<span>Monthly Archives</span><h1>June 2018</h1>
    Tech News

    People are sending wire hangers to a senator who they think is too soft on protecting abortion rights

    June 29, 2018

    People are sending a warning to a senator whose stance on protecting abortion rights isn’t strong enough for them.

    On Wednesday, after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, Republican Senator Susan Collins said she views Roe v. Wade — the ruling that ensures nation-wide abortion access — as “settled law.” 

    “It’s clearly precedent,” she said on Wednesday when asked about her stance on protecting abortion laws. “I always look for judges who respect precedent.”

    But on Thursday, her commitment to upholding Roe v. Wade seemed shaky. Her spokeswoman Annie Clark told the Portland Press Herald that Collins “always looks at their judicial temperament” and “respect for precedent” when evaluating judges, and then clarified that the senator “does not apply ideological litmus tests” to nominees.  Read more…

    More about Twitter, Activism, Culture, and Web Culture
    Source: Mashable | People are sending wire hangers to a senator who they think is too soft on protecting abortion rights

    Startups

    Replacing pills with a Band-Aid? Avro Life Science thinks there’s a patch for that

    June 29, 2018

    Shak Lakhani, the  21-year-old chief executive and co-founder of Avro Life Science, started researching biomaterials when he was 15 years old.

    Every summer and after school the teenager would travel nearly two hours by bus and train from the Richmond Hill neighborhood of Toronto where he lived to the tissue engineering lab at the University of Toronto and develop three-dimensional, in-vitro models of tumors using biomaterials.

    For three years, Lakhani worked in the lab, before going on to study nanotechnology engineering at the University of Waterloo a short 73 miles away. It was there, in his first year, that Lakhani met another Richmond Hill resident, Keean Sarani, and launched Avro Life Science.

    Sarani, also 21, had his own history in life sciences. A former epidemiologist who worked as a research assistant at the aptly named Hospital for Sick Children, Sarani spent his high school years working in community pharmacies before going on to graduate from the University of Waterloo with both an Honours Science degree and a doctorate in pharmacy directly from high school.

    Sarani and Lakhani, who’re related by marriage, first met in the Village 1 dormitory complex at the university. Within months of their first meeting the two decided to start working on the company that would become Avro.

    They formally launched the business in January 2016, a time when Lakhani said the two college students would hold “startup Sundays” where they would pitch ideas to each other in one dorm room or another on Sunday evenings, until they found an idea that seemed viable.

    Given their experience — Sarani in pharmacies and treating patients and Lakhani in chemistry and material science, the two hit on the idea of drug delivery and patches.

    Avro Life Science co-founders Keean Sarani and Shak Lakhani

    The two initially toyed with a multivitamin patch for daily health, but through the sniffles, watery eyes and sneezes of perennial allergy sufferers the two hit on the idea of an antihistamine patch to cure their own ailments.

    The two won their first pitch competition three months after hitting on the initial idea in March 2016, and formally incorporated their business in November 2016.

    Fast-forward two years and the two co-founders are just about ready to make the final preparations for the first product with help from an initial seed round from investors led by Fifty Years, with participation from Susa Ventures, Garage Capital, Heuristic Capital, Embark Ventures, Uphonest Capital and Buckley Endeavours. Individual angel investors also participated in the round. In all, Avro has about $2.2 million in the bank.

    According to Lakhani, the company has already developed a polymer that allows Avro to make patches that can deliver hundreds of different drugs. Now it’s just a matter of gearing up for clinical trials that the company will run before the end of the year.

    The first product, Lakhani says, is “a medicated sticker for seasonal allergies.” The company’s plan to get to market involves revitalizing drugs that pharma companies haven’t been able to bring to market because oral delivery is difficult, Lakhani says.

    “Really the breakthrough is the [proprietary] combination of materials that can hold all of these different drugs,” he said. “The method of drug delivery is the same as in nicotine patches. In our case as a result of the polymer and manufacturing method…. [the drugs] don’t bond with the polymer. They are micro-adhesives in the patch. Heat from the skin dissolves the polymer and allows the drugs to enter the blood stream.”

    Basically, there are tiny bubbles on the patch and contact with (and heat from) the skin causes the bubbles to break and deliver any drugs in an unadulterated form to the bloodstream, Lakhani explained.

    Because the company is using generic drugs for its first tests, it’s hoping to have an easier path to market to prove the viability of its delivery system.

    Down the road, the company also has some pretty impressive pharmaceutical partners that it could tap. Avro is already working with Bayer as part of their accelerator program in Toronto, and that may lead to a deeper relationship down the road, according to Lakhani.

    The first drug that the company is testing is Loratadine (a common antihistamine).

    “In the coming years, we envision bringing a number of other patches to market for drugs addressing neurodegenerative diseases, cardiac health, analgesics and many more to improve drug delivery and compliance while revitalizing pharma pipelines,” Lakhani wrote in an email. “One day we hope to allow large pharmaceutical companies to ‘rescue’ drugs that they spent billions of dollars developing, but failed trials due to low bioavailability, high liver toxicity from an entire pill being metabolized at once.”

    For Fifty Years co-founder Seth Bannon, Avro’s technology is a “Holy Grail” for drug delivery that can save pharmaceutical companies billions of dollars.

    “The market for this is absolutely massive. Initially, Avro can manufacture and sell patches carrying generics direct to consumer to address issues like compliance with children and the elderly,” wrote Bannon, in an email. “Because Avro can deliver many drugs transdermally… When you deliver drugs transdermally, you significantly reduce liver toxicity and boost bioavailability. This means pharma can rescue drugs that just barely failed in Phase III. Pharma will pay a lot for this.”


    Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Replacing pills with a Band-Aid? Avro Life Science thinks there’s a patch for that

    Tech News

    IPVanish review: This is what an overpriced VPN looks like

    June 29, 2018

    IPVanish VPN
    $6.49 a month (2-year plan)
    The Good

    Industry-standard security • Fast download speed (EU and UK) • Easy to use • Supports torrenting

    The Bad

    Slow-to-average download speed (Asia • U.S.) • No Netflix

    The Bottom Line

    IPVanish isn’t terrible, but it’s not great either, and it has a long-term price higher than most VPNs. There are VPNs that offer better service for half the price.

    Mashable Score3.25
    Cool Factor4.0
    Learning Curve4.0
    Performance3.0
    Bang for the Buck2.0

    If you’re looking to boost your online privacy, you might want to think about getting a VPN to protect you from hackers, spammers, and criminals.  Read more…

    More about Reviews, Cybersecurity, Vpn, Tech, and Consumer Tech


    Source: Mashable | IPVanish review: This is what an overpriced VPN looks like

    Tech News

    The 10 best political jokes of 2018 (so far)

    June 29, 2018

    In 2018, standup comedy is almost as inescapable as politics, and the two overlap fairly often. Comedians like to say Trump is good for comedy, but that means holding jokes to a higher standard than the easiest impression or something about Cheetos. 

    How do we find humor in times of darkness, division, political upheaval and open hatred? How do we make people smarter and bring them together? With a Netflix subscription, for starters, and with some whip-smart comedy. 

    Here are the best political jokes from the standup specials of 2018 (so far).

    John Mulaney: Hospital horse

    More about Entertainment, Politics, Netflix, Comedy, and Culture
    Source: Mashable | The 10 best political jokes of 2018 (so far)

    Tech News

    iHookup review: A straightforward dating app that delivers on its promise

    June 29, 2018

    Relationships are definitely cool and all. It’s fun to get special presents for holidays, and definitely feels nice to have someone to cuddle up with during cuffing season. Sure.

    You know what’s also cool? Being able to hook up with whoever you want.

    SEE ALSO: These are the best dating apps for hooking up

    While being single definitely has its perks, you’re still gonna want to do the dirty — and let’s face it, sliding into someone’s DMs or awkwardly going up to someone at the bar isn’t the most endearing way to be like “Yo, I’d like to have sex with you.”

    Well, there’s an app for that.

    It’s called iHookup, and it’s used for exactly what it sounds like it’s used for. Read more…

    More about Dating Apps, Apps And Software, Mashable Shopping, Shopping Solo, and Shopping Ziffdavis
    Source: Mashable | iHookup review: A straightforward dating app that delivers on its promise

    Tech News

    Apple Maps is getting a complete redesign

    June 29, 2018

    Apple Maps is finally getting the redesign it needs.

    In a deep dive with TechCrunch, Apple detailed the lengths it’s gone to over the past few years to rebuild its maps app, which will make its (limited) public debut next week.

    According to the report, the new app will be available to iOS 12 beta users in the San Francisco Bay Area next week and will expand to all of Northern California later this year. It’s not clear how long the full global rollout might take.

    So what’s going to be different with the new Apple Maps? The short answer is just about everything. Because Apple has spent the last couple years gathering and parsing its own maps data — it’s no longer relying on data from third-party partners — the company now has much more detailed physical information about the world.  Read more…

    More about Tech, Apple, Iphone, Google Maps, and Apple Maps


    Source: Mashable | Apple Maps is getting a complete redesign

    Tech News

    'The Pisces' is dark tale about mental health, obsession, and, um, lots of mermaid sex

    June 29, 2018

    When you think of mermaids, you probably think of The Little Mermaid‘s Ariel earnestly yearning to be “a part of your world.” What you probably don’t think of is a merman dragging himself along rocks and sand to a wagon so that he can be carried to a house on Venice Beach where he will have sex with a woman who is obsessed with love.

    And yet, that’s exactly what happens in Melissa Broder’s new novel The Pisces.

    The Pisces follows Lucy, a student who has been working on her dissertation about Sappho for nine years with no sign of finishing. Lucy’s world is turned upside down when she and her boyfriend break up and she learns that she has to finish her dissertation over the summer or she’ll lose her school funding. Worried, Lucy’s sister Annika invites Lucy to spend the summer living and dog-sitting in her house in Venice Beach where Lucy can get away from the stress of her program, work on her dissertation, go to therapy, and recover from her breakup. Reluctantly, Lucy goes, and everything seems normal. Read more…

    More about Books, Mashreads, Mashreads Podcast, The Pisces, and Melissa Broder


    Source: Mashable | 'The Pisces' is dark tale about mental health, obsession, and, um, lots of mermaid sex