Rex Murphy on COVID-19: The power to censor speech and other great ideas from our Liberal overlords – National Post

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Danzig

If there is one positive thing that can be said about this terrible plague were enduring, it is that now and then, it gives the Trudeau government some really, really great ideas.

Sure it was only a couple of weeks ago that the Liberals came up with the idea that they a minority in Parliament, remember should give themselves the power to tax and spend for the next two years, without having to get parliamentary approval. It was a truly brilliant idea, except that it ignored the fact that approving government spending is one of the most important functions of Parliament. Take away its authority over spending and the House of Commons might just as well be any old bingo hall, or with a little imaginative renovation, a one-of-a-kind Costco store.

Now, compliments of Privy Council President Dominic LeBlanc, we learned that the Liberal government is contemplating legislation to make it an offence to, as a CBC report put it, knowingly spread misinformation that could harm people. In plain language, this government is openly thinking of making itself the official censor of what can and cannot be said about COVID-19. Pure brilliance again, dont you agree?

Well, actually, no. Dont even think of it. Better still, to borrow a phrase from Greta Thunberg: how dare you? There is already a government that has that power, and in some cases brutally exercises it. That is the government of the Communist Party of China.

And what has it done with that power? It barred telling the truth about COVID-19, and instead told lies about it. On the where it happened, when it happened, how it happened and how it spread, the Chinese government confounded, confused and lied about a plague that has now hobbled the whole planet. And China officially reprimanded the doctor who initially tried to warn people about the coronavirus, and who, with dread irony, actually died from it. (A postmortem apology followed from the government. That surely helped.) Admire the Chinese government if thats your thing, but on this subject, it is not an example to be followed.

So, lets tap this serpent of an idea on its little head before its fangs emerge and it develops a real appetite. The problem with government having control over what is said and written, completely aside from it being the utter contradiction of a liberal democracy, is that governments especially on a matter such as this pandemic are simply not competent enough to know what is right and what is wrong.

What is required for a government to pass a law against misinformation? To begin with, it presumes an infallible authority thats able to make judgments on what is, or is not, correct information. Even worse, it presumes the government has the ability to make judgments on a matter that, incontestably, is not yet fully understood by anybody.

This virus is new. The investigation of its nature, transmission, the best policies to confront it, the extent of the response to it, even the nature of the response all of these elements are, at best, in an incomplete and early stage of understanding.

Experts have varying degrees of skill and knowledge. If experts disagree, which happens often, will some of them be silenced? In actuality, a divergence of opinions can be seen as a path to the full truth emerging. But this cannot happen if the government gags those who may seem to be wrong at the present moment.

On the purely political front, there are equal objections to giving government censorship powers. Governments take to extensions of their power like bears to honey. The more power they get, the more they believe they alone should exercise it. Power swells the ego. Add more power, and if you follow the analogy, a little balloon soon thinks its the Hindenburg. And a government swollen with power does not like other voices.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau barred the leader of the Opposition from joining talks with other opposition leaders because, in Trudeaus own memorable words, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer disqualified himself from constructive discussions with his unacceptable speech earlier today.

Yet it is not for Trudeau, or any other prime minister, to determine what is acceptable speech from his constitutionally positioned critic, the leader of the Opposition. Nor is it proper for this minority government, which has had enough struggles of its own over misinformation on masks, on screening at airports, on our relative security from the pandemic to decide what the rest of us can, and cannot, say or write about this unique crisis.

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Rex Murphy on COVID-19: The power to censor speech and other great ideas from our Liberal overlords - National Post

News on News: Reflecting on institutional censorship and the conversations with the experts – Grand Valley Lanthorn

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Danzig

Over the course of the semester, the Lanthorn will be conducting an editorial series titled News on News revolving around how news is consumed today, the concept of fake news and the fight journalists continue to fight to have their voices be heard.

Over doing this editorial series, I learned a lot about how journalists think and learned some helpful lessons as to how to react to institutional pressures.

I highlighted the importance of the #FreeIgnace movement, the beninese journalist who is sadly still incarcerated for simply doing his job. I talked to students who have experienced censorship, both in their time at GVSUand in the Ukraine.

I learned some important lessons from journalists who continue to fight the good fight, whether it be Matthew Kauffman leading the charge to free Ignace Sossou or Raymond Joseph continuing to investigate a corrupt South African lottery system.

These journalists and students speaking out against the powers that be has always been important, but is crucial now more than ever, as Americans everywhere are staying in their homes trying to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

While journalists are not doing the work of essential workers and nurses and doctors working the front lines to fight the virus, those spreading news to the public are in the next tier below. Now more than ever, citizens around the world are looking towards local and national news.

As journalists, we have a responsibility to give the public accurate news, especially in this time of crisis. One of my roles as a part-time assignment editor at Fox 17 is to answer the phone of nervous viewers. Here are what the majority of those calls have consisted of the past few weeks:

Hey, my boss is making us go in to work, but my wife and I are nervous about me getting infected. What do I do to report them?

How do I file for unemployment?

Im about to run out of rent money ever since I lost my job, where can I turn to if I end being homeless in the next few weeks?

My daughter needs her heart medicine to survive. Is it even safe to go into pharmacies right now?

The Walmart by me is not practicing social distancing. Is there anything you guys can do about that?

While it can be nice to provide people with certain resources to help them get what they need in this worldwide pandemic, its a lot of pressure to try to help these people, who appear to have nowhere else to go.

I am nowhere near a guidance counselor or a life coach or a motivational speaker, but I have had to play all of those roles in these phone calls. While I struggle to sleep at night thinking of the thousands of people struggling just in West Michigan alone, its through these phone calls that I have realized that journalists are more than writers, editors, reporters, broadcaster and anchors: we have a job to help people in this time of crisis.

Phone calls such as the ones above are the reason why I am confident I will stay in journalism. As Kauffman and Gamble and Joseph advised in our interviews, journalists need to have thick skin; not just in dealing with criticism and institutional censorship and threats, but also helping those in need, whether that be in providing accurate information, conducting an investigation, or simply giving news consumers a guiding light and someone to talk to.

Through this editorial series, it has been reiterated to me that thick skin and a refusal to back down is a crucial skill that every young journalist needs to develop.

We will face criticism. We will face threats. We will be called pigs and biased, and our writing will be deemed as fake news and thats on the tame end of the criticism. But for every negative message towards us, the positive support comes through tenfold, and knowing that we have a truly important role informing and helping people makes this job more worth it than I ever could have imagined.

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News on News: Reflecting on institutional censorship and the conversations with the experts - Grand Valley Lanthorn

Facebook Pandemic Philanthropy Overshadowed by Its Censoring of Protests – Breitbart

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Danzig

Some media are praising Facebook for donating $100 million to small businesses and other acts, but they are also putting a positive spin on the tech giants efforts to censor its users for organizing groups around the country to protest state lockdowns.

The Verge website reported its Facebook-favorable version of the ongoing story:

Facebook is a publicly traded company that mostly operates in rational and predictable ways. Facebook is also a collection of posts from more than 2 billion people, and an enduring lesson from the companys history is that those people often operate in irrational and unpredictable ways. This weekend we got to witness an important tension between the two.

Facebook the company is fighting the good fight against the global pandemic. It has donated more than $100 million to small businesses and is prominently displaying vetted information from public health authorities across Facebook and Instagram. It released maps illustrating regional mobility patterns that have informed elected officials decisions to close parks and beaches. Its using machine-learning systems to help hospitals anticipate spikes in demand for intensive care unit beds, ventilators, and other supplies.

And on Monday, the company announced early results from its symptom tracker, which is asking people across the country to self-report their health status in a survey conducted by Carnegie Mellon University. Two weeks in, researchers say that results from the tracker correlate with available public health data, suggesting that the 150,000 reports a day the survey is generating can be used as an effective surrogate for in-person surveys. On Wednesday the survey will go international, in coordination with researchers at the University of Maryland.

But when it comes to reporting that almost one million people have expressed interest in attending the recent open America protests, the tone quickly goes negative and implies people who attend them are breaking the law.

But while Facebook the company works on its maps and its symptom trackers, Facebook the user base continues to post in sometimes dangerous ways, The Verge reporter wrote. And then over the past week, some people began using Facebook to organize protests of legal orders to stay home.

By Monday there were 100 state-specific groups, with more than 900,000 members who had organized at least 49 events, NBC News reported.

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos interviewed FacebookCEO Mark Zuckerberg about the censorship.

We do classify that as harmful misinformation and we take that down, Zuckerberg said. At the same time, its important that people can debate policies, so theres a line on this, you know, more than normal political discourse. I think a lot of the stuff that people are saying that is false around a health emergency like this can be classified as harmful misinformation.

The Verge writer then goes on to compare these open America protesters to the Islamic State (ISIS).

These are the same mechanics that helped fueled the rise of anti-vaccination zealots, ISIS, and most famously Russian election interference, The Verge reported. They are mechanics that benefit enormously from Facebooks vast reach and its commitment to permit the maximum amount of speech. And they are mechanics that seem to be working basically as well as they ever have.

And so on one hand you have Facebook the company working to stop the spread of the pandemic, and on the other you have a small but growing group of users working to exacerbate it, The Verge alleged.

As Breitbart News reported, the media leaves facts about Americans rights out of coverage:

Protests and demonstrations, like other forms of lawful speech, are constitutionally protected. The First Amendment of the United States, in addition to protecting freedom of expression and religion, also specifically protects the right of the people peaceably to assemble.

President Donald Trump has been criticized for supporting protesters, saying it is their right to do so.

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Facebook Pandemic Philanthropy Overshadowed by Its Censoring of Protests - Breitbart

Lady Chatterley’s censor: Almost 60 years ago, a court case looked to save us from ourselves – The Big Smoke Australia

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Danzig

Almost 60 years ago, Lady Chatterleys lover brought sex and lust into the courtroom and changed the way we thought about censoring literature.

What is it about literature and censorship? Some of the most influential books ever written have been censored because someone thought they were an affront to common decency, whatever that means. John Miltons Areopagitica (1644) was banned for political reasons; Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) was banned for being racially insensitive; JD Salingers The Catcher in the Rye (1951) apparently undermined morality. Melvilles Moby Dick (1851), Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Baldwins Another Country (1962), Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Nabokovs Lolita (1955), all banned. As recently as 1987, Toni Morrisons Beloved (1987), Salman Rushdies The Satanic Verses (1988) and Dan Browns The Da Vinci Code (2003) were banned in some countries. In 2015 copies of Bret Easton Elliss American Psycho (1991) were confiscated from Australian bookshops because they werent shrink-wrapped.

So many books, so many bans.

One book had a massive impact on the public perception of censorship: Lady Chatterleys Lover, DH Lawrences most famous or perhaps infamous work, which was finally published in Britain in 1960, thirty-two years after hed finished it and thirty years after Lawrence himself died from tuberculosis at the age of 44.

Lady Chatterleys Lover was published in Italy back in 1928, but its sexual explicitness was quickly labelled unmitigated smut; the book was declared obscene and banned in Britain and the United States.

It wasnt Lawrences first brush with the censors. The Rainbow (1915), the novel that followed his remarkable 1913 work Sons and Lovers was also judged obscene and banned after publication. Copies of The Rainbow were unceremoniously seized and burned, the authorities outraged at Lawrences candour regarding sexual attraction and yearning. Such notoriety made it difficult for him to find a publisher for Women in Love, published in 1920, three years after hed written it. Next came Lady Chatterleys Lover.

The story revolves around Connie, the free-thinking wife of an aristocrat whose wartime injuries have left him paralysed from the waist down. She has a few flings, but when the new gamekeeper Oliver arrives on the estate, Connie is instantly aroused. Just the sight of him sensuous, muscular, masculine is enough. Oliver exudes the vitality her husband lacks. At first he rejects her advances, mindful of the social divide that separates them, but before long their encounters are pretty torrid, Lawrence describing fiery loins, helplessly desiring hands and orgasms. It was all a little too much for the establishment.

The novel is about sex and sexual desire, but its also about class and social divides and the very real search for intimacy. And importantly, its also about the aftermath of World War I, which left so many men crippled either physically, emotionally or both. As well, its said to reflect elements of Lawrences own situation with his wife Freida, a complicated relationship to say the least. Freida had affairs, claiming Lawrence was impotent; they fought, they made up. But were not going into that here.

For a week during late 1960, publishers Penguin Books had to fight at the Old Bailey for the right to publish Lawrences novel banned under the Obscene Publications Act as a cheap paperback, which would make it affordable for most people. The prosecution maintained the ban should stay, that its pornographic elements far outweighed any consideration of literary merit, and that the liberal use of certain Anglo-Saxon four-letter words was disgusting. They felt it was far too raunchy for the masses to read.

Naturally, the defence argued that the books literary qualities and the novelists status as an author of significance should take precedence over prudish notions of what constituted obscenity. The defence called some 35 witnesses, among them academics and writers (including noted authors EM Forster, Cecil Day-Lewis and Rebecca West) to attest to the literary and inherently moral value of the controversial book. An eminent bishop testified that Lawrences depictions of sex were the equivalent of an act of holy communion.

The prosecuting lawyer was a pillar of the priggish upper class, which was in many ways far more horrified by the notion of inter-class adultery than by the use of obscene language. Generally speaking, the legal profession at that time was overly concerned with public morality; lawyers felt they had a duty to protect the public from perceived filth. He read out many descriptions of lovemaking from the book clearly meant to shock listeners, but was informed by witnesses that such descriptions, including the use of the words fuck, shit, arse etc were entirely appropriate in the circumstances. His next question was met with absolute hilarity in the court:

Would you approve of your young sons, young daughters because girls can read as well as boys reading this book? Is it a book you would have lying around your own house? Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your servants to read?

Not many people had servants in 1960; juries were made up of ordinary working people (this particular jury included a butcher, a labourer and a machinist), and how out of touch was this man who had seemingly only recently discovered that girls could read as well as boys? He misjudged that one; the jury took a mere three hours to determine that Lady Chatterleys Lover did not contravene the Obscene Publications Act.

The beginning of the 1960s saw conservative attitudes beginning to take a back seat. Young people were moving away from the staid and proper behaviour of their parents and grandparents. Outlooks were changing. Even attitudes towards the trial were liberal, some newspaper editorials suggesting the money spent on prosecuting a work of literature would have been better spent in the investigation of actual exploitative pornography.

But social change is slow and there were many who were thoroughly outraged by the decision. They lodged official complaints and there were incidents of book burning. Some worried their children would be corrupted by the book.

Reports say that three million copies of Lady Chatterleys Lover were sold in the few months following the trial, people keen to see what all the fuss was about and no doubt looking forward to some titillation. Over the years, Lawrences lurid descriptions of sex have lost some impact were almost bombarded with sex these days but as already touched upon, the novel isnt just about a blistering liaison. Lawrence examines the impact of industry in post-war England and has much to say on the apparent differences between the aristocracy and the working class. Its this, as much as his characterisations and explorations of what makes people tick that make him an author of renown.

Looking at the case now, its clear that Penguins victory had a lasting impact. For one thing, the governments jurisdiction over personal morality had weakened. Censorship was now being seen as an infringement of individual judgement and private ethics. Interestingly, in 1971 when the Australian-born editors of Oz magazine were tried and convicted under the Obscene Publications Act, their conviction was quickly overturned.

Lady Chatterleys Lover was in a way a victory for liberalism, the notion that a book could lead people to live a debauched lifestyle dismissed out of hand.

Can certain literature truly corrupt us? Or does it just make for expensive court cases?

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Lady Chatterley's censor: Almost 60 years ago, a court case looked to save us from ourselves - The Big Smoke Australia

The ADL wants to fight hate in video games, but ham-fisted CENSORSHIP is the last thing we gamers need – RT

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Danzig

The Anti-Defamation League, which previously sought to outlaw the OK sign and Pepe the Frog, is now setting its sights on hate speech in video games. The gaming community can be toxic, but ADL-level censorship is not the answer.

Issues when it comes to the gaming community are never easy to tackle. Especially when it comes to the way that people decide to speak online. It goes without saying that inhibitions are dialed down on the internet. People will often speak in a way that they never would in public, when they realize they wont get fined, arrested, socially canceled or struck down by God if they drop a racist or homophobic slur. There were moments of playing Call of Duty 4 years ago where Id mute every single person whenever Id enter a match. The last thing I wanted to hear when shooting terrorists was some thirteen year old squawking like hes Richard Spencer at Charlottesville.

There are absolutely reprehensible things that are said on the internet. You can browse 4chan for ten seconds to realize that. But when it comes to gaming, especially competitive match environments, trash talk is almost part of the deal. People do it, and some tend to take it too far. Thats undisputable. Whats also undisputable is that there are already methods in place to deal with it. There exist mechanisms for reporting and banning players who break community rules which in virtually any game with a chat (voice or text) include prohibitions against racism, homophobia and other ways of inciting hatred.

Are those measures perfect? No. It goes without saying that, from the developers perspective, it probably feels like herding cats. But these arent idiots who are developing these games. They have experience and they have the agency to make their own rules for their own games and the interactions within.

Whether or not gamers feel safe with the community rules and the way they are enforced, they can decide for themselves by choosing or refusing to invest their dollars and their time in a given studios product. Ultimately, the fact of the matter is if you dont want to deal with other people in multiplayer outside of the competition, you dont have to.

Enter the Anti-Defamation League.

The Anti-Defamation League is a non-profit organization that works to combat anti-semitism and bigotry.

They are also the guys who branded Pepe the Frog as a hate symbol just because some online morons decided to photoshop it into something offensive and saw alt-right hate code in the OK sign and the word Boogaloo.

Oftentimes, theyre seen making public declarations whenever a public person says something particularly nasty. Other times theyre doing things that seem rather pointless, like hosting a virtual panel about xenophobia and Coronavirus. They also were rather infamously involved in the most recent adpocalypse at YouTube, where they were brought in to consult and fight hate speech.

Theres no reason not to believe the ADL will not take the same sledgehammer approach to gaming. Their ability to ignore context has already been demonstrated in the Gamesindustry.biz interview with Daniel Kelly, the assistant director for the ADLs Center for Technology, when it was first reported that the organization is preparing its foray.

The norms that come up in the qualitative research is that women and people of color go into game spaces and just turn off the mic and don't speak, because they know if they speak, they'll be identified, targeted, and harassed. That's just the reality of how they play, Kelly said.

Heres the reality. Everyone gets that sort of treatment online. Men are just as likely to receive online harassment as women, and video games are no different. Trash talk exists, and its not a pretty thing.

Kelly is worried that the video game industry fights hate by adopting the tactics of Facebook or Twitter circa 2006 . as if the Twitter and Facebook of today have it all figured out and are not suffering from excess censorship and liberal moderator bias.

There have been attempts at applying woke censorship to games before, and they have shown that those trying this approach have zero understanding of the environment and that actual gamers have zero wish for such interventions. If Bully Hunters was unnecessary, and if Anita Sarkeesians nonsense was unnecessary, then so is the ADLs.

Its certainly not fun for a twelve-year-old to tell me hes going to throw me in Auschwitz, but I can mute him because a developer thought of that ahead of time.

What you also notice is that, in the interview, the ADL is mum when it comes to the means of helping games. Thats because theyre not developers. Theyre protesters. They dont have a solution outside of censorship. Maybe they want something genuine, like less hate in the world. Maybe they want more control over peoples speech. If its the former, theyre terrible at what theyre trying to do. If its the latter, theyre sinister.

Though the systems already in place arent perfect by any means, the fact that the ADL isnt coming into it with anything aside from platitudes comes across like a power play, not genuine concern. If the ADL knew what to do from the get-go aside from doing something about hate speech they would have said it already.

To put it succinctly, the ADL is trying to bully its way into a situation that it has no business in on the assumption that companies like Valve and Blizzard have no clue what theyre doing. Id ask this of the ADL. Of your organization, Valve, and Blizzard, which is the one that makes money off of innovation? I think they can handle things themselves.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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The ADL wants to fight hate in video games, but ham-fisted CENSORSHIP is the last thing we gamers need - RT

Whats the best way to prepare for the apocalypse? Dont ask these guys – Telegraph.co.uk

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Danzig

Michael Kerr reviews Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O'Connell

This review will be overtaken by events. Its bound to be. While I was reading the book, its writer posted a picture on Twitter of the contents of a box he had just opened at home. Who could have predicted, he asked, that these copies of the US edition of my book about apocalyptic anxiety would be delivered by a guy in a face mask, and that I would open the box using plastic gloves? Notme!

Hes being a little hard on himself. He was well ahead of most of us, already up and on the road long before the Four Horsemen appeared on their mounts in the Chinese city of Wuhan. See that title: Notes from an Apocalypse.

Mark OConnell is a journalist and essayist. He won the 2018 Wellcome Book Prize for To Be a Machine, an exploration of transhumanism, a movement that suggests we can and should exploit technology to improve the human body and, ultimately, make ourselves immortal. He is also the father of two young children, and constantly worrying over what sort of world hes brought them into. Its a world where lies as well as germs go viral, where we humans are making the weather, where old alliances and certainties are being overturned, and where the moneyed are readying to leave the rest of us behind, having bought bunkers in the middle of nowhere, bolt-holes on the other side of the world, or tickets to a life on Mars.

The signs of apocalypse, he reckons, are all around, and while hes anxious, hes also intrigued. So off he goes on a series of perverse pilgrimages to the places where the end-times seem closest from South Dakota, with its underground shelters offering turnkey apocalypse solutions, to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, where the abandoned city of Pripyat is a fever-dream of a world gone void. In between, he examines the tech billionaires fixation with New Zealand, mixes with the Mars Society in Los Angeles, and joins an environmentalists retreat in the Scottish Highlands. He has sessions with his therapist, and draws on the work of writers as varied as Carl Sagan and Dr Seuss. The result is a book thats fretful, wise and funny, and often all three in the space of a paragraph.

OConnell thoroughly skewers Americas boasting preppers with a story about one who began eating into his freeze-dried rations because his wife was away, he couldnt cook and it didnt occur to him to phone for pizza. Then he tells of a friend of his who works in publishing, who reveals that she has a go-bag, ready to be hauled out from under the bed at a moments notice.

His friend sees something exciting in the prospect of testing herself and her limits. OConnell doesnt: his comfort zone, he says, is one with four walls, good Wi-Fi, and craft beer and a bookshop within walking distance. On his solo in the Alladale Wilderness Reserve, he breaks the spirit of the rules by taking half a packet of nut-and-berry mix with him. His account of eking it out reminded me of the narrator of John Lanchesters novel The Wall, who, while patrolling Britains borders against climate refugees, breaks upthe time between breakfast andlunch into two sections of 90minutes, with an energy bar in themiddle.

OConnells own book is a work of non-fiction peopled by some characters a novelist wouldnt get away with. I thought perhaps hed overplayed the zealotry of those who see Mars as the new frontier and the new destiny for Earthlings. But no. While I was reading his chapter on Chernobyl, I got an email from a PR firm with this heading: To infinity and beyond: conquering the final frontier with Asgardia. It went on: Whilst plans for holidays and trips away have been put on the back-burner, the desire for outer-orbit travel hasntdiminished.

Notes from an Apocalypse is a book in which even the typos seem to be in keeping with the theme (A state stripped down to its bear [sic] right-wing essentials). Its also one that makes reference to center and specter and neighbors and fibers. Have we in the UK been given the UStext?

OConnell sometimes reaches for the fancy (strewn disjecta) over the plain, and occasionally over-explains. In the Highlands, a woman offers to help him put up his tent; she worked in a camping store, she says, and she knows that: Theyre tricky bastards, some of them. OConnell is struck by the empathic skillfulness [sic] of this revelation and then, in a sentence 132 words long, tells us why.

If he reads that, itll bother him, maybe add to his fretting. But it shouldnt: hes doing good work in difficult times. He offers us hope as well as black humour. And we need that now.

Notes from an Apocalypse is published by Granta at 14.99. To order your copy from the Telegraph visit books.telegraph.co.uk

In Honor of the Hubble Telescope’s 30th Birthday, NASA Releases a Fun New Tool – HouseBeautiful.com

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Danzig

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit on April 25, 1990, and has spent the last 30 years changing our understanding of the universe. To this day, the images that the Hubble Telescope capture allow scientists to constantly learn more and more about the cosmos. This week, the iconic Hubble Telescope turns 30and NASA is celebrating by releasing a new online tool that lets you see what the Hubble Telescope saw on your birthday.

All you'll need to do is type in the month and day of your birthday here to see the *stunning* image that the Hubble Telescope captured on your special day over the years. You won't be asked to input your birth year, as there isn't a photo assigned to every day of every year. The tool will instead show you the best photo ever captured on that date within the last three decades. While I was born in the '90s, the image that generated for my birthday on July 21 was captured in 2004. I was treated to an image of two merging spiral galaxies, known as Antennae galaxies, which I learned from the included description. And not to brag, but the two spiral galaxies that came together on my ninth birthday resulted in the formation of billions of stars, so I'm feeling pretty special. Claps for us, cancers!

While you can't nail down exactly what the Hubble saw on the day you were born, it's still a super fun tool to play around with. You can access the tool here. Want more? NASA also released a podcast for the Hubble Telescope's 30th birthday. You can also marvel at some other images the Hubble Telescope captured in the Caldwell catalog. I think this goes for all of us when I say: keep being out of this world, Hubble.

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Stargazing … here, there and everywhere | Columns – The Catoosa County News

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Danzig

An unexpected, though delightful, benefit of the coronavirus lockdown is the significant reduction of air pollution. There are not very many cars on the road these days. Everybody is staying home. Therefore, there is less air pollution which means you can easily observe the night sky. It is even possible to see some of the planets without looking through binoculars or a telescope.

There is nothing like going outside and observing the night sky. On a clear night, away from city nights, the stars look like diamonds in the sky, as the childrens song goes. A cobalt blue sky filled with stars, and the occasional shooting star, is wonderful to behold.

Stargazing in the Great Smoky MountainsEvery summer on our family vacations we went camping in the Great Smoky Mountains. After dinner every night, we enjoyed the quiet beauty of the night sky. Daddy would point out a constellation and say, See those stars? That is the Big Dipper. Then hed say, A long, long time ago, people thought the stars looked like things and so they gave the stars a name. Ever the teacher, Daddy made everything a teachable moment, even stargazing on a family vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains.

In the American Southwest there is no light pollution. Visibility is so clear you can actually see satellites. Several years ago, on a trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon in Utah, one night the park ranger told the most delightful Navajo legends about the stars. One legend was about mountain goats. He said the young mountain goats liked climbing so much they climbed right up to the stars.

When the rangers talk was over, we had the opportunity to go outside, behind the visitors center, and look at Saturn. There were three telescopes, each of which was trained on Saturn and there was a team of five astronomers there to answer questions. When I looked in the telescope, I could clearly see Saturn and the rings! I looked away from the telescope and asked the astronomer to point out Saturns location in the sky. He pointed out Saturn and, although the rings were not visible, there in the Utah sky, I saw Saturn!

I thought how delighted Daddy would have been with the Navajo legends. I thought how thrilled he wouldve been looking at Saturn through the telescope. Daddy would have relished talking with the astronomers.

Skyview is a free phone app that allows me to locate stars and planets, the Hubble Telescope and the International Space Station. When I take my phone outside and click on Skyview, it shows the night sky, and I can look up and see the actual location of the stars and planets. Skyview has a compass and that helps me comprehend the location of the stars.

When you look at Skyview there is a small circle on the screen. Trained on a single star or planet, Skyview names the star or planet you are looking at. It identifies the Hubble Telescope and the ISS. Lately, Ive enjoyed looking at Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Mercury, and Venus. I think it is amazing that Skyview shows the telescope and the ISS. One night last week, I was able to actually see the ISS as moved across the sky.

When I go outside at night to stargaze, it is quiet. The sky is magnificent. When there is a full moon, it brightens the sky. The occasional shooting star is a sight to behold.

With childlike awe and wonder I look at the stars and I think back on those family camping trips when Daddy taught my brother and me all about the constellations. Sometimes I think about the astronomers of biblical times who studied the stars and saw a star in the east a star they knew was very special, a star they wanted to follow to the to the birthplace of Jesus.

I will always appreciate the quiet, regal beauty of the night sky, which I can reverently behold from my front yard. Stargazing ... here, there and everywhere.

Roman Pam Walker is a paralegal, a writer, an avid cyclist, history enthusiast, and an ardent reader of Southern fiction. She is the author of People, Places, and Memories of Rome. Readers may email her at pamterrellwalker@gmail.com.

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Stargazing ... here, there and everywhere | Columns - The Catoosa County News

Nonprofit Behind Tor Browser Cuts Staff, Citing COVID-19 Impact – PCMag

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

The nonprofit behind the privacy-enhancing Tor browser has been forced to lay off some staff, citing the economic impact from COVID-19.

Like many other nonprofits and small businesses, the crisis has hit us hard, and we have had to make some difficult decisions, The Tor Project wrote in a blog post on Friday. We had to let go of 13 great people who helped make Tor available to millions of people around the world.

The Tor browser is perhaps best known for letting you visit sketchy websites on the Dark Web. But its also an important tool that can help you surf the internet anonymously. The browser can do this by ferrying your internet connection through a network of volunteer-operated servers, which can prevent ISPs and governments from tracking your web activities.

In some countries, Tor can also circumvent local government attempts to censor the internet, making it an important tool for activists, journalists and internet users to access the web, unfiltered.

For financing, the Tor Project partly relies on grants from US government groups such as the National Science Foundation, the US State Department and DARPA, which fund it for anti-censorship and privacy research. The group also pulls in donations from Mozilla, DuckDuckGo, and internet users. At the end of 2019, the Tor Project raised $833,956 from individuals, the most its ever raised before in a single year.

What exactly prompted the nonprofit to make the layoffs wasnt clearly spelled out in todays blog post. But the group still has a core team made up of 22 people, who remain dedicated to supporting the browser and the Tor ecosystem.

In these times, being online is critical and many people face ongoing obstacles to getting and sharing needed information, the nonprofit said in the blog post. We are taking todays difficult steps to ensure the Tor Project continues to exist and our technology stays available.

It remains unclear how the cuts will affect future releases of the browser. Weve reached out to the Tor Project for comment. In the meantime, the groups blog post says: We want to let all our users and supporters know that Tor will continue to provide privacy, security, and censorship circumvention services to anyone who needs them.

You can visit the donation page for the Tor Project here.

Nonprofit Behind Tor Browser Cuts Staff, Citing COVID-19 Impact - PCMag

Tor Project loses a third of staff in coronavirus cuts: Unlucky 13 out as nonprofit hacks back to core ops – The Register

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

Roundup This week in The Reg's security roundup of the notable bits beyond what we've already covered, the Tor Project has cut back to its core team, Zoom has called in the big security guns, US tech firms are taking on its Congress and more.

First off, it has been a bad weekend for 13 staffers at the nonprofit Tor Project after they were let go as the team was reduced to core operations only.

"Like many other nonprofits and small businesses, the crisis has hit us hard, and we have had to make some difficult decisions," it said in a statement.

"We had to let go of 13 great people who helped make Tor available to millions of people around the world. We will move forward with a core team of 22 people, and remain dedicated to continuing our work on Tor Browser and the Tor software ecosystem."

Such drastic cuts are surprising, given Tor's relatively small overheads and prominent supporters, including the US government and DARPA. Tor hasn't released any more details at the moment.

After spending the last month or so as the clown atop the dunk tank in the IT security world, Zoom has called in some help with its bug bounty program.

Luta Security has been tapped to help the videoconferencing giant set up a bug bounty program so that it can get its future security lapses cleaned up and rewarded before they go public. Actually, this has been in the works for some time - Luta founder and CEO Katie Moussouris told The Register the project began months before the Coronavirus outbreak.

This is not just an empty gesture, either. Luta boss Moussouris is something of a legend in the bug bounty space, having helped launched the programs at Microsoft and the US Department of Defense. She also does not do half-assed bounty programs, so you can bet there will be a well-trained team on Zoom's end to deal with the bug reports and get issues fixed.

Earlier in the month Zoom also recruited Alex Stamos, the former CSO of Yahoo! and Facebook, as well as noted security mavens Matthew Green, professor of Computer Science at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute and Lea Kissner, the former head of privacy tech at Google.

A group of tech advocacy groups are asking the US Congress to earmark money for IT spending in the next Coronavirus pandemic stimulus bill. Local, state and federal government's IT systems are in desperate need of modernization, they argue.

"The COVID19 pandemic exposes the need to redouble efforts to digitize federal forms and reduce reliance on hand-processing paperwork for high priority response and relief efforts," the letter [PDF] reads.

"In addition, the rapid transition to remote telework during the pandemic has also created new challenges for many government agencies, including increased cybersecurity threats, an inability to leverage commercial capabilities (which reduces program effectiveness), and important continuity of government operations."

Two of the states who opted to go it alone in their suits over the Equifax data theft will be getting a combined $37.7m in settlement payouts.

The states of Massachusetts and Indiana separately announced this week that they had settled their claims for $18.2m and $19.5m, respectively.

Indiana says the settlement cash will be paid out to citizens as restitution, while Massachusetts says it plans to carve off a portion for consumer aid programs.

Semiconductor manufacturers in Taiwan are being targeted by an organized foreign hacking operation aimed at lifting intellectual property.

Security company CyCraft says it was called in to investigate the matter, and soon concluded that what was going on was a sophisticated, highly-organized APT operation that used, among other things, a particularly nasty "skeleton key" attack to infiltrate the networks and get to sensitive documents.

"The main objective of these attacks was the exfiltration of intellectual property, such as documents on integrated circuits (IC), software development kits (SDKs), IC designs, source code, etc," the company writes.

"The motive behind these attacks likely stems from competitors (or possibly even nation-states due to the advanced nature of the attacks) seeking to gain a competitive advantage."

As misconfigured database left a Clearview AI database containing, among other things, source code and secret keys, was left accessible to the general public.

Middle Eastern security shop SpiderSilk spotted the database, which was protected by a password. However, the firm claims, anyone could log in as a new user and get access to the crown jewels of the company, including access to its online storage buckets.

The exposure was spotted by a researcher and was since taken down, though the researchers and ClearView seem to be at odds over how the disclosure was handled.

Akamai security research ace Larry Cashdollar (yes that is his real name) delivered a sobering look at what sort of attacks will target your typical Docker image in a given day.

Cashdollar's Docker image honeypot, left out for 24 hours, was exposed to a number of automated intrusion attempts and was infected with things like a Mirai botnet payload and a crypto-mining malware.

A recent update to Windows Defender is said to be causing some problems, as users are reporting their security software is crashing while trying to perform scans.

The security software can be restarted manually and hopefully an update from Microsoft to fix the bug is already in the works.

Ever wonder what does into a Linux kernel flaw? The security team at ZDI has provided an inside look at CVE-2020-8835, a kernel privilege escalation flaw.

Fortunately, there shouldn't be much in the way of risk to users and admins, as the flaw has been known of for months and was patched some time ago. But it's worth checking out how easy it is to subvert systems sometimes.

Sponsored: Practical tips for Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration

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Tor Project loses a third of staff in coronavirus cuts: Unlucky 13 out as nonprofit hacks back to core ops - The Register

A Bright Side to the Dark Web – Cryptonews

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

Source: Adobe/manuelhuss

The dark web typically conjures up thoughts of criminal activity. While there are undoubtedly unsavory characters leveraging the darknet for illegal pursuits, there are also virtuous uses of the hidden internet.

As reported, per data from blockchain analytics provider Chainalysis, over USD 600 million worth of bitcoin (BTC) moved on darknet markets in Q4 of 2019. (However, the darknet still accounts for less than 1% of all BTC transactions.)

In this article, we will highlight the bright side of the dark web and discuss instances where it has played a role in making positive change.

In the last decade, there have been several high-profile whistleblowers who have exposed criminal actions by governments, such as spying on their own citizens. While whistleblowers have played pivotal roles in exposing the crimes of governments, they typically do so at great risk.

For example, in June 2013, The Guardian published an explosive article revealing that the American government, through the National Security Agency (NSA), had been spying on its citizens by accessing records pertaining to their phone calls. At the time, the data was said to be from an anonymous informer. However, former government contractor, Edward Snowden, eventually outed himself as the source of the leak.

Laura Poitras, the journalist who Snowden reached out to in order to share the information with the public, credits Tor, the infamous dark web browser, as one of the main tools which made the entire endeavor possible. In a Reddit AMA, she stated:

"It would have been impossible for us to work on the NSA stories and make "Citizenfour" without many encryption tools that allowed us to communicate more securely. In fact, in the credits, we thank several free software projects for making it all possible. It's definitely important that we support these tools so the creators can make them easier to use. They are incredibly underfunded for how important they are. You can donate to Tails, Tor and a few other projects at the Freedom of the Press Foundation."

Additionally, In 2015, President Obama signed an Executive Order barring donations to people or parties that may affect national security. The loose wording of the Order led to beliefs that it applied to whistleblowers like Snowden.

In response, people began to donate to The Snowden Defence Fund in bitcoin, exceeding any amount previously donated to the fund over a similar period of time. WikiLeaks also accepts donations in bitcoin and anonymous submissions over Tor.

While the dark web is considered to be a playground for shadowy figures peddling illegal wares, a University of Surrey research paper found that only 60% of websites on the dark web were of an illegal nature.

The rest of the dark web is utilized by law-abiding citizens who simply want to protect their privacy. This is especially true in the case of citizens living in repressive regimes where there is significant censorship. Totalitarian regimes typically limit access to the internet by throttling the bandwidth or more severe blanket website restrictions and blockages.

Cindy Cohn, the executive director of US e-rights campaign group EFF, explained the connection between legitimate sites with dark web mirrors and censorship resistance saying:

Facebook has a Tor instance for people in repressive regimes. We see Tor use go up whenever a dictatorship takes over or a coup occurs. Tibetans, United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Egypt. The list goes on and on.

The dark web, accessed through Tor, can be an invaluable tool for those seeking to counter repressive regimes and their machinations. For instance, grassroots efforts leading to the adoption of the Tor browser in Mauritania led to the government abandoning the filtering of websites in 2005.

Additionally, when the government of Venezuela began to impose internet restrictions, citizens took to Tor to communicate. While the government eventually banned access to Tor through the state-owned internet service provider, some citizens were able to leverage their access to crypto to hedge themselves from inflation, conserve the value of their assets, and provide themselves with some liquidity on an as-needed basis.

Chainalysis noted in a recent report focused on the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic, the bitcoin price correction, and activity on darknet markets that spending has slowed down.

"Darknet market revenue has fallen much more than wed expect following bitcoins recent major price drop...Perhaps darknet market customers arent buying as many drugs given the public health crisis," the Chainalysis report explained.

This state of affairs is not unique to darknet marketplaces as businesses across the world are reporting significant dips in profit. However, given the lockdown effective in many areas of the world, people are not frequenting bars, clubs, pubs, festivals or other such social situations where drugs are typically consumed. Thus, people just likely don't have the need for drugs, which is one of the biggest revenue drivers for the darknet vendors.

Despite the marked fall in profits for darknet vendors, many seem to be standing in solidarity with the rest of the world. The cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows reveals that many of the actors on dark web marketplaces are echoing information found on the surface web in regards to staying safe and flattening the curve.

Additionally, some hackers are even rejecting calls for ideas through which they can exploit the general public during the pandemic. Digital Shadows states:

As weve seen time and time again, cybercriminals will find ways to take advantage of peoples fears and uncertainties in the wake of major disasters and emergencies. However, the gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown some benevolent reasoning has emerged on some platforms that are typically used for crime: Users urging others to avoid taking advantage of an already dire situation.

Originally posted here:

A Bright Side to the Dark Web - Cryptonews

Devs: How the Quantum Computer Works & Mysteries That Remain – Screen Rant

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

Devs' final episode answered many of fans' questions about the quantum computer at the heart of the Devs project, but mysteries about the computer and the characters' fates remain. The miniseries is an exclusive production between FX and Hulu, as part of the new FX on Hulu banner. Written and directed by Alex Garland, the show dives into some heady existential ideas, using the central mystery of Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno) investigating the mysterious death of her boyfriend as a vehicle to explore themes of quantum physics, determinism, and free will - all being manipulated behind the scenes of thenefarious tech company that she works for.

From the very first episode of the series, audiences were keyed into the fact that the tech corporation Amaya was working on asecretive project in their Devs division. The reveal came sooner than expected, as episode 2 confirmed the suspicions of the show's most ardent fans: the Devs team is working on an extremely powerful quantum computer,the purpose of which far exceeds the limitations of the real-world quantum computers being worked on at IBM and Google. Amaya's computer runs a specific set of data and code; more directly,the quantum computer is capable of distilling the universe down to matters of cause and effect, making it essentially able to predict the future.

Related: Devs Ending & NewTitle Meaning Explained

The quantum computer's reliance on determinism, which focuses on a myopic cause-and-effect-dependent view of reality, has been the center ofDevs' intra-character conflicts. Forest (Nick Offerman) fired Lyndon (Cailee Spaeny) because of their disagreement about the Many Worlds Theory and a Determinist understanding of reality, and leading into the finale, audiences were keenly aware of a statement made by Katie (Alison Pill) back in episode 6: the quantum computer can't see past a fixed point, one that involves Lily in the Devs laboratory. Episode 8's reveals answered fans' questions about the computer's functionality, but not all of the explanations hold up.

Throughout the series, Forest and Katie have ascertained that the quantum computer is determinist in theory and that no variations can occur because their reality is set in stone. This falls in line with Forest's personal philosophy and his reasons for clinging to determinism: if everything is predetermined, then he has no personal culpability in the death ofForest's wife and child. This extends to the murder of Sergei (Karl Glusman) and Katie's assistance in Lyndon's unexpected death. But after Lyndon improved the Devs projections by introducing the Many-Worlds Theory, it became clear that Forest and Katie were adhering to the quantum computer's projections not because they hadto, but because they wantedto.

However,afterLily arrives at Devs, in episode 8, she sees the future predicted for her by Forest's deterministic projection: on the Devs screen, she shoots Forest in the face, and the bullet pierces the lift's glass, breaking the airtight seal that keeps the lift afloat. Lily plunges to her death. As the scene plays out, however, she tosses away the gun as the lift's doors close, ensuring that she won't follow the same sequence the computer predicted. Her choice breaks the deterministic frameworkthat Forest and Katie have clung to throughout the series, and when Forest is reincarnated in the Devs simulation, he realizes that determinism was a faulty philosophy, a way of looking at the world that fails to fit with the data.

Lily's choicesupports two concomitant theories in quantum physics. The Many-Worlds Theory,posited by Hugh Everett, has already been debated throughout the show's run, butsince Lily's choice was motivated by her observation of the outcome, the Copenhagen Theory also has merit. As described by Katie's teacher in episode 5, the Copenhagen Theory "suggests that the act of measurement affects the system." Despite Katie scoffing at this theory,Devs' finaleoffers evidence for both the Copenhagen and Many-Worlds Theories.

Related: What To Expect From Devs Season 2

There's a popular fan theory regarding the show that originated on Reddit, from user emf1200, that suggests the entire show takes place within a simulation. This comes from the fact that the projection software works by simulating events through the usage of the predictive algorithm: the Devs team isn't technically peering backwards through time; they're reconstructing time and viewing it like a movie. Episode 7 has a scene where Stewart(Stephen McKinley Henderson)shows off the computer's predictive capabilities to a group of employees, and casually mentions how "somewhere in each box, there's another box." This implies that within the simulation the Devs team is watching, there's another version of the Devs team watching another simulation, and so on and so forth. By this logic, there's enough evidence to suggest that the show fans are watching is not the prime universe, but simply a simulation somewhere within a stack of simulations.

Though the finale did not strictly follow this theory - there was indeed a prime reality - when Forest and Lily are reincarnated in the Devs computer, a life that Katie characterizes as "indistinguishable" from reality, they essentially enter the "box within a box." They each become Neo (Keanu Reeves), without superpowers,fromThe Matrix, knowing that they are in a simulation with the power to exercise free will within each reality.

Up until episode 4, the Devs team was convinced (at Forest's insistence) that the universe operated on the De Brogile-Bohm theory, a deterministic interpretation of quantum physics that suggests events are set in stone as the result of cause and effect. This produced some results, namely - the preliminary version of the projection that could only render hazy, static-filled visions of the past and future. However, in episode 7, Stewart and the rest of the team perfected the quantum computerby switching out Forest's determinist theory with Lyndon's Many-Worlds theory, which Stewart says "is the universe as is."But once the quantum computer operated under the Many-Worlds Theory, why did it fail to predict Lily's decision to throw away the gun? According to Stewart and Lyndon, the multiverse exists,but the predictions made by the project are only of one universe. All Lyndon's algorithm did was clear up the static, not change the nature of the prediction.

But this raises yet another question:why did the deterministic computer projection stop accurately predicting the future at the point of Lily's death, when the actual moment that violated the laws of determinism was her decision to toss the weapon, not when she died? This question brings up afrustratingissue with the show's conclusion. Each adherent to all of the theories about quantum superposition can find evidence to support his/her position, andDevs offers no definitive conclusion. Copenhagen enthusiasts note that Lily's observation affected the outcome, Many-Worlds theorists are pleased with the free will implications of Lily's decision, and Determinists note that despite Lily tossing away the gun, Forest and Lily still died in the samemannerthe computer predicted.

Related: Devs: What Stewart's Poem Is & Why Forest Gets It Wrong

In the simulation Forest states that he "exercised a little free will" by giving each version of Lily and Forest in the Devs simulation knowledge of other worlds. This effectively deals with the show's recurrent themes aboutForest using determinism as a scapegoat for personal accountability because each version of Forest must reckon with the knowledge that other Forests are living under better or worse outcomes. However, while the show's conclusion holds up thematically, the failure of the quantum computer to accurately predict the final episode's outcome remains a mystery, one thatDevsas a whole didn't adequately address.

More: Why Hulu's Devs Represents A New Era Of Cyberpunk

Star Trek: Sisko Meeting Kirk Was Much Better Than Picard

Chrishaun Baker is a Feature Writer for Screen Rant, with a host of interests ranging from horror movies to video games to superhero films. A soon-to-be graduate of Western Carolina University, he spends his time reading comic books and genre fiction, directing short films, writing screenplays, and getting increasingly frustrated at the state of film discourse in 2020. You can find him discussing movies on Letterboxd or working up a migraine over American politics on Twitter.

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Devs: How the Quantum Computer Works & Mysteries That Remain - Screen Rant

My Turn: Defining who we are on Earth Day and beyond – Concord Monitor

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

We are survivors of immeasurable events,

Flung upon some reach of land,

Small, wet miracles without instructions,

Only the imperative of change.

Astronomer and poet Rebecca Elson wrote the above poem, Evolution, while contending with cancer that killed her at age 39. Just as Elson was confronted with her mortality by a life-threatening situation, so are we now forced to face our own impermanence in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

From her vantage point, spanning the worlds of science and art, she brings a unique perspective on what it means to be alive on Earth Day.

Although we humans may imagine that we are in control of our destiny and rule the Earth, when the moment of truth arrives like the coronavirus the blinders come off and we see ourselves as we really are: small, wet miracles without defenses or instructions.

While the old gods have been largely consigned to the dustbin of history, new gods continue to mutate into existence through science. At each stage, humans as spiritual, flesh-and-blood creatures have been pushed further to the periphery

Galileo robbed us of the illusion that Earth was the center of the universe. Newton replaced God with the concept of universal laws that control the planets in an orderly process, like a giant, mechanical clock. Next, Darwin came along to show that, rather than being created in Gods image, we climbed out of the mud to become the crown jewel of evolution in an epic battle of survival between ourselves and all other species.

Then along comes quantum theory, which defines existence in terms of subatomic quarks and neutrinos whose nature is a matter of probability. At each paradigm shift, science has pushed spirituality, community, and what it means to be living, breathing person further off center stage.

As an antidote to this, I was gratified to read Kate Browns recent piece in The New Yorker presenting a scientific model, which, at first glance, appears the most radical of them all. The crucial difference is that this biological model celebrates community along with the squishy realness of us humans in all our glory: sweat, snot, amniotic fluid and all.

Brown presents a wealth of scientific evidence, demonstrating that the human body is not the self-contained vessel we think it is just as a chair from the standpoint of quantum physics is not a solid seat. Instead, a human being is more like a porous cloud a microbial ecosystem swept along in atmospheric currents, harvesting gases, bacteria, phages, final spores and airborne toxins in its nets.

Rather than being a distinct, separate entity, we are more an assembly of species. In other words, each of us is a community. This notion has added relevancy in the age of coronavirus.

Throughout evolution, the fact that each of us is a community within a community promoted health. In indigenous cultures, sharing microbes with other people, along with all other forms of life, was a good thing: The more we shared the healthier we got, the better adapted to our environments and more fit as a social unit.

But that all changed with the industrial revolution and the resultant explosion in the human population. Pandemics become more frequent when living things are forced together in denser proximity, allowing novel microbes to jump to new species.

Perhaps most crucial, pandemics like the coronavirus are striking more often because of climate change. Warming and changing weather patterns shift the vectors and spread diseases. Heavily polluting industries also contribute to disease transmission.

Studies have linked factory farming one of the largest sources of methane emissions to faster-mutating, more deadly pathogens.

So, under the cloud of the coronavirus, how do we celebrate Earth Day? First, buy local and support local farms. And, at the policy level, push Congress to generously fund climate and environmental justice in upcoming economic stimulus packages.

For ethical and moral guidance, perhaps its time to go back to the future and meditate on the wisdom of Indras Jewel Net, a revered metaphor in Buddhism, illustrating the interconnection of all things. The metaphor is as follows:

Indras realm is a vast net that stretches infinitely in all directions. In each eye of the net is a single brilliant, perfect jewel. Each jewel also reflects every other jewel, infinite in number, and each of the reflected images of the jewels bears the image of all the other jewels infinity to infinity. Whatever affects one jewel affects them all.

This Earth Day, lets remember each of us, and all beings, is a jewel in her net.

(Jean Stimmell is a semi-retired psychotherapist living with the two women in his life, Russet the artist and Coco the Plott hound, in Northwood. He blogs at jeanstimmell.blogspot.com.)

Fast Cooling Magnon Particles to Create Quantum State of Matter – AZoQuantum

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

Written by AZoQuantumApr 22 2020

Magnon particles that cool quickly offer an unexpectedly effective way to produce Bose-Einstein condensate, which happens to be an enigmatic quantum state of matter.

This finding can help to advance the studies relating to quantum physics and bring researchers closer to the long-term objective of room-temperature quantum computing.

Now, an international group of researchers has discovered an easy method to activate a unique state of matter known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. The latest technique, recently explained in the Nature Nanotechnology journal, is anticipated to help improve the research and development of room-temperature quantum computing.

The researchers, headed by physicists from the University of Vienna in Austria and the Technische Universitt Kaiserslautern (TUK) in Germany, created the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) via a rapid temperature change: initially, the quasi-particles are heated up gradually and then cooled down quickly to the original room temperature.

To demonstrate this technique, the researchers used quasi-particles known as magnons that denote the quanta of a solid bodys magnetic excitations.

Many researchers study different types of Bose-Einstein condensates, stated Professor Burkard Hillebrands from TUK and one of the top scientists in the BEC field. The new approach we developed should work for all systems.

Bose-Einstein condensates, which were named after Albert Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose, who initially suggested their existence, are an unusual type of matter. All these particles behave spontaneously in the same manner on the quantum level, fundamentally assuming a single entity.

Bose-Einstein condensates were initially utilized to explain the perfect gas particles and have been established with atoms and also with quasi-particles like magnons, phonons, and bosons.

It is quite difficult to produce Bose-Einstein condensates because, by definition, they need to take place suddenly. To create the right conditions to generate the Bose-Einstein condensates, no attempts should be made to introduce any kind of coherence or order to support the particles to act in the same manner; this means, the particles have to do that on their own.

At present, Bose-Einstein condensates are produced by administering a vast number of particles at room temperature into a limited space, or by reducing the temperature to an almost absolute zero. But the room temperature approach, initially reported by Hillebrands and colleagues in 2005, is technically complicated and only a minimal number of research groups across the world have gained the required expertise and equipment.

On the contrary, the latest technique is relatively simpler. It needs a minute magnetic nanostructure, which measures 100 times smaller than the width of a human hair, and a heating source.

Our recent progress in the miniaturization of magnonic structures to nanoscopic scale allowed us to address BEC from completely different perspective.

Andrii Chumak, Professor, University of Vienna

The nanostructure is gradually heated up to a temperature of 200 C to produce phonons, which, consequently, produce magnons that have the same temperature. When the heating source is switched off, the nanostructure cools down quickly to room temperature, in nearly 1 ns. During this process, the phonons travel to the substrate, but the magnons react very slowly and continue to remain within the magnetic nanostructure.

Michael Schneider, the studys lead paper author and a PhD student in Magnetism Research Group at TUK, elucidated why this occurs: When the phonons escape, the magnons want to reduce energy to stay in equilibrium. Since they cannot decrease the number of particles, they have to decrease energy in some other way. So, they all jump down to the same low energy level.

The magnons create a Bose-Einstein condensate by unexpectedly occupying the same level of energy.

We never introduced coherence in the system, so this is a very pure and clear way to create Bose-Einstein condensates.

Andrii Chumak, Professor, University of Vienna

As is usually the norm in the science field, the researchers made this finding quite by chance. They had actually embarked to examine a different aspect of nanocircuits, when unusual things started to occur.

At first we thought something was really wrong with our experiment or data analysis, added Schneider.

After conferring the work with colleagues at TUK and in the United States, the researchers tuned a few experimental parameters to observe if the unusual thing was indeed a Bose-Einstein condensate. They validated its presence using spectroscopy methods.

The discovery will predominantly interest other physicists investigating this state of matter.

But revealing information about magnons and their behavior in a form of macroscopic quantum state at room temperature could have bearing on the quest to develop computers using magnons as data carriers.

Burkard Hillebrands, Professor, Technische Universitt Kaiserslautern

Chumak emphasized the significance of the association within TUKs OPTIMAS Research Group towards finding a solution to this mystery. For Chumak, it was important to integrate his teams know-how in magnonic nanostructures with Hillebrands knowledge in magnon Bose-Einstein condensates. Two European Research Council (ERC) financial grants provided significant support to the researchers project.

Source: https://www.univie.ac.at/en/

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Fast Cooling Magnon Particles to Create Quantum State of Matter - AZoQuantum

Doubt is essential for science but for politicians, it’s a sign of weakness – The Guardian

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

As a regular Twitter user, I choose the people and organisations I follow online carefully. And therein lies my problem. On social media, we are more likely to engage with and trust content that aligns with our views, and thus become saturated by opinions we already agree with. Some of these views are based on political or religious ideologies, others on the flimsiest of evidence or the most superficial and unreliable of information. Against this backdrop of conflicting ideas and polarised worldviews, were now being asked to trust in science and scientists like never before.

During the coronavirus crisis, everyone online seems to have a scientific opinion. We are all discussing modelling, exponential curves, infection rates and antibody tests; suddenly, were all experts on epidemiology, immunology and virology. When the public hears that new scientific evidence has informed a sudden change in government policy, the tendency is to conclude that the scientists dont know what theyre doing, and therefore cant be trusted. It doesnt help that politicians are remarkably bad at communicating scientific information clearly and transparently, while journalists are often more adept at asking questions of politicians than they are of scientists.

It has never been more important to communicate the way science works. In politics, admitting a mistake is seen as a form of weakness. Its quite the opposite in science, where making mistakes is a cornerstone of knowledge. Replacing old theories and hypotheses with newer, more accurate ones allows us to gain a deeper understanding of a subject. In the meantime, we develop mathematical models and make predictions based on data and available evidence. With something as new as this coronavirus, we started with a low baseline of knowledge. As we accumulate new data, our models and predictions will continue to evolve and improve.

A second important feature of the scientific method is valuing doubt over certainty. The notion of doubt is one worth exploring. We can trace its origins to a medieval intellectual movement, and to two individuals in particular, the Arab scholar Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) and the Persian scholar Razi (Rhazes). The movement was called al-shukuk in Arabic (meaning simply the doubts), and it refuted the wisdom inherited from Ancient Greek scholars more than 1,000 years earlier in subjects such as astronomy and medicine. Al-Haytham, an early advocate of the scientific method, cast doubts on the writing of the Hellenic astronomer Ptolemy, and suggested that one should question not only existing knowledge but also ones own ideas and be prepared to modify or overturn them in light of contradictory evidence. He overthrew the millennium-old idea that we can see things because our eyes shine light on objects, and gave the first correct explanation of the way vision works.

This approach still informs how we do science today. Indeed, this is how the scientific method differs from the stance of conspiracy theorists. Conspiracists will argue that, like scientists, they too are sceptics who question everything and value the importance of evidence. But in science, while we can be confident that our theories and descriptions of the world are correct, we can never be completely certain. After all, if an observation or new experimental result comes along and conflicts with an existing theory, we have to abandon our old presuppositions. In a very real sense, conspiracy theorists are the polar opposite of scientists; they assimilate evidence that contradicts their core beliefs, and interpret this evidence in a way that confirms, rather than repudiates, these beliefs.

Often, in the case of such ideological beliefs, we hear the term cognitive dissonance, whereby someone feels genuine mental discomfort when confronted with evidence that contradicts a view they hold. This can work to reinforce pre-existing beliefs. Ask a conspiracy theorist this: what would it take for them to change their minds? Their answer, because they are so utterly committed to their view, is likely to be that nothing would. In science, however, we learn to admit our mistakes and to change our minds to account for new evidence about the world.

This is crucial in the current pandemic. Clearly, the world cannot wait to learn everything about the virus before taking action; at the same time, stubborn adherence to a particular strategy despite new evidence to the contrary can be catastrophic. We must be prepared to shift our approach as more data is accumulated and our model predictions become more reliable. That is a strength, not a weakness of the scientific method.

I have spent my career stressing the importance of having a scientifically literate society. I dont mean that everyone should be well-versed in cosmology or quantum physics, or understand the difference between RNA and DNA. But we should certainly all know the difference between bacteria and viruses. Even more importantly, if we are to get through this crisis, we must all have a basic understanding of how science works and an acknowledgement that during a crisis like this, admitting doubt, rather than pretending certainty, can be a source of strength.

Jim Al-Khalili is the author of The World According to Physics

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Doubt is essential for science but for politicians, it's a sign of weakness - The Guardian

Stephen Wolfram: The Path to a Fundamental Theory of Physics May Begin With a Hypergraph – Synced

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

Physics is the most fundamental of the sciences, dealing with matter and energy. But despite centuries of study, scientists still struggle with the basic question of how the universe works in other words, we still lack a truly fundamental theory of physics.

And thats something Stephen Wolfram has been thinking about for nearly 50 years. Known for his work in computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics, Wolfram announced this week that he may have found a path that leads to a fundamental theory of physics, and that it is beautiful.

Back in the 1980s, while studying the computational universe of programs, Wolfram observed that even if a systems rules are extremely simple, its behaviour can still be rich and complex. He later applied that discovery to his study of the non-computational, actual universe.

Wolfram says that by the end of the 1990s he had figured out some implications for space, time, gravity, etc. in physics. These would be expressed in his 2002 bestseller A New Kind of Science, which proposes that computation can inform an understanding of the physical world.

Wolfram says a fundamental theory of physics may now be within reach, and is inviting the global research community to help.

Weve built a paradigm and a framework, Wolfram writes in a summary published this week on his website. But now we need to finish the job. We need to work through a lot of complicated computation, mathematics and physics, and see if we can finally deliver the answer to how our universe fundamentally works.

Wolfram says the big answer lies in something simple and structureless: We can think of it as a collection of abstract relations between abstract elements. Or we can think of it as a hypergraphor, in simple cases, a graph.

When we draw the graph, all that matters is whats connected to what, he writes. It also doesnt matter what the elements are called all that matters is that the elements are distinct.

But since edges in ordinary graphs that connect pairs of nodes can hardly represent the complexity of the universe, Wolfram proposes hypergraphs, with hyperedges that can connect any number of nodes.

Wolfram says hypergraphs can be produced by applying a simple rule to graphs and doing it over and over again. When visualized, a hypergraph appears to take a definite shape which resembles the mathematical idealizations and abstractions of the universe, according to Wolfram.

In our model, everything in the universespace, matter, whatever is supposed to be represented by features of our evolving hypergraph, he writes.

Wolfram sees the universe as basically a big chunk of space in which abstract points are abstractly connected to each other as a hypergraph with countless intersection points.

Wolfram says that after zillions of computer experiments, his team began to understand how quantum mechanics works, and identified some deep structural connections between relativity and quantum mechanics.

Everything just started falling into place. All those things Id known about in physics for nearly 50 years and finally we had a way to see not just what was true, but why, Wolfram explains in a detailed technical intro.

Wolfram has officially launched his Physics Project and will be livestreaming activities, sharing discoveries, and producing educational programs around the project. The team also plans to release more than 400 hours of videos covering previous research. Wolfram has also uploaded related working materials dating back to the 1990s as well as software tools.

This is a project for the world. Its going to be a great achievement when its done. And Id like to see it shared as widely as possible, he writes.

Reaction in the scientific community has varied which is not unexpected in the face of a claim that many would regard as, well, astronomical. But history has shown that new ideas can have a tough time making a good first impression.

Sean Carroll, a California Institute of Technology physics professor and theoretical physicist specializing in quantum mechanics, gravity, and cosmology, tweeted that Wolframs approach is cool and fun. But he cautioned that science must be patient and collaborative, and that most bold ideas are wrong: please dont get too excited until others look it over.

The last word goes to Wolfram, whose enthusiasm cannot be denied: Lets have a blast. And lets try to make this the time in human history when we finally figure out how this universe of ours works!

Journalist: Yuan Yuan | Editor: Michael Sarazen

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Stephen Wolfram: The Path to a Fundamental Theory of Physics May Begin With a Hypergraph - Synced

Physicist Stephen Wolfram thinks he’s on to a theory of everything, and wants help simulating the universe – PC Gamer

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

Physicist Stephen Wolfram thinks he's figured out a framework that unifies general relativity, quantum mechanics, and everything else we know about physics, and that, when we figure out the right thing to plug into it, we'll have a model of our universe. In other words, he's working on a theory of everything, and because it's 2020, he's been livestreaming his ideas on Twitch.

Wolfram's announcement is tangential to PC gaming at best, but his ideas are fun to think about for anyone interested in computing, so what the heck: We can enjoy a tangent now and then, as a treat.

At the core of Wolfram's proposal is the fact that when you apply a simple set of rules to a system over and over again, very interesting things can emerge. For example, in Game of Life (created by mathematician John Horton Conway, who sadly died last week after contracting the coronavirus), just a few simple rules about how cells on a grid behave can, with the correct starting state, produce 'creatures' that move or run any algorithm at all.

Similarly, Wolfram theorizes that the structure of the universe, as well as everything 'in' it, emerges from a simple underlying rule that's being applied again and again. He's not saying that the universe is a computer (ie, that it was "built"), but he is saying that it's computational in nature. This isn't new to his controversial thinking, but with the help of students Jonathan Gorard and Max Piskunov, he's pushed the theory further than ever before, and says he did not expect to get such good theoretical results.

"We reproduced, more elegantly, what I had done in the 1990s," writes Wolfram. "And from tiny, structureless rules out were coming space, time, relativity, gravity and hints of quantum mechanics."

In other words, the laws of physics as we know them seemed to emerge from the repetition of simple rules, without those laws being 'coded into' the simulation. The actual rules being used simply dictate how abstract relationships between abstract points change and grow. With the right rule, Wolfram and team argue that we'll have a model of our universe.

"The idea that there could exist some elementary computational rule that successfully reproduces the entirety of the physical universe at first seems somewhat absurd," writes Gorard, "although there does not appear to be any fundamental reason (neither in physics, nor mathematics, nor philosophy) to presume that such a rule could not exist. Moreover, if there is even a remote possibility that such a rule could exist, then its slightly embarrassing for us not to be looking for it. The objective of the Wolfram Physics Project is to enact this search."

That's the ultra-simplified explanation, at leastWolfram and his colleagues have released hundreds of pages on their theory. if you're interested, start with Wolfram's introductory post, which is aimed at non-mathematicians (though understanding the basic ideas of general relativity and quantum field theory helps).

Wolfram's ideas are interesting to me, a person who doesn't have a PhD in mathematics or physics, but as you might have guessed, Twitch streams are not the traditional avenue for theoretical discourse. "Many traditional physicists will regard [Wolfram's project] as folly," writes Wired. That doesn't necessarily mean his ideas are wrong, but whether or not they're groundbreaking or even meaningful is yet to be determined. To be truly exciting to the physics community, I'd guess that the theory will have to predict something that can be tested, and for now, that's just a hope.

Wolfram and team are hoping that amateur physicists are interested in helping, such as by running bigger simulations and creating virtual reality visualizers of universe models. If absolutely nothing else, the project will result in some pretty cool wireframe art.

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Physicist Stephen Wolfram thinks he's on to a theory of everything, and wants help simulating the universe - PC Gamer

Novak Djokovic says he doesnt want to be forced by someone to take Covid-19 vaccine – ThePrint

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

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New Delhi: Tennis star Novak Djokovic has said that he is opposed to vaccination and doesnt like the idea of being required to get a coronavirus vaccine in order to return to playing.

The 17-times Grand Slam singles title winner revealed his anti-vaxxer views during a Facebook chat with other Serbian athletes Sunday.

Personally, I am opposed to vaccination, and I wouldnt want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel, he said.

But if it becomes compulsory, what will happen? I will have to make a decision. I have my own thoughts about the matter, and whether those thoughts will change at some point, I dont know, the worlds no. 1 mens tennis player added.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, all tennis tournaments have been cancelled till mid-July. The Wimbledon, which is the biggest tennis event, has also been cancelled for the first time since World War II.

There is no vaccination available for the coronavirus at present but health experts have said it is likely to be developed in about 12-18 months.

Also read: Travelling with Leander Paes the locker room mood, glamour and music, but routine is king

Djokovic is also known for his spiritualism. He had earlier sought the advice of a quantum healer a practitioner of a controversial form of medicine that relies on quantum physics to diagnose ailments as he was unsatisfied with popular medicine.

His opposition to a surgery for his elbow injury also led to his split with his coach Andre Agassi in 2017 as he refused medical intervention and insisted on alternative, holistic treatments.

Djokovic, however, underwent the operation in 2018 and told The Telegraph that he felt like he had failed himself every time he thought about the surgery.

The tennis player is also said to believe in telepathy and telekinesis (intuition). I feel like [these] are the gifts from this higher-order, the source, the god, whatever, that allows us to understand the higher power and higher order in ourselves. We have the power to programme our subconscious, he had said.

Also read: No matter our nostalgia for Federer & Nadal, numbers will always be on Djokovics side

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Novak Djokovic says he doesnt want to be forced by someone to take Covid-19 vaccine - ThePrint

Tesla releases impressive videos of cars avoiding running over pedestrians – Electrek

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

Tesla has released a few impressive videos of its Autopilot-powered emergency braking feature helping to avoid running over inattentive pedestrians.

What might be even more impressive is that the automaker says that it sees those events happen every day.

Theres a lot of talk about Tesla Autopilot, but one of the least reported aspects of Teslas semi-autonomous driver-assist system is that it powers a series of safety features that Tesla includes for free in all cars.

One of those features is Emergency Automatic Braking.

We saw the Autopilot-powered safety feature stop for pedestrians in impressive tests by Euro NCAP last year, but now we see it perform in real-world scenarios and avoiding potentially really dangerous situations.

Tesla has now released some examples of its system braking just in time to save pedestrians.

The new videos were released by Andrej Karpathy, Teslas head of AI and computer vision, in a new presentation at the Scaled Machine Learning Conference.

It was held at the end of February, but a video of the presentation was just released (starting when he shows the videos):

In the three video examples, you can see pedestrians emerging from the sides, out of the field of view, and Teslas vehicles braking just in time.

Tesla is able to capture and save those videos, thanks to its integrated TeslaCam dashcam feature.

Karpathy says:

This car might not even have been on the Autopilot, but we continuously monitor the environment around us. We saw that there was a person in front and we slammed on the brake.

The engineer added that Tesla is seeing a lot of those events being prevented by its system:

We see a lot of these tens to hundreds of these per day where we are actually avoiding a collision and not all of them are true positive, but a good fraction of them are.

In the rest of the presentation, Karpathy explains how Tesla is applying machine learning to its system in order to improve it enough to lead to a fully self-driving system.

I think its important to bring attention to these examples considering if an accident happens on Autopilot, it gathers so much attention from the media.

Lets see how many of them run with this story.

But I get it. People love crashes a lot more than a near-miss.

On another note, I really like how Karpathy communicates Teslas self-driving effort. His presentations are always super clear and informative, even for people who are not super experienced in machine learning.

In order for TeslaCam and Sentry Mode to work on a Tesla, you need a few accessories. We recommendJedas Model 3 USB hub(now also available for Model Y) to be able to still use the other plugs and hide your Sentry Mode drive. For the drive, Im now usinga Samsung portable SSD, which you need to format, but it gives you a ton of capacity, and it can be easily hidden in the Jeda hub.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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What’s in the Offing for Tesla (TSLA) This Earnings Season? – Yahoo Finance

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Danzig

Tesla, Inc.TSLA is slated to release first-quarter 2020 results on Apr 29, after the closing bell. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarters earnings is pegged at 27 cents per share on revenues of $5.89 billion.

The electric-vehicle pioneer beat four-quarter 2019 earnings estimates on higher automotive revenues. Over the trailing four quarters, Tesla beat estimates on two occasions for as many misses, the average positive surprise being 281.3%. This is depicted in the graph below:

Tesla, Inc. Price and Consensus

Tesla, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Tesla, Inc. Quote

Which Way are the Estimates Treading?

Hit by the coronavirus crisis, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Teslas first-quarter earnings per share has been revised downward by 33 cents to 27 cents in the past 30 days. However, the figure indicates a year-over-year surge of 109.31%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues suggests a year-over-year increase of 29.8%.

Key Factors

The increasing deliveries of Model 3, which forms a major chunk of the automakers overall deliveries, are likely to have aided Teslas automotive revenues in the to-be-reported quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for total automotive revenues is pegged at $4,467 million, suggesting an increase from the $3,724 million reported in the year-ago quarter. Further, the company registered record overall production and deliveries of 102,672 and 88,400 vehicles, respectively, in the first quarter of 2020, marking a year-over-year jump of 56.5% and 40.3%. Notably, despite the coronavirus outbreak, Tesla's Shanghai factory managed to hit record production levels during the quarter.

Moreover, Tesla reached an important milestone with the manufacture of its one millionth car a Tesla Model Y in first-quarter 2020. Notably, Teslas Model Y crossovers production started in January, while deliveries began in March, significantly ahead of schedule. This is also likely to have buoyed its earnings for the to-be-reported quarter.

However, the companys high R&D and SG&A costs are anticipated to have clipped margins in the March-end quarter. The firm is investing heavily to increase production capacity, boost Model 3 sales, launch Model Y, construct Gigafactories and enhance Supercharger infrastructure, which might have strained its financial prospects during the period in discussion.

Furthermore, with China being the biggest EV market, the countrys economic slowdown is likely to have hurt the companys prospects in the first quarter. Further, rising coronavirus fears, especially in March, are likely to have thwarted vehicle demand. The coronavirus crisis is also expected to have hurt Teslas sales due to factory closures and production shutdowns, hurting the EV maker.

What the Zacks Model Says

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Tesla this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat. However, that is not the case here as elaborated below. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Earnings ESP: Tesla has an Earnings ESP of -260.88%. This is because the Most Accurate Estimate is pegged at a loss of 44 cents per share, as against the Zacks Consensus Estimate of earnings of 27 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Tesla carries a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold) currently.

Stocks to Consider

Here are a few stocks worth considering, as these have the right combination of elements to come up with an earnings beat this time around:

Anthem, Inc. ANTM has an Earnings ESP of +1.28% and carries a Zacks Rank #3 currently. The company is slated to release first-quarter 2020 earnings on Apr 29.

The Allstate Corporation ALL is set to report quarterly numbers on May 6. The company has an Earnings ESP of +2.21% and holds a Zacks Rank of 2, at present.

Cigna Corporation CI is scheduled to release earnings figures on Apr 30. The stock has an Earnings ESP of +1.53% and currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

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What's in the Offing for Tesla (TSLA) This Earnings Season? - Yahoo Finance

Futurist Transhuman News Blog

Monthly Archives: April 2020

Rex Murphy on COVID-19: The power to censor speech and other great ideas from our Liberal overlords – National Post

News on News: Reflecting on institutional censorship and the conversations with the experts – Grand Valley Lanthorn

Facebook Pandemic Philanthropy Overshadowed by Its Censoring of Protests – Breitbart

Lady Chatterley’s censor: Almost 60 years ago, a court case looked to save us from ourselves – The Big Smoke Australia

The ADL wants to fight hate in video games, but ham-fisted CENSORSHIP is the last thing we gamers need – RT

Whats the best way to prepare for the apocalypse? Dont ask these guys – Telegraph.co.uk

In Honor of the Hubble Telescope’s 30th Birthday, NASA Releases a Fun New Tool – HouseBeautiful.com

Stargazing … here, there and everywhere | Columns – The Catoosa County News

Nonprofit Behind Tor Browser Cuts Staff, Citing COVID-19 Impact – PCMag

Tor Project loses a third of staff in coronavirus cuts: Unlucky 13 out as nonprofit hacks back to core ops – The Register

A Bright Side to the Dark Web – Cryptonews

Devs: How the Quantum Computer Works & Mysteries That Remain – Screen Rant

My Turn: Defining who we are on Earth Day and beyond – Concord Monitor

Fast Cooling Magnon Particles to Create Quantum State of Matter – AZoQuantum

Doubt is essential for science but for politicians, it’s a sign of weakness – The Guardian

Stephen Wolfram: The Path to a Fundamental Theory of Physics May Begin With a Hypergraph – Synced

Physicist Stephen Wolfram thinks he’s on to a theory of everything, and wants help simulating the universe – PC Gamer

Novak Djokovic says he doesnt want to be forced by someone to take Covid-19 vaccine – ThePrint

Tesla releases impressive videos of cars avoiding running over pedestrians – Electrek

What’s in the Offing for Tesla (TSLA) This Earnings Season? – Yahoo Finance