Author: kenmay

23andMe health study needs 5,000 Nevada volunteers

A year after the FDA loosened limitations on what genetic analytics company 23andMe could offer consumers, the company is embarking on a groundbreaking study of 5, 000 people across Nevada. In partnership with the not-for-profit healthcare provider Renown Health and the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the survey will combine health, population, genetic and environmental data for a comprehensive look at the various influences nature and nurture have on people’s wellness. For their participation, folks will get a 23andMe report of their own genetic information on traits and ancestry for free. With that DNA data, plus Renown’s de-identified health and population info, DRI will model public health risks of disease and illness along with the health impact of conditions like air quality on a community. They’re seeking 5, 000 volunteers to follow Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, who has already signed up to be part of the study. Hopefully, such a comprehensive data set can help researchers build predictive models to look for health factors across the state’s 2.8 million residents. But if anything proves how seriously they’re taking this collaborative project, it’s the dedicated YouTube video they made to promote it: Source: DRI newsroom

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23andMe health study needs 5,000 Nevada volunteers

Microsoft Has More Open Source Contributors On GitHub Than Facebook and Google

An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Next Web: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has really embraced open source over the past couple of years. GitHub, a site that is home to a number of the web’s biggest collaborative code projects, has counted more than 5.8 million active users on its platform over the past 12 months, and says that Microsoft has the most open source contributors. Microsoft has 16, 419 contributors, beating out Facebook’s 15, 682 contributors, Docker’s 14, 059 contributors, and Google’s 12, 140 contributors. The Next Web reports: “Of course, this didn’t happen overnight. In October 2014, it open sourced its .NET framework, which is the company’s programming infrastructure for building and running apps and services — a major move towards introducing more developers to its server-side stack. Since then, it’s open sourced its Chakra JavaScript engine, Visual Studio’s MSBuild compiling engine, the Computational Networks Toolkit for deep learning applications, its Xamarin tool for building cross-platform apps and most recently, PowerShell. It’s also worth noting that the company’s Visual Studio Code text editor made GitHub’s list of repositories with the most contributors. You can check out these lists, as well as other data from GitHub’s platform on this page.” GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath said in an interview with Fortune, “The big .Net project has more people outside of Microsoft contributing to it than people who work at Microsoft.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Has More Open Source Contributors On GitHub Than Facebook and Google

Pandora relaunches its mid-level $5 monthly subscription tier [Updated]

After nabbing the remnants of Rdio out of bankruptcy last year, rumors have swirled for months about Pandora Radio’s upcoming streaming subscription services. Last month, it seemed that all standing in the way was getting the appropriate licensing — which they got on Tuesday from over 30 major and independent labels . Today, they’re relaunching their mid-level $5-per-month subscription radio service as Pandora Plus with a few new features. Unfortunately, this won’t be their much-anticipated $10 monthly on-demand music streaming service, which will supposedly come later this year. Instead, Pandora Plus aims to ride a middleground, streaming automated radio playlists at a discount but offering a few new features than its previous version to make that less of a compromise. First, a predictive offline mode will automatically switch over to a user’s top station when their device loses signal, keeping the music flowing. The second lets users to replenish their limited supply of replays and skips by voluntarily watching video ads. Pandora Plus goes live today on desktop and will roll out to iOS and Android in the coming months, while it won’t expand to Australia and New Zealand until 2017. It’s still unclear when they’ll launch their full on-demand streaming option to compete with Spotify and the other music services. Updated 4:25 PM ET : Turns out that it didn’t actually go live this morning, as Pandora still needed a final licensing deal with Warner Music Group. Even after securing it earlier today, only one percent of its user base would have been able to see and access Plus today anyway, according to Recode. So the new service is supposedly live for folks lucky enough to fit within Pandora’s slow roll-out plan. Source: Pandora

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Pandora relaunches its mid-level $5 monthly subscription tier [Updated]

Strange Mammoth Skull Found in California Puzzles Paleontologists

Paleontologists working on an island off the coast of California’s Ventura County have discovered a strange mammoth skull that exhibits features never seen before in the extinct elephantine creatures. Not too big and not too small, this skull could represent a transitional species. Read more…

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Strange Mammoth Skull Found in California Puzzles Paleontologists

Machine learning system can descramble pixelated/blurred redactions 83% of the time

A joint UT Austin/Cornell team has taught a machine learning system based on the free/open Torch library to correctly guess the content of pixellated or blurred redactions with high accuracy: for masked faces that humans correctly guess 0.19% of the time, the system can make a correct guess 83% of the time, when given five tries. (more…)

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Machine learning system can descramble pixelated/blurred redactions 83% of the time

UC Irvine debuts the first public college esports arena in the US

The University of California, Irvine , is serious about esports. This fall it will officially launch a competitive-gaming initiative, complete with scholarships and an already-decorated League of Legends team, and it’s just finished construction on a 3, 500-square-foot esports arena that’s set to open Friday, Sept. 23rd. The arena is packed with 80 gaming PCs loaded with top eSports titles, a webcasting studio and viewing screens. The arena will serve as a home base for the university’s gaming community and a place for its competitive players to train. It also represents another step forward for collegiate esports across the country. “Esports is the future of competition. Period, ” UCI’s Acting Director of Esports Mark Deppe says. “It transcends language, geography, race, age, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical ability and many other identities. In five years many more schools will official programs and more structure will be in place to regulate and provide guidance to schools. Esports also has a huge opportunity to learn from the successes and shortcomings of traditional sports and provide a model for collegiate competition in the 21st century.” Deppe hopes the arena will be 100 percent cost-neutral. UCI spent $250, 000 to build it over the summer, and it will be open to the public and students for $4 an hour; UCI hopes the revenue from its hourly use will cover administrative costs. The arena will host 25 student staff members, while other students can volunteer to assist in coaching, analysis, streaming and production roles. UCI’s arena is backed by iBUYPOWER, which provided all of its gaming PCs, and Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends . As part of its esports initiative, UCI is offering 10 scholarships, valued at $15, 000 each, to its competitive League of Legends players. The global esports market is valued at $612 million, with an audience of 134 million, according to SuperData , and it’s only predicted to grow. Universities across the United States are diving into this emerging market with scholarship programs and competitive teams. Student players bring home some real prizes when they win: Heroes of the Storm ‘s college tournament offers the winners free tuition , while the League of Legends North American collegiate championship grants $30, 000 to each winning player and $15, 000 each for second place. At UCI, players get to keep any earnings from competitions. Mark Deppe, @UCIesports acting dir., unboxes 1st computers to arrive for UCI #esports Initiative.

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UC Irvine debuts the first public college esports arena in the US

The Largest 3D Map of the Galaxy Contains Over a Billion Stars

Some may call excessive, unreasonable, exhibitionist. What kind of masochist wants to stare at a billion pinpricks of light all at once, anyway? Why, the scientifically inclined one, of course. The astronomer who’s hellbent on picking apart the universe and reducing your life to a clump of dust needs absurdly detailed star charts in order to do so. Read more…

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The Largest 3D Map of the Galaxy Contains Over a Billion Stars

Archaeologists Discover Perfectly Preserved 168-Year-Old Ship in the Arctic Ocean

An arctic research mission claims that it’s discovered the HMS Terror , one of two Franklin Expedition ships that sunk during a doomed attempt to traverse the Northwest Passage. Incredibly, the 168-year-old wreck would probably not have been found if it weren’t for information provided by an indigenous crew member. Read more…

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Archaeologists Discover Perfectly Preserved 168-Year-Old Ship in the Arctic Ocean

Spotify now has 40 million paid subscribers

In the world of music streaming, numbers mean everything. Major players have come and go, but Spotify and Apple are the two companies who largely dominate the market. After Tim Cook kicked off last week’s iPhone 7 event with confirmation that Apple Music now has 17 million paying subscribers , Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has fired back with an impressive figure of his own: 40 million people are now paying to access his service. The last time Spotify updated us on its paid stats was back in March, when it eclipsed 30 million Premium users . The company hasn’t confirmed just how many total users it has today, but it did note that it had 100 million people on its books back in June . Signups may have been driven by Spotify’s decision to extend Family plans to six members , cutting the price to $15/£15 in the process. To lure in subscribers, Spotify operates a free tier, which many other streaming services have shied away from. Instead of requiring a monthly payment, the company attempts to recoup some of those streaming costs by dropping in adverts between tracks. The fact that it continues to convert users into paying customers is encouraging, especially given the competition, but the company still has a long way to go to prove that streaming music can be a decently profitable business . 40 is the new 30. Million.

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Spotify now has 40 million paid subscribers