“Sui Generis,” a revolutionary game in production after a successful and newsworthy Kickstarter campaign, does justice to its Latin name, “of its own genius.” The gaming community is hailing this product as truly unique, an imaginative and thought-provoking first of its kind.

This is a screenshot from “Sui Generis.” Credit: Bare Mettle Entertainment

A conceptual video game by Bare Mettle Entertainment, the small-business entity under the dominion of the game’s brain-father, Madoc Evans, “Sui Generis” melds the best of many types of RPGs and delivers something entirely new to boot—a dynamic, almost unbelievably diverse digital world based, to a ridiculously exacting degree, around the physics of light, movement, and force.

According to Forbes’ enthusiastic report, this remarkable engine and the code that powers it is all is the work of Evans, who is also the face of “Sui Generis’” Kickstarter pitch. As Evans describes in the 10 minute video, the incredible new engine aims at a nearly-unbounded experience which defies the usual, linear plot at the heart of most video games. “Sui Generis’” Kickstarter page describes that, “‘Sui Generis’ is not about running around killing hordes of enemies in order to collect experience points. It is about exploring a world and being involved in major events there.”

An “Obsessively Realistic” Brave New World

The Kickstarter video reveals the visionary quality of the game’s graphics. Light, weather, and body appearance are all intensely detailed and obsessively realistic within the world of “Sui Generis.” Characters are generated, as described in the Kickstarter video, using such intricate dynamics such as individual muscle contractions. In an insanely detailed open-world setting, everything from formation of clouds to the movement and arrangement of stars is charted to be strictly accurate. In the mind-blowing, pre-alpha demo video, the process of a thunderstorm is demonstrated with astounding detail such as the locational frequency of lightning flashes and the sound of the resulting thunder clap.

This is a screenshot from “Sui Generis.” Credit: Bare Mettle Entertainment

When a hero strikes at an ogre, for instance, the springing mace may get snagged on the enemy. The force of the blow determines if the hero staggers, tumbles, or succeeds in delivering his blow. The actual physics of collisions dictates these interactions, Evans describes in the pitch video. The game strives to operate along accurate physical laws to a highly ambitious degree. The Kickstarter video demonstrates this, first, by tossing a few tables across a room into one another and describing the intricate physical processes simulated in that small action.

“Sui Generis” describes its PC, open-world game as a “deep customization [in] a believable world [where there is] complete freedom of choice,” according to the game’s website. “Advanced AI and a hugely interactive game world are capable of supporting almost anything you can think of.”

Nonlinear Plotline Means Player Creates the Gaming Experience

The world of “Sui Generis” is unique in another way. A dynamic and nonlinear plotline creates what the Examiner excitedly dubs a “write your own gaming experience.” The world of “Sui Generis,” unlike most mainstream RPGs, does not wait upon the player to set the plot’s events into motion. There is no casual wandering from one computer-generated character to another triggering the events of quests and missions that drive the plot forward. Instead, the world of the game functions on its own. The player has a novel choice as the game’s hero as they can choose to become involved or to simply let the major events of the world drift by them, according to Forbes’ report.

The Kickstarter describes, “What exactly you do and how you do it is entirely up to you,” according to Kickstarter. “The world is carefully designed to be believable and have a life of its own. Events will take their course and may take a turn for the worse if you don’t get involved.” Refusing to get involved in these world events, though, may lead to “disastrous consequences.”

This is a screenshot from “Sui Generis.” Credit: Bare Mettle Entertainment

“The game will not end but the world may become a very inhospitable place,” according to Kickstarter. “Even if you try your best you may not succeed, the game does not revolve around completing tasks and progressing stages of the plot. Success [and] failure are of equal value, the aim is to have fun.”

Not only is the plot less systematic, but the skill levels amassed by characters throughout the game are less stratified as well, Forbes describes. Instead of discrete levels there is a “natural progression,” as Kickstarter calls it, where “there are no classes, but rather countless possible builds with diverse and interesting qualities.”

Moving into Development

Bare Mettle Entertainment stated on its website, which itself is undergoing a promising overhaul, that “Sui Generis” will be under development for 18 months following the game’s Kickstarter success. That places the game’s potential finalization somewhere in the realm of April or May 2014.

The game’s online presence on Twitter and Bare Mettle Entertainment’s own insider forum mean that throughout this process “Sui Generis” will be a visible object of gamers’ curiosity. The game’s website still accepts PayPal pledges and contributors are able to access the “exclusive development videos” and, in the website’s words, “some sweet rewards.”

“Sui Generis” seems to be building itself into a highly communal apparatus which gamers hope will grow into a revolutionary and exemplary new product.

The post “Sui Generis” Promises a Truly Exceptional Gaming Experience appeared first on Nvate.

Although James Cameron’s 2009 film “Avatar,” which is set in 2154, seems like a far stretch from reality, the first steps toward experimenting with robot surrogates have been taken. Avatar technology will prove to be able to forever change what science can accomplish for humanity.

Of the many definitions of avatar, the online free dictionary contains a derivative that is the most relevant today, “a movable image that represents a person in a virtual reality environment or in cyberspace.”

Recent precedents have proven that avatar-related technology has evolved into “movable entities” representing another person, rather than just an image. Experimentation has ranged from virtual reality avatars and telepresence avatars to mind-controlled avatars.

Mind-Control Avatar

In July 2012, ExtremeTech reported that Tirosh Shapira, an Israeli student, was the first person to ever control a humanoid robot by thought alone. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, Shapira commanded the robot surrogate at the Beziers Technology Institute in France, some 1,250 miles away from where he was stationed in Israel.

The image shows Tirosh Shapira’s brain signals and the robot he is controlling. Shapira is controlled the robot by thought alone.

“When Shapira thinks about moving forward or backward, the robot moves forward or backward; when Shapira thinks about moving one of his hands, the robot surrogate turns in that direction,” according to ExtremeTech.

This breakthrough in avatar technology was made possible by a functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, scanner—a complex, expensive piece of equipment used to measure brain activity. “The fMRI read [Shapira’s] thoughts, a computer translated those thoughts into commands, and then those commands were sent across the Internet to the robot in France,” according to ExtremeTech.

Human and Animal Interaction through Telepresence

In October 2012, Science Daily reported on a study that involved a man and a rat interacting with one another using robot avatars.

According to Science Daily, “The researchers define ‘beaming’ as digitally transporting a representation of yourself to a distant place, where you can interact with the people there as if you were there. This is achieved through a combination of virtual reality and teleoperator systems.”

The man and the rat were situated in separate facilities, and tracking data allowed for their avatars, placed in the same room, to interact. The man controlled a rat avatar, and the rat controlled the human avatar, according to Science Daily. By reversing the avatar roles of the rat and man, scientists anticipate it will lead to learning new insights about human-animal interaction.

Artificial Intelligence used to Help the Ill or Disabled

Though avatar surrogates haven’t hit the market, and are far from affordable to the average middle-class citizen, technology entrepreneurs have completed innovate projects that have allowed for a select few disabled or ill persons to have the benefit of being able to own a robotic surrogate to aid them in their daily life.

Fox News reported on a relatively new telepresence project called NetHead, created by Peter Wilford after he broke his hip riding his bike.

“On his computer, Wilford installed eye-tracking software. When he looked at someone in a meeting, the NetHead looked in the same direction,” according to Fox News. “Audio software amplified the voice of whoever was speaking; something the human brain does naturally. The system will eventually relay information back to the remote computer about the tone of the room and even whether everyone is laughing at a joke.”

This is an Anybot in an office. Credit: The Anybots website

According to Fox News, other telepresence robots have hit the market, such as the MantaroBot and the Anybots, with the Anybots retailing for $15,000. Another robot inventor, Robert Oschler, is working on Robodance 5, and plans to retail it at $600, according to Fox News.

Robot Goes to School

Elementary school student Devon Carrow is too sick to be physically present at school, and so instead, a 4-foot-tall robot attends school in his place.

The VGo robot makes it possible for Devon Carrow to attend school, even though he can’t be there physically.

“The robot senses stairs and stops, but even they aren’t insurmountable because, at 18 pounds, the robot is light enough for a teacher to lift,” according to the Maine Sun Journal. “Before moving forward, Devon scans the camera downward to make sure he won’t run into a classmate who might be crouching to tie a shoe.”

The robot is called VGo, is made by Verizon, and is worth $6,000. The robot is covered by the district’s budget, according to the Maine Sun Journal.

Transhumanism: On the Brink of Immortality

An article entitled, “First Gene Therapy Successful Against Aging-Associated Decline: Mouse Lifespan Extended up to 24 percent With a Single Treatment,” proved that the therapy may be—after much work—successful in doing the same with humans.

If treated with gene therapy early in a mouse’s lifespan, the lifespan of the mouse can be extended, as well as increase their health. This is achieved by replacing the telomerase enzyme—which is responsible for aging—with a DNA-modified virus. In this way, the therapy is able to “reset the biological clock,” according to Science Daily.

For anti-aging therapy in humans, it is essential that a non-pathogenic virus is used to alter cells. “Although this therapy may not find application as an anti-aging treatment in humans, in the short term at least, it could open up a new treatment option for ailments linked with the presence in tissue of abnormally short telomeres, as in some cases of human pulmonary fibrosis,” according to Science Daily.

It’s likely the vast majority of Americans won’t be wowed about these kinds of breakthroughs until robot avatars go to the commercial market. But a promising pattern of technological progression has begun. With small but promising advancements, robot avatars may very well be ubiquitously available during our lifetime.

The post The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: What’s Going on Now appeared first on Nvate.

Have you ever been caught in a situation when on the day of a big job interview or a date you look in the mirror and see a blemish waving back at you? In a frantic state you reach for the quick fix—foundation, concealer, blush, eye shadow, mascara, and lipstick. Your face is what you first present yourself with, and therefore, you want to make it as perfect as possible. But in doing so you may be causing more damage than good.

This is an example of irritant contact dermatitis.

Ever wonder what really goes onto your skin when you apply foundation, blush, or eye shadow? Or what it does to your skin? Makeup looks great when it is applied, but the effects of its application can be ugly if certain precautions are not taken. Many people use makeup to cover up imperfections such as blemishes or rashes, but what if the same makeup we are using to cover up skin issues is what is causing them?

Skin is the most exposed organ of the human body which is why we should take better care of it. Makeup is made of different types of chemicals which can cause allergic reactions to the skin. Irritant contact dermatitis is a mild allergic reaction where the skin feels an itchy or burning sensation, according to Discovery Fit and Health, and allergic contact dermatitis is a more serious allergic reaction to certain chemicals causing itching, swelling, or blisters.

To prevent skin irritations aesthetician for the Polyclinic in Washington, A. Morgan, recommends using “mineral makeup as it is non-comedogenic and works great on inflamed skin, as well as adding mild sun protection. It is better for acne and sensitive skin.”

“[We should] look up the ingredients to see what [makeup is] made up of,” makeup artist and founder of Beauty and the Brush, Malia Miglino, said. “Many people are allergic to Red Dye 40 and do not know it. A lot of makeup contains this dye, so if you notice that you are having issues this could be one of the reasons.”

This is an example of allergic contact dermatitis.

Imagine your nose being clogged with chemicals making it impossible to breathe well. Our skin works the same way, but instead of a nose there are thousands of little pores all over the skin. It is these pores that allow the skin to breathe. “Primers such as facial and eye shadow primers contain silicone which creates a coating over the skin, sealing it from sweat, making your skin un-breathable,” Miglino said.

Makeup such as foundation and powders are in direct contact with the skin causing chemicals to clog the pores resulting in breakouts. A helpful tip to keep in mind is to use clean application tools because as makeup builds up on brushes, bacteria is attracted to the brush. It is this bacterium that causes breakouts. Also, “pick an appropriate formulation for your skin and you can always ask for help from a good aesthetician,” said Morgan.

How to Choose the Right Makeup for Your Skin Type

Knowing your skin and what it likes and does not like is a good tip to keep in mind when searching for the right makeup.

Being in the makeup business, Miglino has come across countless makeup brands—having experienced some negative side effects when using a very popular, well-named brand. “I have found that MAC foundations, specifically their Studio FX makeup, have a tendency to make people break out and also have a cakier texture when applied making fine lines more apparent.”

Credit: Ambro freedigitalphotos.net

She also pointed out that on her clients she likes and always tries to use “oil-free products, mainly because it helps to fight against any breakouts and the end result is a less oily makeup application.”

“If you have oily skin, do not get products containing oil. If you have dry skin make sure you’re using products with moisturizer,” advises Miglino. “My tip to everyone is if you’re going to spend a lot of money on name brand makeup put most of that money into your foundation.”

If you are less trusting of mainstream makeup products, try Neutrogena, Clinique, or Bare Minerals, which have grown in popularity with their acne-fighting products. Miglino said these products have their perks. “Foundations that boast that they help against breakouts usually contain sialic acid which is what is in most acne-fighting creams.”

Miglino recommends using the Bare Minerals brand blush and eye shadows. However, she discourages the use of Bare Minerals foundations as they do not give much coverage. “I think the only useful mineral products are the blushes because they are light and blend easily and the eye shadows because they are so highly pigmented.”

Ultimately, makeup can be a fun thing to experiment with, but we must know what we are putting on our skin and how it can affect us. Before indulging in any new brand of makeup, know your skin and what causes it to have negative reactions. Less is more but, if you absolutely must wear makeup regularly, remember to always wash your face before going to bed “as your skin repairs itself at night,” according to Morgan, and drink lots of water to keep your skin hydrated. Your skin is like your nose and surely you would not enjoy sleeping with a clogged nose. Therefore, you should not enjoy sleeping with clogged pores.

The post Is that a Blemish? Makeup and Its Relation to Skin Irritation appeared first on Nvate.

Type in “how to play ‘Free Fallin’ on guitar” in the YouTube search engine and about 358,000 results turn up. Most within the guitar playing community consider Tom Petty’s classic tune a beginner’s song to learn with its basic three-chord strumming. But sift through the first page of search results and at least three different versions instructing a how-to of the same song exist from an assortment of amateur and professional guitarists.

The difficulty of determining the correct way to play can be instantly frustrating when starting off, especially to those who just picked up a guitar for the first time. Try searching “online guitar lessons,” and Google spits back 12 million options. Where to begin!

How to Find the Best Guitar Lessons Online

The advent of online video streaming with high-speed Internet provides a multitude of lesson options for people with the incapability of taking in-person lessons or for those who merely enjoy the convenience of not leaving home. However, the enormous quantity of free video tutorials and pay sites can make choosing the most effective guitar lessons harder than learning the instrument itself.

“Teaching yourself guitar is much easier with free videos and tab sites now than it used to be but can definitely create some bad habits,” said Kyle Richey in an email response. Richey is the creator of LessonsReview.com, a site devoted to reviewing different guitar lesson platforms including pay sites and DVD sets.

Richey, who has 15 years playing experience, said he wanted to create a website that helps others looking to learn guitar choose the best lessons. Although Richey finds that some free online lessons can prove to be effective learning tools, he also believes the freebies lack consistency.

Credit: RTP411 freedigitalphotos.net

“I found pretty quickly that most of them are either not professional instructors, or they were trying to get me to pay for lessons so they only included the ‘tip of the iceberg’ with each topic,” Richey said. “Having more structure with organized lessons helps to keep you pushing forward and learning new skills.”

Richey soon began using other guitar lesson options, which includes paid membership sites. He now reviews similar sites using what he calls an “unbiased spreadsheet algorithm” that considers factors such as lesson quality, video quality, instructor quality, support, convenience, and structure of the website. Richey said he tries to tour each site from the student’s perspective, and that anyone motivated to learn guitar should consider three things when shopping for guitar lessons: quantity, quality, and organization. According to him, websites need to have enough lesson material for continual learning, high-definition video capability with good camera angles, and organized lessons, which help a student progress.

Based on Richey’s metrics, the top-rated website for inspiring guitar players to take online lessons is JamPlay.com. At JamPlay, members pay a monthly fee that gives them access to thousands of studio-recorded video lessons taught by professional musicians. In three phases of learning, instructors begin with the guitar basics, slowly progress into song playing, and branch off into advanced-style techniques. Outside of the lessons, JamPlay is an entire social community for guitarists who can create personalized profiles and participate in online forums to discuss topics such as musical influences, songwriting, and concerts with other members.

Despite the ability for guitar lesson sites to dazzle with an extensive amount of videos, it’s the user who ultimately must stay engaged in the material and the structure of the lessons, which can be challenging to people who appreciate individual attention. Sure, sites like JamPlay hold live sessions where attendees can communicate with instructors via a chat feature. Many of these websites, however, lack the in-person element of instructors observing and evaluating a student’s hands for proper fingering technique.

One-on-One Lessons via Skype

Perhaps Andrew Morrison capitalized on the two-way visual deficiency of other online pay sites when he began giving guitar lessons through webcam services like Skype. Morrison, who has taught guitar for over 25 years, said he found using webcam for live lessons advantageous by providing availability to students who have a difficult time traveling to his guitar shop and for others who don’t live near an instructor to take private lessons.

“I think the problem is people become insecure,” said Morrison over a Skype interview. “They’re not sure if they’re doing it right or not, so that’s where the private teacher can say ‘strum it like this or play it like that.’”

This is an example of what a Skype guitar lesson can look like. This is a student taking a lesson with Francisco Burgos. Credit: Francisco Burgos

Morrison finds webcam lessons similar to in-person lessons. Instead of following along with tabs and chords on a sheet of paper sitting on a music stand, he says that he simply emails his students the information for them to follow along right on their computer screen. “I feel like it’s just the same as having them in the room with me,” Morrison said.

The only drawback to Skyping, Morrison admits, is the difficulty of playing along with students because of video and audio delays. Until Internet speeds increase, he still uses a webcam device to observe a student strum and transition in between chords, something not generally done in real time with other online lesson sites.

In the end, the effectiveness of any online guitar-learning format depends on the aspiring guitar player. Skill level, motivation, and commitment all factor into whether someone wants to comprehend advanced music theory or impress a couple people at a campfire with an incorrect version of “Free Fallin.”

To read guitar lesson reviews, visit Richey’s LessonsReview.com.

For more information on Skype guitar lessons with Morrison, visit his website.

The post Picking through Online Guitar Lessons: What Works and What Needs Tuning appeared first on Nvate.

The second episode, original airdate May 8, opens with a unique twist. Apparently the eliminated contestants will still be participating in every build. As the competition winds down, the judges will pick one capable “wild card,” who will then have a second chance at winning. Joe Caravella, who was eliminated last week, is confident that he can make a comeback. The wild card aspect certainly adds suspense to the show, and allowing the contestants to return prevents the teams from shrinking—smaller teams would mean less interesting builds.

After explaining this concept, host Kal Penn launches into the goal for the week. In the 1980s, during the Red Scare, the United States made a missile defense system called “Star Wars” that would shoot missiles out of the air should the Soviet Union attack the United States. It’s like shooting a bullet with a bullet. It didn’t quite work though, and yet the engineers will be making something similar this week. Each team will be inside a bunker, and they have to shoot down missiles fired at them.

Credit: Pilgrim Studios

Dismissed contestant Caravella is not allowed to participate in the Blueprint Challenge since he was eliminated, so anyone booted out won’t have the opportunity to be a team leader. I believe this is to Caravella’s advantage, though. Last week, he seemed knowledgeable when it came to the math and such, but he wasn’t leadership material. I’m also beginning to wonder why someone would want to win the Blueprint Challenge in the first place. No prize is given to the winners, and they’re the most likely to be blamed if something goes wrong. It’s probably safer to be just another worker on the team.

This week, Gui Cavalcanti won the Blue Print challenge with his clever design. It is similar to toys that shoot propellers into the air. His plan is to launch a giant propeller and knock the missile out of the air with that. The runner-up spot goes to Eric Whitman, whose net design also seems feasible.

This week, the red team consists of Whitman, Caravella, Corey Fleischer, Dan Moyers and Andrew Stroup. The blue team consists of Cavalcanti, Amy Elliott, Joel Ifill, Tom Johnson and Alison Wong. Caravella was chosen last.

This time, the teams will have five days in their shop and $20,000 to spend.

The Red Team’s Preparation

Since Whitman’s net plan will not work upon further inspection of the math behind it, Moyers proposes that they shoot balls out of long tubes using air pressure. He tests it out, and it looks quite effective. He and Fleischer have different ideas for controlling the air pressure with valves, and Fleischer almost buys the supplies needed for his idea before Moyers is able to test his own. This infuriates Moyers, especially since Fleischer forgot to help him test his prototype. Tension between him and the rest of the team rises each day, but they are able to complete their project by working up to the very last second.

Moyers is convinced the other team members will call him the weakest link just because they’re mad at him, but he believes he took on the leadership role Fleischer failed to uphold. They did, after all, use many of his ideas. I think he’ll be eliminated the next time his team loses. Although he clearly knows his stuff, he needs to figure out how to control his temper and do the whole “team thing” if he’s going to be fully competent in this game, and in the real world.

The Blue Team’s Preparation

Cavalcanti, the team leader, instantly decides that his crew will be following his idea of shooting a propeller at the incoming missile. He assigns different jobs to everyone, which frustrates Ifill and Elliott since they have ideas to contribute too. When Elliott talks to Cavalcanti at the living quarters that night, she tells him that five minds are better than one, so they need to pool all their ideas. However, Cavalcanti believes that Elliott just needs to see how a real team functions; in his words, “hierarchy works.”

As the team works, Cavalcanti accuses Ifill of doing whatever he wants rather than following the plans laid out, which results in errors such as welding some pieces incorrectly. Meanwhile, Elliott complains that she feels like a “shop monkey” since Cavalcanti won’t listen to anyone else, and Ifill and Wong feel the same way. The judges believe that their design is wild and exciting, but it might not be practical. However, the blue team is able to finish with three hours to spare.

The Test: Stopping the Missiles

Three missiles will be fired at each team’s bunker one-by-one, and whichever team manages to shoot the most out of the air wins.

This is the blue team’s firing device. It fails to work at all.

The blue team is up first. When they try to launch the propeller at the incoming missile, it just falls to the ground. Needless to say, it fails to stop the missile. Wong points out that Johnson is furious—he even calls it the most embarrassing moment of his life. And since he’s 50 years old, he’s had plenty of time to be embarrassed. The team blames this error on Ifill, who didn’t screw in the propeller tightly enough.

The second time, the team makes sure the propeller bolt is super tight. However, it again fails to launch, this time because they blow a fuse from making the propeller spin too quickly. With the third missile shot, the propeller doesn’t launch—again. This time, they realize that the metal clamps on it are simply too heavy to launch, which seems like a glaring oversight to me.

This is the red team’s firing device. It nearly missed taking down a missile on the launch’s third attempt.

This challenge doesn’t treat the red team well either. For the first shot, their trigger doesn’t work due to electrical issues, which Moyers believes is Whitman and Stroup’s fault. The second time, their bullets fire properly, but they don’t fly high enough to take down the missile. And the third time, the bullets barely miss the missile.

Once again, both teams have failed to complete the challenge at hand. This is rather disappointing since the whole point of the show is to see engineering ingenuity at work, but we’ve seen nothing but mistakes so far. How is that supposed to inspire future thinkers?

However, the judges decide that the red team wins this week since it at least managed to fire projectiles, something the blue team failed to do. To my surprise, Elliott is the only member of the blue team that considers Cavalcanti the weakest link since he failed to use their most valuable resource—their brains. Almost everyone else blames Ifill due to his silly oversights.

The two regular judges as well as guest judge Bobak Ferdowsi, who was the flight director of NASA’s Curiosity rover, deliberate. They announce that Ifill is being eliminated because he failed to assert his ideas strongly enough and couldn’t keep up with the pace of the competition. However, Ifill is convinced that he’ll “come back swinging” as the wild card.

I believe the judges made a huge mistake this week. Yes, Ifill failed to screw the propeller bolt on tightly enough the first time. However, the two remaining launches completely failed as well, and that sure wasn’t his fault. Ultimately, it was Cavalcanti’s poor design decisions and inability to listen to his teammates that doomed the blue team. The fact that the propeller’s metal clamps were too heavy meant it would have never launched properly.

Next week, the contestants will have to build a shelter capable of protecting human life from various extreme conditions. This could be quite interesting due to the obvious practical implications of what they’re designing. Hopefully someone makes something that actually works!

To watch the full second episode, visit the “Pure Genius” website.

The post “Pure Genius”—Fire at Will, Don’t Miss the Missile appeared first on Nvate.

In recent years, gas, grocery, insurance, and a number of other normal American expenses have radically increased. According to Yahoo News, a new car, which was once an American staple item, is now out of reach for many American families.

With the growing economic pressures in the United States, many Americans as well as people abroad, overlook the environmental and political dangers that could endanger the world.

What is the Doomsday Clock?

This is the Doomsday Clock.

Since its creation in 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, the Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock that lets us know how close we are to a global disaster, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ official website. The most recent official announcement was recorded at five minutes to midnight on Jan. 12, 2012, according to the website. It was the closest we have ever been to a figurative global disaster. Of course, that does not mean that you should be running for the nearest bomb shelter. Instead, it means that certain events have caused the probability of danger to increase. In the case of the most recent announcement, the Doomsday Clock timeline on the website stated it was the lack of global political action to address growing nuclear warfare threats and global climate change.

What Causes the Clock to Move?

The idea that we are five minutes to midnight may seem terrifying to those who don’t know much about the clock. One of the main reasons the clock was so close to midnight, according to the Atomic Scientists, is the alarming regional conflicts in the Middle East, northeast Asia, and south Asia. While it is true that nuclear weapon threats are a reality, the thing to remember is that the clock is only a symbol. It’s like the Smokey the Bear forest fire level signs you see in parks. Basically, it’s warning you when humanity is being careless and just how high that level of carelessness is.

But just what kinds of threats drive the clock? There are three basic threats—nuclear, climate change, and biosecurity. Nuclear threats are probably the most we hear about today, with a recent threat to test nuclear weapons in North Korea, as reported by Yahoo News. The United States was the target.

According to the Doomsday Clock Overview, “the nuclear age dawned in the 1940s when scientists learned how to release the energy stored within the atom.” Two uses were immediately conceived, “an unparalleled weapon and a new energy source. Today, with several countries such as Britain, France, Russia, and the United States continuing to modernize their arsenals, many believe a second nuclear age is coming.”

Climate change is another issue that occurs often in the media. Nowadays we more than often overuse fossil fuel technologies which, in turn, harm the climate. Fossil fuels contain high levels of carbon, which is the main danger to us and the Doomsday Clock Overview states that today the concentration of carbon dioxide is at its highest in 650,000 years. The overview goes on further to state that even if the emissions of gas were immediately stopped the extra gases already in the atmosphere would continue to change the characteristics of the Earth for hundreds of years.

Biosecurity refers to our war against various diseases. Of course, this is a very good thing. Diseases such as polio have long since been cured and without medical science we would perhaps still be rampant with syphilis like in the early days of humanity when people were uneducated and slept with anyone they wanted. Unfortunately, there is a downside to all of this. If these advanced technologies fall into the wrong hands, then dangerous pathogens can be released. This is a fear that also controls the clock.

There is a silver lining at least. The clock may be moving forward now, but it also has the ability to go backwards as well. For example, according to the Doomsday Clock timeline, in 1963 the clock went from seven minutes to midnight to 12 minutes to midnight. This occurred when the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty. This treaty put limits on atmospheric nuclear testing.

What Can Be Done?

This year the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board decided to keep the clock at five minutes to midnight. Alarmed by this, the board sent an open letter to President Barack Obama on Jan. 14, 2013. The letter expressed grave concerns over the issues of nuclear weapons, securing fissile materials—materials left over from making weapons—and climate control. The scientists stated that 2012 was the hottest year on record for the United States. The letter to Obama can be viewed here on the bulletin’s website.

It’s true that normal citizens can’t do much when it comes to nuclear warfare or biosecurity. But there are always things that can be done to help the environment. Numerous things, though small, are always better than nothing at all—save energy, pick up trash, boycott products that use too much fossil fuel. The best thing that can be done is to be aware.

The post How Far are We from Catastrophe? The Doomsday Clock and What it Signifies appeared first on Nvate.

Credit: Antoinette Kordic

Tracey M. Romero

Given the title of The World’s Greenest Hotel by Skal International, Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers in Denmark strives to show that sustainable living is not only possible, but can be a four-star experience for the customer while still being profitable for the business. One of their missions is to offer their guests a “vacation with a clear conscience.”

The key, of course, is implementing the right innovations. As the first Danish hotel to sign the U.N. Global Compact, which asks businesses to work with the United Nations to engage in “enlightened global business,” they have committed to being 100 percent sustainable right from its conception. To do that, they use energy saving techniques throughout the hotel.

Energy Saving Techniques and Green Practices

Crowne Plaza Towers is the first hotel in Denmark to have a carbon dioxide-neutral building as well as the first groundwater-based cooling and heating system. They also boast Northern Europe’s largest solar park built into the hotel’s structure.

The groundwater-based cooling and heating system, Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage, or ATES, is housed in the basement of the hotel. There are three cold water wells and three hot water wells that run the system. Cold groundwater is used for cooling the guest rooms during summer, and the heat that is given off during this process is recycled to heat the hotel in the winter. A variable airflow system, or VAV, is then used to regulate how much heat or air goes to individual rooms to reduce waste of energy.

The biggest hot spot for waste in any home or business is the kitchen. To counteract that from happening, the Crowne Plaza Towers has many strategies in place. According to their website, they buy organic and locally whenever possible and work with their suppliers to maintain green practices in all of their transactions.

This is the hotel’s urban garden.

One way they keep a low carbon footprint is by scheduling food delivery three times a week instead of once or twice a day, which is typical in the hotel business. Also, by grinding up all food scrapings and sending them to a biogas plant, the waste is turned into fertilizer. On one of the hotel roofs, the chef is even cultivating his own urban garden. All the cooking equipment uses the latest in induction technology, which allows stoves and ovens to be heated quicker and to be turned on and off instantaneously causing less heat waste.

Sustainable practices don’t just stop there, though. In the bedroom, soap and shampoo bottles are all made of biodegradable ingredients like corn and starch. Forty percent of the furniture in each room is made of recycled material.

“We’ve insulated, we’ve saved water, we recycle food, even the shampoo bottles are made of starch, so from the inside to the outside, the hotel is made so that it can be as green and as sustainable as possible,” Antoinette Kordic, director of communications for the hotel, shared in an email. “So this means that we use less than half the energy that another totally modern hotel would use.”

“The way we run the hotel is more expensive than conventional hotel business, but we feel that more and more tourists and business people choose us because of our green and sustainable profile,” Kordic said regarding the challenges of being 100 percent sustainable. “So we expect this challenge to decrease over the years.”

Allan L. Agerholm, managing director and co-owner of the hotel, recently discussed the European Union’s policy on corporate social responsibility, or CSR, on Ledelses TV. “CSR is a broad description of the way a business should behave toward its different stakeholders, both internal and external and the local environment,” he said. “It is our ability to make a small contribution in making a difference.”

Agerholm points out that CSR is also good for the bottom line of a business. “To me, it is big business. Decisive action becomes a competitive advantage,” he said.

The Crowne Plaza Towers is situated in the perfect city for its green passions. When the hotel was built in 2009, Copenhagen was preparing to host the UN Climate Summit. And although responses to the summit were lukewarm at best, Copenhagen has situated itself as an environmentally-conscious city. According to the official website of Denmark, it has even bid to become the world’s first carbon-neutral city by 2025.

To learn more or book your own vacation with a clear conscience, visit the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers website.

The post Danish Hotel Proves Green Living Can Be Posh and Profitable appeared first on Nvate.

The first episode, original airdate May 1, opens with host Kal Penn explaining the scope of the series. He then tells the contestants to watch a little show as two white pickup trucks drive in traveling at 35 mph, about 56.3 kph. They collide head-on, causing boxes of explosives in the truck beds to explode.

Penn explains that the explosives in the trucks were designed to detonate if their gravitational force, or G-force, exceeds 25 G’s. WiseGeek.org defines g-force as “either the force of gravity on a particular celestial body or the force of acceleration anywhere.” It goes on to explain that “it is measured in G’s, where one G equals the force of gravity at the Earth’s surface, 9.8 meters per second, per second.”

Traveling at 35 mph unsecured, the box in each truck had a G-force of roughly 40 G’s. In just a few days, two other trucks will collide with one another the same way, only this time each team will get to work with one truck. It is up to the contestants to devise a means of preventing the box in their team’s truck from exploding.

Credit: Discovery Channel

This begins the Blueprint Challenge, where each contestant individually calculates and designs a plan for keeping the box’s G-force under 25 G’s. According to Penn, this challenge has a real-world application. Specifically, the engineers’ designs could help protect a black box recorder from being destroyed in an airplane crash.

The judges believe that every contestant has come up with creative ideas, but they name Joe Caravella the winner. He is the only one who nailed the math by calculating the minimum distance necessary for the box to travel if it is to stay below 25 G’s. The runner-up is Amy Elliott, who came up with a rotating arm design the judges found clever. One-by-one, Elliott and Caravella pick their teammates, which is mostly guesswork since they do not know one another yet.

This week, the red team consists of Elliott, Corey Fleischer, Dan Moyers, Andrew Stroup and Eric Whitman. The blue team consists of Caravella, Gui Cavalcanti, Joel Ifill, Tom Johnson and Alison Wong.

After spending the night at their “living quarters,” which impresses the contestants with its sleek design and large size, it’s time to get to work.

The Red Team’s Preparation

Although the judges were impressed by Elliott’s rotating arm design, the team decides to go an arguably more straightforward route. Their idea is to place the explosive box on top of two long rails that will are held above the truck. Since the rails go the full length of the truck, rather than only sitting in the bed, they have more distance for slowing down the box. They plan to use clamping mechanical brakes to slow the box down gradually as it travels down the rails upon collision.

This is the red team’s truck in progress. Credit: Pilgrim Studios

After a while, the judges check on the team, and it looks as if everything is going fine. According to Mark Fuller, all they really have to do is put the finishing touches on the brakes. Since it looks like they’ll have so much time remaining, Moyers suggests that they make a secondary system in case their main idea fails. Working himself up as he yells at his teammates, he finds that half the team is for his idea and half against. Elliott, being the team leader, makes the final call by saying that they won’t complicate things with another device.

This proves to be a wise decision because it takes them much longer than expected to finish their creation. Various members of the team notice that Moyers is becoming short-tempered, opposing other people’s ideas often and failing to admit when he’s wrong. Moyers himself is concerned that Whitman and Fleischer may have tightened the brakes too much. When Moyers asks Whitman if he took static friction into account, Whitman responds with nothing more than a baffled look. Despite the team’s tension, they finish with two minutes to spare and even nickname their truck “Crusher.”

The Blue Team’s Preparation

Like their opponents, the blue team decides to deviate from the group leader’s design in favor of one that involves the box traveling down a rail system in the truck. This one, however, will use a gas spring system to absorb the shock for the box, and it will be confined to the bed of the truck. Although Caravella, the leader, cheerfully announces that he wants this to be a fully democratic process where he’s equal to the other group members, some of his companions believe that he’s not stepping up to his role as leader properly.

After the first day in the shop is complete, Caravella works on the mathematics behind their plan and finds that the numbers just aren’t adding up, so they have to change their approach. This bothers Cavalcanti since they already bought expensive gas springs. Cavalcanti decides that they should use mechanical brake clamps instead of gas springs. With this setback, the judges believe that the team has a great idea, but time is working against them.

To make matters worse, there is team conflict. Many of its members believe that Caravella can’t handle stress well, so Cavalcanti steps up and basically takes on the role of leader. He tells the audience that, if he ever gets on a team where the leader’s incapable, he won’t hesitate to take the reins. The judges are worried that his confident, perhaps even arrogant, attitude may make it difficult for him to keep a deadline. Meanwhile, Caravella feels discouraged, saying that his head is probably “on the chopping block” if his team fails.

On the final day, the team is especially tense. Ifill believes that Cavalcanti is coming up with ideas that are too complex given their short amount of time left, but his alternate, simpler suggestions fall on deaf ears. As time runs out, teammates are yelling at one another to do whatever they can even if they’ll never finish. In the end, they only have one brake completed instead of two. They believe it might still work, however.

The Test: Trucks Collide

With the moment of truth approaching, Penn announces that the guest judge this week is NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who completed two space shuttle missions and was the first person to tweet from space. When the teams present their final products to the judges, Caravella of the blue team openly says that there’s only a 10 percent chance their unfinished creation will work, which his teammates describe as an embarrassing lack of confidence. However, the red team isn’t worried, though Moyers is concerned that the clamping mechanical brakes may be too tight.

The contestants watch with excitement as the trucks collide. To their surprise, the boxes in both trucks explode. While the red team looks disappointed since they expected their final product to work, the blue team looks pleased since they are at least on an “even playing field,” as Wong puts it.

Credit: Discovery Channel

Upon inspecting each truck, the judges decide that the red team’s brakes were too tight—Moyers was right all along. The box came to a stop almost immediately without traveling down much of the rail at all, putting a great amount of G-force on it. The blue team’s missing brake did them in, as there wasn’t enough to slow the box down and ease its amount of G-force. To summarize, one judge says that red team failed due to a miscalculation and the blue team failed due to poor time management.

Since both teams lost, the contestant sent home could be anyone. They are asked who they thought was the “weakest link” on their team. While most of the red team criticizes Moyers for his aggressive behavior, Elliott and Moyers believe that Fleischer and Whitman are at most to blame for their failure because they miscalculated the braking system. Most of the blue team believes that Caravella failed as a leader—even Caravella himself believes he’s the weakest link for this reason!

After the judges deliberate, Penn announces that they have decided to send Caravella home first due to his poor leadership. The host tells him to “pack your plasma torch and go.”

According to a poll on the show’s website, over 90 percent of voters believed that the judges made the correct decision in eliminating Caravella.

Of course, the comment section below is open to discussion as well.

To watch the full episode, visit the “Pure Genius” website.

The post “Pure Genius”—Protecting a Black Box in a Plane Crash… or Truck Collision appeared first on Nvate.

On the Discovery Channel every Wednesday at 10 p.m. EST, a new episode of “The Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius” airs. The show involves 10 contestants who are divided into teams each episode to tackle difficult engineering projects. It blends reality TV drama, where the contestants must deal with each other’s clashing personalities, with science that is explained in such a way that laypeople can understand.

According to the show’s host, Kal Penn—who played Dr. Lawrence Kutner on the TV series “House”— “The Big Brain Theory” wants to show people that America can remain the world’s center of innovation. It’s the home of many great inventions, from the light bulb to the iPhone. Contestant Tom Johnson has expressed a similar wish, hoping that the show will inspire another generation of innovators.

Credit: Amazon

Each episode begins with a brief explanation of the challenge they must tackle. For instance, in the first episode, they must devise a means by which to reduce the amount of force exerted on a pickup truck’s cargo in a collision. Following this is the Blueprint Challenge, where each contestant has 30 minutes to come up with a plan for the task at hand. With nothing but an erasable pen and a big drawing board, contestants need to perform calculations and come up with an overall design that can solve the issue. One-by-one, the contestants present their ideas to the judges, who will pick a winner and a follow-up. These two individuals are the team captains for that week, and the captains then get to pick their teams.

With the teams in place, they have three days and $4,000 to turn their ideas into a reality. The teams have a time limit of 12 hours each day to work in the shop. While they can certainly go along with the initial idea conjured up during the Blueprint Challenge, they are in no way confined to it.

After the teams have used up their time, the grand moment comes when their creations are put to the test. Next, three judges will determine which contestant in the losing team deserves to be sent home. Judges Christine Gulbranson, a nanotechnologist and renewable energy innovator, and Mark Fuller, the CEO of WET, are part of each week’s episode, with a third guest judge making an appearance.

Before the judges make their decision, each member of the losing team explains who they think the “weakest link” of their group was and why. The judges then deliberate and the episode ends when the losing contestant is sent home.

Among the 10 contestants, only one can come out on top. As the series’ website explains, “The winner of the competition will earn $50,000 and a one year contract to work at WET.”

WET is “the industry leader behind some of the world’s most innovative water and fire-based designed environments,” such as the Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas,Nev., according to the series’ website.

Full episodes of the show, biographies of the contestants and judges, weekly polls, viewer discussions and more can be found on the show’s website.

Detailed summaries of each episode will be posted on the Nvate website weekly.

The post “The Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius”—Inspiring a New Generation of Innovators appeared first on Nvate.

For most people, Facebook and Twitter are ways to chat with friends and catch up on the latest news. Many people use the sites to procrastinate when they have something important to be doing. However, in some countries, these websites have saved lives and allowed political upheavals to occur. They allow for free communication that has challenged authoritarian governments, making some go so far as to say that the Internet is a tool for democracy.

The Political Revolutions

The first instance in which we saw social media websites widely used during protests was the Iranian Revolution of 2009, sometimes referred to as the “Twitter Revolution.” Although the revolution ultimately failed according to ePolitics.com, it would set an example for other countries to follow as they pursue rights for all.

In an election that took place around the middle of 2009, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerged as the victor by a huge percentage. However, all three of the opposing candidates claimed the election was rigged, and the citizens of Iran believed something was wrong with the results as well, according to The Christian Science Monitor. In response, they began protesting peacefully, though the police sometimes responded with brutality.

Tunisia, a country in northern Africa, experienced a similar revolution in December 2010 and January 2011. Sometimes called the “Jasmine Revolution,” as SixEstate.com notes, the people of the country succeeded in ousting longtime president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

According to The Daily Telegraph, people were upset over rampant unemployment, no freedom of speech, poor living conditions, and political corruption. The revolution began in full when Mohamed Bouazizi, a young vendor, had his wares confiscated and faced harassment from police authorities. The Stump, a Crikey Group blog, reported that he responded with self-immolation, that is, setting himself on fire. When news of this spread—via the Internet, of course—the people decided it was high time for change.

The actions of the Tunisian people inspired a similar uprising in Egypt that began on Jan. 25, 2011. As with the other political revolutions, the people practiced non-violent civil resistance through actions such as demonstrations, marches, civil disobedience, and labor strikes. Their grievances were very similar to those of the Tunisian people. The lack of freedom of speech was so severe, in fact, that the government was fining and imprisoning bloggers or journalists who criticized its actions. It censored anything that went against the regime, as the State.gov 2009 Human Rights Report noted. The demonstrations eventually led to the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, creating an environment in which democracy can grow.

The Role of Social Media

These revolutions all have one thing in common—the Internet facilitated communication within the country and around the world, helping people to organize and to bring attention to the issues at hand. According to ParisTechReview.com, about a third of the Tunisian people are online, and over 20 percent of the Egyptian population are on the Internet. Plus, most of the populations own cell phones, which also helped communication.

A Facebook page honoring Khaled Mohamed Saeed, a victim of Egypt’s regime.

Rim Nour, a young Tunisian activist, told GovFresh.com that there are four primary functions social media plays in political revolutions. To begin with, social websites allow for grassroots mobilization. For instance, if the people want to stage a demonstration somewhere, they can post the news on Facebook to get everyone organized. Social media also allows for the rise of civil society and active citizenship, according to Nour. People can alert others of snipers or any authoritarian figure who intends harm, a measure that has saved lives. The freedom of speech that social media allows can also counter political rumors and propaganda. In countries where the government controls the mainstream press, the most accurate news comes from fellow protesters. Kamal Sedra, another digital activist, expressed a similar opinion to PBS.org, stating that “transparency is a weapon against corruption.” Finally, social media helps people analyze government statements. If the government tries to make a concession to protesters, they can discuss whether or not it is enough.

With the numerous ways in which social media has helped protesters, Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim thanked Facebook for the success of the revolution. “I want to meet Mark Zuckerberg one day and thank him. This revolution started online. This revolution started on Facebook,” Ghonim told the Huffington Post. “We would post a video on Facebook that would be shared by 60,000 people on their walls within a few hours. I’ve always said that if you want to liberate a society just give them the Internet.”

Government Response to Social Media

The countries in which these revolutions occurred promised the freedom of speech, but this was never reflected in their actions. Aside from censoring mainstream media, the governments tried to clampdown on Internet communication when they saw just how powerful it was.

Egypt, in particular, took numerous measures to suppress the use of social media. Its government blocked “critical news sites and Facebook pages created by protesters,” as TheDailyBeast.com noted. Àli, an anonymous Egyptian protester, had to put up over five sites over the course of the revolution due to the government blocking them. He had to use encryption, proxies, and virtual private networks to make his way around censors. It was also not uncommon for governments to try stealing protester’s passwords.

There are various programs available to help people circumvent government regulations. Freegate, for instance, was developed by Dynamic Internet Technology to help people view blocked websites. It is currently the most popular “Network Tools” download on CNET.com, though it has mixed reviews.

How Important was Social Media in these Revolutions?

There are some people, however, who contend that we are overestimating the importance of social media in these revolutions. Charles Trew of Ahram.org stated that social media was not so important to the protesters themselves; it was instead the means by which people in the United States experienced the revolutions. It provided them instant news about what was happening and allowed them to come close to the people involved.

However, David Reich of SixEstate.com spoke with various Tunisians on the matter, and they believe that the revolution would not have been successful without the widespread communication that the Internet offers. It helped people organize, to make their grievances known, and allowed them to find out the truth in a world where the government controls the mainstream media. Fahd Bourogaa noted that, before Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest, numerous other people had died due to the government’s injustice. The difference in his case was the fact that everyone knew about it thanks to social media; the government could not suppress the news this time. According to The Guardian, Gordon Brown, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, has said that the Internet provides inherent democracy to communication, which will forever change foreign policy.

Yet, we must remember that the revolution was not just carried out by people sitting in front of their computers tweeting. Numerous people put their lives on the line by protesting in the streets, making their grievances known to the government. Everyone played a part in toppling unjust regimes.

Ultimately, Facebook, Twitter, and other social websites are tools that can provide amusement, but they can also facilitate communication lines essential to political organization. In the United States, it should be noted that President Barack Obama effectively used Twitter and Facebook to raise campaign funds. And these websites can help countries out in ways that go beyond political revolutions. For instance, after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, people used social media to organize and to make their needs known, according to ParisTechReview.com. The Internet has proved to be an astoundingly versatile tool, one that will surely play a role in how countries evolve in the coming years.

The post Political Revolutions: Like Us on Facebook appeared first on Nvate.