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gayle-blythe · 11 months ago

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Feb 14

Celestial Kiss

You guys ever heard of No Eyed Girl by Lemon Demon? This is more or less a (very) loose retelling that lol

CW: little bit spicy

I am a physicist working in a subdivision of CERN, not exactly a secret lab, but one that’s not talked about too openly. I did work looking to find antimatter and parallel realities. The night it happened was Valentine’s Day and I had decided to stay over at work, partly because I was sure I was on the edge of a breakthrough and partly to hide from the fact that I had no valentine. Working in the lab, turning dials, tuning machines, and slamming particles together. I could explain all the details, the ins and outs, but it would honestly just sound like science fiction mumbo-jumbo, and would entirely sidetrack this report. I will say, there was a lot of spinning devices, lights, and arcs of electricity. Within all this I noticed something on the other side of the glass separating the observation room from the test chamber. There as a ball of light, about the size of a golf ball, floating in the center of the room. It started to stretch and pull itself and grew until it was roughly the size and shape of a human made entirely of light.

She was beautiful

Or at least I think she was a “she”. Maybe “it” was more accurate. You see, when I say she was “roughly the size and shape of a human” I mean very roughly. While she was about 1.7 meters (5’6”) tall, just a little shorter than me, she also seemed to tower over me at times, filling the room completely. Most of the time she had four limbs and a main body mass, but there were no real defining features. At times she seemed to have more appendages, wispy tentacles of light branching off of her, or maybe at times on to her? It was hard to tell at times, her form was almost always shifting. She seemed like she was constantly growing and shrinking. At times she seemed to look like she was melting or flowing like water, or then as if she was weightless like a gas or plasma. As I gazed upon her face, the shape was feminine, but there weren’t very many other details to back it up. She lacked any visible mouth, and while she had a nose, all real details including nostrils were missing, and most captivating, where her eyes should have been, there was nothing save two small divots. She was absolutely stunning, both figuratively and literally, as I was stuck there, just standing and staring, for who knows how long.

Once I snapped out of my trance and remembered where I was, my mind flooded with questions. The two at the very front of my mind were, “had I finally lost it” and “if not, what the hell is this thing”. I began moving around my observation room, checking monitors, meters, and dials, trying to find some piece of data that will tell me something about what stood before me. Scouring my brain for any idea of what she could be, my mind flipped between scientific, cryptozoology, myths, and even possible religious explanations. It was when I noticed the high levels of gamma radiation being detected in the room that the idea crossed my mind that she may be made entirely of antimatter.

After this discovery, as I look up to observe her more, I saw her begin gliding towards the large window separating us. As she drew near, I watched as she leaned forward and down to bring her face to my level as she was now, inexplicably, towering over me again. Her face took up most of the glass as she tilted her head inquisitively, as if inspecting me, looking at me, or at least doing whatever the equivalent of looking was for her. I stepped closer to the glass, hoping to give her a better look. Standing there with only the beeping of machines, seconds felt like minutes, and minutes like hours. The only sound in the room was the beeping and clicking of the devices around me and the strange hum she seemed to be emitting. The thought crossed my mind, “should I…put my hand up to the glass? That’s what they do in the movies right?”. Just as I began to move my hand, she turned her head away from me. A wave of embarrassment washed over me. I sat there dejected for a moment, until she looked back at me. Then away again. I followed her gaze and realized what she was looking at. The door to the test chamber. She wanted me to open it. I looked back at her, trying to gauge some sort of body language when I suddenly realized that she was shorter again, this time still taller than me, but only by . She was only inches away from the glass, less than a foot away from me. The sudden…intensity caught me off guard to be sure, my heart way pounding, but it didn’t frighten me, instead I almost felt shy as another wave of embarrassment washed over me. As my face flushed, I scurried out of the observation room and into the hallway connecting to the test chamber. I leaned my entire body against the wall, breathing heavily, my heart pounding. I looked up and down the hallway and saw exactly what I expected, most of the lights off and no signs of anyone else around. I was alone. Or, at least mostly alone. This was all so exhilarating. Just thinking about the implications of a scientific discovery like this. What could this mean for the entirety of life as we know it. This could change everything. But, truth be told, that wasn’t the only reason I was so excited, frankly, it wasn’t even the main reason. I was feeling so excited cause I was feeling something I don’t think I have felt in a while. Something that I hesitate to even think in fear of making it true. I think I may…

have a crush…

But that’s insane! A crush!? I don’t even know what this thing is! Get a hold of yourself, you’re a professional! Now, I’ll go in there and figure out what this thing is. But as I looked towards the test chamber door and saw the golden light coming through the small viewing window, my heart skipped a beat.

“Composure” I said, steadying myself. I reached out, opened the door and stepped in. As the door closed behind me, it all became so much more real. There she stood, just beyond arms reach yet somehow still so far away. I mean that literally, as I reached out and walked towards her she only seemed to get further away. But, regardless, now that I was out from behind the glass and face to face with her, the light, the hum, and these emotions welling up inside of me, it was all so much more intense now. I began to wonder if this was a mistake, if I should have worn protective gear, if I should have told someone, if I should have even entered this room to begin with. But it didn’t matter to me anymore. I was here now. With this resolution in my heart, she began to approach me, she was now close to my exact heigh or at the very least, was floating at my height. We were perfectly at “eye level” and even without eyes, I felt as though she was staring into my soul. Her form was still wispy and flowing and now this close, I could see so many more fine details that were obscured to me before. The way she moved, it was almost like the way light moves through the trees on a windy day, or how light would shine through the water. Even though she was impossibly bright, as I stared my eyes never grew tired, there was no pain and my vision stayed as clear as ever. As I was marveling in her beauty, she raised a hand. She held it out to me, palm up, and though it looked too far away, as I reached out I found her much closer than I believed. My hand came closer and closer to her, I was half convinced I would go right through her, but as soon as my hand made contact with hers I immediately knew that something was wrong. I felt a horrible sensation, like burning, freezing, being cut and ripped apart all at once. I quickly pulled away my hand. Inspecting the damage, I saw that my flash had simply been…removed everywhere that had touched her. As I clench my hand into a fist and hold my wrist, I glanced up at her and saw her looking from her own hand to me and back. She rubbed her fingers together and suddenly, she changed again. The flowing of her matter began to slow and the gassy wisps coming off of her slowed and thinned as well. The tendrils of light surrounding and sprouting from her all seemed to dim and shrink as well, though never disappearing entirely. Then she reached out again. As her hand neared mine, I flinched and pulled away. She hesitated for a moment before reaching out and taking my hand. I was bracing for pain again, but all that came was this odd tingling sensation that almost felt comforting. Holding her hand, my heart began to flutter again. Though I didn’t have much time to process it before I was bombarded with another strange sensation. I’m my mind I could hear these strange noises; chirps, screeches, croaks, whispers, and all other manner of racket. Though I couldn’t tell what it meant, I knew it was her, she was trying to talk with me.

“I-I don’t know what you’re saying.” I spoke aloud to her. The noises stopped. Another short chirp, then only the hum again. I could still hear the noises in my mind now, but that she was saying them but more that my mind was trying to make sense of it all. The more I thought, the more my head began to hurt and I felt dizzy. Worried I would pass out or pop a blood vessel, I put it out of my mind and the sensation quickly faded. She was looking away now, as if thinking of what to do next and I was left holding her hand. I thought more of how I was actually holding her hand. I thought of how else she might feel, if her arms or tendrils felt different. I thought of how it might feel if she were to hold my face. As my heart began to beat faster and I began to blush I looked up at her to see her looking straight at me before quickly looking away.

Did she just hear that?

Can she hear what I think! Could she understand! For the third time that night, a wave of embarrassment washed over me. I couldn’t look at her. I began to pull my hand away, but suddenly she tightened her grip. It wasn’t painful, but more… desperate I think. When I looked back, she was much taller than me again, by about a meter now, and she was staring directly at me. The hand that wasn’t holding mine, slowly raised until it was right next to my face, then, gently pressed against my skin. My heart pounded and I could feel my face and ears getting almost uncontrollably warm…but in a good way I think? Looking down at me, she slightly tilted her head, as if examining me again, as she released my hand to move her own onto my waist. I couldn’t help but to think she knew what she was doing. I heard what I think was her speaking to me again. I still couldn’t make out any meaning, but I was almost able to put together some emotion she meant to convey. It appeared similar to my own. As she held me for what felt like hours, I felt this pulsing energy traveling between her hands. A sort of electricity that entered into my head from under her caress, traveled down my neck and into my entire body, but most intensely where she held my side. I assumed it was her doing, but it very well could have simply been some reaction my body had to being held like this. I could hear her language gibbering in the back of my mind. I moved my hands to hold onto her, one to hold the forearm of the hand on my waist and the other onto her own hand cradling my face. Her hands were so big, the length of my hand just shy of the width of hers.

“I wish I could understand you. I wish I could tell you…” but as my words trailed off she brushed her thumb across my lips, letting it rest on my bottom lip. The pulsing and noise were both slowly intensifying. Somehow I felt more awake then I ever had, yet my eyelids felt so heavy and my head started to spin. Then she began to lean down, closer to me.

This was it

My mind raced. My heart pounded. Every part of my body was buzzing. I stood on the tips or my toes, trying desperately to reach her even a moment sooner. As our faces neared, I could feel her changing her form again. My skin under hers began to feel that same painful sensation as before, but now, the pain almost felt like bliss. She wasn’t holding back anymore, her true form touching my own. Our lips almost touching, the pulsing in my body almost unbearable and the noises in my head growing. It was all so overwhelming, so intoxicating. Our forms simply were never meant to meet, the laws of nature literally trying to rip us apart. Just as I began to feel the edges of her wispy form touch my lips, I heard as sound. It was loud and sounded like a mixture of velcro ripping and a car crash. I opened my eyes. My vision blurry, I saw something incredible. Some sort of rift had opened revealing blinding light as more orbs of light, same as her, growing into more humanoid shapes. They had their own distinct features, some with wings, some with wings, some with horns, some long and thin and others wider than they were tall. But none of that mattered to me. As the edges of my vision began to darken I looked at her face. Numbness began in the tips of my limbs and began working their way up. The last thing I felt was her hands shifting to hold the base of my back and the back of my head. As I went limp in her arms my head was overtaken with noise. The only thought that could break through was simple. Did she know? Did she know I loved her? I closed my eyes the last of my senses gone left alone with the music of her unfamiliar language.

And I got my answer.

“Yes”

February Prompts

burning skin

leap of faith

goose

the promise

upriver

the last you saw of [him/her/them]

pinky

apollo

i'll never leave you

maraschino cherries

neck bruise

kitty

nickname

celestial kiss

memory of the cliffs

fragility

paperback

ophanim

unclouded vision

ongoing drama

survivors of _______

hospital bed

equation

snow moon

temple

samurai

middle age

fragrant perfume

blank stare

#valentines day #short story #writeblr #eldritch #writers on tumblr #cosmic horror #february prompts #nosebleedclub #lemon demon #no eyed girl #tragic love #writing prompt

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bunkershotgolf · 5 years ago

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The Breakthrough Golf Putting Lab Re-Opens to the Golf Community The Breakthrough Putting Lab is back open and offers an in-depth putter fitting analysis to help analyze and maximize putting performance. If you want to become a better golfer, then this is a proven way to get the fit & consistency needed from your putter.

This is not a lesson but rather an evaluation of all aspects of your putter. Your fitting will start with a complete putting analysis including measurement of over 45 different parameters. Your putter will be fine-tuned and customized for you on site just like on the PGA Tour. Also, each appointment includes a Stability Shaft of your choice (up to $250 value). After the experience, you'll have a better putter fit and a solid understanding how to achieve more consistency and performance from your putting.

CEO, Barney Adams states, "I've played the game for some 70 years and studied it for 40 working in the industry. I strongly recommend that golfers take advantage of all technology available to them. After all, golf is a hard game; that element is what brings us joy no matter how small our victories, which definitely includes becoming a better putter".

Breakthrough Golf offers two fitting options- Master & Pro. The Master Fit includes a revolutionary new device exclusive to the BGT Putt Lab. The Flatstick™ helps golfers understand their stroke timing by providing instant feedback using an array of magnetic field sensors that track the putter's acceleration, stroke tempo and rhythm.

Blair Philip, Master Fitter and head of R&D for Breakthrough Golf, says "It's great to be back open. Fittings are something I truly enjoy; especially seeing how much clients improve over the course of the evaluation and beyond".

The BGT Putt Lab includes a full Quintic Ball Roll analysis, putter compatibility assessment, optimization of your putter specs, alignment evaluation, loft, length, lie and even grip size/shape recommendations. Learn more about the BGT Putt Lab and book online anytime at breakthroughgolftech.com/puttlab.

We recommend that all clients use their best judgement during these uncertain times. BGT will provide face masks hand sanitizer and each club is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected after the fitting.

About Breakthrough Golf Technology

In a suburb of Dallas Texas lies a new golf shaft company with 100 years of experience. The state-of-the-art facility utilizes the latest technology to develop and bring to market the finest, most precise shafts available. Founder Barney Adams, who has always had the unique ability to see what is truly missing in Golf equipment, decided to focus on the putter shafts since there had been no significant innovation for decades. A team of award-winning engineers was assembled and no shaft company on the planet delivers innovation in golf shafts like Breakthrough Golf Technology.

#Breakthrough Golf Putting Lab #MB Lacy #golf #Texas

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patchesthegothictramp · 4 years ago

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Feather Seeker and the Okinawa Jail

So anyone who’s been talking to me knows Feather Seeker is a game that’s perked my interest from the get-go, and I’ve been thinking of talking about it for a while. Now that I’ve been able to replay Royal and play Strikers, some other things have come out in the meantime and I’ve been paying more attention to additional media, I want to make a meta post about Feather Seeker, the Okinawa jail from Strikers and it’s connection to Akechi specifically. Be warned, this ended up being a very long post.

Let’s start with just getting a few questions out of the way:

Isn’t it just a mini game made to raise your stats?

Yes, absolutely, it’s optional and honestly if you don’t care for playing the video games it’s easy to miss. I don’t think it was honestly intended to be some massive breakthrough on a character’s backstory but rather an Easter egg that gets you to think about it.

It’s just about Neo-Featherman, there’s references to it in all persona games, so why is this one different?

It’s not different. There’s been plenty of times when Easter eggs have led to something bigger in this game, even specifically featherman ones. There’s an episode of Featherman that describes exactly what happens in the 3rd semester, where a character loves another so strongly it brings them back to life. Now whether you want to apply that to Futaba and her mum, Ren and Akechi or whoever it still fits- there’s an entire semester where at least one character loves another one and wishes them back to life through Maruki’s power. So having another piece of media, like the Feather Seeker game, be another allusion to something else isn’t entirely unjustified.

Feather Seeker is just detailed cos it’s about Featherman, why are you comparing it to other games?

See, here’s the thing and why I needed a second playthrough to make sure I was right about it. Feather Seeker is the odd one out. All of the games have some kind of plot or something going on (except for Golf sim but y’know... it’s a golf sim), but they’re all very, very basic things. Train of Life is just board game with very simple characters, the Goemon game has you just walking through hell but doesn’t really go more in depth with characterisation. Whereas you find out so much about what’s going on with Gray Pigeon and Osagiri in Feather Seeker that it feels a little… weird to simply ignore it. Do I think that the simplest answer, that they just wanted some plot in there for fun, is the right answer? Honestly I think that’s highly likely. But it’s the boring explanation too, it’s easy enough to just write any kind of intrigue like that, so whether what I’m writing about was intentional or not, I still want to discuss Feather Seeker and see people’s own thoughts on the possibility that it could be more than just a basic game.

So with that out of the way… let’s get into it.

First, there’s establishing who’s who. I can pretty confidently say that Gray Pigeon is Akechi in this entire metaphor. This one is the most obvious for multiple reasons, first of which being that it’s the exact same costume Akechi gets in the featherman outfits DLC so there’s the direct correlation there. Beyond that, Gray Pigeon is a character who awakens to a new power and wants to become a hero of justice, just like the feathermen, the hero’s he’s heard about before. Ring any bells?

Also the final revelation of Feather Seeker is that actually the Feathermen see Gray Pigeon as their enemy, who ends up sacrificing himself so they can keep fighting.

Which brings me to discussing who Osagiri and the Feathermen are. Given the timeline presented, I don’t think it’s possible for them to be one specific character or even group of characters. I think these aren’t supposed to be characters, but rather the major influences in Akechi’s life. Osagiri is a scientist (possibly Wakaba, I’ll get into that later), but also the one who pushes him to do bad things. Osagiri starts by training Gray Pigeon to become one of the Feathermen, the good guys, but eventually ends up manipulating Gray Pigeon into trying to kill them. Osaigir at the bare minimum has to be two people- the cognitive scientists who were able to uncover more thanks to Akechi’s escapades in the metaverse and the people who pushed him to commit crimes- the conspiracy.

The Feathermen, at the end of the game, have to be the Phantom Thieves- they’re the ones Gray Pigeon/Akechi ends up sacrificing himself to save but… that can’t be possible. Gray Pigeon’s journey starts with him gaining a new power and wanting to use it for good like the Feathermen do and of course the Phantom Thieves weren’t an inspiration for Akechi to do what he did. I think then the Feathermen are what Akechi aspired to be- the heroes of justice who fought the bad guys.

I can’t lead myself to believe that at 15, Akechi thought of this overly convoluted plan where he would help Shido to become prime minister only to then ruin him, there’s way too many factors in this that could change. I think originally Akechi wanted to avenge what happened to him and his mother, make sure that the man who wronged him would face justice. That’s what the Feathermen would do, right? They fight bad guys. Translating it from Feather Seeker, Akechi was angry, furious even and that rebellion woke hm up to Robin Hood, the embodiment of justice for him.

There’s plenty things that point to Robin Hood being first, his placement when Akechi awakens to Hereward on 2/2 being in the same spot as everyone else’s, the fact that for all of the other Thieves their third tier personas are different versions of their initials personas and that applies to Hereward/Robin Hood and that the trend of initial/second awakening personas is that the first is a fictional who was considered a criminal (Robin Hood) and the second is described in game as a ‘mythological trickster’ (Loki).

Here is where I want to get to the Okinawa jail and why I didn’t post this theory/metapost sooner.

I mentioned earlier that Osagiri could have been in some part Wakaba, Futaba’s mother, and when I initially wrote this I didn’t have all that much to go off of. There’s concept art in the original p5 artbook of Wakaba experimenting on someone. There’s no context given and it’s sort of the odd-one-out. Of course, human subjects would have been necessary to study the cognitive world but this research is so under wraps it seems it’s almost impossible to get. There’s no military connotations anywhere so why is it such a secret? Well, illegal human experimentation would certainly be a good reason to keep this away from the public. They must have figured out somehow that killing a shadow can cause a lot of damage, even death, to a person, we know that from the research notes, but Wakaba was a scientist, working in a lab, she must’ve done experiments that weren’t entirely legal.

Here I wasn’t sure because accusing Wakaba or anyone of illegal human experimentation was a pretty big reach but the Okinawa jail in Strikers shows us that illegal human experimentation is something that was used for cognitive research. I don’t think that Akechi was experimented on there or that was where Wakaba worked, there’s no indication of it but… Konoe and Owada seemed to build on the work that Shido and his scientists began. That being said, I think the Okinawa lab is a continuation of that human experimentation, with whatever lab Wakaba worked in being its predecessor before Shido probably shut it down to prevent it from ever being discovered. Which is also why he had Wakaba killed- the research was only meant for him and no one else.

Beyond what we see in Feather Seeker of Osagiri/sometimes Wakaba experimenting on Gray Pigeon/Akechi, we’re also told (albeit this is of course biased information), that he only targeted people he deemed deserved it but… Wakaba is the odd one out here for the most part. Okumura was hardly a good person and the principal decided covered for a sexual abuser, most of the others were survivors except for accidents which are mostly uncontrollable and unpredictable. Wakaba however, like Kobayakawa and Okumura, were targets that were supposed to die, Akechi intended to kill them. How then was Wakaba a bad person? Illegal human experimentation would explain that, especially if it was done on Akechi himself.

So then, Akechi was experimented on by Wakaba. I don’t think he was fully informed about what he was doing either. Gray Pigeon certainly wasn’t. Akechi was still trying to be a good person, using his power for his own vengeance yeah but I don’t think murdering random people was part of his initial plan at all. I think that Feather Seeker also emphasises just how little he knew about what his actions were doing. How would he know what his effects of shadows are on the real world? He could only know that from the scientists, from Shido. Of course he did find out, eventually, and that rage he must have felt about being used and lied to gave him the power to awaken to Loki, as Futaba puts it, the representation of his anger. It’s only then that he forms his plan, to get back at Shido for all of this, not just him abandoning him and his mother but for using him for his own means as well.

And we know how the rest of the story goes.

The overall story presented in Feather Seeker, as I see it, is this: Akechi awakens to Robin Hood, and realises that his anger is no longer a hopeless endeavour, he can use it, show that he’s useful and get acknowledged by his father. Shido sees this, sees that he can use this power and subjects him to experimentation, as someone who can actually survive the cognitive world and even have an impact on it. Wakaba sees what he can do, tests him but he’s never told what he’s done. He’s manipulated through praise and lack of information. One day he does find out, he realises this wasn’t getting him any closer to vengeance or getting acknowledged by Shido, he’s just another test subject being used by them. He’s angry, he awakens to Loki and now with the unique power of psychotic breakdowns, Shido recognises him and hires him as his assassin.

Granted this is all just my own theory, I think there is a lot pointing us to at least something similar but of course I also think this is wishful thinking as well. At this moment, my biggest wish is that Atlus makes a game that actually delves into what happened to Akechi. All the explicit information we have is given to us from biased sources, ie. Akechi himself, and it’s really the only question I have left for persona 5’s continuity.

#p5r spoilers #p5s spoilers #p5r #p5s #akechi goro #goro akechi #metapost #theory #p5a #proof of justice #persona 5 #persona 5 strikers #persona 5 royal

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freenewstoday · 4 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2020/12/11/at-the-u-s-womens-open-a-love-story/

At the U.S. Women’s Open, a Love Story

HOUSTON — The honeymoon began, as so many do for golf-obsessed newlyweds, with 18 holes.

The skies were blue, the sun was warm and the Spanish moss hung from the oak trees like nature’s tinsel, draping the scene in tranquillity. What better way to officially launch a shared lifetime of come-what-mays than as competitors at the 75th United States Women’s Open?

For Alena Sharp, 39, a soft-spoken Canadian, and her U.S.-born caddie and wife, Sarah Bowman, life in the cumulus cloud that is 2020 has come with a powerful ray of light. Sharp’s first-round four-over 75 at Champions Club’s Cypress Creek course was the couple’s first competitive appearance since they were married in the backyard of their Arizona home on Nov. 23.

The ceremony was officiated by their therapist. As part of their vows, exchanged in front of nine witnesses and more than 100 virtual guests from around the world, Sharp commended Bowman’s positivity and her personality, which she said “shines bright all the time.” And Bowman complimented Sharp’s grit, determination and resiliency.

For a union sealed in the middle of a pandemic, there are worse qualities to bring to the table than positivity and resiliency.

Bowman said: “People always talk about meeting someone that makes you want to be better in every way, and I always thought that was so stupid, but then I met Alena. And I can’t believe I’m saying it, but it’s real. She honestly makes me feel that way.”

From Sharp came a barely audible, “Thank you.”

Sharp and Bowman met in the face-off circle at a Chandler, Ariz., ice rink in 2013. They were opposing centers in a women’s recreational hockey league game.

“She’d always win them,” said Sharp, who exacted her revenge with some well-executed forechecks.

“She laid me out a few times,” Bowman said.

Sharp played hockey as a child and turned to it to as an adult to escape her overactive golf mind and its constant churn of negative thoughts. Bowman, 44, a one-time competitive skier from Pittsburgh, was looking for an escape from her work at a neuro-oncology lab where she was laying the foundation — or so she thought — for a doctorate in psychology.

Aware that Sharp was a professional athlete, Bowman initially misread her shyness as arrogance. “I thought she was full of herself,” said Bowman, who realized how badly she had misread Sharp when they met for a mountain bike ride.

“We spent the entire time laughing,” Bowman said.

Their friendship deepened in 2014 after Sharp found herself in between caddies. On a whim, she asked Bowman if she’d fill in at a local event on the Symetra tour, the L.P.G.A.’s minor-league circuit. Bowman recovered from an inauspicious start, leaving a crumb-like trail of clubs that spilled out of the bag as she proceeded down the first fairway, to help Sharp to a two-stroke victory.

They already were dating, but within months they became partners professionally, too, but only after they made a pact. “We said that if the working arrangement ever affects our relationship, I’ll find another caddie,” Sharp said.

They have had no regrets. They have traveled the world together and been Olympians together. They represented Canada at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro and are looking forward to competing in the delayed Tokyo Games next summer.

Bowman’s greenness as a caddie when she started out forced Sharp to take ownership of her game and trust her instincts. Bowman was a quick study, progressing lickety-split from not being able to watch when Sharp putted because she was so invested in the outcome to reading the greens for her.

The 99th-ranked Sharp, who joined the L.P.G.A. in 2005, has 14 career top-10 finishes. She is still searching for her breakthrough victory, though not for any lack of physical skills. Her talent has never been called into question, except by Sharp, who is quick to doubt herself.

That’s where Bowman is at her best. No one is better at reading Sharp’s mind and recasting the negative thoughts.

“We can say things to each other that I would never say to another caddie,” Sharp said. “I can tell her, ‘I just don’t trust myself right now.’ Or ‘I’m not confident.’ I feel like I can be totally vulnerable out there.”

Sometimes when things are going sideways on the course, Sharp will become so emotional her eyes will fill with tears. When that happens, Bowman will remind her that golf is what Sharp does, not who she is, and that no matter her score, she is abundantly loved.

“It’s good to be able to get those emotions out when I’m feeling not great and I’m not being nice to myself,” Sharp said.

After seven years of dating, the couple decided to get married and planned their wedding in three short weeks, their sense of urgency spurred by the seating on the Supreme Court in late October of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative who alarmed L.G.B.T.Q. advocates at her confirmation hearing when she declined to say whether the court’s landmark ruling in 2015 allowing same-sex marriage was correctly decided.

“Her nomination was really the driving force,” Sharp said.

Barrett’s use of the term “sexual preference” during her confirmation hearings particularly pricked the ears of Bowman, who has never considered her sexual orientation a matter of choice. As a young adult she said she contemplated killing herself, so great was her struggle to accept her identity.

In one of the wedding photographs the couple posted on social media, they are walking up the aisle, toward the camera. Each is wearing a gown pulled from the racks of a bridal-store chain. They are holding hands, crossing under an honor guard arch composed of golf club irons, though the salute is easy to miss at first, so blinding are their smiles.

Sharp and Bowman almost cry when they look at the joy radiating from their faces in that photograph.

“I didn’t want to be gay,” Bowman said. “I came from a very conservative place. I thought I’ll never be able to be happy. I’ll never be able to just live and be authentic.”

Her voice cracking, she continued. “You just hope that enough kids who are going through what I did see this and see that you can move on. You hope they hang in there long enough to get past that.”

Source

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chimeperson23-blog · 5 years ago

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Very high LDL and no cardiovascular disease – at all!

12th May 2018

[A classic black swan]

If your hypothesis is that all swans are white, the discovery of one black swan refutes your hypothesis. That is how science works. Or at least that is how science should work. In the real world, scientists are highly adept at explaining away contradictions to their favoured hypotheses. They will use phrases such as, it’s a paradox. Or, inform you that you didn’t measure the correct things, or there are many other confounding factors – and suchlike.

Anyway, accepting that the finding of someone with a very high LDL level, and no detectable atherosclerosis, will always be dismissed – in one way or another – I am still going to introduce you to a ‘case history’ of a seventy-two-year-old man with familial hypercholesterolaemia, who has been studied for many, many, years. Try as they might, the researchers have been unable to discover any evidence for cardiovascular disease (CVD) – of any sort.

In the past, I have spoken to many people with very high LDL and/or total cholesterol levels who are CVD free, even in very old age. The mother of a friend of mine has a total cholesterol of level of 12.5mmol/l (483mg/dl). She is eighty-five, continues to play golf and has not suffered from any cardiovascular problems.

However, none of these people had been studied in any detail. Which means that they can, and are, dismissed as irrelevant ‘anecdotes’. Yes, the widely used and highly exasperating phrase that I often encounter is that ‘the plural of anecdote is not data’. This, of course, is completely untrue, or at least it is untrue if you start dismissing detailed individual cases as anecdote.

Whilst an anecdote may simply be a story, often second hand, a case history represents a painstaking medical history, including biochemical and physiological data. In reality, the plural of case histories is data. That is how medicine began, and how most medical breakthroughs have been made. We look at what happens to real people, over time, we study them, and from this we can create our hypotheses as to how diseases may be caused and may then be cured.

So, a single case is NOT an anecdote, and cannot be lightly dismissed with a wave of the hand and a supercilious smirk.

In fact, the man who is the subject of this case history has written to me on a few occasions, to tell me his story. I have not written anything about him before, as I knew his case was going to be published, and I did not want to stand on anyone’s toes. With that in mind, here we go.

The paper was called ‘A 72-Year-Old Patient with Longstanding, Untreated Familial Hypercholesterolemia but no Coronary Artery Calcification: A Case Report.’ 1

The subject has a longstanding history of hypercholesterolemia. He was initially diagnosed while in his first or second year as a college student after presenting with corneal arcus and LDL-C levels above 300 mg/dL [7.7mmol/l]

He reports that pharmacologic therapy with statins was largely ineffective at reducing his LDL-C levels, with the majority of lab results reporting results above 300 mg/dL and a single lowest value of 260 mg/dL while on combination atorvastatin and niacin. In addition to FH-directed therapy, our subject reports occasionally using baby aspirin (81 mg) and over-the-counter Vitamin D supplements and multivitamins.

In the early 1990s, our patient underwent electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) imaging for CAC following a series of elevated lipid panels. Presence of CAC (coronary artery calcification) was assessed in the left main, left anterior descending, left circumflex, and right coronary arteries and scored using the Agatston score.

His initial score was 0.0, implying a greater than 95% chance of absence of coronary artery disease. Because of this surprising finding, he subsequently undertook four additional EBCT tests from 2006 to 2014 resulting in Agatston scores of 1.6, 2.1, 0.0, and 0.0, suggesting a nearly complete absence of any coronary artery calcification. In February of 2018, he underwent multi-slice CT which revealed a complete absence of coronary artery calcification.

So, here we have a man who has an LDL consistently three to four times above ‘average’. He had tried various LDL lowering agents over the years. None of which had done anything much to lower LDL. Therefore, his average LDL level over a twenty-year period has been 486mg/dl (12.6mmol/l.

Despite this he has absolutely no signs of atherosclerotic plaque, in any artery, no symptoms of CVD and is – to all intents and purposes – CVD free. What of his relatives? If he has FH, so will many others in his family.

‘He has one sister three years his senior who also has FH and a history of high lipid levels. She also has no history of myocardial infarction, angina, or other symptoms of coronary artery disease. His mother had FH, although she died of pancreatic cancer at age 77. She and her three siblings were never treated for, and had no history of, cardiovascular disease. The patient reports that his father had one high cholesterol score (290s), but was never diagnosed with FH, had no history of cardiovascular disease and died in his 80s during surgery for hernia repair.’

What to make of this? Well, I know that the ‘experts’ in cardiology will simply ignore this finding. They prefer to use the ‘one swallow does not a summer make’ approach to cases like this. For myself I prefer the black swan approach to science. If your hypothesis is that a raised LDL causes CVD, then finding someone with extremely high LDL, and no CVD, refutes your hypothesis.

Unfortunately, but predictably, the authors of the paper have not questioned the LDL approach. Instead, they fully accept that LDL does cause CVD. So, this this man must represent ‘a paradox’. They have phrased it thus:

‘Further efforts are underway to interrogate why our patient has escaped the damaging consequences of familial hypercholesterolemia and could inform future efforts in drug discovery and therapy development.’

To rephrase their statement. We know that high LDL causes CVD. This man has extremely high LDL, with no CVD, so something must be protecting him. I have an alternative, and much simpler explanation: LDL does not cause CVD. My explanation has the advantage that it fits the facts of this case perfectly, with no need to start looking for any alternative explanation.

And just in case you believe this is a single outlier, something never seen before or since. Let me introduce you to the Simon Broome registry, set up in the UK many years ago to study what happens to individuals diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH). It is the longest, if not the largest, study on FH in the world.

It has mainly been used as one of the pillars in support of the cholesterol hypothesis. However, when you start to look closely at it – fascinating things emerge. One of the most interesting is that people with FH have a lower than expected overall mortality rate – in comparison to the ‘normal’ population. Or, to put this another way. If you have FH, you live longer than the average person.

Even if we look at death from heart disease (those with FH have never been found to have an increased rate of stroke) we find that in the older population, the rate of death from Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) was actually lower than the surrounding population in some age groups.

For instance, in the male population aged 60 – 79 (who were CHD free on entry to the study) the rate of death from heart attacks was lower than the surrounding population. Not significantly, but it certainly was not higher.

In fact, in the total male population aged 20 – 79 with FH, the rate of death from CHD was virtually identical to the surrounding population. Over a period of 13,717 years of observation, the expected number of fatal heart attacks was calculated to be 46. The actual observed number was 50.

In women, the expected number of heart attacks in the population aged 20 – 79 was 40, the actual number of observed fatal heart attacks was 40. Which means that FH was not found to be a risk factor for CHD in those enrolled in the study – who had no diagnosed heart disease prior to enrolment2.

Which represents, I suggest, another fully grown black swan. There you go. Two in one day.

1: https://www.cureus.com/articles/11752-a-72-year-old-patient-with-longstanding-untreated-familial-hypercholesterolemia-but-no-coronary-artery-calcification-a-case-report

2: https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/29/21/2625/530400

Source: https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2018/05/12/very-high-ldl-and-no-cardiovascular-disease-at-all/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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timclymer · 5 years ago

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Breast Cancer The Cure

You have my permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Breast Cancer The Cure

There is no known cure for breast cancer. More than 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year worldwide. Scientists don’t know why most women get breast cancer, yet breast cancer is the most frequent tumor found in women the world over. A woman who dies of breast cancer is robbed of an average of nearly 20 years of her life. Breast cancer knows no social boundaries. It’s a disease that can affect anyone. Some prominent women who’s lives that have been touched by breast cancer include Jill Eikenberry actress age 52; Peggy Fleming age 49 figure skater; Kate Jackson age 50 (Charlies Angels); Olivia Newton-John age 50 actress singer; Nancy Reagan age 77 former first lady; Melissa Etheridge age 43 singer; and the beautiful Suzanne Summers actress. These high rates of breast cancer are not acceptable to the women of the world and must be met with scientific research that provides results.

Despite over a decade of research, and more than $1.7 billion spent, hundereds of women worldwide are dying from breast cancer every day. Yet doctors don’t know how breast cancer starts or how to cure it. Doctors are still approaching treatment for breast cancer in the same old fashioned ways: surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Barbarick treatments…And scientists keep doing the same old redundant research that’s simply not working. It doesn’t have to be that way. Gen Cells Cures is a scientific biotechnology company that is focused on a cure for breast cancer. The company is dedicated to curing breast cancer before it’s too late for you. We’re not interested in a cure in five, ten, or twenty years from now. We want your cure for breast cancer within a year or two. We don’t want you to have to under go surgery, radiation, chemotherapy or take toxic drugs.

Why Gen Cells Cures? You can search the medical journals; you can search the internet until your blue in the face. You will find the same old news which is no new news about breast cancer research and treatments. Breast cancer research is locked up in a black whole. Gen Cells Cures is approaching the cure for breast cancer from different angles and using tomorrow’s scientific technologies today. Our expertise is in stem cell research and genomics. Malfunctioning stem cells have already been linked to the development of breast cancer. We’re not talking about using generic stem cells from an egg and sperm cell. There is no genetic match for you with the politically controversial generic stem cells that are always in the news. The isolation of cancer stem cells, coupled with our understanding of genetic mutations causing cancer, and our knowledge of genomics will result in ways to eliminate cancer cells while sparing normal breast tissues.

Genetics and Breast Cancer

People will tell you to accept what you can’t change…Your genetics, your genes, the genes your mother and father handed you when you were born that came with their particular genetic make-up. Most inherited cases of breast cancer have been associated with two genes: BRCA1 and BRCA2. The past five years has been a period of unparalleled discovery in the field of genetics, genomics, and stem cell research, but these discoveries are not being applied to breast cancer treatments. A job that Gen Cells Cures definitely wants to get our hands dirty in. Recently researchers have found that by blocking a gene called beta1-integrin the growth of tumor cells can be stopped. When this gene was removed the tumor cells quit growing. You don’t have to accept the genes that you were given at birth. Gen Cells Cures will be able to manipulate your genes to cure your breast cancer.

Our Cancer Stem Cell and Genomics Program will bring together the top scientific minds in the world under one tin roof to maximize the use of diverse approaches to the understanding of cancer genomics fused with stem cell solutions. Gen Cells Cures isn’t looking for a multi-million dollar biomedical research center like the Stowers Institute in Kansas City, which is a medical center to be admired. A rented tin shack will do just fine. Of course, we would accept hand-me down michroscopes from the Stoweres (billionaires who bought their own multi-million dollar biomedical research center) if they would be gracious enough to grant them to us or we would accept a small prime the pump check to move forward with our research. The Stowerses and all the scientists from the Stowers Institute have an open invitation to visit our lab in the Caribbean. What we are looking for is a cure for breast cancer to stop the humiliation, pain and suffering this menace to society causes millions of women and thousands of men worldwide, and not a new biomedical center… Every dollar invested with us goes into pure medical research and equipment. The same offer goes out to all the millionaires and especially the billionaires of the world. People that come to mind are: Paul Allen, Bill and Melinda Gates, Jon Huntsman, William and Alice Goodman, Ann Lurie, Jamie and Karen Moyer, Harold C. Simmons, Alfred Mann, Sumner M. Redstone, Michael Milton and the Palm beach billionaires, there are simply too many to mention. The combined wealth of the three Microsoft billionaires alone is more than ten times the amount spent by the U.S. Federal Government on research to fight cancer and other deadly diseases. We know we’re in the wrong business to become billionaires ourselves. This kind of biotechnology has never produced even one billionaire. It’s the cure for breast cancer that we want.

Simply put the cancer research organizations are funding the wrong researchers. It’s time to go outside the normal research channels. Do something different. The same story year after year after year and no cure. These unmotivated researchers just aren’t getting results. Let someone else have a shot at it. It’s time to try something new and different. A different approach. There are races for the cure, golf tournaments for the cure, there are walks for the cure, there are foundations for the cure. These foundations have been funding the same ineffective research for more than twenty years now. These foundations have been betting on the wrong horse. Joining the crusade won’t help if the research being done doesn’t take on a twenty-first century scientific approach. It’s been time to move forward scientifically for five years now. But today’s breast cancer researchers are stuck in a twentieth century mind-set. The Excuse is someday we’ll find the cure, but someday doesn’t help today’s victims of breast cancer. We need top notch scientific action today.

The genetics are out of the bottle and stem cell research is moving forward whether the U.S. government likes it or not. Gen Cells Cures has moved off-shore to the Caribbean to avoid the political controversy over stem cell research. I am sure you won’t mind a walk on the beach with me to talk about your cure for your breast cancer. Once we have the cure we can take the cure from the bench to the patient without a long and costly wait for FDA approval. There are many advantages to not having big brother breathing down your neck. The governments of the United States and Western countries have nothing to offer except road blocks, red tape and detours. Our patients don’t have time for political smoke and mirrors. With a little luck we could have your cure before the time comes that you need that dreaded surgery and chemo.

Our gifted world-class researchers are visionary and have been schooled in winning and have courage, creativity, can-do attitudes, burning desires, unfaltering belief and an obsession that they will be there first. By first we mean years ahead of the other biotechnology companies. Like determined, fighting NASCAR drivers our scientists are living to take the chequered flag of biotech and win the coveted race for the cure for breast cancer.

Focused on breakthrough discoveries, Gen Cells Cures nurtures a culture that encourages high standards of excellence, original thinking, hard work and a willingness to take risks. Our world-renowned scientists believe in themselves and its belief that gets us there. The company will seek to develop a work environment that is results focused and team-orientated. We compete against time. Though we compete intensely we maintain high ethical standards and trust and respect for each other. Quality is the cornerstone of all our activities. We seek the highest quality information, decisions and people. Our success depends on superior scientific innovation. We see the scientific method as a multi-step process which includes designing the right experiment, collecting and analyzing data and rational decision making. It is not subjective or emotional but rather a logical, open and rational process.

Our success comes from one simple fact; we are committed to being a science-based, patient-driven company, driven by that one special breast cancer patient…you.

Gen Cells Cures lost most of our one million dollar start-up money in offshore bank scandal and currency devaluation last year. We are now actively pursuing financial support. Unfortunately, the Gen Cells Cures team is made up of great scientific minds and not great marketers, salesmen, or fund raisers. Yes, we are looking for a millionaire or billionaire without a cause to support our work, but if you are not our wealthy saviour, we welcome any help, be it financial or a donation of your time. The scientific team is on stand-by. What we’re lacking is the funding to go forward. We could use motivated salesmen to sell our research, fund raisers, skilled internet marketers or someone just to pass out flyers or mail out promotional material. We could use help from the media with publicity stories, ads and promotions to get the word out. We are particularly interested in looking for assistance from the billionaires of the world; there are approximately 600 in the world. Billionaires like Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google billionaires), Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner, and Oprah Winfrey and others who control the media could get our life-saving message to the world fast. We are also hoping that some of my celebrities friends will come forward and spread their wings to help support our breast cancer research: Steven Seagal, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Danny Glover, Erik Estrada, Tom Arnold, Dolph Lundgren, Roger Clinton, Bill Clinton, Usher, Hulk Hogan, Ivana Trump, John Secada, Sylvester Stalone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mike Reno, Richard Branson, Cindy Crawford, Cher, Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, and other stars that I have had the good fortune of meeting in person and others celebrities that I hope to meet in the future. (Photos of Gerald and the stars can be viewed at his promotional group listed below.) I am waiting to get my photo with Suzanne Summers!

Gen Cells Cure offers more than hope. We can do the job. If you’re going to eradicate cancer you have to have the right people doing the right research. One thing is for sure. We couldn’t do any worse than what the scientists before us have done. Which is virtually nothing! Help us alleviate the pain and suffering. Together, with your help, we can cure breast cancer.

Article by Gerald Armstrong- [email protected] Gerald is the owner of Gen Cells Cures Visit his group for information about “The Cure” for incurable diseases and aging.

Group address [http://www.msnusers.com/cures]

Source by Gerald Armstrong

from Home Solutions Forev https://homesolutionsforev.com/breast-cancer-the-cure/ via Home Solutions on WordPress from Home Solutions FOREV https://homesolutionsforev.tumblr.com/post/186787780310 via Tim Clymer on Wordpress

#Home Solutions FOREV

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homesolutionsforev · 5 years ago

Text

Breast Cancer The Cure

You have my permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Breast Cancer The Cure

Genetics and Breast Cancer

Our success comes from one simple fact; we are committed to being a science-based, patient-driven company, driven by that one special breast cancer patient…you.

Article by Gerald Armstrong- [email protected] Gerald is the owner of Gen Cells Cures Visit his group for information about “The Cure” for incurable diseases and aging.

Group address [http://www.msnusers.com/cures]

Source by Gerald Armstrong

from Home Solutions Forev https://homesolutionsforev.com/breast-cancer-the-cure/ via Home Solutions on WordPress

#Home Solutions Forev

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gamegeekzeu-blog · 5 years ago

Text

PlayStation is winning the high-end VR battle. Sony has sold 4.2 million PlayStation VR headsets as of March, as Dominic Mallinson, senior vice president of R&D at Sony, made sure to point out at Collision 2019 in Toronto. What will make PSVR 2 the breakthrough device for the mass market?

4.2 million PSVR units sold to date. “We’re very happy with those numbers and very happy with the position,” Mallinson noted. “But we know we can do better. There are over 96 million PlayStation 4s in the market today. And every single one of those is capable of delivering a great VR experience. So we’d like to convert many, many more of those people to be PSVR users. And we won’t just stop with PS4.”

Mallinson is of course referring to Sony’s promise last month that PlayStation 5 will support PSVR 2. Because he’s part of Sony’s R&D labs, Mallinson gets to see some of the experiments, direction, and new content “that’s coming through the pipeline,” as he put it. That’s what helped him name his session “The future is bright for virtual reality.”

The first takeaway is straightforward: TV shows, regular video games, movies, books, and radio all give you a certain level of immersion. VR goes the furthest. “VR engages all of your senses in a more heightened way,” Mallinson stated. “It engages your eyes in a more heightened way. It engages optics in a more heightened way. You just don’t get that in any other medium.”

Mallinson briefly talked about how people who suck at golf feel empowered playing the game in VR. He described — but emphasized that it’s impossible to do it justice — the incredibly unique feeling of flying around like Iron Man.

Speaking of feelings, he was asked how he felt seeing his classic PlayStation hit Wipeout come to VR.

“It was wonderful,” Mallinson said with a big smile. “It got me a little bit emotional because it’s what we always dreamed of doing when we created Wipeout — having it in VR. So to see them actually deliver that, and do a really good job as well, was just fantastic. Unfortunately for me, personally, I get a little bit sick in VR. So much as I enjoy playing it, I couldn’t play it for too long because it is a little bit more extreme.”

eVRolution

The takeaway Mallinson talked about the most, both onstage and in Venturebeats follow-up. He gave three examples of evolutionary hardware improvements first, and offered his predictions.

“The first is resolution,” Mallinson explained. “This is more pixels per degree. It’s about the sharpness and the clarity of the display. And you have to be able to match what people expect to see today with high definition. I would expect the resolution to roughly double in the next set of VR products.”

“Along with that, we also need a greater field of view,” he continued. “The human visual system is out to about 180 degrees. Most VR headsets today are about 100 degrees. There are diminishing returns to get wider. But I would expect the next set of products to be roughly 120 degrees in terms of field of view.

“And finally, HDR. In the TV industry, HDR is already incredibly important to creating the best experiences. The human eye sees an enormous range of light from bright sunlight to deep shadow. Today’s VR panels only capture a tiny fraction of that. So in order to increase the sense of presence, I do expect to see HDR adopted in the near future.”

Trippin’ over those Cables

He offered two solutions: an all-in-one headset, where the compute is part of the headset, and using wireless transmission technology to replace the cable in PSVR 2.

“In both cases, these require a battery, either on your head or close to your head,” Mallinson noted. “Having a battery on your head is a little bit inconvenient in terms of ergonomics and industrial design. But I think that the all-in-one headsets that you’re beginning to see now are actually getting pretty good. But honestly speaking, they cannot possibly compete with a wired headset today because of the enormous amount of compute and rendering performance you can get on a high-end PC or a games console. You just can’t put that on your head.”

Thankfully, progress is moving quickly here too.

“But fortunately, wireless transmission technology is getting better every day,” Mallinson said. “New technologies such as 60 gigahertz are allowing for these options to become possible for VR products. But it might well remain an option, because it will be more costly than with the cable.”

Tracking your Gaze

“Gaze tracking, this is the technology that excites me the most,” Mallinson declared. “We’re already beginning to see this in some products on display at industry events. I think it has the greatest potential to change the PSVR 2 user experience at a pretty fundamental level. I think it was Shakespeare who coined this phrase that ‘the eyes are a window to our souls’. I’ve been a little more prosaic by saying that ‘the eyes are a window to our thoughts’. I think everyone can intuitively understand just how rich human communication becomes when you have that eye contact.”

“So what do I mean by gaze tracking? I mean the technology to understand where you’re looking in this virtual world. What is your attention point? And then on top of that, we can then layer extra things. We can understand perhaps your attention by measuring pupil dilation. We can do biometrics to understand who you are looking at. … And we can measure your IPD (interpupillary distance) — the distance between your pupils. This is very important to VR because it allows us to accurately set up the optics and the rendering to give you maximum comfort, and to really get the correct sense of distance and scale in VR. So fundamentally, with this technology, we know what you’re looking at in VR. And this allows for countless user interface and user experience possibilities.”

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Forve… Fover… Fearov… You know what we mean.

The other reason Mallinson is so bullish about gaze tracking is because it enables foveated rendering in PSVR 2.

“More pixels needs more rendering performance,” Mallinson explained. “If you just brute force it, it requires a lot of extra rendering performance. The human eye has a part in the retina called the fovea, which is responsible for our super-sharp vision. We don’t see very much in the peripheral vision. So if we can match our rendering performance to the fovea, we can deliver higher effective resolutions, and also better quality images. So gaze tracking is a win-win in this respect.”

Gaze tracking thus “pays for itself.” It brings a new user experience, and enables the hardware optimization of foveated rendering. All of the above together consists of the rapid improvements in technology that Mallinson expects will drive wider adoption of VR.

In the coming months we will surely get more details on both devices, so stay tuned for the latest on PS5 and PSVR 2!

Big thanks to Venturebeat for the recap and interview!

PSVR 2 in sync with PS5 in 2020? @PlaystationEU Dominic Mallinson gave us some insight on what to expect from the next gen VR hardware. PlayStation is winning the high-end VR battle. Sony has sold 4.2 million PlayStation VR headsets as of March, as Dominic Mallinson, senior vice president of R&D at Sony, made sure to point out at Collision 2019 in Toronto.

#playstation 5 #psvr #wireless

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duaneodavila · 6 years ago

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It’s Space Law, Space Force, SPACE SPACE SPACE As Rocket Lab’s Successful New Zealand Launch Follows Lead Of Elon Musk’s SpaceX!

I haz space cash.

Look, we’ve known how to get into orbit, and beyond, for a while now. But while our grandpas ran out of science to do up there and were just playing golf on the moon (yawn), modern-day space nerds have other interests: billions and billions in cold, hard, space cash!

Space nerds gotta get PAID. This all started one day when Elon Musk decided it wasn’t enough just to save the whole damn world from carbon emissions by creating Tesla, and put into place a plan to eventually get us off this doomed planet entirely by doing the theretofore unthinkable and founding a private space company that would reduce the costs of spaceflight and one day actually make launches profitable. I’ll let the man speak for himself:

If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred. A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space.

And then, as though Elon almost willed it into existence (just kidding, it took hundreds of engineers and scientists, years of research and development, millions of dollars, a number of unexpected explosions, and lots and lots of math), in March of 2017 SpaceX achieved the very first reflight of an orbital class rocket. On March 30, 2017, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket placed a geosynchronous communications satellite into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, after the first-stage rocketry hardware had been previously used to support a space station cargo resupply mission. A new space age was quietly born.

Elon Musk isn’t the only one working in this space. Less-cool billionaire Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin company come to mind. (Richard Branson’s Virgin also recently took what is apparently a step forward for its small satellite launch program: flying a 747 around with a rocket strapped under its wing.) But the really exciting news this month was the success of the scrappy space company Rocket Lab from a New Zealand launchpad. On November 11, Rocket Lab had its third launch, and this time it successfully lobbed six small satellites into low earth orbit. Pre-SpaceX, Bloomberg reports that the only really viable path to space was through several large organizations backed by governments, with hellish scheduling issues and a price tag of between $150 million and $300 million per flight. SpaceX took the cost down to more like $60 million per flight, on a much shorter timescale. Rocket Lab purportedly charges just $5.7 million per launch. Comparing Rocket Lab’s 56-foot-tall Electron rocket to SpaceX’s 230-foot Falcon 9 workhorse, Rocket Lab is still no match for SpaceX when it comes to larger payloads. And SpaceX is itself continuing to cram down the costs of spaceflight, with the historic first-ever third launch for a SpaceX reusable rocket core currently pending. But any way you slice it, it’s an exhilarating time in the development of space technologies, and the pace at which the cost of reaching space is falling is going to open up business in heretofore unreachable parts of the cosmos.

Even our president is getting on board with one of his less-worse ideas! Sure, Space Force is stupid as a name, both as a separate military branch and as an empty slogan to unthinkingly chant at a rally in between taking huffs of paint fumes, but the concept of making wise investments to protect America’s assets in space isn’t at all dumb. Neil deGrasse Tyson says so, and that’s good enough for me.

Which brings me to my final point: you can’t yet directly invest in these private space companies, as they are not publicly traded, and you can’t yet sign on to serve your country as a Space Force cadet, but as a legal professional, maybe you can get in on the ever-expanding space hype (and the space bucks) nonetheless. Space law is already a thing, to an extent. But like the stale state of rocketry before SpaceX seized the momentum, despite having been around since the 60s, not much has been happening in space law. With outer space increasingly within the reach of business interests, that is going to change.

When Elon Musk was searching for talent, he found one of his chief engineers building a liquid-fueled rocket engine in his garage. The guy was bored and his innovative ideas were unappreciated and ignored in his day job at an old, staid aerospace company. Sound familiar? I hope when lawyers do seriously get into the space game, it’s not the same stodgy old names who are involved in everything else. The law as we know it is built upon precedent, but the legal framework governing asteroid mining or colonizing Mars or a fishing expedition to Europa is going to be unlike anything that has come before. I want to hear legal dreamers thinking about what space law should be, and can be, not the ongoing tired refrain from the legal profession about the way things have always been. If you’re among the lawyers spending your lunch breaks scratching out legal concepts that could govern a one-way extraplanetary expedition (they do still give you breaks to eat in Biglaw, right?), we might need you. SpaceX and Rocket Lab have demonstrated that there is space for disruptors in the space space; now it’s up to you to seize some of it. Dream big. To get your hands on some of that space dinero, you’re going to have to reach up.

Jonathan Wolf is a litigation associate at a midsize, full-service Minnesota firm. He also teaches as an adjunct writing professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, has written for a wide variety of publications, and makes it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at [email protected].

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bunkershotgolf · 8 years ago

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Coach Labs Inc, makers of DuoTrac, unveil golf’s first Intelligent Ball at 2017 PGA Show

Coach Labs, manufacturers of DuoTrac Golf, the world’s first complete swing and hip sway analyzer, unveiled the world’s first true intelligent ball at the 2017 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., January 25-27. Coach Lab’s Intelligent Ball, “Gen i1” was officially introduced to more than 50 members of the media at a standing room only lunch event on the floor of the Orange County Convention Center, Wednesday, Jan. 25, from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Curt Menefee, Host of Fox NFL Sunday served as the Master of Ceremonies.

This cutting edge, breakthrough technology was one of the most talked about stories during the PGA Show. Damon Hack on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive featured Gen i1 as one of his top picks. Golf WRX listed Gen i1 as Number 3 on their Top 10 list of Show Stoppers on Day One. Amateur Golf named Gen i1 as the winner of the 2017 PGA Merchandise Show Best New Game Improvement Device of the Year.

Officially named “Gen i1” for ‘Generation Intelligence’, this ball is poised to disrupt multiple business sectors including golf simulation, gaming and practice facilities. Gen i1 will be able to deliver critical data points such as ball speed, back spin, launch angle, carry distance and smash factor.

The Gen i1 will be rolled out in three phases:

Phase 1: Connect to the App to display putting data like ball rotation and initial direction. Short game and full swing versions will be coming soon after.

Phase 2: Connect Gen i1 with your favorite golfing games to play top courses through individual and tournament competitions.

Phase 3: Golfers will be able to connect Gen i1 to smart ranges and eventually play at any golf course to USGA conforming standards. “At Coach Labs, we are continuing to push the envelope with multi-sensor technology,” said Jason Koo, CEO & Founder of DuoTrac. “The Gen i1 along with DuoTrac’s Swing and Hip Sway Sensors will be the most technologically advanced, portable and affordable swing analysis system offered in golf.”

Gen i1 is now available for pre-order at DuoTrac.com

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battybat-boss · 7 years ago

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Big Pharma Cannot Explain Why People with Very High LDL Cholesterol Have No Cardiovascular Disease and Live Long Lives

Very high LDL and no cardiovascular disease – at all!

by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick DrMalcolmKendrick.org

Excerpts:

If your hypothesis is that all swans are white, the discovery of one black swan refutes your hypothesis. That is how science works. Or at least that is how science should work. In the real world, scientists are highly adept at explaining away contradictions to their favoured hypotheses. They will use phrases such as, it's a paradox. Or, inform you that you didn't measure the correct things, or there are many other confounding factors – and suchlike.

Anyway, accepting that the finding of someone with a very high LDL level, and no detectable atherosclerosis, will always be dismissed – in one way or another – I am still going to introduce you to a 'case history' of a seventy-two-year-old man with familial hypercholesterolaemia, who has been studied for many, many, years. Try as they might, the researchers have been unable to discover any evidence for cardiovascular disease (CVD) – of any sort.

However, none of these people had been studied in any detail. Which means that they can, and are, dismissed as irrelevant 'anecdotes'. Yes, the widely used and highly exasperating phrase that I often encounter is that 'the plural of anecdote is not data'. This, of course, is completely untrue, or at least it is untrue if you start dismissing detailed individual cases as anecdote.

So, a single case is NOT an anecdote, and cannot be lightly dismissed with a wave of the hand and a supercilious smirk.

The paper was called 'A 72-Year-Old Patient with Longstanding, Untreated Familial Hypercholesterolemia but no Coronary Artery Calcification: A Case Report.'

So, here we have a man who has an LDL consistently three to four times above 'average'. He had tried various LDL lowering agents over the years. None of which had done anything much to lower LDL. Therefore, his average LDL level over a twenty-year period has been 486mg/dl (12.6mmol/l.

Despite this he has absolutely no signs of atherosclerotic plaque, in any artery, no symptoms of CVD and is – to all intents and purposes – CVD free.

What to make of this? Well, I know that the 'experts' in cardiology will simply ignore this finding. They prefer to use the 'one swallow does not a summer make' approach to cases like this. For myself I prefer the black swan approach to science. If your hypothesis is that a raised LDL causes CVD, then finding someone with extremely high LDL, and no CVD, refutes your hypothesis.

Unfortunately, but predictably, the authors of the paper have not questioned the LDL approach. Instead, they fully accept that LDL does cause CVD. So, this this man must represent 'a paradox'.

And just in case you believe this is a single outlier, something never seen before or since, let me introduce you to the Simon Broome registry, set up in the UK many years ago to study what happens to individuals diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH). It is the longest, if not the largest, study on FH in the world.

It has mainly been used as one of the pillars in support of the cholesterol hypothesis. However, when you start to look closely at it – fascinating things emerge. One of the most interesting is that people with FH have a lower than expected overall mortality rate – in comparison to the 'normal' population. Or, to put this another way. If you have FH, you live longer than the average person.

Read the full article at DrMalcolmKendrick.org