Daily Archives: February 28, 2017

Jami Attenberg’s funny-sad ‘All Grown Up’ all about the singularity – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted: February 28, 2017 at 8:20 pm


Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jami Attenberg's funny-sad 'All Grown Up' all about the singularity
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Andrea's friends are all asking her the same question: Has she read the book, the one about being single? Her mother buys her a copy. Old college friends post reviews on her Facebook page. I've been single for a long time, she says, there is nothing ...

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’10 Years of I Love Acid’ compilation comes on a 303-shaped USB stick – Mixmag

Posted: at 8:19 pm

I Love Acid is celebrating 10 years by announcing a compilation released as a custom designed USB stick shaped like a Roland TB-303.

Originally launched as an event in April 2007, with Luke Vibert, Posthuman and more at Corsica Studios in London, I Love Acid has since grown into a reputable record label supplying the scene with all forms of acid. Theyve hosted over 100 events since inception and now are commemorating the legacy with a collection of acid-tinged tunes.

10 Years of I Love Acid features 20 tracks from acid-loving producers like XXXY, Mike Dunn, Luke Vibert, Mystic Bill, Cardopusher, Posthuman, Chevron and more.

As the label focuses on showing love to the sound of the Roland TB-303, a tool commonly used in producing acid tracks, 10 Years of I Love Acid will be released on a 8G USB stick resembling the TB-303, crafted to fit and work with CDJs.

10 Years of I Love Acid will be released on March 31.

View the tracklist below.

10 Years of I Love Acid tracklist:

01. Neville Watson Sweatbox 02. Posthuman Brand Loyalty 03. Mike Dunn No Chaser 04. XXXY Blup Blup 05. TB Arthur TB1 B1 06. Mystic Bill Revenge Of The Preacherman 07. Cardopusher Out On A Limb 08. Hardfloor 36 Chambers Of Kikumoto 09. dyLab Let Us Rise 10. Kerrie Eerie Acid 11. Jared Wilson Tracking 12. Hannah Holland Tweak feat. Josh Caffe 13. B12 Wobble Boarding 14. Mark Forshaw Hes Not There 15. Jozef K & Wintersun Hyggeacid 16. John Heckle Days Of Atlantis 17. Chevron CYPUPB~B 18. Luke Vibert Jeepers H Christ 19. Transparent Sound Dancing Eyelids 20. Pye Corner Audio Dead Ends

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Ascension’s Texas Market Division Chief to Retire – Hospitals & Health Networks

Posted: at 8:18 pm


Hospitals & Health Networks
Ascension's Texas Market Division Chief to Retire
Hospitals & Health Networks
Jess Garza this month announced his intention to retire from Ascension effective Aug. 1, 2017. Garza's titles are senior vice president, Ascension Healthcare, Texas Ministry Market Executive for Ascension, and president and CEO of Seton Healthcare ...

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Ascension's Texas Market Division Chief to Retire - Hospitals & Health Networks

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Tech-Death Tuesday: EXOCRINE Shred Their Way To Ascension – Metal Injection.net

Posted: at 8:18 pm

Hey there tech-fiends, I hope you all enjoyed last weeks Ingurgitating Oblivion premiere. Next week will see another sick song premiere in this space, but this week I'm focusing onthe newly released Exocrine record. Before we dive into that, here's the usual reminder that all prior editions if this series can be perused here.

Back in 2015, Bordeaux, France natives Exocrine released their debut album called Unreal Existence. Unreal Existence showed a lot of technical skill and impressive musicianshipbut often felt unfocused and like a one-dimensional sonic mish-mash of their most obvious influences. Granted some bands can pull that take on tech-death off quite well, such as the new Phobiatic, but for others, it ends up being their Achillesheel. Even so, I had a feeling the band was more than capable of upping their game in the future so I was anxious to hear what the next Exocrine release might bring.

Now that theirnew full-length,Ascension,is out, the consensus is clear to me, the band have greatly improved and are crafting far more interesting and even further complex tech-death than they had been before. On Ascension, they play a hyperactive yet proggytake on tech-death that reminds me of a mix between Obscura, Beyond Creation, Necrophagist, Gorod, plus a bit of Beneath The Massacre, The Faceless, and Archspire. With some killer synth workthrow in the mix too for good measure.

This is a massive step up for the band in just about every way, the transitions between ideas are smoother, the songwriting is sharper and more focused, and the production sounds way better as well compared to Unreal Existence. If you dig the embedded stream of Ascension below, you can order the record through the Great Dane Records Bandcamp page. Be sure to follow Exocrine over on their Facebook Page too.

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Ascension Lutheran Church youth to hold Chilifest – Fond du Lac Reporter

Posted: at 8:18 pm

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The youth from Ascension Lutheran Church invite the public to their annual Chilifest dinner on March 11 to help raise funds for youth mission trips.

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For USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin 6:02 p.m. CT Feb. 27, 2017

Youth from Ascension Lutheran Church are pictured in Belize during a past mission trip.(Photo: Courtesy of Mark Rasner)

FOND DU LAC- The youth from Ascension Lutheran Church, 901 County V, in Fond du Lac, invite the public to their annual Chilifest dinner on March 11 to help raise funds for youth mission trips.

In the past, they have gone to Belize to do hands-on work with the local Jaguar Scouts, participating in various mission activities that changed many of their lives. Last year, the Chilifest dinner raised enough funds to do a reverse mission trip in which they brought the Jaguar Scouts from Belize to Fond du Lac to serve thecommunity. This year, they are looking for the communitys help to raise money for additional youth mission trips planned for this summer.

RELATED:Fond du Lac woman begins Peace Corps service in Costa Rica

RELATED:'Thin Blue Line' campaign supports law enforcement

The event will feature a silent auction with manyitems displayed prior to and during the event.A dinner of chili, hot dogs, chips and homemade desserts will be served from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m..Games will be available for the kids and the nursery will be staffed.The evening will end with a live auction starting at 7.

For additional information or to make a donation, contact Mark Rasner at 920-907-2990 or mark.d.rasner@ampf.com.

Youth from Ascension Lutheran Church are pictured with Jaguar Scouts from Belize, who came to the Fond du Lac area as part of a reverse mission trip in 2016.(Photo: Courtesy of Mark Rasner)

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Superintelligent AI explains Softbank’s push to raise a $100BN Vision Fund – TechCrunch

Posted: at 8:17 pm

Anyone whos seen Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son give a keynote speech will know he rarely sticks to the standardindustry conference playbook.

And his turn on the stage at Mobile World Congress this morning was no different, with Son making likeEldon Tyrell and telling delegates abouthis personal belief ina looming computing Singularity that hes convinced willseesuperintelligent robotsarriving en masse within the next 30 years, surpassing the human population in number and brainpower.

I totally believe this concept, he said, of the Singularity. In next 30 years this will become a reality.

If superintelligence goes inside the moving device then the world, our lifestyle dramatically changes, he continued, pointing out thatautonomous vehicles containingasuperintelligent AI would become smart robots.

There will be many kinds. Flying, swimming, big, micro, run, two legs, four legs, 100 legs, he added, further fleshing out his vision of a robot-infested future.

Son said hispersonal conviction in the looming rise of billions ofsuperintelligent robots bothexplains his acquisition of UK chipmaker ARM last year, and his subsequent plantoestablish the worldsbiggest VC fund.

I truly believe its coming, thats why Im in a hurry to aggregate the cash, to invest, he noted.

Sons intentto raise$100BN for a new fund, called the Softbank Vision Fund, was announced last October, getting early backing fromSaudi Arabias public investment fund as one of the partners.

The fund hassince pulled inadditional contributors includingFoxconn,Apple, Qualcomm and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellisons family office.

But it has evidently not yet hit Sons target of $100BN as he used his MWC keynoteas a sales pitch for additional partners. Im looking for a partner because we alone cannot do it, he told delegates, smiling and opening his arms in a widegesture of appeal. We have to do it quickly and here are all kinds of candidates for my partner.

Son saidhis haste is partly down to a belief that superintelligent AIs can be used for the goodness of humanity, going on to suggest that only AI has the potentialto address some of the greatest threats to humankinds continued existence be itclimate change ornuclear annihilation.

Though he also said its important to consider whether such a technology will be good or bad.

It will be so much more capable than us - what will be our job? What will be our life? We have to ask philosophical questions, he said. Is it good or bad?

I think this superintelligence is going to be our partner.If we misuse it its a risk. If we use it in good spirits it will be our partner for a better life.So the future can be better predicted, people will live healthier, and so on, he added.

Given this vision for billions of superintelligence connected devices fast-coming down the pipe, Son is unsurprisingly very concerned about security. He said he discusses this weekly with ARM engineers. And described how one of his engineers had played a game to see how many security cameras he could hack during a lunchtime while waiting for his wife. The result? 1.2M cameras potentially compromised during an idle half hour or so.

This is how it is dangerous, this is how we should start thinking of protection of ourself, said Son. We have to be very very careful.

We are shipping a lot of ARMchips but in the pastthose were not secure.We are enhancing very quickly the security. We need to secure all of the thingsin our society.

Son alsorisked something of a Gerald Ratnermoment when he said that all the chips ARM is currently shipping for use in connected cars are not , in fact, secure. Going so far as to show a video of a connected car being hacked and the driver being unable to control the brakes or steering.

There are 500 ARM chips [in one car] today and none of them are secure today btw! said Son. (Though clearly hesworking hard with his team at ARM to change that.)

He also discussed a plan tolaunch800satellitesin the next threeyears, positioned in a nearer Earth orbit to reduce latency and support faster connectivity, as part of a planto help plugconnectivity gaps for connected cars describing the planned configuration of satellites as like a cell tower and like fiber coming straight to the Earth from space.

Were going to provide connectivityto billions of drivers fromthesatellites, he said.

For carriers hungry for their next billions of subscribers as smartphone markets saturate across the world, Son painted a pictured of vast subscriber growth via the proliferation of connected objects which handily of course also helps his bottom line, as the new parent of ARM.

If I say number of subscribers will not grow its not true, he told the conference. Smartphones no but IoT chips will grow to a trillionchips so we will have 1TR subscribers in the next 20 years. And they will all be smart.

One of the chips in our shoes in the next 30 years will be smart than our brain. We will be less than our shoes! And we are stepping on them! he joked. Its an interesting society that comes.

All of the cities, social ecosystem infrastructurewill be connected, he added.All those things will be connected.All connected securelyand managed from the cloud.

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Donald Trump Will Call For a Return of Human Space Exploration – Inverse

Posted: at 8:17 pm

During his address to Congress Tuesday night, President Donald Trump will make a call for Americas space program to reemphasize human spaceflight and exploration, reports PBS NewsHour report citing an unidentified senior administration official.

PBS NewsHours John Yang wrote on Twitter that Trump will call for return of manned space exploration. Its entirely unclear what is meant by a return to human space exploration, and exactly what that entails different from current operations being pursued by NASA, which still regularly sends astronauts to the International Space Station.

Those remarks, if true, could go a number of ways during Trumps speech. The president may be referencing the fact that America itself has not been able to launch any astronauts into space from U.S. soil since 2011, when the Space Shuttle program was shuttered. The agency has since relied on Russian Soyuz launches to get its astronauts to the ISS even while U.S.-Russian relations have deteriorated to a new low since the Cold War.

The agency is seeking to rectify the problem with the Commercial Crew Program, which would hand over the task of ISS launches to U.S. spaceflight companies like SpaceX and Boeing. Unfortunately, the two companies have repeatedly forced delays on the program, which could put NASA in a fraught position of having reopen negotiations with Russias space agency to secure more seats on future Soyuz launches for another year or so.

So Trump may be calling for the United States to speed up the process of conducting its own crewed launches once again.

Tuesdays speech also comes a day after SpaceXs surprise announcement that it intends to send two private citizens on a flight around the moon and back in 2018. His remarks may be a simple allusion to this mission. Given how bullish many in his administration are on the prospect of increased commercialization of space, the president might simply plan to reflect positively on SpaceXs plan.

Another thread that these remarks might weave into may have to do with the idea of going back to the moon. Internal chatter in the administration suggests the president wishes to redirect some NASA resources toward a crewed mission to the moon. That plot thickens with NASAs recent initiation of a feasibility study that will consider turning its uncrewed 2018 Orion mission to the moon, into a crewed one.

Trump is expected to deliver his speech at 9 p.m. Eastern. Itll be on every channel, probably.

Photos via Getty Images / Pool

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Darlington power plant helps fuel NASA’s space exploration – CTV News

Posted: at 8:17 pm

Rachael D'Amore, CTV Toronto Published Tuesday, February 28, 2017 6:21PM EST Last Updated Tuesday, February 28, 2017 7:14PM EST

A local nuclear plant is stepping up to ensure NASAs ongoing exploration of deep space continues for years to come.

CTV News Toronto has learned that the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Clarington, Ont. will produce and harvest Plutonium-238, a spacecraft fueling agent, for NASA.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and its venture arm, Canadian Nuclear Partners, have teamed up to fill the gap left after the United States stopped producing the glowing oxide pellet back in 1988.

Since then, their main source of Plutonium-238 dwindled and, aside from two remaining fuel packs, have practically dried up.

Now, NASA is teaming up with OPGs nuclear facilities to replenish their inventory and fuel their existing (and future) fleet of space probes.

Plutonium-238 acts like a battery to space craft. By emitting steady heat through natural radioactive decay, it produces electricity aboard the craft to fuel it and keep scientific equipment warm enough to function in space.

Space probes like the illustrious Voyager 1 -- which left Earth more than 40 years ago to explore Jupiter and Saturn and now floats beyond Pluto -- requires Plutonium-238 for power.

With more than 19 billion kilometers between Voyager 1 and the sun, it can take hours for the craft's signals to reach the station on Earth.

Without the spacecrafts Plutonium-238 batteries, none of this would be possible.

"Spacecraft's usually use the sun to provide electricity to solar panels but that only works in the inner solar system," Randy Attwood, of the Royal Astronomical Society, told CTV News Toronto.

"Once we send spacecrafts out beyond Jupiter, there's not enough sunlight out there to provide enough electricity to allow the spacecraft to work."

A source tells CTV News Toronto that the proposed plan would have rods produced by Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) in Washington State and shipped to Darlington where they would be inserted into the reactor core to produce the Plutonium-238.

The next time the rods need to be refueled, the new partly-Canadian made space batteries would be inserted.

The collaboration with PNNL is expected to be more efficient both for costs and timing than alternative routes.

Unlike Plutonium-239, the 238 isotope is not weapons grade, thus practically impossible to use for a nuclear bomb and safe to move when handled properly.

Though it will take several years before the process gets underway, one day, Ontarians will be able to look up into the night sky and know that local technology played a role in the exploration of space.

With files from Paul Bliss.

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How psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD actually change the way people see the world – Businessinsider India

Posted: at 8:16 pm

Psychedelic substances like LSD and psilocybin - the active ingredient in magic mushrooms - are powerful, able to transform the way that people who use them perceivethe world.

Because of that, after years of prohibition, psychiatric researchers in the US are hoping to take advantage of that power to transform mental health treatment.

And as the new documentary " A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin " shows, the results we've seen so far are powerful. Perhaps most interestingly, the film shows how these substances transformthe people who undergo this therapy.

"Psilocybin does in 30 seconds what antidepressants take three to four weeks to do," David Nutt , a professor of neuropsychopharmacology in the division of brain sciences at Imperial College London explains in the film. Researchers have found that a single dose of psilocybin accompanied by therapy can have a transformational effect on mental health - like a "surgical intervention" - able to treat even cases of depression and anxiety that resist standard treatment.

The film follows the researchers and study participants that are at the forefront of this modern era of psychedelic study. Cancer patients facing distress about end of life talk about how their experience helps them overcome that distress and accept their condition. Healthy volunteers who took psilocybin for the first time to help show that it can be used safely in a therapeutic setting describe the way the "trip" changed their perception.

It's fascinating to see.

On a basic level, a part of the brain that seems to coordinate mood and is very active in cases of depression seems to basically stop acting for a time, allowing connections to form between regions of the brain that rarely communicate with each other. This mimics an effect seen in the minds of long term meditators. Something in this experience seems to cause the "trippy" effects of the drug, which participants in this research undergowhile listening to music and sitting with trained observers.

"In terms of whether these agents cause hallucinations, they're a little bit misclassified, a hallucination is an experience in some sensory phenomenon based on a stimuli that doesn't exist in reality, it's internally generated," says Stephen Ross , an associate professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, in an interview in the film. "Versus an illusion would be looking at the wall and the wall is melting, that would be an illusion, and these drugs tend to cause more illusions than frank hallucinations, they alter how we perceive real stimuli."

In order to cause these effects, these drugs activate serotonin 2-A receptors, explains David Nichols, president and co-founder of the Heffter Research Institute.

But something about this experience- the brain activation, illusions, and hallucinations - seems to do something more profound that's harder to understand. It's able to reliably cause what researchers call a "mystical experience." That experience is strongly linked with lasting effects.

"It was like you're at the top of a roller coaster and you're about to go down and I remember inside myself saying, 'I'm taking my mind with me, I don't know where I'm going but I'm taking my mind with me' ... and I felt okay and off I went," says Sandy, one of the healthy volunteers who tried psilocybin for the first time, describing her experience.

People return from that journey changed.

"When we came back it was like someone had put on a light bulb inside Annie's head, she was literally glowing," says the husband of one terminally ill patient in one of these psilocybin studies at UCLA. "I felt wonderful, I think it's an incredibly useful tool ... what we did, it probably would have taken me years of therapy," she agrees.

You can watch the trailer for the film below and a current version of it can be rented from Vimeo .

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Album Review: UNEARTHLY TRANCE Stalking The Ghost – Metal Injection.net

Posted: at 8:14 pm

Unearthly Trance had quite a run from 2000 to 2012; five albums and a plethora of splits with bands like the mighty Endless Blockade and Minsk, along with several demos and a few solo EPs. But then they decided to call it off and Serpentine Path happened. Nothing wrong with that, always sad to see a good band go, but Serpentine Path has been plenty good. And then a 2015 announcement came. Unearthly Trance were back in business.

Having been around for over thirty years, I get it when someone or ones want to hang it up and move on. Its the natural progression of life. New things come along and you sink into them whether out of comfort or bitter acceptance. Its easy to think that nostalgia is sometimes wringing blood from the stones but Unearthly Trance really werent gone for very long. Stalking the Ghost is their sixth full-length and first one in six-and-a-half years.

Stalking the Ghost is familiar territory. Unearthly Trance didnt seem to step away to try and find a breath of fresh air or let ideas stew. And the album doesnt sound rushed either. Its like a reunion of old ideals/expectations done right. I mean, its doomy/sludge done well without trying to dial in the harshest distortion ever. More so, its the moodiness that Unearthly Trance dials in that keeps you there, adrift.

The album opens on Into the Spiral, a slow banger that never goes for an assault, but also gives us no introduction or b.s. build up. Its immediately groovy and heavy, setting the mood perfectly. But it may also feel a bit misleading because from here on out Stalking the Ghost actually sounds more like its being played in a dark, empty haunted house.

Its more of an ethereal experience. Its the moody, heavy band come back to haunt. Its infectious sometimes, and Unearthly Trance can do a great job of, well, putting you in a trance. Sometimes songs get a little faster (Famine) but, as youd expect, its the emphasis on the slower.

Whats more, slower music does run the risk of losing attention and Ill admit that I drifted off almost every time I have spun this record. Its likely my attention span but Stalking the Ghost isnt reinventing the wheel either. The final two tracks are what really lost me. It reached a point where it felt more like a slog.

Honesty, if you really want to get into this I suggest some herb. Its a heavy album that needs mediation and a spacey disposition. I think its most appreciate that way. But that could go on a case-by-case scenario. And as far as cases go, Stalking the Ghost is a good album. Doom/sludge fans will find this not terribly aggressive or noisy but plenty heavy. And it doesnt need to be. Its got a Neurosis/Yob fusion that can draw you in. Its not the end-all or grand evolution of the doom/sludge genre, but it is a good incantation.

Score: 7/10

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