THE world’s first 'bionic Olympics' will be held in Switzerland in October 2016. Dubbed the Cybathlon, the event will feature 'bionic' athletes competing in a range of different events including prosthetics races, powered exoskeleton competitions and a game where athletes, known as pilots, control a vehicle with their mind. The competition is designed for people with disabilities and companies who specialise in "assistive" technology. Organisers hope that the competition will generate interest in performance-enhancing machinery, the BBC reports. The event will feature races for powered wheelchairs, exoskeletons, arm and leg prosthetics, and muscle-stimulation bicycles. One of the most technologically complex events will be the brain-computer interface race, where a competitor who is paralysed from the neck down will race in a computer simulation racing game using a headset that connects their mind to a computer. All competitions will see two medals awarded, one for the winning pilot or athlete and one for the company that developed their technology. Pilots can use devices that are commercially available or equipment that has been specially developed in a research lab. Sponsored by the Swiss National Competence Centre of Research in Robotics, the Cybathlon is primarily designed to promote new medical devices and technology, but many see it as an opportunity to explore the interface between people and machines. Meghan Neil, technology editor for Motherboard, says that the competition "opens up a whole range of questions about the future of competitive sports in the age of augmented humans". For further concise, balanced comment and analysis on the week's news, try The Week magazine. Source: The Week UK, Source: Image
Cybathlon: first 'bionic Olympics' to be held in 2016
Recap takes the social media rout to brand awareness
Recap Sportswear is working on its growth plan. This includes taking the social media and online route to spread brand awareness. Though its Facebook page online venture is still in its nascent stage, Zubin Thakker, Director, Recap Sportswear believes that the online spectrum is where the future is. “We plan to become more aggressive in this space shortly,” he opines. Aggressive retail expasnionThe brand has gone from strength to strength in the last 10 years. It now has a pan India presence. “We supply to 20 states and almost 40 cities with a total of almost 1,500 MBOs. The brand is also available at major large formats like Pantaloon Central, Globus, Rituwear, and more,” Thakker elaborates. Established in 1998 with a small manufacturing unit, the brand was launched in 2000. A state of the art production unit on the outskirts of Mumbai houses production facility for denimwear, cottons, T-shirts, and embroidery units. The company also has dry process set up and an in house laundry. “A designing team comprising of designers, merchandisers, visualisers work at a dedicated sampling unit which caters exclusively to developing new products and styles throughout the year,” explains Thakkar. The total capacity of the unit is 35,000 units per month. Targeting the young with its rangeRecap’s merchandise is young, sporty and trendy. It embodies the style of fashion czars of today. Avers Thakkar, “Continuous innovation international styling, top quality fabrics in a range of products like jeans, tees, shirts, shorts, rainwear make this brand a must have for every fashion conscious youngster.” The brand offers at least eight different fits in its jeans portfolio apart from capris, shorts both cotton and denim, pedal pushers, denim skirts, jackets along with a wide aray of shirts and T-shirts. For the forthcoming season, Recap has introduced neon shades in both top and bottom wear going with the current trend. Commenting on the USP of brand, Thakkar says, “A Recap product can give a fit few other brands are able to. The range has something for everybody. The collection is subtle and not in your face loud fashion. It is therefore positioned for the discerning customer who would appreciate the quality that is the hallmark of any Recap product even if it costs more.” Last year, company Recap Sportswear launched its ladies wear brand called Reveal Jeans. It caters to the budget conscious customer and promises to give the best quality, most trendy product at the most pocket friendly prices. The product is already available in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR, Punjab, West Bengal and Northeast, Karnataka at over 500 MBOs. Source: Article
Steven Spielberg in a conversation with Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan met celebrated Hollywood filmmaker Steven Spielberg, yesterday, who is here to celebrate the success of his Oscar-winning film Lincoln which is co-produced by his production house DreamWorks and Anil Ambani's . Big B shared a few pictures from this meeting on Twitter and his blog. "A scintillating evening with Mr Steven Spielberg .. films relations scripts trends future .. and more !!," he posted on the micro-blogging site. Taking to his blog, Bachchan wrote, "An evening with an institution .. an evening spent in conversation in the presence of select fraternity and press .. an evening of sharing cinema with prolific maker, inventer, story teller, innovator and one who continues to surprise us with his genius ..
An honest evening - simple and filled with candor !" "Present too, the best in-house fraternity of the time .. a rare presence, but one that lent the evening a feeling of ‘family and brotherhood’," he further added. Also present at the event were Bollywood bigwigs like Abbas-Mustan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Kiran Rao, Javed Akhtar, Sudhir Mishra, Zoya Akhtar, Rajkumar Hirani, Ramesh Sippy, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Anurag Kashyap, R. Balki, Gauri Shinde, Prabhu Deva among others. Source: Page3
Hilary Mantel wins David Cohen Prize for Literature 2013
Author gives Clarissa Luard Award to young writer Katie Ward
The David Cohen Prize for Literature 2013 has been awarded to the English novelist, essayist and short story writer Hilary Mantel for a lifetime of achievement in literature. The prize, worth £40,000, was presented by the chair of judges Mark Lawson at a gala ceremony hosted at the British Library this evening. Since winning her first Man Booker Prize in 2009 for Wolf Hall Mantel has become one of the UK’s best known authors. Her books include Eight Months on Ghazzah Street (1988); Fludd (1989) winner of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, the Cheltenham Prize and the Southern Arts Literature Prize; A Place of Greater Safety(1992), winner of the Sunday Express Book of the Year award; A Change of Climate (1994); An Experiment in Love (1995), winner of the 1996 Hawthornden Prize. Her memoir, Giving Up the Ghost (2003), was the MIND Book of the Year. Beyond Black (2005), was shortlisted for a 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize and for the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; Wolf Hall (2009), was winner of the Man Booker Prize and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction; and Bring Up The Bodies (2012), her most recent novel, was winner of the Man Booker Prize, and Costa Book of the year 2012. In 2006 she was awarded a CBE. Mark Lawson, chair of judges, said of this year’s winner: ‘It seems paradoxical that giving a major literary prize – the British Nobel Prize, as I think of it – to one of the most generally-admired and well-liked people in the literary world will be, for some, controversial. This is because of a feeling – voiced by some pundits and perhaps secretly thought by authors who feel unrewarded – that Hilary Mantel has recently been given too much too quickly. That issue, however, was rapidly dismissed by the judges. Crucially, while the writer’s other recent prizes have been for two recent books, the David Cohen Prize assesses and rewards an entire career to date. In the case of Hilary Mantel, this means 28 years of work that has produced 13 books ranging across historical and contemporary novels, short stories and a memoir. ‘While the judges were as impressed as most readers by Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, it is our particular hope that this prize for three decades of dedication to the possibilities of narrative imagination and English prose will direct attention to such earlier works as the novels Fludd, A Change of Climate and Beyond Blackand the autobiography Giving Up The Ghost. Consideration of this remarkable career soon led us to feel that we had had enough of anyone who will moan that Hilary Mantel has already had enough prizes. It would be ludicrous if a history of high achievement somehow disbarred a writer from the David Cohen Prize’s list of the highest literary achievers.’ On winning the Prize Hilary said: ‘I did at first find it a little bit hard to take in because my husband gave me the news and I said “Oh I think you mean I’ve been invited to the David Cohen awards”. It was not on my horizon, but of course, here I am and it’s a very wonderful place to be. 'There are some readers who think that I was born on the day Wolf Hall was published. This prize acknowledges that there are no overnight sensations in the creative arts. That’s not the way it works. The ground has to be prepared and I feel that this is recognition of the fact that for many many years I’ve been trying to perfect my craft…I want to assure the judges that much as there is a lifetime's worth of work behind me, there is still a lifetime's worth of work still to come...' Hilary Mantel was born in Derbyshire, England on 6 July 1952. She studied Law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. She was employed as a social worker, and lived in Botswana for five years, followed by four years in Saudi Arabia, before returning to Britain in the mid-1980s. The David Cohen Prize was established in 1992 by David and Veronica Cohen, and Arts Council England, and is recognised as one of Britain’s most distinguished literary honours. The Prize has in the past been awarded to novelists, dramatists, biographers, poets and essayists. The most recent recipient of the David Cohen Prize for Literature was Julian Barnes in 2011. He joined a distinguished list of winners, including V S Naipaul, Harold Pinter, Muriel Spark, William Trevor, Doris Lessing, Beryl Bainbridge and Thom Gunn (jointly), Michael Holroyd, Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney. The John S Cohen Foundation, which was established in 1965 by David Cohen and his family funds the winner’s prize. The John S Cohen Foundation has supported education and the arts, helping composers, choreographers, dancers, biographers, poets, playwrights and actors, among others. The winner of the David Cohen Prize for Literature also chooses the recipient of the Clarissa Luard Award, which is worth £12,500. The award, funded by Arts Council England, is given to a literature organisation that supports young writers and readers or an individual writer under the age of 35. Hilary Mantel presented the 2013 award to Katie Ward. Katie Ward was born in Somerset in 1979. She has worked in the public and voluntary sectors, including at a women’s refuge and for a Member of Parliament. She took a career break to write her debut novel after coming across an article about a book of portraits of female readers. In 2007 Katie was introduced to Hilary Mantel through a colleague, and Hilary took a keen interest in her work. When Girl Reading was complete, Hilary recommended it to her agent who soon had a number of publishers bidding for it. Girl Reading was published in 2011 by Virago. Katie Ward said: ‘Hilary is a very special person to me. Not only is she a brilliant and perceptive author, she is also a kind and generous mentor. Over the years, she’s dedicated a great deal of time to supporting new writers. I for one will always be grateful for her guidance, friendship and belief. To be receiving the Clarissa Luard Award is lovely, and a little surreal. I take it as encouragement to keep writing. It means I can finish my second novel with confidence and begin to think ahead about what I want to tackle next.’Source: Beattie's Book Blog
Is it ethical to destroy the capacity for pleasure?
Chinese neurosurgeons are treating opiate addiction by destroying a region of the brain which feels
pleasure. But, reports Time magazine, “damaging the brain region involved in addictive desires risks permanently ending the entire spectrum of natural longings and emotions, including the ability to feel joy.” The idea of destroying parts of the brain as a conventional treatment has outraged many Western doctors. In fact, it was so controversial that China’s Ministry of Health banned it in 2004, although a loophole was left for researchers. Apparently one surgeon drove a truck through the loophole and by 2007 he had done 1,000 of these operations to treat severe depression, epilepsy and schizophrenia. In October, doctors at Tangdu Hospital at the Fourth Military Medical University in the city of Xi'an, reported the results of neurosurgery for drug addicts -- called ablation of the nucleus accumbens -- in a major international journal, World Neurosurgery. They found that it was effective, but only in about 58% of addicts – compared to a 30-40% non-relapse rate for conventional treatments. There are also side-effects, although the doctors say that these are relatively minor. Western doctors are adamant that this operation is unethical. “To lesion this region that is thought to be involved in all types of motivation and pleasure risks crippling a human being,” says Dr Charles O’Brien, head of the Center for Studies of Addiction at the University of Pennsylvania. David Linden, of Johns Hopkins, calls the surgery “horribly misguided.” Time raised a number of ethical concerns. First, animal studies suggest that the ablation of the nucleus accumbens did not stop the craving for opioids. Second, there may be a lack of informed consent. Drug addiction is a capital crime in China and patients may be clutching at straws to stay out of the courts. Third, publishing the results of unethical research may itself be unethical. Finally, the risks seen to outweigh the benefits. While the operation might be acceptable for long-term addicts, a recent article mentioned that some patients were only 19 and had been addicts for only 3 years. “Addiction research strongly suggests that such patients are likely to recover even without treatment, making the risk-benefit ratio clearly unacceptable.” Source: BioEdge
pleasure. But, reports Time magazine, “damaging the brain region involved in addictive desires risks permanently ending the entire spectrum of natural longings and emotions, including the ability to feel joy.” The idea of destroying parts of the brain as a conventional treatment has outraged many Western doctors. In fact, it was so controversial that China’s Ministry of Health banned it in 2004, although a loophole was left for researchers. Apparently one surgeon drove a truck through the loophole and by 2007 he had done 1,000 of these operations to treat severe depression, epilepsy and schizophrenia. In October, doctors at Tangdu Hospital at the Fourth Military Medical University in the city of Xi'an, reported the results of neurosurgery for drug addicts -- called ablation of the nucleus accumbens -- in a major international journal, World Neurosurgery. They found that it was effective, but only in about 58% of addicts – compared to a 30-40% non-relapse rate for conventional treatments. There are also side-effects, although the doctors say that these are relatively minor. Western doctors are adamant that this operation is unethical. “To lesion this region that is thought to be involved in all types of motivation and pleasure risks crippling a human being,” says Dr Charles O’Brien, head of the Center for Studies of Addiction at the University of Pennsylvania. David Linden, of Johns Hopkins, calls the surgery “horribly misguided.” Time raised a number of ethical concerns. First, animal studies suggest that the ablation of the nucleus accumbens did not stop the craving for opioids. Second, there may be a lack of informed consent. Drug addiction is a capital crime in China and patients may be clutching at straws to stay out of the courts. Third, publishing the results of unethical research may itself be unethical. Finally, the risks seen to outweigh the benefits. While the operation might be acceptable for long-term addicts, a recent article mentioned that some patients were only 19 and had been addicts for only 3 years. “Addiction research strongly suggests that such patients are likely to recover even without treatment, making the risk-benefit ratio clearly unacceptable.” Source: BioEdgeColors Have Various Affect on Human Psychology
By cheng ming, Different color gives out different wavelength of light, and stimulates different association and reaction by human brain when seen by human eyes. Hence, colors have directly various affect on human sentiment.Green : it is a steady, comfortable color, and benefits calming nervous system, reducing intraocular pressure, removing eyestrain and improving kinetism. Natural green also has a certain effect on smoothing syncope, fatigue, nausea and negative emotions. But staying in the green for a long time may cause loneliness and gastric secretion to lose appetite. Blue : Blue is both thoughtful and serious; can regulate the nerve system and tranquilize the mind. Blue lamplight plays a significant role in cure for insomnia, lowering blood pressure and prevention of colds. It may ease car- or seasickness to wear blue glasses for some people. But blue may also aggravate psychasthenia and melancholia, Yellow :
It is first seen when we are born, representing health. It is healthy and bright for it is the easiest to be absorbed in the light spectrum. It helps healthy people control stress, enhance appetite but worsen depressed and pessimistic emotions, Orange : it helps produce energy and induce appetite; represents warm colors and health. It also has a meaning of maturity and happiness. White : it reflects, giving out a sense of cleanness and expansion. Staying in a small, white environment helps calm fractious people to keep blood pressure but does no good for autism and melancholia patients.Pink : it is the best interpretation for gentleness. It calms people by reducing the production of adrenal hormone. Pink is good for lonely and depressive people. Red : it stimulates passion and excitement. Staring in red affects vision and cause vertigo. CCVD patients are generally prohibited to be in red.Black : it helps clear heat, calm stress and quiet and does good to remit peace for excited, whiny, insomnic and panic patients. Gray : it is very easy-going and suits any color. It can be used to reconcile improper color matching. It is friendly to human health. These are descriptions on Color Psychology by experts. Every color has its contrary sides. Every man has his color which shows his characteristics. However, no one has purely only one color for human psychology is indefinable. Source: Base Articles, Images: flickr.com
Suu Kyi meets Obama, receives medal from Congress
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met President Barack Obama at the White House and received the highest congressional award on Wednesday. Suu Kyi, making a coast-to-coast US tour, held private talks with Obama in the Oval Office after being feted by lawmakers in the ornate US Capitol, where she was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal for her long fight for democracy in a country ruled by army generals since 1962. "This is one of the most moving days of my life, to be here in a house undivided, a house joined together to welcome a stranger from a distant land," she said. "Among all these faces are some I saw while I was under house arrest, and some I saw after I was released from house arrest," said Suu Kyi, acknowledging strong support from US lawmakers during her 17 years of house arrest. The Oval Office setting for the first meeting between the two Nobel Peace laureates afforded Suu Kyi's visit some of the trappings normally reserved for visiting foreign presidents and prime ministers. But the White House, apparently treading carefully lest they allow the Suu Kyi events upstage Myanmar's government, kept the meeting low-key. News photographers were allowed in briefly but not television cameras or print reporters. Obama and Suu Kyi met for about half an hour. Obama, seeking re-election in November, seized the chance to meet Suu Kyi on the second day of her US tour. The encounter could help him highlight what many see as a foreign policy accomplishment of his administration in helping to push Myanmar's generals onto the path of democratic change. Myanmar president acknowledged: At her congressional medal ceremony, both Suu Kyi and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged the presence in the audience of a minister representing Myanmar President Thein Sein and the country's new ambassador in Washington. "This task has been made possible by the reform measures instituted by President Thein Sein," said Suu Kyi in her acceptance speech. Earlier on Wednesday, the United States removed sanctions that blocked any US assets of Thein Sein and the speaker of Myanmar's lower house of parliament and that generally barred American companies from dealing with them. Thein Sein and lower house speaker Shwe Mann, once members of the former military junta who have won international praise for driving reforms in the 18 months since the military ceded power to a quasi-civilian government, were both removed from the U.S. Treasury's list of "specially designated nationals." Thein Sein will visit New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly next week, when he is expected to meet senior US officials. US lawmakers and officials who turned out to honor Suu Kyi expressed amazement - some tearing up - that she had made the journey from house arrest to Washington. "I might have hoped, but I'm not sure I expected, that one day I would have the honor of welcoming my personal hero, Aung San Suu Kyi, to the Congress of the United States," said Republican Senator John McCain. West wing lessons: Clinton said she expected change to come in the country also known as Burma, but did not know how long it would take. "It's almost too delicious to believe, my friend, that you are here in the rotunda of our great capitol, the centre piece of our democracy as an elected member of your parliament," she said. The solemn ceremony was sprinkled with lighter moments, as Clinton related a trip to Myanmar last year, where she quoted the speaker of the lower house of parliament as saying, "Help us learn how to be a democratic congress, a parliament." "He went on to tell me that they were trying to teach themselves by watching old segments of The West Wing," Clinton said, referring to the fictional U.S. television series about presidential politics. "I said, 'I think we can do better than that, Mr. Speaker.'" Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for championing democracy in opposition to the military junta that held her under house arrest for years. Her last stay in the United States was in the 1970s as a United Nations employee. Suu Kyi's election to parliament in April helped to transform the pariah image of Myanmar and persuade the West to begin rolling back sanctions after a year of dramatic reforms, including the release of about 700 political prisoners in amnesties between May 2011 and July. Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, early in his term with no concrete foreign policy successes on his record, leading critics to say he was rewarded mostly for eloquent speech-making. Source: Deccan Chronicle
Russian billionaire offers immortality by 2045
The dream of achieving biological immortality may have taken a big step forward. A 31-year-old Russian billionaire, Dmitry Itskov, claims that his research team will be able to transplant a human brain into an artificial body by 2020, And by 2045 he is sure that he will be able to create hologram avatars with the same capabilities as the humans in the James Cameron film. In an open letter to the members of Forbes World’s Billionaires List, Mr Itskov makes some bold predictions for his 2045 Initiative: “substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! … humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species.” The letter suggests that his fellow billionaires might like to participate in the project -- free of charge -- to help it advance more rapidly. “You have the
power to support and create a new industry of immortality to make revolutionary change that will forever reverberate through the pages of history.” Mr Itskov has some high-profile supporters. Actor Steven Seagal has written an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin calli upon him to support the project. According to media reports, Mr Itskov is a media mogul and is described as a billionaire. However he does not appear to be listed on the Forbes list of Russian billionaires. Persuasive as his vision might be, BioEdge advises would-be immortals to keep a tight hand on their wallets. Source: Image, Article
Exploring dictator's mind
By Yekaterina Kudashkina, Interview with James H. Felon, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Professor Emeritus of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of California. Professor, thank you very much for joining us. So, please tell me has anyone ever tried to explore something like a dictator’s mind?Nobody really knows the brain of a dictator, we’ve really never been able to study them with the genetic. So, a lot of this has to be referred to what we know about people who behave very much like them, these are people who usually be called a psychopaths. It is a social personality disorder and if you break down a psychopath you’ll see some dictators falling into different groups. This what’s called a primary psychopath, these are people that, you know, they don’t respond to stress or disapproval, punishment and they can manipulate people but they don’t have a particular life plan. So, this wouldn’t be Hitler, Hitler had a life plan. They look like they can’t experience real emotion, empathy. Читать далее, Source: Voice of Russia.
India's Anand retains world chess title
India's world chess champion Viswanathan Anand on Wednesday retained his title by defeating Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand in a thrilling speed chess decider at the end of their match in Moscow. Anand won game two of their four speed chess games on Wednesday with the other three games ending in draws to win the tie-break, which was forced after their 12-game Moscow series of regular matches ended all square.RIA, AFP, Tags: World Chess Cup , Russia, chess, Sports, World, News, Читать далее, Source: Voice of Russia.
