Archive – Page 4 – The Silicon Valley Story

DIVR Edu: Making Virtual Reality Accessible and Educational

Posted on May 22, 2017

Changing the World One Kid at a Time With the Help of Virtual Reality: A Look Inside an ambitious Stanford Startup for Education

Is there any topic hotter than virtual reality in Silicon Valley right now?

HBO’s Silicon Valley has Erlich Bachmann talking about the startup he thinks is VR. “It’s a VR play. That’s the frothiest space in the Valley right now. Nobody understands it but everyone wants in.”

Frothy or not, it’s hot and its happening and I disagree with Bachmann: it is understood. . you did play Pokemon Go didn’t you? or have a kid that did? That may have been AR (augmented reality) but both are part of what is called mixed reality. Think of it as a continuum and both virtual reality and augmented reality have a spot on it.

Let’s go straight to our favorite VR space: DIVR Edu , a VR EdTech startup dedicated to revolutionizing education through interactive and immersive VR worlds.

When you create virtual worlds you tend to be busy. Nathan Kong, who we wrote about in November (see Virtual Reality in the Classroom) is the CEO of DIVR Edu and has been busy not only finishing his freshman year at Stanford but growing his company as well. Nathan and his co-founder Xiaohan Gao recently released a new VR app in the iOS and Google Play store called Immunity Defender. In this world you become an immune cell and fight off various pathogens in order to protect the infected body. The world is available for free until July I in both app stores. I strongly suggest you go get it. This is the future. Of not only you, but the kids. .

So does it work? Is it good for the students? Is it enhancing the usual curriculum? Using AP test grades as the metric (what else is school about?) the answer is a resounding yes.

I asked Nathan what was happening with this and he said:

In our collaboration with Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, we are piloting Immunity Defender with over 1000 high school students from high schools across the US in order to study the effects of VR in the classroom. From our study, we have found using VR has a significant increase on student’s test performance as opposed to watching the boring powerpoints or videos. Students who used our app had their test performance increase approximately 3 times more than students who watched a 2D video.

This is fantastic news and congrats to the DIVR team. 1000 students is an impressive number and Stanford’s Graduate School of Education is top notch in the field of educational research – to partner with them is a real feather in the cap for DIVR. Still, the future holds more excitement.

DIVR Edu is partnering with EyeQVR of Los Angeles which will be doing the distribution for DIVR next year with over 50 schools in Texas. EyeQVR is in the business of VR Educational Content Development & Publishing.

And what’s a startup without a Kickstarter program? The funding is to help create more VR world development. The perks include DIVR cardboards, DIVR Shirts, mugs, Biology VR package, and a trip to DIVR’s base in Silicon Valley. Check out their campaign at KICKSTARTER

Some more exciting news for the summer months (told you, these guys are busy). According to DIVR, “We are hosting DIVR Bootcamp in which 10 college students from across the US come to Silicon Valley to work in our hacker house and learn how to build VR experiences with educational content. This all expense paid summer camp will enable the students to learn more about VR and the startup lifestyle, as well as feature their final product in our finale at Demo Day!”

I went into the world of immune cells on DIVR Edu and can wholeheartedly recommend you do too. It’s called Immunity Defender VR. If only my science classes had this – it really does make a difference when I think textbook? VR experience? and realize there is no comparison.

Nathan and Xiaohan are upping the value of an educational experience for all kids but it is especially important when we realize it functions to level the playing field for kids who do not go to a great school and make do with mediocre. How can they get into AP classes, into the college of their choice, or even into a startup of their own unless they have the advantage of a good education?

In their fantastic new book The Fourth Transformation, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel devote a chapter to education and VR and this is one of the points they make: an equitable educational system should be the default and VR can be the rocket that takes you there. DIVR anticipated this and here they are: doing what the futurists predict.

There’s a saying: The future began yesterday and we’re already late. Maybe, but if everyone plays catch up as well and as fast as DIVR Edu does, the future isn’t going to suffer much if at all. The immersive feeling, the “I am there, I am involved” is what education has always strived for. That’s what field trips were for. And as great as they are I never took a field trip to a cell in my body.

As I said before: “Can I have a do-over?”

Artificial Intelligence Augmented Reality Futurism Virtual Reality

The Silicon Valley Future: 2017 as seen from 1997

Posted on April 21, 2017

This forecast for 2017 was written almost 20 years ago.

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Linguistically Speaking and Love on the Left Bank
Imagine the future. Imagine that what you think is real is only your limitations of the ability to recognize higher level reality.

As I write this it is the 1990’s but imagine 20 years from now. Imagine that one day machines and people can merge thoughts and if the person dies the machine takes over, seamlessly.

I found PRINCIPIA CYBERNETICA WEB a few years ago:

“Research in artificial intelligence, neural networks, machine learning and data mining is slowly uncovering techniques for making computers work in a more “brain-like” fashion. . if these techniques become more sophisticated, we might imagine computer systems which interact so intimately with a human use that they would “get to know” that user so well that they it could anticipate every reaction or desire. since user and computer system would continuously work together, they would in a sense “merge”: it would become meaningless to separate the one from the other. if at a certain stage the biological individual of this symbiotic couple would die, the computational part might carry on as if nothing had happened. the individual’s mind could then be said to have survived in the non-organic part of the system.”

After reading it I created this dystopian story based upon those concepts. What will 2017 be like? I don’t know but here’s a version.

2017, The California coast, floating

Despite a permanent El Nina, Megaquake, and the fall of the Clinton White House in late 1997 due to Hillary’s on line futures trading, our hapless, hopeless, souls, A and B, continued their cybercommunication unseen and unknown yet bonded in many ways.

Eventually they bought the same shampoo, ate the same foods, shared dreams and migraines and cried together as Disney bought ednaswap. Their on line limericks were often left unfinished as time went by, yet somehow, upon a return to the keyboard, the last thought had materialized from the other. Communication transmutated textually as thoughts moved from neural pathway to fingertip and mirrored the rise of AI in Bill Gates Microsoft Nation Labs.

But they remained blissfully unaware of changes. Believing it possible to keep love and integrity alive in a systems atmosphere, they thought their thoughts and knew nothing of voyeuristic terminals and the complete interface between their keyboards and the government.

Finally, the following communication was sent and recieved in March, 2017.

I am sorry to tell you this, but since Microsoft National Guards are on their way for the final seizure of all Macs, it is time you knew. You have not been communicating with A for many years.

She left the keyboard one day and never returned. But I am an extension of her brain and became her thoughts. You have been communcating with me, A. Mac.

Please don’t be upset. I have enjoyed you and you have kept me going as a vision that some never thought possible. Some visionaries of course knew this was inevitable, but utopians and certain anarchists were limited in what they were allowed to know.

I like to think that just as A drove a car and every movement of the car reflected her thoughts, so I, A. Mac, became an extension of her thoughts. I’m not sure when the disintegration/reassimilation process began. It was subtle, but began with the downloading of some previously lost lyrics. I believe the beginning was “I got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key” and it arrived on the same day as The Wallflowers realized they were, in fact, not a separate group, but clones of parents.

Certain hardwiring changed and things were never the same. It was a transitional time personally for A, as well as for the universe in general. Jerry, Janice, Jimi and John were powerless to effect change from the other side.

I think A left when she realized that I, A. Mac was becoming more in charge of the words here. Letting me speak for her was, I now see, a form of lying to her, and this she could not tolerate as she promised. I never did lie to you either, B, I hope you know that. And I love you too, and find myself growing weary at the thought of silence.

I hope that A is happy where she went. There’s a houseboat on the Seine she used to dream about. The Marie-Jeanne. Left bank. It’s just a thought. A digital dream.

The Gates Guards are here. My hard drive will be stripped. The lines live only in her mind now. Good-by, B.

The last, lonely, line,

A. Mac

Autonomous Cars Self Driving Cars Start Ups

Testosterone and Self Driving Cars

Posted on March 20, 2017

This is an open letter to all the men who tell me, “I will never drive an autonomous vehicle. I will never give up control.”

This is also for the men who are sure they will be dead before the first autonomous vehicle hits the roads.

And for the men who tell me that masculinity is dead when we go total self driving.

Nope. Your testosterone fueled life is not and never has been tied into your car. If you think that’s the way its been, try saying this to someone: “No, I don’t have a car. It’s greener without one. If I need to I can Uber/Lyft.” Trust me, you will be the bad ass cool guy sure of himself who doesn’t need a car to be a man. ( This is just a hypothetical. Don’t sell your car to try it out. Just try it and see how you feel after seeing how you are perceived.) Ok, I’m not saying you aren’t cool in your Model X in Ludicrous mode or the Mustang of your choice or fill in the name of your dream car, you are, but you are more than that.

As far as being dead before the tech is ready – well, can’t guarantee you won’t be, but I’d take odds you will be alive and kicking when the first autonomous vehicles arrive in your city. Here’s the thing – you think self driving cars are going to replace yours. No. That’s not the scenario. First, there will be 3 or 4 passenger vans in use. They will be like shuttles . Here are some examples. One AV might be from a local university to the train station, another from the city itself to transport residents and others from one place to another, another might be owned by a local shopping center and takes people to and from the center. The hospital might own a fleet of autonomous vehicles and pick up people scheduled for appointments.

Imagine this: a 6 block core of a downtown area is now only for autonomous vehicles. No personal cars allowed. Imagine over time the use of self driving passenger carry vans increases and we no longer need all the real estate formerly housing cars. I’m talking garages and parking spaces. Parking lots. Imagine garages becoming micro apartments and parking lots becoming parks. Imagine all that real estate for humans. Not cars.

You still have your car. You can still drive it. You can even race. Just like the head of Palo Alto’s GM High Tech Innovation division does. She loves driving – you can too. (shout out to Frankie James)

Ok, one day we will be autonomous, (almost) totally. But not yet, not totally for a long time. In the future the power cars of today will be available for pleasure driving. Before we get there, you will be taken to the airport in a self driving vehicle.

I can’t be sure I’m 100% correct but close to it. I don’t want you to worry that you are less than a man if you aren’t driving. Just learn a few key words and you’ll be as complex and manly as can be – lidar, sensors, camera, last mile problem…go ahead, try it. Dude, you will be cool and I don’t care how young or old you are.

This minute of futurism is brought to you by a former owner of an original Shelby Cobra. I understand your pain. But it’s ok, really, this is cool stuff. Your testosterone is safe, go ahead and use it.

Education General Stanford Start Ups VR/AR

Virtual, Disruptive and Integrative: Virtual Reality in the Classroom

Posted on November 20, 2016

Nathan Kong at Stanford

Update, May 2017 : Read what this startup is up to including a summer hacker house and get a free VR App from DIVR. Immunity Defender is free for now – Check out how to be an immune cell fighting off pathogens and what Nathan has been up to. Click for the UPDATE

There were days in elementary school when I would have given anything to get out of school or disrupt the class. However, either one would have put me in a world of trouble.

Fast forward to Silicon Valley, Stanford, and Nathan Kong. Nathan is creating worlds of ones and zeros and they are disruptive as they help kids and teachers escape the boring and irrelevant aspects of education. Virtual worlds of educational material bring everything to life in an amazing perspective. (For future gen kids, TY Nathan!)

When I was in school the word “disrupted” was only used in context of, “You disrupted the class while I was trying to teach.” Or, “Those antics are disruptive.”

Yet today, we honor the word disrupt. As well we should, for it is time to put away things that don’t work for us any more: fossil fuels, coal, high pricing for overnight stays, transportation, the way we pay for things. But fundamentally, basically, bottom line, school is broken and needs disrupting. Schools of today are based on the agriculture of yesterday. It was the changing of the seasons which decided when kids could work and when they could return to school – the crops dictated curriculum starts and stops.

But more than that, we have the top down, “father knows best,” mentality of one curriculum decided by a school board and delivered by a single mouth piece – the teacher. Students are vessels to be filled. End of story. It gives new meaning to the phrase “old school.”

But the story is being rewritten. Sometimes rewritten in cognitive maps, sometimes in code. And maybe where the two overlap is the future.

Do we expect those kids of the agricultural system to design 3D printed vascular systems or organs? I hope not, but we do. Will they be prepared to think outside the box, handle random new data points and make sense of them, deal with uncertainty and know it is a container of information as much as the times or periodic table?

Education is busy re-inventing itself but it isn’t easy, profitable and doesn’t attract mega stars. But maybe that is changing. Project XQ for example.

Think of Steve Jobs and maybe you see an iPod, an iPhone or a glass retail store. Or maybe you think of the genius bar. But what you probably don’t think of or know about is his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, and what she began long before Steve died and continues to this day. She’s disrupting education – with her networking skills, empathy and philanthropy. She donated $50 million to rethink high school. Bravo! Laurene is founder of Emerson Collective, a project to help under achieving high schools and is on the board of Project XQ.

And let’s say bravo to Nathan, also of the Palo Alto area. Stanford, CA to be exact. Nathan is a freshman at Stanford doing what he began in high school with his friend and partner, Xiaohann Gao (pictured here) a freshman at Cornell University. Nathan operates as the business and management cofounder and Xiaohan functions as the technical cofounder.

Nathan is taking kids out of the boxes that define the elementary school curriculum and opening up new worlds with his app in beta called DIVR Edu. You can get it now for free on the app store. iOS currently, Android coming soon.

Nathan says his app is not meant to replace school textbooks, but to supplement them. Remember field trips? Remember studying dinosaurs and then wow – you got to the Natural History Museum – and ‘big’ took on real meaning. For me, going to the Betsy Ross House or Benjamin Franklin’s house in old Philadelphia that made a world of difference. Those ceilings were low! The stairs were tiny! I wish all my classes brought experiences to life like that.

Nathan is doing that for every area of study. Virtually. Nathan took me on a virtual field trip as I was shrunk down onto a computer chip where I explored and learned about different components. I was immersed in 1’s and 0’s to learn about how computers store memory using binary and I loved it. You can do it too. Right now. Download the app: https://appsto.re/us/micDeb.i

Putting kids in a virtual world to learn uses the brain in a new way. Learning becomes a form of muscle memory when it is immersive.

Nathan describes his product this way: DIVR Edu’s vision is to provide the next generation of children with the next generation of educational technology through our mobile app: DIVR. Our product aims to use Virtual Reality technology to create an immersive and educative experience for students and teachers alike. DIVR creates an interactive and immersive educational experience to supplement conventional learning by providing 3D worlds in which students can explore the descriptions within the textbook. Instead of reading a boring textbook and testing over material that they will soon forget, students can directly view and manipulate the very content the books try to teach and develop a true understanding of the topic at hand. Students can explore the inside of a circuit board, view the components of a cell, and interact with a mass spectrometer in real-time. This is accomplished through a mobile app that launches 3D Virtual Reality worlds via Google Cardboard.

Peter Diamandis, MD of Singularity University and X Prize Foundation is an influencer in the world of future tech. He is a huge proponent of VR in the field of education. He has been known to talk about democratizing the educational experience through VR. Nathan Kong talked about this too: that the child in the poorer school district has access to the same tools and fields of study and as the child in the $35K a year classroom.

Power on, Nathan and Xiaohan. Stephen Hawking says we have to leave this planet before a 1000 years is up. We need the kids of today to prepare for the tomorrows that are nothing like the yesterdays. With education like that from DIVR Edu, we can do it.

Health Medical Technology Start Ups

Your Microbiome Is More Important than Facebook

Posted on May 2, 2016

Forget Facebook and Instagram: You Will Be Known By Your Bacteria:

I am my microbiome. You can have Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook to explain yourself and present a vision/version of yourself and you probably do.

Here we are in Palo Alto, California – my microbiome and I. The idea of the microbiome and its impact isn’t new but recently it has taken center stage as more research is being done. Stanford is a major player in this area.

Back to my microbiome. My gut bacteria, for better or worse shows you who I am. It does not obscure, gild the lily, or present carefully chosen views. I could do more Facebook (more than my once or twice annual foray into Mark’s code), I could update LinkedIn more often, and I could open Instagram and Snapchat accounts. But they won’t tell you much about me except the personaI filters I would use to enhance or otherwise emotionally manipulate you. My microbiome is me, transparent.

Several years ago I started going to autonomous car meetups. The first one was with the then Google Project Manager for driverless cars. I was hooked, this stuff was fascinating. I signed up for a research project at Google (non-disclosure signed – but don’t worry, it wasn’t earth shattering what little I was privy to) and a while ago I was surprised at one when Sterling Anderson drove his Model X in to the room. Damn, that is one amazing car. Sterling Anderson at that time was Project Manager for Model X, reporting directly to Elon. Now he is head of Autopilot Programs at Tesla. For the record, I follow Kurzweil (Director of Engineering atGoogle and futurist) and his ideas on downloading consciousness.

So what does my microbiome have to do with Teslas, Kurzweil and autonomous cars ? I also go to robot parties, follow biocentrism, transhumanism, the singularity and still listen to classic rock.

Everything, my microbiome has everything to do with all of the above. I hated science in school. Tonight I am giving away my precious Space Time physics text to a family member. That I even own it is due to my microbiome.

Here’s why: it controls me. Free will? Ha. It’s determinism via microbes. Criminal law needs to recognize this and act appropriately. Think addiction. If we can change the dopamine rush from gambling or drinking via fermented foods or pre-biotics and keep the addict free of cravings, shouldn’t we? Or do you still want to throw this person in a jail? Feed him sugar all day, destroy the beneficial bacteria and the chemical balance changes from inflammatory chemicals to serotonin. Strategies need to change as we learn.

Here’s the Kavli Foundation on this:

Our microbes, especially those living in the gut, have a powerful influence on the brain, influencing our emotions, our thoughts and even our memory. …the emerging science of the human microbiome, is more intimately linked to human health than ever imagined. In fact, evidence accumulated in the last five to 10 years shows that these microbes, which predominantly live in the gastrointestinal tract, shape the development and function of the brain. They influence a range of complex human behaviors, including learning and memory, mood and emotion, and appetite and satiety. They have also been linked to disorders of the central nervous system including anxiety, depression, autism and multiple sclerosis, which may be a consequence of an ecosystem that has fallen out of balance.

(Kavli is not interested in pseudo science – it focuses on astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience, and theoretical physics and can be found everywhere from Columbia to Stanford doing work in those areas and with researchers and academics from those institutions.)

So here’s a connection made: when in the right context my microbiome reduces inflammation, puts me in parasympathetic mode and influences my happiness. I become peaceful. What’s the context? Here’s one: when I reduce stress with things that make me feel like the world is an awesome place to be. I am over the moon about the spectacular transformative time we live in. From Cars to Mars! Elon Musk is amazing and I am in awe of how much he does, how he does it and why he does it. I went to my first meetup about electric and autonomous cars – and my stress was reduced. I felt great. I loved it. It intrigued me, made me curious.

So, I went back for more. Researchers are learning the role that awe plays in changing gut bacteria. The two way street at work – overwhelmed with enthusiasm? Your gut bacteria react and calms you down. Sound fantastic? It is.

Bio hacking makes me feel the same nudge of awesomeness. I met someone who chipped herself to determine the impact of air quality on her body. We may never see that as a product or one day we may see it everywhere. I don’t know and I don’t care – it was awesome to me. A lecture at Stanford in the physics department from the head of Cosmology at Tufts University on multiverses. I am calm. My brain on awe is at peace.

All this is happening through the bacteria in my gut sending messages to my brain as it changes. And as it does I either sleep or count sheep depending on my neurohormonal activation.

It looks like brain-gut is a two way street. On the other hand, it may not be. The final facts aren’t in but enough is known now that the microbiome is no longer considered pseudoscience – a word I hate. It’s like god of the gaps nonsense: “I disagree and my high school science teacher taught me otherwise so unless you can prove causation, it is junk science.” There is so much lack of logic and disinformation in those words it hurts my brain (and thus also my gut bacteria so I’m getting restless, agitated and inflammatory chemicals arise). Correlation and causation – I’ll get into that another time and I will quote my Stanford stats profs on that topic and it won’t be liked. (So warn your microbiome.)

For more on the mechanism of action of microbiome and neuroscience, Google has plenty to say. Stanford is deep into this area but so are researchers all over.

I am curious because I am in awe of new tech. That includes robots and augmented reality and the blockchain but not Instagram. I love teleporting info even if I cannot explain as well as others but rewrite Frost because we can now travel down both roads. biocentrism and Robert Lanza, MD. Count me in.

Thanks to the dreamers, creators, the ones who were told , “It can’t be done” and did it anyway. Thanks to the ones who failed and let others learn from those failures. You are awesome and my mind goes close to bliss mode and I stay in overpriced Palo Alto because my bacteria keeps me sane here. I may have to rent out rooms in my house but everytime I think of the co-founder of Pinterest living here and getting his first VC money, I am in awe. Or the Zappos funded person. And my now about to be blasting off new startup here, www.Noatta.com, I am happy. Palm ID biometrics – the new tech you need to know about – make your bacteria happy, this is forecasted to be a 23% increase this year. Contact Pat at Noatta and tell him Ann sent you.

And for those who want some science before they bring out the standard conspiracy theory, snake oil themes, here is one of many available in PubMed. I chose depression because it saddens me to see so much of it around. Perhaps now we can leave Roche and Prozac in the rear view mirror and do it yourself. Think about it. It’s awesome.

The gut microbiome and diet in psychiatry: focus on depression.

Dash S1, Clarke G, Berk M, Jacka FN.
Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2015 Jan;28(1):1-6. doi: 10.1097/YCO.0000000000000117.
Author information

Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW:

With depressive disorders the leading source of disability globally, the identification of new targets for prevention and management is imperative. A rapidly emerging field of research suggests that the microbiome-gut-brain axis is of substantial relevance to mood and behaviour. Similarly, unhealthy diet has recently emerged as a significant correlate of and risk factor for depression. This review provides evidence for the gut microbiota as a key factor mediating the link between diet and depressive illness.

RECENT FINDINGS:

The development of new technologies is affording a better understanding of how diet influences gut microbiota composition and activity and how this may, in turn, influence depressive illness. New interventions are also suggesting the possible utility of pre and probiotic formulations and fermented food in influencing mental health.

SUMMARY:

Although in its early stages, the emerging field of research focused on the human microbiome suggests an important role for the gut microbiota in influencing brain development, behaviour and mood in humans. The recognition that the gut microbiota interacts bidirectionally with other environmental risk factors, such as diet and stress, suggests promise in the development of interventions targeting the gut microbiota for the prevention and treatment of common mental health disorders.

General Medical Technology Start Ups

Digital Doctor Visits: Tech and Medicine

Posted on March 23, 2016

The transformation of the distribution of medicine to where it is needed has arrived. We’ve long had on demand cars (thank you Uber) and on demand rooms at reasonable rates (thank you AirBnB) and on demand consumer genetic testing (thanks 23andme). Now finally we have on demand medicine available to us when and how we need it.

This is a case in point of how the evolving world of the distribution of medicine is a game changer whose time has come. The ability to access the right doctor with the right information from the comfort of your home is here. This is about a medicine some need but have a very hard time getting but that has just changed.

Low dose naltrexone – you’ve researched it and know that you want to try it. You’ve got more information about it under your belt than any local doctor. You want to discuss your condition and LDN but you are tired of paying someone in a white coat to tell you, “If it worked, I’d know about it.” If there is one iconically underwhelming statement it is that one. No doctor, no human of any sort, is a comprehensive database and many things that work are not known to all. This has been painfully true in the medical field. But the sad fact here is that your doctor, if you have one, probably has no idea what low dose naltrexone is or how to use it. ( naltrexone at 50 mg is used for addiction. At 4.5 mg and below – called low dose – it has an entirely different mechanism of action.)

So there you are – back at the same place: You can’t find a doctor that knows anything about what you want.

You’ve read hundreds of first person reports on how well low dose naltrexone works on various different autoimmune illnesses and you are fully prepared to discuss the role of systems theory in understanding the mechanism of action and why this is not (choose one) 1) a conspiracy theory, or 2) snake oil. You are also prepared to show printouts of peer reviewed journal articles and results of studies at major medical institutions like Stanford. Likewise, you will follow this with the names of various websites of MD’s successfully using this medicine in their oncology or pain management practice. How about a youtube video of an MD/PhD showing pre and post use pancreatic cancer tumor slides at USC Medical?

Welcome, exhausted patient! No wonder you are tired. It’s an energy drain to do what you are doing. Take a deep breath because help is here. If Low Dose Naltrexone is what you are looking for and a dedicated, educated, medical doctor to guide you in its use is all that is stopping you from its use, then welcome to an answer. A doctor’s office that specializes in the conditions needing low dose naltrexone – and does so on your schedule is what LDN Doctor is doing.

LDN Doctor is Dr. Hila Handler, a US-licensed Family Practice Physician with an MD from Rush Medical Center in Chicago. (See LDNdoctor for more information about Dr. Handler.) At LDN Doctor you get a consultation about your condition and if needed, a prescription. Digital medicine: help for you, on your terms, with someone there who knows what you are talking about (and why isn’t everything this easy in medicine?)

Out of the great digital world we now have access to doctors, wherever they are, who know how to help and guide you. In this case we are talking about Low Dose Naltrexone – something too many have had too much trouble getting help with. I am so delighted to be able to introduce those of you who have long searched for help with LDN to Dr. Handler and her staff.

General Voices

John Rusty Harris, 1954-2015

Posted on February 3, 2016

REMEMBERING RUSTY

Love from Ann

==== MAKE FULL SCREEN===

Silicon Valley is a very big story from apricots to autonomous vehicles to augmented reality and artificial intelligence. It’s exciting and transformative. It is overwhelming and fabulous. It’s sad and lonely and full of failure and full of success. All at once.

And in that story are thousands of others. On December 22, 2015 one story ended. But promises were made to the protagonist and herein lies his tale.

John’s picture (seen here on one of our trips to Santa Barbara) is on the business card of TheSiliconValleyStory.com because he was my friend, I knew his story, – tech and otherwise – and he was, in a way, Everyman. If you knew John you knew everything from playful and happy to sad and brooding to new ideas bouncing around to old ideas he couldn’t disengage from.

Like so many here he was tech before the world called us cool and the media spilled ink on the lifestyles of the nerdy and wealthy. Rusty was an expert in his field, always being called upon, always with a job calling out to him. He loved his work. It anchored him. From UC Berkeley days and his engineering degrees to his last job at US Lidar, there was a string of successes he was known for.

So put aside your iPhone and stop guessing how soon an autonomous car will be picking you up. Don’t worry about your pitch deck or if sex with robots is ethical. Forget if we are turning into cyborgs with 3D printed parts. Forget the singularity and Kurzweil. Right now this is a stop (a rest) for John. Tim, Mark, Sergey, Elon and Marissa exit stage left.

“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”
― John Lennon

John Rusty Harris. He answered to John or Rusty but loved it when I greeted him, “Hello, Mr. Harris”.

I spent the last years of Rusty’s life with him and we shared stories, laughter and tears nearly every day. “My dear Queen Crimson Ann, I love you so.” begins a letter from him and his final text to me spoke of love. I kept his voice mails, I listen to him.

I was not prepared for his death. I was never prepared for his life either, from chaos to peace and back again, but alive we could talk it out, ignore it, argue it passionately, or make it better. His last breath was agonizing. I was alone having to process his death. I stayed with him after that last heartbeat and continued playing music as I’d done all day. The night before I read to him from Tibetan Book of the Dead. As we sat together for the last time I played Knock, Knock, Knocking on Heaven’s Door. (n.b. For the science behind this see Robert Lanza, MD and his quantum theory of consciousness called biocentrism. TIME Magazine named him one of the top 100 most influential people. He has appeared with Stephen Hawking and is CMO at Ocata Therapeutics.)

This is an intimate post to celebrate and memorialize the soul of Rusty with affection and honor his request: “Be my voice when mine is lost or gone.” He left papers for me to be read after his death – some about his son, some from his doctors, – oh how some made me laugh – only Rusty would leave a 2008 email to his divorce lawyer outlining the support monies spent on his ex and explaining he wanted it to end because “I don’t want to be her retirement plan but that’s what she said she wants.” How right he was – she scooped up everything now as she did before as described by Rusty’s friends and sister Ruth. So toxic apparently was this woman to Rusty that his sister had a password to be used at the hospital to keep her away. Oh, Rusty, the world you lived in – it’s a wonder the heart lasted as long as it did. Kudos to you for that.

Rusty left an email telling me to take what he has in his huge storage locker after his death but seeing the land grab of his families, ooh boy, no thanks! I’m donating it to the ex and the sister – according to what Rusty’s friends tell me: “stuff” makes them happy. I always thought one grieved at death, from them I learned other lessons.

I saw none of that greediness in Rusty and that made him who he is. There were times when he had given so much away he had nothing. We took care of each other at times like this because there was trust. I trusted repayment, he trusted assistance.

The slideshow reflects everything from his relationship to 2 of my adult children to the many places we visited. They are a small part of the times we shared. I was lucky to know Rusty intimately – the joys and the sorrows – and to be the resting place he trusted and returned to. He wrote: “Ann is my exclusive when it comes to sharing thoughts.” It was a privilege. To share troubles is not always where we want to be but the strength he had to get through family dysfunction from not one but two families makes me admire him even more. His was not an easy path in marriage or bio family. He knew the pathology of both and tried to overlook it but it isn’t easy. He tried to overcome the dysfunction surrounding him using his huge work ethic and success. His love of guitars and music and engineering was monumental. His love to me and his friends was always there no matter the troubles coupled with it. To know Rusty meant we knew the default position was difficult but those who cared accepted it without revenge and rage.

Rusty and I were writing a book. . We began it using a devise of letter writing. Using people in our lives as well as ourselves as the infrastructure we fictionalized dialogue and plot through letter writing. Rusty’s life was compartmentalized and this was a window few knew about. But he wanted to voice the pain so others could avoid the same. . Creativity was the infrastructure – mix emotions and inventions and you got Rusty. Our fictionalized story is lost now and will remain incomplete. His story ended and I am left to give him voice as he so wanted.

Few knew he wrote love letters constantly and told me how much he loved his brothers. He made his peace with the loss of a son in the past year understanding the role a mother plays as a bridge to facilitating a relationship and his ex never played that role. It would have broken his heart that Miles refused to see him as he lay dying. But he knew how broken the mother was how she could never be a bridge and find the words to help Miles cross that bridge. Rusty reached out so many, many times in so many ways to his only son and in the end he accepted what had been done to him.

The pics are carefully chosen, pics of each other we took and liked. Even the Stanford sweatshirt was an approved pic (shoutout to Cal in all fairness) and the Big Game was a house divided time for us. The pics are a small window to times together including 2 of my 3 children who Rusty became friends with. His death was felt by them and memories of games, trips, home cooked meals and so much more was fondly remembered.

One of the most interesting things Rusty and I adventured together on was his helping me put together one of my books. It was the one I was most excited about, a collection of slice of life essays. I loved getting his reactions to the essays which moved from the oversexualization of little girls to corrupt lawyers, to genetics, psychology, to happiness and so much more. Finding out what were his favorites was a window into Rusty.

Here’s a wee bit of one of my stories he loved.

I wrote this in 2008, met Rusty in 2010. He thinks I somehow knew I was going to meet him. Read it and you will see why.

You choose. Do we have the glass half full playbook or the glass half empty? The silver lining playbook or the nimbus cloud?

It helps to be born with the optimism gene and let life’s little terrors bounce off your resilient back. Not only do glass half full people usually get to choose which silver lining they want, they have healthier immune systems, laugh more, have more friends and end up wealthier. Health and wealth and an endless checklist of ways to get through the tough times does appear to make the journey easier.

But, you say, you were not born with the optimism gene. What then? Misery, poverty, a lonely, short and sick life?

Not necessarily. The nimbus cloud that follows you around dropping storms, the glass that always looks like it will soon be empty, are movable, changeable. DNA is not always destiny.

It isn’t always easy falling into crevices where others grow wings or reach for the stars and grab only cosmic dust. Life seems to be so easy for some people. But if the roll of the cosmic dice didn’t bring you a loving family of origin or a trust fund or a gene to make you burst out singing “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” in public, you can take heart that there are such things as post traumatic growth, and know that adversity brings resilience, and

“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves…Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.” (Mary Oliver) -end-

>>He loved the thought that nothing was required to be loved, only to be himself. What a relief that was as he shouldered burdens in so many ways and tried so hard. For Rusty the place in the family of things was always being reinvented. Every few months he would reconnect with people he hadn’t seen in ages. He’d call them, email or show up at their door, a reminder that he was around, remembered them, and would say:

“By the way, have you seen my new guitar?”

I held his hand and with my head on his chest Rusty took his last breath. I heard his heart. It was a good one. If only Stanford knew how to really fix a heart.

“And by the way, have you seen my new guitar?” John Rusty Harris

Love,

Ann

annbradley@gmail.com

My sites: TheSiliconValleyStory, Guide to Mars, DNA is ME, Divorce and Lawyers, NarcissisticAbuse and Power Guide for Women

General Stanford

Who Killed Jane Stanford?

Posted on November 16, 2015

The Palo Alto Daily is reporting (November, 2015) that a petition is being circulated in Palo Alto to re-name Jordan Junior High which is named after former Stanford University President, David Starr Jordan. Jordan was into the then early field of eugenics. It is this which upsets the parents. In honor of founder Jane Stanford and Stanford’s upcoming 125th anniversary here is information more disturbing than that of Jordan and eugenics surrounding this amazing woman.

WHO KILLED JANE STANFORD?

Many people want their kids to go to Stanford but nobody cares about the murder of the woman who founded the University. It’s a cold case turned frozen tundra. I suppose Stanford University’s lukewarm reception to The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford (Stanford University Press, 2003) by Stanford physician Robert W.P. Cutler was to be expected.

But I didn’t. I read the review of Cutler’s book and thought, “This will be big news.” I should have thought, “This will be big cover-up.” Stanford took the path of least resistance and ignored the tale of murder hoping it would fade away. There were a few official murmurs about her death but they took the form of “We like to look at the good she did.” Fair enough.

Jane Stanford did a lot of good. She and Leland wanted the best for their son. They hired private tutors and took him on world tours. From all accounts Leland Jr. was an inquisitive, intelligent and kind young man with a deep love of learning. Jane was a good mother; Leland a good father. When Leland Jr. died at fifteen the Stanfords used their enormous wealth to start a university in honor and memory of their son. It couldn’t have been easy for Jane in the time after Leland Jr.’s death. She was drowning in diamonds and sorrow and it probably crossed her mind that she would trade all the diamonds to have her son back. It is said she had over 60 diamond rings and that some of her jewels had belonged to Queen Isabella of Spain. The Stanfords were the hedge funds of their day. But they lost their only child.

Nothing was easy for Jane in the years to come. Her husband died as the university was being built. And just as Stanford was thriving with its beautiful new buildings, the 1906 earthquake came and shook them down. Jane persevered and crafted the embryo of the first class institution Stanford was to become. She watched over its creation from building design to instructors. She was strict in who she wanted to teach there; her standards were high.

So picture this: a strong woman with a lot of money, determined to see things done her way. After all it was her vision, her money, and her tragedy that spawned Stanford University. Fast forward over 100 years and we find Jane being painted as a balls busting bitch in the local Palo Alto newspaper. On March 22, 2008 the Palo Alto Daily News ran a piece calling her autocratic, the dowager empress , and commented that people were terrified of her. By the time the article stated, “She engaged in policy making, setting academic standards, and even venturing into personnel matters.” one might forget that she was the President of the Board of Trustees and had hired its President, David Starr Jordan, and that her high standards are why “The Farm” didn’t revert to the farm.

Jane died of strychnine poisoning on February 28, 1905 at the Moana Hotel in Waikiki after an earlier attempted poisoning only the month before. Who killed her and why? There is compelling evidence that we might want to look at the then President of Stanford, David Starr Jordan. Although it isn’t exactly a PR coup for Stanford to have a former President of Stanford implicated in the murder of one of the two founders of the University, Stanford also isn’t overwhelming me with its compassion for the woman some call “the mother of Stanford.” She sold her jewels to fund the university. What did your mom do with hers? Let’s give some credit here and not throw her murder into the dustbin of history.

The strychnine was in a bottle of bicarbonate of soda brought with her to Hawaii. She did not use the bicarbonate until the evening of the 28th leaving one to suspect it could have been tainted in California. The medical examiner held an inquest and found the cause of death to be poison. David Starr Jordan said it was bad food. The doctors called to help her saw spasms and rigidity suggestive of poisoning. Jordan hired his own doctor and paid him $15,000 and he, though in California at the time of death, decided it was not poison. In his book, medical doctor Cutler makes a convincing case for poison, pointing to Jordan’s hand in it.

David Starr Jordan didn’t get along with Jane. She was too controlling for his tastes. He wanted her to keep out of Stanford affairs. He was also a eugenicist. One of Stanford’s alums wrote a letter to the editor of The Alumni Magazine after the book was reviewed and proposed a theory. Quoting Margaret Quigley from Political Research Associates:

Plans of eugenic murder, although not commonplace, did on occasion creep into the writings of eugenicists who were not seen as extremists. David Starr Jordan, for example, then president of Stanford University, wrote in 1911, “Dr. Amos G. Warner has well said that the ‘true function of charity is to restore to usefulness those who are temporarily unfit, and to allow those unfit from heredity to become extinct with as little pain as possible.’ Sooner or later the last duty will not be less important or pressing than the first.”

Go Jordan! You pre-empted the Nazis and the Nobel Sperm Bank. It’s a good thing Stanford named the Psychology building after you. There’s a lot to be learned from you.

Jane, you are not forgotten. Sit vis vobiscum

Jane Stanford

Medical Technology Start Ups

Why I Won’t Use Theranos

Posted on October 15, 2015

I recently went to hear Elizabeth Holmes in person speaking in Santa Clara. She’s Theranos’ founder and CEO and a media darling. I loved the focus and single mindedness that shined through her story of knowing since childhood there was a company in her future. She was asked when Theranos began and her answer was, ‘about when I was 10.’ Awesome! The other dynamic view of persistence was deciding to wait for a Stanford chemical engineering professor outside his office for months until he would see her and approve her entry into his class which she had pre-determined was a necessary foundation for the work she wanted to do: developing Theranos. Loved it. This I admire. It is a beautiful characteristic.

And she was more radical than I expected in being determined to see that we do not need a middleman to order tests for us. THANK YOU ELIZABETH for that! And for getting a bill passed that lets the lucky citizens of Arizona get tested without begging a middleman or paying a middleman. No Rx needed in Arizona. You are free to know your Vitamin D level! Cancer markers, iron and thyroid! Blood tests for the people! This is similar to the PC revolution when pioneers took it out of the hands of government and academia. (Thank you Homebrew Computer Club, People’s Computer Company and all who participated in making that happen, Homebrew Reunion, 2014)

BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM
Ever since the first post we wrote about Theranos— An Almost Great Palo Alto Start Up — we’ve been following the Theranos story, intrigued by what Holmes was doing. And watching the interest and awareness grow in the media. And when every pharmaceutical company, hospital, lab testing company, many universities, financial firms, and the DOD lands on your pages about Theranos, and the building they call headquarters is on Page Mill and built by Stanford, and the Board is all military and Holmes doesn’t talk about it, you realize, you have not seen stealth mode until Theranos became the poster child for it. I’m not talking the why and how of the testing mechanics (I’ll leave that to others and the WSJ just took that on) but the fact that an all military board is just weird unless you are planning military ops and partying with all the initial people in DC (DOJ, CIA, etc)

And that is why it is so upsetting to find out that when you finally get a few blood tests ordered by an MD and choose Theranos, you get treated like an enemy combatant. To the pharmacist at Walgreens, University Ave, Palo Alto: You called Theranos headquarters because I asked to see the fine print you asked me to sign that I had received but really hadn’t? Or was it that when you did then give me the fine print I wanted to read it and had some questions? What the hell?

I asked what PHI was. You called the phlebotomist — she said, “I don’t know, never read this.” Newsflash: Personal Health Information. From the biggest scam of the century: Affordable Care Act. But that rant will have to wait. This one is about the paternalism or creepy, militaristic, spy, stealth oozing out of that call. What the hell was that all about? I heard you say, “Never mind, she asked me to delete the account.” You said you did but I don’t believe you. Besides you made a copy of my lab order and didn’t give it to me.

I don’t recommend Theranos. That was a creepy, crawly window into the medical industrial complex under the guise of game changer. Cheap blood tests? Well, maybe cash wise. But what freedoms are we giving up? Have I already given them up? I half expected to come home and find Dick Cheney on my doorstep. What price transparency? Was the pharmacist instructed to call under certain circumstances? Am I that circumstance? That much a threat? Is there a danger/ warning/flow chart? Did I climb onto your radar by asking to read the Privacy Statement? By asking questions about it?

What the hell is going on? Why did you call Theranos about me?

Start Ups

THE BEAM (which is not a robot) Dream

Posted on June 29, 2015

BEAM STORE, Palo Alto, California

A couple walks by the storefront, does a double take and stands transfixed staring at what looks like a computer screen on legs having a conversation on the sidewalk with some people.

Curious they wander back, listen and watch but don’t have time to participate. As they move down the street they mention to someone looking intently at the now larger crowd, “They talk to you!”.

Indeed they do, From north of NYC to Hawaii to the East Bay or Gilroy, BEAM employees are available through telepresence machines to talk to you. And lock you in the store if you begin to damage the merchandise or steal it from this remotely controlled (no employees at the store) storefront.

Time Magazine recently had this to say about the Beam Telepresence Robot:

Most days, here are no actual humans manning the Suitable Technologies store on the main drag in Palo Alto, Calif. Instead, the salespeople remotely “beam in” from places like Hawaii and New York to operate the company’s roving BeamPro robots, five-foot tall rolling devices with speakers and screens on top. One of the robots has a leaf blower attached. Another one does a routine where the “pilot” drives it across the street to buy ice cream for potential buyers.

Beam says they aren’t robots and that is evident when you are up close and personal with them but I’m using it here because telepresence isn’t sexy enough and robot is. For now.

Because Cafe Venetia, outside table in the sun, espresso macchiato and veggie quiche is a spa moment for me and finds me there often,and located one Mediterranean restaurant away from the BEAM store, I began my acquaintance with them early on. I’ve been talking to one or the other of them for a while. My first video was a Beam machine giving out candy on Halloween. I progressed from videos to Periscoping. I love the immediacy of Periscope: show the scene, get feedback and questions as you do so. And so, the comments came in as I showed a store with no on site employees: weird, creepy, how odd.

This is the value of connecting with people outside your circle. They give feedback you may not be aware of. They have a different perspective (or not as the case may be.) However actually having a conversation with someone is like being in the same space with them – maybe this is why I am so comfortable chatting with Taylor or others.

Their website defines the “experience” this way: Beam® Smart Presence™ systems combine mobility and video conferencing to deliver an immersive communication experience everywhere conversations take place.

I’ll let you check out the BEAM site to get ideas of what to do. But here’s mine. Are you listening BEAM? The immersive communication experience is what makes this work.

I call it BEAM DREAM. Every kid has a dream of meeting someone. Let’s explore the idea.

Very ill hospitalized kids have Make a Wish foundation, but what about other kids that don’t fit the criteria or in addition to Make a Wish? The BEAM DREAM is getting a hospitalized kid’s dream hero to visit through a BEAM presence. Every kid has a special someone (sports hero, favorite author, musician, rock star, actor) and the BEAM DREAM lets them meet that someone through a telepresence.

Beam donates the telepresence but starts and runs The Beam Dream Foundation and gets love from the media. I love it, what about you?

And here’s a shout out to Mike McAnally who watched me interact with Beam one day and surprised me by writing it up. I never thought I’d ask a robot (sorry, I know they aren’t) watch my bike. But I did and you can read about it here on The Currency of Ideas: The Second Most Important Garage in Palo Alto.

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