Daily Archives: February 23, 2017

The Christian Retreat From Public Life – The Atlantic

Posted: February 23, 2017 at 1:33 pm

Donald Trump was elected president with the help of 81 percent of white evangelical voters. Mike Pence, the champion of Indianas controversial 2015 religious-freedom law, is his deputy. Neil Gorsuch, a judge deeply sympathetic to religious litigants, will likely be appointed to the Supreme Court. And Republicans hold both chambers of Congress and statehouses across the country. Right now, conservative Christians enjoy more influence on American politics than they have in decades.

And yet, Rod Dreher is terrified.

Dont be fooled, he tells fellow Christians in his new book, The Benedict Option. The upset presidential victory of Donald Trump has at best given us a bit more time to prepare for the inevitable.

Seeking an Escape From Trumps America

The last few years have confirmed an extraordinary cultural shift against conservative Christian beliefs, he argues, particularly with the rise of gay rights and legalization of same-sex marriage. Christians who hold to the biblical teaching about sex and marriage have the same status in culture, and increasingly in law, as racists, he writes. Their future will become increasingly grim, he predicts, with lost jobs, bullying at school, and name-calling in the streets.

This, Dreher says, is the inevitable fate for which Christians must prepare.

There was a time when Christian thinkers like Dreher, who writes for The American Conservative, might have prepared to fight for cultural and political control. Dreher, however, sees this as futile. Could it be that the best way to fight the flood is to stop fighting the flood? he asks. Rather than wasting energy and resources fighting unwinnable political battles, we should instead work on building communities, institutions, and networks of resistance that can outwit, outlast, and eventually overcome the occupation. This strategic withdrawal from public life is what he calls the Benedict option.

Drehers proposal is as remarkable as his fear. It is a radical rejection of the ties between Christianity and typical forms of power, from Republican politics to market-driven wealth. Instead, Dreher says, Christians should embrace pluralism, choosing to fortify their own communities and faith as one sub-culture among many in the United States.

But it is a vision that will not be easily achieved. Conservative Christianity no longer sets the norms in American culture, and transitioning away from a position of dominance to a position of co-existence will require significant adjustment, especially for a people who believe so strongly in evangelism. Even if that happens, there are always challenges at the boundaries of sub-cultures. Its not clear that Dreher has a clear vision of how Christians should engage with those they disagree withespecially the LGBT Americans they blame for pushing them out of mainstream culture.

The Benedict option is not a new proposal. Dreher has been tossing around this idea for roughly a decade, drawing from Alasdair McIntyres argument that continued full participation in mainstream society [is] not possible for those who [want] to live a life of traditional virtue. It takes its name from St. Benedict of Nursia, the sixth-century priest who created a network of contemplative monasteries in the Italian mountains and inspired generations of monks to seek lives of quiet reflection and prayer.

Americans have come to rely on middle-class comfort That is the way of spiritual death.

Dreher is not suggesting everyday Christians live in poverty and seclusion. Were not called to be monks. Monks are called to be monks, he told me in an interview. What we have to do is have a limited retreat from the world into our own institutions and communities. While some might see this as a means of running away from culture, Dreher argued that the Benedict option is not about bunkering down and waiting for the end times. Its about building ourselves up spiritually, he said, so we can go out in the world and be who Christ asked us to be.

The first step, he says, is to recognize that politics will not save us. While many Christians have sought defenders and champions in the Republican Party, including Trump, Dreher is skeptical of this model. Neither partys program is fully consistent with Christian truth, he argues.

Instead of looking to elected officials to create their communities, he says, Christians should do it themselves. This means getting involved: Feast with your neighbors, he writes, or join the volunteer fire department. It requires [seceding] culturally from the mainstream, including turning off smartphones and watching only movies and television that are consonant with Christian values. It even means deprioritizing work in favor of richer communal life. Given how much Americans have come to rely on middle-class comfort, freedom, and stability, Christians will be sorely tempted to say or do anything asked of us to hold onto what we have, he writes. That is the way of spiritual death.

This emphasis on localism extends to worship life. Prayer should guide the rhythms of the day and week, he says. Christians should view church as an opportunity to build communities and find fellowship, not just pray on their own. Even living in close proximity to church can help, he says. When the Orthodox Christian parish in Drehers small Louisiana town closed, his family moved to Baton Rouge. We knew that there would be no way to practice our faith properly in community while living so far from the church, he writes.

Above all, Dreher advocates institution building. He encourages his readers to pull their children out of public school and enroll them in classical Christian schools, praising a model developed in part by the North Carolina-based CiRCE Institute. Such curricula, which can be used by teachers or homeschooling parents, covers the canonical Western texts alongside the Bible, sometimes in direct cooperation with churches. Dreher envisions a more robust and sustainable Christian system of higher education, but for now, many students have created intentional communities on their campuses where they can live according to their shared interpretation of the Bible.

The Sexual Revolution has [deposed] an enfeebled Christianity.

As Dreher notes, a number of these practices are already embraced by other religious communities. We Christians have a lot to learn from Modern Orthodox Jews, he told me in an interview. Many of Drehers suggestions appear to echo Orthodox Jewish life, including daily prayers, restrictions on diet and work, and extensive educational networks. They have had to live in a way thats powerfully counter-cultural in American life and rooted in thick community and ancient traditions, he said. And yet, they manage to do it.

This comparison is telling about how Dreher perceives the status of Christians in American society. Jews make up less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, and Modern Orthodox Jews are a tiny minority within that groupPew estimates that they account for 3 percent of all American Jews, or roughly .06 percent of Americans. While its impossible to estimate the exact number of Americans who would identify with the ecumenical, theologically conservative Christianity Dreher describes, it is far bigger than the number of Modern Orthodox Jews.

It seems as though Dreher is saying that Christians need to be ready to live as religious minorities. But he fails to acknowledge an important distinction between the two groups, beyond mere size. Jews act like a counter-cultural, marginalized group because theyve been that way for two millenniapowerless, small in number, at odds with the broader cultures of the places where theyve lived. The American conservatives Dreher is addressing, on the other hand, are coming from a place of power. For many years, they dictated the legal and cultural terms of non-Christians lives. The Benedict option is relevant precisely because America is becoming more religiously fractured, and Christianity is no longer the cultural default.

Dreher is not embracing this fact, or even accepting it peaceably. His work is largely a project of lament. He speaks about Christianity in apocalyptic terms: the Sexual Revolution has [deposed] an enfeebled Christianity as the Ostrogoths deposed the hapless last emperor of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, and the greatest danger to Christians in the West comes from the liberal secular order itself. He prophesies dire scenarios for Christians in America: We are on the brink of entire areas of commercial and professional life being off-limits to believers whose consciences will not allow them to burn incense to the gods of our age, he says, warning that young Christians who dream of becoming doctors or lawyers may have to abandon that hope.

As a Christian, I dont see my sexuality as constitutive of who I am.

Most importantly, he writes with resentment, largely directed at those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and their supportersthe people, he believes, who have pushed Christians out of the public sphere.

We are on the far side of a Sexual Revolution that has been nothing short of catastrophic for Christianity, he writes:

This has had far-reaching consequences in all spheres of life. In the professional world, sexual diversity dogma is pervasive, he writesan attempt by companies to demonstrate progress to gay-rights campaigners. In the future, everyone working for a major corporation will be frog-marched through diversity and inclusion training, he says, and will face pressure not simply to tolerate LGBT co-workers but to affirm their sexuality and gender identity.

In politics and culture, we in the modern West are living under barbarism, though we do not recognize it, he writes. Our scientists, our judges, our princes, our scholars, and our scribesthey are at work demolishing the faith, the family, gender, even what it means to be human.

And in the education world, public schools by nature are on the front lines of the latest and worst trends in popular culture, he writes. Under pressure from the federal government and LGBT activists, many school systems are now welcoming and normalizing transgenderism. He cites scores of parents whose children come home professing bisexuality and offering a lot of babble about gender being fluid and nonbinary, as one of his readers put it. Few parents have the presence of mind and strength of character to do whats necessary to protect their children from the forms of disordered sexuality accepted by mainstream American youth culture, he writes.

Nothing in this language suggests that Dreher is ready to live tolerantly alongside people with different views. If progressives wrote about the Bible as a lot of babble about Jesus and God, using language similar to that of the parent Dreher cites, he would be quick to cry foul against the ignorance and intolerance of the left; his language is dismissive and mocking, and he peppers in conspiratorial terms like the LGBT agenda. At times, it seems like the goal of the Benedict option is just as much about getting away from gay people as it is affirming the tenets of Christianity. The book seems to suggest that mere proximity to people with alternative beliefs about sexuality, and specifically LGBT people, is a threat to Christian children and families.

These lives pose the question Dreher has not engaged: How should Christians be in fellowship with people unlike them?

Of course, it will be impossible for conservative Christians to fully escape any aspect of mainstream culture, including people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans. In fact, many of those people grew up in Christian households much like Drehers, or may identify with the feelings of cultural homelessness he describes. Their lives implicitly pose the hard question Dreher has failed to engage: How should Christians be in fellowship with people unlike themincluding those who feel aggrieved by the church and its teachings?

To his credit, Dreher nods to this, ever so briefly. The angry vehemence with which many gay activists condemn Christianity is rooted in part in the cultural memory of rejection and hatred by the church, he writes. Christians need to own up to our past in this regard and to repent of it. He does little to specify these past errors, though, and he never tries to answer the broader question: how Christians can live as one people among many in America without learning how to respect and relate to those who challenge their beliefs.

Its not hard to understand Drehers frustration and disorientation about Americas tectonic cultural shift. For many in the United States, sexuality has become so entwined with identity, he observed to me in conversation. This is what yields the comparisons to race: People who view sexuality as a fact of their identity may see Drehers beliefs as analogous to racism. But as a Christian, Dreher told me, I dont see my sexuality as constitutive of who I am. He is working from a different frame of reference, one that is increasingly out of step with Americans ways of thinking about culture. The fear winding through his narrative is anxious anticipation of a future when fewer and fewer public spaces will be open to people like him.

And yet, Dreher begrudges a similar fear in people unlike him, including LGBT people who have long wanted to live freely in publicsomething that was largely impossible when conservative Christians dominated mainstream American life. From this vantage, his Benedict option seems less a proposal for pluralism than the angry backwards fire of a culture in retreat.

Dreher wrote The Benedict Option for people like himthose who share his faith, convictions, and feelings of cultural alienation. But even those who might wish to join Drehers radical critique of American culture, people who also feel pushed out and marginalized by shallowness of modern life, may feel unable to do so. Many people, including some Christians, feel that knowing, befriending, playing with, and learning alongside people who are different from them adds to their faith, not that it threatens it. For all their power and appeal, Drehers monastery walls may be too high, and his mountain pass too narrow.

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Space travel is measured in light years, but what’s a light year anyway? – MyStatesman.com

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Stars and galaxies in outer space are just so far away, its hard to comprehend the staggering distances.

Scientists have come up with ways to measure space distance that are easier to understand.

A light year is one of those space measurements and is similar to how a mile or kilometer measures distance on Earth. Distances in space are so vast, though, that a mile or a kilometer is just too small a number to be useful, because of the huge numbers involved in space travel. Light years work better.

A light year is measured by the time it takes a ray of light to travel a given distance.

While a light year has nothing to do with time as we know it on Earth, it does measure the distance that light travels, or the time it takes the light to move in one year, according to NASA.

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Since light moves at about 186,000 miles or about 300,000 kilometers a second, it can travel almost 6 trillion miles or about 10 trillion kilometers in a year.

If people could travel at the speed of light, they would be able to circle the Earth more than seven times in just a second.

In one second, light travels a distance of one light second, and in a year, light travels a distance of one light year.

Related: Nasa finds 7 'Earth-sized planets' orbiting star just 40 light years away

The moon is a little over one light second from Earth, meaning it would take a beam of light on Earth a little more than a second to reach the moon. The sun, which is 93 million miles from earth, is measured in light minutes and is some eight light minutes away.

Mars is under 25 light minutes from Earth, depending on its orbit around the sun, and the other planets in the solar system are several light hours from Earth.

The Milky Way galaxy, for example, measures about 150,000 light years across. The Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy, is more than 2 million light years away.

How long does it take to travel a light year? Heres an example. The next closest star after the sun, is called Proxima Centauri. It is just over 4 light years away. If a spacecraft were traveling 38,000 miles per hour, it would still take 80,000 years to reach the star, according to the University of Virginia Physics Department.

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Katherine Johnson led African American efforts in space travel … – Farm and Dairy

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Hello Again,

I have always enjoyed history. Todays young folks dont seem to be too interested in studying history. They are more interested in the here and now and not how we got here.

The history of this country is an unfinished tapestry woven through time by people from all walks of life with incredible stories.

It has been my privilege to contribute to FSA Andy during Black History Month for many years now, and I will be forever grateful for having had this opportunity.

When the movie, Hidden Figures, came out I had no idea what it was about but when a friend told me I had to look at the history behind this story.

Katherine Johnson was born Aug. 26, 1918, and raised in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and while she is the main character in the movie, the story is much greater.

By the age of 13 she was attending high school on the historically black campus of West Virginia State College.

When 18, she enrolled in the college itself, and made quick work of the schools math curriculum. She graduated with highest honors in 1937, and took a job teaching at a black public school in Virginia.

In 1939, West Virginia quietly decided to integrate its graduate schools, and it was then that West Virginia States president, Dr. John W Davis, selected Johnson and two male students as the first black students to be offered spots at the states flagship school, West Virginia University.

Johnson left her job and enrolled in the graduate math program. At the end of her first session, she decided to leave school to start a family with her husband.

She returned to teaching when her three daughters got older, but it was not until 1952 that a relative told her about positions opening at the all-black West Area Computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Langley laboratory, headed by fellow West Virginian Dorothy Vaughan.

Johnson and her husband decided to move the family to Newport News, to pursue the opportunity, and she began work at Langley in 1953. After just two weeks on the job, Director Vaughan assigned Johnson to a project in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division and her position soon became permanent.

The next four years would be spent analyzing data from flight tests and investigating the crash of a plane caused by wake turbulence.

The launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957 would change history and Johnsons future. In 1957, she had provided some of the math for the 1958 document Notes on Space Technology, a compendium of a series of 1958 lectures given by engineers in the Flight Research Division and the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division.

Engineers from those groups formed the core of the Space Task Force Group, the NACAs first official foray into space travel. Johnson, who had worked with many of them since coming to Langley, came along with the program as NACA became NASA later that year.

She did trajectory analysis for Alan Shepards May 1961 mission Freedom 7, Americas first human spaceflight. In 1960, she and engineer Ted Skopinski coauthored Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position, a report laying out the equations describing an orbital spaceflight in which the landing position of the spacecraft is specified.

This was the first time a woman had received credit as an author of a research report. In 1962, in preparation for the orbital mission of John Glenn, Johnson Johnson was called upon to do the work she would become most known for.

The complexity of the orbital flight required the construction of a worldwide communications network linking tracking stations around the world to IBM computers in Washington, D.C., Cape Canaveral, and Bermuda.

The computers had been programmed with the orbital equations that would control the trajectory of the space capsule in Glenns Friendship 7 mission from liftoff to splashdown but the astronauts were wary of putting their lives in the care of the electronic calculating machines which were prone to hiccups and blackouts.

As a part of the preflight checklist, Glenn asked the engineers to get the girl Johnson Johnson to run the same numbers through the same equations that had been programmed into the computer, but by hand, on her desktop mechanical calculating machine.

If she says theyre good, Johnson remembers the astronaut saying, then Im ready to go.

Of course, Glenns mission was a success and marked the turning point in the competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in space.

When asked what her greatest contribution to space exploration was Johnson talks about the calculations that helped synch Project Apollos Lunar Lander with the moon-orbiting Command and Service Module.

She also worked on the Space Shuttle and Earth Resources Satellite and authored or coauthored 26 research reports. Johnson retired in 1986, after thirty-three years at Langley.

In 2015, at the age of 97, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Here at FSA, the time seems to be flying by so we want to remind you of another important deadline fast approaching. For vegetable producers, many spring planted NAP crops have a sales closing date of Feb. 28.

This includes soybeans for any county that does not have crop insurance coverage for soybeans. As always contact your local FSA office for details.

Thats all for now,

FSA Andy

Up-to-date agriculture news in your inbox!

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Commercial space travel WITHIN THREE YEARS on flights to launch from BRITAIN – Express.co.uk

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GETTY

A newly passed Spaceflight Bill will allow spaceports to be built across the UK, some of which could allow commercial flights.

The space travel industry is set to be worth 25billion in the next 20 years, and the UK is hoping to get its slice of the pie.

The Department for Transport said: Next steps involve government encouraging business and industry to come forward with specific proposals for space launches.

In addition, the government is inviting commercial space businesses to bid for funding to help create a space launch market in the UK.

GETTY

Together the new powers and funding will potentially allow a commercial spaceflight from a UK spaceport by 2020.

Science minister Jo Johnson said the Bill would cement the UKs position as a world leader in this emerging market, giving us an opportunity to build on existing strengths in research and innovation.

She added: From the launch of Rosetta, the first spacecraft to orbit a comet, to Tim Peakes six months on the International Space Station, the UKs space sector has achieved phenomenal things in orbit and beyond.

GETTY

Katherine Courtney, CEO of the UK Space Agency, said: With our partners across government we continue to create a supportive environment for commercial innovation and cutting-edge science.

Together, we are working to embrace the emerging small satellite launch market to capture a share of the 25 billion global opportunity.

GETTY

Im confident that 2020 will see the first launches from British soil, and were working hard to make that a reality.

Glasgow has already become a frontrunner in the bid to build the first spaceport and hopes to get a spaceport up and running by 2020.

Richard Jenner, Spaceport director for Glasgow Prestwick Airport, said: We believe that dedicated legislation will help to move this forward at pace.

NASA

1 of 10

STS-66 launched at the Kennedy Space Center on November 3, 1994.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport fulfils much of the essential criteria for a spaceport such as infrastructure, favourable weather conditions and relatively clear airspace.

And, as such, we believe that our airport is able to move at pace with the legislative process, and we are equipped to become the UK and Europes first space launch site with minimal investment.

We are confident we can help the government to meet its commitment to have space launch in the UK by 2020.

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TRAPPIST-1: How Long Would It Take to Fly to 7-Planet System? – Space.com

Posted: at 1:33 pm

The discovery of seven Earth-size planetsaround a nearby star, TRAPPIST-1, is certainly exciting news. But what would it take to visit one of these potentially Earth-like alien worlds?

TRAPPIST-1 is 39 light-years away from Earth, or about 229 trillion miles (369 trillion kilometers). It would take 39 years to get there traveling at the speed of light. But no spacecraft ever built can travel anywhere near that fast.

That said, people have sent some pretty fast vehicles into outer space. With today's technology,how long would it take to get to TRAPPIST-1?

Characteristics of the seven TRAPPIST-1 worlds, compared to the rocky planets in our solar system.

Given a spacecraft's speed, calculating the amount of time it would take to travel to TRAPPIST-1 is simple. Because speed is equal to distance divided by time, the total travel time must equal the distance to TRAPPIST-1 (39 light-years) divided by the spacecraft's speed.

New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft ever launched, flew past Plutoin 2015 and is currently traveling out of the solar system at 14.31 kilometers per second, or about 32,000 mph, according to NASA's New Horizons tracking page. At this rate, it would take the Pluto probe about 817,000 years to reach TRAPPIST-1.

NASA's Juno spacecraft actually flew faster than New Horizons during its approach to the gas giant Jupiter in 2016. With the help of Jupiter's gravity, Juno hit a top speed of about 165,000 mph (265,000 km/h) relative to Earth, making it the fastest human-made objectever (though New Horizons' initial speed was faster than Juno's speed after launch).

Even if Juno were constantly traveling that fast not just getting a speed boost en route it would take the spacecraft 159,000 years to reach TRAPPIST-1.

Voyager 1, Earth's most distant spacecraft, left the solar system and entered interstellar space in 2012. According to NASA, it is currently speeding away at 38,200 mph. For Voyager 1 to get to TRAPPIST-1, it would take the spacecraft 685,000 years.

But Voyager 1 isn't going there anytime soon, or ever. Instead, the spacecraft is heading for a different star, AC +79 3888, which lies 17.6 light-years from Earth. It will fly within 1.7 light-years of this star in about 40,000 years.

NASA's space shuttletraveled around the Earth at a maximum speed of about 17,500 mph (28,160 km/h). A spaceship traveling at this speed would take around 1.5 million years to get to TRAPPIST-1.

So for a human mission to the TRAPPIST-1 solar system, the space shuttle would not be a practical mode of transportation.

One ultrafast spacecraft that could reach TRAPPIST-1 in a much shorter time span is an interstellar mission dreamed up by Stephen Hawking in his Breakthrough Starshotinitiative.

Hawking's tiny, laser-propelled probes could theoretically fly as fast as 20 percent of the speed of light, or 134 million mph (216 million km/h). That's about 4,000 times faster than NASA's record-breaking New Horizons spacecraft! A spacecraft that fast could reach TRAPPIST-1 in less than 200 years. But that concept has yet to leave the ground.

An artist's impression of the view from a planet in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

With today's technology, there's no way that anyone alive right now could make it to TRAPPIST-1 in a lifetime. While discussing the new discovery at a news conference today (Feb. 22), NASA officials suggested that it would likely take at least 800,000 years to reach the TRAPPIST-1 system.

So don't start making any interstellar vacation plans anytime soon.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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This Finnish startup democratizes space travel and it just raised over 3 million to find the next ‘Slumdog … – Business Insider Nordic

Posted: at 1:33 pm

After the dismantling of the NASA-program, space exploration has shifted towards private players, led by the likes of SpaceX, Axiom, and Buzz Aldrin-backed Moon Express.

And now a Finnish startup and space media companyCohu Experience, is building the social and educational fabric of this movement. And it is using NASA's learnings in the process.

CEO Kalle Vh-Jaakkola says Cohu's mission is to "builda global community centered around space travel and exploration", andmake it possible for anyone to fulfil their childhood dream of becoming an astronaut with the help of Space Nation, a training app developed together with NASA astronaut trainers.

The company just broke a Finnish crowdfunding record,after raising3,2 million from more than 500 Finnish investors. The first million was raised in just 43 minutes.

The money will be used to launch a Space Nation training program in the the Fall of 2017, where candidates will compete through the app by proving theirphysical, intellectual and social skills.

The competition's best candidates will be featured in a TV show, as they go through a bootcamp that determines the ultimate winner astronaut.

We want it to be inclusive so anyone in the world can take part. We want to find those 'Slumdog' astronauts, Vh-Jaakkola toldSpaceNews, referring to the Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" about a teen from the slums who becomes an overnight success by sheer brainpower.

Axiom, a newly founded commercial space company,is one of Cohu's key partners, which aims to build the first private commercial space station at ISS. If everything goes to plan, Space Nation will be providing talent to man that station.

"Space Nation has been incredibly well received internationally. [..] After our launch at Slush, Forbes named us the #1 European startup to watch in 2017," says Vh-Jaakkola.

The project is backed by Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio fame, as well as Mike Suffredini, NASA-veteran and co-founder of Axiom. Further star appeal is provided by Finnish ice hockey veteran Saku Koivu, who is one of the earliest investors and eager about the project's vision.

"Space Nation is more than a space adventure. It unites people from all over the world to develop themselves and reach for their dreams. [The Space Nation training program] is already aiming at further financing from international investors," says Koivu in a press release.

There are many hurdles to pass before the grand plans turn into reality, but one thing is for sure: Peter Vesterbacka's enthusiasm will be the last flame to go out.Vesterbacka, who was key in building Finnish successes Angry Birds and Slush, said in a press release:

Finns are bold and have just the right amount of craziness to build a global phenomenon."

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This Finnish startup democratizes space travel and it just raised over 3 million to find the next 'Slumdog ... - Business Insider Nordic

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After Man? From Singularity to Specificity – Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) (press release) (blog)

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Posted February 23, 2017 by Mareile Kaufmann

When we discuss artificial intelligence, the digital technology that makes it happen, and singularity the idea that both of them will exponentially take over the progression of society we refer to them in singular. This is not a coincidence. Both, science and fiction have portrayed AI as a particular form of reason, digital technology as an autonomous driver of change, and singularity as a unidirectional technological revolution. However, none of them are necessarily as singular as they appear.

Singluarity represented by HAL, the rogue computer from Stanley Kubricks 2001: A Space Odyssey. PHOTO: Flickr.com/Rosenfeld Media

Rather, the different contexts in which digital technologies come to matter create a broad variety of knowledge and social effects. For example, digital technologies are currently used for predictions of any kind: from the spreading of pandemics to political elections and crime mapping. Not only does each of these predictions produce their specific societal effects: they influence whether or not we get vaccinated, for whom to vote or where to park our car. They also produce more complicated effects, some of which actually make us question their predictive power. Filter bubbles and fake news are just some of them. But what exactly makes these social effects complicated?

While the way in which digital technologies work is no longer intuitive to understand and question, the abovementioned effects also reveal that humans are still an important part of the game. And this complicates things. Digital technologies and the knowledge they produce are not as singular and independent of social processes as the term singularity suggests. After all, it is us who provide both data and context knowledge for predictions, and in many cases it is still humans who decide which parameters are included in prediction algorithms. This goes to show that the simplified idea of computer-versus-humans doesnt really hold. The production of intelligence through digital technologies doesnt happen outside social and political situations, but in relation to them.

In interviews I have conducted on predictive policing methods it became quite clear that digital technologies are closely linked to social and political situations. Both, police officers and programmers decide which crime data to collect, how to feed it into the computer and how to present the outputs of algorithmic calculations. All of these decisions taken by humans are part of defining which kinds of crimes police focuses on, even though the actual crime predictions are eventually generated by a computer. It shows that political and social data and context knowledge feed into digital technologies and influence the intelligence they generate. And vice versa digital technologies and the intelligence they produce again influence political and social situations in specific ways. One striking characteristic of digital technologies is, for example, that any knowledge they produce has to be calculable and captured in numbers. Even though this seems obvious, it still does determine and limit the ways in which digital machines can produce knowledge. For predictive policing this means, for example, that correlations and patterns are the main knowledge tools for algorithms to predict crime. This means that correlations and patterns influence actual policing decisions, for example where to mobilize personnel and which locations to focus on. In essence: how digital technologies work is specific to the social situation they are used in, and digital technologies create specific effects on society. This means that humans and machines co-produce the progression of society rather than dominating over each other.

Once we have understood how social situations are actually reflected in the way we engineer digital technologies and create digital knowledge, it may be more appropriate to explore the many specificities of the situations in which digital technologies and society influence each other instead of presuming a singularity.

Last month Morgenbladet published an engaging special edition on artificial intelligence. I followed up with an op-ed which was published in a later edition of the paper. This blog post provides further critical comment.

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After Man? From Singularity to Specificity - Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) (press release) (blog)

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Financial Leaders: Make Your Mark on the Future at Exponential Finance – Singularity Hub

Posted: at 1:32 pm

From digital currency to machine learning, the financial industry is being rocked by exponential technologies. Blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, quantum computing, crowdfunding, and computing systems are allowing startups to solve consumer needs in new ways.

The downfall of the worlds largest institutions may not be imminent, but these new technologies are breaking up the previously rock solid foundation of finance, and allowing the fintech world to spring through the cracks. Whats happening now will rewrite the future of finance for years to come. By recognizing this reality and planning for it now, financial professionals can learn to thrive in an increasingly uncertain global economy.

Singularity Universitys Exponential Finance was created to bring the financial services and tech industries together in a deliberate and meaningful way. Now, in 2017, Exponential Finance is the definitive place to learn, connect and collaborate with fellow financial leaders to reinvent the financial industry.

Exponential Finance 2017 will be held June 7-9 at the Marriott Marquis at Times Square in New York City. The event will feature world-renowned leaders who will share their insights on how exponential technologies are impacting the financial industry, as well as how you can grab a seat at the table.

CNBCs Bob Pisani will emcee, and speakers will include the likes of Mary Harman (Enterprise Payments Executive at Bank of America) discussing the latest trends in digital banking, Anju Patwardhan (Senior Partner at CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund and Member of Global Future Council on Blockchain at World Economic Forum) on blockchain and the future of our digital identities, and Peter Randall (CEO at SETL) on capital markets and digital banking.

These individuals will be joined by Peter Diamandis (Co-founder and Chairman at Singularity University), Ray Kurzweil (Co-Founder and Chancellor at Singularity University), Angela Strange (Partner at Andreessen Horowitz), Jane Barratt (Founder & CEO at GoldBean), Bill Bachrach (Financial Advisor Trainer), Lisa Kay Solomon (Managing Director of Transformational Practices at Singularity University) Neil Jacobstein (AI and Robotics Chair at Singularity University), John Bowen (Founder and CEO at CEG Worldwide), Roman Chwyl (Head of Financial Services Google Cloud), Ric Edelman (Chairman and CEO at Edelman Financial Services), Ashish Gadnis (Co-founder at BanQu, Chair of Financial Inclusion Working Committee at Wall Street Blockchain Alliance), and many others.

As Peter Diamandis wrote in his book Abundance, Technology is a resource-liberating mechanism. It can make the once scarce the now abundant. Its this sentiment that drives Singularity University to produce Exponential Financeto connect individuals and organizations and to share knowledge that will liberate resources and create abundance.

Exponential Finance will give participants an interactive and collaborative experience, and will send them home with an understanding of what the future will look like and how to act on it immediately. Participants will have the opportunity to see demos from more than 30 groundbreaking technology companies while connecting with business leaders from leading firms across the industry.

Apply here to join Singularity University and the worlds most forward-thinking financial leaders at Exponential Finance this June. Save up to 15% as a Singularity Hub reader.

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Remix tries its hand at the mobile-desktop hybrid OS with Singularity – Android Police

Posted: at 1:32 pm

Jide's Remix OS is all about offering Android apps with a desktop interface, with a bonus of relatively cheap mobile hardware. And while the company has been expanding its reach into more retail products, the latest project it's showing off is probably its most ambitious yet. The "Singularity" system allows users to plug their phone into a monitor, connect a mouse and keyboard, and run the familiar Remix desktop interface while the phone is still operating in its standard Android mode.

If all this sounds familiar, it should: Microsoft has been marketing something similar with Windows Continuum, Canonical briefly tried out the form factor with Ubuntu Phone, and various Android manufacturers have tried a few different flavors of the same idea - see the Motorola Atrix and its laptop dock. But Remix might have at least a ghost of a chance of getting this sort of thing to the mainstream tech audience, since it's loading all this desktop Special Sauce into an Android ROM that can be loaded onto existing phone hardware (so long as that hardware can handle video-out and some fairly high memory and processor load). Jide says that they're currently "targeting" the Nexus 5X and 6P for ROMs, and that the phone experience will be "as close to stock Android as possible."

Android Police's resident mech-head Ryan says that's a Poker 3 mechanical keyboard... which also means it's kind of useless, since it's unplugged and has no wireless capability. GOTCHA, Jide marketing.

At the moment there's no release window for Singularity, and technical data is thin on the ground, so it seems likely that this project could fall into relative obscurity like so many similar implementations. But we can dream: Jide has carved out a niche for itself in the unlikely Android desktop market, so if anyone can make it happen, it's them.

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Ascension cancer patients to benefit from community gala – Donaldsonville Chief

Posted: at 1:30 pm

Ascension Parish community members helped take the fight against cancer forward by hosting the second annual Gonzales Gala, Saturday, Jan. 28 at Houmas House Plantation and Gardens.

The $150,000 raised will benefit local patients at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Gonzales, as well as advance local flood relief efforts.

The Gonzales Gala is a signature event of the newly founded Gonzales Area Foundation, which was established by DeEtte DeArmond, Ronnie Daigle, Wendy Daigle and Melanie Boudreaux. The gala planning committee consisted of dedicated community volunteers, representing various industries and geographic locations, along with DeArmond and Ronnie Daigle serving as co-chairs.

Our committees mantra has always been: the more we give, the better life gets in Ascension Parish, and especially for Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center patients, DeArmond said. People we all know and love are being treated at the Center in Gonzales. And many of them have expressed to us how comfortable, convenient, and reassuring it is for them to be treated locally and receive the highest quality care. We want to ensure these services are always there for anyone in the area who needs them.

A sold-out crowd enjoyed a festive evening, including dinner, a live auction and musical entertainment. Speakers provided an update on the Centers progress and how funds raised will directly impact the more than 750 patients treated each year.

Mary Bird Perkins and St. Elizabeth Hospital have partnered for years to provide high-quality cancer services in Ascension Parish. Today, the Center offers the most advanced cancer-fighting technology and vital on-site services including nutritional and social services, early detection and outreach and patient financial counseling.

We practice without compromise, and we provide care for everyone who needs us. Fundraisers like the gala allow us to continue doing that, said Maurice King, MD, radiation oncologist at the Center. This generous effort makes a strong statement about the community, especially with the devastating flooding in Ascension Parishits a clear demonstration that the kindness, compassion and dedication toward neighbors transcends all.

A highlight of the event was the triumphant ringing of the Sound of Hope bell by a breast cancer survivor in front of all gala attendees. Ringing the bell after a patients last treatment has become a celebratory tradition at the Center, signifying completion of this phase of their journey and offering encouragement to others whose day has yet to come.

Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center thanks the many sponsors who made the successful evening possible, including: R.J. Daigle and Sons Contractors, Price LeBlanc Toyota/Nissan/Lexus and Houmas House Plantation and Gardens.

For sponsorship or ticket information for the 2018 gala, contact DeArmond at (225) 715-1561 or Boudreaux at (225) 803-6322.

Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center is a regional cancer care organization that has been fighting cancer for more than 40 years. With five centers in Baton Rouge, Covington, Hammond, Houma and Gonzales, its service area encompasses 18 parishes across southeast Louisiana. For more information, please visit http://www.marybird.org.

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Ascension cancer patients to benefit from community gala - Donaldsonville Chief

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