. We can edit genes in humans. We have synthetic biology. And so we really are looking at designing future humans, Metcalfe said.

The best known bio-design tool to date is undoubtedly CRISPR genome editing. With CRISPR, scientists are closer than ever to manipulating genes down to the letter.

There are now a number of increasingly refined CRISPR-based systems, the latest of which, CRISPR prime editing, has been described as a word processor for gene editing. Meanwhile, the first approved gene therapies are making their way (at times painfully) into cancer treatment.

Just last year, Metcalfe said, the world was shocked to learn a scientist in China, Dr. He Jiankui, had used CRISPR to edit human embryos and confer immunity to HIV (and potentially other unintended traits in the process). He went even further by implanting the embryos, and the first genetically modified babies were born in China in 2018. Hes work was universally condemned by the scientific community as sloppy and unethical. Yet, another scientist, this time in Russia, has since made public his intentions to use CRISPR to edit human embryos too.

The ethics quite clearly havent caught up to the science, and the tools themselves are still being sharpened, but its likely only a matter of time before scientists, researchers, and doctors begin more responsibly snipping out disease-causing genes and, perhaps, even splicing in beneficial ones.

George Church is anticipating that day.

George is probably the most prolific bioengineer of our time, Metcalfe said. [There] are fifty different alleles that hes tracking that are beneficial to humans. These variants include genes that help protect against cardiovascular disease and Alzheimers disease. Others may improve memory and learning and extend your telomeres.

But our design abilities wont be limited to existing genes, Metcalfe said. Scientists are assembling entirely new synthetic biological systems from scratch too.

Were writing DNA codeand weve been doing this for a whilebut were starting to get good at it, said Andrew Hessel, Humane Genomics CEO and nanotechnology/biotechnology faculty at Singularity University, in a talk following Metcalfes.

Hessel pointed to Twist Bioscience a synthetic biology company that went public in late 2018. Twist manufactures short custom sequences of DNA (oligos) at scale. Customers can design and order sequences and have them delivered by Fedex. With tools like this, synthetic biologists have begun creating synthetic enzymes and proteins, some of which have even proven themselves functionallike their natural siblingsin bacteria.

Scientists are thinking bigger too.

Craig Venter, already famed for his work sequencing the first human genome, announced the first reproducing synthetic bacteria back in 2010. He followed up with a streamlined minimal synthetic cell in 2016. Boasting the smallest known genome, it has no natural counterpart. Then this year, another group announced theyd made synthetic E. coli bacteria with a four million base-pair genomefour times longer than Venters 2010 achievementand using just 61 codons instead of 64. Currently, scientists are working with yeast to make the first synthetic eukaryotic cells.

The ultimate goal is writing whole human genomes from scratch, and Hessel cofounded Genome Project-write (GP-write) to convene the worlds top synthetic biologists to do just that.

There are obviously big hurdles that still need clearingincluding software that can make design more accurate and efficient and DNA synthesis tools that assemble longer base-pair sequencesand Hessels group recently published a paper outlining the challenges. Nonetheless, Hessel said the group doesnt think any of these will take more than a decade to solve.

Literally in 10 years weve gone from making proteins synthetically to making a eukaryote, he said. As soon as we can start making whole chromosomes, well, weve only got 23 of them. Its not going to take very long until you end up bumping up against the human genome.

The pace of change in biology and medicine has been swift, Metcalfe said.

Researchers discovered DNAs structure in 1953, the first IVF baby was born in 1978, and we met Dolly the sheep, the first cloned animal, in 1996.

In just the last two decades, scientists went from sequencing the human genome at great cost and effort to sequencing it for under $1,000 in a day. Now there are an estimated million-plus complete human genomes on the books.

Weve graduated from complex and costly gene editing tools to tools that can be sold in a kit for a few hundred bucks. Scientists are building genomes from scratch and booting them up.

The question is no longer whether well be able to design our own biologythe tools are already herethe question is can we handle the responsibility?

This technology is going to touch every business, every sector, every government, every person, Hessel said. This isnt a presentation for now, its the start of a conversation with all of you for the future.

Image Credit:gustavo centurion /Unsplash

Original post:

Why Designing Our Own Biology Will Be the Next Big Thing in Medicine - Singularity Hub

Whats faster than autonomous vehicles and flying cars?

Try Hyperloop, rocket travel, and robotic avatars. Hyperloop is currently working towards 670 mph (1080 kph) passenger pods, capable of zipping us from Los Angeles to downtown Las Vegas in under 30 minutes. Rocket Travel (think SpaceXs Starship) promises to deliver you almost anywhere on the planet in under an hour. Think New York to Shanghai in39 minutes.

But wait, it gets even better

As 5G connectivity, hyper-realistic virtual reality, and next-gen robotics continue their exponential progress, the emergence of robotic avatars will all but nullify the concept of distance, replacing human travel with immediate remote telepresence.

Lets dive in.

Did you know that Hyperloop was the brainchild of Elon Musk? Just one in a series of transportation innovations from a man determined to leave his mark on the industry.

In 2013, in an attempt to shorten the long commute between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the California state legislature proposed a $68 billion budget allocation for what appeared to be the slowest and most expensive bullet train in history.

Musk was outraged. The cost was too high, the train too sluggish. Teaming up with a group of engineers from Tesla and SpaceX, he published a 58-page concept paper for The Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation network that used magnetic levitation to propel passenger pods down vacuum tubes at speeds of up to 670 mph. If successful, it would zip you across California in 35 minutesjust enough time to watch your favorite sitcom.

In January 2013, venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar, with Musks blessing, started Hyperloop One with myself, Jim Messina (former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for President Obama), and tech entrepreneurs Joe Lonsdale and David Sacks as founding board members. A couple of years after that, the Virgin Group invested in this idea, Richard Branson was elected chairman, and Virgin Hyperloop One was born.

The Hyperloop exists, says Josh Giegel, co-founder and chief technology officer of Hyperloop One, because of the rapid acceleration of power electronics, computational modeling, material sciences, and 3D printing.

Thanks to these convergences, there are now ten major Hyperloop One projectsin various stages of developmentspread across the globe. Chicago to DC in 35 minutes. Pune to Mumbai in 25 minutes. According to Giegel, Hyperloop is targeting certification in 2023. By 2025, the company plans to have multiple projects under construction and running initial passenger testing.

So think about this timetable: Autonomous car rollouts by 2020. Hyperloop certification and aerial ridesharing by 2023. By 2025going on vacation might have a totally different meaning. Going to work most definitely will.

But whats faster than Hyperloop?

As if autonomous vehicles, flying cars, and Hyperloop werent enough, in September of 2017, speaking at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, Musk promised that for the price of an economy airline ticket, his rockets will fly you anywhere on Earth in under an hour.

Musk wants to use SpaceXs megarocket, Starship, which was designed to take humans to Mars, for terrestrial passenger delivery. The Starship travels at 17,500 mph. Its an order of magnitude faster than the supersonic jet Concorde.

Think about what this actually means: New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes. London to Dubai in 29 minutes. Hong Kong to Singapore in 22 minutes.

So how real is the Starship?

We could probably demonstrate this [technology] in three years, Musk explained, but its going to take a while to get the safety right. Its a high bar. Aviation is incredibly safe. Youre safer on an airplane than you are at home.

That demonstration is proceeding as planned. In September 2017, Musk announced his intentions to retire his current rocket fleet, both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, and replace them with the Starships in the 2020s.

Less than a year later, LA mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted that SpaceX was planning to break ground on an 18-acre rocket production facility near the port of Los Angeles. And April of this year marked an even bigger milestone: the very first test flights of the rocket.

Thus, sometime in the next decade or so, off to Europe for lunch may become a standard part of our lexicon.

Wait, wait, theres one more thing.

While the technologies weve discussed will decimate the traditional transportation industry, theres something on the horizon that will disrupt travel itself. What if, to get from A to B, you didnt have to move your body? What if you could quote Captain Kirk and just say Beam me up, Scotty?

Well, shy of the Star Trek transporter, theres the world of avatars.

An avatar is a second self, typically in one of two forms. The digital version has been around for a couple of decades. It emerged from the video game industry and was popularized by virtual world sites like Second Life and books-turned-blockbusters likeReady Player One.

A VR headset teleports your eyes and ears to another location, while a set of haptic sensors shifts your sense of touch. Suddenly, youre inside an avatar inside a virtual world. As you move in the real world, your avatar moves in the virtual.

Use this technology to give a lecture and you can do it from the comfort of your living room, skipping the trip to the airport, the cross-country flight, and the ride to the conference center.

Robots are the second form of avatars. Imagine a humanoid robot that you can occupy at will. Maybe, in a city far from home, youve rented the bot by the minutevia a different kind of ridesharing companyor maybe you have spare robot avatars located around the country.

Either way, put on VR goggles and a haptic suit, and you can teleport your senses into that robot. This allows you to walk around, shake hands, and take actionall without leaving your home.

And like the rest of the tech weve been talking about, even this future isnt far away.

In 2018, entrepreneur Dr. Harry Kloor recommended to All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japans largest airline, the design of an Avatar XPRIZE. ANA then funded this vision to the tune of $10 million to speed the development of robotic avatars. Why? Because ANA knows this is one of the technologies likely to disrupt their own airline industry, and they want to be ready.

ANA recently announced its newme robot that humans can use to virtually explore new places. The colorful robots have Roomba-like wheeled bases and cameras mounted around eye-level, which capture surroundings viewable through VR headsets.

If the robot was stationed in your parents home, you could cruise around the rooms and chat with your family at any time of day. After revealing the technology at Tokyos Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies in October, ANA plans to deploy 1,000 newme robots by 2020.

With virtual avatars like newme, geography, distance, and cost will no longer limit our travel choices. From attractions like the Eiffel Tower or the pyramids of Egypt to unreachable destinations like the moon or deep sea, we will be able to transcend our own physical limits, explore the world and outer space, and access nearly any experience imaginable.

Individual car ownership has enjoyed over a century of ascendancy and dominance.

The first real threat it facedtodays ride-sharing modelonly showed up in the last decade. But that ridesharing model wont even get ten years to dominate. Already, its on the brink of autonomous car displacement, which is on the brink of flying car disruption, which is on the brink of Hyperloop and rockets-to-anywhere decimation. Plus, avatars.

The most important part: All of this change will happen over the next ten years. Welcome to a future of human presence where the only constant israpidchange.

Note: This articlean excerpt from my next book The Future Is Faster Than You Think, co-authored with Steven Kotler, to be released January 28th, 2020originally appeared on my tech blog at diamandis.com. Read the original article here.

Abundance-Digital Online Community:Stay ahead of technological advancements and turn your passion into action. Abundance Digital is now part of Singularity University.Learn more.

Image Credit: Virgin Hyperloop One

Read the original here:

Within 10 Years, We'll Travel by Hyperloop, Rockets, and Avatars - Singularity Hub

Theres a new technological answer to the iconic line youre going to need a bigger boat from Jaws: 3D printing one.

Last month, the University of Maine revealed3Dirigo, a 25-foot, 5,000-pound boat that set new records for the worlds largest solid 3D-printed object and largest 3D-printed vessel. Incidentally, it was created by the new titleholder of the largest prototype polymer 3D printer belt. If there isnt a belt to go with the title, the printer in question can surely print one in XXXL-size.

3Dirigo was printed in just three days. Dr. Habib Dagher, Executive Director of the University of Maines Advanced Structures & Composites Center, toldCNBCthat a typical development and manufacturing process for a craft of similar size could take months or even a year.

The speed of production and sheer size of the finished product illustrate how many 3D printing processesare climbing out of the Trough of Disappointmentin Gartners (in)famous Hype Cycle. Increasing development speed and new use cases point towards further advances in the coming few years.

While 3Dirigo itself is impressive, it will not necessarily hold on to all its records for long. The University of Maines new Big Area Additive Manufacturing Machine (BAAM) 3D printer is designed to print objects up to 100 feet long by 22 feet wide by 10 feet high, with a top printing speed of 500 pounds per hour. BAAM is a one-of-a-kind printer, and it will be used in connection with a variety of research and production initiatives, including rapid prototyping of civilian, defense, and infrastructure applications.

Mass-produced 3D printers are also growing, with many now capable of printing objects bigger than human beings.

The increase in printing sizes is likely a contributing factor to companies and organizations busily integrating 3D printers of all sizes in their setups. A report from Deloitte estimates that large public companies will spend more than $2.7 billion on 3D printingincluding enterprise 3D printers, materials, and servicesin 2019. In 2020, the figure will climb to more than $3 billion. 80 percent of enterprises taking part in a Sculpteo questionnaire said that 3D printing is enabling them to innovate faster. 51 percent of the interviewed enterprises said theyre already actively using 3D printing in production.

Early on in the lifetime of 3D printers, speed and precision were like opposing forces; you couldnt have both. Since then, much has changed, and continues to do so. Australian 3D printer manufacturer Auroras RMP-1 provides a good example. It can print up to 350kg of material (metal) a day, which is a 2,000 percent increase in speed over its previous model.

Printing speeds could be about to get into warp territory thanks to several ongoing projects.

A group at the University of Michigan is using light and photoreactive resin to 3D print objects at speeds up to 100 times faster than traditional methods. A little further east, MIT professors Jamison Go and John Hart are working on 3D printing hardware called FastFFF (Fast Fused Filament Fabrication). The hardware can print at ten times the speed most 3D printers work at today and can use biodegradable cellulose instead of plastics.

Incidentally, cellulose is just one of an ever-growing multitude of materials 3D printers can use today.

Speed and material flexibility are core to creating new use cases and leading to advances across industries.

One recent project uses a building block approach to creating whole organs. Much-famed Beyond Meat is soon going to have competition from Israeli startup Redefine Meat, who is printing a mix of fat, water, and plant fibers into something that will have the shape, texture, and taste of meat.

Another area where we are seeing rapid advances is 3D printing construction elements, and in some cases whole buildings. Like with boats, the process can be at least as fast as constructing a building by traditional methods. At last years South By Southwest festival, the start-up ICON showcased just that in the form of a 650-square-foot 3D printed house that cost under $10,000 and took under 24 hours to complete.

Although 3D printings advances are impressive, theyre unlikely to become the only way we produce things. Even with their new abilities, 3D printers will likely struggle to compete with traditional productions methods for jobs like printing out 100,000 identical spoons or metal-stamping a million identical parts. However, 3D printing is making it easier to create innovative products faster, tailor and customize products, and lower time-to-market.

As is often the case, its in combination with other exponential technologies that the printers could reach their full potential. For example, if we were to combine 3D printers with robots and let them loose. Imagine, as Danish GXN Innovation, The Danish AM Hub, and Map Architects did, mobile 3D printers capable of autonomous crawling, swimming, or flying, producing necessary parts on spec wherever they go.

If this nutty-sounding vision comes to pass, well be seeing stranger things than boats churning out of 3D printers. But then again, if youd heard just 10 years ago that a 25-foot boat was going to be made by a printer, youd never have believed it.

Image Credit: University of Maine

Read this article:

This Boat Was 3D Printedand Bigger, Wilder Projects Will Soon Follow - Singularity Hub

On November 23, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Cox, and Zawe Ashton of Broadways Betrayal will join Playbills Ruthie Fierberg in conversation on the 92Y stage. The stars will take a deep dive into their experience with the play (which marks each of their Broadway debuts) as they reveal behind-the-scenes insights, the singularity of the production and how it began, and how they balance theatre with megawatt screen careers.

Hiddleston is most famous for his ongoing role as Loki in The Avengers series. Cox made a name for himself with Netflixs Daredevil, and Ashton recently appeared opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Velvet Buzzsaw and debuted her own play for all the women who thought they were Mad at Soho Rep. And yet, all three are rooted in theatre beginnings. Join the trio as they share revelations about their careers, Pinters play, and each other. Click here for tickets and information.

READ: Betrayals Zawe Ashton Is the Broadway Star You Need to Know Right Now

92Y has also announced a new event tied to Broadways Dear Evan Hansen. On December 8, XYZ Presents a conversation with Broadways current Evan, Andrew Barth Feldman, and Tony-winning producer Stacey Mindich. The even will also feature a performance by Feldman. Click here for tickets and information.

READ: New Dear Evan Hansen Star Andrew Barth Feldman Brings Something Brand-New to Evan

On December 11, Tony winner Billy Porter takes the stage with host Fern Mallis to talk everything from Kinky Boots to Pose to his status as a fashion icon. Click here for tickets and information.

December 16 will feature A Tribute to Ntozake Shange with Hilton Als, Mahogany L. Browne, Toshi Reagon, Anna Deveare Smith, Jacqueline Woodson, and more. The panel, which comes just after the closing of the Off-Broadway revival of Shanges for colored girls..., is sold out but accepting wait list requests.

The rest is here:

Betrayal's Charlie Cox, Zawe Ashton, and Tom Hiddleston to Appear on the 92Y Stage - Playbill.com

Hobo Johnson and the LovemakersBogart'sA millennial on the cusp of Gen Z, Hobo Johnsons sound and style is suggestive of how music is consumed and regurgitated in the current era. The hodgepodge is a hyper-sensory blend of Hip Hop, Emo, Pop, Folk, Jazz and AltRock whipped together and given distinctiveness and singularity thanks to Johnsons colorfully multifaceted personality.

That magnetism comes out in his lyrics, which are a mix of hilarity and more inward-looking emotional honesty. But its his oddly charismatic and actorly vocal delivery that seals the deal. Part rapper, part spoken word poet and part performance artist, Johnsons voice sounds simultaneously as if hes on the verge of both cracking up laughing and breaking down crying. That charming brand of vulnerability the smart ass with a heart of gold makes it hard to hate him, though he has his share of haters, some of whom seemed almost startled and uncomfortable with Johnsons geekily conversational, nakedly confessional and awkwardly confrontational tone.

Johnsons rise is also fairly indicative of our times, where one viral moment can kick off a career that once would have required slogging it out for years. Born Frank Lopes Jr. and raised in Sacramento, California, Johnson self-released music online and worked the YouTube circuit. Cultivating his following DIY-style was working out just fine for Johnson, but last year he truly blew up thanks to his video submission for National Public Radio Musics Tiny Desk Contest. The clip featuring Johnson casually performing with his bandmates in a backyard didnt win the contest, which would have netted him his own Tiny Desk Concert (a hugely popular web series where artists perform intimate sets in the NPR Music offices) and a high-profile tour. But the attention the clip scored separately worked out pretty well for Johnson, who signed a major-label deal, went on large headlining club tours and, yes, was given his own Tiny Desk Concert.

Reprise Records released his third album, The Fall of Hobo Johnson (his last joint was The Rise of Hobo Johnson), in September and its trademark mix of comedy and neuroses didnt disappoint his hardcore fan base, though critics were fairly harsh, seemingly put off more by Johnson as a person than the actual music. Hes definitely a love-him-or-hate-him entertainer theres no Meh - hes OK with Johnson. Thats what happens when you put yourself out there without an Instagram filter hiding your faults.

Speaking of which, Hobo unveiled the best album promo of the decade when in early October he posted a video compilation of celebrities big-upping The Fall. The funny, very on-brand stunt featured testimonials and endorsements from famous/notorious figures like Charlie Sheen, Ron Jeremy, Jose Conseco, Andy Dick and Ice-T, all hired via Cameo, a service where cash-strapped (or just cash-hungry) stars earn a few extra bucks by filming personal messages for fans.

Johnson and his Lovemakers are playing Bogart's this Sunday, Nov. 17 with Mom Jeans, The Philharmonik and Nate Curry, but unless you have a ticket (or $99 for official "resale" ones), you can't go. The concert is sold out.

See the original post:

Alt Hip Hop Sensation Hobo Johnson is Playing a Sold-Out Concert at Bogart's This Weekend - Cincinnati CityBeat

This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga 978-1-5344-3100-3, $19.99, 200pp, hc) July 2019.

A novel or rather a novella that does find me part of its enthusiastic readership is Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstones first traditionally published collaboration, This Is How You Lose the Time War. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. This is the time-travelling queer epistolary romance I didnt know I needed. This is the time-travelling queer epistolary romance you should definitely read, because while Im not entirely sure I can do it justice in a review, I am entirely sure its an excellent work that if theres any justice in the world well see on awards lists next year.

El-Mohtar (Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Seasons of Glass and Iron) and Gladstone (award-nominated author of Ruin of Angels and Empress of Forever) have combined their striking talents in a slender volume thats as impressive and as affecting as it is brief. It starts with a letter marked burn before reading. Out of this unlikely beginning arises a correspondence that should never have existed, between two agents on the opposite sides of a war that stretches throughout time and space: rivals who know each other by their work. Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technological civilisation. Blue belongs to the Garden, a consciousness embedded in organic matter. They have bloody histories and theyre bent on futures where the other is dead, defeated, or never-to-have-existed at all. They have nothing in common.

They have a lot in common. Theyre the best at what they do. Theyre alone. They want to win but they also want to be seen by someone who can understand and appreciate what they have done and can do: they want the acknowledgement of knowing the best of the other side knows theyre better.

At first. It starts as a game. It starts as a battlefield boast. It grows into something stranger, stronger, fiercer, something that can say,

I want to scorch the thousand earths between us to see what blooms from the ash, so we can discover it hand in hand, content in context, intelligible only to each other. I want to meet you in every place I have loved

I write to you in stings, Red, but this is me, the truth of me, as I do so: broken open by the act, in the palm of your hand, dying.

Its an epistolary romance between spies. Of course theres betrayal, heart-breaking betrayal, one used against the other; of course theres striving, there are reversals, theres unexpected triumph, bitter and sweet and hopeful. Gladstone and El-Mohtar between them have built a precisely engineered marvel, cresting to a climax that takes every moment of what came before and infuses it with fresh meaning, gives it more layers.

I often dislike time travel stories. Paradox annoys me. Here the paradox is elegant and inevitable, as inevitable as tragedy but better. Here the paradox is the point, and it turns out that its a glorious thing.

With precise, cut-glass prose poetic and pragmatic at once deeply compelling characters, and a tensely rewarding conclusion, This Is How You Lose the Time War is one of the most striking works of fiction Ive read this decade. Im going to be thinking about it returning to it for months, at least. Read it, because I cant recommend it highly enough.

Liz Bourke

This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone; Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller, narrators (Simon & Schuster Audio 978-1-50828705-6, $17.99, digital download, 4.25 hr., unabridged) July 2019.

Who does not love an epistolary novel? Who does not love an epistolary novel where each end of the correspondence is written by a different author? Who does not love an audiobook production of a two-authored epistolary novel in which each correspondent is voiced by a separate narrator? If you are not sharing in this love, I do not want to know you. The steely but passionate voice of Cynthia Farrell enacts the role of Red, an elite operative of the Agency, an organization from a highly technological potential distant future; Emily Woo Zeller is her opposite number, taking on the role of the warm but ruthless Blue, an operative of the more organically inclined potential distant future of the Garden. Each of these two agents embeds herself in various timelines across time and space in an effort to ensure that her future comes to pass. After eons at odds, Blue follows an impulse and leaves Red a teasing letter, inciting a barbed correspondence that evolves over years into flirtation and love, and kicking off an asynchronous series of events that ouroboruses into an inevitable yet thrilling conclusion. Yes, okay, ouroboros is not a verb, and maybe using it as one gives too much away; but if you cant see whats going to/will have happened fairly early on, then youre really not paying attention. The point of this story is in the journey, which is poetic and lovely with a nicely dark tinge, and voiced in a way that feels true to the text.

Amy Goldschlager

This review and more like it in the October 2019 issue of Locus.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.

Continue reading here:

Liz Bourke and Amy Goldschlager Review This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone - Locus Online