Casiopea, Japanese fusion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casiopea

http://www.casiopea.co.jp/

Casiopea, Galactic Funk

Pegasus from My Music Life (offshoot band, Tetsuo Sakurai)

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over 30 albums, '79 - '04

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casiopea#Discography

offshoot bands:

• Ottottrio
• Casiopea vs. The Square
• Synchronized DNA
• Inspirits
• Pegasus

DNA match making

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/22/japanese-sign-dna-matchmaking-country-faces-generation-singletons/

Japanese sign up for DNA matchmaking as country faces demographic crisis

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DNA hopefuls behind bamboo screens in a 'blind date' with a twist

 

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•  Danielle Demetriou, tokyo

22 JUNE 2019 • 1:57PM

The scene resembles a typical blind speed-dating event: 13 women and 13 men, seated on either side of a bamboo screen in an upmarket Tokyo restaurant, are chatting in pairs on a strictly timed three-minute rotation.

But the doctor hovering on the fringes and the scientific documents held in the participant’s hands, however, offer a hint that this is no ordinary dating event: for everyone attending has undergone a DNA test in a bid to find their best romantic match.

Welcome to the world of DNA matchmaking. Forget hobbies, professions, ages or nose sizes: one critical new criteria for finding the perfect partner was recently added to Japan’s fast-paced dating world, with the launch of a new service that promises to find love based on genetic compatibility.

Created by the dating company Nozze., which operates 21 branches across Japan, DNA Matching works with scientists at a Tokyo laboratory in order to decode the science of attraction and find the perfect match for its clients.

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The company staged its first “DNA Party” at a restaurant in Ginza earlier this month – attended by 26 guests and resulting in four new couples – with more events planned across the country, including a special DNA Cruise in the autumn.

Its launch is timely: Japan is grappling with something of an epidemic of singles who are unable to find a partner, an issue intrinsically linked to the nation’s famously low marriage and birth rates and doing little to help balance the rapidly aging demographics of Japanese society.

Earlier this week, new government figures revealed that almost half of Japanese singles who wished to marry were unable to find a suitable partner, with more than 60 per cent admitting they were not doing anything to change the situation.

One of the main reasons for failing to settle down was cited as a lack of opportunities to meet an appropriate partner – a situation most likely made worse by the nation’s culture of long working hours. Other reasons ranged from lack of financial resources to an inability to connect with people, according to the report.

And so it is perhaps little surprise that a raft of dating events and matchmaking innovations have cropped up in Japan in recent years, from speed dating in temples for single nuns to local government-funded matchmaking events in depopulated areas of rural Japan.

DNA Matching is clearly one of the more futuristic innovators of Japan’s dating industry. Its concept is simple: based on the survivalist scientific theory that people with the most diverse DNA are the most attracted to one another, participants are required to simply provide a saliva swab.

This is then analysed by scientists, with a particular focus on HLA, a gene complex with more than 16,000 variations which are commonly associated with immune system regulation and are also believed play a key role in attraction levels between humans.

The company is then able to match up potential couples based on how similar or different their HLA genes are – with 100 per cent compatibility issued to couples who have a zero HLA match, while the compatibility figure shrinks when there are higher rates of HLA similarities.

Satoru Fujimura, public relations manager of Nozze., told the Telegraph: “We believe 50 per cent of a person’s attraction to another person is due to DNA. And the other 50 per cent is environment.”

He added: “Our DNA Matching service reverses common perceptions of matchmaking. Traditionally, people choose partners based on “conditions” such as age, appearance, annual income. But at DNA Matching, we believe that people with the most different types of DNA (HLA) make the best couples.”

It’s also attracting growing attention in Japan: while the company refuses to reveal precise figures, it confirmed that “hundreds” of people had joined the service since its official launch in January – resulting in a DNA test waiting list of several months.

Most people who have signed up so far are as varied as they are clearly convinced that biology can help where romance has previously failed: while ages range from 20s to 60s, the majority of customers are in their 30s or 40s, with slightly more men than women.The service costs 30,000 yen (£220) to join, plus 50,000 yen (£368) for the DNA test and a further monthly matching fee of 15,000 yen (£110).

Among those who found success at the recent DNA party in Tokyo was 42-year-old office worker Kosuke Kubo (not his real name), who has long struggled to find a partner.

“I’ve never been married, but I have been looking for a partner for five years now,” he told the Telegraph. “If possible, I’d like to have children but I think my age and annual income make that difficult.

“I work in the medical field and when I was searching the internet, I saw this new DNA matching service. I thought this could be an entirely new and different way to look for someone.”

The results for Kubo – so far at least – appear to be positive: describing a “DNA match” he made at the party, whom he is now dating, he added: “From the very start, I felt that we’d met before somewhere. It may have been the peace of mind from knowing that our DNA was a match. But our opinions and values are very similar, and I believe I’ve met someone I can truly enjoy spending time with.”

facebook cryptocurrency, privacy concern

Raises surveillance concerns, access to your financial/wealth info, which is opposite the reason most people use cryptocurrency, because it cannot be traced.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/9319668/facebook-launch-libra-cryptocurrency/

population projection

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/worlds-population-is-projected-to-nearly-stop-growing-by-the-end-of-the-century/

JUNE 17, 2019

World’s population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century

BY ANTHONY CILLUFFO AND NEIL G. RUIZ

For the first time in modern history, the world’s population is expected to virtually stop growing by the end of this century, due in large part to falling global fertility rates, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of new data from the United Nations.

By 2100, the world’s population is projected to reach approximately 10.9 billion, with annual growth of less than 0.1% – a steep decline from current levels. Between 1950 and today, the world’s population grew between 1% and 2% each year, with the number of people rising from 2.5 billion to more than 7.7 billion.

Here are 11 key takeaways from the UN’s “World Population Prospects 2019”:

1The global fertility rate is expected to be 1.9 births per woman by 2100, down from 2.5 today.The rate is projected to fall below the replacement fertility rate (2.1 births per woman) by 2070. The replacement fertility rate is the number of births per woman needed to maintain a population’s size.

2The world’s median age is expected to increase to 42 in 2100, up from the current 31 – and from 24 in 1950. Between 2020 and 2100, the number of people ages 80 and older is expected to increase from 146 million to 881 million. Starting in 2073, there are projected to be more people ages 65 and older than under age 15 – the first time this will be the case. Contributing factors to the rise in the median age are the increase in life expectancy and falling fertility rates.

3Africa is the only world region projected to have strong population growth for the rest of this century. Between 2020 and 2100, Africa’s population is expected to increase from 1.3 billion to 4.3 billion. Projections show these gains will come mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, which is expected to more than triple in population by 2100. The regions that include the United States and Canada (Northern America) and Australia and New Zealand (Oceania) are projected to grow throughout the rest of the century, too, but at slower rates than Africa. (This analysis uses regional classifications from the UN and may differ from other Pew Research Center reports.)

4Europe and Latin America are both expected to have declining populations by 2100. Europe’s population is projected to peak at 748 million in 2021. The Latin America and Caribbean region is expected to surpass Europe in population by 2037 before peaking at 768 million in 2058.

5The population of Asia is expected to increase from 4.6 billion in 2020 to 5.3 billion in 2055, then start to decline. China’s population is expected to peak in 2031, while the populations of Japan and South Korea are projected to decline after 2020. India’s population is expected to grow until 2059, when it will reach 1.7 billion. Meanwhile, Indonesia – the most populous country in Southeastern Asia – is projected to reach its peak population in 2067.

6In the Northern America region, migration from the rest of the world is expected to be the primary driver of continued population growth. The immigrant population in the United States is expected to see a net increase of 85 million over the next 80 years (2020 to 2100) according to the UN projections, roughly equal to the total of the next nine highest countries combined. In Canada, migration is likely to be a key driver of growth, as Canadian deaths are expected to outnumber births.

7Six countries are projected to account for more than half of the world’s population growth through the end of this century, and five are in Africa. The global population is expected to grow by about 3.1 billion people between 2020 and 2100. More than half of this increase is projected to come from Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Angola, along with one non-African country (Pakistan). Five African countries are projected to be in the world’s top 10 countries by population by 2100.

8India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2027. Meanwhile, Nigeria will surpass the U.S. as the third-largest country in the world in 2047, according to the projections.

9Between 2020 and 2100, 90 countries are expected to lose population. Two-thirds of all countries and territories in Europe (32 of 48) are expected to lose population by 2100. In Latin America and the Caribbean, half of the region’s 50 countries’ populations are expected to shrink. Between 1950 and 2020, by contrast, only six countries in the world lost population, due to much higher fertility rates and a relatively younger population in past decades.

10Africa is projected to overtake Asia in births by 2060. Half of babies born worldwide are expected to be born in Africa by 2100, up from three-in-ten today. Nigeria is expected to have 864 million births between 2020 and 2100, the most of any African country. The number of births in Nigeria is projected to exceed those in China by 2070.

Meanwhile, roughly a third of the world’s babies are projected to be born in Asia by the end of this century, down from about half today and from a peak of 65% in the 1965-70 period.

11The Latin America and Caribbean region is expected to have the oldest population of any world region by 2100, a reversal from the 20th century. In 1950, the region’s median age was just 20 years. That figure is projected to more than double to 49 years by 2100.

This pattern is evident when looking at individual countries in the region. For example, in 2020, the median ages of Brazil (33), Argentina (32) and Mexico (29) are all expected to be lower than the median age in the U.S. (38). However, by 2100, all three of these Latin American nations are projected to be older than the U.S. The median age will be 51 in Brazil, 49 in Mexico and 47 in Argentina, compared with a median age of 45 in the U.S. Colombia is expected to undergo a particularly stark transition, with its median age more than tripling between 1965 and 2100 – from 16 to 52.

Japan is projected to have the highest median age of any country in the world in 2020, at 48 years old. Japan’s median age is expected to continue to rise until it peaks at 55 in 2065. It is expected to be lower in 2100 (54). By that time, the country with the highest median age is expected to be Albania, with a median age of 61.

Correction: This post has been updated to clarify that India is expected to become the world’s most populous country by 2027. By 2059, its population is projected to reach 1.7 billion.

Note: The UN projections for the future population are based on assumptions about likely future changes in key demographic indicators, including fertility, life expectancy and migration. There is uncertainty regarding specific estimates. This analysis uses the medium variant for future dates, which takes the midpoint of likely outcomes. For more information, see the full UN report, data tables and methodology.

Topics:

Population GeographyPopulation TrendsPopulation ProjectionsDemographics

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Anthony Cilluffo  is a research assistant focusing on social and demographic trends at Pew Research Center.

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Neil G. Ruiz  is an associate director of global migration and demography at Pew Research Center.

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AI personalized brain music

https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/12/we-wont-be-listening-to-music-in-a-decade-according-to-vinod-khosla/

https://www.creativedestructionlab.com/

We won’t be listening to music in a decade according to Vinod Khosla

Darrell Etherington@etherington / 2 days ago

Depending on who you ask, the advantage of technology based on artificial or machine intelligence could be a topsy-turvy funhouse mirror world — even in some very fundamental ways.

“I actually think 10 years from now, you won’t be listening to music,” is a thing venture capitalist Vinod Khosla said onstage today during a fireside chat at Creative Destruction Lab’s  second annual Super Session event.

Instead, he believes we’ll be listening to custom song equivalents that are automatically designed specifically for each individual, and tailored to their brain, their listening preferences and their particular needs.

Khosla noted that AI-created music is already making big strides — and it’s true that it’s come a long way in the past couple of years, as noted recently by journalist Stuart Dredge writing on Medium.

As Dredge points out, one recent trend is the rise of mood or activity-based playlists on Spotify  and channels on YouTube. There are plenty of these types of things where the artist, album and song name are not at all important, or even really surfaced. Not to mention that there’s a big financial incentive for an entity like Spotify to prefer machine-made alternatives, as it could help alleviate or eliminate the licensing costs that severely limit their ability to make margin on their primary business of serving up music to customers.

AI-generated chart toppers and general mood music is one thing, but a custom soundtrack specific to every individual is another. It definitely sidesteps the question of what happens to the communal aspect of music when everyone’s music-replacing auditory experience is unique to the person. Guess we’ll find out in 10 years.

Type A Blood Converted To Universal Donor Blood With Help From Bacterial Enzyme

Type A Blood Converted To Universal Donor Blood With Help From Bacterial Enzyme (sciencemag.org)38

Posted by BeauHD on Monday June 10, 2019 @11:30PM from the supply-and-demand dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science Magazine:For a transfusion to be successful, the patient and donor blood types must be compatible. Now, researchers analyzing bacteria in the human gut have discovered that microbes there produce two enzymes that can convert the common type A into a more universally accepted type. If the process pans out, blood specialists suggest it could revolutionize blood donation and transfusion. To up the supply of universal blood, scientists have tried transforming the second most common blood, type A, by removing its "A-defining" antigens. But they've met with limited success, as the known enzymes that can strip the red blood cell of the offending sugars aren't efficient enough to do the job economically. 

After 4 years of trying to improve on those enzymes, a team led by Stephen Withers, a chemical biologist at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, decided to look for a better one among human gut bacteria. Some of these microbes latch onto the gut wall, where they "eat" the sugar-protein combos called mucins that line it. Mucins' sugars are similar to the type-defining ones on red blood cells. So UBC postdoc Peter Rahfeld collected a human stool sample and isolated its DNA, which in theory would include genes that encode the bacterial enzymes that digest mucins. Chopping this DNA up and loading different pieces into copies of the commonly used lab bacterium Escherichia coli, the researchers monitored whether any of the microbes subsequently produced proteins with the ability to remove A-defining sugars. At first, they didn't see anything promising. But when they tested two of the resulting enzymes at once -- adding them to substances that would glow if the sugars were removed -- the sugars came right off. The enzymes also worked their magic in human blood. Tiny amounts added to a unit of type A blood could get rid of the offending sugars, they found.The findings have been reported today in the journal Nature Microbiology.