Author: JD
QUTE OF THE DAY
“If you have faith in your abilities, if you stay true to the path that feels right, if you channel your passion into action, you will ultimately achieve a breakthrough.” -Senora Roy
Recess Music & Ideas Festival EMORY UNIVERSITY, March 28, 2015
HARLAND CINEMA (ROOM E336 IN THE DUC) · 4:00PM · RSVP REQUIRED A DISRUPTIVE SPEAKER SERIES FEATURING THOUGHT LEADERS WHO SHARE INSPIRING STORIES THAT ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO FOLLOW THEIR OWN PASSIONS
Jermaine Dupri Visits GA Tech Thurs | Only We Have Tix – Win One
Business leader, record producer, songwriter and rapper, Jermaine Dupri will be visiting Georgia Tech to talk with student entrepreneurs from 6:30 – 8:00 this Thursday evening. An Atlanta native, Jermaine asked for an opportunity to talk with students at Georgia Tech & VentureLab is excited to host him at the College of Business. Want to win one of the three tickets we have to give away? Of course you do! Simply post this article on your Facebook page (be sure to tag us) & you’ll be entered to win. We’ll let you know Wednesday night if you scored a golden ticket. Joining Dupri is Cory Levy, the Co-Founder and COO of ONE — creators of After School and the ONE app. He is also an adviser to about.me and the founder of Internapalooza, the premier one-day event for Silicon Valley Interns. More on VentureLab: “We are passionate about entrepreneurship. We believe in the power of innovation, iteration, and evidence-based entrepreneurship. We value business models, not business plans. We educate, curate, and create, daily. We never take equity or ask for royalties.”
Ableton Publishes Book to Help Electronic Music Producers Be More Creative
Like any smart company, music software maker Ableton is dedicated to educating their customers. The company has provided manuals, tutorials and other resources on their website for years, and now they’ve published a book titled, Making Music – 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers. While the author, Dennis DeSantis, is Ableton’s Head of Documentation, the company says that the book is not an expanded user’s manual. Their website states: “[The book is] meant to help you actually make music — with concrete tips for solving musical problems, making progress, and most importantly finishing what you start — regardless of the software or hardware you use.” Making Music has already sold out, but Ableton says digital versions are coming soon. You can also read complete and unabridged chapters from each of the book’s three parts at their dedicated Making Music site.
New Google Android Feature Can Detect When Someone Is Holding Your Phone: Report
OH SHIT!! Google has reportedly developed a new feature, called on-body detection, that can keep your smartphone unlocked as long as it remains in your hand or pocket. The moment you set the phone down, however, it will lock again, the Daily Mail reported. By that logic, though, if you set your phone down and someone else swoops by and picks it up, it would unlock just the same as if you, the actual owner, had picked it up again. A similar scenario would be if you hand you phone to someone else (to let them type in their contact information, for example). In that, the phone would remain unlocked. Remember: It’s not able to detect who is holding it – just that someone is holding it. On-body detection works by using accelerometers built into the phones. Google hasn’t confirmed the feature yet but the blog Android Police and several regular users have reported it showing up on their devices. Android users already have the ability to “face unlock” their phones, a security feature similar to Apple’s TouchID, which lets users program their phones to unlock by using facial recognition software. Not a fan of allowing technology to recognize your unique facial features or biometric, that’s fine. You can still opt to use the traditional password to unlock your phone. But if you’re an Android user who thinks all this sounds pretty cool but you’re having problems enabling it on your device, just be patient. As Android police reported, the new feature appears to be one Google is rolling out slowly, but surely. Whenever the feature is available on your device, here are the three screens you’ll need to navigate: Image source: Google via Android Police Image source: Google via Android Police Image source: Google via Android Police
California Forced To Allow Signatures For Appalling ‘Shoot The Gays’ Ballot Initiative
WOW!!! It doesn’t matter that a California lawyer’s outrageous Sodomite Suppression Actballot initiative proposes executing gays with “bullets to the head,” or that it’s unconstitutional and could never become law. California Attorney General Kamala Harris is forced to allow the measure to circulate for signatures, legal experts said. The initiative, which mandates 10 years in prison and permanent expulsion from California for anyone who advocates gay rights to minors, stands no chance of collecting 365,000 valid signatures it needs to appear on next year’s ballot. But because its backer, Matt McLaughlin, paid the $200 filing fee by the February deadline, Harris is bound by law to prepare a title and summary of the initiative by May so that its sponsor can begin collecting signatures, legal experts told the San Francisco Chronicle. Joe Mathews, a fellow at the Center for Social Cohesion at Arizona State University, argued on California politics website Fox&Hounds that forcing the attorney general to allow the circulation of such an absurd proposal attacks the integrity of the initiative process. He said a “human rights exception” should be adopted for these instances. “When you are taking away fundamental human rights -– as in the right to live -– it is appropriate to give our public officials a formal exception that they can invoke to block an initiative that violates fundamental human rights,” Mathews wrote. An innovative response to McLaughlin’s initiative comes from activist Charlotte Laws, who told Slate she is filing the Intolerant Jackass Act on Monday. The bill reads: “Any person, herein known as an ‘Intolerant Jackass,’ who brings forth a ballot measure that suggests the killing of gays and/or lesbians, whether this measure is called the Sodomite Suppression Act or is known by some other name, shall be required to attend sensitivity training for at least three (3) hours per month for twelve (12) consecutive months. In addition, the offender or “Intolerant Jackass” must donate $5000 to a pro-gay or pro-lesbian organization.” McLaughlin may face other repercussions for advocating murder. According to the Sacramento Bee, state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D) has askled the State Bar of California to investigate McLaughlin, and more than 3,800 people have signed a petition asking State Bar President Craig Holden to revoke McLaughlin’s law license.
MDMA has been approved for use in a clinical trial for terminally ill patients
The Drug Enforcement Administration has approved the use of MDMA in a clinical trial to treat anxiety associated with terminal illness. A clinical trial run by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) will give 18 participants various doses of MDMA to test their reactions, Engadget reports. Despite its EDM festival reputation, MDMA is thought to be a useful anxiety treatment because of its ability to induce euphoria and empathy in users. Brad Burge, director of communications at MAPS, says the trial is most interested in studying how MDMA “enhances or facilitates the psychotherapeutic process for anxiety” that comes with the diagnosis of a life-threatening disease. THIS ISN’T YOUR EDM FESTIVAL MDMA “When that arousal comes about in an unsafe situation, such as outside of therapy, or in a recreational context it may be experienced as anxiety,” he told Engadget. “But in the context of psychotherapy, that arousal may be experienced as a form of fear but also excitement and tension. So that anxiety can be used productively to assist the therapeutic process.” This MDMA isn’t the same stuff you’ll find on festival grounds, anyway. It’s been manufactured legally in a lab and exists in a much purer form than most drugs on the street. Still, the DEA’s approval of the study shows a slight shift in perspective towards a drug that was criminalized in 1985. MAPS has had several MDMA studies approved before, including those focused on therapeutic treatment for PTSD and social anxiety related to autism. Trial participants must meet specific requirements: a diagnosed terminal illness, anxiety associated with that illness, and a life expectancy of at least nine months. The DEA’s approval was the final step in readying the study. MAPS says it plans to begin the screening process soon. THIS IS THE SEVENTH MDMA CLINICAL TRIAL MAPS HAS HAD APPROVED Although this is MAPS’ seventh study that has been approved for MDMA use, large-scale acceptance of the drug as a medical treatment is still a ways off. For MDMA to be available as a medical treatment outside of the trial, the FDA will need to give its approval. That process is not expected to start until 2017 and will likely take several years.
Lil Twist Charged With Six Felonies in Chris Massey Assault Case
WOW!!! Lil Twist‘s week is off to a very rocky start. The rapper has been charged with six felonies after he was involved in an attack and robbery in Los Angeles in November 2014. Last year, the Young Money signee was hanging out with some friends at actor Kyle Massey’s apartment when he was kicked out after an argument took place. Apparently angry about the incident, Twist and four male friends later returned, breaking into the apartment, beating up Kyle’s brother Chris Massey — he used brass knuckles — and stealing his cell phone and wallet. As a result of his actions, the L.A. County D.A. is charging Twist — a longtime friend of Justin Bieber — with criminal threats, burglary, grand theft, battery and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, TMZ reports. An arrest warrant has been issued for the 22-year-old Texas native, who faces up to 25 years behind bars if convicted. This isn’t his first run-in with the law either. In 2014, he beat a DUI charge after he was caught speeding and with weed in his vehicle when he was pulled over in Calabasas, Calif. He walked away with three tickets for speeding, passing a red light and possessing under one ounce of marijuana. A year prior, he was accused of a hit-and-run while driving Bieber’s car.