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Vladimir Antonov

Project Skybender: Google's secretive 5G internet drone tests revealed | Technology | T... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...rnet-spaceport-virgin-galactic

google internet Technology Social Connected World Global Mobility Internet of Everything

shared by Vladimir Antonov on 02 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Google is testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America in New Mexico to explore ways to deliver high-speed internet from the air
  • Project SkyBender is using drones to experiment with millimetre-wave radio transmissions, one of the technologies that could underpin next generation 5G wireless internet access
  • High frequency millimetre waves can theoretically transmit gigabits of data every second, up to 40 times more than today’s 4G LTE systems. Google ultimately envisages thousands of high altitude “self-flying aircraft” delivering internet access around the world.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • “The huge advantage of millimetre wave is access to new spectrum because the existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded. It’s packed and there’s nowhere else to go,” says Jacques Rudell
  • However, millimetre wave transmissions have a much shorter range than mobile phone signals. A broadcast at 28GHz, the frequency Google is testing at Spaceport America, would fade out in around a tenth the distance of a 4G phone signal. To get millimetre wave working from a high-flying drone, Google needs to experiment with focused transmissions from a so-called phased array. “This is very difficult, very complex and burns a lot of power,” Rudell says
  • The SkyBender system is being tested with an “optionally piloted” aircraft called Centaur as well as solar-powered drones made by Google Titan, a division formed when Google acquired New Mexico startup Titan Aerospace in 2014. Titan built high-altitude solar-powered drones with wingspans of up to 50 metres
  • Project SkyBender is part of the little-known Google Access team, which also includes Project Loon, a plan to deliver wireless internet using unpowered balloons floating through the stratosphere.
  • In 2014, Darpa, the research arm of the US military, announced a program called Mobile Hotspots to make a fleet of drones that could provide one gigabit per second communications for troops operating in remote areas.
  • Vladimir Antonov on 02 Feb 16
     
    Could this be a next gen. technology that would bring hi-speed internet access literally to every place in the world?
Maria Gurova

AMC Could Allow Moviegoers to Use Cellphones Inside Theaters to Appeal to Millennials - 2 views

mic.com/...aters-to-appeal-to-millennials

Theatrical devices second screen In-Theatre Experience Millennials My Smartphone My Precious AMC Theatres

shared by Maria Gurova on 02 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • AMC Theaters issued a statement on Twitter saying that due to the negative response, it will not proceed with the plan to allow cellphones inside its theaters: "With your advice in hand, there will be NO TEXTING ALLOWED in any of the auditoriums at AMC Theaters. Not today, not tomorrow and not in the foreseeable future."
  • "When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don't ruin the movie, they hear 'please cut off your left arm above the elbow,'" Aron told Variety. "You can't tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That's not how they live their life ...
  • and one way would be taking "specific auditoriums and make them more texting friendly." 
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • "Given that so many of today's moviegoers are passionate about preserving the purity of watching movies undisturbed in our theatres, there is no specific timeframe as to when we might introduce such a test, if ever,"
  • Maria Gurova on 02 Jun 16
     
    in the attempt to satisfy Millennial consumer AMC tried to allow texting and using the smartphones during shows. Twitter reaction was outrageous and they have changed their mind, but say that they might reconsider this policy in the future or maybe not
Vladimir Antonov

Pirate Bay gets 'Stream It' option for in-browser viewing (Wired UK) - 1 views

www.wired.co.uk/...ate-bay-stream-it-torrent-time

Piracy Technology Social content online theaters simplification accessibility

shared by Vladimir Antonov on 11 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • A new browser plugin for Windows and Mac computers has turned The Pirate Bay into the world's biggest streaming site
  • plugin lets people stream torrents embedded in webpages without needing to use an external client or download the torrent itself
  • A new 'Stream it!' button has appeared alongside existing options to download, although the feature is still in beta with poor image quality and slow speeds the main issues.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Unlike conventional torrent downloads, the service is easy to use and lets users start watching pirated films and TV shows in seconds
  • The streaming add-on works by finding enough peers to stream content without buffering. Existing torrent streaming services used HTTP, which quickly became too demanding on bandwidth
  • By launching on The Pirate Bay, the service has instantly become one of the world's largest online streaming platforms, albeit one completely based on piracy
  • The team behind Torrents Time claimed that ad server integration was "coming soon". And if Torrents Time can make money, and dodge almost inevitable legal take-downs, it could be here to stay
  • Vladimir Antonov on 11 Feb 16
     
    seems we'll have legal online movie theatres and pirate ones, who'd gain more users in the future?
Maria Gurova

Is it curtains for the big screen? - FT.com - 1 views

next.ft.com/...e8-1c1c-11e6-a7bc-ee846770ec15

Theatrical entertainment in-home vs in-theatre screen fights The Screening Room premium formats windowing strategy Pause pushers tentpole strategy blockbuster

shared by Maria Gurova on 01 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, US movie attendance peaked in 2002 and has been steadily declining ever since. To compensate, theatres have rolled out new technologies such as 3D, Imax and premium large-format cinemas, raising their ticket prices and thus keeping the box office at record-breaking levels
  • The majority of us are increasingly staying home.
  • At Cannes this year, the studio with the most films in competition
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • was not one of the big studios, but the streaming service Amazon.
  • But blockbusters have a design flaw: their marketing costs are enormous — opening a movie typically costs anywhere from $20m — and they spend less and less time in cinemas. To take a recent example, ticket sales for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice dropped by an astonishing 68.4 per cent on its second weekend
  • “What you’re going to end up with is fewer theatres,” George Lucas said during a panel at the University of Southern California in 2013. “Bigger theatres, with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies is going to cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100.”
  • He argued that a film will come out in cinemas for 17 days — three weekends — which is where 98 per cent of films make 95 per cent of their revenues anyway. On the 18th day, the film will be available everywhere and you will pay for the size: a movie screen will be $15, a 75-inch TV will be $4, a smartphone will be $1.99.
  • “Fifty per cent of Americans did not step into a movie theatre last year, and of the 50 per cent that did go into a theatre, 95 per cent of them went to one or two films,”
  • Arguably, it’s more visual than television. It has our full attention: each frame must pull its weight in terms of narrative and spectacle. That is why it is a director’s medium: it envelops us. TV comes to us, into our homes, casual, familiar, favouring habit-forming episodic narratives. That is why it is a writer’s medium. The big screen glamorises — its stars are the stuff of myth; the small screen is more like a member of the family
  • And something like The Avengers, it’s too much fun laughing with the audience. These things are communal experiences.
  • But then many film-makers would argue that movies should be consumed differently from music: a song is a song wherever you play it, whereas films were built for the big screen.
  • “I don’t think that experience is going to die,” says Obst, “although I do worry that eventually we will all be inside on our huge computer screens, watching all of the different types of entertainment together
  • Nothing breaks the spell of the movie more instantly than the pause button.
Maria Gurova

HBO NOW Pushing the Cord-Cutting Trend - App Annie Blog - 3 views

blog.appannie.com/pushing-the-cord-cutting-trend

Technology entertainment KE VOD cable TV TV Networks Entertainment as Service Theatrical Cord-cutting HBO Netflix Hulu Video Streaming Copyright Storytelling adjustable entertainment Market Digital Consumption Digital vs Physical

shared by Maria Gurova on 12 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • In 2007, Netflix changed the landscape by introducing streaming on PC, allowing customers to instantly watch shows. By 2010, Netflix video streaming became available on additional platforms, including iOS devices. Today, video streaming services Netflix and Hulu have a strong hold among combined iOS and Android Top US Apps.
  • These convenient apps have set the stage for a preferred entertainment delivery. A whole generation of consumers have grown up with video streaming, rather than (or in addition to) paying for cable television: cord cutters and cord nevers. Major premium cable networks, HBO and Showtime, are now after a piece of the pie Netflix and Hulu have carved out
  • Both HBO NOW and Showtime are taking different approaches to standalone streaming partnerships. HBO NOW has gotten more traction in part to a heavy promotion from Apple, resulting in positive metrics. Showtime’s success is less clear, being married into Hulu’s already strong performance
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  • Netflix isn’t being left in the dust completely, kicking off their original film initiative with “Beasts of No Nation”, which will launch both in theaters and streaming video on October 16th. HBO, Showtime, Netflix and Hulu will still need to compete with each other to retain users in a new “entertainment as a service” landscape where retention is not a given, but an earned currency.
  • Cable provider Comcast hasn’t felt the heat from the cord-cutting trend, having its second best Q2 in nine years. Comcast is also in an advantageous place as a broadband provider, with 22.3 million total customers in Q2. Good quality video streaming relies on broadband internet, meaning cable providers that offer bundled internet service will still be valuable
  • Maria Gurova on 12 Aug 15
     
    the rise of streaming services and how cable networks are competing with video streaming services on their battle field 
Anton Vorykhalov

Smart Billboards Identify Vehicles to Target Ads | Digital Trends - 0 views

www.digitaltrends.com/...lboards-id-vehicles-target-ads

Advertising Image_recognition

shared by Anton Vorykhalov on 14 Jul 16 - No Cached
  • Smart billboards will identify car models and target ads to drivers
  • Some day in the not-too-distant future ads you see on billboards will be there simply because of the make, model, and year of the vehicle you’re driving. Smart data storage company Cloudian and Japanese advertising company Dentsu are launching just such a program in Japan this fall, as reported by CNN Money.
  • Cloudian and Dentsu tested smart billboard vehicle recognition earlier this year with impressive results. Combining big data and deep learning, the test identified vehicles in traffic correctly 94 percent of the time.
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  • Once the system has identified a vehicle, it displays a targeted ad on the LED billboard for as long as five seconds. The choice of ads to be displayed to specific vehicles is determined by the advertisers. For example, people driving a five-year old vehicle might see an ad for a newer model of the same car. Truck drivers might be shown ads for upcoming trucker-friendly stops.
Maria Gurova

Driverless cars, pilotless planes … will there be jobs left for a human being... - 3 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...rs-pilotless-planes-jobs-human

robotics Technology Social KE CIS employment expertise jobs big data wicked issues wellbeing

shared by Maria Gurova on 13 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • From staff-free ticket offices to students who can learn online, it seems there is no corner of economic life in which people are not being replaced by machines.
  • One of the reasons Google is investing so much is that whoever owns the communications system for driverless cars will own the 21st century's equivalent of the telephone network or money clearing system: this will be a licence to print money.
  • The only new jobs will be in the design and marketing of the cars, and in writing the computer software that will allow them to navigate their journeys, along with the apps for our mobile phones that will help us to use them better
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  • The invention of 3D printing, in which every home or office will be equipped with an in-house printer that can spew out the goods we want – from shoes to pills – anticipates a world of what Summers calls automated "doers". They will do everything for us, eliminating the need for much work.
  • we have come to the end of the great "general purpose technologies" (technologies that transform an entire economy, such as the steam engine, electricity, the car and so on) that changed the world. There are no new transformative technologies to carry us forward, while the old activities are being robotised and automated.
  • The second is in human wellbeing. There will be vast growth in advising, coaching, caring, mentoring, doctoring, nursing, teaching and generally enhancing capabilities.
  • Notwithstanding robotisation and automation, I identify four broad areas in which there will be vast job opportunities.The first is in micro-production
  • The third is in addressing the globe's "wicked issues" . There will be new forms of nutrition and carbon-efficient energy, along with economising with water, to meet the demands of a world population of 9 billion in 2050.
  • And fourthly, digital and big data management will foster whole new industries
  • the truth is, nobody knows. What we do know is that two-thirds of what we consume today was not invented 25 years ago. It will be the same again in a generation's time
  • Maria Gurova on 13 Jun 13
     
    demand for the new expertise may impact not only the school and academic education, but earlier development stages
al_semenchenko

Can You Teach a Coal Miner to Code? - Backchannel - Medium - 1 views

medium.com/...-in-the-code-mine-903884eca853

education Social future of talent digital economy learning economy evolution social evolution new skill set entertainment as profession

shared by al_semenchenko on 22 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • As America switches from an industrial economy to a digital one, its bluest collar workers are facing the toughest challenge of their lives. Can miners really learn how to code?
  • Say what you will about the long-term environmental effects (Justice, for one, is very pro-coal) but the impact on the area’s one-source economy has been brutal.
  • The Rusty Justice seminar concludes for today. The coders swivel back to their computers, and Michael announces weekend plans to no one in particular: “Looks like I better learn C#.”
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  • What they’re building in its place is all so fragile and new. Parrish is worried even about the effect of U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez coming to shake the coders’ hands, or reporters like me coming to do stories. “We just don’t want all the notoriety to give the false illusion that we developed all the skills.”
  • BitSource would like to hire a second class of coders at the beginning of the new year. He, Parrish, and Hall want to fill up their buildings, create an incubator for entrepreneurs, a makerspace for craftsmen, and, someday, if they play their cards incredibly well, a bonafide Pikeville tech scene. You know, make Bloomberg in his smart suit eat crow for once.
  • al_semenchenko on 22 Nov 15
     
    Due to technoligical advensments many job will become absoulete but workers will be able to learn new professions quickly.
Ekaterina Nurieva

Russia seeks skilled workers, tweaks migration laws - 1 views

http://rbth.ru/politics/2013/08/05/russia_seeks_skilled_workers_tweaks_migration_laws_28659.html

3.5 million illegal foreign workers in Russia; Vacancies will be offered to local residents during the first month all Russians second and only after that foreigners;Before they were either fined or deported; now both penalties apply social Political

started by Ekaterina Nurieva on 05 Sep 13 no follow-up yet
asibilev

Will China really dominate? | World Finance - 0 views

www.worldfinance.com/...will-china-really-dominate

Economy Russia China

shared by asibilev on 12 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • In the case of Russia, these numbers assume that its current demographic decline is counterbalanced and gradually reversed by the effects of an Arctic windfall, and that it can maintain effective control of its Far East region.
  • Ignoring the effects of environmental change, China will be by far the largest economy, with a GDP that is 40 percent of the total for the top twenty economies. The US will be second with a GDP well under half that of China. India will be third and Brazil will be fourth.
  • Taking environmental change into account, China and the US will be neck-and-neck with 24 percent each of the GDP for the top twenty, Russia will be third, Brazil fourth and India fifth. Most of China’s catch-up will happen early, prior to 2030; before climate change really bites.
alexbelov

UK government invests £60 million in Skylon 'super-plane' that could cut Lond... - 0 views

www.standard.co.uk/...ydney-flights-to-a3104946.html

Technology travel aerospace fast flight transportation ADD on demand global mobility connected world

shared by alexbelov on 13 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • UK government invests £60 million in Skylon 'super-plane' that could cut London to Sydney flights to just four hours
  • Its 'Sabre' engine - a hybrid rocket and jet propulsion system which theoretically allows travel anywhere on Earth in four hours or less - could become a reality in a decade.
  • A full ground-based engine test is currently planned for 2020.
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  • The super-plane will rely on cooling an incoming airstream from 1,000 degrees C to minus 150 C almost instantly, at close to 1/100th of a second.
  • alexbelov on 13 Nov 15
     
    Aerospace flight research aiming to speed up long-distance flights. However investment volume seems inadequate for such a huge project.
Vladimir Antonov

Refugee camps are the "cities of tomorrow", says aid expert - 0 views

www.dezeen.com/...erview-humanitarian-aid-expert

refugee social Technology Economy environment segregation

shared by Vladimir Antonov on 26 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • Governments should stop thinking about refugee camps as temporary places
  • "These are the cities of tomorrow,"
  • The average stay today in a camp is 17 years. That's a generation."
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  • lack of willingness to recognise that camps had become a permanent fixture around the world
  • "We're doing humanitarian aid as we did 70 years ago after the second world war. Nothing has changed."
  • He believes that migrants coming into Europe could help repopulate parts of Spain and Italy that have been abandoned as people gravitate increasingly towards major cities
  • "Many places in Europe are totally deserted because the people have moved to other places," he said. "You could put in a new population, set up opportunities to develop and trade and work. You could see them as special development zones which are actually used as a trigger for an otherwise impoverished neglected area."
  • "It creates tons of jobs, even for those who are coming in now. Germany will come out of this crisis."
  • that aid organisations and governments needed to accept that new technologies like 3D printing could enable refugees and migrants to become more self-sufficient.
  • With a Fab Lab people could produce anything they need – a house, a car, a bicycle, generating their own energy, whatever
  • my god, these are just refugees, so why should they be able to do 3D-printing
  • We have to get away from the concept that, because you have that status – migrant, refugee, martian, alien, whatever – you're not allowed to be like everybody else.
  • Vladimir Antonov on 26 Nov 15
     
    Refugee camps are the "cities of tomorrow", says humanitarian-aid expert. The main idea is those people could be relocated to the abandoned areas in Europe and start a better life with their communities, but governments should provide them with these opportunities and stop thinking about those cities as permanent relocation places.
Maria Gurova

Instagram to ramp up efforts to lure small businesses - FT.com - 1 views

www.ft.com/...44-11e5-846f-79b0e3d20eaf.html

Social Media social networks Economy monetization ad market maker movement entrepreneurship digital advertising one-click purchase buy now micro-moments Hyper Consumerism accessibility big data manipulation Technology advertising to kids

shared by Maria Gurova on 08 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • When we launched ads two years ago, ads were available in just eight countries. In September, we opened for business in around 200 countries
  • Facebook’s global sales team was beginning to push Instagram’s advertising to small businesses, providing them with the ability to target marketing at particular users
  • that international expansion was a priority, with 75 per cent of its more than 400m users based outside the US
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  • it has said that its second-largest market outside its home country is Brazil, where it has about 29m users. On Monday, it announced that it has 9m users in Germany and has previously said that it has more than 14m users in the UK
  • Analysts only just started releasing their estimates last year, suggesting the app could generate between $1.2bn and $2bn in sales in 2016
  • Instagram’s monthly active user base could reach up to 520m by the end of 2016.
  • Instagram launched an advertising format that allowed marketers to include links to their products and websites. The so-called “carousel adverts” allow a brand to display several images at once and use a “learn more” button to lead consumers to its own sit
  • the company had no immediate plans to introduce a “Buy” button, similar to the one that Facebook has been trialling. Retailers want the group to introduce functions that will allow users to purchase products seen through the app
  • Instagram is attractive to advertisers partly because of its popularity with hard-to-reach teenagers.
  • A lobbying push by big technology groups, including Facebook, helped to water down the proposed ban. National governments will now be able to reduce the age at which personal data may be used to 13
  • Maria Gurova on 08 Feb 16
     
    Instagram is now focusing on leveraging more of the parent company resources to increase app's monetization through ad sales. Therefore making their ad features available on the international markets and focusing on the smaller companies and entrepreneurs 
Maria Gurova

Facebook will give video makers a cut - 0 views

www.cnbc.com/...l-give-video-makers-a-cut.html

Technology Facebook video content Immersive Entertainment Social Media content consumption content snacking micro-moments news platforms UGC Maker Movement

shared by Maria Gurova on 01 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • "There's a certain class of content which is only going to come onto Facebook if there's a good way to compensate content owners for that,"
  • "We've recently rolled out the business model for this. We'll give a revenue share on a portion of the views to content owners
  • To grasp the scope of change unraveling in content creation, which is increasingly fragmented, consider all the mobile apps on your smartphone.
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  • Studies consistently show users thumb through only a handful of apps on a regular basis
  • This is why tech bellwethers — from social media platforms such as Facebook to traditional hardware companies like Apple — are churning out news products, designed to court and engage audiences to their brand-ecosystems.
  • Facebook plans to announce the launch of Notify, a standalone news app, the Financial Times reports. Featured content will come from media partners including Vogue, The Washington Post and CBS.
  • Professional content already is splintered across content creators and technology platforms
  • Apple News, for iOS 9. The mobile app aggregates news from a wide range of sources into a mobile-friendly format,
  • Twitter Moments is a feature on Twitter that links tweets in a traditional story format, from beginning to end.
  • Snapchat has been partnering with publishers for Snapchat Discover. The app, widely popular with millennials, includes a "Discover" feature that showcases stories from publishers including Vice, People, CNN and National Geographic
  • For example, with instant articles Facebook directly hosts outside publishers' articles on its social network — and Facebook pockets the traffic
  • Facebook on Wednesday also said its daily video views have reached 8 billion, though some tech analsyts including Pfeiffer wonder if a single view is measured by only a few seconds on an autoplay setting.
  • Facebook in fact is testing its own, site-specific video hub, as Re/code has reported.
  • Maria Gurova on 01 Dec 15
     
    social media is rapidly moving towards serving as a one-stop destination for all consumer media needs 
Maria Gurova

Academic conference on 'Love and Sex with Robots' abruptly cancelled after being declar... - 0 views

www.techrepublic.com/...d-after-being-declared-illegal

Technology science robotics Humanization of Robots Ethics software human vs computer AI Transformative

shared by Maria Gurova on 23 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Humanoid robots are now being introduced into nursing homes, and as therapists, for example. The new Hello Barbie toy will be a "friend" to children, holding conversations with young boys and girls. Robots are even getting married in Japan.
  • A perfect example of the backlash against human-like machines happened last Friday, when Adrian David Cheok and David Levy were forced to cancel their second annual Congress on Love and Sex with Robots, set to be held in Malaysia next month.
  • The case of the cancelled conference is just the beginning of the kind of obstacles intellectuals and researchers may encounter in the pursuit of academic study of humanoid robotics—an increasingly controversial field as the line between fantasy and reality gets blurred
  • Maria Gurova on 23 Oct 15
     
    Two academics decided to hold a conference for a controversial matter of human robot interactions, the conference with a provocative name and a highly scientific content was banned in a very conservative and religious country of Malaysia 
Anna Dubinina

A Snapchat account is helping teens speak up about abuse - 0 views

mashable.com/...napchat-helpline-account-abuse

Social CIS technology teens help

shared by Anna Dubinina on 21 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • Snap Counsellors, an account on the messaging app, is helping teens speak up about relationship abuse
  • Snapchat’s self-destruct feature makes it ideal for a helpline. All messages get deleted within 10 seconds.
  • It also allows the Stories feature to be used to send out images and videos to encourage victims to come forward.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Snapchat users now view 7 billion video clips per day
  • Although Snap Counsellors is directed toward teens, it receives cases from women too.
nrybakov

Google announces Stadia, its cross-platform game streaming service - 0 views

thenextweb.com/...latform-game-streaming-service

Entertainment Game Technology

shared by nrybakov on 09 Apr 19 - No Cached
  • The service will let you play all manner of computer games streamed from Google‘s data centers to your devices running the Chrome browser or ChromeOS platform, or even your TV with a Chromecast Ultra plugged in. You won’t need any additional hardware to run Stadia, and you won’t need to install anything to play games. As Google VP Phil Harrison noted in an interview with Eurogamer, “Anywhere where YouTube runs well, Stadia can run.”
  • Rather than treat Stadia as an entirely standalone service, Google sees people using it from and with YouTube. That means your starting point with Stadia could be a game trailer on the video platform, or a live stream of a tournament; you could simply hit Play on either video stream and start playing – solo or with others – within a few seconds.
  • nrybakov on 09 Apr 19
     
    New Service from Google that allows users to play games streamed from Google on any possible devices. That may potentially attract more audience to the other Google products (YouTube especially).
ksenia12348

The Sex Recession Is Making Young Americans Unhappy - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...586405

happiness trend young people social surveys

shared by ksenia12348 on 10 Apr 19 - No Cached
  • In 2018, happiness among young adults in America fell to a record low. The share of adults ages 18 to 34 reporting that they were“very happy” in life fell to 25 percent—the lowest level that the General Social Survey, a key barometer of American social life, has ever recorded for that population.
  • Happiness fell most among young men—with only 22 percent of young men (and 28 percent of young women) reporting that they were “very happy” in 2018.
  • We wondered whether this trend was rooted in distinct shifts in young adults’ social ties—including what The Atlantic has called “the sex recession,” that is, a marked decline in sexual activity for this group in recent years.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • We’re happiest when our ties with others are deep and strong. And the research tells us that the ebb and flow of happiness in America is clearly linked to the quality and character of our social ties—including our friendships, community ties, and marriage. It’s also linked, specifically, to the frequency with which we have sex.
  • So we investigated four indicators of sociability among today’s young adults—marriage, friendship, religious attendance, and sex—in an effort to explain
  • married young adults are about 75 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who are not married
  • As it turns out, the share of young adults who are married has fallen from 59 percent in 1972 to 28 percent in 2018. The decline has been similar for men and women, although from 2016 to 2018 the share of married men fell, while the share of married women rose.
  • Faith was the second factor. Young adults who attend religious services more than once a month are about 40 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who are not religious at all
  • The share of young adults who attend religious services more than monthly has fallen from 38 percent in 1972 to 27 percent in 2018, even as the share who never attend has risen rapidly.
  • The third factor was friendship. The effect of seeing friends frequently is less clear than that of marriage or religion, but young adults who see their friends regularly do seem to be about 10 percent more likely to report being very happy than their less-sociable peers.
  • Indeed, it may be that rising social time spent with friends in recent years could be buffering young adults from the declines in institutions such as marriage or religion, as friends stand in place of other relationships or forms of community.*
  • And, finally, we looked at sex. Young adults who have sex at least once a week are about 35 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who have no sex.
  • This trend in rising sexlessness is broadly confirmed in other surveys of sexual behavior,
  • Less sex, we speculate, could help account for declining happiness for many young adults.
  • What’s more, as the #MeToo era has taught us, there has been too much unwanted or nonconsensual sex out there, which is obviously bad for the (more often female) target of such advances. From this perspective, the so-called sex recession might just amount to a sexual recalibration, with a lot of bad sex being eliminated from our social lives—and this would be a good thing. For all these reasons, the feminist family historian Stephanie Coontz is “suspicious of any hand-wringing” about the sex recession.
isoldatenkova

Google backs a bid to use CRISPR to prevent heart disease - MIT Technology Review - 0 views

www.technologyreview.com/...rispr-to-prevent-heart-disease

science Biotechnology social

shared by isoldatenkova on 08 May 19 - No Cached
  • Ever wonder why some fortunate people eat chips, don’t exercise, and still don’t get clogged arteries? It could be because they’ve got lucky genes.
  • Now Alphabet (Google’s parent company) is bankrolling a startup company that plans to use gene editing to spread fortunate DNA variations with “one-time” injections of the gene-editing tool CRISPR.
  • Right now, to avoid heart disease you can pop statin pills, change your diet, and jump on an exercise bike. But people have a hard time sticking with it. The scientists at Verve think if they can install lucky genes in your body, you may not have to. Initially, Kathiresan says, the gene-editing treatment could be used on adults who have actually had a heart attack and want to avoid a second one.
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