With this neat little trick you can watch all the filth and depravity you want, even in public!

A while back before taking the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo, I thought it would be a good chance to catch up on some movies Id been meaning to watch. So, with my classic lack of foresight, I loaded a GG Allen documentary onto the old iPad and off I went onto a train tightly loaded with people.

The person who was sitting next to me on that fateful day probably would have really appreciated this little trick that has recently resurfaced in Japan. Using ityou can alter your display to show only white light unless you are wearing a special set of glasses.

Here, Twitter user Yuki has pulled off the effect quite well.

I did it. With this you can surf the net without worrying about prying eyes!!

This bit of magical privacy is achieved through the way typical LCD (liquid crystal display) screens are constructed. Most light from the sun, light bulbs, or that twinkle in your eyes is actually a big messy wad of electromagnetic waves pointing this way and that. This is also the case with the source light for LCDs.

However, these screens also use polarizing filters that work like a Play-Doh fun factory and squeeze out a thin horizontal strip of light. Then, depending on whether the crystals are turned on or not, they will bend the light into a vertical strip that can pass through the second polarizing filter oriented in a vertical direction.

Heres a handy video that illustrates this process to some relaxing music. Actual filters arent really horizontal and vertical but more like 45 degrees and 135 degrees. This is just for simplicitys sake.

What Yuki did was peel off the second polarizing filter from the display of a laptop that was destined for the trash heap.Thats it!

Without its second polarizing filter, only the original tangled mess of white light is seen by the naked eye, but when you slip the filter in front of it the image is revealed. This of course is much easier said than done. Popping open your monitor and monkeying with it runs a considerable risk of damaging it to the point of uselessness.

In the tweet, Yuki is holding an inverted lens from a pair of 3D glasses used at the movies. However, others buy polarizing filters in sheets that you can cut into any shape or size. These filters are widely used in photography to reduce glare and should be fairly easy to find.

In any case you have to be careful, because not all screens are created equal so results may vary. And it probably goes without saying that this only works with LCD screens, so put the screwdriver down and slowly back away from that plasma screen.

The impressive part of Yukis technique was cleanly pulling it off on a laptop. Many people on Twitter are asking how that was accomplished, but as a talented illustrator as well, Yuki decided to put the method in doujin form and sell it during Tech Book Fest in Akiba Square on 22 October.

If you do insist on giving it a try, research it thoroughly before proceeding and use a screen that you can live without.

Otherwise, you can always keep away lookie-loos the way I did on the Shinkansen that one time my neighbor was trying to get an eyeful of my documentary: take off all your clothes and throw feces at them.

Its admittedly low-tech, but highly effective. Thanks, GG!

Source: Twitter/@yk_ichinomiya, NetLab Featured image: Twitter/@yk_ichinomiya

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How you can make a monitor that only you can see with your own special polarized glasses - SoraNews24

A Thatcham-based cheerleading squad could scoop a coveted Pride of Reading Award after receiving no fewer than 16 nominations.

Crimson Heat Tigers are one of the UKs premier cheerleading teams with multiple national and international championship wins.

And on May 7 in Orlando, Florida, they pipped the Americans to the post by becoming the 2017 Summit Junior World Champions.

Chairman Gary Ayckbourn, 48, said: Crimson Heat was set up seven years ago in 2010, with only 10 girls, no equipment and a simple vision of trying to focus on the positives that sport brings building a winning team mentality.

"Over the years, we have been able to prove that with the right mental attitude, hard work, determination and teamwork, you can achieve anything.

The squad boasts five teams, with more than 100 members, aged from five to 25, the majority being from Reading and some as far afield as Bristol and Essex.

But their success is not just about beating the Americans at their own game, as many of the nominations for the Crimson Heat Tigers are for how the coaches and volunteers look after well-being of their team members.

Mum Claire Lunnon, from Padworth, said: Coaches Gareth Green and Delph Ayckbourn deserve to be named Community Champions as Crimson Heat are an amazing, inspiring cheerleading team that support, mentor, encourage and young girls in the community.

First and foremost, they ensure the children are performing well at school and then they take them under their wing and train them to become young athletes.

My shy six-year-old daughter is a member and although isn't naturally athletic, the team has taken her under their wing, and each week her confidence builds. A credit to our community.

Cheerleader Hannah Lumbar, from East Reading, also nominated the coaches as Community Champions, saying: I have only been on for one season and it has changed my life.

"They are my family and an inspiration to many people. Crimson Heat do so much charity work that always goes unrecognised but changes lives.

Claire Bird from Thatcham said: The coaches are the kindest, most giving people I've ever met.

"They encourage all abilities and have an SEN [special educational needs] team working alongside Kennet School.

Nominations were also sent in by Debbi Enticknap, from Shinfield, Bristols Rachel Sheldon, Stephanie Tayler and Karen Wichard, James Wild from Newbury, Pauline Dean from Tilehurst, East Readings Hollie Lumbar and Katie Taylor, Martyn Gavaghan and Jon-Paul Baldock, both from Calcot, and Michelle Paice, from Upper Bucklebury.

Proud coaches Glory Carlisle and Megan Maynard also nominated the squad and its volunteers.

On being told of The Crimson Heat Tigers multiple Pride of Reading nominations, Mr Ayckbourn said: Being nominated as a club for the Pride of Reading awards makes me incredibly proud and humble.

"Not for me, but for the recognition of the incredible team people who make up the Crimson Heat management and coaching staff, all of whom are unpaid volunteers, and all of whom give their time and incredible dedication to the ethos of the program and to develop and support these young athletes.

Winning world and national titles is great, and is a tangible recognition of the hard work and dedication of our incredible athletes and coaches.

"However, what makes me the proudest, are the things you dont see.

"The difference we make to these young peoples lives.

"Seeing a young girl walk into the gym with limited confidence and self-esteem and watching them grow and blossom and knowing that we are an integral part of their personal journey.

Of being there for them when they need us most, actively encouraging them to open up about issues that affect them, yet most importantly, being there, night and day if required, to support them, get them the help they need and seeing this through to the end.

The Community Champion Award is sponsored by Broad Street Mall, the Young Person of the Year Award by the University of Reading, and the Volunteer/s of the Year Award by AB Walker.

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To nominate a person or business for one of these awards all you need to do is fill out the form below and wait for our reporter to be in touch.

Please note there is no need to send in multiple nominations for the same person or organisation.

The judges decision on whether a nominee is shortlisted is based on each individual story rather than the number of nominations each person or organisation receives.

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Pride of Reading: Champion cheerleaders prove anything is possible with determination - getreading

One thing is certain in any business not everyone you have to deal with will be like you, or will like you (and vice versa). These people may include one of your business partners, an investor, a key vendor, or even one of your best customers. In my role as a business advisor, I see more and more how business people must bridge these differences to accomplish shared business goals.

We have all heard the stories of business disasters that result from people who are so different that they cant get along. Some of these are legendary, including the Steve Jobs differences with John Sculley. Some are more current, such as the travails of Uber investors challenging founder Travis Kalanick, and the daily political leadership struggles surrounding President Donald Trump.

On a more positive note, as the business world becomes a global space, all of us have to learn to live and work with people of very different cultures, religions, political opinions, as well as different generations and genders. You have to manage and operate within more and more diverse teams, and your success in a career, or in building your business, depends on it.

Thus I was pleased to see these challenges addressed directly in a new book, How to Work With and Lead People Not Like You, by Kelly McDonald, a well-known marketing and communications expert who specializes in multicultural and diversity marketing. She offers a set of strategies and tools for communicating across cultural and other barriers, including people you dont like:

In all cases, its important to be positive and maintain a can-do attitude. People avoid negativity and they are drawn to positivity. You can become a role model, a leader, and an ally for many team members which will lead to breakthroughs and results with even the most non-compatible situations. A positive mental attitude will also improve your health, and add years to your life.

Just remember that you have a business or a career to run. Experts are convinced that a diverse workforce, including people with different values and different perspectives, leads to better decisions and solutions ultimately growing business opportunities, profits, and satisfaction. Diversity isnt going away. Learn to deal with it now, and be the leader you always wanted to be.

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5 Principles For Working With Someone You Don't Like - HuffPost

Attitude is everything. Someone once said life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

Bottom linethe attitude you have is more about the attitude you have chosen. When you find that you've worked your way into a negative mindset, you have what it takes to also work your way back out. No one can do this for you.A negative attitude is like an automobile without gas. If you dont take the initiative to add fuel to the tank youre not going to get where you want to go.

You can truly change your environment by changing the way you look at it. In an instant, by realizing you have the power, you can reverse the negative force by injecting new positive energy and enthusiasm into your life.

In what kind of environment do you wish to live? In this very moment of time, you can adopt an attitude that will make that environment appear before your very eyes. All it takes is a conscious personal effort.

No doubt much of what happens all around you is out of your control.And yet you can completely control what is most important and meaningful in your life. You can decide for yourself what it all means. And you can choose what to make of it all.

The question that must be answered is Do you want to stay in your current mental state of negativity or are you ready to live life completely on your own terms, with positive purpose and passion?" Thomas Jefferson said, Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

The decision is yours to make.When you are ready to change things around all thats needed is to change your attitude from negative to positive. Its all about power and you have what it takes to make a significant change in your life and the lives of those who surround your world.

Think about it

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Jim's Gems: Attitude is Everything - Quality Magazine (blog)

When youre five over par after three holes and staring a big water hazard in the face at the next, youd be forgiven for thinking its not going to be your day.

Thankfully for Hazlemere member John Newall, a positive mental attitude helped him win Bridgestone Tyres aptly named Chase Your Dream Trophy final qualifier at the home of England Golf, which takes him to the pro-am of the Bridgestone Challenge at Luton Hoo on September 6.

The 11 handicapper is now just one step away from potentially playing with Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia or another star of the European Tour at the pro-am of the British Masters supported by Sky Sports at Close House on September 27, as a result.

The newly crowned Male Handicap Golfer of the Year, who qualified with eight other players in the field, will play in the pro-am of the Bridgestone Challenge, the English leg of The Challenge Tour, at Luton Hoo. Theyll be joined by the top nine players from the companion womens championship, making up a total of six teams in the pro-am.

If his team wins there, he will be preparing to tee the ball up at one of the most prestigious courses in England with a household name of the European Tour.

John, who only scraped into the final qualifier at Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire by the skin of his teeth, said: I was five over after three holes after travelling all this way and was thinking this round could be ending before it had begun.

I got to the fourth hole, hit a magic drive which left me 200yds to the green and pulled out the 5 wood to stick it on the green. There was a water hazard up there but I just went for it and that shot kick started my round.

The Bridgestone Tyres Chase your Dream Trophy is an annual event open to members of England Golfs 1,900 affiliated clubs and features separate competitions for men and women.

The 42-year-old added: Its called the Chase Your Dream Trophy which was appropriate, as this whole experience has been a dream, thanks to Bridgestone and England Golf.

What they have done is incredible. The giant leaderboard, the facilities, the professionalism, everything. Bridgestone has created a competition to give us little guys a chance to live like a professional. They have basically allowed us guys to chase our own dreams.

John said he was already allowing himself to think ahead to the pro-am of the British Masters supported by Sky Sports on September 27.

I was willing Sergio Garcia to win the Masters at Augusta earlier in the year. Now here I am, a round away from possibly playing with him. It really is quite incredible.

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Hazlemere's John Newell is one step away from a date with Sergio ... - Bucks Free Press

In Jackson, Minnesota, there is a man making Massey Ferguson tractors. He works for Agco. Which is huge, apparently: making billions. Tractors are very big business. And now they are making roughly another billion every year, because the guy who is making the tractors is wearing a pair of glasses.

The thing is, they are smart glasses, with a blueprint of the tractor built in to the lens, with instructions about which bit connects to which. He never has to pick up a manual with his greasy hands. They may not even be that greasy, but you can see how its an improvement on the old system. (Suggestion to Ikea: maybe you could consider including a pair of smart glasses with the next bookcase or bed I buy from you).

So its a guy with a very small tool (glasses) making a very big tool (tractor). But eventually he will take the glasses off and go home, job done. Now imagine if he had the lens built in to his eye, maybe like contacts, and he didnt have to take them off any more. Then you would be modifying the human too, you would have created what is popularly known as a transhuman. Not long ago an art student in London was experimenting with a third thumb which she had attached to one hand. Could it speed up tractor making? Its doubtful but if youre already making billions it might be worth a try.

Somewhere out there is a guy with a chip in his head (or neural implant) that enables him to know whether there is any broccoli left in the fridge without ever opening the door.

It sounds trivial but there is something fundamental happening here. I am a great fan of the almond (and other nuts). But I have only recently discovered (thank you, Tony Kuklinski in New Zealand), that the best almond trees are actually grafted on to the back of a peach tree. The peach tree has more resistant roots, I gather. And the almonds are great (I know, I checked). Transhumanism is a bit like that: we are grafting one thing on to another to produce an improvement, in this case the graft is inorganic and the recipient of the graft is organic, namely one of the species we laughingly or in a hopeful, aspirational way (rather like saying Good dog! to a dog that is manifestly not good at all) refer to as Homo sapiens. The point is to make the homo more fully sapient than it (s/he?) was to begin with.

I think it was Jules Verne, in his prescient way, who first predicted the rise of the internet. He also brilliantly predicted newspapers that would be made out of chocolate and you could eat them when you finished reading them. Im sorry that one never quite made it through the reality checkpoint. Verne wrote hymns to technology, which was relatively unusual in the second half of the 19th century. I recall he had serious doubts about bicycles (he actually made a speech to a girls school denouncing them as a threat to civilisation), but on the other hand was very enthusiastic about the submarine.

A Glass apart: Googles foray into eye technology was a bit of a flop (Getty)

Captain Nemo (who appears in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island) is one of the first characters in literature to dramatise the merging of man and machine. A curious scientist asks him how his wonderful machine is powered: By a cunning system of levers, he replies. It should be obvious it is his organ playing that powers his vehicle (he really is an accomplished organist), which is to say it is the man himself. There is a perfect reciprocity: Nemo is the Nautilus, the Nautilus is Nemo. They are indivisible (far more so than Iron Man, for example, and his suit: you can always take the suit off again). But to make a mere human fully trans now in the underwater realm you would need to give them gills. Maybe a tail too, I guess.

The transhuman is a chimera, a fusion of two forms, one (as I remember human beings being described from an alien point of view) an ugly bag of water and the other a nice clean circuit board inscribed on silicon (or similar). Its like taking the Nautilus and miniaturising it right down and sticking it in your head so you can go cruising 20,000 leagues (or whatever) without any apparent vehicle. You become the vehicle. Which would be cool. Except I dont know if tractor drivers really want to turn into a tractor and have a little plough sticking out of their rear end, I guess that is never going to catch on.

Having just got hopelessly lost on the road from Wellington to Waipukurau when my phone conked out, I wouldnt have minded having a map app installed in my head (had there been a decent atlas of New Zealand in the car this thought would never have occurred to me but rather like the tractor guy I would then be hands-free and wouldnt have to stop to look at the map). You become a functioning GPS system, in other words, with a screen inside your brain, and will never get lost again (which now I come to think of it, I would regret). Homo sapiens are, at last, on the verge of getting smart.

But, hold on a second, says the philosopher, what ever happened to Socratic ignorance? According to Plato, Socrates had a habit (which could be annoying, depending on your point of view, and of course he was ultimately sentenced to death) of going about checking on people who were supposed to know stuff (tractor makers and suchlike) and concluding that really they knew nothing. Neither did he but at least he knew that he knew nothing, and that was his edge over everyone else. Ignorant, yes, but avowedly, self-consciously ignorant. He at least had the knowledge of ignorance.

Many other philosophers have made similar claims, not excluding ace deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, as Bernard Stiegler has pointed out. Stiegler was a student of Derridas who, as one should, derided the old master. All philosophy, argued Stiegler (having done his time in prison, I recall, for armed robbery), has been anti-tekhn. The guys who were making tractors or the BC500 equivalent (Socrates mentions shoemakers, for example) really did know something and Socrates was just being a bit of a pompous ass for cocking a snook at them. And Derrida was doing something similar by raving on all the time about the text and ignoring (in his Socratic ignorance) anything that smacked of science or technology. Just as anti-tekhn as all the others. Which is ironic considering that writing is a form of technology, just so commonplace (unless you happen to be illiterate) that we have forgotten thats what it is.

Dani Clode, a Royal College of Art student, created a third thumb as part of her MA dissertation project (Dani Clode)

This should have been obvious after the invention of the printing press, what Marshall McLuhan called the Gutenberg Galaxy, and the typewriter. If you ever went into a newsroom of old, you will know what I mean: it was like a factory, with the sound of clacking machines, and printed paper coming off the far end of the assembly line. This may explain why, even when it was parchment or stone tablets, Socrates disdained writing and stuck rather religiously to the oral (and relied on Plato to be his Dr Watson). He understood that the written would have compromised and corrupted the purity of his austere anti-tekhn discipline. Somehow Stiegler managed to get Derrida discussing computers and television, which of course he maintained were all just variations on the text.

There is no polarity between the human and the technological. We are naturally prosthetic beings, says Stiegler. The process of hybridisation simply means that we are becoming more engineered. I can think of a few spare parts I wouldnt mind having right now. Its a phenomenon that Derrida refers to as the logic of supplementarity: writing is a supplement to speech, for example. A guy with a leaf blower is supplementing his ability (extremely limited) to blow leaves around. The odd thing about Desmond Morriss old concept of humankind as the naked ape on account of our relative hairlessness is that it omits the crucial fact that we generally are not naked: we are constantly kitting ourselves out with accessories of one kind or another, perpetually dissatisfied as we are with the initial denuded state. The smart glasses are an advanced type of fig leaf.

In Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari suggests that, with the multiplication and extension of our virtual skills, we are now approaching a final state of secular divinity. It is true that it is possible to imagine (or not even imagine) enhancements to our knowledge such that, for all practical purposes, we are effectively omniscient. I already have students in the classroom correcting me, about two seconds after I have come out with some clearly inadequate answer to a tricky question: But my phone says You too can become a transhumanly annoying fact checker.

As seen on screen: could RoboCop become a reality? (Rex)

Add to that additional supplements: happiness, you only have to press a button, or rather your brain would press the button for you, releasing a rush of endorphins or endocannabinoids, just as soon as there is a hint of boredom creeping up on you. And, for an added bonus, intolerable beauty too, combined with a dash of immortality. A full-body engineering makeover, physical and mental, bionic and cognitive: the temptation to become a Hollywood superhero will surely become irresistible. In the realm of the Matrix, humans will become simulacra of themselves, but very good at running up walls and firing guns upside down. The physicist Frank Tipler, in The Physics of Immortality, reckoned that we will have to wait till the universe collapses in on itself a form of the Big Crunch that he refers to as the Omega Point until we attain godhood (admittedly, we would have to be boiled down into pure silicon). But perhaps we wont have to wait that long.

And alongside the homo deus would presumably stand the homo stultus, the village idiot or holy fool who remains regressively or aggressively unenhanced. Smartness versus dumbness who will win? The knowledge-based economy has only one answer. But somewhere in the interstices of all this information must remain at least the possibility of the kind of creative madness, an inspired stupidity, that lies beyond mere digital shuffling. Ignorance is probably not bliss, it probably contains an almost unbearable sadness and discontent, but it also allows the possibility of innovation in a form that mere knowledge (by definition) cannot know. Jules Verne, having described how a giant gun could shoot a missile at the moon, ridiculed his rival HG Wells for dreaming up an anti-gravity paint, for in effect, cheating: Mais il invente! Stupid dreamers can invent things that the smart guys can only deride.

Back in the Garden of Eden, Yahweh (a classic transhuman, if ever there was one, fully tooled and enhanced, and spending most of his time stored in a cloud, moreover) felt the same way about the humans he was soon sorry he had conjured up: not only were they ignorant (despite tasting of the tree of knowledge), it was impossible to guess what they were going to do next. If a god does not exist, maybe we can invent one.

Andy Martin is the author of Reacher Said Nothing: Lee Child and the Making of Make Me. He teaches at the University of Cambridge.

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Transhumanism: The final chapter in humanity's perpetual quest to be kitted out in comforting accessories - The Independent

In a 2011 New Yorker profile, Peter Thiel, tech-philanthropist and billionaire, surmised that probably the most extreme form of inequality is between people who are alive and people who are dead. While he may not be technically wrong, Thiel and other eccentric, wealthy tech-celebrities, such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, have taken the next step to counteract that inequality by embarking on a quest to live forever.

Thiel and many like him have been investing in research on life extension, part of transhumanism. Drawing on fields as diverse as neurotechnology, artificial intelligence, biomedical engineering and philosophy, transhumanists believe that the limitations of the human body and mortality can be transcended by machines and technology. The ultimate aim is immortality.Some believe thisis achievable by 2045.

Of course, humans have long harnessed technology, from vaccinations to smartphones, to improve and extend our lives. But that doesnt admit you into the transhumanist club. Wanting to live forever, and possessing vast sums of money and time to research, does.

The hows and whens of transhumanism are matters of debate. Some advocatethe "Singularity" a form of artificial super-intelligence which will encompass all of humanity's knowledge, that our brains will then be uploaded to.Others believe in anti-ageing methods like cryonics, freezing your body after death until such a time when you can be revived.

Transhumanism is no longer a fringe movement either. Darpa, the US governments research arm into advanced weaponry, created a functional prototype of a super soldier exoskeleton in 2014, which will be fully functional in 2018, and is researching the possibility of an artificial human brain.

"Transhumanism doesn't have much to say about social questions. To the extent that they see the world changing, it's nearly always in a business-as-usual way techno-capitalism continues to deliver its excellent bounties, and the people who benefit from the current social arrangement continue to benefit from it," says Mark O'Connell, the author of To be a Machine, who followed various transhumanists in Los Angeles."You basically can't separate transhumanism from capitalism. An idea that's soenthusiastically pursued by Musk and Peter Thiel, and by the founders of Google, is one that needs to be seen as a mutationof capitalism, not a cure for it."

Silicon Valley is characterised by ablind belief in technological progress,a disregard for social acceptability and an emphasis on individual success. It's no surprise, then, that it is here that the idea of living forever seems most desirable.

Musk has publicly declared that we have to merge withartificially intelligent machines that overtake humanityin order to survive. Ray Kurzweil, the inventor and futurist who pioneered the Singularity, is now an engineer at Google. O'Connell points out that "you'd have to be coming from a particularly rarefied privilege to look at the world today and make the assessment, as someone like Thiel does, that the biggest problem we face as a species is the fact that people die of old age".

On an even more basic level,a transhumanist society would undoubtedly be shaped by the ideals of those who created it and those who came before it. Zoltan Istvan, the transhumanist candidate for governor of California,toldTech Insiderthat a lot of the most important work in longevity is coming from a handful of the billionaires...around six or seven of them.

Immortality as defined by straight, white men could draw out cycles of oppression. Without old attitudes dying off and replaced by the impatience of youth, social change might become impossible. Artificial intelligence has already been shown to absorb the biases of itscreators. Uploading someones brain into a clone of themselves doesnt make them less likely to discriminate. Thiel andMusk, for example, identify as libertarians and have frequently suggested that taxes are obsolete and that governmental military spending needs to be curbed (and put into life-enhancing technologies).

Thiel himself is a Donald Trump supporter. A one-timeassociateMichael Anissimov, previousmedia officer at Machine Intelligence Research Institute, a Thiel-funded AI think tank, has published a white nationalist manifesto. In a 2013 interview, Anissimov said that there were already significant differences in intelligence between the races, and that a transhumanist society would inevitably lead to people lording it over others in a way that has never been seen before in history. It doesnt take much to guess who would be doing the "lording".

"The first enhanced humans will not be ordinary people;they'll be the people who have already made those ordinary people economically obsolete through automation. They'll be tech billionaires," says O'Connell.

If those who form society in the age of transhumanism aremen like Musk and Thiel, its probable that thissociety will have few social safety nets. There will be an uneven rate of technological progress globally; even a post-human society can replicate the unequal global wealth distribution which we see today. In some cities and countries, inhabitants maylive forever, while in others the residents die of malnutrition.If people dont die off, the environmental consequences from widespread natural resource devastation to unsustainable energy demands would be widespread.

It would be remiss to tar all transhumanists with one brush. In 2014, Istvan claimed inThe Huffington Postthat the membership of transhumanist societies and Facebook groups has started to expand in number and in diversity, drawing in young and old people of all political persuasions and nationalities.

There are some prominent transhumanists who dont fit into the Silicon Valley mould. Natasha Vita-More, the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Humanity+ , the globaltranshumanist organisation, has spoken about the potential for a posthuman society to address issues of economic justice. Other academics and philosophers have even spoken about the need to explicitly ground diversity and tolerance within posthumanism, such as Nick Bostrom, the head of the Future of Humanity institute and one of the original modern transhumanist thinkers.

It remains the case, though, that the majority of the money invested inmaking transhumanism a reality comes from rich, white men. As the descendants of a species with a tendency to exploit thedowntrodden, any posthumans must guard against replicating thosesame biases in a new society. For some, potentially in the near future, death might become optional. For others, death will remain inevitable.

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The first men to conquer death will create a new social order a terrifying one - New Statesman

Hows this for putting a dent in your retirement savings plan? A 65-year-old couple retiring today will need an estimated $275,000 in todays dollars to cover anticipated health care expenses, according to Fidelity.

And if that wasnt shocking enough, consider this:

The 2017 estimate is 6% greater than last years figure of $260,000 (general inflation in 2016 was just 2% and health care inflation was 3.7% ). That means next years estimate all things being equal would be $291,500 and the year after that would be $308,990. It also means that health care costs for retirees are rising faster than for population at large.

The Fidelity estimate is a 70% increase since Fidelitys initial retiree health care cost estimate in 2002 of about $161,000. That works out to an average increase of $7,600 a year.

And three, some firms estimate the amount a 65-year-old couple would need earmarked for health care expenses in retirement to be even greater than $275,000.

Read the 2017 retirement health care data costs report

By way of background, Fidelitys 2017 estimate represents the present value of month expenses for Medicare premiums, Medicare copayments and deductibles and prescription drug out-of-pocket expenses. It assumes enrollment in Medicare health coverage but didnt include the added expenses of nursing home or long-term care, which could make the $275,000 number even higher.

So, what should preretirees make of Fidelitys estimate?

Most pay for health care as they go

Most retirees today dont have a pile of money socked earmarked specifically for health care expenses. Instead, they tend to pay for such expenses as incurred from a mix of income, including Social Security, personal assets, and earned income.

Recurring health care costs remain stable throughout retirement

Usage and expenses of recurring health care services remain stable throughout retirement, while usage of nonrecurring ones increase with age and tend to be more expensive, according to a report published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), a nonpartisan research institute based in Washington, D.C.

For instance, in 2011, average annual out-of-pocket health care cost for a household between 6574 years old was $4,383, which accounted for 11% of total household expenses. But that shoots up for households ages 85 and above to $6,603 a year, or 19% of total household expenses.

And its those nonrecurring unpredictable expenses such as surgery, hospitalizations and nursing home care that, in the absence of a plan to manage those costs, can wreak havoc on a households finances, according to EBRI.

By way of comparison, the EBRI report also suggests that a person with a life expectancy of 90 would require $40,798 not including expenses for any insurance premiums or over-the-counter medications at age 65 to fund his or her recurring health care expenses. And that number, call it $82,000 for a couple.

In another report, one that lumped all premiums for Medicare Parts B and D, premiums for Medigap Plan F, and out-of-pocket spending for outpatient prescription drugs, EBRI suggested that a couple with median prescription drug expenses would need $165,000 if they had a goal of having a 50% chance of having enough savings to cover health care expenses in retirement. And, if they wanted a 90% chance of having enough savings, they would need $265,000, according to an EBRI report.

Earmark Social Security to pay for health care

For some, it might make sense to use your entire Social Security benefit to pay for health care expenses, and use other assets and income to pay for all other living expenses in retirement. Consider, for instance, a report published by Michael Kitces, publisher of the Nerds Eye View in 2015 estimated the lump sum value of Social Security. And what he found was this: Given an average Social Security retirement benefit of $1,294/month (in 2014), a 10-year Treasury rate hovering somewhere around 2% (at the time of Kitces writing), assumed inflation of 3%, and a life expectancy (according to Social Securitys own 2010 Period Life Table) for someone whos already reached age 66 (full retirement age (FRA) for todays retirees) of approximately 17 years for a male and 20 years for a female, the average lump sum value of Social Security is about $280,000 for males and $335,000 for females. At a maximum Social Security benefit of $2,642/month (for those who maxxed out the Social Security wage base for 35 years), the value of Social Security amounts to about $572,000 for men and $683,000 for women.

In other words, the lump sum value of Social Security for a couple retiring at FRA would be $615,000, which is more than enough to cover the $275,000 Fidelity estimates that couple needs to pay for health care in retirement.

Of course, the trouble with this plan is that couples would need to make sure they have enough assets and income to cover all other expenditures in retirement, such as housing, food, transportation and the like. And that might be a push given that many even those who have been saving 30 years dont have enough saved to fund their desired standard of living.

Consider someone in their 60s who had participated in a 401(k) plan for 30 years had, at year-end 2015, an average account balance of more than $280,000 among participants in their 60s with more than 30 years of tenure, an amount that could be earmarked entirely for a couples health care costs. And the average 401(k) balance for someone in their 60s was $123,000, which is roughly what one person would need set aside to pay for health care costs in retirement.

Consider using an HSA

Some workers might have the luxury of using their health savings account (HSA) to fund health care expenses in retirement. HSAs are paired with high-deductible health plans (HDHP), which often have lower monthly insurance premiums than traditional health plan offerings, and, according to Fidelitys release, include these key tax benefits: contributions go in tax-free, balances and savings can be withdrawn tax-free for medical costs.

Read: Health care costs in retirement are only going up heres how to save

What else is worth knowing about Fidelitys study?

Most workers forget how much health care costs

Corporate employees are largely unaware of the costs they and their employers are paying for health care, said Michael Lonier, a retirement-income planner with Lonier Financial Advisory.

Much of the cost is hidden in their payroll deductions, he said.

Indeed, in 2015, the average company-provided health insurance policy totaled $6,251 a year for single coverage, according to ZaneBenefits. On average, employers paid 83% of the premium, or $5,179 a year. Employees paid the remaining 17%, or $1,071 a year.

For family coverage, the average policy totaled $17,545 a year with employers contributing, on average, 72% or $12,591. Employees paid the remaining 28% or $4,955 a year.

The first inkling some may get that health care is far more expensive than they were aware of is the COBRA notice they receive if they are laid off and now have to pay the full cost for their health insurance premiums, said Lonier. The period after corporate coverage but before Medicare eligibility for those who suffer a job loss can be a budget killer.

Medicare Part B can be expensive

Although Medicare part B premiums are a magnitude smaller than other insurance premiums, costs can still be high for those enrolled in Medicare who use health care services frequently, said Lonier.

For instance, you generally have to pay your deductible, coinsurance, and copayments. Plus, some of the items and services that Medicare doesnt cover include: long-term care (also called custodial care); most dental care; eye examinations related to prescribing glasses; dentures; cosmetic surgery; acupuncture; hearing aids and exams for fitting them; and routine foot care.

Read more about what Medicare doesnt cover

Whats more, even with a $0 premium Medicare Advantage policy, which, not surprisingly, are increasingly popular, the policy deductible/out-of-pocket limit plus part B premiums can be more than $8,000 a year per spouse, or over $16,000 a year for the household, said Lonier.

Over 20 years, even without the high inflation that has been persistent in health care for decades, that can reach a $320,000 lifetime total for those who spend the max out-of-pocket every year, said Lonier. With typical higher than CPI health care inflation, the number could easily double over the next 20 years.

Adopt a healthy lifestyle

No one gets to choose their DNA, and so for some, poor health comes with a high cost they cant avoid, said Lonier.

For everyone, it clearly pays to adopt a healthy lifestyle dont smoke, drink moderately, exercise, eat a very healthy diet, and actively manage stress, he said. Cut your out-of-pocket costs in half, and a $16,000 a year per household expenses becomes $8,000 a year or less. Just as mom always said, your health is your most valuable asset never truer.

One planners approach

So, how does one financial planner who has to build retirement plans for his clients, incorporate Fidelitys estimate into his practice, in real life?

The Fidelity estimate is a good reminder that there is a lot that we do not know about our future expenses, says Steven Schwartz, president of Wealth Design Services. I have tried to incorporate a published number such has the Fidelity estimate in my planning models, but I always end up feeling that I am imposing a spending constraint that is too artificial. The reason is that we really have no way of knowing whether those expenses will materialize for any particular individual or when those expenses will materialize.

Ultimately, the way Schwartz has come to think about health care costs is to frame the problem around the structure of insurance.

Most insurance policies create a choice around how we share expenses, he said. We can choose to pay a higher premium, higher copays, deductibles or co-insurances or higher maximum out-of-pocket costs. We do cash flow planning in our firm rather than goals-based planning and build these short-term known costs into our plans rather than trying to think about the overall long-term costs that are possible. We probably get to the same place because I think that those costs are what make up the Fidelity number. However, at least for me, this is a more concrete way to approach the problem.

Visit link:
How to plan for health care in retirement without going broke - MarketWatch

Its the question that keeps older people up at night: Will the recommended$1 million in retirement savings actually be enough?

The answer depends in part on where you live, according toa new GOBankingRates study.

The $1 million figure is thrown around by AARP and others as the amount of savings needed to replace between 70 percent and 80 percent of a persons work income. But thats a rough estimate and there are a lot of variables in retirement planning: How large is that income you hope to replace? How long will you live? Should you count your home equity as part of your savings if youre not planning on selling your home? How will taxes and investment returns affect your retirement income? How will inflation affect your expenses? What happens if you suffer a sudden or long-term incapacitating illness?

The reality is that few retirees have saved anything close to $1 million. A 2016 BlackRock survey found that the average baby boomer between the ages of 55 and 65 had saved only $136,000 for retirement.

That means many people will need to stretch their savings and maybe relocate to the states where their money could last the longest.

GOBankingRates, a personal finance website, pegged Mississippi at the top of the list: In that state, $1 million could cover the needs of the average retiree for 26 years, 4 months. Hawaii is where youre likely to blow through those savings the fastest in 11 years, 11 months.

The website determined the average total annual expenses for people 65 and older (counting groceries, housing, utilities,transportation and health care) and then multiplied total expenses by each states cost-of-living index to calculate the state-specific yearly cost.Housing is generally the big ticket item.

The U.S. Census putsthe average retirement age at 63. At age 65, Americansaverage life expectancy is about 19 more years. So that leaves you with two decades during which savings, pensions, home equity and Social Security become your principal means of financial support.

If youve managed to sock away$1 million, here are the five states where GOBankingRates says it will last the longest:

Mississippi (26 years, 4 months)

Arkansas (25 years, 6 months)

Oklahoma (25 years, 2 months)

Michigan (25 years)

Tennessee (25 years)

And the seven states where it will disappear the fastest:

Hawaii (11 years, 11 months)

California (16 years, 5 months)

Alaska(17 years)

New York(17 years, 1 month)

Connecticut (17 years, 4 months)

Maryland (17 years, 4 months)

Massachusetts(17 years, 4 months)

How did your state fare? Check it out on the map below.

Read this article:
Here's How Long $1 Million In Retirement Savings Will Last In Your State - HuffPost

This research report was produced by Colorado Wealth Management Fund with assistance from Big Dog Investments.

Future retirees need to understand lifestyles play a major role in retiring. While some retirees may be just fine pulling in $30,000, others may be looking for significantly more. Here are a few things to consider when looking toward retirement:

These are very important questions when figuring out how to plan for retirement.

Maybe youre retired and only need to take into account your personal costs. If not, keep in mind any expenses which may occur:

These are all important questions and there are many more. Some retirees make it to retirement and haven't accounted for all the costs they would be taking on. Planning for retirement is essential for success.

Planning can be the difference between a $2,000,000 portfolio and having nothing. The number of people who arent investing in their future is heart-breaking. This isnt because they dont have the money to put aside. More often than not, its because they havent been taught to plan for their future, or in this case retirement. An investor who saves early and lives below their means may live lavishly in retirement, while someone making $120,000 a year before retirement may have nothing.

Trying to save for retirement and ordering pizza once a week? Stop it. Heres a chart from the University of Illinois:

Debt. That thing you shouldnt have in retirement. Find me someone who says they cant put money aside, and in almost every case Ill show you someone who is overspending (exclude single parents). Consequently, they are not saving as much money as they could. Credit card debt is an epidemic and retiring with it is generally a terrible idea. Pay off the highest interest rate and work down. Its sad to see so many people in debt and just ignoring massive interest rates. If a loan has an interest rate of 0.5% its a different story. High interest rate loans will eat into retirement income like cockroaches feasting during the middle of the night in a garbage can.

Planning on retiring at some point? It would be a good idea to take a year and pretend you are retired. During that year, track all your expenses. This should give a future retiree a good reference point for what income is needed. Also, make sure to be realistic about the returns you will get in a portfolio. Its much better to base your retirement on 3% to 4% a year according to the Trinity study. There is nothing wrong with targeting higher returns, but investors should build a suitable margin of safety.

But CWMF, you say 3% to 4% when the S&P 500 has seen massively higher annualized returns since inception. That is correct and should be a view for investors who are planning decades down the road. Once retired, retirees often cant sustain a significant drawdown. If youre retiring in 20 years, volatility is a smaller concern. If youre a retiree, you need to be more vigilant.

There will be some cases where portfolios are built around living off sustainable dividends. Most dividend champions will not see a cut to their dividend even in the event of a serious market panic.

There are several things to keep in mind when managing a portfolio. Here are a few:

Vanguard suggests investors consider long-term care insurance:

While you're considering your retirement health care coverage, give some serious thought to your needs 20 or 30 years down the road. There may come a time when you need ongoing care in a facility or at home.

Medicaid will only pay for long-term care once you've exhausted most of your financial resources. So if you hope to leave a legacy for your children or other loved ones, look into long-term care insurance.

The costs for these policies will increase as you get older, and you may not qualify at all if your health declinesso it's smart to consider buying a policy now.

Retirees could maximize their lifetime benefits from social security if they knew how long they would live. Generally speaking, retirees should wait as long as possible to claim if they believe they will live past 80. If they do not expect to reach 80, then they should file early. All of the complicated math can be boiled down to those simple estimates. However, investors should not delay Social Security payments while making payments on high interest rate loans. The growth rate for Social Security payments is generally in the 6% to 9% range for each additional year the benefits are delayed.

Colorado Wealth Management Fund and Big Dog Investments built two strong portfolios in this dividend stocks article. Given the criteria was that the companies must pay a dividend, these are good options for most retirees and investors with a long-time horizon.

Here are the portfolios:

Big Dog Investments

CWMF

1

(PM)

Philip Morris International Inc

(MO)

Altria Group, Inc.

3

(KO)

Coca-Cola Company

(TGT)

Target Corporation

4

(WMT)

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

(NNN)

National Retail Properties

5

(O)

Realty Income Corporation

(STOR)

STORE Capital Corporation

6

(JNJ)

Johnson & Johnson

(SKT)

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers,

7

(HD)

Home Depot, Inc. (The)

(TAP)

Molson Coors Brewing

8

(IBM)

International Business Machines

(VZ)

Verizon Communications Inc.

9

(T)

AT&T Inc.

(XOM)

Exxon Mobil Corporation

10

(AAPL)

Apple Inc.

(CVX)

Chevron Corporation

11

(ABBV)

AbbVie Inc.

(GD)

General Dynamics Corporation

12

(V)

Visa Inc.

(MA)

MasterCard Incorporated

13

(MMM)

3M Company

(LMT)

Lockheed Martin Corporation

14

(GM)

General Motors Company

(TSN)

Tyson Foods, Inc.

15

(KHC)

The Kraft Heinz Company

(GIS)

General Mills, Inc.

16

(DG)

Dollar General Corporation

(K)

Kellogg Company

17

(CSCO)

Cisco Systems, Inc.

See the article here:
How To Retire Early With Money - Seeking Alpha