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Category Archives: Transhuman News

Gene Cloning Just Became A Thousand Times Easier – Wall Street Pit

Posted: July 8, 2017 at 8:45 pm

Presently, the process of DNA sequencing to discover a genes function is a bit time-consuming because it has to be done one gene at a time. But with the invention of a team of researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School, that process can now be considerably shortened as they have found a way to simultaneously clone thousands of genes.

The new technique is called LASSO cloning LASSO is an acronym for long-adapter single-strand oligonucleotide and through it, isolating thousands of DNA sequences can now be done at the same time. As a result, the new technology can supposedly expedite the creation of proteins the end product of genes which can in turn lead to faster discovery of new medicines and biomarkers for scores of diseases.

The technique is considered as quite an improvement over an existing method known as molecular inversion probes (MIPs), which can only capture about 200 bases of DNA. Raising this number to a thousand is especially significant because the typical size of a genes protein-coding sequence can reach up to thousands of DNA base pairs.

The technology works through a tool the team refers to as a LASSO probe. Using a number of these probes enables grabbing of target DNA sequences, similar with how a lasso (a rope) is used to round up cattle. What makes this special is the fact that with a single effort, the technique can grab thousands of DNA sequences at the same time.

In their proof-of-concept study, the team used their LASSO probes to simultaneously capture over 3,000 E. coli bacteria DNA fragments. They were successful in capturing around 95% of their gene targets. More importantly, the sequences were captured in such a way that allowed the researchers to observe and evaluate what the expressed proteins do.

As an added bonus, the team also helped solved a perennial problem in the genome sequencing field. As it is, genetic sequencing currently involves sequencing small fragments of DNA one at a time, then overlaying them in order to map out the entire genome. This doesnt just take time; its also harder to interpret and kind of prone to errors. With the LASSO probes, sequencing long fragments has now been made possible, which also translates to a faster and more accurate gene sequencing process.

As one of the researchers, Biju Parekkadan of the Rutgers University-New Brunswick, said: We think that the rapid, affordable, and high-throughput cloning of proteins and other genetic elements will greatly accelerate biological research to discover functions of molecules encoded by genomes and match the pace at which new genome sequencing data is coming out.

Going forward, the team is now working on improving the cloning process, building libraries and discovering the therapeutic proteins found in our genes.

The research was recently published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

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Gene Cloning Just Became A Thousand Times Easier - Wall Street Pit

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Paresh Rawal is proud to be politically incorrect – Free Press Journal

Posted: at 8:45 pm

Versatile actor Paresh Rawal is not just vocal about his choice of films, but also his political view. With the advent of Goods and Services Tax (GST), the film industry is also going through a tax change and has affected the livelihoods of many workers, especially in regional cinema. But Rawal thinks that if the movie industry had put up a united front then they could have convinced the government to change the tax bracket. I dont know much about GST, but the film industry is affected by it. First of all, we are dealing with piracy, which is a major setback to us and then with the advent of these web-portals, even my driver can watch a movie on his mobile. We dont have a unified voice. When I asked Siddharth Roy Kapoor (Producer) to take a united voice from Rajnikanth to Aamir (Khan) to Prabhas and even the Federation to go together and talk about the tax rate, no one turned up, says Rawal.

The south film industry seems to have taken then hit, as in addition to 28% GST they are also required to pay 30% municipal tax. The Guest Iin London actor will also essay the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but has not locked on a script yet. Talking about Modis relationships Rawal says, Camaraderie between PM Modi and Amit Shah is not as unique as you guys perceive. Modi has had many other meaningful relationships especially with his gurus in his formative years. Modi sahab hamesh akele rahe hai, vo kabhi bhi chamcho ke saat nahi baithe rahe hai. He doesnt believe in loose talks and will always be a loner.

When asked about controversial aspects of PM Modis life, Rawal said, With this biopic I am not worried about peoples reaction, I am concentrating on the events that happened in his life and what was the reason behind certain decisions that he took. We will even touch upon the 2002 riots and break peoples incorrect notions.

Rawal has never shied away from expressing his views on the political situation in India and recently even faced a lot of flak after he tweetedthat writer Arundhati Roy should be tied to an army jeep, suggesting she be used in a manner similar to theKashmiri man an incident which had occured in April. I firmly believe in whatever I said about Arundhati Roy. I am not afraid of repeating it as well. You cannot run down my country or my army. As simple as that. Let people say whatever they want, Rawal dismissed any relation to the tweet being a hate speech.

If we post something it is polarising, but her speech is not. If she had not said all that, then I would not have posted all this. From which angle do you think that what I have said is inciting violence? If you are a sympathiser of stone pelters and if I have tied you to the jeep then why would anyone throw a stone at you? Even the army will know how helpful Arundhati is to them, and even she will know what all the army goes through every day. It is a win-win situation, says Rawal.

Albeit with the incidents of hate crimes rising in the country, the actor doesnt believe in any religion or religious text to be the reason for violence. It is pathetic when you start believing in society being a temple and people as god, then such hate crimes wont happen. Since we are born we are thought about the teachings of Bible, Quran, and other holy books. Every book promulgates only good things, still, these books havent been able to influence them. Whether you are Hindu or Muslim, when you lynch someone you are killing a human being. We should bring out a strict law and judiciary should also implement it quickly, says the Member of Parliament.

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Profane veteran grapples with son, modern life in ‘The Reason You’re Alive’ – STLtoday.com

Posted: at 8:45 pm

Just about everything David Granger despises about a changing America, his son, Hank, venerates.

David is a profanely politically incorrect Vietnam veteran who rails against multiculturalism and anti-gun liberals and refers to hijabs as Muslim torture devices.

Hank is a young art dealer who must apologize for his fathers Archie Bunker worldview, telling one perturbed stranger that Dad needs help acknowledging his privilege.

Their relationship is a long, awkward Thanksgiving dinner with extended family that keeps veering toward politics.

And yet, David Granger cant cut off the conversation not with a granddaughter in the picture, the 7-year-old Ella with whom hes not too proud to share dainty playtime tea. Plus he cant just write off his son.

If he werent mine, I would probably despise Hank Granger, but he was the closest Id ever get to producing an heir, so my emotions continue to betray me.

In The Reason Youre Alive, David Granger must confront what divides him and his son. A car crash forces the matter, with subsequent medical tests revealing brain tumors.

Hank comes to his widowed fathers unwelcome aid just as his own life is careening off track. His wife, in his fathers words, has just taken off with another man forsaking her maternal duties for a sex romp through Europe.

Its funny, a miserable Hank tells his father. I tried to do the opposite of everything you did, Dad, and yet here we are, both alone.

Author Matthew Quick traffics heavily in such life-worn souls, oddballs trying but failing to reach one another, until circumstances leave them no choice. His characters dont connect so much as collide, more times than not with sharp comedic effect.

One of Quicks prior novels, Silver Linings Playbook, which became an Oscar-nominated film, pulls this all off brilliantly as a romantic comedy.

Its a formula that Hollywood continues to buy. Several of Quicks novels have already been optioned for film, including this one, months before its release.

That could be a turnoff in some literary circles, but in this case it shouldnt be. The role of David Granger may someday be played by an Oscar-hungry actor. But that shouldnt distract from the vivid, high-definition protagonist that already glows from the page.

Here, Quick sets David on a mission to come to terms with the demons of the Vietnam War as he seeks to return something of value to a fellow soldier, mysteriously known as Clayton Fire Bear.

Recollections of Vietnam and on Vietnam factor heavily in this slim novel.

David remembers how he and his own father, a World War II vet, are brought closer by that conflict. On the beaches of Normandy, David presents his father with a Rolex to replace the watch he lost in combat there.

Davids war, in contrast, has estranged him from a son he thinks knows nothing about the war or his life.

That candor and honesty gives this first-person narrative its potency.

It also supplies the humor, with David emphatically reminding us he is not a bigot or a racist, even as he tramples on societal discretion.

He marvels when his black friends bedroom has no leopard-skin blankets or black fists on the walls or red-green-and-black Africa cutouts or anything like that. Later, he asserts that you never see gays move into a neighborhood and make it worse.

Amid these cringe-inducing moments, Quick asks us to take a deeper look at David and his decency, most often expressed through his yearning as a grandparent. Hank also is forced to reassess his father, encountering unexpected revelations in the process.

At a hilarious dinner party, for example, Hank learns that his father has for years had a deep relationship with a gay couple, who sends him a card each Veterans Day.

But ultimately, this voyage of discovery has darker places to go. David must face truths about not only the war, but his deceased wife. More challenging still, the cantankerous father must share many of those truths with his seemingly distant son.

Still, this is not a story about crossing political bridges or of meet-me-halfway accommodations.

Theres no changing David, who will continue to call his Vietnamese friend a little yellow woman, as surely as his son will continue eating kale salads.

What this novel offers instead is a hope that we have the capacity to get beyond what offends us about one another.

Perhaps, at this particular political moment, thats plenty.

The Reason Youre Alive

A novel by Matthew Quick

Published by Harper, 226 pages, $25.99

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Weekly Recap July 8th: CNN Blackmail, More VidCon Drama, SJW Comic Censorship – One Angry Gamer (blog)

Posted: at 8:44 pm

(Last Updated On: July 8, 2017)

This was an action-packed week of nonstop drama. There was the resurfacing of a 2016 VidCon video featuring Anita Sarkeesian revealing that criticism does not equal harassment. There was a comic book aimed toward the progressive crowd that ended up getting censored because SJWs complained that it was too graphic, and CNN decided to blackmail a Reddit user for posting a meme featuring Donald Trump beating the crap out of CNN WWE style. These stories and more in this drama-filled, July 8th, 2017 edition of the Weekly Recap.

VidCon Reveals Anita Lied

So Anita Sarkeesian claimed in her blog post that Sargon and the other YouTubers harassed her just by making videos. This was in response to the VidCon 2017 incident where Sarkeesian called Sargon a Garbage Human. Well, it turns out that in a VidCon 2016 panel, Sarkeesian claimed that simply making videos criticizing someone isnt actually harassment. Busted. An awesome new game called Fight Knight is in the works featuring medieval combat in a first-person environment that works as a dungeon crawler. Explaining the game is tough but you have to check out Fight Knight because its awesome. And Mass Effect: Andromedas single-player DLC is still on hiatus, and it doesnt look like the DLC will be releasing anytime soon, if ever.

SJWs Get Comic Book Cover Censored

Social Justice Warriors caught wind of a comic book cover depicting a Pakistani mad mutilated and lynched over a sign. They attacked the artist, the comic book and the comic book company, claiming that the art was disgusting and despicable. The company, Image Comics, capitulated to the outcry whims and whines of the Social Justice Warrior community, and censored their comic book after apologizing. The Jak and Daxter collection is set to arrive on the PlayStation 4 sometime soon, likely in August or September. Red Dead Redemption is currently playable on the RPCS3 emulator, which is making great headway in making PS3 games playable on PC. Criminal Girls was banned in New Zealand for justifying and normalizing rape. Weve got a review up of Micro Machines World Series. And it doesnt look like Call of Duty: WW2 is coming to the Nintendo Switch.

CNN Blackmails Kid To Keep Silent

CNN has reached an all new low by blackmailing a 15-year-old into apologizing and staying silent. The situation has escalated to national levels, with CNN coming under fire from everyone, including a U.S., Congressman who has argued that they have crossed a line in blackmailing a U.S., citizen to stay silent. On a lighter note, theres an updated sex mod for Rimworld that adds monster girls to the game. Real tasty treat for weaboos. YouTube, Facebook and other social media sites will be fined nearly $60 million if they dont censor hate speech within 24 hours. Nearly half of all Steam users are rocking 1080p monitors, and less than 1% of Steam users have a VR headset. And speaking of VR not all VR-ready GPUs are actually VR ready.

Engadget Defends CNNs Blackmailing Attempt

Engadget has taken to defending unethical journalism by claiming that CNN did nothing wrong by blackmailing a Reddit user and threatening to dox him if he didnt stop trolling and posting memes of President Donald Trump beating the ever-living-crap out of CNN. Microsoft will be implementing the option to gift games to friends soon through the Xbox Store, but they dont say when just that the feature is not far off. Laytons Mystery Journey was recently announced for mobile devices and the Nintendo 3DS, and it features Professor Laytons daughter Katrielle. The PlayStation Experience is set to take place this year in Southeast Asia in August, and Firefall has officially shut down this week.

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Weekly Recap July 8th: CNN Blackmail, More VidCon Drama, SJW Comic Censorship - One Angry Gamer (blog)

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Norfolkan finds inspiration from Ron Paul, Founding Fathers – Norfolk Daily News

Posted: at 8:44 pm

Bruce Finley wasnt always interested in politics in fact, he once thought of politics and government as terrible, boring, uninteresting and unengaging.

That is no longer the case, as Finley has made his name as arguably Norfolks biggest outspoken critic of tax-increment financing.

Finley often attends Norfolk City Council meetings, particularly those that feature proposals relating to tax-increment financing (TIF) on the agenda. He regards TIF as a tax break for the wealthy and a handout for the purpose of getting them to improve their property.

TIF is used by the city council to take advantage of the downside of using property taxes in order to selectively pick winners and losers in the local economy, raise property taxes and look really good in the public's eye, Finley said. This fulfills most of the things the city council wants as long as the public never looks under the surface, or checks under the hood, or tries to understand how things really work.

Of course, there are other perspectives of TIF, too including that it is about the only tool a city or county can offer to help spur development and economic growth, which leads to increased property valuation and increased property tax revenue.

Finley doesnt reserve his criticism for TIF alone.

Direct confiscatory taxes like property taxes and income taxes were illegal until we passed the 16th Amendment, Finley said. We literally implemented one of Karl Marx's 10 planks of Communism right out of his Communist Manifesto as an amendment to our Constitution, and no one even talks about it.

Finleys views on TIF and other forms of taxation are heavily influenced by Ron Paul, a former presidential candidate and Republican congressman from Texas who is now a member of the Libertarian Party.

Finley, however, considers himself a political independent.

George Washington included in his farewell address a great discussion about political parties that is still very relevant today, Finley said. He points out that the spirit of party is the worst enemy of the many monarchies of his time, but an elective government with parties is not immune to becoming a frightful despotism.

While Finley has libertarian leanings, he is not a supporter of the party itself.

Libertarian Party politics are in direct violation of much of their libertarian views and principles as they covet such funding so strongly instead of opposing it when it clearly selectively supports the growth of two parties over all others, Finley said. This is a perfect example of money dictating the party's position instead of the party expressing the views of those it is meant to represent.

Besides Ron Paul, Finley cites George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin as inspirations for his political views.

They have done the most to teach me about what goes into the science of government design, Finley said. The Founding Fathers sought to teach us all everything there is to know about what makes a good government that serves the people well and what makes a bad government that seeks to rule the people and control every aspect of their lives.

Finleys interest in politics and government was spurred by a pair of events. One was his discovery of many online sources of information about the subject.

Once I started searching on the internet and getting my news from there, I was able to find ultra-informative articles every day that I could really sink my teeth into that had more cited sources than you can shake a stick at. Being able to click a linked cited source and instantly read it really is amazing when it comes to informative news and discussion, he said.

Another was the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, which contained provisions authorizing the indefinite military detention of civilians, including American citizens, without habeas corpus or due process.

(That was) what convinced me that I needed to commit to getting 100 percent active and involved, Finley said. It is my duty to my country, and all the people of the world, to help get people more informed to defend what should be universal rights and liberty everywhere.

Finley sees excessive taxation and the 2012 authorization act as examples of erosions on rights and civil liberties driven by big government and big business. He also refers to the corporate-government-banking collusion as a cancer.

Without our rights, we cannot protect ourselves from the corruption of big government, Finley said. This leads to big business and corporations lobbying for and buying up government power so that they can use it to destroy their competition in the marketplace and set up trusts between themselves and other collaborative monopolies to increase their profits as much as possible.

Finley also is opposed to recent trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which led to the creation of the World Trade Organization.

One-sided trade deals ... cripple our economy by making the markets extremely unfair for us, Finley said. How can we compete with the Chinese de-industrializing sweat shop slave goods when our businesses are forced to pay our workers a minimum wage?

At the end of the day, Finley would like to see other citizens getting more involved with local government.

People don't really bother to do their duty to hold their government accountable for its actions when they have an OK house, a nice family and a job that pays the bills with a football-game distraction on their TV, Finley said. How do we get them informed and involved?

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Ken Yeager: Remember when Silicon Valley was anti-gay? Not that long ago – The Mercury News

Posted: at 8:42 pm

Measures A and B. Anita Bryant. Rev. Marvin Rickard. The Los Gatos Christian Church.

When you say these names today you get blank stares. But in 1980 they were at the center of a battle for local policies protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination in employment, housing, and public services.

Back then, the battle for anti-discrimination protections was fought largely at the city or county level because there were no federal or state laws. Californias first such law wasnt signed until 1992.

One of the first measures was in Miami-Dade County in 1977. Opposition came swiftly from Anita Bryanta Miss American runner-up and Florida orange juice pitchwoman. Bryant founded Save Our Children, which led a highly publicized and successful campaign to repeal the ordinances.

Two years later, pro- and anti-gay forces collided in Silicon Valley when the Board of Supervisors took up the matter. Serving on the board were supervisors Dominic Cortese, Rod Diridon, Dan McCorquodale, Gerry Steinberg and Susanne Wilson.

Opposition quickly emerged. Led by Rev. Marvin Rickard of the Los Gatos Christian Church, hundreds of vocal opponents attended each of the six public hearings, far outnumbering supporters. The vote was 4 to 1 for the ordinance, with Cortese voting no.

With far less fanfare, the San Jose City Council then voted 6 to 1 for a city ordinance.

Opponents wasted no time gathering signatures to stop the ordinances from taking effect. The measures were placed on the June 1980 ballot. A yes vote meant you favored the protections; a no vote signified you wanted them repealed.

The campaign was ugly, with opponents getting funding and advice from the Moral Majority and Anita Bryants campaign. Vote no for the sake of our children, read their literature, adding Dont let it spread.

The San Jose Mercury News came out strongly in favor of the anti-discrimination laws. If the voters vote no, they will be saying, explicitly, that homosexuals in this community do not have legal recourse when they suffer discrimination.

The election was a blowout, with 70 percent of San Jose voters and 65 percent of county voters rejecting the ordinances. The message was clear: gays not wanted.

I was always curious how this could have happened in our progressive community. Did the supervisors not know that across the country such measures were being overturned? Did they not expect the religious right to come out in force to oppose them?

To answer these questions, Terry Christensen and I got the supervisors together for a special one-hour show on Valley Politics.

In brief, they said they were surprised at the fervent hostility the ordinance generated because they saw the issue as one of basic human rights, much like other matters at the time. Moreover, labor, the Democratic Party and liberal churches were in support.

Despite growing opposition, the supervisors never considered rescinding their vote because, as Supervisor McCorquodale said on the show, it would be too disheartening to too many people.

You can watch their conversation on YouTube by searching for CREATVSANJOSE, then go to Valley Politics. Or catch the show on Comcast Ch. 30 Wednesdays at 8 p.m and Sundays at 9 p.m.

Listening to the supervisors conversation, I felt proud of their legacy. They put their careers on the line to make sure that I and others had legal protections.

Whether gay rights in the 1980s or immigrant rights today, supervisors remain leaders for the underrepresented and disenfranchised, often ahead of public opinionknowing that in time, the public will catch up.

Ken Yeager is completing his final term on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors this year. Previously a San Jose City Council member, he was the first openly gay elected official in the county. He wrote this for The Mercury News.

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Early humans and Neanderthals interbred much earlier than once thought – Washington Post

Posted: at 8:42 pm

By New Scientist By New Scientist July 8 at 7:38 AM

Its a sex-laced mystery. If modern humans didnt reach Europe until about 60,000 years ago, how has DNA from them turned up in a Neanderthal fossil in Germany from 124,000 years ago?

The answer seems to be that there was a previous migration of early humans more than 219,000 years ago.

The thinking had been that the ancestors of modern humans diverged from Neanderthals and Denisovans between 550,000 and 765,000 years ago. While Neanderthals and Denisovans inhabited Eurasia, modern humans stayed in Africa until about 60,000 years ago. Then they entered Europe, too.

There is ample evidence of breeding between Neanderthals and the ancestors of modern humans about 50,000 years ago. Everyone knows Neanderthals gave us genes, says Cosimo Posth at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Leipzig, Germany.

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA from a Neanderthal femur found in southwestern Germany now adds to evidence that there was earlier interbreeding. The DNA in the energy-producing mitochondria in our cells is different from that in our cell nuclei, and is passed down only in the female line.

Puzzlingly, the mtDNA in Neanderthal bones is more similar to that of modern humans than it is to that of the Denisovans.

Posth and his colleagues looked at differences between the mtDNA in this femur and in other Neanderthals, and they used mutational rates to calculate that the bone is 124,000 years old. The approach also indicates that this Neanderthal split from all other known Neanderthals sometime between 316,000 and 219,000 years ago. Yet it still contains key elements of early-human mtDNA.

This means that modern human ancestors must have interbred with Neanderthals before 219,000 years ago and hence could have migrated out of Africa and into Europe much earlier than we thought.

We are realizing more and more that the evolutionary history of modern and archaic humans was a lot more reticulated than we would have thought 10 years ago, says team member Fernando Racimo of the New York Genome Center. This and previous findings are lending support to models with frequent interbreeding events.

The team says an earlier migration event is also compatible with evidence of archaeological similarities between Africa and western Eurasia.

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A scientist needed help studying Neanderthal teeth so he asked his dentist

Your Neanderthal DNA might actually be doing you some good

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‘Human fireball’ camper shows his painful blisters to warn of tent safety – Liverpool Echo

Posted: at 8:42 pm

A Taekwondo expert caught up in a horrific blaze while out camping has shared pictures of his painful blisters as a warning to others.

Geoff Bulfin, 47, and his partner Vicky were left with serious burns after a portable stove leaked gas into their tent and it burst into flames.

Geoff, a founding member of Blue Dragon ITF Taekwondo who have a centre in Birkenhead , could now face months of skin grafts at Whiston hospital.

He told the ECHO; It just took me by surprise. All I remember is a bang and big flames and that was it.

I didnt even realise I had burnt myself.

People need to be taught of the dangers of these camping stoves. I dont want to think about what could have happened if a child was nearby.

His friend, Alasdair Walkinshaw, 45 said the tent turning into a blazing fire ball within seconds.

He told the ECHO: I was getting ready when I heard this I heard this whoosh sound. I thought it was an airbed bursting.

Then I heard the screams half a second after.

I stuck my head out of the tent and Geoff was feeling his way out of the tent.

It was like a mushroom cloud of smoke.

Geoff emerged with flames all over him.

The accident happened during a Taekwondo trip to Shell Island on June 30.

Alasadair added: Vicky was still inside and Geoff tried to go back in to rescue her.

I did think she would be in serious trouble.

My daughters fiancs managed to rip the tent and pull her out.

Only the quick reactions of the few of us that had arrived, saved the situation from becoming much worse.

Vic was dragged from the tent with her hair burnt and suffering from burns to her leg.

Geoff on the other hand had taken the full force of the blast and had to lie under to tap of the water point near our encampment.

It was awful but could have been a lot worse. I did not realise Geoff would be the worse one.

Geoff, from Cheshire, decided to use a camping stove inside the tent when it was too windy to make a cup of tea outside.

But he didnt realise it was leaking profane gas into the tent in the moments before the accident.

Now he wants to warn other of the dangers they pose, particularly as people head off on camping holidays this summer.

The deadly explosion happened while around 50 members of the Taekwondo club were arriving to the camping site for the training weekend.

He said: I was wearing a bomber jacket and it melted.

I should have had more burns.

Geoff is recovering in the hospital after his miraculous escape and getting treatment for third degree burns to his hands and face.

His wife Vicky is now at home.

Alasdair said: A week ago he was walking his daughter down the aisle.

Nothing seems to get him down

He now hopes to raise money to help Geoff while he is off work recovering as he needs his hands to work.

You can donate here: https:// http://www.gofundme.com/geoff-vics-support-fund

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Mark Zuckerberg: The US Should Learn From This State’s Basic Income Program – Futurism

Posted: at 8:42 pm

In Brief Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg learned a thing or two about universal basic income from his recent trip to Alaska. The entrepreneur believes the rest of the U.S. should take a closer look at how the northern state makes basic income work. An Approach Worth Emulating

An excursion is always a learning experience. That was certainly true for Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan when they visited Alaska. The social media entrepreneur was impressed by the various social programs he found in Americas Last Frontier, particularly a basic income initiative that Alaskas been running since 1982.

The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) is a basic income program that allots $1,000 or more per citizen. [A] portion of the oil revenue the state makes is put into [the PFD], Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. Rather than having the government spend that money, it is returned to Alaskan residents through a yearly dividend.

Another basic income Zuckerberg learned about is by Native Corporations in Alaska. These privately owned corporations that develop land run and owned by Native Alaskans give annual dividends to to their native shareholders according to the resources they develop. So if youre a Native Alaskan, you would get two dividends: one from your Native Corporation and one from the state Permanent Fund, Zuckerberg wrote.

Under a universal basic income (UBI) program, individuals receive a fixed amount of income regardless of their social or employment status. UBI is an old idea thats become more popular recently as a potential response to unemployment due to automation, but it is not without critics. An issue these critics often bring up is funding. Zuckerberg was impressed by howthe Alaskan basic income model solves this. [I]ts funded by natural resources rather than raising taxes, he wrote.

This means that running a UBI program isnt impossible, at least in some cases. In fact, a number of countries already have trial programs to test UBI most notably Finland, which launched the program in 2016. Canada has two initiatives in the works, while Hawaii recently passed legislation that will study implementing UBI in the state.

In the end, Zuckerberg thinks its all about mentalities. [W]hen youre profitable, youre confident about your future and you look for opportunities to invest and grow further. Alaskas economy has historically created this winning mentality, which has led to this basic income, he noted. That may be a lesson for the rest of the country as well.

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Ghana enters the space race sending a satellite into orbit – Telegraph.co.uk

Posted: at 3:49 am

Ghana has become the first Sub-Saharan African country to send a satellite into orbit around the earth.

Ghanasat-1 was released from the International Space Station on Friday nearly a month after its launch from the Kennedy Space Centre on Elon Musk's SpaceX flight 11.

Around 400 people burst into applause at the All Nations University in Koforidua, when the satellite began its orbit.

Weighing 1,000 grammes, the Cubesat satellite represents the culmination of a two year project which has cost 40,000.

It is being used to monitor the country's coastline as well as helping Ghana enjoy the full benefits of satellite technology.

The satellite, which was built by students at the college is equipped with low and high-resolution cameras.

It is also fitted with a device which will make it possible to broadcast the country's national anthem and other independence songs from space.

Its progress is also being followed by the JAXA Tsukuba Space Centre in Japan.

Dr Richard Damoah, the product co-ordinator, said it marked a new beginning for the country. "It has opened the door for us to do a lot of activities from space," he told the BBC.

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Ghana enters the space race sending a satellite into orbit - Telegraph.co.uk

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