Monthly Archives: August 2020

Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation Receives $5 Million Charitable Gift to Accelerate Progress in World-Class Cardiovascular Prevention Research…

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MHIF Establishes the Nolan Family Center for Cardiovascular Health to drive its commitment to changing the trajectory of heart disease

MINNEAPOLIS Aug. 3, 2020 The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF), an internationally renowned cardiovascular research organization, announced today a $5 million charitable donation from the Stuart Nolan family to support cardiovascular disease prevention research and education that aims to change the trajectory of heart disease for future generations. In honor of the gift matching the largest donation ever made to the foundation MHIF is establishing the Nolan Family Center for Cardiovascular Health.

My personal connection to cardiovascular research started with the care and treatment I received more than 30 years ago at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, which continues to allow me to live a full life, said Stuart Nolan, a long-time supporter of MHIF. My children have reached the age at which I had my first heart attack, raising the importance of understanding genetic and other risk factors that affect their heart health and underscore the importance of this work to my family. I have great faith in Dr. Miedema and his team of dedicated MHIF researchers who have shown a sincere commitment to furthering research to define the prevention and management of cardiovascular risks that affect many families.

At a time when wellness and overall health is as important as ever, this gift will accelerate progress and innovation in research and education around how to prevent cardiovascular disease, which continues to be the number one cause of death for people around the world. This research will also address some of the challenges around health disparities by further defining and understanding risk factors, as well as identifying the best care pathways for addressing care in racial and ethnic minorities where heart disease outcomes are significantly worse than other populations.

Our commitment to impactful, cardiovascular disease prevention research isnt new, but this inspiring gift from the Nolan family will propel our efforts to change the paradigm from heart disease to optimal health, said Michael Miedema, MD, MPH, director of the Nolan Family Center for Cardiovascular Health at MHIF and director of cardiovascular prevention at the Minneapolis Heart Institute. The ultimate goals of cardiovascular prevention research are to identify the optimal methods to accurately assess cardiovascular risk, as well as determine the best interventions to stop the evolution to heart disease. The research is all about determining who to treat and how to treat them, which gives our patients the best chance to avoid the tragic heart attack or the unwanted bypass surgery.

Mr. Nolan formerly served as MHIFs chairman of the board and is the current chairman of Minneapolis-based StuartCo, a residential property management company that he founded in 1970. He has received recognition for his ongoing commitment to giving back to the community.

Dr. Miedemas leadership in the field of cardiovascular disease prevention includes serving on the executive review committee for the 2018 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Cholesterol Guidelines and serving as a member of the 2019 ACC/AHA Committee for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. He also serves as an associate editor for the prevention section of ACC.org.

Over its 38-year history, MHIF has led groundbreaking research and education across a wide spectrum of prevention-related topics, including coronary artery calcium testing, blood pressure, cholesterol and statin use, nutrition and lifestyle behaviors, risk factors and screening for specific populations, premature heart disease and genetic disorders. New cutting-edge research planned for the Nolan Family Center for Cardiovascular Health will focus on risk prediction and optimal prevention therapies, including:

We are grateful to the Nolan family for a gift that drives the MHIF vision of creating a world without heart and vascular disease, said Kristine Fortman, PhD, MHIF CEO. This significant gift will accelerate our impact in preventive cardiovascular research, including supporting the infrastructure for the research, staff and fellows to lead an accelerated pace of clinical studies.

The Nolan family is creating a legacy in partnership with a respected research team, whose passion for discovery will advance our mission of achieving long and healthy lives for all without the burden of cardiovascular disease, said Scott Sharkey, MD, president and chief medical officer at MHIF. At this moment in our history, an unprecedented pandemic has emphasized the importance of a healthy lifestyle; we are thankful to be able to drive this important research that will benefit our patients and their families now and for generations to come.

About Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation

The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF) strives to create a world without heart and vascular disease. To achieve this bold vision, it is dedicated to improving the cardiovascular health of individuals and communities through innovative research and education.

Scientific Innovation and Research MHIF is a recognized leader across all specialties of heart and vascular research. Each year, MHIF leads more than 200 research studies with more than 2,200 patients and publishes more than 200 articles to share learnings from research. MHIF research has improved the standard of care for patients around the world, including through the development of protocols like Level One, which continues to significantly improve outcomes and survival for heart attack patients.

Education and Outreach MHIF provides more than 10,000 hours of education each year putting its research into practice to improve outcomes among health care providers. This commitment extends to patients and caregivers through a number of community health and education events to raise awareness of heart care and research, engaging individuals in their own health.

The Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundations work is funded by generous donors and sponsors and engages in cutting-edge research initiatives with its physician partners from the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and at 38 community sites across Minnesota and western Wisconsin. For more information, please visit mplsheart.org.

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Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation Receives $5 Million Charitable Gift to Accelerate Progress in World-Class Cardiovascular Prevention Research...

‘Celebrity Call Center’: With net worth of $100M, Terry and Heather Dubrow reign as television’s power couple – MEAWW

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Heather and Terry Dubrow recently appeared in NBC's reality show 'Celebrity Call Center'. The show allows fans and followers to receive advice from their favorite silver screen stars. The first episode aired on July 13 and it featured two celebrity couples 'The Real Housewives of Orange County' star Heather with husband Terry Dubrow and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila with Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez. The celebrity guests donned their headsets and answered many questions related to family, relationships, friends and work. Right from parenting to cheating boyfriends, the celebrities tapped their own experiences and funny anecdotes to help callers through their situations.

Terry and Heather Dubrow met through a friend on a blind date in the 1990s and got married in 1999. The couple has four children: twins Nicholas and Mixmillia, as well as daughters Katarina and Collette. Even after being together for years, they never shy away from showering each other with love. The 'power couple' has been married for 21 years now. But do you know how much the celebrity couple is actually worth?

As reported by Celebrity Net Worth, Dr Dubrow first started making waves when he was a resident at UCLA School of Medicine, becoming the chief resident of general and plastic surgery. After that, he started his own practice. He is a renowned surgeon working extensively out of his office in Newport Beach in California.

In 2004, Terry starred in FOX's popular reality show 'The Swan'. And then, in 2014, Terry signed the hit E! reality show 'Botched' which focused on correcting plastic surgeries that went wrong. The show has surely made Terry busier and wealthier in the following years.

After appearing in 'The Real Housewives of Orange County' with wife Heather, he got more notoriety and fame which paved the way for the popular TV show 'Botched' in 2014. In an interview with Reality Tea, Dr Dubrow said that Botched has helped him and Dr Nassif become better surgeons. "We, surprisingly even to ourselves, have been able to take patients that even we thought were unfixable... We've figured out ways to fix them, and we now have a different level, a different standard than we're comparing our results to so sometimes," he explained.

Terry is the third richest plastic surgeon in the world. In an interview with Female First, when asked about his "camera surrounded" life, he said, "Yeah I dont even think about it. I was thinking about this yesterday I have actually done eight reality shows now, dating back to 2003 when we did The Swan. I am so used to having cameras in the house, in the office and in the operating room that I dont even register that they are there anymore,"

Dubrow has also co-authored three books titled 'Dr. and Mrs. Guinea Pig Present the Only Guide You'll Ever Need to the Best Anti-Aging Treatments', 'The Dubrow Diet: Interval Eating to Lose Weight and Feel Ageless', The Dubrow Keto Fusion Diet' with his wife Heather, and 'The Acne Cure' with Brenda Adderly.

Dubrow also owns a skincare line called Consult Beaute. In an interview with Market Wired, the Botched star said, "While plastic surgery isn't for everyone, every woman deserves to feel beautiful. I'm an advocate for minimal treatment that helps produce natural-looking results. I believe Consult Beaute's innovative approach to anti-aging will help enhance the natural beauty and look of vitality customers are in search of without surgery."

In 2013, Dubrows sold their Orange County mansion for a reported $16.4M and purchased land in a new community to build their dream home. Celebrity Net Worth puts Dr Dubrow's current net worth at $50 million.

Heather has appeared in CBS drama 'That's Life'. She was also seen in episodes of 'Malibu Country', 'Hot in Cleveland', 'Young & Hungry' and 'Hawaii Five-0'. She has appeared in films like 'The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest' (2002) and 'Now You Know' (2002). In 2012, she starred in the seventh season of 'The Real Housewives of Orange County'. Heather also has her own podcast 'Heather Dubrow's World', which focuses on travel, parenting, wellness, beauty and health.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, the majority of her wealth is derived from her husband, plastic surgeon Terry Dubrow. The couple has co-authored books together and have a skincare line Consult Beaute that they are running together for more than 15 years now. Heather's net worth is $50M.

Combined with husband Terry's net worth of $50M, their total household net worth is $100M, making them one of the richest couples in the TV industry.

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'Celebrity Call Center': With net worth of $100M, Terry and Heather Dubrow reign as television's power couple - MEAWW

How can nanomedicine be applied to cannabis? – Leafly

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Imagine a world in which a tiny nanorobot could deliver a specific cannabinoid directly to your endocannabinoid (ECS) receptors. The nanorobot would be thousands of times smaller than the breadth of a human hair and could carry its small cargo inside a single droplet of liquid to deliver it directly to a target cell such as a cancer cell.

Sound far-fetched? It may be closer than you think, because researchers are making great strides in the fascinating field of nanomedicine.

The cannabis plant contains an amazing group of cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids, and scientists are only beginning to unlock the complex pharmacology and potential of these compounds. Combined with nanomedicine, cannabis has even more potential to treat disease and provide overall health benefits for people.

Scientists can manipulate substances on an atomic scale, in the range of 1-100 nanometers, or one thousand times thinner than a sheet of paper. According to the US Nanotechnology Initiative, substances on the nanoscale have very different properties than bulk substances dounique properties like better electrical conductance, higher strength, and different magnetic properties, light reflection, or chemical reactivity. Nanotechnology can be performed on solids, liquids, or gases to unlock these unique phenomena.

For these reason, nanotechnology applications in medicine offer exciting promise and possibilities, especially when applied to cannabis compounds. Many nanotechnology applications are already in usecomputer circuits made from carbon nanotubes allow for far greater computing power, and nanoparticles are already being used in pharmaceuticals to improve absorption.

Researchers work on all kinds of aspects of nanotechnology, such as finding the best substance for nanoparticles, the best shape for a nanoparticle for a specific delivery, and the best transfer mechanisms for specific drugs. Nanoparticles can generate heat, deliver stem cells, be radioactive or metallic, and so much more.

While many applications are still only imagined by scientists, at its full potential, nanotechnology could be the next medical revolution, vastly changing how diseases are detected and treated.

One of the best applications of nanomedicine is in the area of drug delivery, whereby nanoparticles deliver substances directly to specific cells, like diseased cancer cells. Researchers can engineer nanoparticles to be attracted to a diseased cell and limit the ability to bind with and therefore damage healthy cells.

Scientists at MIT and other institutions have successfully used specific nanoparticles to deliver drugs to tumors. Even more interesting is that nanoparticles are developed to work togetherwhile one locates a tumor, another can use the signal from the first to effectively carry the drug to its intended target.

In one interesting application, scientists have created a nanoparticle that looks for hydrogen peroxide present in inflamed tissue, then it releases a drug in that environment to target heart disease.

There is great promise that nanotechnology and cannabinoids can make an impact on diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons, diabetes, and a wide range of serious inflammatory diseases.

Nanotechnology can help identify a disease at an early stage, perhaps even when a single cell has gone awry, and then deliver a targeted cannabinoid to correct a cells behavior, thus stopping the disease in its tracks. It may even be possible for a nanorobot to target a specific endocannabinoid receptor to shut down the entire inflammatory process for the betterment of a patient.

Cannabinoid nanodelivery systems have entered the research mainstream, with scientists working on biologically engineered cannabinoids and other nanoparticles to be transported to cells, and by creating nanocarrier transport substances out of metallics or other substances.

Delivery system research also touches on improving bioavailabilitythe rate at which the active substance of a drug enters the bloodstreamas well as improving the physical stability of nanoparticles and optimizing routes of administration, including injection, pills, or sublingual drops.

A nanotechnology-based targeted drug delivery system can be formulated to deliver cannabinoids directly to endocannabinoid receptors, where the magic happens. Cannabinoids can be packed inside a nanoparticle and carried to its intended target without degradation and with a controlled release.

For example, nanoemulsions are already used in the food industry to deliver probiotics or other bioactive ingredients in a very controlled release. These nanoemulsions use a combination of two liquids that dont normally combinesuch as oil and waterto serve as a barrier to chemical degradation for the cannabinoid while on its journey through the body.

Other encapsulation methods can help with potency issues by increasing absorption, they can help decrease side effects, and they can help cover a substances bitter taste.

Specific cannabis strains could even have tailored therapeutic profiles, and cannabinoids could be bioengineered to produce enhanced effects.

Scientists envision a superclass of cannabinoid nanocarriers that have potential to treat a wide array of endocannabinoid insufficiency issues and thus a wide variety of diseases.

In one example, researchers are looking at novel ways to deliver substances across the difficult blood-brain barrier. This barrier is the bodys built-in defense mechanism to protect the brain, so the ability to transport substances across it directly affects a treatments efficacy.

To this end, scientists are engineering lipid nanocapsules decorated with minute cannabinoids like CBD as novel therapies for diseases of the central nervous system.

Nanotechnology has already transformed drug delivery in profound ways, and cannabinoid delivery is part of this exciting future. There are challenges, of course. Cannabinoids quickly degrade in water and are susceptible to other kinds of degradation, and that presents delivery issues.

More recent discoveries, including the decoding of the cannabis genome, discovery of the main CB1R and CB2R receptors within the human endocannabinoid system (ECS), and discovery of other receptors, are also foundational efforts that contribute to cannabinoid nanotechnology.

The latest research shows great progress in the formulation of targeted cannabinoid-nanocarrier delivery systems, and as such may provide key therapies particularly for central nervous system disorders. As scientists continue to make improvements in both bio-efficacy and bioavailability, cannabis nanotechnology represents an exciting and brave new world.

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How can nanomedicine be applied to cannabis? - Leafly

How Your Subconscious Mind Is Running Your Life And How To Fix It – Forbes

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Is your subconscious in charge?

By Rhiannon Rees

Have you ever wanted to drive a Lamborghini? Imagine the speed, the ease of handling, the wind through your hair. The car embodies class and thrills to the max.

Compare that to being on a skateboard, moving under your own steam. It takes effort, only goes fast in short bursts, is unpredictable and not great on handling. Youre exposed, dependent on the terrain and battered by weather conditions.

Which would you rather drive?

Lets call the Lamborghini your conscious mind and the skateboard a part of your subconscious. One is powerful, present and has you arriving in style; the other is slow and clunky and maybe gets you there in the end.

Which one is driving you?

Self-limiting beliefs drive us. The beliefs stored in our subconscious minds were often created when we were children. We took most of them from our parents and other adults who were influential in our lives. Once formed, these beliefs are stored, rarely questioned and all but forgottenyet they provide the compass we live by as adults. Every time something in our life matches the subconscious belief we hold, that belief is further confirmed.

The trouble with being guided by these unquestioned beliefs is that, while they may have served a purpose when they were created and may have even kept us safe when we were younger, many of them are outdated and over-simplified. Some are downright wrong. Theyre not the kind of beliefs we need as a driving force in our adult lives.

With firmly held beliefs like these the richness, or desire for riches, turns stagnant.

Our self-limiting beliefs become our reality. They influence our identity and, in turn, our future. Henry Ford once said, Whether you think you can or think you cant, youre right. Exactly. It is our thoughts that create our reality.

What if you could harness techniques that enable you to transform your self-limiting beliefs? What if you could reach into your subconscious mind to explore and effectively change the beliefs stored there?

You can. In quantum physics the simple act of observing a particle has been demonstrated to actively affect its behavior. The results of various experiments show us the potential power we have over our environment when we take on the role of observer. If we turn the light of observation on ourselves and delve into our subconscious minds, we can look closely at the beliefs we created long ago and see how they now run our lives.

Meditation can help us to reach that place of observation by allowing us access to deeper levels of consciousness. Other mindfulness techniques such as visualization, deep breathing and paying attention to how we react in situations can also work. As soon as we bring our beliefs into conscious awareness, they begin to change. Once conscious, they can be explored, and when theyre unhelpful, then new, more useful beliefs can be planted in their place.

And then theres the voice chattering away inside our heads. That voice can harangue us, undermine us and bring us downor it can support and sustain us. Much of what it tells us is colored by the beliefs we laid down in childhood. When we stand back and watch this self-talk, we can learn a lot about which beliefs support us and which do us harm. The next step is to shift the language we use, both in our thoughts and our speech. For example, we can:

Exchange I should with I choose to

Shift I cant into Im learning to

I dont sleep well shifts to I have a restful sleep every night

I know it wont work can become I make it work

Instead of I never know what to do, try I can ask for help

Rather than saying I need to keep my feelings to myself, say Its okay for me to be open with my feelings

Change Im always broke with Im expansively abundant or Money comes to me easily and effortlessly

Compared to those old limiting beliefs above, how much more powerfully would the new beliefs support you? But money and abundance arent the only areas to focus on. Dont forget to look at your beliefs around self-worth and receiving as well. In order to succeed, we need to be open to receiving success and to believing ourselves worthy. Do your beliefs build your power, or are they limiting it in any way?

Daily affirmations can help you set your new beliefs in place. By choosing your words thoughtfully and forming them into phrases that accurately reflect beliefs that will better serve you and help you reach your life goals, you can actively create the life you want.

The trick is to become aware of what is working and whats not working in your life, then harness techniques to access your subconscious mind and conquer self-limiting beliefs. Thats the first step in moving from debt to abundance, shifting from being overlooked to being valued for your skills, or changing a flailing business into one that pulls in the profits.

Is your subconscious mind getting your attention now?

Would you prefer to get where youre going on the subconscious skateboard of limiting beliefs? Or would you rather cruise your road to success in the ever-cool Lamborghini?

The choice is yours.

Rhiannon Reesis a human behavior expert and international high-performance coach helping clients redefine their level of success.An Australian native,Rhiannonis a best-selling author, thriving entrepreneur and a global speaker.

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How Your Subconscious Mind Is Running Your Life And How To Fix It - Forbes

Randonautica: What Is It and Are the Stories Real? – The New York Times

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The app led one person to a friendly dog in the desert and another to a field of wildflowers. One young woman, after making her college decision, followed the app to a field where her schools initials had been mowed into the grass.

And then there were the friends who followed the app to a suitcase full of human remains.

That is the gamble one takes with Randonautica, which claims to channel users intentions to produce nearby coordinates for exploration. Think: The law of attraction meets geocaching.

Randonautica makes a few asks of users What would you like to get? Choose your entropy source before prompting them to focus on your intent while it fetches coordinates. This process relies on location settings and a random number generator, which, despite what the company says, cannot be directly affected by human thoughts.

Many of the places users have been sent to since Randonautica became available in February are unremarkable: parking lots, grasslands, many bodies of water. However, interest has been driven by the spooky and often synchronistic randonauting stories many have shared on social media. While several of them appear to be fake, others have raised some cause for concern.

The creators of Randonautica say the app has evolved beyond their intentions. But what were those intentions?

Before Randonautica, there were the Randonauts: Strangers who swapped stories about their bot-assisted adventures into the unknown. They wanted to open their minds to the world around them and make meaning of lifes coincidences.

The bots code came from a group of programmers called the Fatum Project who were interested in, among other things, using the technology to ensure the randomness of online gambling outcomes.

Joshua Lengfelder, 29, discovered the Fatum Project on the messenger app Telegram in January 2019, in a fringe-science chat room. He absorbed the projects theories about how random exploration could break people out of their predetermined realities, and how people could influence random outcomes with their minds.

Mr. Lengfelder, a former circus performer, thought the code and its underlying ideas could be used to explore the relationship between consciousness and technology. In February 2019, while caring for his father, who had just suffered a stroke, he created a Telegram bot that used the Fatum Projects code to generate random coordinates. In March, he created a Randonauts subreddit, which now has 125,000 members. And in October, a developer named Simon Nishi McCorkindale created a web page for the bot.

That same month, Auburn Salcedo, the chief executive of Presley Media, an agency that creates brand integrations for TV, found the Randonauts on Reddit and offered to help Mr. Lengfelder get the word out. On Jan. 24, Ms. Salcedo and Mr. Lengfelder incorporated Randonauts, L.L.C., with her as C.O.O. and him as C.E.O. (She remains the chief executive of Presley Media, which handles P.R. for Randonautica.) They released a beta version of the app on Feb. 22.

Since its release, Randonautica has been downloaded 10.8 million times from the App Store and Google Play, according to the research firm Sensor Tower. After a few months of rapid growth, much of it propelled by TikTok, its downloads have started to taper off, according to data from the analytics firm App Annie.

In an interview in July, Mr. Lengfelder described Randonautica as a multimedia storytelling platform that encourages performance art. He said the overwhelming response has not surprised him.

I kind of figured it was inevitable, he said. Because basically what it is is like a machine that creates memes and legends, and it kind of virally propagates on its own.

On social media, the most popular randonauting videos feature eerie and seemingly dangerous situations that are dramatized through editing. Some creators have capitalized on the trend by posting exaggerated or false accounts of their randonauting adventures. The 27-year-old YouTuber Josh Yozura, for instance, claimed to have been led to a crime scene. (Mr. Yozura did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Ms. Salcedo denounced such videos in an interview with the YouTube creator Billschannel. In a phone interview this month, she spoke further about the proliferation of fake videos. Its so hard to manage, because people are really taking creative liberties after seeing how much traction the app is getting in that fear factor, she said.

On first use, Randonautica offers a brief intro and some tips (Always Randonaut with a charged phone, Never trespass) before prompting you to share your location.

Then it will ask you to choose which type of point you would like it to generate (the differences between which only matter if you believe the app can read your thoughts) before fetching coordinates from a random number generator. The user can then open that location in Google Maps to begin their journey.

Randonautica throws big words like quantum and entropy around a lot. Its creators believe that quantum random numbers are more likely to be influenced by human consciousness than non-quantum random numbers. This hypothesis is part of a theory Mr. Lengfelder refers to as mind-machine interaction, or M.M.I.: It posits that when you focus on your intent, you are influencing the numbers.

Basically if youre looking for any kind of peer-reviewed, scientific consensus, that does not exist yet in the literature, Mr. Lengfelder said in a TikTok video in June, speaking about the theory. Instead, he pointed to the work of Dean Radin, a prominent figure in the pseudoscientific field of parapsychology, and the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program, which has cited Dr. Radins research, as evidence.

Randonautica claims that a 1998 PEAR experiment supported the idea that people can control random number generation with their thoughts. That study was published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, which includes work about the paranormal, spirit possessions, poltergeists and questions about Shakespeares authorship. In the study, PEARs researchers wrote that the experiment was far from conclusive.

It looks like they saw some kind of correlation, but they admit that it was weak and it needed to have further research associated with it, said Casey Schwarz, an experimental physicist and assistant professor at Ursinus College who reviewed Randonauticas claims for this article. She said she did not know of any quantum system that could be influenced by human thoughts.

Lisa Fazio, an assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, said that the more synchronous experiences were likely coincidences colored by confirmation bias, or the tendency to look for information that affirms ones beliefs and tune out contradictory evidence.

She pointed to a story shared on Reddit, in which an Australian poster described being led to a map of the London underground. Things like that happen all the time, its just that you dont notice that map of London if you didnt have the intention already to be thinking of London, Dr. Fazio said. She also noted that coincidences are far more common than people realize.

Mr. Lengfelder dismissed such criticisms, stating that the app was not created to prove a hypothesis. I would say its not some kind of academic science work, he said. Were more like inventors than academic scientists.

An update coming in August will feature improved graphics and, Mr. Lengfelder said, a custom random number generator that would have a higher rate of entropy. So technically our M.M.I. effects should be higher, he said. Of course, as noted above, M.M.I. is a theory that is not supported by science.

Daniel J. Rogers, a physicist who has worked with quantum random number generators, called Randonauticas M.M.I. theory completely absurd.

There is no quantum physics here, said Dr. Rogers, a founder of the Global Disinformation Index. This is just people using big science words to sound magical. There is no actual science here.

Randonauting became popular partly because of reverse psychology; young people approach it with a sense of foreboding. Do not go randonauting has become a popular title for videos.

Several people who shared unsettling stories about the app say they have since sworn it off. Adrian Chavez, 21, was led to an ominous beach near his home in Orange County, Calif. A video of his journey, posted on TikTok in early June, has been viewed 4.5 million times.

I deleted the app right after that and never used it again since, Mr. Chavez said in an interview in July.

The 18-year-old TikTok user who posted the viral video about finding a suitcase of human remains on a Seattle beach, @UghHenry, wrote in the comments of his video: The moment I got back home, I broke down. I still cant sleep.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Mr. Lengfelder was blas about the story, which was covered by news outlets including KING 5 News and The New York Post. Its not the best press, but Im not really that upset about it, because its kind of cool, he said. I kind of wish it was me who found it.

Some adults have expressed concerns about the apps lack of safety precautions for children. Though Randonauticas terms of use specify that anyone who is a minor must obtain parental consent to use the app, such consent is collected by email, making it easy for young users to bypass.

Know and Tell, a child protection education program with the Granite State Childrens Alliance in New Hampshire, has posted on Instagram telling parents to keep young people off the app, or at least supervise their use.

It was very apparent that these were young teenagers that were going to undisclosed areas in the middle of the night, said Jana El-Sayed, the outreach project manager for the Granite State Childrens Alliance. She described these circumstances as a perpetrators dream.

Concerns about human trafficking and personal data use are addressed in Randonauticas F.A.Q., which specifies that all location data is anonymized and only made available to developers, and that starting locations are never saved by the app.

Pokmon Go, which uses augmented reality to encourage local exploration, has handled safety concerns by putting PokStops and Gyms in notable, public locations, and encouraging users to remain vigilant.

Randonauticas safety tips are similar: Avoid dangerous areas, do not trespass, try to explore during the day or with friends. Randonauticas website repeatedly urges users to use common sense. The latest version of the app will feature multiple screens and pop-ups reminding users to use the app safely.

Randonauticas executives say they dont understand why people would use the app to seek out risk or harm.

You wouldnt go out on a walk and say, Let me think about seeing death, Ms. Salcedo said in an interview, referring to a viral TikTok video in which an 18-year-old user claims she set her intention as death and then happened upon a shooting victim.

Yeah, Lets see if I get stalked, Mr. Lengfelder added.

Ms. Salcedo said Randonauticas legal counsel reassured her and Mr. Lengfelder that the app would not be liable for any user misconduct.

Is Google Maps liable too, for giving them directions? Mr. Lengfelder said. At a certain point, if somebody wants to really go out of the way and harm themselves, theyre going to do it. Whether its with Randonautica or not.

Ben Decker contributed reporting.

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Randonautica: What Is It and Are the Stories Real? - The New York Times

Netflix’s ‘The Old Guard’ Is The Superhero Movie We Need Right Now – The Federalist

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The Old Guard, Netflixs newest superhero film based on the comic of the same name, is an engaging and clever look at immortality through fun action set pieces and interesting characters.

The film doesnt do anything particularly special or new with its genre, but its a smart movie, and certainly worth watching. The most compelling superhero worlds are the ones where heroism has serious downsides and consequences.

Batman will forever be isolated by his duty to Gotham. The X-Men face rampant discrimination. Spidermans powers put everyone he loves into jeopardy. Likewise, the titular heroes must face the brutal problems associated with their expanded lifespans.

The concept of immortality is played with beautifully in The Old Guard. The film doesnt bombard audiences with information or deep mythos surrounding their powers, as the characters themselves dont know all that much. Bits and pieces of the films lore are peppered throughout the film, with hopefully more to be fleshed out in the likely upcoming sequel.

There is a profound sorrow throughout the film, but it never overindulges in bleakness to the point of banality. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood handles the tone nicely, allowing a surprising sense of hope to what could have been a boring, depressing mess.

The air of mystery surrounding the groups powers is welcome in a genre that often attempts to over-explain the more magical aspects of their story in order to ground them in some sense of realism, only to inadvertently reduce the realism due to unforeseen plot holes. By not creating a convoluted explanation for everything, but rather create lived-in, set rules, the film can abide by its own internal logic much better than its genre compatriots.

The effects for their healing are fairly standard, nothing that hasnt been done before and done better by cinematic portrayals of Wolverine. Nevertheless, it never gets old, watching the slow reversal of wounds as our heroes recover.

The central team is fantastic, sharing an easy and believable chemistry for a groups supposedly working together for centuries. Likewise, each character in the eponymous Old Guard comes from a different era, which plays into their characters and relationships.

Charlize Theron has cemented herself as a fantastic action star in recent years, turning in excellent turns in the phenomenal Mad Max: Fury Road and underrated Atomic Blonde.Here, she shines as Andromache of Scythia, or Andy, a 6,000-year-old woman who has dedicated her incredibly long life to protecting humanity. The oldest of the group, Andy is a woman wearied by seeing the worst of humanity for millennia, and, despite lifetimes of effort, evil still exists and thrives.

Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) fought for Napoleon, and primarily views his immortality as a curse. Forced to watch his wife and children age, suffer, and die in the 1800s, he knows immortality means slowly losing everyone youve ever loved.

Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) met while fighting against each other in the crusades, ultimately falling in love.Their relationship leaves the two of them the least resentful with their immortality, as an extended lifespan means more time together. Further, it is a nice change to see two immortal beings in a stable, committed relationship lasting centuries.

The newcomer of the group, Nile (KiKi Layne) was a marine who discovered her immortality upon being killed in the line of duty and awakening with her wounds entirely healed. It is through her eyes, as well as Andys, that we are primarily seeing the film. Nile serves both as an effective audience surrogate and an interesting character in her own right, as her emotional journey of dealing with newfound immortality is compellingly treated with nuance. Layne was excellent in 2018s If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Old Guard cements her as a talent as someone to keep an eye.

The villains are likewise each individualized, with disparate motives and degrees of humanity. All three are after the secret behind the protagonists immortality, but with disparate methods and motives.Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the primary antagonist, James Copley, who is likewise the most sympathetic. A former CIA agent who lost his wife to a long battle with ALS, he is desperate to understand how wounds can heal and death can be undone to make sense of his wifes suffering.

Pharma Mogul Steven Merrick (Harry Melling) is driven by one motive profit. He sees the potential in using the immortals DNA to market lifesaving drugs and make a fortune, not caring if he has to imprison and torture five people for decades to do so. Lastly, the desire for scientific discovery and helping people is worth the cost of human suffering for Dr. Kozak (Anamaria Marinca). Rather than make the villains a generically evil monolith, the trios respective complexities deeply enhances the story.

The action in the film is very enjoyable.Therons dance training allows for longer choreographed fight sequences, rather than an over-reliance on quick cuts to simulate action. Prince-Bythewood uses that to its full potential. In a film with immortal characters, it can be tough to generate high enough stakes to make anyone care about the outcome of fights aside from watching pretty movements.

Prince-Bythewood, however, leans on the immortality aspect of the story, emphasizing their ability to survive many deaths, which can be in and of itself a curse when faced with endless torture. The most horrifying sequence in the film shows one of the immortals former teammatesstuck in an iron maiden at the bottom of the ocean for centuries, drowning over and over again in perpetuity.

I do hope that we get more films in this series. The characters are engaging and sympathetic, and theres a lot more that can be done with them. Im looking forward to seeing the continued adventures of Andy, Nile, Joe, Nicky, and Booker.

Paulina Enck is an intern at the Federalist and current student at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service. Follow her on Twitter at @itspaulinaenck

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Netflix's 'The Old Guard' Is The Superhero Movie We Need Right Now - The Federalist

Judd Trump’s bid to end 43-year-old Crucible curse is a shot at World Championship immortality – Eurosport.com

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"I look up to the sky. And now the world is mine. I've known it all my life. I made it, I made it.

For the best part of the past decade, Judd Trump, the very best of a delightfully brimming Bristol cream, has been bounding into various outposts across the globe to the lyrics of Kevin Rudolf's club banger I Made It.

World Championship

When he officially did make it as a made man by becoming snookers world champion for the first time last May, Rudolf's rap number had been replaced by Dutch DJ Martin Garrix's High On Life as Trump's walk on tune of choice.

An absorbing anthem when you are giving it large under Ushuaias sultry lights in Ibiza, but arguably not so apt upon entering the potting promised landed under the Crucible Theatre's heavenly light bulbs.

Which ironically suggests that time spent at the table is a bit like the wider world when you are making symbolic song choices: you can control so much in life, but you are always relying on a little bit of luck to get the right split when you plunge into the pack. In the pursuit of happiness, timing remains everything on the old green baize and off it.

Amid the furnace of rolling balls and rolling the dice, especially amid a summer World Championship delayed and damaged like much of sport by a global health pandemic, there is seemingly always a battle against the wider narrative as much as yourself. For Trump, a little slice of snooker folklore could soon be his exclusive property, an elusive ornament not afforded to any other man since the Steel City of Sheffield first steeled itself to host the World Championship in 1977.

If he emerges victorious for the second successive year, Trump will have lifted the Crucible Curse that has hung over various potting protagonists like the Sword of Damocles, or perhaps the cue stick of Tony Knowles, for the past 43 years and counting.

It is a bit like British tennis and its 77-year wait for a mens winner of Wimbledon until Andy Murray emulated Fred Perry in 2013. One year it will happen, you just aren't sure if the end of days will arrive before the hex, rather than the Hexagon, is finally lifted.

It sounds like something out of Harry Potter's Cruciatus Curse, but has nothing to do with pot luck or the horse racing tips of John Parrott, the 1991 world champion and another victim of the odd phenomenon. Even The Wizard of Wishaw has been unable to escape the voodoo beyond the infamous disappearing act of Alex Higgins legendary large vodkas and a dash aided by a Crucible ice bucket back in the day.

John Higgins was responsible for dashing the defending champion Ken Dohertys brave bid when he overcame The Darlin of Dublin 18-12 in the 1998 final and another 22 years have rolled relentlessly by.

Higgins was himself gazumped 17-10 by Mark Williams in the semi-finals in 1999 as the curse struck him down with as much venom as an Alexandra Palace wasp.

Only Doherty and Bradfords swashbuckling Joe Johnson have returned to the final a year after lifting the old trophy for the first time. Johnson was a 150-1 outsider when he stuffed Steve Davis 18-12 in 1986, but The Nugget was not ready to be ambushed a second time as he prevailed 18-14 in 1987.

Davis was on the receiving end of one of the biggest upsets in the sports history after lifting his first world title in 1981 with an 18-12 win over Doug Mountjoy. He came across Boltons Knowles, a firm housewives favourite, in the first round in 1982 and was promptly roundhoused 10-1.

The ghosts of champions past haunt maiden winners at the old joint with more focus than Cliff Thorburn stalking a cigarette prior to compiling the first 147 at the venue in 1983.

Stephen Hendry lost 13-11 to Steve James in the quarter-finals in 1991, Mark Williams was eclipsed 13-12 by Joe 'The Outlaw Swail in the last 16 in 2001 and Ronnie OSullivan was bullied into submission by Hendrys scoring power of five centuries and eight breaks over 50 in a grudge match in the 2002 semi-finals.

Mark Selby, a three-times champion, lost 13-9 to Anthony McGill in the second round in 2015 a year after denying OSullivan a sixth title 18-14 in 2014. The list is long and seemingly endless.

Trump was only 21 when he himself toppled Neil Robertson 10-8 in the first round in 2011 a year after the Melburnian had become Australia's first world champion.

All the true prospectors of the green baize have returned a year later to defend the trophy and have been struck down by fate in the longing for unique sporting gold.

Will the curse of the black ball see the champ swallowed up by Davy Jones locker or Davy Gilberts dressing room this time? Do such stats truly matter? Too many classy players have come up short over such a long period of time to render it a meaningless quirk. Form, pressure and expectation levels tend to take hold with greater strain than an ill-fitting bow tie rather than a curse.

It could be argued that none of the previous have-a-go heroes were better equipped to successfully defend the trophy than Trump, snookers greatest undisputed world number one since Hendry used to wash up at the venue in the 1990s with room for the trophy already earmarked in his motor.

His 18-9 filleting of John Higgins in the final last year was something to behold as he ran in a record seven centuries and 15 breaks over 50 in a final that became as much a procession as an exhibition of snooker sovereignty. It was the best standard we have witnessed at the annual cueball conference.

I think I can play better, he told me after last years final. Hopefully I can take the game to standards that havent been seen before. Im going to put in the work, go back and practice even harder to produce a new standard that no one has seen before.

Trump has made good on his promise by casting a spell over the sport in carrying off an unprecedented six ranking events at the International Championship, World Open, Northern Ireland Open, German Masters, Players Championship and Gibraltar Open before coronavirus halted play.

As a rightful 5/2 favourite with 879,600 officially banked already this season, tournament sponsors Betfred will not be overly displeased if this snooker sorcerer comes up short.

As is tradition, the defending champion begins his campaign against Tom Ford at 10am on Friday morning before they play to a finish in the evening. He has won 10 out of 14 meetings with his fellow Englishman, but it should also be noted that he lost 10-3 to Ford a decade ago in a qualifier for the main Crucible draw.

How times have changed. At full throttle, his game is pristine, full of cavalier potting possibilities and studied safety solutions. His level of natural ability and adventure has rarely been witnessed in the modern era. Certainly not since OSullivan became UK champion at the age of 17 in 1993.

Therein lies the importance of Trumps attempt for a career-defining second world title at the age of 30. It is a time limited, one-off offer and he only gets one shot at it, but the pieces of a career tapestry in any sport are forged by such timeless trivia.

OSullivan continues to be recalled as the youngest winner of the UK Championship. His world record 147 in five minutes and eight minutes in 1997 is timelessly celebrated. Trump could become the first original champion to win back-to-back titles which would instantly separate him from the rest in the history of the game and ensuing debate of who is deemed worthy of all-time greatness.

The 500,000 first prize would go a long way to putting down a lasting deposit on whatever legacy he wishes to leave in the sport. If he has notions of taking the game to a new level, sometimes the pieces of the puzzle, indeed lifes endless challenges, do not begin and end in a natural order. It is how you make sense of the enfolding chaos that is key.

Like the longing to clear the table at one visit, solving the matrix more often than not separates the good from the great in snooker as regularly as they split the balls.

Trump has already enjoyed the days of his life, but one of the final missing pieces of the jigsaw is there for the taking this year and this year only. For Trump, immortality is within potting distance.

Desmond Kane

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Judd Trump's bid to end 43-year-old Crucible curse is a shot at World Championship immortality - Eurosport.com

Why Jesus Did NOT Have To Die On The Cross – Patheos

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Honestly, I think at least once a week I hear someone invoke the phrase, This is why Jesus died on the cross or ask the question, Why did Jesus have to die? or some other variation of the concept.

Heres the thing: Jesus did NOT have to die on the cross.

In other words, God did not require Jesus to be crucified to fulfill some mystical prophecy.

However, it is clear that the death of Jesus was expected from the very beginning. So, whereas we might say that Jesus didnt need to be crucified [specifically], it was inevitable and necessary for Jesus to die [or to taste death].

How do we know this? Because once Christ became flesh, death became inevitable. Once Immortality became clothed with Mortality; once the Incorruptible took on Corruptibility; Once God became Man, death was a foregone conclusion. It couldnt have ended any other way.

The decision for Christ to take on flesh indicated an intention to experience death, one way or the other.

So, once the Incarnation took place, the death of Jesus was already in play. Just as everyone one of us who is born must one day taste death, so, too, did Christ agree to die simply by virtue of being united with us in our mortal bodies.

And, I would argue, that the death of Christ no matter how it had taken place would have resulted in the salvation and transformation of all mankind, with or without the cross.

The plan all along was for Christ to become incarnate in a body of flesh so that the seed of immortality could be planted into the soil of mortality [death] and the resurrection power of Christ could forever liberate us from the power of the grave.

As Jesus phrased it: Truly, truly, I say to you,unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. [John 12:24]

So, it was always the plan for Christ to die. This is how the power of death was broken. The resurrection life of Christ invaded the realm of death and turned it inside out. The light of the world descended into the depths of outer darkness and illuminated it from within.

Or, as Paul phrases it in the inverse here in 1 Corinthians 15:

For thisperishable must put onthe imperishable, and thismortal must put on immortality.But when thisperishable will have put onthe imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, Death is swallowed upin victory.Odeath, where is your victory? Odeath, where is your sting?The sting ofdeath is sin, andthe power of sin is the law;butthanks be to God, who gives us thevictory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [1 Cor. 15:53-57]

See, because Christ the imperishable one took on perishable flesh, and because the immortal one became mortal, we [the mortal ones] are qualified to take on immortality [now that we are all in Christ and Christ is now in us].

Whether Jesus had died from cholera, or typhoid fever, or old age, or yes, by the hands of men who nailed him to a Roman cross, is irrelevant. Regardless of the how, the what was always in full view: Christ became flesh and experienced death so that we could put on immortality and share in the life of Christ forever.

Paul says as much in the very same chapter of 1 Corinthians:

But now Christhas been raised from the dead, thefirst fruits of those whoare asleep.For sinceby a mancamedeath, by a man alsocamethe resurrection of the dead.Foras in Adam all die, so also inChrist all will be made alive. [1 Cor. 15:20-22]

So, Christ knew he would die from the start. But how he would die wasnt inevitable, or even contingent upon the success of his mission. Once Christ took on mortal flesh everything was set in motion.

To be clear, God did not send Jesus to be crucified. We [humans] decided that Jesus would die in this way. But there was nothing magical or specific about crucifixion itself that accomplished Gods plan. Christs obedience, even unto death on a cross, is what mattered most.

Over the years I think too much has been made about the cross, specifically, as if drowning Jesus wouldve thwarted the entire salvation operation, or as if food poisoning wouldve been insufficient for us to have counted his death as a victory over sin and death.

We chose the cross as the means of Christs death. Peter and the other Disciples say it over and over again:

thisMan, delivered over by thepredetermined plan and foreknowledge of God,you nailed to a cross by the hands ofgodless men and putHimto death. Acts 2:23

but put to death thePrince of life,the onewhomGod raised from the dead,a factto which we arewitnesses. Acts 3:15

The God of our fathersraised up Jesus,whom you hadput to death by hanging Him on across. Acts 5:30

Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming ofthe Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderersyou have now become; Acts 7:52

What we did was kill Jesus.

What God did was to raise him up again.

We crucified Jesus.

God did not.

Certainly, Jesus knew that he would most likely be crucified by the Roman authorities. That wasnt hard to guess. Even Plato predicted, hundreds of years prior to Christ, that a truly righteous man would be beaten and crucified if we ever got our hands on him. [SeePlatosRepublic, Book II.360-61]

So, while the death of Christ was inevitable, his crucifixion was not.

The answer, then, to the question, Why did Jesus have to die? is answered simply: Because he became human at his Incarnation.

But the answer to the question, Why did Jesus die on the cross? is answered by admitting that our reaction to Christs innocence, righteousness and radical love was to nail him to a cross.

Yes, Jesus died for our sins in that it was our sins that nailed him to the cross. But, even as we were in the process of nailing him there, his forgiveness was instantaneous and complete. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

In Christ, we are reconciled to God. In Christ, our sins are not being counted against us. In Christ, we experience freedom and newness of life.

Our choice was to crucify. His choice was to love and forgive.

**

FREE DOWNLOAD: The e-book Unraveled: More Thoughts On Christian Entanglement by Keith Giles is available now as a free PDF. If youd like a FREE download of the entire 85-page book, you can grab oneHERE

Keith Gilesand his wife, Wendy, work withPeace Catalyst Internationalto help build relationships between Christians and Muslims in El Paso, TX. Keith was formerly a licensed and ordained minister who walked away from organized church over a decade ago to start a home fellowship that gave away 100% of the offering to the poor in the community. Today he is the author of several best-selling books, includingJesus Undefeated: Condemning the False Doctrine of Eternal Torment which is available now on Amazon.

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Why Jesus Did NOT Have To Die On The Cross - Patheos

Shravan Purnima 2020: Know The Significance Of The Day – NDTV

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Shravan Purnima 2020: Raksha Bandhan wraps up the holy month of Sawan ends

Shravan Purnima 2020: One of the most auspicious days in the Hindu calendar, Shravan or Sawan Purnima, is being observed by devotees ofLord Shiva today. This year Shravan Purnima assumes even more significance as it coincides with Sawan Somwar - a day dedicated to Shiva. Sawan Somwar is observed on every Mondayin the month of Sawan, which corresponds to July-August.

On Shravan Purnima, a key puja is performed at the Amarnath shrine in south Kashmir. This yearAmarnath Yatra was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic but all rituals were held at the shrine. The traditional 'Pratham Pooja' or the first prayer was done in early June when the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Amarnath starts. Shravan Purnima marks the end of the puja.

Mahant Deependra Giri, the custodian of the holy mace of Lord Shiva, along with few others travelled from Srinagar to Amarnath shrine on Monday by a helicopter. Only a few people were allowed to accompany the Mahant due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Mahant Deependra Giri along with few others travelled from Srinagar to Amarnath shrine by a helicopter

"Chhari-Mubarak (holy mace) Swami Amarnath Ji - one depicting Lord Shiva and another Shakti Goddess Parvati Ji - led by Mahant Deependra Giri was carried to holy the shrine from Dashnami Akhara (in Srinagar) on August 3 by air," news agency ANI quoted a press release from Amarnath shrine authorities.

The rituals are performed while Vedic hymns are chanted during the puja at the holy shrine. According to scriptures, Lord Shiva recounted the 'Amar Katha' (the story of immortality) to Goddess Parvat at this time.

On Shravan Purnima devotees observe a special fast and offer prayers at Shiva temples. Sawan is significant not only for festivals, but for farmers as well as the month starts with the first showers of the monsoon season. The month also marks the beginning of the Chaturmas or the four holy months of the Hindu calendar. During these months most of the important festivals like Teej, Raksha Bandhan, Navratri and Diwali take place.This year Sawan began on July 6 and ends on August 3, with Shravan Purnima.

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Shravan Purnima 2020: Know The Significance Of The Day - NDTV

How Yu Darvish Began to Recreate His Success From the Second Half of Last Year – NBC Chicago

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Yu Darvish shuffled across Waveland Avenue in sweat pants and slides. A family of Cubs fans snapped photos from in front of the fire station before Friday's game.

Darvish acknowledged them but kept beelining toward the Wrigley Field gate. Even off the field he had his own unique flare and focus.

On the mound later that day, that was even more apparent.

Click to download the MyTeams App for the latest Cubs news and analysis.

In the Cubs' 6-3 win over the Pirates Friday, Darvish threw six shutout innings and resembled the lights-out starter he was in the second of last season.

"Today I felt the same as the second half," he said. "But still I need to work on my mechanics and normal cutter and command. But I feel like it's really close or almost the same."

The first time through the rotation, Darvish was the only starter who didn't have his best stuff. Kyle Hendricks threw a complete game shutout. Jon Lester threw five no-hit innings. Tyler Chatwood and Alec Mills each pitched six innings and allowed fewer than three runs.

Then there was Darvish, who gave up three runs in four innings. Not terrible under the circumstances of a pandemic and a three-week summer camp. But not up his standard.

Darvish said he wanted to work on his splitter, changeup and hard cutter before his next start.

On Saturday, he took a different approach.

"I tried to throw fewer hard cutters," Darvish said. "I used the normal cutter, knuckle curveball and four-seam. And that worked tonight."

After walking the first batter he faced, Adam Frazier, Darvish picked off Frazier at first and retired the next two in order. He gave up just two hits, both singles with no one on base. Both pitches were at the edge of or out of the zone.

"Yu was great tonight," Cubs manager David Ross said. "Had it all working. Just spinning the breaking ball really well in the zone, out of the zone. Looked like the splitty showed up tonight and then a couple times there, late fastballs just blowing guys' doors off."

The 18 whiffs he generated were a testament to just how good all those pitches were.

"I didn't know that," Darvish said when that statistic came up in his postgame interview. "But that's enough."

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How Yu Darvish began to recreate his success from the second half of last year originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

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How Yu Darvish Began to Recreate His Success From the Second Half of Last Year - NBC Chicago

Let’s make baseball weirder with even more new rules – The Oakland Press

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The stat geeks are all excited, even if no one else seems to be. Theyve spent the first days of the baseball season analyzing a bunch of new numbers that show the possibilities and probabilities of runners scoring after being put on second base to open extra innings.

What theyve found is interesting enough, though the sample size is small. Still, deciding whether to bunt or not with the first batter has at least introduced a bit of strategy into a game that in recent times has seemed intent on eliminating any deep thoughts.

Assuming the pandemic doesn't cause the season to come to a crashing close a big assumption right now theyll also soon be able to dive into the seven-inning doubleheaders and come up with numbers that show the proper way to handle pitchers. And theyll study what needs to be done to make the new playoffs, though with 16 teams thats easy enough even for those of us who werent paying much attention in math class.

But why stop there? Like it or not we have a weird new season with some weird new rules. Lets keep going to make baseball Americas favorite pastime once again.

Heres a few more things baseball can do in this, a season like no other:

NEW COUNTS: Batters will now start with 1-1 counts, much like competitive softball. This will save on pitcher arms, ultimately allowing starters to go four, perhaps even five, innings.

BIG HITS: Lets face it, all home runs arent created equal. Some barely curve around a foul pole into the first row of seats, others are caught by the Wrigley Field ball hawkers on Waveland Avenue. From now on, any home run over 400 feet is worth two runs instead of one. This will give hitters the incentive to blindly swing as hard as they can and cut down on boring singles. Still to be determined is what to call a long home run with the bases loaded, which would now be worth five runs. Grander Slam?

PICK A PITCHER: Teams will have to warm up two relief pitchers at a time in the bullpen, something that should be doable in a season of expanded rosters. If a pitcher is pulled, the team at bat gets to pick which reliever it wants to face.

SCHEDULE: The Yankees must be scheduled to play at least a third of their games against the Orioles. Unless, of course, the Orioles have a winning record. Then the Yankees play the Red Sox like usual.

SWING AND MISS: Its tough to face 99 mph fastballs, and splitters that dive before they reach the plate. To help hitters, anyone who has swung twice and missed in an at-bat will be allowed to place the ball on a tee and hit.

POWER BALLS: With the coronavirus very much in play, umpires are tossing out new balls almost every time one gets touched. Under the new rules, two orange balls will be put in the umpire pouch at the start of each inning to be pulled out at random. The batter at the plate when the ball is put into play has the option of accepting a free pass to first base or taking a chance on spinning the wheel behind home plate that offers outcomes ranging from a ground out to a home run. The inning is automatically over if the wheel lands on a picture of Rob Manfred's face.

UMPIRE DISCIPLINE: Enough grousing about umpires who slow games down by missing obvious calls. Lets do something about them. Umpires who have calls overturned will now have to sit on a big stool in the right field corner and wear a dunce cap for an inning.

MOUND VISITS: Eliminated, along with conferences on the mound. Talking behind gloves spreads the virus.

ROJAS RULE: There will be new protocols for deciding whether teams can play games because of the coronavirus. Final decisions will now go to Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas, who will make the ruling. Rojas is also the designated relief bus driver for Covid Coaches that take infected teams that were on road trips back to their home city.

COVID RULE: Remember all those rules about spitting, high-fiving and wearing masks in the dugout? Start respecting them and quick or there will be no baseball.

And, one final new rule:

The next time a team cheats to win a World Series dont punish the losing team for being upset about it.

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

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Let's make baseball weirder with even more new rules - The Oakland Press

Ram Could Follow Tesla, Ford and GM and Build an Electric Pickup Truck. But Should They? – Gear Patrol

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Electric vehicles may have first achieved a beachhead in the automotive marketplace in the form of compact hyper-efficient rides yes, we still remember you, EV1 but if they do eventually achieve victory over internal combustion in America, it seems likely to come at least in part in the form of electrified pickup trucks. After all, pickups aren't just the bread and butter for Detroit's Big Three they're the meat and potatoes, the starter salad and the unlimited breadsticks, too.

Tesla, of course, has its entry in the wings the highly-anticipated, batshit-crazy, probably-not-street-legal-yet-but-hey-that's-a-later-problem Cybertruck. Rivian's R1T is poised to launch early next year, its production slightly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. GM has its GMC Hummer EV coming, along with an electric Chevy Silverado and an onslaught of battery-powered Cadillaqs. Ford has a plug-in hybrid F-150 coming this year, with a fully electric one close behind. And upstarts like Lordstown, Nikola and Bollinger are poised to throw their hats into the ring, as well.

All this leads us to wonder: will Ram follow suit?

After all, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles ahem, Stellantis has been something of a laggard in vehicular electrification compared to GM and Ford. Apart from an unprofitable electric Fiat 500 and a PHEV minivan, its lineup has remained purely gas-powered, albeit with some vehicles receiving the mildest of hybrid assistance in the form of the eTorque system. PHEV Jeeps are about to join the lineup, but the omnipresence of 700-plus-horsepower V8s across the brands certainly creates the impression that The Automaker Formerly Known as FCA is more interested in kicking it old-school.

That said, Mopar's seeming reluctance to adopt electron-powered trucks could change if buyers start snapping up electric trucks by Ford, GM, Tesla et. al. and eating away at Ram's hard-won market share. That's the word from CEO Mike Manley, who said as much in a recent earnings call, according to The Detroit News.

"Obviously pickup trucks are a key franchise for us, and were not going to sit on the sidelines if there is a danger that our position gets diluted going forward," Manley said.

"The reason we havent spoken much about electric pickup trucks is not because we view that market as nonexistent," he said. "But weve always had a slightly different view of timing and adoption rates, particularly in North America in terms of full electrification. We are very committed to our electrification strategy most of which we have revealed."

So far, those revelations largely revolve around the aforementioned PHEV Jeeps and other plug-in hybrid vehicles, although a fully-electric Jeep or two certainly seems among the possibilities. Luxury brand Maserati seems likely to be the first brand in the portfolio to push into full EVs, with the company's next GT expected to offer an electric powertrain.

Still, while Stellantis has been more forthcoming than many carmakers about its product plans for the next few years, Manley says the company hasn't shown every card in its hand yet. "We havent revealed everything," he said.

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Ram Could Follow Tesla, Ford and GM and Build an Electric Pickup Truck. But Should They? - Gear Patrol

Europe Is Building the Next Tesla. Who Knew? – Bloomberg

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Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times.

When Nikola Corp. started trading on Nasdaq in June, the Phoenix-based clean transportation company raced quickly to a valuation of almost $30 billion.

Its market worth has since fallen to a more reasonable $10.5billion, but thats still pretty spicy for a business yet to generate any revenue. Its most promising products are its heavy trucks, powered by electric batteries or hydrogen fuel cells.

The rise of Nikola (whose name, cheekily, is another evocation of electrical engineer Nikola Tesla) will have reinforced a view among European auto industry executives that the U.S. stock market operates by different rules. While Tesla Inc. is only modestly profitable, its valued at about $275billion, more than Europes five largest carmakers combined.

At least Europe has a stake in the latest heavily hyped project.Founded by Trevor Milton, a 38-year-old American college dropout, Nikola is relying heavily on expertise from the old continent. Robert Bosch Gmbh, a German automotive supplier, has helped develop the U.S. companys electric powertrain, and the first Nikola trucks will be built in a German factory belonging to Italys Iveco, a truck maker backed by the billionaire Agnelli family. Bosch and Iveco each own more than 6% of Nikola.CNH Industrial NV, Ivecos parent, just recorded a $1.5 billion fair value gain on that investment.

The biggest question is whether a start-up dependent on so much external help should have a whizzy valuation like Tesla, which builds much of its technology itself.And if Europe has this expertise, why hasnt it produced its own rival to Elon Musks carmaker?

Thank these companies if the start-up becomes the Tesla of heavy trucks

Source: Nikola, Opinion research

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Maybe its a lack of chutzpah. Nikolas name isnt the only reason its often compared with Tesla. Miltons hyperactive Twitter presence makes Musk look tame by comparison. Both mens ambitions extend beyond selling zero-emission vehicles to producing and storing clean energy. While Nikola is focused on heavy-duty trucks, it has touted a variety of consumer products including a pickup called the Badger. These are catnip for retail investors, as the excitement over Musks Cybertruck demonstrates.

While Tesla and Nikola are both working on electric heavy trucks, they differ in at least two important respects. The first is hydrogen: Musk is dismissive, while Milton thinks hydrogen is the perfect fuel for long truck journeys. The second is their attitude towardbuilding stuff in-house.

True, in its early days Tesla worked withLotus to help make the Roadster, and Daimler AG helpeddevelop the Model S saloon. Teslapartners with Panasonic to produce battery cells. But Musk is famous for trying to build his own technology, from electric powertrains and automated-driving software to car seats.

Nikola developed its own software,infotainment andbattery management-system, as well as vehicle aerodynamics, according to Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne. It has outsourced or used hired help to do much of the other stuff.More than 200 Bosch employees were involved in building important parts of Nikolas trucks, including the electric motor for the axle, the vehicle-control unit, the battery and the hydrogen fuel cell. The result isa mix of intellectual property owned either separately orjointly by Nikola and its suppliers.

Theres no doubt, however, who has the deeper expertise.So far Nikola has been awarded 11 U.S. patents, about 1% of the totalBosch is awarded in a typical year. Bosch gets paid to help us get to industry standards on products, Milton told me.

Getting partners to providethe technological building blockshas some advantages. Nikola has only 300 employees and yet its first trucks should start rolling off theproduction line soon. Working with partners cuts the risk of the manufacturing delays and quality problems that plagued Tesla.

Its an efficient use of capital too. Nikolas research and development expenses were just $68million last year. Tesla spent$1.3 billion. After going public, Nikola has about $900 million of cash,although that wont go far in the automotive business. Forthe North Americanmarket, Nikola plans to handle its own manufacturing, with technical assistance from Iveco. Nikola broke ground this week on a$600 million factory in Arizona.

Whether or not you believe the extensive involvement of outside partners shouldhave a bearing on its lofty valuation, there are other things that could upset Nikolas plans.

Building a refueling network is a central part of its business model, but this wont come cheap at $17 million for each hydrogen station. The company is also entering a competitive field populated by more experienced and better capitalized rivals. Daimlers Mercedes-Benz failed to follow through on its early experiments with electric cars and let Tesla roar past. It probably wont make the same mistake withtrucks.

Daimler is the worlds largest truck maker and it plans to start production of its electric eActros and eCascadia models next year. The German giant has alsoformed a joint venture with Swedens Volvo AB to develop hydrogen fuel cell systems for heavy vehicles. That venture is valued by the companies at just 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion), putting the Nikola valuation into perspective.

Even if its share price looks overblown, Nikolas improbable rise shows theres investor demand for clean transportation companies that dont still have one foot planted in the combustion-engine past. European manufacturers have the technicalchopsbut they must find better ways to capitalize on investor excitement through new business models or spinoffs. Otherwise someone else will.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:Chris Bryant at cbryant32@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.net

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times.

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Europe Is Building the Next Tesla. Who Knew? - Bloomberg

Confused Tesla Model 3 Thinks It’s a Lambo with Huge Wing and Louvered Window – autoevolution

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Any trip outside the house - something we've come to appreciate a lot more than we should lately - will tell you the aftermarket modding business is alive and thriving. Anywhere you look, you'll see a car with various degrees of customization, ranging from the very discreet to the full out "what the hell model is that?" extravaganza.

Of course, as Fleetwood Mac used to say, you can go your own way and ignore the most obvious options that everyone is going to use for that 100 percent personal look. Yes, it does come with associated risks, but so does getting up in the morning, and we still do that every day.

The thing with Teslas, in general, is that they don't project their performance in the way they look. You can buy a Model S P100D with all the Cheetas and Ravens you want, but it's still going to look like a family car. Because that's what it is: a stupidly fast five-seater with a big trunk that can pick up the kids from school and smoke a Lamborghini,bothduring the same outing.

The smaller Model 3, in its Performance version, isn't too different either. That's probably why this particular ownerfelt it was OK to install a huge wing (it seems to be wider than the car itself, so the descriptor is not hyperbolic, but completely accurate) and partial louvers on the rear window of his Model 3. If this makes your day slightly better, you have him to thank for it and Danny Meng (via Facebook) for snapping the picture.

That wing has a particular Lamborghini feel to it. Could it be that the Model 3 driver won it in a drag race after defeating a Sant'Agata-made supercar? Well, we're not entirely sure they still make this kind of bets, but we guess stranger things have happened, so while the assumption started off as a joke, it might even be true. However, it still wouldn't explain the louvers. Actually, never mind that: it's 2020, nothing could ever explain the louvers.

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Confused Tesla Model 3 Thinks It's a Lambo with Huge Wing and Louvered Window - autoevolution

How Tesla Was Lured to Austin – Texas Monthly

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Amid a frog-drowning on Sunday, several dozen members of the Austin Tesla Club gathered jubilantly in a parking lot in East Austin. Masked fans cheered as a middle-aged man flashed the Bevo with one hand and fired a flamethrower with the other. The crowd was there to celebrate the deal between Travis County and the electric car manufacturer, inked late last week, to build a $1.1 billion, two-thousand-acre factory, named Giga Texas, in the tiny municipality of Del Valle, near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The proposed Tesla plant, which will produce Cybertrucks and Model Y SUVs, is expected to be a billion-dollar investment that will employ five thousand in manufacturing jobs and benefit hundreds of contractors and suppliers. When the deal was announced, Tesla said that about 65 percent of the factorys jobs will be middle-skilled and will not require college degrees, with salaries starting at $35,000 a year and averaging more than $47,000. The company pledged to make at least half of its hires from among Travis County residents, and stated it would make a good faith effort to hire women and people of color.

The deal was praised by Governor Greg Abbott, the Austin Chamber of Commerce, various local labor groups, and leaders of job training programs. Its like winning the lottery , said Ed Latson, CEO of the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association.

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To win this much-needed boost to its virus-impaired economy, the Austin area had to outbid Tulsa. Most of the incentives came in the form of tax breaks, though Tulsa also repainted its iconic 75-foot-tall Golden Driller statue in the likeness of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Many involved in Austins bid for Tesla drew different lessons from the citys failed 2018 pursuit of Amazons gleaming $5 billion HQ2. That deal went to two bigger metro areas: Arlington, Virginia, just west of Washington, D.C., and New York Citywhich ultimately backed out after a public outcry over the cost of its subsidies, roughly $48,000 for each job created. Proponents of the Austin areas deal with Tesla say that it represents a bargain, at about $1,200 in annual subsidies for each job created. But a coalition of community groups and labor rights advocates argue that the concessions to Tesla are too expensive, and that the deals terms undercut the very manufacturing workers it is supposed to benefit.

The Del Valle Independent School District, which received a C under the states letter-rating system, played an integral role in wooing the electric car manufacturer. Del Valle, which has become a target for developers, is a rural section of Austins low-income eastern crescent fit for a large factory. Through Texas Tax Code Chapter 313, also known as the Texas Economic Development Act, a school district can reduce the property taxes of a new business seeking to relocate to its jurisdiction to an amount below those paid by other property owners. In Teslas case, the incentive agreement allows the company to cap its property value at $80 million, as opposed to its projected $1.1 billion valuation, meaning thatTesla will pay just $776,000 a year in property taxes for the first ten years, as opposed to the more than $5 million it would pay without the tax break. The Tesla propertys current tenant, a gravel mining facility, pays just $6,400 a year in property taxes, and few of the children of Tesla employees will attend school in Del Valle, whose population is about 17,000. But the cost of educating the children of new Tesla employees moving to the Austin area will fall on the areas schools.

Del Valle ISDs incentives were matched by Travis Countys, which will give Tesla additional property tax rebates worth $14 million over ten years. If Tesla were to spend more in operational costs than the $1.1 billion proposed, the companys subsidies would only increase: a 75 percent tax break for any spending between $1.1 billion and $2 billion; an 80 percent break for spending above $2 billion. Tesla, whose press team did not respond to requests for an interview, could also unlock state support from the Texas Enterprise Fund, which offers grants to companies that create jobs in Texas rather than in other states. While neither party has said how much these funds will amount to, comparable allocations to organizations such as Apple have been north of $21 million over sixteen years.

Supporters of the deal believe Teslas promised internships and job training programs can transform the region, providing an attractive return for the local governments tax incentives. The prospect of Tesla being in our community was exciting for the opportunities that would come to fruition for our students, said Del Valle ISD Superintendent Annette Tielle in a statement provided to Texas Monthly.

But most of Teslas negotiations took place behind closed doors, leaving community groups and stakeholders out of the process. The lone dissent in the Del Valle ISD school boards 71 vote in favor of the deal came from trustee Susanna Woody, who said the vote felt completely rushed.

When youre staring at a budget deficit of billions of dollars due to COVID and youre talking about giving any money to a billionaire, thats a tough thing to swallow, said Rick Levy, president of the Texas chapter of the AFL-CIO.

Critics argue that incentives such as Chapter 313 prioritize the interests of multinational companies over those of taxpayers, often unnecessarily. University of Texas professor of government Nathan Jensen, who models the use of tax incentives to bring business to the state, estimates that 85 percent of companies would have relocated to employer-friendly Texas without the likes of Chapter 313 incentives.

Even if we know an incentive will swing an investment, it is rarely a win for the local community. First, what [else] could the community have done with this money? Could they have offered $50 million to small businesses that are already here? Jensen said, citing the incentive package from the Del Valle ISD. Likewise, many companies end up having to leave these incentives on the table, after bringing fewer jobs or less investment than initially expected.

This is not the first time local governments have offered Tesla incentives to build new factories: Nevada gave the company a $1.3 billion tax break to build its first Gigafactory outside Reno in 2014. Six years later, the plant contributes billions of dollars to the local economy and employs seven thousand workers. But local activists and labor groups have raised concern over the plants strain on the housing market, and its worker safety record. In 2018, the company ranked amongst the nations Dirty Dozen for employers engaging in unsafe practices, according to the Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a worker-safety watchdog. A 2019 USA Today report detailed both a culture of negligence at the Reno facility that placed manufacturing employees at risk and the misreporting of injuries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Tesla also came under fire this month after an outbreak in its Fremont, California, plant for not taking the necessary precautions against the spread of the coronavirus, whose severity Musk has publicly questioned. (Tesla maintains that its safety standards are on par with the overall manufacturing sector, and a spokesperson told USA Today that a few isolated incidents are not representative of our overall safety culture at Gigafactory 1.)

In its agreement with Travis County, Tesla will be enrolled in OSHAs voluntary protection program, designed for employers who have implemented effective safety and health management systems. Travis County also laid out a set of best practices for Tesla to follow to protect its workers. But detractors, including Emily Timm of the Workers Defense Project, an Austin-based organization fighting for low-income workers, argue that the deals language is vague and grounded largely in unenforceable, good-faith agreements.

While labor rights activists support Teslas stated commitment to a minimum wage of $15 an hour, substantially above Austins $7.25, the agreement sheds no light on which workers this standard applies to. The average hourly rate for manufacturing jobs in the U.S. is $22. The fear is that a company like Tesla keeps its high-level creative jobs in places like the Bay Area and begins to see Austin like a low-wage, high-tech town, said Doug Greco, lead organizer of Central Texas Interfaith, representing a coalition of nonprofit groups in Austin.

But to a school district and a county suffering from financial distress, the promise of new jobs and tax revenue was too good to pass up. Teslas making real contributions back to the school district. Its developing a site that was previously a mine, said Laura Huffman, CEO of the Austin Chamber of Commerce. So the value trade in this deal with Tesla, I think, is strongly in favor of the community. And it was necessary because we were competing.

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How Tesla Was Lured to Austin - Texas Monthly

AI-Driven News and Social Credibility Tool Launches in US to Identify and Combat Fake News – PRNewswire

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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In the current era of misinformation and fake news,Logically, a credible news curator rooted in artificial intelligence (AI), is making its first foray into the U.S. market bringing credibility and confidence to news and social discourse ahead of the 2020 elections. Well established in both the UK and India, the company today launches its Chrome browser extension to fact check, analyze and evaluate the credibility of online articles and comments on social platforms. Logically is accredited by theInternational Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

News ArticlesCovering more than 100,000 news sites globally, the Logically extension labels the credibility of any source (low, medium, high) and article (reliable, unreliable) and establishes the sentiment of the story. In addition, Logically also highlights key people, places, topics and institutions behind the headlines to give readers a more Immersive understanding of any story. A Related Articles tab allows users to browse and click through to articles on the same topic from different sources to round out their knowledge on the topic.

Logically will also fact check any claim in any news source for an individual user. Within a specific article, a user just clicks on the Logically extension icon, selects the Fact Check tab, then either selects a claim that has already populated or enters the claim manually. All fact checks returned are evidenced by at least 3 sources/URLs and are shareable to Facebook or Twitter.

With the largest fact checking team in the world, the company will currently turn individual requests within 24 hours. By mid-August, the company will introduce its automated research assistant to suggest credible evidence and prior factchecks for any user requests.

Social PlatformsWorking across Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and YouTube, the Logically extension fact checks and determines the toxicity level of social posts and commentary. If a post is deemed toxic, the post will be labeled and obscured. An icon next to the post helps the user to understand why the post has been obscured and we give our users the power to personalize the level to which they are exposed to these posts in the future. Claims found on social platforms can also be easily fact checked through the extension.

"With the ease of online publishing today, it is becoming harder for people to determine which sources are credible and which aren't, leading the way for toxic news to travel faster than truth," said Lyric Jain, founder and CEO of Logically. "Our goal is to stop the spread of misinformation by empowering people with tools that help them cope with information overload by assessing the credibility and veracity of sources. We want to ensure people see both sides of an issue by providing context, and to keep elections fair by providing facts while mitigating threats and influence operations."

How it WorksLogically uniquely utilizes multiple AI models, alongside natural language processions (NLP), to process, understand and analyze text. Built on a set of modular processes capable of analyzing endless amounts of data, the technology ingests, extracts and structures information to provide context.

The ensemble nature of Logically's AI models differentiates it from any other misinformation or fact checking technology on the market today. Analyzing content from 100,000+ sources and 500,000+ articles per day, the company's AI leaves no stone unturned, evaluating every possible indicator of an article's accuracy, as well as the specific claims contained within the text, to inform more sophisticated conclusions than rival models. Logically analyzes the network, content and metadata to reach its conclusions.

Live in both the UK and India, the company has gained major traction in both markets over the last several years, supporting government and platform partners in both markets through 3 elections and the Covid-19 pandemic. In India, the company identified 50 thousand fake stories during the last election campaign alone.

Logically recently closed its seed round of funding from U.K.-based Mercia and XTX, bringing the company's total raise to nearly $10 million. The company will additionally be bringing its flagship fact-finding app to the U.S. market in the coming weeks, leading up to the U.S. political conventions and election.

About LogicallyFounded in 2017 by MIT and Cambridge alum Lyric Jain, Logically is a social enterprise that leverages artificial and human intelligence to credibly curate news and social discourse today. Working with government bodies and social platforms, and providing consumer products, the company solves for the issue of misinformation that plagues the world today. The company has offices in the U.K. and India, and is opening an office in the U.S. For more information, please visit Logically.ai.

SOURCE Logically

https://www.logically.ai

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AI-Driven News and Social Credibility Tool Launches in US to Identify and Combat Fake News - PRNewswire

Covid-19: Misinformation, fake news on coronavirus is proving to be contagious – Hindustan Times

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Covid-19: Misinformation, fake news on coronavirus is proving to be contagious - Hindustan Times

Heres one reason youre more likely to believe #fakenews and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 – MarketWatch

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Think before you click.

People who get their news from social-media platforms like Facebook FB, -0.67% and Twitter TWTR, -0.02% are more likely to have misperceptions about COVID-19, according to new study led by researchers at McGill University in Montreal. Those that consume more traditional news media have fewer misperceptions and are more likely to follow public health recommendations like social distancing, the paper published in the latest issue of Misinformation Review concluded.

The likes of Twitter and Facebook have increasingly in recent years become the primary sources of news, and misinformation, for people around the world, the study said. In the context of a crisis like COVID-19, however, there is good reason to be concerned about the role that the consumption of social media is playing in boosting misperceptions, says co-author Aengus Bridgman, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at McGill University.

There is good reason to be concerned about the role that the consumption of social media is playing in boosting misperceptions.

Even after adjusting for demographics such as scientific literacy and socioeconomic differences, those who regularly consume social media rather than traditional media were less likely to observe social distancing and to perceive COVID-19 as a threat. There is growing evidence that misinformation circulating on social media poses public health risks, says co-author Taylor Owen, an associate professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University.

The researchers looked at the behavioral effects of exposure to fake news by combining social-media news analysis and survey research. They combed through millions of tweets, thousands of news articles and a nationally representative survey of Canadians to answer: How prevalent is COVID-19 misinformation on social media and in traditional news media? Does it contribute to misperceptions about COVID-19? And does it affect behavior?

The social-media platforms have been criticized for their failures to stop the spread of misinformation, especially concerning elections and the coronavirus pandemic, despite a number of new policies enacted since Russia used the platforms to interfere in the 2016 elections. In May, Twitter marked tweets by President Donald Trump with a fact-check warning label for the first time, after the president falsely claimed mail-in ballots are substantially fraudulent. (He has continued to make such claims on social media and elsewhere.)

Last week, social-media sites attempted to quash a video pushing misleading information about hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment which led to Twitters partially suspending Donald Trump Jr.s account. The video featured doctors calling hydroxychloroquine a drug used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis for decades a cure for COVID, despite a growing body of scientific evidence that has not shown this to be true.

Some outlandish and unsubstantiated rumors about COVID-19 persist. To adherents of such beliefs, its a dastardly bioweapon designed to wreak economic armageddon on the West; a left-wing conspiracy to damage the re-election prospects of Trump; a virus that leaked from a Wuhan, China, laboratory, perhaps with intent. Paranoia serves to politicize a global public health emergency and distract from potentially life-saving measures to contain and/or slow the spread of coronavirus, health professionals say.

In April, the president floated the idea of using ultraviolet light inside the body or a disinfectant by injection as a treatment for coronavirus I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? a suggestion doctors called dangerous. (The next day, Trump claimed he was not being serious: I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen.)

As of Monday, COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, had infected at least 18.1 million people globally and 4.7 million in the U.S. It had killed over 690,413 people worldwide and at least 154,944 in the U.S. Cases in California hit 512,606 and deaths reached 9,400 as it reported 4,381 new cases Sunday and 35 new deaths, down from 7,118 new cases and 134 new deaths Saturday. New York has the most fatalities (32,710) followed by New Jersey (15,836).

The Dow Jones Industrial Index DJIA, +0.89% were trading higher Monday, as investors tracked round two of the potential fiscal stimulus. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.71% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.46% alsoentered the week higher; some of the industrys largest and most powerful players Apple AAPL, +2.52% Facebook FB, -0.67%, Amazon. AMZN, -1.66% and Google parent Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, -0.34% GOOG, -0.57% reported their results Friday.

Related:Wrong! Trump and Fauci clash over surge in coronavirus cases, handling of economic shutdown and hydroxychloroquine

Big challenges remain for 21st-century journalism, too. Traditional journalism, according to a study released last year, has been shedding objectivity. Researchers found a major shift occurred between 1989 and 2017 as journalism expanded beyond traditional media, such as newspapers and broadcast networks, to newer media, including 24-hour cable news channels and digital outlets. Notably, these measurable changes vary in extent and nature, they concluded.

Our research provides quantitative evidence for what we all can see in the media landscape, said Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior political scientist at RAND, a nonpartisan think tank in Santa Monica, Calif., and lead author of the report on Truth Decay, on the declining role of facts and analysis in civil discourse. Journalism in the U.S. has become more subjective and consists less of the detailed event- or context-based reporting that used to characterize news coverage.

Journalism in the U.S. has become more subjective and consists less of the detailed event- or context-based reporting that used to characterize news coverage.

The analysis carried out by a RAND text-analytics tool previously used to identify support for and opposition to Islamic terrorists on social media scanned millions of lines of text in print, broadcast and online journalism from 1989 (the first year such data were available via Lexis Nexis) to 2017 to identify usage patterns in words and phrases. Researchers were then able to measure these changes and compare them across all digital, media and print platforms.

Researchers analyzed content from 15 outlets representing print, television and digital journalism. The sample included the New York Times, Washington Post and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, CBS US:CBS, ABC DIS, -0.50%, CNN T, +0.13%, Fox News FOX, +1.86% FOXA, +2.28%, MSNBC CMCSA, +0.18%, Politico, the Blaze, Breitbart, Buzzfeed Politics, the Daily Caller and the Huffington Post. They found a gradual and subtle shift between old and new media toward a more subjective form of journalism.

Before 2000, broadcast-news segments were more likely to include relatively complex academic and precise language, as well as complex reasoning, the researchers said. After 2000, however, broadcast news became more focused on on-air personalities and talking heads debating the news. (The year 2000 is significant as ratings of all three major cable networks in the U.S. began to increase dramatically.)

Traditional newspapers made the least dramatic shift over time, the study observed. Our analysis illustrates that news sources are not interchangeable, but each provides mostly unique content, even when reporting on related issues, said Bill Marcellino, a behavioral and social scientist with RAND and co-author of the report. Given our findings that different types of media present news in different ways, it makes sense that people turn to multiple platforms.

Its not the only report to find a shift toward opinion and subjectivity in news. Tumultuous news cycles have made an impact on global opinions regarding media, according to the 2019 U.S. News & World Reports 2019 countries ranking. Some 63% of people say that there are no longer any objective news sources they can trust. Whats more, more than 50% agree that political and social issues around the world have gotten worse over the past year.

That survey drew on answers from 20,301 people around the world. Republican baby boomers were found to be more likely to share fake news on Facebook in the study. Why? One theory puts the emphasis on this groups age: As they didnt grow up with technology, they may be more susceptible to being fooled in an online environment. (Case in point: the variety of scams that have had success with older Americans by preying on their lack of familiarity with how computers and technology work.)

Key Words: Political-communication scholar has a catchy new name for fake news: V.D.

Heres that chart:

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Heres one reason youre more likely to believe #fakenews and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 - MarketWatch

Facebook Complies With Brazilian Judge’s Order To Block 12 Accounts Accused Of Running A Fake News Network – Inventiva

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(BRASILIA, Brazil) Facebook announced Saturday it has obeyed a Brazilian judges order for a worldwide block on the accounts of 12 of President Jair Bolsonaros supporters who are under investigation for allegedly running a fake news network.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said Friday night that the company had failed to fully comply with a previous ruling ordering the accounts to be shut down, saying they were still online and publishing by changing their registration to locations outside Brazil.

Facebook issued a statement saying it complied due to the threat of criminal liability for an employee in Brazil.

But it called the new order extreme, saying it poses a threat to freedom of expression outside of Brazils jurisdiction and conflicting with laws and jurisdictions worldwide. The company said it would appeal to the full court.

Facebook also argued it had complied with the previous order by restricting the ability for the target Pages and Profiles to be seen from IP locations in Brazil.

People from IP locations in Brazil were not capable of seeing these Pages and Profiles even if the targets had changed their IP location, the company said.

Moraes said that Facebook ought to pay $ 367,000 in penalties for not complying with his previous decision during the last eight days.

He also had ruled Twitter should block the accounts. While Twitter said then the decision was disproportionated under Brazils freedom of speech rules and that it would appeal, the targeted profiles were disabled.

Moraes is overseeing a controversial investigation to determine whether some of Bolsonaros most ardent allies are running a social media network aimed at spreading threats and fake news against Supreme Court justices.

The probe is one of the main points of confrontation between Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court.

The president himself filed a lawsuit last week demanding the accounts to be unblocked.

Source: Time

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Facebook Complies With Brazilian Judge's Order To Block 12 Accounts Accused Of Running A Fake News Network - Inventiva

The Tech Giants Are Dangerous, and Congress Knows It – The Atlantic

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By the time the subcommittee called the CEOs, it had amassed deep knowledge and uncovered a damning paper trail. With many of their questions, members seemed to know the inner workings of the companies better than their executives. Asking about anticompetitive practices, Cicilline reduced Googles Sundar Pichai to mumbling incoherently about kettlebells; using specific examples, the subcommittee members Pramila Jayapal and Joe Neguse prodded Amazons Jeff Bezos into admitting instances of his companys anticompetitive behavior.

Ever since the election of President Donald Trump, which revealed the rampant manipulation of social media, the backlash against Silicon Valley has often felt shapeless. Because these companies have tendrils extended into seemingly every aspect of American life, the complaints against them have sprawled. They have been criticized for an insensitivity to privacy, their role in the proliferation of misinformation, their cozy relationship with China, their creation of addictive products, their tax-avoidance schemes, and so on. With such a boundless litany of attacks, the companies have benefited from their critics failure to focus their arguments.

But where Zuckerberg suffered a barrage of disconnected complaints, these hearings got to the nub of the problem: The internet has allowed the creation of a new style of monopoly. Nobody escapes the pull of these dominant firms, which have the power to pick winners and losers, in both the economy and the realm of information. The long, familiar list of complaints about the tech giants was distilled to its most essential elementthe danger that concentrated market power poses to competitive capitalism and democracy.

Franklin Foer: What Big Tech wants out of the pandemic

Like every other occasion in Trumps Washington, the hearings featured instances of partisan sniping. But what made the proceeding so distinctive is the broad agreement they evinced. Hardly any member was willing to defend the companies with anything close to conviction. Even when Trumps devoted defender Jim Jordan launched into conspiracy theories about how Google aims to strangle conservative opinion, he was mouthing a version of Cicillines argument. The companies, Jordan was saying, have become omnipotent gatekeepers with the power to invisibly shape the flow of information however they please.

Invoking a dusty name, several Democrats on the committee spoke reverently about the Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who led the anti-monopoly movement of the early 20th century. By conjuring his ghost, they were aligning themselves with an older, more pugilistic strand of antitrust than has been practiced in Washington the past few generations. They were signaling a broader revolt against the long-dominant Chicago school of political economy, under which the governments worries about monopoly narrow to a standard called consumer welfare. In that paradigm, regulators and courts sought to punish only monopolies that raised prices, which meant that they rarely took any action at all. (And the standard seems antiquated in an era when many tech companies give their products to consumers for free.) But todays hearings represented a return to Brandeisian worries about corporate behemoths, about how they use their size to hurt small businesses, how concentrated economic power can so easily distort the functioning of democracy.

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The Tech Giants Are Dangerous, and Congress Knows It - The Atlantic