Las vegas valley

There’s a new sub-genre of ghost stories out there today–one where the antagonist isn’t quite human. You can find these tales on user forums for many voice assistants: One user reports he and his wife heard Alexa’s voice coming from their kitchen in the middle of the night. Another reported hearing a strange man’s voice through his Echo. “What the hell?” wrote one user on Reddit who was “freaked” after Echo behaved unusually. “Can Alexa only do things when told, or does she act on her own? advertisement advertisement These stories–usually just aberrations explained by user error–externalize the unease we feel with our new roommates. They’re always listening. They learn from the words we say and the things we do. And it’s hard to know where this stream of personal information ends up. Who uses it? Is it sold? Can I see it? Will my chuckle at an off-color joke during a stand-up show exist for … [Read more...] about The End Of User-Friendly Design

“This could save lives, cure depression, help alcoholism, get people off opioids—why wouldn’t I want to be invested?” advertisement advertisement Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary is sitting across from me in a restaurant talking about a recent investment. He was part of a $6 million round in MindMed, a company that’s taking psychedelic drugs and turning them into medicine. Its first drug has the potential to turn a person’s addictions—to cocaine, methamphetamine, morphine, sugar, alcohol—off like a light switch. It has a clear opportunity to help lower the nearly 70,000 annual drug overdose deaths that take place in the U.S. But the compound, 18-MC, has yet to undergo human efficacy trials, leaving open a big question: Will it even work? Scientists have been aware of the potential of LSD and psilocybin (the psychoactive component in mushrooms) as addiction killers for decades. Outside of the lab, too, people have been … [Read more...] about Silicon Valley’s psychedelic wonder drug is almost here

Photo by Robyn Twomey; Hair and Makeup: Renee Rael; Styling: Tietjen Fischer; Shot on location at Fioli Estate, California Bill Draper’s salt-and-pepper eyebrows grow like weeds. They are the one feature on the venture capitalist’s handsome, square-jawed 84-year-old face that give away his age; they’re also a mark of the Draper gene pool, an optometric family crest. Bill’s son, Tim, also a venture capitalist, has similarly unruly patches. And Tim’s sons, Adam and Billy, both entrepreneurs, have a tamer twentysomething variation. “Those are some power brows,” Adam says of his dad’s and granddad’s facial hair. “You meet them and you just look at their brows for a little bit–they’re like visors.” advertisement advertisement Bill has the air of a vintage businessman. Dressed in a camel-hued sports coat and burgundy dress shoes, he looks like the kind of man who wouldn’t dare enter an elevator … [Read more...] about Can VCs Be Bred? Meet The New Generation In Silicon Valley’s Draper Dynasty

Fields of Dreams: Sugarcane plantations next to Amyris’s Paraíso plant near São Paulo | Photo by Ian Allen The climb up the steel steps is dizzying–like ascending the tower of a European church, except the steps lead to a platform bolted to the side of a gleaming new chemical plant. Here in Brazil, under a brilliant blue sky, Eduardo Loosli, the plant manager, pauses to explain a vision of the future. “I used to manage a Molson Coors beer manufacturing plant, and it’s not all that different,” he says, leaning on a railing and surveying the scene around us. Directly below is a cityscape of huge stainless-steel tanks. Out beyond the tanks, and stretching far into the distance, are dense greenfields of sugarcane. advertisement advertisement Yeast turns grain into beer, Loosli says. Here, in this new plant, genetically engineered yeast created by the plant’s owners–the California biotech company known as Amyris–turns … [Read more...] about The Rise And Fall Of The Company That Was Going To Have Us All Using Biofuels

Indian stock market is trading on a positive note with Sensex is up 107.89 points or 0.27 percent, at 40,553.04. The Nifty, on the other hand, has added 34.60 points and is trading at 11,956.10. Among the sectors, Nifty Auto along with the metal index gained over a percent each. The top gainers from the metal space included SAIL, Jindal Steel & Power, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and MOIL while from the auto space, the top gainers included Bharat Forge, MRF, Maruti Suzuki, Motherson Sumi Systems, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland. The stocks which gained the most with respect to volumes on the NSE are Vikas Proppant & Granite which was trading with volumes of 1,442,307 shares, compared to its five day average of 475,105 shares, an increase of 203.58 percent. VA Tech Wabag spiked over 13 percent after surge in volumes. It was trading with volumes of 108,415 shares, compared to its five-day average of 11,634 shares, an increase of 831.85 percent. The other movers included NBI Industrial … [Read more...] about Stock Buzzers: VA Tech Wabag, BF Utilities share price surge 10-13% with spike in volume