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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="14544040" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nicole-shanahan" source="Orion">Nicole Shanahan</keyword> was married to Google co-founder <keyword id="12940163" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sergey-brin" source="Orion">Sergey Brin</keyword> for four years before the pair split.</li><li>Shanahan founded legal tech company ClearAccessIP before focusing on more philanthropic ventures.</li></ul><p>Nicole Shanahan is the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-affair-google-co-founder-sergey-brin-wife-2022-7">estranged wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin</a>, but her resumé includes much more than a four-year marriage to billionaire.</p><p>Shanahan — who made headlines after the <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Felon-musk-affair-sergey-brin-wife-divorce-11658674840%3FAID%3D11557093%26PID%3D6415797%26SID%3Dundefined%257C1658694208452wx239lsf%26subid%3DBusiness%2BInsider%26cjevent%3D7a9f1b510b8e11ed8382feaa0a82b82d%26tier_1%3Daffiliate%26tier_2%3Dmoa%26tier_3%3DBusiness%2BInsider%26tier_4%3D3861930%26tier_5%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.wsj.com%252Farticles%252Felon-musk-affair-sergey-brin-wife-divorce-11658674840">Wall Street Journal reported</a> that she had an affair with Tesla CEO <keyword id="11897862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elon-musk" source="Orion">Elon Musk</keyword> while she was married to Brin — is a California-based attorney and founder of legal tech company ClearAccessIP and the Bia-Echo Foundation.</p><p>She launched the foundation in 2019, and gave $100 million to social programs focused on efforts like improving the criminal justice system and climate change. The funding also supports fertility later in life, a topic she has firsthand experience with after struggling to become pregnant in her thirties, <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/nicole-shanahan-gives-100-million-for-reproductive-research-and-other-causes/">the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported.</a></p><p>The Bia-Echo Foundation's mission is to "invest in changemakers at the forefront of innovation" in the core areas of criminal justice reform, the health of the planet, and reproductive longevity and equality, according to its <a href="https://biaecho.org/">website.</a></p><p>Shanahan is also an academic fellow of CodeX, the Stanford Center of Legal Informatics, where she works on a project that applies data science to the prosecutorial process, according to the <a href="https://law.stanford.edu/directory/nicole-shanahan/">Stanford Law directory</a>.</p><p>Before Shanahan and Brin met at a yoga retreat in 2015, Shanahan was married to a finance executive, <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Felon-musk-affair-sergey-brin-wife-divorce-11658674840">the Wall Street Journal reported</a>.</p><p>The pair were first spotted together at a dating app CEO's island wedding, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lulu-ceo-alexandra-chong-jamaica-wedding-sergey-brin-richard-branson-kate-winslet-princess-eugenie-2015-6">according to Insider</a>.</p><p>Despite her reported initial struggles to become pregnant, the couple welcomed a daughter in 2018.</p><p>Shanahan spoke about her fertility struggles in an emotional speech at the launch of the Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality in 2019, <a href="https://pagesix.com/2019/10/02/google-founder-sergey-brin-marries-nicole-shanahan/">Page Six reported</a>.</p><p>"Like many women who are not quite ready to start a family in their early 30s, I decided, or so I thought at the time, to take matters into my own hands and freeze embryos," she said. "However, after three failed attempts at embryo-making and three dozen visits to in vitro fertilization clinics around the Bay Area, I learned that I was not nearly as unshakable as I thought I was."</p><p>In January, Brin filed for divorce after learning about the alleged affair between Shanahan and Musk, the Journal reported. The divorce proceedings are still ongoing.</p><p>"I hope for Sergey and I to move forward with dignity, honesty and harmony for the sake of our child," Shanahan <a href="https://puck.news/the-passion-of-s-b-f-the-next-mackenzie/">told Puck News</a> earlier this month in regards to the divorce. "And we are both working towards that."</p>

Who is Nicole Shanahan? Inside the life of Google co-founder Sergey Brin's estranged wife, who had an alleged affair with Elon Musk.

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>GoogleX is ramping up recruiting at Makani, hinting that the&#xa0;ambitious project to&#xa0;create "energy kites" that generate cheap wind power is moving closer to reality.<p>In the past few months, Google has posted more than 30 Makani job openings ,and a recent posting on the company's LinkedIn page boasts that the team is "growing rapidly."</p><p>The division has said that its experimental technology can produce 50% more energy with 90% less materials than traditional wind turbines.</p><p>The 16 most recent postings on Google's hardware engineering careers page advertise positions at Makani, including electrical engineer of avionics hardware, aerodynamicist, and offshore wind program manager.</p><p>Other postions hint that the project could be moving closer to releasing a real product. For example, Makani is looking for a sales engineer, to <span>b</span>e the "customer-facing expert on Makani's revolutionary new wind power technology as it's presented to customers for the first time."</p><p>Google acquired Makani in 2013, after investing $15 million in the startup several years before. It joined Google's moonshot lab, Google X, and has remained within X even as Google segmented itself into stand-alone divisions <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-alphabet-googles-new-company-2015-8">under parent company Alphabet earlier this year</a>.</p><p>Google has <a href="https://www.google.com/green/energy/">invested in</a> a variety of other alternative energy projects, including solar facilities and wind farms, mainly in an effort to use green energy in its massive data centers.</p><h2>Revolutionizing wind energy</h2><p>In typical GoogleX fashion, Makani's aims are "<a href="https://www.google.com/about/careers/search#!t=jo&amp;jid=148125001&amp;">uncomfortably ambitious</a>," but its efforts haven't been as broadly publicized&#xa0;as other moonshot projects like self-driving cars or Project Loon's internet bearing balloons.&#xa0;</p><p>Makani's tackling the idea that it's possible to use the same aerodynamic principles as conventional wind turbines, with lightweight electronics and smart software in place of massive amounts of steel.&#xa0;</p><p>Makani's&#xa0;energy "kites" don't resemble the type you see on beaches or in fields on windy days: They're plane-like machines tethered to ground stations. Rotors on the kite launch it high into the air, where it then starts to rotate, driving an on-board generator to produce electricity, which moves down its&#xa0;tether to a grid below.&#xa0;</p><p>Earlier this year, Makani started testing a 600kW energy kite in Alameda, California, and has been testing earlier versions of its machines in Hawaii since 2008.&#xa0;</p><p><div><p><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/makani-d2YYMaOSxs787rDW">via GIPHY</a></p></div></p><p>Makani's wind kites can reach higher altitudes than traditional wind turbines, which lets them access&#xa0;stronger and steadier winds&#xa0;to produce more energy. Plus, the require less ground space, which will&#xa0;them a more viable&#xa0;option than conventional wind turbines all around the world.&#xa0;</p><p>Here are the areas where wind speedswind speeds&#xa0;reach productive levels for traditional 100 meter turbines, versus Makani's kites, which reach 250 meters:</p><p><div><p><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/makani-26tPhPxMfTZOyRsvm">via GIPHY</a></p></div></p><p>"Wind power has been a source of renewable energy for decades, but only 3% of the world's power comes from the wind," <a href="http://www.google.com/makani/challenge/">Makani writes on its website</a>. "Incremental improvements to existing wind technologies are not enough to make clean energy globally significant."</p><p><div><p><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/makani-26tP9GEjSrRzvmFnG">via GIPHY</a></p></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Business Insider reached out to Google about its surplus of open positions at Makani and will update if we hear back.&#xa0;</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-solar-powered-internet-drones-2015-3">Facebook's ridiculously large drones will beam internet from the sky</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ZoZGY3dDoVTwPeVNsgH8H-kedfmIIFUt" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Google is ramping up hiring for its ambitious plan to make 'energy kites'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Google is starting a new, independent urban innovation company called <a href="http://www.sidewalkinc.com/">Sidewalk Labs</a> that aims to improve cities, according to a post on Google+ by CEO Larry Page. </p><p>Sidewalk will be run by Dan Doctoroff, former CEO of Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor of Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York, where the company will be based.</p><p>The company will focus on building new products, platforms and partnerships to address issues like cost of living, efficient transportation, and energy usage. </p><p>"While this is a relatively modest investment and very different from Google's core business, it's an area where I hope we can really improve people's lives, similar to Google[x] and Calico," Page writes. "Making long-term, 10X bets like this is hard for most companies to do, but Sergey and I have always believed that it's important. And as more and more people around the world live, work and settle in cities, the opportunities for improving our urban environments are endless."</p><p>Here's the full post:</p><p><span>Many of you are reading this post while living in a city. And you can probably think of a ton of ways you'd like your city to be better-more affordable housing, better public transport, less pollution, more parks and green spaces, safer biking paths, a shorter commute... the list goes on!</span><br><br><span>Many cities around the world have already made a lot of progress in some of these areas-for instance, developing dashboards to measure and visualize traffic patterns, and building tools that let residents instantly evaluate and provide feedback on city services. But a lot of urban challenges are interrelated-for example, availability of transportation affects where people choose to live, which affects housing prices, which affects quality of life. So it helps to start from first principles and get a big-picture view of the many factors that affect city life. Then, you can develop the technologies and partnerships you need to make a difference.</span></br></br></p><p><span>So I'm very excited about </span><span class="proflinkWrapper"><span class="proflinkPrefix">+</span><a href="https://plus.google.com/105315085491526678682" class="proflink aaTEdf">Sidewalk Labs</a></span><span>?, a new company we've announced today. (The press release is at </span><a href="http://www.sidewalkinc.com/" target="_blank" class="ot-anchor aaTEdf">www.sidewalkinc.com</a><span> if you want to read more).  Sidewalk will focus on improving city life for everyone by developing and incubating urban technologies to address issues like cost of living, efficient transportation and energy usage. The company will be led by Dan Doctoroff, former CEO of Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor of Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York. Every time I talk with Dan I feel an amazing sense of opportunity because of all the ways technology can help transform cities to be more livable, flexible and vibrant.  I want to thank +Adrian who helped to bring Dan on board.</span><br><br><span>While this is a relatively modest investment and very different from Google's core business, it's an area where I hope we can really improve people's lives, similar to Google[x] and Calico. Making long-term, 10X bets like this is hard for most companies to do, but Sergey and I have always believed that it's important. And as more and more people around the world live, work and settle in cities, the opportunities for improving our urban environments are endless. Now it's time to hit the streets and get to work! </span> </br></br></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kids-choose-between-iphone-and-samsung-2015-4">Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="JuZ2ppdDqpnTN4qk0JxJdpt7pBWqTiaj" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Google is starting a new company to improve cities

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Cobalt</span></p><p class="caption">Erik Schluntz and Travis Deyle (left) are the cofounders of Cobalt.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Security robotics company Cobalt raised $13 million in a Series A round of financing this year, despite putting together a pitch deck the night before meeting with VCs.</strong></li><li><strong>Cobalt's CEO Travis Deyle said the company wowed investors because it was able to deliver on two goals.</strong></li><li><strong>Deyle set out to have a product on the market within the first year and land a paying customer before building anything.</strong></li></ul><p>Raising venture capital for a startup is no cakewalk. There are high stakes, probing questions from investors, and an unspoken pressure from your employees to return to the office with a term sheet.</p><p>So it's noteworthy that Travis Deyle and <span>Erik Schluntz raised $13 million from investors for their security robotics company, <a href="https://www.cobaltrobotics.com/">Cobalt</a>, this year, despite putting so little time into preparing their pitch.</span></p><p>"Ours happened so quickly. That sounds cheesy, but we expected it to be a giant slog. The bar for a Series A is substantial," Deyle said.</p><p>He and his cofounder were out mixing with venture capitalists when the duo suggested, "Hey, we think we're going to raise in six months," Deyle told Business Insider. "Then it just kicked off into gear. We prepared our deck the night before our partner meeting."</p><p>Sequoia Capital, Storm Ventures, and Founders Fund are among the investors pouring <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/30/cobalt-raises-more-than-16-million-to-bring-security-robots-to-the-office.html">a total of $16.5 million</a> into Cobalt, which makes a roving, robotic security guard that can patrol offices, detect intruders, and alert human authorities in the event of an incident.</p><p>According to Deyle, Cobalt had two things going for it that made raising the Series A easier than it should have been.</p><p>Deyle and <span>Schluntz set two goals for the company before launching the business: <strong>have a product on the market within the first year, and land a paying customer before building anything.</strong> Those goals are ambitious for any startup, but especially for one building a five-foot-tall, all-seeing security robot with the intestines of a self-driving car.</span></p><p><span>Deyle said they delivered on both fronts (sort of), and that doing so wowed their potential investors into plunking down $13 million.</span></p><h2><span>Here's how they did it</span></h2><p><span>Deyle, who worked on developing <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-awarded-patent-for-solar-powered-contact-lens-2015-10">smart contact lenses</a> at GoogleX, and Schluntz, who was an intern at SpaceX before launching Cobalt, spent months interviewing people across industries to figure out what exactly they should build. They found demand for robots that could help companies save money on human security guards.</span></p><p><span>The first version of a Cobalt robot had sensors and wires tucked into gallon buckets that were bolted together. After some months, the robot got smarter - and more handsome. The company tapped Yves Behar and his design consultancy <a href="https://fuseproject.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fuseproject</a> to create a look and feel for the robot. Its matte blue body covered in fabric, which hides some 60 sensors, a thermal camera, and a carbon monoxide detector underneath, is more reminiscent of the Roomba than RoboCop.</span></p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Cobalt</span></p><p class="caption">An employee engages a security robot from Cobalt.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p>Cobalt started testing the robot at a nurse staffing company in the San Francisco Bay Area, before landing its first customer, which Deyle declined to name, in the first 12 months of the company's existence. Deyle said he also had handshake agreements with other potential customers before Cobalt came out of stealth mode.</p><p>"Our business model is sound," Deyle said. "There's no quantum leap in technology. We do not have to get to 100% autonomy in order for our business model to work. Our business model works as it is."</p><p>Right now, there are only a handful of Cobalt robots patrolling offices, warehouses, and manufacturing sites across the Bay Area and the company's second market, Chicago.</p><p>The company decided it was ready to raise a Series A when customers started asking if they could lease more robots for their offices.</p><p>Deyle said he aims to use the cash infusion from Sequoia to expand their coverage. Cobalt plans to maintain operations hubs in every city where it has customers, so the company can quickly deploy backup robots if a customer encounters an issue with their unit.</p><p>Having a product on the market for a year means there are already fewer surprises, and fewer breakdowns, according to Deyle. It's one of the biggest advantages of building a company in such short time.</p><p>"The real world is your biggest challenge," Deyle said. "So let's get the bots out of the labs and into real environments."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pepper-humanoid-robot-interview-softbank-robotics-2018-7">We interviewed Pepper - the humanoid robot</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

This 35-year-old walked away from Google to start a robotics company that's raised $16 million - here's his best advice for building a company in just one year

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Long-time Twitter engineering exec Alex Roetter, who left the company a year ago as part of Twitter's never ending talent exodus, has surfaced at a startup building flying cars, Business Insider has confirmed.</p><p>He's working at Kitty Hawk, the secretive startup backed by Google co-founder Larry Page.</p><p>Very little is known about Kitty Hawk, except that it's somehow associated with Page's more established flying car startup, Zee.Aero. Both Kitty Hawk and Zee.Aero were funded in 2010 and Zee.Aero calls itself "a division of Kitty Hawk" and employs around 100 people, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/zee.aero">according to its LinkedIn profile</a>. </p><p>However, Kitty Hawk is believed to be building a different version of a flying car than Zee.Aero. It is working on some kind of autonomous flying passenger vehicle and it employs about 30 people directly, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/6824093/">according to LinkedIn.</a></p><p>Kitty Hawk also claims Sebastian Thrun as its president, th­e father of Google's self-driving tech and founder of its Google X research division.</p><p>Roetter is VP of Software at Kitty Hawk, though his exact role and responsibilities at the secretive startup remain unclear.</p><h2>The Larry Page connection</h2><p>Roetter is an interesting hire. He launched his career at Google in 2002, the pre-IPO days, hence the Larry Page connection. But he's best known as the guy who created Twitter's ad tools Advertiser, Publisher and Exchange (APEX), growing Twitter from near zero revenue to almost $2.5 billion a year. He was also involved in other products like Fabric (the developer tool <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2017/01/18/google-acquires-fabric-from-twitter/">sold to Google earlier this year</a>). </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Roetter took over as the head of all of Twitter's engineering in May, 2014, replacing Chris Fry (who made news back in the day for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-fry-leaves-twitter-2014-5">his $10 million pay package</a>. Fry just landed at Medium, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-meltdown-of-evan-williams-startup-medium-2017-2">media startup by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams.)</a></p><p>At Twitter, Roetter was known as a hands-off kind of leader. But in 2015, he was in the middle of a controversy when Twitter <a href="https://www.recode.net/2015/11/5/11620410/twitter-engineering-lead-alex-roetter-apologizes-for-diversity-issues">was accused of a diversity problem.</a> In a now-deleted post on Medium, he took responsibility and vowed to do better.</p><p>Today Twitter is known as a good place to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-powerful-female-engineers-of-2017-2017-2">be a woman engineer,</a> developers have told Business Insider, although its percentage of women in technical roles remains about on par with <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/2017/building-a-more-inclusive-twitter-in-2016">the overall industry's sad stat: 15%. </a></p><p>Twitter is still known as having a glass ceiling when it comes to women in engineering leadership roles, one developer told us. On the other hand, we also heard that Roetter tried to change that. Out of the four senior technical leaders that reported to him, two were women, we understand.</p><p>If all of this sounds like a strange fit for an autonomous flying car startup, Roetter is also a pilot who spent a couple of years working <a href="http://lauferwind.com/">on aircraft detection systems for wind farms</a> before joining Twitter. So this must be a dream job for him.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-taking-samsung-galaxy-8-features-2017-3">Apple is turning the next iPhone into a Samsung Galaxy phone</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="UxOG40YTE69ZuVeV3bo9jk6EWDRa_3gd" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Twitter's former head engineer is now helping Larry Page build self-flying cars

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Craig Barritt/Getty" title_caption="Google CEO Ruth Porat" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5615901f9dd7cc1e008c026f-960/ruth porat.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Craig Barritt/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">Google CEO Ruth Porat</p></div><p></p></div></div>Last week, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-officially-becomes-alphabet-today-2015-10">Google officially became Alphabet</a>, following through on the plans announced in August to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-new-operating-structure-2015-8">blow up its corporate structure</a> to allow its different businesses to move faster.</p><p>Google's <keyword id="53346" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="CFO">CFO</keyword>, Ruth Porat, who joined the company <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-ruth-porat-new-google-cfo-2015-3">only a few months before</a> the Alphabet announcement, just made it clear on stage <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/vanity-fair-new-establishment-summit">at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit</a> that one of the company's core ideas isn't going away. </p><p>Google CEO Sundar Pichai is still thinking about the "70/20/10" rule that Larry Page and Sergey Brin set out when the company got started, she said.</p><p>The idea is that Google spends 70% of its resources on core businesses, 20% on adjacent businesses, and 10% on new exciting opportunities.</p><p>This wasn't necessarily a foregone conclusion.</p><p>Alphabet separates the money-making and more established parts of Google - with core businesses like search, YouTube, and Android - from the businesses that used to make up that 10%, like its "moonshot" factory GoogleX, the Nest connected home products, its robotics division, and its Sidewalk Labs city-improvement projects.</p><p>Right now, almost all of Alphabet's money comes from Google's advertising business (with perhaps a teeny-tiny bit coming from hardware maker Nest). So, it would make sense that the remaining part of the company that's still called "Google" would put <em>all</em> its energy and resources into growing the core business, while the other subsidiary Alphabet companies are working on newer opportunities like self-driving cars and curing death.</p><p>Not so, says Porat.</p><p>"Innovation within Google is still key to the overall Alphabet family as a whole," she said.  </p><p>The topic came up in response to a question about the risk of Alphabet talent no longer being able to easily move between divisions, like they could when it was all one company under Google.</p><p>The risk of losing talented employees existed before the restructure, and it will continue to exist now that Google has become Alphabet, she said: Now, if you're not creating the best, most creative environment, you could lose someone to another company - or another Alphabet company.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/map-states-most-cheating-ashley-madison-hacker-cyber-2015-8">Ashley Madison hack reveals the states where people cheat the most</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="VjcXU3dzqzL92n8kTGCOUVDuP4Ie0r_7" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Google won't leave all the crazy ideas to the Alphabet teams, says CFO

<p class="source"><span>Mariana Bazo/Reuters</span></p>A concentrated chocolate brew that is said to induce <span>mind-altering</span> experiences is taking over San Francisco.<p>The cacao drink is made from raw cocoa beans mixed with c<span>hili or cayenne pepper and a sweetener. People say it <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/08/i-tried-to-get-high-on-chocolate-with-help-from-a-shaman.html">tastes like</a> bitter coffee cut with dirt. </span></p><p><span>When consumed in "ceremonial" quantities (over 40 grams), the mixture produces a wide range of reactions, from feelings of connectness and ecstasy to hallucinations, according to devotees. For centuries, the Aztec and Mayan peoples <a href="http://jn.nutrition.org/content/130/8/2057S.full">used the cacao drink as a natural remedy</a> to relieve fever and faintness and improve digestion, among other ailments. </span><span>Its effectiveness as a hallucinogen has not been established in scientific research, however.<br /></span></p><p>The feelings induced by the plant-based drink are <a href="https://the-numinous.com/what-is-a-cacao-ceremony/">said to be so dramatic</a>, some users compare it to "<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cacao-this-years-fashionable-superfood-3ddnfr62t">instant therapy</a>."</p><p>In San Francisco, the cacao drink is gaining popularity with the New Age crowd. While you won't find techies sipping on cacao in coffee shops, ceremonies centered on the bean seem to <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/d/ca--san-francisco/cacao/?mode=search">pop up on the calendar</a> of healing collectives, tea houses, and yoga studios on a regular basis.</p><p>Palomi Sheth, a holistic wellness coach based in San Francisco, has been experimenting with cacao since she first tried it on a medical mission trip to Peru years ago. She became close with a cook who offered a cup of the cacao drink to her one morning after breakfast.</p><p>Sheth remembers a warming sensation coming over her body. Her cheeks flushed, and her heart raced. A feeling of openness grew in her chest. "It was magical," Sheth said.</p><p>She asked the cook to teach her how to make the brew and learned to perform the ancient Mesoamerican rituals around serving it. Sheth credits the cacao drink with helping her survive marathon study sessions and the blues through medical school.</p><p>For her birthday this year, Sheth spent half the day standing over the blender in her kitchen, grinding cacao beans and pouring the mixture into jars and water jugs. That night, 100 of her friends rotated through her apartment. Sheth led a ceremony that involves setting an intention - a common practice in meditation and yoga - and serving the brew. They drank in unison.</p><p>The group reflected on their bonds until the late hours of the morning. "They had never felt so connected," Sheth said.</p><p><span>Web searches for cacao have steadily risen in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2015, <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US-CA-807&amp;q=cacao">according to Google Trends</a>, though those searches certainly extend beyond the bean's recreational use. (Some might just want to watch <a href="https://www.hulu.com/watch/210891">this memorable "Portlandia" sketch</a>, for instance.)</span></p><p><a href="http://www.thecentersf.com/">The Center SF</a>, a tea shop and community center located in the Alamo Square neighborhood, hosts semi-regular "cacao ceremonies" led by musician and a self-proclaimed medicine man. The events offer the cacao drink as well as "an opportunity to connect with one's true purpose."</p><p>The duo behind another group, the <a href="http://www.thekulacollective.com/cacao-tour.html">Kula Collective</a>, travels up and down the West Coast in a campervan and holds cacao ceremonies in yoga studios along the way. The website describes using the cacao drink to "<span>open clear channels between" the body, the heart, and a divine spirit.</span></p><p>The cacao drink's popularity extends into San Francisco's tech community. Sena Shellenberger, a program manager at Google[X], <a href="http://senashakti.com/cacao">prepares her own cacao and leads ceremonies</a> in the Bay Area. According to her website, she also offers coaching for cacao enthusiasts who want to become facilitators. A review on her website describes the work as "transformative."</p><p>There is little scientific research to suggest the cacao drink can cause psychoactive effects, though a ceremonial dose of the elixir may be enough to trigger warm and fuzzy feelings. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23420115">One study</a> found that its main active ingredient - theobromine, which translates to "food of the gods" in Greek - may <span>increase heart rate and make users feel high</span>. Cacao <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2089097-can-food-get-you-high-we-try-a-meal-of-psychoactive-substances/">also contains </a><span><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2089097-can-food-get-you-high-we-try-a-meal-of-psychoactive-substances/">tryptophan</a>, which makes people feel calm and relaxed when ingested in high amounts.</span></p><p><span>More research is needed on the effects of drinking concentrated amounts of cacao.</span></p><p><span>Sheth hopes that as cacao ceremonies gain mainstream traction, people take the time to learn and honor the ancient traditions around it. </span><span>She continues to perform the sacred rituals in preparing and serving the cacao drink and consumes it out of large Mason jars, often daily.</span></p><p>"It doesn't look strange," Sheth said. "It's the Bay Area - people are drinking all kinds of sludge."</p>                        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sweets-chocolate-candy-melt-food-sugar-satisfying-fun-2017-4">Watching sweets and chocolate melt in fast motion is strangely hypnotic</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

San Franciscans are obsessed with 'cacao ceremonies,' where they claim to get high on chocolate

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.astroteller.net/images/SXSWTalk.png">Astroteller.net</a></span></p><p class="caption">Astro Teller</p></div><p></p></div></div>Astro Teller, Head of Moonshots at Google[X], spoke about how seamless technology should be in our lives at TechCrunch Disrupt New York this morning.</p>
<p>Right now, there's a feeling that being connected to the Internet all the time and clinging to our phones makes us less aware of our surroundings.</p>
<p>But Teller doesn't think being always connected is the problem or even that it's rude. Instead, he feels the annoyance with technology is a sign our current hardware isn't good enough. He gave the example of anti-lock brakes, and how seamlessly your car comes to a stop when you lightly tap on your car's pedal. You barely realize you're doing it, you're still focused on driving, and the car still knows to stop.</p>
<p>"When technology reaches that level of invisibility in our lives, its highest and best purpose, it vanishes into our lives. It meets us 100% of the way over on our side of the fence. You don't have to do the work, it'll do the work," Teller says of the brake scenario.</p>
<p>"We know in our hearts that technology at its best should make us feel even more human than we currently feel. Sometimes it makes us feel less human. There's this thinking that that's inherently the case, that by being always connected, it prevents us from being present. I don't think I buy that. There's no law of physics that says just because we're connected, there has to be a schism between our physical life and our digital lives. That's just a phenomenon created by tech in its current state. In the bigger picture,  technology should be like anti-lock breaks."</p>

The Only Reason It Feels Rude To Be On Your Phone 24/7 Is Because Technology Isn't Good Enough Yet, Says Google Exec

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Re/code, Asa Mathat</span></p><p class="caption">Google cofounder Sergey Brin.</p></div><p></p></div></div>In 1996, <span>Sergey Brin </span> and his Stanford Ph.D. classmate Larry Page started developing what would become the Google search engine.</p><p>Today, Google is one of the world's largest companies, with a market cap of more than $450 billion. Brin oversees GoogleX and Special Projects, divisions responsible for developing world-changing technology like driverless cars.</p><p>In a 2000 <a href="http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/pag0int-1">interview with the Academy of Achievement</a> nonprofit, conducted when Google was still four years away from its initial public offering, Brin revealed some of the books that inspired him to dedicate his career to blending technology and creativity.</p><h2 id="firstHeading" lang="en">"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393316041/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0393316041&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=EFSXDNTRTX6BOYOF">Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!</a>" by Richard P. Feynman</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Feynman (1918-1988) won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in quantum electrodynamics and remains a giant in his field. He is perhaps best known in pop culture for his entertaining autobiographical works, especially "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", first published in 1985.</p><p>"Aside from making really big contributions in his own field, he was pretty broad-minded," Brin told <a href="http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/pag0int-1">the Academy of Achievement</a>. "I remember he had an excerpt where he was explaining how he really wanted to be a Leonardo [da Vinci], an artist and a scientist. I found that pretty inspiring. I think that leads to having a fulfilling life."</p><p>Feynman, who created a portfolio of drawings and paintings under the pseudonym "Ofey," <a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/32133/richard-feynmans-ode-flower">explained in a 1981 BBC </a><a href="http://mentalfloss.com/article/32133/richard-feynmans-ode-flower">interview</a> how art and science complement each other: "I have a friend who's an artist and ... he says, 'I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing,' and I think that he's kind of nutty. ...</p><p>"I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. ... All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower."</p><h2>"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553380958/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0553380958&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thebusiinsi-20&amp;linkId=SXJN5SBV63JAVKN3">Snow Crash</a>" by Neal Stephenson</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Amazon</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Brin said he is a big sci-fi fan, and Stephenson's acclaimed 1992 novel "Snow Crash" is one of his favorites.</p><p>In 2010, Time named it <a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/snow-crash-1992-by-neal-stephenson/">one of the 100 best novels in the English language published since the magazine's founding in 1923</a>.</p><p>It takes place in a dystopian near-future where the US has been replaced by corporate microstates and a computer virus is killing programmers.</p><p>Within the complex, fun story, Stephenson predicts the rise of online social networks and what would become Google Earth in 2004.</p><p>The book "was really 10 years ahead of its time," Brin said.</p><p>"It kind of anticipated what's going to happen, and I find that really interesting."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-science-projects-sidewalk-labs-2015-6">Here are all of Google's awesome science projects - that we know about</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ZtN3hsdTqYK9TxBIngQEpdp4rrLU4ouo" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "googlex" and got 9 results

Who is Nicole Shanahan? Inside the life of Google co-founder Sergey Brin's estranged wife, who had an alleged affair with Elon Musk.

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Google is ramping up hiring for its ambitious plan to make 'energy kites'

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This 35-year-old walked away from Google to start a robotics company that's raised $16 million - here's his best advice for building a company in just one year

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Twitter's former head engineer is now helping Larry Page build self-flying cars

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Google won't leave all the crazy ideas to the Alphabet teams, says CFO

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San Franciscans are obsessed with 'cacao ceremonies,' where they claim to get high on chocolate

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The Only Reason It Feels Rude To Be On Your Phone 24/7 Is Because Technology Isn't Good Enough Yet, Says Google Exec

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Google cofounder Sergey Brin says these 2 books changed his life

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