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Tag: Undoing Aging
Wealth, Power, and the Prospect of Reversing Aging – Article by Arin Vahanian
May 18, 2019 Arin Vahanian Comments 0 Comment
Arin Vahanian
I often ask myself, "Why do wealthy and/or influential people seem to support spending billions of dollars on weapons and exploring outer space, when, with their massive wealth and resources, they could help reduce human suffering and dramatically improve the quality of life for billions of people?"
And this question takes me back to a discussion I had last year with gerontologist Aubrey de Grey, during which he recounted to me a meeting he had with an ultra high-net-worth (UHNW) individual. The purpose of the meeting was to raise money for aging and life-extension research, and the UHNW individual refused to donate to SENS Research Foundation, or even to get involved, stating something to the effect of, "It won't happen in my lifetime."
That response perplexed me. Here we had a very successful and intelligent person, who, rather than help ensure his own children (as well as others' children) could live a healthier and longer life, refused to do anything, for the simple reason that he did not believe we could make much progress on reversing aging in his lifetime.
While this is indeed a selfish way to look at things, it is by no means uncommon. In fact, I have been racking my brain recently, trying to figure out why the people who are best-equipped to do something about life extension and aging, do not do so (or do not do enough).
To be fair, there are a few wealthy and influential people who support research into aging and life extension, the most notable being entrepreneur Jim Mellon. However, they seem to be the exception rather than the norm.
Indeed, why do people like Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk, who possess incredible resources and influence, choose to spend money and time on attempting to colonize hostile, uninhabitable planets hundreds of millions of kilometers away, especially considering that they and their loved ones (if they are lucky to live long enough) will die of aging-related causes such as heart disease, dementia, and cancer?
While I cannot speak for the aforementioned people, I believe there are several reasons why people in a position of power or wealth refuse to do much about supporting research on aging.
The first reason is that aging and death have been considered inevitable. Indeed, even though we have been able to put a human being on the Moon, we have been unable to prevent a single human being from aging. Enormously wealthy and successful people tend to be quite pragmatic, and so I imagine that they would not want to fund an endeavor or be a part of something they believed had no chance of success. However, we have evidence that we are making progress on this front, or at the very least, that reversing aging and implementing life-extension technologies are worthy endeavors.
In fact, in 2005, MIT Technology Review organized a panel of world-renowned experts (including molecular biologists) and offered a $20,000 prize to anyone who could disprove the SENS research program and demonstrate that reversing aging is not worthy of consideration. However, none of the contestants were able to do so. On the other hand, there is no evidence that human life is sustainable on any other planets in our solar system (while human life is perfectly sustainable on Earth), and by most professional estimates, it would take incredible technological advancements and financial resources to even enable people to temporarily stay on a planet such as Mars. We should also consider the fact that there have been no studies performed on the massive changes that would occur to the human body as a result of living on another planet.
Thus, it actually appears more realistic to work on reversing aging than it would be to work on colonizing other planets. But even if we are not able to completely reverse aging, what if we were able to slow aging? Wouldn't it be desirable to have an additional five to 10 years of healthy life? Any progress we could make on life extension would be worth it, given that it would directly add healthy years to a person's life. One thing is for certain – doing nothing ensures that very little will change, and that humans will more than likely continue living this average lifespan of 79 or so years (with very modest improvements over time), with much of it in the later years being in sickness and poor health.
Another reason for the refusal to fund aging and life extension research may be a rather pessimistic one. It is entirely possible that billionaires and governments are hedging their bets in the event that climate change or some other scenario causes wide-scale suffering (the likes of which have never been seen before) and a potential destruction of the planet, along with the rapid extinction of the human species. If that were the case, and Earth was about to be destroyed, it would make sense to pour resources into colonizing other planets. However, I think the likelihood of something like this occurring, at least in the near future, is extremely slim. Further, we have much evidence to support the fact that the planet could sustain a larger population and that technological improvements, as well as renewable energy, and seasteading, can prevent such an apocalyptic scenario from occurring. In fact, despite the challenges we are facing in terms of sustainability, we are making good progress, and it seems unreasonable to me to give all of this up, throw in the towel, and chase a pipe dream of living on another planet (when the one we have now is perfectly suited to human life). Also, given that we have the technology to save our planet from being engulfed in chaos and destruction, but do not currently have the technology to live on other planets, wouldn't it make sense to save Earth first, rather than attempting to embark upon costly journeys to other planets, especially journeys that have little guarantee of success?
Yet another reason may be that many people, including those in a position of power, have bought into the idea of an afterlife. However, if we are completely honest with ourselves, there is no evidence that an afterlife exists, whereas there is evidence that we are making progress with reversing aging, even if that progress is arriving at a pace that is slower than we would have liked. With that being said, I would never want to deny anyone the right to believe in whatever they want. The question is, however, whether it is beneficial to adopt a zero-sum attitude to this matter. The fact is, believing in an afterlife and contributing to aging and life-extension research are not mutually exclusive. One can have any religious beliefs one likes, and subscribe to the idea that there is an afterlife, while also contributing to the beauty of existence here on Earth.
Finally, working on a cause such as reversing aging appears to not be as exciting as the prospect of exploring Mars, which is why people would rather update their LinkedIn (or Tinder) profile with "Entrepreneur" or "Swashbuckling Adventurer" or "Arms Dealer", even, rather than "Gerontologist". In all seriousness, though, I have always found the idea of exploring faraway lands, as well as other planets, to be exciting. But if human beings are excited about exploring the unknown, shouldn't we also be interested in exploring a process as complex as aging, especially given that there is much we still do not know about it? Also, the implications of making advancements in this field are huge. This is because the un-sexy work that gerontologists are doing will lead to us living longer, healthier lives, and so this very important work should not be ignored. In fact, it is a massive waste of resources to try to colonize uninhabitable planets at the expense of ensuring good health and longevity, when all of humanity battles with disease and death. It would even be more noble to focus our efforts on eliminating poverty (something that the Chinese government, for instance, has dedicated its efforts to).
I do not wish to dissuade anyone from exploring outer space, but neither should we avoid doing what needs to be done on our planet. I only wish to ask whether spending billions on space exploration is the best use of resources at our disposal, considering that there is still much work to be done here on Earth.
As mentioned previously, it should not be a zero-sum game. In an ideal world, we could dedicate resources to both aging research and space exploration. However, when the budget for NASA is $21.5 billion and the budget for aging research at the National Institute on Aging is $40 million, one has to start asking questions. Actually, one could argue neither budget is large enough, especially given that the U.S. Department of Defense budget is $686 billion.
Why do we spend hundreds of billions of dollars on missiles and bombs to combat a highly-exaggerated threat, when there is the absolute certainty that billions of people will suffer and then die, many of them prematurely, due to aging-related diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and dementia?
What makes exploring outer space so much more important than ensuring that billions do not die prematurely from aging-related diseases? Will picking up and holding red dust on a hostile, uninhabitable planet be more fulfilling than holding one's child or loved one in one's arms?
What does it say about our society when we are content to allow friends and family members to perish in undignified ways, while we dream about stockpiling as many weapons as possible, reliving fictional fantasies inspired by comic books and movies, and ignoring challenges here on Earth?
These are questions we must ask ourselves, and, more importantly, must demand those in power to ask themselves. At the end of the day, if we as a society are comfortable with the tradeoffs and decide en masse that dealing weapons and exploring outer space are more important than working on curing disease, reversing aging, and ensuring that everyone on Earth lives a dignified life, then we can rest assured knowing that we gave this most important of topics much consideration.
However, given the facts, I do not think we have reached that point yet. We have, however, reached a point where there is promise that we are making progress in fighting aging, and it is irresponsible and reckless to ignore these gains while entertaining fantasies of living on other planets. It makes little sense to try to live in a dignified manner on a dangerous, inhospitable, isolated planet that is not suitable for human life, when we are having difficulty living in a dignified manner here on Planet Earth (a planet that is perfectly suited to human life). The solution is not to dream about moving to Mars while leaving the elderly and unhealthy here to die. The solution is also not to increase defense funding, when we already have more weapons than we know what to do with. The solution is to help our brothers and sisters here on Earth live longer, healthier, more fulfilling lives. And thus, this is a call to action for those of you who are in a position of power or wealth and who can dedicate resources to ensuring that your loved ones, and everyone else's loved ones, can live better.
One thing I would like to ask UHNW individuals and politicians is, what will you do with the great wealth, status, and power you have accumulated? Will you play golf and remark that "it won't happen in my lifetime"? Or will you actually do something to ensure that your children won't be doomed to a short life, during which they will suffer from debilitating disease and eventually die?
Arin Vahanian is the Director of Marketing for the U.S. Transhumanist Party / Transhuman Party.
Interview of Dr. José Luis Cordeiro by Elena Milova
May 2, 2019 Elena Milova Comments 0 Comment
Elena Milova
José Luis Cordeiro
Editor's Note: The U.S. Transhumanist Party features this interview of Dr. José Luis Cordeiro by Elena Milova at LeafScience.Org, originally published on their site on April 19, 2019. Dr. Cordeiro is working to foster transhumanist-friendly political policies in Spain, a goal supported by the U.S. Transhumanist Party as part of our policy objectives.
~ Brent Reitze, Director of Publication, United States Transhumanist Party, May 1st, 2019
At Undoing Aging 2019, jointly organized by SENS Research Foundation and Forever Healthy Foundation, there was a session focused on the ways to make healthy life extension and medical progress a greater part of the global agenda. Among the speakers there was Jose Cordeiro, the vice chair of Humanity Plus, director of The Millennium Project, fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, and board member of the Lifeboat Foundation.
Jose earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His thesis was focused on the modeling of the International Space Station. Jose has also studied International Economics and Comparative Politics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and received his MBA in France at INSEAD, where he focused on Finance and Globalization.
Last year, Jose decided to begin his political activities in order to foster the development of rejuvenation biotechnologies in Spain and to work on the integration of Latin American immigrants into Spain's aging society and thus maintain the country's productivity. He kindly agreed to give me an interview to discuss more about his ambitious initiative.
Hello, Jose, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. You are currently beginning your campaign to win several seats in the European parliament. This is a very unusual situation, because it's still rare that transhumanist ideas like significant life extension are part of a political agenda. Before we dig into your political program, I would really want to know more about you as a person and what kind of experiences led you to becoming a transhumanist in the first place. Please tell us a few things about your childhood; what life events or books helped you to develop the vision that you have right now?
My family is from Spain. During the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, this country became very poor, and that pushed my family to consider moving to Venezuela. At the time, Venezuela was a prosperous country, so we had moved, and I grew up there. When I was a little child, there was no color TV; it was black and white back then. I remember that the first transmission in color was the moon landing of the Apollo mission. I was so fascinated by the idea that man had gone to the moon and also by the color picture, even though the moon was mostly gray. That sparked my interest in science fiction. My mother gave me books by Jules Verne. To me, he was an idol; I loved his writing. Then, there were other writers, like Isaac Asimov and Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who helped me develop my imagination.
When I was older, I even went to meet Sir Arthur C. Clarke in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It turned out that he had a scuba diving center in Indonesia. You see, he believed that going into outer space and going into the ocean were the ultimate experiences and that they both showed how weak our bodies were. To me, it was one more piece of proof that we really need technology to survive in outer space or in the oceans. I had an opportunity to invite him to talk at the transhumanist conference that I had organized. That was really beautiful.
Speaking of the other books, I also read Robert Heinlein's books on Mars, and all of this combined really made me go into engineering. I decided to go to MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and I majored in engineering in order to be able to participate in all these fascinating projects of mankind in space. I have been very lucky to have four Nobel laureates among my teachers, and I've been always following future trends. Since that time, I read the books of the Club of Rome and the World Future Society. There were many magazines about science, such as Popular Mechanics, Computer World, and others. Then, I learned about Extropians and the World Transhumanist Association when it was being created, and I learned a lot from this community, too.
I lived three years in Japan and four years in California. Then, I met Ray Kurzweil at MIT, as he was one of its board members. He's a fantastic person, and I read all his books, the Age of intelligent machines was the first one, and then in 1998-99, he published the Age of Spiritual Machines, where he makes all his forecasts of the future.
It seems to me that there is still a huge gap between technology, which involves developing all sorts of machines and engineering, and life sciences, rejuvenation research, and life extension. What were your ideas or some events in your life that actually made you look into this direction as well?
Because of my science fiction reading and my training at MIT, I have been very much a technologist, futurist, and transhumanist. Like Ray Kurzweil, I believe that we will transcend the biological condition and move into a post-biological condition. Arthur C. Clarke said that we are carbon-based bipeds and that we should actually evolve and transcend.
I was not particularly interested in longevity and rejuvenation technologies until 1999-2000, when a friend of mine died. Also, sadly, my father died in 2013, and that really affected my life and my views. I was living in California back when the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela had happened. My father died of something that no one dies of today, which is a lack of access to dialysis. The crisis was so bad that there were no medical services, no food, no clean water, no electricity, no gasoline in the country with the largest oil reserves on the planet. My family had to witness how a bad government can destroy a country and put a whole nation into misery. I consider myself lucky that I managed to take my mother from Venezuela back to Spain, and I am so happy that she is alive. Then I decided to stay in Spain and work internationally.
I am traveling around the globe, as I am giving lectures at major universities in many countries. As you know, I teach in two universities in Moscow: in the MIPT and in the Higher School of Economics. I also teach in universities in Japan and in Korea, focusing on several main topics that are important for shaping the global agenda in a reasonable way. In the Higher School of Economics, I talk about technologies, because economists need to know about emerging technologies, while the MIPT is just the opposite; I talk more about the future of economics, the world moving from scarcity to abundance, and how technology can help with that. I talk about energy, about the necessity to switch from fossil fuels to renewables. Actually, I coined the word 'energularity': it's an unlimited amount of energy that we can use for our needs. I talk about longevity, rejuvenation, regenerative medicine, the possibility to control aging and remain healthy for as long as we want. I am teaching the young generation of leaders how to build the future of global prosperity, and I decided to bring my knowledge and my vision to the political arena, too.
Could you please tell our readers about the pillars of your political program? What are the specific goals that you are going to focus on?
Two main things that I plan to focus on are the healthy longevity of the Spanish population and the integration of immigrants from Latin America. Let me explain why I consider these two topics extremely important and how they are intertwined.
Spain, as you know, is one of the countries with the highest life expectancy in the world. Our people live very long. However, this also means that our population is aging; there is a large and fast-growing share of people who are 65 years old and older, which is now over 20%, and these people have age-related chronic diseases. The medicine of the 20th century cannot restore health, and there are many age-related diseases that remain incurable, causing enormous amount of human suffering. However, it was recently proven in animal studies that by directly targeting the processes of aging, the root causes of aging, we could learn how to cure these diseases, reverse aging, and ensure better health and productivity in later life. If we support scientific research on the mechanisms of aging, we can develop cures for people very soon; in the next 10 years, there will already be several therapies of a new type that will be able to slow down and even partially reverse aging.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs/Population Division World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision, Volume II: Demographic Profiles
So, healthy longevity for the Spanish population is my primary focal point. I have three very clear targets. The first is the creation of the European Institute on Aging to work on the problem of aging and on the latest rejuvenation biotechnologies and to put together all the knowledge in different areas and different countries to give our aging society innovative treatments as soon as possible.
The second target is the development of more flexible regulations. I actually like to say that Americans invent things, the Chinese or the Japanese improve things, and the Europeans regulate. Sadly, there is overregulation all over Europe. Let me give you an example. In Japan, if you have already done phase two of human clinical trials, which means that you have already proven that the treatment is safe and it works, even if the experimental group in phase two is not large, a patient can get those treatments, especially if the patient is in critical condition, or, even worse, terminal condition. People in Japan have a chance to use the innovation and a chance to overcome the disease. You can do that in Japan but not in Europe, despite the fact that the pace of population aging in Japan and in Europe is the same; we have many old people around.
The third target is an increase in the science and technology budget of the European Union. For the next framework program, which is called Horizon Europe, beginning in 2021, the budget is expected to increase to 100 billion euros, but I think it should be increased even more, to 120 billion. The projects sponsored by Horizon Europe should be more also focused on regenerative biotechnologies in order to cope with the massive population aging and population decline.
So, you would like to contribute to the creation of a coordination center on aging research, appropriate funding for this research, and on regulatory improvement in order to ensure that the emerging rejuvenation biotechnologies can be available as soon as possible?
That is right, and I have done a great deal preparing the ground for these improvements. As you know, as a proponent of healthy life extension, I have organized many scientific conferences in Spain, and I have invited international luminaries from the field of aging research, such as Dr. Aubrey de Grey, who was the first to recognize the mechanisms of aging as new therapeutic targets.
I have always tried to spread the word about the work of our brilliant Spanish scientists, and I have also written several books on this topic to educate the public on this matter and to allow more people to benefit from the development of rejuvenation technologies; the last one of my 13 books is currently a bestseller in Spain called La Muerte De La Muerte (The Death of Death).
Yes, I have seen it – are you planning to have it translated into other languages?
Yes, it is coming out now in Portuguese, then in Korean, and then in other languages. I hope that there will also be English and Russian translations soon enough.
However, this is only one part of my program. The other one is based on the other pressing issues of Spain. You have heard the motto of my campaign, #SomosMIEL – MIEL stands for 'Movimiento Independiente EuroLatino' (the Independent EuroLatino Movement). Because of the crisis in Latin America, and especially Venezuela, Spain has become a home for many immigrants; around 10% of the Spanish population are immigrants. Think about it. The native Spanish population is aging, our population is declining, and our workforce is shrinking. The immigrants are people with a similar cultural and religious background, who speak Spanish perfectly, and who have a good education and could contribute to the development of the country much better if we removed certain barriers and restrictions.
First, I think we need to eliminate the Schengen visa for people in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia, at least in the case of family reunification. Next, I would focus on extending the approved period of being an independent worker from one to five years. The third target is to contribute to the homologation of titles and degrees in education. When all these immigrants come, even though we speak the same language, their degrees are not accepted. There is already a good precedent of solving this problem in Europe with the Bologna Declaration, the agreement that allows homologation of all titles in Europe. However, now we have to take this to the international level and certainly with Latin America.
There is one more question that I plan to work on: the recognition of Spanish as one of the official languages of the European Union. Spanish is the second most frequently spoken language in the world after Chinese. It is not even recognized in the European Union, which has only three official working languages: English, French, and German.
As we are moving towards a world that is more and more strongly connected, I think it makes perfect sense to facilitate communication and exchange of valuable knowledge and experience between the major regions, such as Spain, the European Union, Latin America, and the United States. There are 50 million Spanish speakers in the United States.
So, technically, what you're trying to achieve with your program is to remove the barriers that prevent Spanish-speaking society from acting as a whole. One example is the integration of immigrants from Latin America, and the other one is the improvement of cross-border communication by making Spanish an official language of the European Union. I find that fascinating. Because, as we all know, there are these global challenges that we're dealing with, like climate change, pollution, lack of renewable energy, and population aging, and they require global cooperation. The barriers become increasingly unwelcome, I would say, because these problems just cannot be solved at the level of one country. I find it a very valuable social experiment.
Yeah, that's a beautiful way to put it. However, we have a long way to go. We live in a world of abundance that is full of opportunities brought to us by technological progress, and it is quite disappointing that we still have poverty, we still have suffering from aging, and we still find ourselves witnessing humanitarian crises like the one in Venezuela that killed my father. Five million Venezuelans have been forced to leave the country, five million. This is not a small number, and we still don't know how to deal with it in a way that these people can have the decent lives that they deserve. We need to learn how to not leave anyone behind. We have to become more compassionate. This could happen to any country, like it happened to Germany during Hitler's government. We have to collaborate to make sure that we will not make the same mistakes ever again. We live at the borderline between a fantastic positive future and a horrible, terrible past, and we have to move forward, positively contribute to it, and create a better society, a better world for everybody.
What insights would you like to share with our readers?
Life is so beautiful; it is a fantastic gift. I think everybody should enjoy life, should have a chance to improve and extend life and to do more things. I speak five languages, and I'd want to speak ten if I had the time. I have been to 137 countries, and I would like to go to two hundred more. I would like to write and read more books, watch many movies, and listen to so much more music, and there is no time. Time is so valuable. Ask yourself, who could you become if you had another century of healthy life? Therefore, we need more lifetime so that we can enjoy more, develop and reinvent ourselves to become better people, and make this world a better place. Going into politics for me is my reinvention. I think that I have enough experience to take all these fascinating academic findings and ideas professionally into politics and to make a difference. That is my mission: to bring healthy longevity and profound social integration to Spain. Wish me luck.
The 2020 Undoing Aging Conference Will Take Place May 21 to 23 in Berlin, Germany – Announcement by Undoing Aging
April 4, 2019 Undoing Aging Comments 0 Comment
Undoing Aging
Editor's Note: The U.S. Transhumanist Party features this announcement by the Undoing Aging Conference, a joint project between the SENS Foundation and the Forever Healthy Foundation, originally published on their site on April 2, 2019. The Undoing Aging Conference is focused on the cellular and molecular repair of age-related damage as the basis of therapies to bring aging under full medical control. Undoing Aging 2020 will once again bring together scientists and startups from around the globe, all pioneers in their respective fields, who are leading the charge in maintaining and restoring full health in old age. Such research is supported by the U.S. Transhumanist Party as part of our policy goals.
~ Brent Reitze, Applicant for Director of Publication, United States Transhumanist Party, April 4, 2019
April 2, 2019 Mountain View, California / Berlin, Germany
After the incredible success of the 2019 Undoing Aging Conference, SENS Research Foundation and Forever Healthy Foundation are pleased to announce Undoing Aging 2020, which will take place on May 21 – 23. As UA2019 was sold out with nearly 500 participants from over 30 countries, Undoing Aging 2020 will be moving to a larger venue.
The Undoing Aging Conference is focused on the cellular and molecular repair of age-related damage as the basis of therapies to bring aging under full medical control. Among the 40 brilliant speakers at Undoing Aging 2019, there were giants in regenerative medicine such as: Dr. Nir Barzilai, Dr. Jerry Shay, Dr. Evan Snyder, Dr. Judith Campisi, and many more. Undoing Aging 2020 will once again bring together scientists and startups from around the globe, all pioneers in their respective fields, who are leading the charge in maintaining and restoring full health in old age. To accommodate the exciting growth of the emerging rejuvenation biotechnology industry, Undoing Aging 2020 will add a dedicated forum and exhibition space for rejuvenation biotech companies to present themselves to prospective investors and industry partners.
Additionally, the 2020 conference will add a special "Rejuvenation Now" session highlighting the first generation of human rejuvenation therapies that are either currently in clinical trials or are available today.
Undoing Aging 2020 is not only open to the scientific community, but also welcomes startups, investors, the general media, and all interested members of the broader rejuvenation movement. The conference will feature a student poster session showing the work of innovative undergraduate and graduate students in the field of damage repair.
"The accelerating rate of progress in rejuvenation research is now unmistakeable at all levels: publications, transfer into rapidly-funded startup companies, and even into the clinic. One marker of this is the worldwide proliferation of conferences focused on it. But I have no doubt that Undoing Aging will maintain its pre-eminence among them, with its strong focus on the most cutting-edge science, its long history dating back to my first Cambridge conference in 2003, and above all its steadfast support from Forever Healthy," said Dr. Aubrey de Grey, CSO of SENS Research Foundation.
"We are very excited to work with SENS on Undoing Aging," stated Michael Greve, founder, and CEO of the Forever Healthy Foundation. "Forever Healthy has two key goals for this conference: To support the remarkable scientific community and the rejuvenation biotechnology startups already working on repair of age-related damage and to create an unique opportunity to experience that bringing aging under complete, genuine medical control is realistic, achievable, and, indeed, beginning to happen."
About Forever Healthy Foundation
Forever Healthy is a private, non-profit initiative with the mission to enable people to vastly extend their healthy lifespan and be part of the first generation to cure aging.
Thru its 'Rejuvenation Now' and 'Maximizing Health' initiatives, Forever Healthy seeks to continuously identify and evaluate new rejuvenation therapies on risks, benefits, and potential application and to harness the enormous wealth of the world's cutting-edge medical knowledge to empower informed decisions about health and well-being.
In addition, Forever Healthy supports the development of rejuvenation therapies that undo the damage of aging by funding basic research, bringing together the world's leading scientists at the Undoing Aging conference and supporting startups that work on actual therapies for human use. For more information, please visit forever-healthy.org
About SENS Research Foundation
SENS Research Foundation is a 501(c) nonprofit that works to research, develop and promote comprehensive regenerative medicine solutions for the diseases of aging. The foundation is focused on a damage-repair paradigm for treating the diseases of aging, which it advances through scientific research, advocacy, and education.
SENS Research Foundation supports research projects at universities and institutes around the world with the goal of curing such age-related diseases as heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. Educating the public and training researchers to support a growing regenerative medicine field are also significant endeavors of the organization that are being accomplished through advocacy campaigns and educational programs. For more information, please visit sens.org
To stay updated on Undoing Aging, you can follow their facebook page.
The First Step Toward Reversing Aging and Curing Disease – Article by Arin Vahanian
January 7, 2019 Arin Vahanian Comments 0 Comment
The dawn of every new year brings renewed hope and numerous promises made by individuals across the world to improve their lot in life, whether through increased exercise, a new diet, or a career change. However, according to extensive research conducted on the topic, most of these resolutions are seldom kept long-term, and many people eventually revert back to old habits and modes of thought.
While failing to keep a promise to oneself to find a new job may not have catastrophic consequences for that person, an entire society or parts of the world falling short of goals such as reversing climate change may have disastrous implications for the rest of the world.
However, this article isn't necessarily about saving the world. It's about a topic that is very near and dear to me; specifically, personal responsibility, especially when it comes to longevity.
Whether we read about this topic, discuss it with others, watch interviews with experts and laypeople, or read polls, almost everyone would agree that the idea of living longer and healthier is very appealing to them.
Why is it, then, that observing people's actions reveals that many of us do things that will prevent us from living longer and healthier? Why do so many people who claim longevity is important to them turn around and engage in behaviors such as overeating, smoking tobacco products, not exercising regularly, and so on?
Thankfully, there are some people out there who take longevity and health seriously, and these individuals eagerly follow new developments and hope for the scientific breakthroughs that will finally reverse aging and cure debilitating diseases that have plagued humankind for so long.
However, the first step toward curing disease and reversing the process of aging does not start with the chemists who come up with new medicines or the gerontologists who study aging or the governments that fund projects; it starts with the individual.
If you don't believe me, simply take a closer look the next time you are at a restaurant or supermarket and observe what many people are purchasing and putting in their bodies. You may well be shocked at the sorts of things we are consuming on a daily basis. Several decades ago, there was a fear that humanity would face starvation on a global scale, but that threat never materialized. In fact, we now have far more food than we know what to do with. Indeed, our problem isn't that we do not have enough food, it is that we have too much food, and too much of what we consume is unhealthy, thus reducing our life span and health span.
Even if we may not want to admit it, the first step toward living a longer and healthier life is entirely in our hands. The actions we take on a daily basis determine, in no small part, whether we can put ourselves in a situation to take advantage of the advances in medicine and technology that may cure us of disease and reverse the process of aging in our bodies and minds.
In my humble opinion, it is irresponsible for someone to neglect their health and well-being while at the same time waiting and hoping for a cure for aging or disease. There is, currently, no magic pill one can take that will cure them of poor health or magically reverse aging. Thus, the impetus is on each person to do all they can to take care of themselves and their health, while the organizations and individuals that are working on curing disease and reversing aging come up with the requisite scientific and technological breakthroughs. In fact, we could even argue that in addition to managing one's health and diet very closely, we should do more to support the organizations and individuals dedicated to curing disease and reversing senescence, but that is perhaps another topic for another time.
Of course, by focusing on personal responsibility, I do not wish to ignore the numerous situational and socioeconomic factors that may contribute to people being unable to fully take responsibility for their health. Some people, due to conditions such as extreme poverty, are not in a position to take control of their lives in the way those of us in developed countries are able to. Similarly, though, I do not wish to ignore the plight of many residents of developed countries who face hardships (of the medical variety or otherwise) every day that prevent them from fully taking the advice in this article. Life is not black-and-white, but rather, gray, and I would never advocate for the law of the jungle in any society.
Thus, I also want to make clear that we as a society should do whatever we can to ensure that people who need medical care receive the care that they need, in a cost-effective and dignified manner. In a world of abundance, there is no reason why people suffering from curable conditions (or otherwise) should go untreated, and no reason why anyone should be bankrupted by medical bills. However, these are not the persons I have dedicated this article to. A tragedy of modern life is that so many people are easily able to make changes in their life that would lead to a healthier and longer life, but instead choose to not do so, and continue engaging in destructive behaviors.
Regardless of your views on disease and aging, it is not unreasonable to say that we should, at the very least, do whatever is in our power to take care of our own health.
Therefore, the next time you think about gorging yourself on donuts and guzzling the soda offered at the next company party, you might want to reconsider, because what many people are eating and drinking is literally killing them.
The next time you decide to sit at home and watch TV instead of doing 20 minutes of light exercise at the park or the gym, remember that lethargy has consequences.
The next time you tell yourself "I'll quit smoking someday," or "I'll start exercising when I have more time," please pause for a moment and ask yourself whether you are really being honest.
I do not wish to insinuate that we should try to be perfect all the time when it comes to health, diet, and exercise. Indeed, there is no way to get it right all the time, and the occasional piece of cake or glass of beer won't derail your journey toward good health if you're consistently and methodically taking good care of yourself. Rather, what I believe we should strive for is doing the best that we can on a daily basis, and if we need to make minor changes, to take small steps toward improvement every day.
There is a famous quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi that goes, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." I agree wholeheartedly, and would add that we must be the change we wish to see in ourselves. Because no one is more responsible for your own personal well-being than you. And no one can do as much for your own longevity as you can.
Arin Vahanian is Director of Marketing for the U.S. Transhumanist Party.
New Year's Message and Prospects for Anti-Aging Biomedical Research in 2018 – Article by Victor Bjoerk
January 1, 2018 Victor Bjoerk Comments 0 Comment
Victor Bjoerk
Happy new 2018, a new year and new opportunities to do things! Setting aside the arbitrary fact of how we measure time, it is nevertheless important to reflect back on the past year!
During 2017 over 40 million people died world-wide of causes that would not have happened to them if they had been biologically less than 40 years old. I think it's completely superfluous to add that this is unethical on all levels and will eventually go down in history books like the Black Death.
There are widespread worries about global risks in everything from politics to environment, however let's look at the statistics as I like to point out: If you are a young person in your 20s or 30s living in the western world, and you don't age but just carry out your normal daily life with all the normal risks, you are approximately expected to live 3000-5000 years, depending on country. Also there is a lot of improvement in living standards in the rest of the world, so most countries are heading for the same demographic problem.
So the world is a very safe place to be if you are biologically young!
During 2018 I will continue to follow the biomedical research that is ongoing, and I am co-organizing the Eurosymposium on Healthy Aging in Brussels in November of this year, to bring together researchers, investors, and other goal-oriented people active in the field of aging research.
Before that, in only 2.5 months, we have the Undoing Aging conference in Berlin, which is rapidly approaching starting on the 15th of March this year.
Now there are many other interesting conferences also, but these are at least the major ones I have in mind right now when writing, since I'm not in a position to attend everything (I wish I could).
During the upcoming years, we will see a vast market flourishing to try to repair aging damage in people and extend life; some will be purposeful deceits, other things will work great in mice but not in humans; moreover, there are therapies that will work but will have unacceptable side effects. Some discoveries will make great headlines and increase our understanding, perhaps even lead to a Nobel Prize, but be useless when it comes to any reasonably short-term applications. Media will continue to publish a lot of unspecific articles about "how you will live to 150" – simplifying science and creating hype and cult of personality. Some scientists will continue to pop up in media and spread false pessimism that nothing can be done about aging. But eventually what is going to happen is that translational medicine will continue to grow and generate an incremental improvement, what has been popularized as a "longevity escape velocity", because here we have a complex problem which no single intervention will fix.
The question it all boils down to is, "How soon?" What can YOU do to have an impact here? How do we run clinical trials on the elderly while avoiding pitfalls that can easily hurt the field?
And here's the thing I personally care about: there are a lot of scientists working on things that can be of use to combat pathologies and extend lifespan in the elderly, but they are themselves unaware of these applications! I've seen it so many times to my surprise. Is it due to archaic academic structures or a lack of transdisciplinary thinking? Nevertheless it's an observation.
What 2018 brings remains unknown at this moment of writing, but I wish all of my friends to really make the best of it!
Victor Bjoerk has worked for the Gerontology Research Group, the Longevity Reporter, and the Fraunhofer-Institut für Zelltherapie und Immunologie. He has promoted awareness throughout Europe of emerging biomedical research and the efforts to reverse biological aging.


G2R - Urban Park Dog Rescue is another new point and click live escape game from Games 2 Rule. In this game, you came to see the beauty of a Urban park. But unfortunately, you noticed that someone trapped a dog trapped inside a cage. You need to save the dog by finding useful objects, hints and solving puzzle. Click on the objects to interact with them and solve puzzles. Good Luck Have Fun!


Home / Blog / Welcome to the Site!
Thank you for visiting the new digital home of Performance Roofing! Our hope for this website is to provide users with a great deal of information regarding our company and its services. In addition, we seek to "perform beyond expectations" in the digital realm by offering the latest news, updates, and useful information regarding the roofing and sheet metal trades. Take the time to look through our portfolio, or navigate to our Flickr photostream to see even more work that is not featured on the website. Want an easy way to stay up to date with the company and all things roofing/sheet metal? Follow us on twitter, "like" us on Facebook, or check out our videos on YouTube to stay connected. Since we are always seeking to add new content, and because the web site is still relatively new, be sure to check back often for new material. Finally, never hesitate to contact us with any questions, comments, or concerns you may have about our company or the website. We look forward of being of service to you!


85 bronco 2 3.8 motor swap!!!
New 4.2L FWD motor to 3L auto Ranger?
05 Mustang v6 swap to 95 ranger?
Another SC3.8 into 86 2.9 4x4 thread!
2002 4.2 at into a 85 ranger prerunner?
3.8L swap, what to pull from donor car?


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Lecturing at the the Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School (TENSS).
Teaching Computational Neuroscience Across the Globe
The SCGB helps support summer courses designed to train the next generation of neuroscientists in computational and systems neuroscience
By Emily Singer December 5, 2017
Every summer for the last five years, Florin Albeanu, a neuroscientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, has temporarily transformed a small hotel in rural Transylvania into a full-service neuroscience lab. The bucolic lakeside site is the home of the Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School (TENSS), a three-week course designed to teach students from around the world to build and use sophisticated neuroscience tools from the ground up. Competition for entry is fierce. This year, 140 students applied for just 12 to 14 positions.
Students at the Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School. Credit: Florin Albeanu
Albeanu launched the course, with fellow neuroscientists Raul Muresan and Adam Kampff, because he wanted graduate students and postdocs who didn't have access to expensive equipment to learn to build their own. The course is focused on the newest optical and electrophysiological methods and behavioral readouts to study the connectivity and function of neuronal circuits. "Technology in neuroscience is moving so fast that it can be scary — we want students to realize they shouldn't be afraid of it," Albeanu says. "We want people to go back to their own labs and realize they can do this even without a lot of funding."
Albeanu chose the location, his native Romania, in part because it had little neuroscience infrastructure, meaning students would truly learn to build these tools from scratch. The course organizers bring everything they need to the hotel, a logistical challenge in itself. "The goal is to show students that they can build this technology in a pension [small hotel] in Romania in three to four days very cheaply," Albeanu says.
TENSS is one of a number of neuroscience summer schools across the globe, from Cape Cod to South Africa to China, supported in part by SCGB. "The main mission of the SCGB is to innovate and apply the latest methods in large-scale neural recording and statistical analysis to answer fundamental questions about the relationship of neural coding and dynamics to cognition," says David Tank, SCGB's director. "We enthusiastically support these courses because they provide an excellent way to both disseminate the new technologies and train the next generation of investigators, thus enhancing the impact of our program." Funding courses in diverse locations brings this kind of training to people who might otherwise not have access.
The need for this kind of training has become more intense as researchers develop new techniques for tracking hundreds of cells, which produces reams of data that are often difficult to analyze.
China: Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience (CCN) Summer School
Friday Harbor, Washington: Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain
Israel/Palestine: Loewenstein NeuroBridges School of Computational Neuroscience
Romania: Transylvanian Experimental Neuroscience Summer School (TENSS)
South Africa: IBRO-Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo
Woods Hole, Massachusetts: Methods in Computational Neuroscience
Students preparing an international dinner at the Methods for Computational Neuroscience course. Credit: Mark Goldman
Credit: Mark Goldman
SCGB also supports Methods in Computational Neuroscience (MCN), a summer program at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole. The two programs share a common goal, "to bring together theoretical and experimental approaches to solve fundamental, mechanistic questions about how the brain performs a myriad of functions," says Mark Goldman, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis and an SCGB investigator who just finished a five-year stint as the course co-director. "The SCGB does this through assembling teams of theorists and experimentalists working together on such problems. The MCN course parallels this structure by assembling an equal mix of theorists and experimentalists who each learn the skills critical to participating at the highest level in such collaborations. Those coming from a more experimental neurobiological background learn core computational and theoretical neuroscience approaches. Those coming from theoretical backgrounds in fields such as math, physics and computer science learn about fundamental problems in neuroscience to which they can apply their skills."
Goldman and MCN course co-director Michale Fee, also a SCGB investigator, outline the most critical needs for computational neuroscience education in a review published in Current Opinion in Neurobiology in October.
Goldman says the makeup of the MBL course has evolved with the field — organizers used to accept half computational and half experimental participants. Now, about a third of the students have a computational background, a third an experimental background and a third have both, reflecting the gradual merger of the two disciplines in neuroscience. The instructor lineup rivals that of most conferences, giving students access to the leaders in the field. Videos of the lectures and accompanying slide presentations are available freely online.
One of the newest additions to the cadre of computational neuroscience courses is the IBRO-Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo, in Cape Town, South Africa. (Imbizo is a Xhosa word meaning a gathering to share knowledge.) The three-week course, directed by Tim Vogels of Oxford University, Peter Latham of University College London and Joseph Raimondo of the University of Capetown, is aimed primarily at the African neuroscience community. "We want to help push African neuroscience onto the world stage," Vogels says, as well as boost diversity in neuroscience. Last year, they hosted 20 African and 10 international students.
Vogels says they have a practical rationale for focusing on computational neuroscience. Expensive equipment is out of reach for many labs in Africa. But students often have strong training in mathematics and engineering. Given the right training, all they need to launch a computational neuroscience project is a computer, Vogels says. "We want to help accelerate that part of the field.
Students at the IBRO-Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo. Credit: Tim Vogels
Just two years in, Vogels says students are already seeing the benefits of the course, launching transcontinental collaborations and applying for graduate programs that might otherwise have been out of reach. One of the students won a research contest that provides funds to go to the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) conference in Los Angeles in December and another moved to Germany for a one-year Ph.D. preparatory program in computational neuroscience.
The goal for all the courses is to help spur training beyond the students who attend. "Ideally, we want everyone to get this kind of training at their home institution," Goldman says. "We're not there yet in terms of getting the whole field to adopt the need for computational training."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The Evolution of Horror Movies from Gothic Architecture to Modernist
By Dikran Seferian July 14, 2022
Disclaimer: Contractors.com is not receiving any type of compensation for reviewing any of the products mentioned in this article.
For much of the past century, horror movies have made use of the haunted house archetype in an effort to evoke dread in audiences. It is the cornerstone of any horror movie set to manifest fear and support the plot in doing so. How we experience our surroundings is a key factor in how we identify ourselves, and our direct environment is partially responsible for instilling certain emotions in us. Fear, in particular, is brought on by a sense of uncertainty and looming danger.
The context of architecture has shifted in how it appears in motion pictures of the horror genre. While earlier horror movies made use of Gothic architecture to induce fear, recent films employ the vulnerability that comes with more modern settings.
A Quick Look into the History of Horror Movie Architecture
Starting from the Gothic style, houses in horror movies have passed through a handful of architectural types before evolving into modernism. The most recurring styles, however, typically involve the common suburban house or the creepy countryside cabin.
The Classic Archetype
The portrayal of horror houses has changed significantly over time. Gothic features and creaking stairways were as integral to the plot as the antagonists, if not more. When you think about it, terror isn't something you always see or touch. It's often out of plain sight — hiding somewhere in a dark basement or under the bed. Architecture, on the other hand, is always there. And in a sense, it alludes to the impending terror.
Although more of a comedy movie, The Addams Family house is an ideal example of the classic horror trope. You'll instantly notice the towering Gothic profile, ominous attics, dark basements, and clocks ticking towards the hour of doom. Throughout the past couple of decades, however, we have seen a radical shift in horror movie architecture. Instead of dark sinister hallways and dusty wrought iron chandeliers, we now see open concept rooms and glass exterior walls — and the occasional modern gothic design.
The sinister profile of horror house tropes is instantly recognizable (Orin Zebest/Wikimedia Commons).
A Shift Towards Suburban and Rural Homes
Haunted houses in movies were initially characterized by a wealthy past seemingly haunted by sinister entities. With movies like It and Halloween, this architecture shifted towards suburbia. Charming cookie-cutter houses with lovely porches, picket fences, and vibrant lawns served as the backdrop to an otherwise dark plot. Nothing in the architecture pointed toward the sinister events that would occur soon. Certain horror movies featuring this architectural style commonly borrowed a few elements of modern gothic decor.
Then came folk-horror movies, making use of rural settings and the ominous nature of isolated landscapes to induce fear in the audiences. As opposed to the pleasant suburban houses which gave a false sense of safety, rusty farmhouses in folk-horror movies didn't hesitate to appear dreadful from the start. They were the ideal backdrop to depictions of weird rituals and gruesome events.
The Amityville house is another example of suburban architecture in horror movies (Seulatr/Wikimedia Commons).
The Modern House of Horror
As opposed to early portrayals of horror movie architecture, the modern archetype seeks to blend smooth concrete with glass — often in a high-end home somewhere in the woods. Large picture windows make use of the surrounding landscape to create drama. You may also notice certain dark aspects of modern Gothic architecture in the interior.
In a way, the open atmosphere during the day hints toward the calm before the storm. The flip in the polarity, however, is when the sun goes down and the plot escalates. Darkness takes over the idyllic views of the woodlands or the sea (such as in the 2006 movie, The Lake House). With the lights on, the house transforms into a vitrine with the doomed resident — or perhaps the oblivious guest — under the spotlight.
While haunted houses in Gothic architecture or Victorian style are awash with dusty heirlooms and paintings of long-lost ancestors, modern houses of horror are stripped down. No longer are haunted memories manifested in possessions. What basically remains is an open space and a seemingly endless view. The catch, however, is the vulnerability that accompanies transparency.
With glass walls and open concept floors, there's nowhere for the victim to hide.
The Element of Surveillance
One element that has evolved with the architecture of horror is surveillance. The omnipresent entity lurking in the shadows now appears in the form of visibility. Privacy eludes the glass house. Not only can interiors be seen from outside at night, but also via hidden cameras and recording devices.
Modernism roots itself in voyeurism, a notion that involves exposing interiors to the world in an effort to purge the darkness within. Technology is simply an additional layer to this visibility. The haunted house has given way to the electric eye in the sky. In the movie Psycho, Norman Bates cuts a hole in the bathroom wall to spy on his victims. Nowadays, he'd be using surveillance devices instead — or perhaps a one-way mirror.
Architecture in Horror Movies and Series
There are certain movies (and series) where architecture plays a defining role in captivating the audience. While other classics such as The Amityville Horror are no less iconic, these flicks (not in particular order) have taken the archetype to a new level.
Taking place in a suburban area, The Babadook is terrifying on a different level because of how personal it can get. The story revolves around a widow and her young son. At first glance, the house is a typical suburban home with a basement. The blue-washed and monotone color palette, however, resonates with the impending horror (this monotony is not so different from what modern Gothic artists would come up with). As for the basement, it is where the sinister entity known as the Babadook resides — seemingly due to it being dark and forbidden.
The Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, Romania served as one of the filming locations of The Nun.
Taking place in the 1950s, The Nun is a classic horror film about a priest and a nun who examines another nun's suicide. The setting of the movie is a Gothic architecture style Transylvanian monastery known as The Abbey of St. Carta. However, the movie was shot in several historic landmarks in Romania — most notably the 14th-century Corvin Castle. The Gothic and Renaissance elements of architecture provide depth and mystery to the interiors, in addition to creating an ominous atmosphere. Moreover, the castle's actual history of alleged ghost sightings reinforces the sense of terror in the movie's audiences.
Although more of twisted science fiction, Ex Machina does exhibit a fair share of horror elements. The movie takes place in a modernist glass house in the midst of a natural landscape. Along with its context, the house symbolizes the bizarre relationship between mankind and nature. The otherwise light and minimalist architecture conceals the growing evil of a man-made atrocity that is Ava the robot.
This serves to showcase how something that is designed as a means of advancement can gradually transform into a self-aware and hostile entity. The house also signifies how man-made and technological innovations can ultimately and nevertheless belong to nature — beyond human control.
An adaptation of Shirley Jackson's novel of the same name, The Haunting of Hill House is another testament to how a space can affect our mind to the point of paranoia. This Netflix series is set in a two-story mansion that features Gothic and Baroque architectural elements. While a grand hallway and a looming stairway characterize the baron manor, the main focal point of the plot is the room with the red door. The demons of this mansion are etched into its Gothic architecture, while its secluded nature serves as the ideal setting for paranormal events.
Exterior shots of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon depict the fictional Overlook Hotel in The Shining (Another Believer/Wikimedia Commons).
It would be a shame to discuss horror movies and not mention Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The Overlook Hotel serves as the fictional setting in this 1980s classic, where the protagonist (played by Jack Nicholson) gradually develops violent tendencies.
In the movie, the hotel appears to be secluded and snowed-in. While the exterior itself seems nothing out of the ordinary, the interior features strange layouts, seemingly endless corridors, and maze-like spaces. This aims to play with the audience's perception of space.
One of the scenes depicts Jack having a conversation with the ghost of the former caretaker. The contrast between the red walls and the white floor and ceiling in that scene tends to be somewhat disturbing. This serves as a symbolic portrayal of how Jack descends into madness. Overall, the movie utilizes the interior spaces to invoke confusion in its viewers and vulnerability in its characters.
Fun fact: In the movie, Kubrick changed the number of the notorious room from 217 to 237, which is non-existent in the actual hotel. This is because the Timberline Lodge management was concerned that superstitious guests would avoid staying in that room. However, room 217 ironically became the most demanded one in the hotel.
Dikran Seferian
Written by Dikran Seferian
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text:
module Test.Hspec.Core.Config.DefinitionSpec (spec) where

import           Prelude ()
import           Helper

import           Test.Hspec.Core.Config.Definition

spec :: Spec
spec = do
  describe "splitOn" $ do
    it "splits a string" $ do
      splitOn ',' "foo,bar,baz" `shouldBe` ["foo", "bar", "baz"]

    it "splits *arbitrary* strings" $ property $ do
      let
        string :: Gen String
        string = arbitrary `suchThat` p

        p :: String -> Bool
        p = (&&) <$> not . null <*> all (/= ',')

      forAll (listOf string) $ \ xs -> splitOn ',' (intercalate "," xs) `shouldBe` xs

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


deep frying it in ghee or vegetable oil.Puri is often served potato masala.
Roll out the dough in to small rounds.
Fry the puri one at a time.
Recommended Combination: Serve hot with Potato Masala, Podimas, Parippu, Vegetable Curry, Egg Curry, Chicken Curry.


That's great news and an even better reason to celebrate. However, along with the excitement of a new venture comes serious anxiety. What can overshadow a new business owner's elation? Concerns about money.
Many of us worry about money and finances on a regular, if not daily, basis. But those concerns take on a new depth where starting a business is concerned. Fortunately, you can lessen those fears by learning about the expenses you'll face as a budding entrepreneur and planning for them.
Stay tuned as we discuss the basic expenses when starting a business and provide you with resources for planning.
At this point, you're probably thinking, "My expenses can't be the same as everyone else's, my business is unique!" And you're right — sort of.
When you start a business, chances are it'll fall into one of the following categories: Online Business, Brick-and-Mortar, or Service Provider. Each type has its own unique costs, challenges, and rewards. Here, we'll list the expenses that will likely be common to all three business types.
Legal Fees – Legal expenses can include things like incorporation fees, licenses, and permits. These fees are usually standard and can be anticipated.
Technology – It's not easy to run a business for a luddite. You're going to need technology and it's a good idea to prepare for those costs. Set aside funds for things like: a good computer, a website, and software to help you manage your customers and sales.
Office or retail space – Obviously, a brick-and-mortar can't exist without a physical location; but don't skip over this as a service provider or online business. Unless you plan on working from home every day, you need to account for the cost of a work space for you and any potential employees.
Employees – If you hire employees you'll need to pay them and have money for payroll taxes, too. If you plan on offering your employees health insurance then that will be an added expense.
Marketing and Consultations – Your business doesn't exist in a bubble. To be successful, you'll need customers or clients to bring in revenue. Plan on having funds to execute a marketing strategy. It doesn't have to be over-the-top (so no jumping in with a nationally syndicated commercial on prime time TV.) If marketing isn't your forte you should consider hiring a consultant who has experience with marketing small businesses.
As we stated earlier, every business will face its own unique expenses in addition to those listed above. The Small Business Administration created a helpful budgeting worksheet that breaks down additional expenses into two columns: one-time expenses and monthly, or recurring, expenses. Keep this document handy.
Plan on starting your business with six months' worth of expenses at hand. This is a great tip from the folks at Fundera. A lot can happen in six months, especially as you embark on this exciting business journey! Don't count on customers flooding through your doors (either physical or digital) in the early days as a way to cover business expenses. We have all the faith in the world that you can be successful and will end up with more customers than you know what to do with, but don't push your luck as you get started.
According to a study done by Jessie Hagen at U.S. Bank, 82% of small business fail because they've mismanaged their cash flow. If you're going to be a statistic, aim for a better one. Planning and preparation will help ease you through those first six months and beyond.
If you don't have six months worth of expenses at hand, don't panic. We'll let you in on a little secret — you're in good company. The vast majority of people starting small businesses don't have that kind of money in liquid assets or in savings.
Depending on where you live, you'll have a variety of lending options. You can get a loan from large national banks, smaller banks and credit unions, or even third party lenders. Make sure to read the terms of the loan and ask questions if you don't understand what you're signing.
How much money can you expect to take out as a loan? Various things can affect the amount of your loan, like your personal and business credit history. However, we can look at reported average loan amounts, differentiated based on lender type, to get a ballpark number.
Do your research before taking out a loan to get the best financing and so that you don't end up with a loan that's insufficient to cover your expenses.
Starting a small business is no easy feat, but it's certainly rewarding, and there's no better time to start than now. According to a U.S. Bank Survey, economic uncertainty is no longer small businesses #1 concern.
So what are you waiting for? Crack open those spreadsheets (or paper and pencil if that's what you prefer) and figure out what your exact expenses will be. Once you've determined that number you can start saving or seek out a loan.
Do you have any other tips or insights for budding entrepreneurs and small business owners? Share them in the comments, we'd love to hear them.


On Friday, Kylie Jenner announced that she would sell a set of $360 makeup brushes through her brand, Kylie Cosmetics.
Jenner's fans wrote on social media that they felt $360 was way too expensive for makeup brushes.
The 20-year-old defended the products on Twitter on Saturday night.
Jenner said the brushes are expensive because they're "real," and would be cheaper if they were made of synthetic material.
She said she's open to developing a line of inexpensive, synthetic brushes in the future if her fans would be interested.
On Friday, Kylie Jenner announced that her brand Kylie Cosmetics will sell a 16-piece set of makeup brushes for $360. Almost immediately, Jenner's fans complained about their price on social media, and on Saturday night Jenner responded to their criticism on Twitter.
"I have developed for you guys the most amazing luxury brushes ever. I am very excited! Real brushes don't compare to synthetic brushes. Different performance/quality/everything," she wrote.
The reality TV star said she'd be open to eventually developing an inexpensive line of brushes made of synthetic materials.
"I am 100% down to do an entire synthetic line in the future which will ultimately be cheaper," she wrote.
Jenner also justified the cost of the brushes, comparing her product to other luxury brands.
She used screenshots to show that the Artis brush set also costs $360, a Mac brush set costs $147, and that the Kevyn Aucoin "Essential Brush Set" costs $650. Of all the sets, Jenner's is the largest, with 16 total pieces.
The 20-year-old wrote that she just wants to sell products that will make her fans happy.
"But I hear you guys, love you guys and truly just want the best," she wrote.
Some of Jenner's fans were happy with her response.
But other people were still frustrated.
A representative for Kylie Cosmetics did not immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.
Jenner's 16-piece set is scheduled to be released online at Kylie Cosmetics on December 13.
The brushes can be purchased individually and will cost between $16 and $30 each. The full, limited-edition set comes with a silver brush roll and will cost $360.


Tui Airways has announced that Dawn Wilson has been appointed as managing director, replacing John Murphy from January 1.
She will be responsible for the Northern Region Airlines, Tui Airways and Tui fly Nordic and report to Tui Aviation chief executive Kenton Jarvis.
Murphy is stepping down from the role to focus on flying. He joined the business in 1993 as a pilot before moving into senior management roles since 2000, becoming managing director for Tui Airways in 2014, continuing to fly throughout – including bringing the first 787-8 Dreamliner to the UK in May 2013.
As his replacement, Wilson will join the Tui UK & Ireland board. She joined the business in 1989 as cabin crew for Britannia Airways and moved through the management structure, becoming general manager of cabin crew, director of ground operations and most recently director of operations for the Northern Region Airlines.


text:
Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood: Actors switch to their reel names
Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani & Vivaan Shah got onto a microblogging site to reveal their names from their upcoming film HAPPY NEW YEAR. They all changed the real names of their official handle to the reel names of the film. Here is a list of what the stars will be called in the film.
view more HAPPY NEW YEAR movie posters
Shah Rukh Khan has changed his name to Charlie
Abhishek Bachchan has changed his name to Nandu
Sonu Sood has changed his name to Jag
Boman Irani has changed his name to Tammy
Vivaan Shah has changed his name to Rohan
CHECK OUT: 5 hat tricks of Farah Khan & Shahrukh Khan's HAPPY NEW YEAR
Abhishek also made an announcement in desi style on the micro-blogging and posted, "Apun ne apna nam change kar dala! #NanduBhide #HNY #HappyNewYear."
HAPPY NEW YEAR which also stars Deepika Padukone, Jackie Shroff & Sarah Jane Dias is produced by Gauri Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment and is set to release this Diwali, 24th October, 2014.
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text:
Cricket UAE Cricket Team
Aaqib Javed and UAE side face challenging conditions in Ireland
Challenges ahead: Javed.
UAE coach Aaqib Javed believes adjusting to conditions in the UK will be his side's biggest challenge ahead of their departure on Friday for the first-round Intercontinental Cup clash against Ireland.
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The sides meet in Malahide in the four-day match from June 2-5 in the ICC's premier first-class tournament.
While some of the players will experience UK conditions for the first time, Javed insists their daily training sessions and the three-day friendly game against Scotland (May 26-28) will give them enough time to adjust to the conditions.
Sun is starting to set on the UAE's status as the second home of Pakistan cricket
"We have used fresh pitches and tried to pick the best conditions suitable in UK conditions during our training sessions," he said.
"It's not possible to play in these conditions all the time. Yet, we have got a couple of days to settle down before the Ireland game. I think we will be all right."
Their cool demeanour masks the start of an intense workout session! @ICCAcademy @osn #UAE #Cricket pic.twitter.com/Q6QKkW3a26
— UAE Cricket Official (@EmiratesCricket) May 18, 2015
Among the 14-man squad are uncapped Asif Iqbal and veteran Saqib Ali. And Javed is impressed by what he saw of the pair.
"Asif is good and he has been very consistent and done well in the two-day Danube Test," he said. "Saqib Ali is very good in the longer format."
The UAE's last four-day encounter came in September 2013 with a 158-run win over Namibia, and the ex-Pakistan spinner believes it will not be easy for his players to change their mentality from the shorter to longer format.
He said: "Four-day cricket is all about patience and concentration. It's not easy for batsmen to shift their mindset from T20 to four-day cricket, but that is what we've been trying to achieve."
Aaqib Javed Asif Iqbal cricket Danube Test four-day match Intercontinental Cup Ireland Malahide Saqib Ali Scotland UAE More tags
UAE Cricket Team Cricket
Aaqib Javed Asif Iqbal cricket Danube Test four-day match Intercontinental Cup Ireland Malahide Saqib Ali Scotland UAE


Mountain View, Calif. (December 12, 2013) – Speck, leading designer of award-winning, slim-fitting protective cases and covers for smartphones, tablets and laptops, today announced RealSpeck.com, a new program to prevent consumers from leaving their smartphones vulnerable by unknowingly buying and using counterfeit cases.
The cornerstone of the RealSpeck.com program is the incorporation of a new holographic labeling system that contains multiple layers of covert and overt security technology and is being implemented across all of Speck's packaging. Each package has a sticker with a unique serial number that buyers can use to instantly authenticate their cases at RealSpeck.com.
Speck continues to investigate and pursue counterfeiters and resellers of counterfeit product. Speck recently conducted several raids and seizures in the U.S. and China and has filed 41 lawsuits over the last 3 years against importers and resellers of counterfeit product. Speck also works closely with U.S. Customs & Border Patrol to provide training and assist in identifying counterfeit Speck products, including utilizing RealSpeck.com to verify authenticity. Speck is also a member of the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, and the World Customs Organization made up of 54 member countries.


text:
At least 18 affected by CervicalCheck issue still waiting for slides
'Small number' of slides being processed and will be released shortly, HSE says
The HSE said it had set up a client services unit in the National Screening Service to "ensure the timely provision of cervical screening records to women or their legal representatives".
Jennifer Bray
Mon Dec 3 2018 - 00:53
At least 18 women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy are still waiting to receive their slides back from laboratories, it has emerged.
And solicitor Cian O'Carroll, who represented campaigner Vicky Phelan at the High Court, has said the true figure is likely to be closer to 50. The Health Service Executive has apologised to the women affected by the delay and said it was "anxious" to resolve the issue.
The HSE previously said 22 days was the average waiting time for women to receive their medical information back after requesting it.
Mr O'Carroll is in dispute with the HSE over what he says is the quality of photographs of the slides. The issue is now set to go before the High Court on the 20th of December.
"At the heart of this issue is having a system that women can trust will protect the evidence," Mr O'Carroll said on Sunday.
A spokesman for the HSE said it had set up a dedicated client services unit in the National Screening Service to "ensure the timely provision of cervical screening records to women or their legal representatives".
"This includes the release of cervical screening slides and the HSE has developed a specific protocol with laboratories to manage this process and to ensure the integrity of the slides. This is in the interest of all parties but particularly the women themselves.
"All legal representatives have accepted the need for such a protocol and agreed to its provisions, with one exception. This has allowed us to process 48 requests to date, involving 16 individual solicitors."
'Small number'
The HSE said a "small number of slides are currently being processed and will be released shortly".
"We are aware of a large number of requests from one individual legal representative for the release of slides. Despite our best endeavours agreement has not been reached in terms of the accepted protocols in this instance.
"We are anxious to facilitate these requests in the same manner and look forward to an early resolution of this issue," the spokesman said.
"The HSE apologises to patients affected by any delay and assures them that we are doing our utmost to expedite the release of all slides by laboratories, in line with accepted protocols."
Co-leader of the Social Democrats Catherine Murphy described the situation as "disgraceful".
"During the Public Accounts Committee, the HSE never revealed that there was a dispute. I could only rely on the people who contacted me, at that point it was eight women. When I was raising this issue in the PAC the HSE did not seem to know what I was talking about."
She said the situation was "prolonging the agony" for the women in question.
Mr O'Carroll said the figure of 18 related to women who had initiated legal proceedings. Including those who had not yet initiated proceedings, the figure is closer to 50, he said.
He said he had seen instances of poor photography of slides and one case where a slide had arrived broken.
Meanwhile, Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan promised yesterday that he would appoint more judges before Christmas after a High Court judge warned that people who have sued over alleged delays in cancer diagnosis and alleged misdiagnosis may die before their cases are heard.
Calling for more judges to be appointed to the High Court to deal with the personal injuries list, which has been swamped with complex cases including those related to the CervicalCheck controversy, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said without more judges on the bench he did not know how they could get all the cases heard.
Jennifer Bray is a Political Correspondent with The Irish Times
CROSSHigh CourtPublic Accounts CommitteeCervical check scandalCatherine MurphyCharlie FlanaganCian O CarrollJennifer BrayLeo VaradkarMr Justice KevinSimon HarrisVicky Phelan
Brianna Parkins: Why can't a woman be left alone with her book and a pint in a hotel bar?


text:
Nikon repairs Mount Ontake victim's broken camera, returns photos to family
Nov. 12, 2014 06:15 am JST Nov. 12, 2014 | 06:18 am JST
By Michelle Lynn Dinh
The unexpected eruption of Mount Ontake on September 27 claimed the lives of 56 hikers, leaving family members to try to understand why their loved ones had been taken so suddenly. But out of this tragedy comes a heartwarming gesture, giving the family of one victim the chance to get back a small piece of their father who never made it down the mountain that day.
The gravity of the Mount Ontake eruption is hard to convey in pictures, but the video below taken of the recovery efforts by the Ground Self-Defense Forces shows just how much damage was done.
As you can see, the entire area is covered in a thick layer of ash and cabins that were built on the mountain side have been ripped open by flying debris and rocks. The several hundred nature enthusiasts who took advantage of the autumn weekend on September 27 were completely caught off guard, many unable to flee the nightmarish scene when the mountain suddenly and violently erupted.
Sadly, 66-year-old Kazuo Wakabayashi of Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, was among the victims. An avid photographer, Wakabayashi would frequently go on fishing and photography trips, his hike up Mount Ontake just a part of his hobbies. He took a newly purchased Nikon camera with him on his hike, which was later returned to his family on October 1, broken and covered in ash.
When the folks at Nikon read about Wakabayashi's story after it was published in the Yomiuri Shimbun, they reached out to his family and offered to repair the broken camera. Over the course of 10 days, the lens, filter and all interior parts were fixed and the red body of the Nikon camera that had been grayed with ash was restored to its original vibrant color, free of charge. The restored camera was returned to Wakabayashi's second daughter, along with 200 photos that Nikon also managed to recover.
Source: Livedoor News
Read more stories from RocketNews24 -- Mount Ontake: some hikers "died taking photos of the erupting volcano", pathologist says -- Geographical Survey Institute posts 184 images of Mount Ontake eruption online -- Sunrise Over a Sea of Clouds at Nearly 10,000 Feet
titaniumdi0xide
How thoughtful, good job Nikon.
JWithers
Yes, how well thought out!! Do a quick repair, do the right thing and get some free press out of it.
Plus amazing (profitable photos) and PROOF that Nikon can survive anything.
Gotta give em credit. Can't unravel this one. Timing is perfect too. I still remember what Olympus did. Nikon knows how to punch it's competition.
-15 ( +1 / -16 )
tinawatanabe
how well thought out!!
I'm not so sure. I once asked a J publisher to repair my torn dictionary, and they repaired it for free.
KnowBetter
Most Japanese companies I've dealt with over the last 30+ years for my 'electronics' did the same sort of honourable service work. Next to build quality, this is the reason I support and pay more for Japanese made products. Going that extra step shows you care and wins you customers for life.
Did Nikon do this to score points? Ask yourself why you would need to ask that question and that will answer if you would have likely gone out of pocket to help someone after a tragic loss. I know I'd help because that's just me and maybe the reason I appreciate these stories because it's nice to see others doing the same thing to help others out. Treat others as you would like to be treated and you'll find, if you try, life around you tends to be kinder. It's hard to be in a bad mood when everyone is in a good mood.
justbcuzisay
That's really cool that they could and did do this. Bravo Nikon
gokai_wo_maneku
It depends. Did the family tell the press or did Nikon issue a press release?
praack
only the true cynic would put Nikon at the level of looking for additional Company Good Will to impress the stockholders. I doubt they need it. It was a minor expense for the repair and recovery of photos to the corporation yet it meant a lot to the family.
that is all - not a publicity stunt
Another thing- the video- i cannot say enough about the Firefighters, Mountain Rescue or the JSDF; the dedication and service constantly astounds me.
if anyone states- it's just a job- think of doing that remains recovery for a day instead of sitting in the office - then state it's just a job
It's too bad this article neglects to mention the number of still missing, presumed dead, in addition to the 57 confirmed dead.
@JWithers It's rather sad that any good deed done by a company brings out those who purport to know that it was a self-centered act. Eventually the poisonous atmosphere created by that attitude could cause companies and individuals to do NO good deeds so as to not have to deal with the nasty comments and distrust. Would that make you happy? Is your attitude helping to create a nicer world?
I am glad the family in this article got the camera and last photos taken by their father.
spahnmatthew
Nikon exhibited good corporate citizenship, in my view.
Fadamor
Just one question... who alerted the press about the repair, cleaning, and return of the camera? It may be cynical, but corporations have to look at the cost/benefit ratio for any action that's not part of their normal business model. In this case, the goodwill generated by the gesture exceeds the cost - but ONLY if the public hears about the event. And how do you guarantee that happens unless you inform them yourself?
What downside could there be that Nikon had to consider? Receiving every camera ever damaged during a disaster where the owner died during the disaster and the survivors expecting Nikon to repair the camera.


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MINNEAPOLIS -- Kyle Gibson is quietly having a breakout season, and the Twins right-hander turned in another strong outing to outpitch Rays ace Blake Snell in a 5-1 win on Thursday night at Target Field. Minnesota improved to 7-1 on its current homestand, which leads into the All-Star break.
After a two-hour rain delay, Gibson allowed one run over eight innings, scattering five hits and striking out nine to improve to 4-6 with a 3.42 ERA. Gibson's record isn't indicative of his season as he's been hurt by poor run support, and it's clear his stuff and command are much improved with his 114 strikeouts in 115 2/3 innings. It was the first time Gibson went eight innings since Sept. 13, 2016.
"He's just getting so many more swings and misses with his offspeed pitches," Twins manager Paul Molitor said of Gibson, who registered 16 swinging strikes. "I thought early, it wasn't great as far as command, but he kept throwing it, and it seemed like he settled in with his offspeed stuff, especially through the middle innings."
Gibson could be a candidate to be moved before the non-waiver Trade Deadline, given his consistency dating back to the second half of last year, as he's posted a 3.47 ERA with 183 strikeouts in 183 1/3 innings over his last 30 starts, dating back to Aug. 1, 2017. He doesn't become a free agent until after next season, which improves his trade value, but much of the decision depends on if the Twins can continue their recent surge to avoid being sellers -- they're 7 1/2 games back of the Indians in the American League Central -- and whether they feel like they can get the right package, considering he can be a major part of the rotation next year.
"Our job, just like last year, is to make the decisions tough on the front office," Gibson said. "We want to get them to give us as much time as possible to get a lead in the division. I feel like coming out of the All-Star break, we have a really good chance to be one or two games back and really make those decisions tough on them."
Gibson faced only a few jams, including in the first inning, when he allowed a pair of two-out singles before getting a strikeout to end the frame. He also pitched around leadoff doubles in the fourth and seventh. He didn't give up a run until the eighth, on a sacrifice fly from Kevin Kiermaier after Adeiny Hechavarria opened with a double.
Snell, who entered with a 2.09 ERA that was the second-best mark in the AL, struggled, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks over three innings in his shortest outing of the season.
Snell's command was off as he loaded the bases with one out in the first after back-to-back walks, but he got out of the inning unscathed. But in the second, he issued a leadoff walk to Max Kepler, who later came around to score on a double-play grounder from Bobby Wilson.
The Twins scored two runs in the third on back-to-back RBI doubles from Robbie Grossman and Jorge Polanco. James Dozier started the rally with a single, reached second on a wild pitch and was attempting to steal third when he scored on Grossman's double down the right-field line.
"Even in the first inning, we missed an opportunity, but we got him up near 30 pitches right out of the gate, and we kind of kept the pressure on him," Molitor said. "A double-play ball by Bobby. Robbie kind of squeezed one inside the right-field line there. Got a little lucky there. Polanco had the big hit."
Minnesota broke it open with a two-run homer from Eddie Rosario, who came in fourth in the balloting for the Camping World MLB All-Star Final Vote in the AL and remains a possible All-Star candidate as an injury replacement. It was the team-leading 19th homer of the year for Rosario, who connected on a 2-0 slider from former Twins prospect Chih-Wei Hu.
"It still felt uneasy, even as well as Gibby was throwing -- that's why I thought Rosie's add-on home run was big." Molitor said. "As you see there the last couple innings, you never have enough."
Rodney saves it: Rosario's home run proved to be valuable with Thomas Pressly loading the bases with one out in the ninth, leading closer Fernando Rodney to come in to get out of the jam. Rodney took a comebacker off his forearm, but he got out of the inning unscathed for his 21st save of the season.
"I didn't think we'd have to go to Rodney, but he did a nice job of getting those last two guys," Molitor said. "And he's going to have a little bruise on his left forearm to show for it."
Gibson's 114 strikeouts before the All-Star break are tied for 15th most in Twins history. The club record is 151 by Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven in 1973. The Twins have three players with at least 100 strikeouts before this year's All-Star break, as Gibson joins Jose Berrios (122) and Jake Odorizzi (102). It's only the second time in club history, as Dave Boswell (119), Dean Chance (115) and Jim Kaat (101) did it in 1967.
"I don't know if there's too many differences from last year to this year," said Gibson, who had a 6.31 ERA with 51 strikeouts in 81 1/3 innings in the first half last year. "That might sound crazy. Once I got sent down and called back up, I really just tried to work on fastball command in the zone, and I think that made a big difference."
Odorizzi (4-6, 4.28 ERA) is set to take the mound against his former team in the second game of the series against the Rays on Friday at 7:10 p.m. CT. After a rough stretch when he posted a 8.77 ERA over six starts, Odorizzi has turned it around with a 1.06 ERA over his last three outings. The Rays will start right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (3-3, 3.35).