Reposted via F&O Forgotten Nobility
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
sonoanthony: follow-the-journey: scottfriday: soul-angelos: D...
http://ift.tt/1iRSeAO
Reposted via F&O Forgotten Nobility
Dark times all around but there are still people out there who love you
Do not hurt yourself, do not hurt others, get help, talk to someone, anyone. Humanity has survived before and we can do it now if we all just support each other. My country and my people let me down and endangered my life but there’s nothing I or anyone else can do about that so let’s try to spread the love that is so clearly lacking.here for this.
#same
!!!
Of course
Reposted via F&O Forgotten Nobility
Four Ways Blockchain Could Aid Governments
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Reposted via A Smarter Planet Blog
Governments around the world are facing challenges that range from budgetary pressures arising from economic stagnation to aging populations. Many have severely constrained resources, including the ability to access and analyze data to create greater economies.
By making it easier to securely share data between institutions and individuals, blockchain technology could help relieve some of those pressures. Our new blockchain study, Building Trust in Governments, by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit, found that a number of governmental organizations are embracing blockchain technology to promote more extensive collaboration.
The study surveyed 200 government leaders in 16 countries about their experiences and expectations with blockchains. Nine out of 10 governmental organizations plan to invest in blockchain for use in financial transaction management, asset management, contract management and regulatory compliance by 2018. And seven out of 10 government executives predict blockchain will significantly disrupt the area of contract management, which is often at the intersection of the public and private sector.
While virtually all governmental organizations surveyed intend to invest in blockchain by 2018, we discovered a small group of pioneers that are setting a fast pace and new direction with blockchains today.
These leaders, who make up 14 percent of our survey respondents, expect to have blockchains in production and use this year. Together they identified four areas where blockchain would provide the best benefits:
1. Citizen services: Despite modernization efforts, routine processes such as contract management, financial transaction management and regulatory compliance remain largely paper-based, costly and complex, with significant risks arising from errors and fraud.
From voting to tax collection to land registration, many citizen services are likely to be highly dependent on identity management and unlikely to scale significantly without it. Because participants in a transaction on blockchains have access to the same records, there is no need for third-party intermediaries to validate transactions or verify identities or ownership. Business licenses, property titles, vehicle registrations and other records could all be shifted to blockchains.
2. Regulatory compliance: Nine in ten leaders believe blockchains can reduce the time, cost and risks of enforcing regulatory compliance.
Governmental organizations in North America are particularly focused on these applications. They ranked regulatory compliance number one in terms of blockchain benefits. Blockchains establish an immutable and transparent audit trail that assures timeliness and curbs the costs of managing contracts and enforcing regulations.
3. Identity management: An estimated 1.5 billion persons worldwide have no legal identity or proof of birth, according a United Nations conference last year. Unable to open a bank account, own property or access government services, many are shut out of full participation in the economy and the creation of wealth, according to the website GovHack Hackerspace 2016.
Blockchains that securely compile, cross-reference and verify multiple data sources, events and transactions could establish and validate an individual’s identity when traditional proofs of identity are missing. In the United States, the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security are researching the potential for blockchains to establish secure identity management.
4. Contract management: By using blockchains for contract management, issues such as the failure of any party to meet a deadline or complete a task, for example, could be more immediately visible. Over time, a vendor’s history captured on blockchains could be used to validate its reputation and trustworthiness.
Transparency derived from contract management on blockchains could improve performance management. For example, in the area of waste management, citizens and companies could register problems — such as garbage that has not been picked up — on a blockchain platform, automatically notifying the garbage collector.
In addition to enabling a more timely and efficient response to problems, this process could establish a system that reliably tracks the performance of vendors. Smart contracts could automatically penalize subcontractors with a history of repeat offenses.
Governments will be able to use blockchains to explore new business models for providing services to citizens beyond the limits of current technology. These models can be used to improve the efficiencies of current services, while expanding the ability to provide new services.
The post Four Ways Blockchain Could Aid Governments appeared first on THINK Blog.
Reposted via A Smarter Planet Blog
Sunday, January 29, 2017
sophieturnerupdated:Sophie Turner for ELLE US (February 2017)
Private Communication On The Clearnet
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Reposted via adafruit industries blog
N-O-D-E shared this video on Youtube!
Even when we think we’re communicating in private, whether by email, text messages, private messages on social media etc, the fact is that a bunch of 3rd parties, like tech companies, governments, ISPs and advertisers, all see that data too. And it’s not just that they can see it, they’re actively collecting and analyzing all of it.
One of the downsides of encrypting messages and emails to combat this, is that since so few people are doing that, you will stick out like a sore thumb to anyone who is monitoring the data, and probably will receive closer scrutiny. For example, it’d be pretty easy to filter out all messages that contain PGP headers.
What if we could still encrypt the data, but make it look like ordinary plain text, made up of dictionary words? If it was done in a dynamic way, so it was different for every person, it would be hard to detect using passive data mining techniques. That would allow us to use existing services like gmail, twitter, facebook, reddit etc on the clearnet, while still protecting our message content.
Reposted via adafruit industries blog
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Friday, January 27, 2017
We just put up a Kickstarter Make 100 project for a trio of...
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Reposted via What are you doing.
We just put up a Kickstarter Make 100 project for a trio of tarot prints!! A bunch of people have requested prints of my Hey Chickadee tarot charms, so Ananth and I got together with Kris Mukai and Arlin Ortiz to do a limited batch of riso prints!
The kickstarter is only running for a week and a half, and we’re only selling 100 sets of prints, so act quickly!
Reposted via What are you doing.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
eccellenze-italiane: Isola di Loreto da wizardinf84 Tramite...
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Reposted via F&O Forgotten Nobility
Isola di Loreto da wizardinf84
Tramite Flickr:
Isola di Loreto
Reposted via F&O Forgotten Nobility
Medical first,children had cancer cured with genetically engineered T-cells from another person
http://ift.tt/2aB80ot
Doctors in London say they have cured two babies of leukemia in the world’s first attempt to treat cancer with genetically engineered immune cells from a donor.
Experiments, which took place at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, raise the possibility of off-the-shelf cellular therapy using inexpensive supplies of universal cells that could be dripped into patients' veins on a moment’s notice.
The ready-made approach could pose a challenge to companies including Juno Therapeutics and Novartis, each of which has spent tens of millions of dollars pioneering treatments that require collecting a patient’s own blood cells, engineering them, and then re-infusing them.
Both methods rely on engineering T cells—the hungry predator cells of the immune system—so they attack leukemic cells.
The British infants, ages 11 and 16 months, each had leukemia and had undergone previous treatments that failed, according to a description of their cases published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine. Waseem Qasim, a physician and gene-therapy expert who led the tests, reported that both children remain in remission.
Although the cases drew wide media attention in Britain, some researchers said that because the London team also gave the children standard chemotherapy, they failed to show the cell treatment actually cured the kids. “There is a hint of efficacy but no proof,” says Stephan Grupp, director of cancer immunotherapy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who collaborates with Novartis. “It would be great if it works, but that just hasn’t been shown yet.”
Rights to the London treatment were sold to the biotech company Cellectis, and the treatment is now being further developed by the drug companies Servier and Pfizer.
Treatments using engineered T-cells, commonly known as CAR-T, are new and not yet sold commercially. But they have shown stunning success against blood cancers. In studies so far by Novartis and Juno, about half of patients are permanently cured after receiving altered versions of their own blood cells.
Read more »
Reposted via Next Big Future
Doctors in London say they have cured two babies of leukemia in the world’s first attempt to treat cancer with genetically engineered immune cells from a donor.
Experiments, which took place at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, raise the possibility of off-the-shelf cellular therapy using inexpensive supplies of universal cells that could be dripped into patients' veins on a moment’s notice.
The ready-made approach could pose a challenge to companies including Juno Therapeutics and Novartis, each of which has spent tens of millions of dollars pioneering treatments that require collecting a patient’s own blood cells, engineering them, and then re-infusing them.
Both methods rely on engineering T cells—the hungry predator cells of the immune system—so they attack leukemic cells.
The British infants, ages 11 and 16 months, each had leukemia and had undergone previous treatments that failed, according to a description of their cases published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine. Waseem Qasim, a physician and gene-therapy expert who led the tests, reported that both children remain in remission.
Although the cases drew wide media attention in Britain, some researchers said that because the London team also gave the children standard chemotherapy, they failed to show the cell treatment actually cured the kids. “There is a hint of efficacy but no proof,” says Stephan Grupp, director of cancer immunotherapy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who collaborates with Novartis. “It would be great if it works, but that just hasn’t been shown yet.”
Rights to the London treatment were sold to the biotech company Cellectis, and the treatment is now being further developed by the drug companies Servier and Pfizer.
Treatments using engineered T-cells, commonly known as CAR-T, are new and not yet sold commercially. But they have shown stunning success against blood cancers. In studies so far by Novartis and Juno, about half of patients are permanently cured after receiving altered versions of their own blood cells.
Read more »
Reposted via Next Big Future
Biohacking: Resting Heart Rate as a Health Indicator
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Reposted via adafruit industries blog
Dublin based Quantified Selfer Justin Lawler has a post that sums up how to monitor your health by tracking resting heart rate (RHR). Many modern wearables support RHR tracking including Garmin, Fitbit, Jawbone and Apple Watch. I couldn’t agree more with his findings as I was able to track down three three food sensitivities, optimal sleep duration and be alerted to when I was being excessive with exercise.
Why track RHR:
- Better — it’s a more accurate picture of health than weight
- Easier — the latest wearable tracker apps are simple to use and understand. They show history. They’re with us all the time.
- Faster — Resting heart rate we can see changes in health within 24 hours. Weight gain can take weeks. Doctor’s appointments can take months before the next check-up.
What we can do to lower our resting heart rate
- Stress management — easier said than done, but there are meditation apps, great books and tools we can use. Blog post to follow on this.
- Alcohol — any reduction at all helps.
- Diet — anti-inflammatory diets. Links below for suggestions on diet plans.
- Exercise — low level every day (take the stairs, talk 10’000 steps). Higher levels 1–2 times a week. The acute stresses from high intensity workouts increase heart health over the long term. Mark Sisson covers this really well — see links below.
- Supplements — Omega3 oils can help improving heart health and reducing inflammation. Magnesium is crucial for heart health, and most of us don’t get nearly enough. Curcumin (extract from turmeric) helps with reducing inflammation.
- Heat therapy — saunas and ice baths.
Reposted via adafruit industries blog
c1assy-broads: La La LandRocky Barnes by Fro Rojas
US Navy will fire 150 kilowatt laser on a test ship in 2018 and then from carriers and destroyers in 2019
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The U.S. Navy is moving at warp speed to develop lasers with more lethality, precision and power sources as a way to destroy attacking missiles, drones aircraft and other threats.
The USNavy plans to fire a 150-kw weapon off a test ship within a year, he said. “Then a year later, we’ll have that on a carrier or a destroyer or both.”
That’s quite a jump from the kw AN/SEQ-3(XN-1) Laser Weapon System (LaWS), which deployed in 2014 on the amphibious transport dock USS Ponce.
And the kind of power needed to power such a weapon won’t come with a simple flip of a switch.
“The Navy will be looking at ships’ servers to provide three times that much power,” says Donald Klick, director of business development, for DRS Power and Control Technologies. “To be putting out 150 kws, they (the laser systems) will be consuming 450 kws.”
That is more than most currently operational ships are designed to accommodate, at least when they are conducting other tasks
Few power systems onboard ships can support sustained usage of a high-powered laser without additional energy storage,” noted a recent Naval Postgraduate School paper titled “Power Systems and Energy Storage Modeling for Directed Energy Weapons”.
The paper said, “The new DDG-1000 may have enough electrical energy, but other platforms … may require some type of ‘energy magazine.’ This magazine stores energy for on-demand usage by the laser. It can be made up of batteries, capacitors, or flywheels, and would recharge between laser pulses. The energy magazine should allow for sustained usage against a swarm of targets in an engagement lasting up to twenty minutes.
The Navy has contracted the development of a Li-Ion battery subsystem designed and provided by Lithiumstart housed in three distributed steel, welded cabinets that are 48” x 66” x 100” – although they are modular, Klick says, and can be arranged for a tailored fit. Each cabinet contains 18 drawers with 480 Li-Ion phosphate cells in each drawer.
The redundant power modules can provide 465 k each for a total of 930 kw. It can hold that full-power mark for about three minutes.
Improvements of high power fiber lasers used to form the laser beam enable the increased 150 kilowatt power levels and extended range capabilities.
Read more » 
Reposted via Next Big Future
The U.S. Navy is moving at warp speed to develop lasers with more lethality, precision and power sources as a way to destroy attacking missiles, drones aircraft and other threats.
The USNavy plans to fire a 150-kw weapon off a test ship within a year, he said. “Then a year later, we’ll have that on a carrier or a destroyer or both.”
That’s quite a jump from the kw AN/SEQ-3(XN-1) Laser Weapon System (LaWS), which deployed in 2014 on the amphibious transport dock USS Ponce.
And the kind of power needed to power such a weapon won’t come with a simple flip of a switch.
“The Navy will be looking at ships’ servers to provide three times that much power,” says Donald Klick, director of business development, for DRS Power and Control Technologies. “To be putting out 150 kws, they (the laser systems) will be consuming 450 kws.”
That is more than most currently operational ships are designed to accommodate, at least when they are conducting other tasks
Few power systems onboard ships can support sustained usage of a high-powered laser without additional energy storage,” noted a recent Naval Postgraduate School paper titled “Power Systems and Energy Storage Modeling for Directed Energy Weapons”.
The paper said, “The new DDG-1000 may have enough electrical energy, but other platforms … may require some type of ‘energy magazine.’ This magazine stores energy for on-demand usage by the laser. It can be made up of batteries, capacitors, or flywheels, and would recharge between laser pulses. The energy magazine should allow for sustained usage against a swarm of targets in an engagement lasting up to twenty minutes.
The Navy has contracted the development of a Li-Ion battery subsystem designed and provided by Lithiumstart housed in three distributed steel, welded cabinets that are 48” x 66” x 100” – although they are modular, Klick says, and can be arranged for a tailored fit. Each cabinet contains 18 drawers with 480 Li-Ion phosphate cells in each drawer.
The redundant power modules can provide 465 k each for a total of 930 kw. It can hold that full-power mark for about three minutes.
Improvements of high power fiber lasers used to form the laser beam enable the increased 150 kilowatt power levels and extended range capabilities.
Read more »
Reposted via Next Big Future
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