The Giant Panda Is a Conservation Icon, But The Success Story Masks a Dark Truth – ScienceAlert

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

At a time when we crave good news, the giant panda is a beacon of environmental optimism. Since becoming an icon for the conservation movement in the 1980s, 67 panda reserves and countless wildlife corridors have been created in the bamboo forested mountain ranges of central China.

The most recent census suggests all that effort has paid off. There are 1,864 pandas living in the wild today, up from 1,000 in the late 1970s.

But in a new study, researchers discovered that what's good for the panda may not necessarily be good for the rest of the ecosystem. After studying images from camera traps over 10 years, they found that large carnivores the leopard, snow leopard, wolf and dhole (an Asian wild dog) have retreated from where giant pandas have thrived.

Their numbers appear to have fallen significantly in these panda reserves, and the researchers note that the wolf and dhole may be functionally extinct within them, while the tiger has already been driven to extinction here. Panda conservation doesn't appear to be benefiting other species, or the wider ecosystem.

These findings shake the foundations of one of conservation's most enduring ideas that investing time and money into protecting particular large, influential species can pay dividends for the other species and habitats they coexist with.

In the aftermath of that revelation, what do we really know about how to protect ecosystems and save wildlife from extinction?

Protected areas (PAs) where the four large carnivore species still exist (black bars), and where they have died out (grey bars) throughout the giant panda's range in China. (Li et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2020)

Single species conservation was the dominant idea during the latter half of the 20th century. Conservation groups and governments identified particular species in need of urgent help and used their images to raise public support to help save them from extinction.

The poster children of this approach were the giant panda and the tiger. Both of which have been success stories, for the target species at least.

But while lavishing these charismatic species with attention and resources, this approach tends to overlook less attractive species, such as worms, despite them potentially having more ecological value.

Today, conservationists place much greater emphasis on protecting ecosystems and entire landscapes. The logic being that you can more effectively maintain an area's ecology if you treat it as a functional system.

A useful analogy is to compare an ecosystem with an organism, such as the human body. Each is made up of many working systems, whose roles are maintained by species in the case of the former, and organs in the latter.

A respiratory system needs healthy lungs, but both depend on the rest of the body's systems. The lungs need healthy arms and legs to find and collect nourishment. The digestive system needs to be able to process that food to unlock the nutrients for the rest of the body, while the circulatory system needs to transport them to the lungs so they can do their work to keep the organism alive.

Alternatively, replace our organism with an aeroplane. For the aeroplane to fly and land safely, all the components need to work. If an engineer only maintains one component, like the engine, and ignores the wings, wheels and navigation system, the flight is going to end badly.

The lesson from both analogies is that all components and the roles they perform are necessary for keeping the whole functional and healthy. An aeroplane may only tolerate the loss of so many rivets, before losing one that's vital, or losing enough to cause mechanical breakdown.

Losing the function of one organ can cause multiple systems to fail within the body.

Focusing on a single species in conservation isn't necessarily wrong, though. A focal species can act as a flagship, an ambassador that raises support (and money) for conservation of an entire area. Pandas are very good at this.

But there are also umbrella species. For example, beavers modify their habitats so extensively that they create numerous niches for other species to occupy. In that sense they're like an umbrella, that if protected, will provide shelter for other species.

So why did panda-targeted conservation fail to revive populations of large carnivores in central China? Well, a panda's habitat requirements are small compared to a wolf's or a leopard's, and the threats facing them in the wild are very different.

Pandas are also famous for their specialised diet a carnivore turned herbivore and so their needs differ greatly from your average large predator. Put simply, a habitat catered to sedate, bamboo-munching pandas isn't likely to help a nomadic, meat-loving leopard.

Large carnivores don't have it easy worldwide. They need large areas of suitable habitat and lots of prey. In most areas they once occupied, humans have destroyed habitat, removed native prey species and killed large carnivores by gun, trap or poison, either because they hunt livestock or because they are seen as a danger.

The tiger is one of the few large carnivores whose populations have increased in recent years. India has seen its tiger population grow by a third since 2014. Considering the challenges of coexisting with these large predators animals that occasionally kill humans this success is impressive.

India's approach to tiger conservation prizes tolerance, education and working closely with the communities that live alongside this species above all else. Part of that education is recognising the tiger as just one part of the ecosystem, all of which needs protection.

What the panda study tells us is that we cannot assume a flagship species will also be an umbrella species. While individual species are important, some are more important than others for maintaining a healthy ecosystem.

Jason Gilchrist, Ecologist, Edinburgh Napier University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The Giant Panda Is a Conservation Icon, But The Success Story Masks a Dark Truth - ScienceAlert

This mobile game lets you build ecosystems that will help solve real-world ecological problems – Fast Company

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Through EcoBuilder, players build their own ecosystems of plants and animals, adding in species of different sizes and deciding who eats whom. Based on those decisions, the species will either survive or go extinct. The game was developed by Jonathan Zheng, a PhD student at Imperial College Londons Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and his co-advisors Dan Goodman, a neuroscientist in the same department, and Samraat Pawar, a biologist within the Department of Life Sciences.

[Image: EcoBuilder]The idea was inspired by a BBC documentary about the wolves in Yellowstone, which were declared extinct there in 1926. Without wolves, the ecosystem drastically changed. The number of elk skyrocketed, and so did the amount of vegetation that the elk ate. Less of that vegetation affected the habitat for smaller animals such as beaver, and in a chain reaction, even the population of fish struggled.

[Image: EcoBuilder]To bring the ecosystem back into balance, ecologists reintroduced wolves into the park, which brought down the elk population, allowing the plants the elk ate to grow bigger, which allowed beavers to build dams again, which brought back fish. The elk population in Yellowstone is actually higher today than it was when there were no wolves, and the predatory threat of wolves keeps the elk moving around the park instead of overgrazing one area, which caused all those cascading effects. I found it so intriguingly counterintuitive, the idea that in order to save the things the wolves eat, you have to bring the wolves back, Goodman says. I loved the idea that you could play around with that sort of thinking, that ecosystems can behave in a really unusual way.

Though EcoBuilder doesnt depict real animalsall the plants and animals are made up, like Pokmonthe idea is the same: players add in predators in order to keep every species alive. The species in the game differ only in size, which still affects their interactions. When plants are smaller or lighter, they grow faster, feeding more animals. If you make the plants large like an oak tree, they take too long to grow for the animals to survive off of. When the animals change in size in the game, it affects how they eat. If you imagine a herd of cows eating a field of grass, theyre going to eat it a lot lower than a swarm of locusts, Zheng says.

[Image: EcoBuilder]The game uses the same mathematical models that scientists use to model real ecosystems. With every level a player completes, the best ecosystem they made and the actions they took to get there are stored on a server to be shared with researchers. Theres a chance that . . . the results that come from the strategies that the players use and similar understanding of real ecosystems could be used to inform environmentalist policies, Zheng says. There are also ecological models that look at how carbon sequestration can affect species diversity, and the designers say a future update of the game will include a climate change aspect to see how these systems change as the environment does.

While crowdsourcing research for experts, the game also helps its players learn about different ecological phenomena, like competitive exclusion or biocontrol. One interesting thing players may realize is how influential small and medium-sized species are, Pawar says. A lot of conservation work tends to be influenced by what people like to study, which means species such as polar bears may be overrepresented in research. The reality, and that feature the game does capture, is that small to medium-sized species are really the movers and shakers of ecosystems, he says. Once there are enough players to make statistically significant observations, Zheng says theyll publish the results from the game, and if you get a high score, your name might even appear in that paper.

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This mobile game lets you build ecosystems that will help solve real-world ecological problems - Fast Company

How to Feed a Mars Colony of 1 Million People | Space

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

What might it take to feed a million people on Mars? Lab-grown meat, tunnel-grown crops and cricket farms, a new study finds.

When it comes to plans for crewed missions to Mars, NASA typically assumes round trips with only brief stopovers on the Red Planet. However, commercial space companies have emerged with the goal of colonizing outer space, with SpaceX specifically aiming to develop a civilization on Mars.

The most practical strategy for long stays on Mars involves living off resources that already exist on the Red Planet instead of relying on resupply ships from Earth. The five major consumable resources that researchers identified Martian settlements would need include energy, water, oxygen, construction material and food, and the first four are potentially abundant on Mars.

Related: Incredible Technology: How to Live on Mars

For instance, solar power, likely supplemented with nuclear-fission reactors, can help provide energy for would-be Martians. Ice and hydrated minerals on Mars are sources of water. Carbon dioxide can get converted into oxygen. Finally, Martian soil can be readily made into bricks for building supplies.

In comparison, there is no food naturally available on Mars, and there is no easy way to create it from any raw materials on the Red Planet using, say, a simple chemical reactor, the researchers said.

"Food is probably going to be the hardest thing to make locally on Mars, and you can't just import it all if you want to have a self-sufficient settlement," study lead author Kevin Cannon, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, told Space.com.

Given this challenge, the scientists wanted to see what it might take to reach the radical goal of producing enough food on Mars to feed 1 million people.

"We were working with a lot of people who wanted to grow plants in the simulated Mars soils we create, and this led us to look at what research was being done in terms of producing food for future human missions to the moon or Mars," Cannon said. "It turns out most of the focus has been on very low-calorie vegetables, and the latest innovations in alternative protein sources were not being considered. We asked the question: Instead of a short NASA-style mission to Mars, what would it take to feed a city of 1 million people, like what SpaceX is imagining?"

The researchers noted that raising farm animals for dairy and meat would not be practical on Mars in the near term because of the challenges of shipping them across space. At the same time, they noted that most people do not want to go completely vegetarian. The solution? Insect farms and lab-grown meat, they suggested.

Insect farms are well-suited for Martian cuisine, as they provide a lot of calories per unit land while using relatively minor amounts of water and feed, the researchers said. Crickets in particular are one of the more promising examples of edible insects, with cricket flour potentially incorporated and hidden in many different recipes, they noted.

"Bugs are the way to go, if people can get over the gross factor," Cannon said.

For those who do not fancy insects, "cellular agriculture" that is, food derived from cells grown in lab dishes could help people on Mars eat a somewhat more familiar diet, the researchers said. Everything from algae to meat and fish to cow-less milk and chicken-less eggs are now possible, they said. The large amounts of money that investors have poured into refining such technology has already driven down the costs of a cultured meat burger from $325,000 to $11 per patty in two years, they added.

Related: How Living on Mars Could Challenge Colonists (Infographic)

When it comes to crops, concept art of Martian settlements usually features greenhouses, but those may not prove practical, the researchers said. Because Mars is so far from the sun, even on the' equator, where sunlight is strongest, the amount of light plants would receive would be similar to what they get in Alaska. Moreover, although greenhouses are made of clear window panes, these still typically absorb 50 to 70 percent of light on Earth, and may block even more on Mars, since a stronger material is likely needed to support a heated, pressurized interior, given how the air on the Red Planet is much colder and thinner than on Earth.

Instead, tunnels lit with high-strength LEDs are likely needed to grow plants on Mars, supplemented with sunlight collected and piped down through fiber-optic cables, the researchers said. Soilless farming involving hydroponic or aeroponic systems is possible, but those strategies would require more mass shipped to Mars in the form of trays, pumps and reservoirs, they said. In addition, soil-based farming may be more robust against plant disease, but inorganic Martian dirt would require significant research and treatment to convert it to a living soil that could support plant growth, the researchers added.

Previous research suggested a number of crops may prove especially practical when it comes to feeding Martian colonists, such as wheat, corn, soybeans, peanuts and sweet potatoes. Genetic modification could also make plants more useful in a variety of ways for Martians for example, by consuming more carbon dioxide and boosting productivity.

"Almost all research to date has focused on growing plants to feed astronauts, but plants take up a ton of space, and on another planet, that means building large indoor factories that need to be pressurized, heated and lighted," Cannon said. "If you want to feed a large population on another planet, you have to move away from the idea of watery vegetables and really think about the tremendous amounts of energy, water and raw materials needed to produce enough calories."

To see what it might take to feed a Martian city of 1 million people, the researchers modeled a population that grew from immigration as well as through a birth rate of 10 per 1,000 people per Earth year, a rate typical of developed nations on Earth. All in all, they assumed about 6,900 crewed ships were needed to deliver about 1 million immigrants to Mars over the course of a century, with about 340,000 people born on Mars during that time.

The scientists calculated the number of calories each person would need, and modeled land use given a diet that included wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, crickets and lab-grown chicken. They found that a Martian colony of 1 million people could achieve self-sufficiency in terms of food within 100 years, relying on about 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) worth of tunnels about 12 feet (3.6 meters) wide, which could be stacked vertically.

Related: Space Food Photos: What Astronauts Eat in Orbit

However, these colonists would need massive amounts of food imported in the interim, carried on nearly 54,000 cargo shipments. The scientists noted there were a variety of strategies that could be used to significantly reduce the amount of imported food, such as increasing the rate of farm construction on Mars.

Future research on how to best feed Martians should focus on boosting crop productivity, working out the most efficient and palatable insect species, improving the flavor and texture of cultured meat, improving the efficiency of the LED lighting used to grow crops, and developing automated methods for rapidly building pressurized, shielded areas to house farms, the researchers said.

"The obvious criticism is that this is science fiction human missions to Mars are decades away, so why bother working on this topic now?" Cannon said. "Anyone who thinks along these lines needs to take a serious look at what SpaceX is doing they are already building and testing prototypes of the ships that will send the first settlers to Mars."

It's time to "work out how to make it happen," he added.

The researchers said research on how to feed Martians could also help feed people on Earth.

"The constraints imposed by Mars a cold, thin atmosphere force you to produce food in ways that are actually more sustainable and ethical than what's done on Earth with current factory-farming practices," Cannon said. "So, switching to a 'Martian diet' can help our planet." The scientists created a website, http://eatlikeamartian.org, which gives some information on how to do just that.

Cannon and study senior author Daniel Britt at the University of Central Florida detailed their findings online Aug. 30 in the journal New Space.

Editor's note: The original version of this story mistakenly referred to Kevin Cannon as Keith Cannon.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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How to Feed a Mars Colony of 1 Million People | Space

Mars Colony: Frontier on Steam

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

In Mars Colony: Frontier you can learn the hard way what life would be like if you were stranded on the red planet. In this open-world simulator, you assume the role of an astronaut who has been sent on a mission to Mars only to have turmoil on Earth extend your stay indefinitely. Cut off from supplies from home, the colony must fend for itself against starvation, illness, radiation storms, and the inevitable death of irreplaceable machinery.

Players can either play alone, on a dedicated server, or run their own for others to join both online and LAN. Multiplayer mode can handle up to eight players on four teams to compete for control over all of the resources Mars has to offer. The dynamic economy reacts to current supply and demand, paving the way for one player or team to come out on top. Four career paths allow for players to either specialize in one aspect of survival or become a jack of all trades.

Features: - Campaign Mode - Sandbox Mode - Single player - Multiplayer with up to 8 players - Play over LAN or Online - Dedicated servers - Custom player-built bases - Dynamic player-driven economy - Contract missions - Dynamic weather and random events - Drivable rovers - Programmable cargo bots - Multiple career paths

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Mars Colony: Frontier on Steam

‘Do You Really Want to Spend the Money on Online Yale?’ For the Class of 2020, Gap Years Beckon – The 74

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

In the months leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 was looking pretty good to Lizbeth Luevano.

Before the year even began, she had received early acceptance to Stanford a dream for the 18-year-old daughter of Mexican immigrants in Californias Coachella Valley. After striving to master English in her early years, Lizbeth had developed into a stellar student and dedicated local volunteer, and the world was beginning to take notice. After receiving prestigious scholarships from the Palo Alto-based nonprofit Questbridge and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she was on her way to college and a career in immigration law.

Then came the pandemic, indefinite school closures and the protracted ambiguity around university reopening plans. Just months before the start of her freshman year, Stanford was offering few assurances that its academic and residential programs would resemble anything like a typical college experience.

She soon discovered that she had a role to play in her family finances as well. The coronavirus crippled Southern Californias vital tourism industry, and with it her mothers earnings as a cleaner. Lizbeth was soon contemplating an idea that hadnt seemed like a real possibility before: taking a year off.

The way everything was manifesting, it definitely seemed like a gap year was more feasible because of COVID-19, she said. It was something I took because of coronavirus and the way Stanford was reacting to it, and the way it affected my household.

Recent high school graduate Lizbeth Luevano is putting off Stanford until 2021. (Lizbeth Luevano)

Lizbeth isnt alone. With millions of American students facing questions about what life will look like after high school, a huge number are taking a second look at their September plans. Now that multiple state universities have announced that they will mostly conduct fall coursework virtually and serious COVID-related setbacks could result in immediate mid-semester closures, it appears that the central bargain struck between families and colleges is changing dramatically.

According to an April survey conducted by Art & Science, a consulting firm specializing in nonprofits and higher education, as many as 12 percent of students whod made a deposit for the fall semester had already decided against attending. Student polling conducted the same month by the American Council on Education found that only 83 percent of respondents were sure theyd attend college as planned before the outbreak.

The situation is fueled by an information vacuum. Stef Mauler, a former college admissions officer who now works with families as an application strategy consultant, praised schools for reaching out to admitted students with the latest information. Still, she said, from the conversations Ive been in, I dont think they have an answer for when or how to handle reopening.

Typically, she said, only a small minority of her clients opt for a gap year. The phenomenon is more common in Europe, though it captured Americans attention by Malia Obamas 2016 decision to defer her acceptance to Harvard in favor of a group expedition to South America. That trip, which was followed by a then-coveted internship at Harvey Weinsteins production company, represented the kind of high-end experience available only to wealthy and connected post-grads.

Most families arent in a position to arrange that kind of gap year; many of those who can do so still worry that their children will get sidetracked academically if they take significant time away from their studies. But the coronavirus has changed the value proposition of higher education over the next 12 months at least: If the college experience shifts online, with students missing out on the chance to live independently and work one-on-one with professors, the people signing the tuition checks may wonder if its truly worth the cost.

Do you really want to spend the money and the time to do online Yale? asked Mauler. As a mother, I would say no. I have two Ivy League degrees, and Ill be the first to tell you, its not that the professors are that much better than at any other school. The real value of those types of environments is the people you meet, and the conversations you have in the cafeteria, collaborating on team projects.

That was the calculation that Lizbeth made before deciding against enrolling this fall. Dreading the idea of more Zoom classrooms, and conscious of the need to cultivate personal relationships with peers and instructors, she put in her gap year request with Stanford as soon as she learned that her scholarships would still be available in 2021.

Now Lizbeth is looking for opportunities to earn her keep over the next year. Armed with a $5,000 stipend she collected when a summer internship with Bank of America was canceled, she already has a measure of financial independence; shes also picked up a job as a census taker for the time being, with more interviews underway. More than anything else, though, shes planning to commit to her hobbies, such as drawing, and whittle down a list of more than 400 books that people have recommended to her.

For me, even though Ill be working, its still free time for me to learn whatever subject I want, she said.

Demystifying the gap year

In general, gap years tend to resemble Lizbeths more than the former First Daughters. Some students opt to travel abroad, but many devote themselves to community service or take a job to earn money for college tuition and living expenses. For Holly Bull, the key to the experience is for adolescents to be thinking more consciously about who you are and whats of value to you, discovering their priorities and developing autonomy along the way.

Before her own freshman year in 1980, when Bull was still considering a major in marine biology, she participated in an aquaculture research internship in Hawaii. Only after spending a few months scrubbing shrimp and fish tanks did she realize that her passions lay elsewhere.

Instead, after graduating from college she took another break midway through to trek across India and Nepal Bull joined the Center for Interim Programs, a gap year consultancy founded by her father. She is now CIPs president and an enthusiastic ambassador for the personal, professional and academic growth that she says comes with a year of independent learning.

Bull views part of her job as demystifying the idea of the gap year. Perceived cost is a major stumbling block; many families, she said, balk at the price tag for group travel packages and specialized learning courses.

Its still a relatively new field in the U.S., and I think its been more middle-to-upper-income families who have stepped into it, she said. You dont have to bleed financially to have a great gap year, but I think what people are saying is, Those group programs are pricey, how do we afford this?'

In reality, organizations like AmeriCorps offer modest pay or college reimbursement to participants in exchange for work in communities. Other service-oriented programs provide room and board to volunteers who pitch in with disaster relief or home construction. CIP vets cheaper options and connects students with scholarship programs.

Of course, the COVID threat has altered gap years just as much as school years, and the array of part-time jobs, internships and community service opportunities has been heavily disrupted by the social distancing regime over the past few months. In particular, after countries began instituting travel restrictions in February, Bull and her colleagues had to repatriate students whose gap years had taken them abroad.

They were scrambling coming home, and we were looking for all these different online options not just classes, but online internships, volunteer projects, certification courses, she said. One student was in the middle of an entrepreneurial workshop abroad and had to come back and finish online. Its not ideal, and the last thing you want to do is online classes.

Gapyearly founder Sasha Landauer spent her 2015-16 gap year traveling the world, including a trip to Mount Fitz Roy on the border between Argentina and Chile. (Courtesy of Sasha Landauer)

Sasha Landauer is also trying to solve the riddle of the post-COVID gap year. A Stanford senior, she is the founder of Gapyearly, an information and support center for gappers. The project, which she founded with a friend in 2016, is heavily informed by their personal experiences: Before starting college, Landauer spent a year backpacking and volunteering on farms in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

The self-confidence she gained during that trip prompted Landauer to apply for a gap semester once her college transitioned to online learning this spring. As soon as classes went virtual, I decided I didnt want to pay tuition for Zoom. For a humanities seminar, the idea of doing it on Zoom is kind of laughable.

Even in the wake of a global pandemic, the Gapyearly site maintains a list of learning and service opportunities that are still accessible. In fact, Landauer said, the state of the world might prove the best motivation for some young people to put off college while working on a campaign or staffing a food bank.

In starting Gapyearly, she remembered, she brought the zeal of a convert. My vision was basically that gap years are the best thing ever, she said. You know, Theyre not even that expensive; you can actually make money on a gap year and come out cash-positive. In my mind, there was no reason that anyone shouldnt consider it seriously.

Only in talking to her colleges office of diversity and inclusion did she fully understand that considerations are very different for families of low-income or first-generation college-goers, who are often more reluctant to take extra time to begin higher education. Theres a lot more pressure about college if youre the first person in your family to have gotten in, she said.

Lizbeth, one of her high schools strongest students, said she was repeatedly counseled by teachers not to put off her college plans.

I would sometimes bring it up in discussions with my teachers, and every single one of them would say, Absolutely not, dont do that.' Only after seeing the limitations of remote learning absences skyrocketed after in-person classes transitioned online did they relent, she said.

The prospect of delaying college was always conceivable to Jaden Brooks, though he didnt necessarily relish it. After graduating last December from a high school outside of St. Louis, he had looked forward to 2020 as a time to save money before enrolling at the University of Missouri to study atmospheric science.

I was planning to go to community college and then transfer to Mizzou, but since this virus, everything has really changed, he said. Really, I was forced to take a gap year.

Jadens interest in the weather dates back to 2011, when the single deadliest tornado in U.S. history touched down in nearby Joplin, Missouri, killing 158. Since then, hes wanted to learn more about meteorology and perhaps work as a television weather reporter or an analyst for the National Weather Service.

Those plans will have to wait, though. At the moment, hes working at the newly reopened Saint Louis Zoo, attempting to corral visitors into keeping their masks on despite the summer heat. (Itll turn hot at 10:00, and then by evening it changes to 20 degrees and starts snowing, laments the future weatherman.)

His original plans to earn community college credits through virtual coursework havent materialized in part, he said, because his former classmates told him horror stories about a spring spent on Zoom. But at least so far, few others are talking about taking the year off from school.

Everybody wants to go to their dorms. Theyre waiting for college.

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'Do You Really Want to Spend the Money on Online Yale?' For the Class of 2020, Gap Years Beckon - The 74

COVID-19’s Given a Big Boost to Cloud Migration – UC Today

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Gartner forecasts revenue from 2020 cloud computing to exceed $266 billion. AWS has led the market for over a decade, but the pandemics created a rise in other tech firms joining AWS in increased cloud adoption. IBM, Google, Alibaba, and Microsoft Azure all capture a part of the cloud market share, although Amazons AWS (Amazon Web Services) dominates the exchange.

Microsoft recently won a $10 billion bid with the U.S government, and IBM spent $34 billion on the acquisition of RedHat to boost its cloud proposition in July 2019. A 2018 callcenterhelper.com survey of 350 contact center professionals found that sixty percent of those individuals had migrated to the cloud from on-premises infrastructure.

Matthew Lawlor

The same survey found, 39 percent of respondents werent considering migrating to the cloud at all. Homeworking the reason 12 percent of professionals stated they wanted to make the move. Another 22 percent cited cost-effectiveness as a benefit of the technology and a motivation to modernize their organizations technology stack.

Among the surveys other findings, 38 percent of those who responded said they felt the cloud wasnt reliable. Today, with the current state of affairs, global protests as well as the novel Coronavirus pandemic, what was 15 percent of the U.S. workforce who worked from home before the pandemic, has reached over 50 percent of Americans working from home.

This contributed to a higher demand for cloud services, which could mean that 60 percent may be much higher given the status quo. Heres where I pick up with Matthew Lawlor, CTO, Spearline, who shared about the importance of phone number and quality testing.

You have to test toll and toll-free numbers as well as set up management alerts for non-functioning numbers. If youre not monitoring, measuring, analyzing, and reporting you dont have perfect number performance

He added this is all linked to creating consistent customer and employee experiences. Tests should emulate every aspect of a call flow, from connectivity to audio quality, and DTMF functionality. Call detail record info, as well as testing audio, forces ownership of carrier issues, and could reduce downtime along with expediting carrier root cause analysis, Im told.

Others seem to take a liking to VoIP services over that of having a dedicated cloud environment for workplace communication and collaboration, Many people have already done this for years without realizing, Skype and Webex are great examples of how. According to Lawlor.

He added, there are some pitfalls when it comes to VoIP, citing research from a survey of those who switched from SIP to VoIP. That survey found, 46 percent of companies that use VoIP services have experienced one-way audio issues, with 23 percent saying they endured having no audio at all.

Forty percent of those who answered said they had poor audio quality in the form of jitter, latency, and clipping. Lawlor added, no matter the delivery method testing is a must. It also enables enterprises and call centers to benefit from the flexibility of the cloud while leveraging high uptimes for critical communications and workplace collaborations software.

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COVID-19's Given a Big Boost to Cloud Migration - UC Today

Global Cloud Computing in Healthcare Market 2020: Industry Growth, Opportunity, Sales, Investment Analysis, Segment, High Trends and Forecast to 2025…

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Adroit Market Research presents an updated and Latest Study on Cloud Computing in Healthcare Market 2020-2025. The report contains market predictions related to market size, revenue, production, CAGR, Consumption, gross margin, price, and other substantial factors. While emphasizing the key driving and restraining forces for this market, the report also offers a complete study of the future trends and developments of the market. The report further elaborates on the micro and macroeconomic aspects including the socio-political landscape that is anticipated to shape the demand of the Cloud Computing in Healthcare market during the forecast period (2020-2025).

Get sample copy of Cloud Computing in Healthcare Market[emailprotected]https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/1091

The report on the global Cloud Computing in Healthcare market also includes an in-depth analysis of the competitive landscape. It analyses key marketing and promotional strategies that are being adopted by key companies in the market. It also takes into account the existing development, historical events, and latest trends to provide the readers with a detailed understanding of the strategies adopted by leading companies. The market report mentions all factors and events impacting the growth of the market, such as mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, takeovers, and others. It also studies the overall intensity of the competition prevailing in the global Cloud Computing in Healthcare market.

Top Leading Key Players are:

McKesson Corporation, Allscripts, NextGen Healthcare, Epic Systems Corporation, Healthcare Management System, eClinicalWorks, CPSI, Computer Sciences Corporation, and many more.

Read complete report with TOC at:https://www.adroitmarketresearch.com/industry-reports/cloud-computing-in-healthcare-market

Cloud Computing in Healthcare industry report also presents detailed insights into the regulatory framework of the global market. The Cloud Computing in Healthcare market report presents details regarding the key rules, regulations, plans, and policies in the market, which can influence several decisions and can have a significant impact on markets future growth prospects. It provides overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue and demand. The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis. The study meticulously unveils the market and contains substantial details about the projections with respect to industry, remuneration forecast, sales graph, and growth prospects over the forecast timeline.

Global Cloud Computing in Healthcare market is segmented based by type, application and region.

Based on Type, the market has been segmented into:

by End Use (Hospitals, Diagnostics and Imaging Centres, Ambulatory Centres, and Others)

Global Cloud Computing in Healthcare market is geographically segmented into Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America. Amongst these, North America is anticipated to procure maximum share in the global Cloud Computing in Healthcare market revenue during the forecast period. This is because of the increasing adoption of Cloud Computing in Healthcare in several countries in the region. Asia Pacific, on the other hand, is likely to witness the highest market growth in the coming years. Persistent investments by public and private vendors for enhancing technologies of the market are expected to cause this growth.

Global Cloud Computing in Healthcare Market research report, besides ample understanding shared in the previous sections, the report also presents this comprehensive research report gauges for decisive conclusions concerning growth factors and determinants, eventually influencing holistic growth and lucrative business models in Global Cloud Computing in Healthcare Market. The report on this target market is a judicious compilation of in-depth and professional marketing cues that are crucially vital in delegating profit driven business decisions. Apart from these elaborate market specific information suggesting current market scenario, this market intelligence report also includes veritable insights on growth stimulating factors as well as cut throat competition amongst market players, based on which report readers can orchestrate growth specific decisions to harbor incremental growth in the target Global Cloud Computing in Healthcare Market.

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Guest column: Mullins and Sharpe were pivotal in Tyler’s growth – Tyler Morning Telegraph

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

In January of 2021 the city of Tyler will be losing to retirement two of the most significant influencers of the regions economy over the last 30 years. Tom Mullins and Aubrey Sharpe have played pivotal roles in the growth and development of the East Texas economy and making Tyler a better place for businesses and families to thrive. Both men arrived in town at approximately the same time as outsiders, one from Minnesota and the other from Philadelphia. I had the pleasure of working with them both from day one and doubt either anticipated a 30-year tenure in Tyler.

But my, what a run they had.

Tom took the reins of the Tyler Economic Development Council and began the work of diversifying the Tyler economic base.

His work was not always popular as he disrupted the traditional views of economic development.

However, one knew he had the best interests of the community and business at the forefront of his efforts. He taught us about the profession of economic development and all of the tools that were available to grow and support the economy.

Those tools included tax increment financing, tax abatements, enterprise zones and building the future in a way that maximized the resources Tyler had to offer. He brought health care, education and manufacturing to the table to enhance a strong natural resource-based economy. He also expended as much effort in retaining and growing existing business as he did in recruiting new businesses to the region. Tyler became an economic leader in the state and our colleagues around the state often asked for insights into how Tom and his team were operating so successfully. Later the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce was added to his leadership duties and the chamber became one of the fastest growing in Texas.

Tom exhibited professional skills and experience to the job that assisted in building a vision for the Tyler and East Texas economy beyond what most of us could imagine.

Aubrey joined Tyler Junior College to help with the opening and programming of the Regional Training and Development Complex (formerly the Levi Strauss plant). His vision and work resulted in the creation of a Small Business Development Center, a unique partnership with the Service Corps of Retired Executives, the Small Business Incubator and training courses and programs designed in partnership with local employers to produce a trained workforce to meet employer needs.

He further guided the expansion that would become the West Campus. That expansion included building the Skills Training Center to house a new automotive technology and expanded welding and air conditioning and refrigeration programs. The new facility also included a statewide partnership with Luminant to train power plant workers. The facility has evolved into the Energy Center that trains students in a variety of power generation job skills. Aubreys entrepreneurial spirit created programs and training that were responsive to employers and played a key role in the recruitment, expansion and retention of businesses in the East Texas region.

I encourage every citizen of East Texas to drive around the region and see the handiwork of these two men. You do not have to look too far beyond our communities to see what could have become of Tyler had we not had these two outsiders adopt Tyler. It seems fitting somehow that they are walking out much as they walked in, together. These will be enormous shoes for the community to fill.

If Tyler ever builds an Economic Development Hall of Fame, Tom and Aubrey are two musts for the inaugural class of honorees.

Bill Crowe retired as president of Tyler Junior College and currently serves as the interim director of Higher Education Policy, Strategy and Services for the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Guest column: Mullins and Sharpe were pivotal in Tyler's growth - Tyler Morning Telegraph

COVID-19 having big impact on outdoor recreation industry, public lands – WXYZ

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

HARPERS FERRY, W.V. For more than 2,000 miles, the Appalachian Trail winds its way through more than a dozen states.

Its so-called psychological midpoint is the town of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

This community represents all the communities up and down the trail, said Sandy Marra, who heads up the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Ever since the pandemic began, she said theres been a noticeable increase in people hiking the trail.

On any given weekday, even in the dead of summer, typically you wouldn't see anyone out on our trails, Marra said. And during the week now, you could see dozens and dozens of people just hiking.

Thats something other public lands across the country are seeing, too, in the time of COVID-19 and social distancing.

Deborah Williams is with the Outdoor Industry Association, based in Colorado.

We did see a trend of more people exploring the outdoors in March and April and then that really did continue into May and June, Williams said. And what we initially saw is a little bit of escapism, in the first few weeks, actually continued.

That outdoor recreation can have a big impact on the economy.

In West Virginia, for example, the outdoor industry is responsible for more than 91,000 direct jobs, $660 million in local and state tax revenue and $9 billion in consumer spending.

Across the country, it all adds up to $887 billion in consumer spending, supporting 7.6 million jobs.

Williams said theres the potential for that to grow even more in every state across America, in part, because of federal funding from the new Great American Outdoors Act, which was just passed by Congress and signed into law by the president.

It will fully fund the land and water conservation fund to the tune of $900 million, Williams said. So, this is our country's really flagship mechanism for funding conservation and maintenance of our public lands and waters.

Back at the Appalachian Trail, Sandy Marra hopes people now rediscovering the outdoors take care to protect it, as well.

Because of the pandemic and so many people wanting to get outside, the resource was being overwhelmed, she said. This is a great chance for us to reach a whole new audience of people. This is their park, right? So, they get to use it and enjoy it, but they also have a responsibility too.

It's a responsibility that can help future generations experience whats great about the great outdoors.

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COVID-19 having big impact on outdoor recreation industry, public lands - WXYZ

They Held a Hearing So Ted Cruz Could Say ‘Antifa’ a Bunch on C-SPAN – Esquire

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Chip SomodevillaGetty Images

Our old pal, Senator Tailgunner Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and, according to the current president* of the United States, son of an accessory to the murder of John F. Kennedy, threw a performance piece in the Senate on Tuesday that seemed designed only to give him a chance to say Antifa on C-SPAN a lot. The hearing was a farce. Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii kept trying to get the conversation around to white-supremacist violence in this country, which actually has killed actual people. But the Tailgunner kept wrenching things back around to the monsters from his private id, with hilarious results.

Then came the otherwise unemployable Ken Cuccinelli, Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security:

Officer Underwood was killed by a right-wing Boogaloo maniac and Air Force veteran named Patrick Carillo. Senator Dick Durbin repeatedly tried to get things back to discussing the actual people committing actual political murder, but Cruz was having none of it, so we were treated to the stylings of Andy Ngo, pretending to be a journalist, and Jonathan Turley, pretending to be reasonable while drawing a connection between Antifa and A. Mitchell Palmer, before moving on to the perils of cancel culture, and a closing rendition of the old boogedy-boogedy from Cruz, who got the video he needs. This is to remind you that Congress is on the job.

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They Held a Hearing So Ted Cruz Could Say 'Antifa' a Bunch on C-SPAN - Esquire

Page A4 | E-Edition | thetandd.com – The Times and Democrat

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

In keeping with the new progressive strategy for arguments with conservatives, Stanley Harrold's Unsuited to be Published diatribe was the supreme example of the new "Cancel Culture" of silencing conservatives.

Instead of honoring the value of substantive debate about critical issues, he chose to lump my article about the recent attacks on Christianity with two other conservative authors writing about different subjects. Harrold's attack used the implied charge of racism against all three writers (Ironically, one writer was of Chinese descent writing about the connection of current events with his knowledge of China).

Harrold went so far as to actually allege the newspaper was irresponsible for publication of the conservative side. According to Harrold, the articles raise questions about fairness and human rights. Three far-right columns go beyond anything close to reasonable journalism. I would normally let this kind of unfounded hyperbole and defamation go unanswered, but feel compelled to reply.

First, as the readers know I have been a conservative voice in the newspapers opinion section among a substantial majority of liberal columnists. Almost two decades ago, when I started offering opinion pieces for The Times and Democrat, voices from the far left, like Eugene Robinson, predominated the opinion page. This imbalance appeared biased to the left, but I never questioned The Times and Democrat publishing liberal voices.

Recent columns on The Times and Democrat editorial page raise questions about fairness and human rights. Three far-right columns go beyond anything close to reasonable journalism.

My challenge was to provide the conservative voice, debate the ideas and provide evidence to back up my assertions. I never lumped together multiple liberal writers. Lumping writers together is absolutely disingenuous, in that all can be discredited by the assertions of one and unfair unless they are writing in coordination. In my writings, I have attempted to find credible evidence in both quotations and citations. Though I find Ann Coulters article an insightful and important counter to the far left, she makes assertions I do not.

Prior to my article about the attacks on Christianity by those involved in the current rioting, I wrote about Karl Marx and quote him extensively. In that earlier article, I made the same allegation as I did with the recent article about rising attacks on Christianity: That Marxism was connected to many of the actions we were seeing with the rioters, and that the relationship between the two should not be ignored. In both articles, I give preeminence to the actions and ideology of antifa, though in the second article I also mention the connection of Marxism to the Black Lives Matter organization. As I made clear, I did not believe many of those protesting after the Floyd killing understood the Marxist connection.

Harrold either failed to read my first article about Marxism or failed to do any of his own research about Marx. Marx was vehemently and openly anti-Christian and claimed his primary goal in life was to dethrone God, and destroy capitalism." Marx wrote of his hatred of the nuclear family and alleged that in primitive society, families were communal. This obviously contradicted the biblical accounts of family. Marx also wrote that the present must control the past and exhorted his followers to destroy reminders of the past.

Americans have watched the escalating mayhem throughout America since the riots in Minnesota in early June. The initial targets of violence (rioting interspersed with protesting) were police officers, along with police cruisers and stations. Then came the seemingly irrational destruction of statues and memorials. This includes memorials to abolitionists and generals like U.S. Grant.

In deciding to throw down the trump card of racism," Harrold fails to even mention the prominence of the role I allege of antifa in furthering Marxist ideals. Additionally, Harrold turns my mention of the BLM organization into an attack against all African Americans, going so far as to assert Black people are among the most Christian Americans."

Whether or not one racial group is considered the most Christian is not the point, and frankly the BLM protests are noted for involving overwhelmingly white progressives. The BLM organization was founded by (and still led by) those who admitted to being trained Marxists." Anyone can read the BLM website, in which BLM claims it must disrupt the nuclear family," among other values unrelated to black lives mattering.

Interestingly, the Black nuclear family is suffering the greatest crisis in history, with over 75% of Black babies born and raised outside wedlock (in 1965, under 25% were born/raised outside wedlock). If Black lives mattered, surely having a father and mother raising children would be a prime goal. BLM instead promotes children being raised the communal way Marx recommended. Additionally, the BLM goals include the end of police, prisons, borders, ICE, etc. and redistributing wealth.

After the initial shock and emotion over the George Floyd killing, Americans are waking up to an insidious movement using the emotion for ulterior purposes. Groups with Marxist ideology have brazenly infiltrated the protests and used the protests to further their aims. Former antifa member Gabriel Nadales described antifa becoming a mob like collective aiming to destroy political opposition and silence dissenters.

Shockingly, Harrold claims the Chinese Communist Party to be some kind of benign democracy with solely a window-dressing of Marxism/communism. The reality most have come to accept is exactly opposite. CPP handling of COVID-19, including the coverups and death/disappearing of whistleblowers and decision to curtail travel from Wuhan within China while allowing international flights from Wuhan, has torn the veil on any benign perceptions. It is a ruthless and deceptive autocracy. It is every bit as bad as the USSR, and not much better than the CCP under Maos Cultural Revolution killing tens of millions.

The readers are free to disregard the evidence I have presented in the Marxist connections to the rioting by antifa and BLM. They are free to disregard the claims of BLM founders to being trained Marxists, or that BLM publishes its goal to disrupt the biblical nuclear family. They are free to disregard members of antifa and BLM (primarily white) destroying Christian monuments and symbols and burning churches. They are free to disregard the recent Bible-burning episode in Portland. They are free to believe the Chinese Communist Party is just like a free parliamentary system of government.

Mr. Harrold is free to disagree and present his evidence. What he should not do is attempt to silence voices with which he disagrees by attempts to shame newspapers for publishing both sides. Too many have suffered and died to curtail that freedom.

Do not indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. George Washington

Page A4 | E-Edition | thetandd.com - The Times and Democrat

Pantheism | Britannica

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Pantheism, the doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is God and, conversely, that there is no God but the combined substance, forces, and laws that are manifested in the existing universe. The cognate doctrine of panentheism asserts that God includes the universe as a part though not the whole of his being.

Both pantheism and panentheism are terms of recent origin, coined to describe certain views of the relationship between God and the world that are different from that of traditional theism. As reflected in the prefix pan- (Greek pas, all), both of the terms stress the all-embracing inclusiveness of God, as compared with his separateness as emphasized in many versions of theism. On the other hand, pantheism and panentheism, since they stress the theme of immanencei.e., of the indwelling presence of Godare themselves versions of theism conceived in its broadest meaning. Pantheism stresses the identity between God and the world, panentheism (Greek en, in) that the world is included in God but that God is more than the world.

The adjective pantheist was introduced by the Irish Deist John Toland in the book Socinianism Truly Stated (1705). The noun pantheism was first used in 1709 by one of Tolands opponents. The term panentheism appeared much later, in 1828. Although the terms are recent, they have been applied retrospectively to alternative views of the divine being as found in the entire philosophical traditions of both East and West.

Pantheism and panentheism can be explored by means of a three-way comparison with traditional or classical theism viewed from eight different standpointsi.e., from those of immanence or transcendence; of monism, dualism, or pluralism; of time or eternity; of the world as sentient or insentient; of God as absolute or relative; of the world as real or illusory; of freedom or determinism; and of sacramentalism or secularism.

The poetic sense of the divine within and around human beings, which is widely expressed in religious life, is frequently treated in literature. It is present in the Platonic Romanticism of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, as well as in Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Expressions of the divine as intimate rather than as alien, as indwelling and near dwelling rather than remote, characterize pantheism and panentheism as contrasted with classical theism. Such immanence encourages the human sense of individual participation in the divine life without the necessity of mediation by any institution. On the other hand, it may also encourage a formless enthusiasm, without the moderating influence of institutional forms. In addition, some theorists have seen an unseemliness about a point of view that allows the divine to be easily confronted and appropriated. Classical theism has, in consequence, held to the transcendence of God, his existence over and beyond the universe. Recognizing, however, that if the separation between God and the world becomes too extreme, humanity risks the loss of communication with the divine, panentheismunlike pantheism, which holds to the divine immanencemaintains that the divine can be both transcendent and immanent at the same time.

Philosophies are monistic if they show a strong sense of the unity of the world, dualistic if they stress its twoness, and pluralistic if they stress its manyness. Pantheism is typically monistic, finding in the worlds unity a sense of the divine, sometimes related to the mystical intuition of personal union with God; classical theism is dualistic in conceiving God as separated from the world and mind from body; and panentheism is typically monistic in holding to the unity of God and the world, dualistic in urging the separateness of Gods essence from the world, and pluralistic in taking seriously the multiplicity of the kinds of beings and events making up the world. One form of pantheism, present in the early stages of Greek philosophy, held that the divine is one of the elements in the world whose function is to animate the other elements that constitute the world. This point of view, called Hylozoistic (Greek hyl, matter, and z, life) pantheism, is not monistic, as are most other forms of pantheism, but pluralistic.

Most, but not all, forms of pantheism understand the eternal God to be in intimate juxtaposition with the world, thus minimizing time or making it illusory. Classical theism holds that eternity is in God and time is in the world but believes that, since Gods eternity includes all of time, the temporal process now going on in the world has already been completed in God. Panentheism, on the other hand, espouses a temporaleternal God who stands in juxtaposition with a temporal world; thus, in panentheism, the temporality of the world is not cancelled out, and time retains its reality.

Every philosophy must take a stand somewhere on a spectrum running from a concept of things as unfeeling matter to one of things as psychic or sentient. Materialism holds to the former extreme, and Panpsychism to the latter. Panpsychism offers a vision of reality in which to exist is to be in some measure sentient and to sustain social relations with other entities. Dualism, holding that reality consists of two fundamentally different kinds of entity, stands again between two extremes. A few of the simpler forms of pantheism support materialism. Panentheism and most forms of pantheism, on the other hand, tend toward Panpsychism. But there are differences of degree, and though classical theism tends toward dualism, even there the insentient often has a tinge of panpsychism.

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Pantheism | Britannica

What Is Pantheism and Why Does Christianity Refute It?

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Pantheism (pronouncedPAN thee izm) is the belief that God consists of everyone and everything. For example, a tree is God, a mountain is God, the universe is God, all people are God.

Pantheism is found in many "nature" religions and New Age religions. The belief is held by most Hindus and many Buddhists.It is also the worldview of Unity, Christian Science, and Scientology.

The term comes from two Greek words meaning "all (pan) is God (theos)." In pantheism, there is no difference between deity and reality. People who believe in pantheism think God is the world around them and that God and the universe are identical.

According to pantheism, God permeates all things, contains all things, connects to all things, and is found in all things. Nothing exists isolated from God, and everything is in some way identified with God. The world is God, and God is the world. All is God, and God is all.

Both in the East and West, Pantheism has a long history. Different types of pantheism have developed, each identifying and uniting God with the world in a unique way.

Christian theology opposes the ideas of pantheism. Christianity says that God created everything, not that he is everything or that everything is God:

Christianity teaches that God is omnipresent, or exists everywhere, separating the Creator from his creations:

In Christian theology, God is everywhere present with His whole being at all times. His omnipresence does not mean that he is diffused throughout the universe or penetrates the universe.

Pantheists who give credence to the idea that the universe is real, agree that the universe was created "ex deo" or "out of God." Christian theism teaches that the universe was created "ex nihilo," or "out of nothing."

A fundamental teaching of absolute pantheism is that humans must master their ignorance and recognize that they are God. Christianity teaches that God alone is the Highest God:

Pantheism implies that miracles are impossible. A miracle requires God to intervene on behalf of something or someone outside of himself. Thus, pantheism rules out miracles because "all is God and God is all." Christianity believes in a God who loves and cares about people and intervenes miraculously and regularly in their lives.

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What Is Pantheism and Why Does Christianity Refute It?

Panentheism – Wikipedia

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Belief that the divine pervades all of space and time and extends beyond it

Panentheism (meaning "all-in-God", from the Greek pn, "all", en, "in" and Thes, "God")[1] is the belief that the divine pervades and interpenetrates every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time. The term was coined by the German philosopher Karl Krause in 1828 to distinguish the ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (17701831) and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (17751854) about the relation of God and the universe from the supposed pantheism of Baruch Spinoza.[1] Unlike pantheism, which holds that the divine and the universe are identical,[2] panentheism maintains an ontological distinction between the divine and the non-divine and the significance of both.

The religious beliefs of Neoplatonism can be regarded as panentheistic. Plotinus taught that there was an ineffable transcendent God ("the One", to En, ) of which subsequent realities were emanations. From "the One" emanates the Divine Mind (Nous, ) and the Cosmic Soul (Psyche, ). In Neoplatonism the world itself is God (according to Plato's Timaeus 37). This concept of divinity is associated with that of the Logos (), which had originated centuries earlier with Heraclitus (c. 535475 BC). The Logos pervades the cosmos, whereby all thoughts and all things originate, or as Heraclitus said: "He who hears not me but the Logos will say: All is one." Neoplatonists such as Iamblichus attempted to reconcile this perspective by adding another hypostasis above the original monad of force or Dunamis (). This new all-pervasive monad encompassed all creation and its original uncreated emanations.

Baruch Spinoza later claimed that "Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived."[5] "Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner."[6] Though Spinoza has been called the "prophet"[7] and "prince"[8] of pantheism, in a letter to Henry Oldenburg Spinoza states that: "as to the view of certain people that I identify god with nature (taken as a kind of mass or corporeal matter), they are quite mistaken".[9] For Spinoza, our universe (cosmos) is a mode under two attributes of Thought and Extension. God has infinitely many other attributes which are not present in our world.

According to German philosopher Karl Jaspers, when Spinoza wrote "Deus sive Natura" (God or Nature) Spinoza did not mean to say that God and Nature are interchangeable terms, but rather that God's transcendence was attested by his infinitely many attributes, and that two attributes known by humans, namely Thought and Extension, signified God's immanence.[10] Furthermore, Martial Guroult suggested the term "panentheism", rather than "pantheism" to describe Spinoza's view of the relation between God and the world. The world is not God, but it is, in a strong sense, "in" God. Yet, American philosopher and self-described panentheist Charles Hartshorne referred to Spinoza's philosophy as "classical pantheism" and distinguished Spinoza's philosophy from panentheism.[11]

In 1828, the German philosopher Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (17811832) seeking to reconcile monotheism and pantheism, coined the term panentheism (from the Ancient Greek expression , pn en the, literally "all in god"). This conception of God influenced New England transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. The term was popularized by Charles Hartshorne in his development of process theology and has also been closely identified with the New Thought.[12] The formalization of this term in the West in the 19th century was not new; philosophical treatises had been written on it in the context of Hinduism for millennia.[13]

Philosophers who embraced panentheism have included Thomas Hill Green (18391882), James Ward (18431925), Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison (18561931) and Samuel Alexander (18591938).[14] Beginning in the 1940s, Hartshorne examined numerous conceptions of God. He reviewed and discarded pantheism, deism, and pandeism in favor of panentheism, finding that such a "doctrine contains all of deism and pandeism except their arbitrary negations". Hartshorne formulated God as a being who could become "more perfect": He has absolute perfection in categories for which absolute perfection is possible, and relative perfection (i.e., is superior to all others) in categories for which perfection cannot be precisely determined.[15]

The earliest reference to panentheistic thought in Hindu philosophy is in a creation myth contained in the later section of Rig Veda called the Purusha Sukta,[16] which was compiled before 1100 BCE.[17] The Purusha Sukta gives a description of the spiritual unity of the cosmos. It presents the nature of Purusha or the cosmic being as both immanent in the manifested world and yet transcendent to it.[18] From this being the sukta holds, the original creative will proceeds, by which this vast universe is projected in space and time.[19]

The most influential[20] and dominant[21] school of Indian philosophy, Advaita Vedanta, rejects theism and dualism by insisting that "Brahman [ultimate reality] is without parts or attributes...one without a second."[22] Since Brahman has no properties, contains no internal diversity and is identical with the whole reality it cannot be understood as an anthropomorphic personal God.[23] The relationship between Brahman and the creation is often thought to be panentheistic.[24]

Panentheism is also expressed in the Bhagavad Gita.[24] In verse IX.4, Krishna states:

By Me all this universe is pervaded through My unmanifested form.All beings abide in Me but I do not abide in them.

Many schools of Hindu thought espouse monistic theism, which is thought to be similar to a panentheistic viewpoint. Nimbarka's school of differential monism (Dvaitadvaita), Ramanuja's school of qualified monism (Vishistadvaita) and Saiva Siddhanta and Kashmir Shaivism are all considered to be panentheistic.[25] Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Gaudiya Vaishnavism, which elucidates the doctrine of Achintya Bheda Abheda (inconceivable oneness and difference), is also thought to be panentheistic.[26] In Kashmir Shaivism, all things are believed to be a manifestation of Universal Consciousness (Cit or Brahman).[27] So from the point of view of this school, the phenomenal world (akti) is real, and it exists and has its being in Consciousness (Cit).[28] Thus, Kashmir Shaivism is also propounding of theistic monism or panentheism.[29]

Shaktism, or Tantra, is regarded as an Indian prototype of Panentheism.[30] Shakti is considered to be the cosmos itself she is the embodiment of energy and dynamism, and the motivating force behind all action and existence in the material universe. Shiva is her transcendent masculine aspect, providing the divine ground of all being. "There is no Shiva without Shakti, or Shakti without Shiva. The two ... in themselves are One."[31] Thus, it is She who becomes the time and space, the cosmos, it is She who becomes the five elements, and thus all animate life and inanimate forms. She is the primordial energy that holds all creation and destruction, all cycles of birth and death, all laws of cause and effect within Herself, and yet is greater than the sum total of all these. She is transcendent, but becomes immanent as the cosmos (Mula Prakriti). She, the Primordial Energy, directly becomes Matter.

Taoism says that all is part of the eternal tao, and that all interact through qi. Chapter 6 of the Tao Te Ching describes the Tao thus: "The heart of Tao is immortal, the mysterious fertile mother of us all, of heaven and earth, of every thing and not-thing."[32]

Panentheism is also a feature of some Christian philosophical theologies and resonates strongly within the theological tradition of the Orthodox Church.[33] It also appears in process theology. Process theological thinkers are generally regarded in the Christian West as unorthodox. Furthermore, process philosophical thought is widely believed to have paved the way for open theism, a movement that tends to associate itself primarily with the Evangelical branch of Protestantism, but is also generally considered unorthodox by most Evangelicals.

In Christianity, creation is not considered a literal "part of" God, and divinity is essentially distinct from creation (i.e., transcendent). There is, in other words, an irradicable difference between the uncreated (i.e., God) and the created (i.e., everything else). This does not mean, however, that the creation is wholly separated from God, because the creation exists in and from the divine energies. In Eastern Orthodoxy, these energies or operations are the natural activity of God and are in some sense identifiable with God, but at the same time the creation is wholly distinct from the divine essence.[citation needed] God creates the universe by His will and from His energies. It is, however, not an imprint or emanation of God's own essence (ousia), the essence He shares pre-eternally with His Word and Holy Spirit. Neither is it a directly literal outworking or effulgence of the divine, nor any other process which implies that creation is essentially God or a necessary part of God. The use of the term "panentheism" to describe the divine concept in Orthodox Christian theology is problematic for those who would insist that panentheism requires creation to be "part of" God.

God is not merely Creator of the universe, as His dynamic presence is necessary to sustain the existence of every created thing, small and great, visible and invisible.[34] That is, God's energies maintain the existence of the created order and all created beings, even if those agencies have explicitly rejected him. His love for creation is such that He will not withdraw His presence, which would be the ultimate form of annihilation, not merely imposing death, but ending existence altogether. By this token, the entirety of creation is fundamentally "good" in its very being, and is not innately evil either in whole or in part. This does not deny the existence of spiritual or moral evil in a fallen universe, only the claim that it is an intrinsic property of creation. Sin results from the essential freedom of creatures to operate outside the divine order, not as a necessary consequence of having inherited human nature.

Many Christians who believe in universalism mainly expressed in the Universalist Church of America, originating, as a fusion of Pietist and Anabaptist influences, from the American colonies of the 18th century hold panentheistic views of God in conjunction with their belief in apocatastasis, also called universal reconciliation.[citation needed] Panentheistic Christian Universalists often believe that all creation's subsistence in God renders untenable the notion of final and permanent alienation from Him, citing Scriptural passages such as Ephesians 4:6 ("[God] is over all and through all and in all") and Romans 11:36 ("from [God] and through him and to him are all things") to justify both panentheism and universalism.[citation needed] Panentheism was also a major force in the Unitarian church for a long time, based in part on Ralph Waldo Emerson's concept of the Over-soul (from the synonymous essay of 1841).[citation needed]

Panentheistic conceptions of God occur amongst some modern theologians. Process theology and Creation Spirituality, two recent developments in Christian theology, contain panentheistic ideas. Charles Hartshorne (18972000), who conjoined process theology with panentheism, maintained a lifelong membership in the Methodist church but was also a Unitarian. In later years he joined the Austin, Texas, Unitarian Universalist congregation and was an active participant in that church.[35] Referring to the ideas such as Thomas Oord's theocosmocentrism (2010), the soft panentheism of open theism, Keith Ward's comparative theology and John Polkinghorne's critical realism (2009), Raymond Potgieter observes distinctions such as dipolar and bipolar:

The former suggests two poles separated such as God influencing creation and it in turn its creator (Bangert 2006:168), whereas bipolarity completes Gods being implying interdependence between temporal and eternal poles. (Marbaniang 2011:133), in dealing with Whiteheads approach, does not make this distinction. I use the term bipolar as a generic term to include suggestions of the structural definition of Gods transcendence and immanence; to for instance accommodate a present and future reality into which deity must reasonably fit and function, and yet maintain separation from this world and evil whilst remaining within it.[36]

Some argue that panentheism should also include the notion that God has always been related to some world or another, which denies the idea of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). Nazarene Methodist theologian Thomas Jay Oord (*1965) advocates panentheism, but he uses the word "theocosmocentrism" to highlight the notion that God and some world or another are the primary conceptual starting blocks for eminently fruitful theology. This form of panentheism helps in overcoming the problem of evil and in proposing that God's love for the world is essential to who God is.[37]

The Christian Church International also holds to a panentheist doctrine. The Latter Day Saint movement teaches that the Light of Christ "proceeds from God through Christ and gives life and light to all things."[38]

"Gnosticism" is a modern name for a variety of ancient religious ideas and systems prevalent in the first and second century AD. The teachings of the various gnostic groups were very diverse. In his Dictionary of Gnosticism, Andrew Phillip Smith has written that some branches of Gnosticism taught a panentheistic view of reality,[39] and held to the belief that God exists in the visible world only as sparks of spiritual "light". The goal of human existence is to know the sparks within oneself in order to return to God, who is in the Fullness (or Pleroma).

Gnosticism was panentheistic, believing that the true God is simultaneously both separate from the physical universe and present within it.[citation needed] As Jesus states in the Gospel of Thomas, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all ... . Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."[40] This seemingly contradictory interpretation of gnostic theology is not without controversy, since one interpretation of dualistic theology holds that a perfect God of pure spirit would not manifest himself through the fallen world of matter.

Manichaeism, being another gnostic sect, preached a very different doctrine in positioning the true Manichaean God against matter as well as other deities, that it described as enmeshed with the world, namely the gods of Jews, Christians and pagans.[41] Nevertheless, this dualistic teaching included an elaborate cosmological myth that narrates the defeat of primal man by the powers of darkness that devoured and imprisoned the particles of light.[42]

Valentinian Gnosticism taught that matter came about through emanations of the supreme being, even if to some this event is held to be more accidental than intentional.[43] To other gnostics, these emanations were akin to the Sephirot of the Kabbalists and deliberate manifestations of a transcendent God through a complex system of intermediaries.[44]

While mainstream Rabbinic Judaism is classically monotheistic, and follows in the footsteps of Maimonides (c. 11351204), the panentheistic conception of God can be found among certain mystical Jewish traditions. A leading scholar of Kabbalah, Moshe Idel[45] ascribes this doctrine to the kabbalistic system of Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (15221570) and in the eighteenth century to the Baal Shem Tov (c. 17001760), founder of the Hasidic movement, as well as his contemporaries, Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch (died 1772), and Menahem Mendel, the Maggid of Bar. This may be said of many, if not most, subsequent Hasidic masters. There is some debate as to whether Isaac Luria (15341572) and Lurianic Kabbalah, with its doctrine of tzimtzum, can be regarded as panentheistic.

According to Hasidism, the infinite Ein Sof is incorporeal and exists in a state that is both transcendent and immanent. This appears to be the view of non-Hasidic Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, as well. Hasidic Judaism merges the elite ideal of nullification to a transcendent God, via the intellectual articulation of inner dimensions through Kabbalah and with emphasis on the panentheistic divine immanence in everything.[46]

Many scholars would argue that "panentheism" is the best single-word description of the philosophical theology of Baruch Spinoza.[47] It is therefore no surprise, that aspects of panentheism are also evident in the theology of Reconstructionist Judaism as presented in the writings of Mordecai Kaplan (18811983), who was strongly influenced by Spinoza.[48]

Several Sufi saints and thinkers, primarily Ibn Arabi, held beliefs that have been considered panentheistic.[49] These notions later took shape in the theory of wahdat ul-wujud (the Unity of All Things). Some Sufi Orders, notably the Bektashis[50] and the Universal Sufi movement, continue to espouse panentheistic beliefs. Nizari Ismaili follow panentheism according to Ismaili doctrine. Nevertheless, some Shia Muslims also do believe in different degrees of Panentheism.

Al-Qayyuum is a Name of God in the Qur'an which translates to "The Self-Existing by Whom all subsist". In Islam the universe can not exist if Allah doesn't exist, and it is only by His power which encompasses everything and which is everywhere that the universe can exist. In Aya al-Kursii God's throne is described as "extending over the heavens and the earth" and "He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them". This does not mean though that the universe is God, or that a creature (like a tree or an animal) is God, because those would be respectively pantheism, which is a heresy in traditional Islam, and the worst heresy in Islam, shirk (polytheism). God is separated by His creation but His creation can not survive without Him.

The Mesoamerican empires of the Mayas, Aztecs as well as the South American Incas (Tahuatinsuyu) have typically been characterized as polytheistic, with strong male and female deities.[51] According to Charles C. Mann's history book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, only the lower classes of Aztec society were polytheistic. Philosopher James Maffie has argued that Aztec metaphysics was pantheistic rather than panentheistic, since Teotl was considered by Aztec philosophers to be the ultimate all-encompassing yet all-transcending force defined by its inherit duality.[52]

Native American beliefs in North America have been characterized as panentheistic in that there is an emphasis on a single, unified divine spirit that is manifest in each individual entity.[53] (North American Native writers have also translated the word for God as the Great Mystery[54] or as the Sacred Other[55]) This concept is referred to by many as the Great Spirit. Philosopher J. Baird Callicott has described Lakota theology as panentheistic, in that the divine both transcends and is immanent in everything.[56]

One exception can be modern Cherokee who are predominantly monotheistic but apparently not panentheistic;[57] yet in older Cherokee traditions many observe both aspects of pantheism and panentheism, and are often not beholden to exclusivity, encompassing other spiritual traditions without contradiction, a common trait among some tribes in the Americas. In the stories of Keetoowah storytellers Sequoyah Guess and Dennis Sixkiller, God is known as , commonly pronounced "unehlanv," and visited earth in prehistoric times, but then left earth and her people to rely on themselves. This shows a parallel to Vaishnava cosmology.

The Sikh gurus have described God in numerous ways in their hymns included in the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhism, but the oneness of the deity is consistently emphasized throughout. God is described in the Mool Mantar, the first passage in the Guru Granth Sahib, and the basic formula of the faith is:

(Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Ang 1) in Punjabi

Punjabi in Latin script

Ik Oankar Satnaam KartaaPurakh Nirbhau Nirvair AkaalMoorat Ajooni Saibhan GurPrasad

English translation

One primal being who made the sound (oan) that expanded and created the world. Truth is the name. Creative being personified. Without fear, without hate. Image of the undying. Beyond birth, self existent. By Guru's grace~

Guru Arjan, the fifth guru of Sikhs, says, "God is beyond colour and form, yet His/Her presence is clearly visible" (Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 74), and "Nanak's Lord transcends the world as well as the scriptures of the east and the west, and yet He/She is clearly manifest" (Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 397).

Knowledge of the ultimate Reality is not a matter for reason; it comes by revelation of the ultimate reality through nadar (grace) and by anubhava (mystical experience). Says Guru Nanak; "budhi pathi na paiai bahu chaturaiai bhai milai mani bhane." This translates to "He/She is not accessible through intellect, or through mere scholarship or cleverness at argument; He/She is met, when He/She pleases, through devotion" (GG, 436).

Guru Nanak prefixed the numeral one (ik) to it, making it Ik Oankar or Ek Oankar to stress God's oneness. God is named and known only through his Own immanent nature. The only name which can be said to truly fit God's transcendent state is SatNam ( Sat Sanskrit, Truth), the changeless and timeless Reality. God is transcendent and all-pervasive at the same time. Transcendence and immanence are two aspects of the same single Supreme Reality. The Reality is immanent in the entire creation, but the creation as a whole fails to contain God fully. As says Guru Tegh Bahadur, Nanak IX, "He has himself spread out His/Her Own maya (worldly illusion) which He oversees; many different forms He assumes in many colours, yet He stays independent of all" (GG, 537).

In the Bah' Faith, God is described as a single, imperishable God, the creator of all things, including all the creatures and forces in the universe. The connection between God and the world is that of the creator to his creation.[58] God is understood to be independent of his creation, and that creation is dependent and contingent on God. Accordingly, the Bah' Faith is much more closely aligned with traditions of monotheism than panentheism. God is not seen to be part of creation as he cannot be divided and does not descend to the condition of his creatures. Instead, in the Bah' understanding, the world of creation emanates from God, in that all things have been realized by him and have attained to existence.[59] Creation is seen as the expression of God's will in the contingent world,[60] and every created thing is seen as a sign of God's sovereignty, and leading to knowledge of him; the signs of God are most particularly revealed in human beings.[58]

In Konkky, God is named Tenchi Kane no Kami-Sama which can mean Golden spirit of the universe. Kami (God) is also seen as infinitely loving and powerful.

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Panentheism - Wikipedia

World Pantheism Revering the Universe, Caring for Nature …

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Do you feel a deep sense of peace, belonging, gratitude and wonder in Nature or under a clear night sky? Then you may be a scientific pantheist.Scientific pantheism focuses on saving the planet rather than saving souls. It respects the rights of humans, and also of all living beings. It encourages you to make the most and best of your one life here.It values reason and the scientific method over adherence to ancient scriptures. Take our popular quiz to find out if it suits you:-Are you Atheist, Agnostic, Pagan, Deist, Pantheist or What?

We relate closely to some of the central challenges of our era. At a time when the balance of our Earth is under unprecedented threat, scientific pantheism is one of the few forms of spirituality in which Nature plays a central part. For us, Nature is a source of peace and beauty, as well as the focus for our care and vigilance. Nature was not created for us to use or abuse. Nature created us, we are an inseparable part of her. We have a duty to live sustainably, to care for Nature and to halt and reverse the harm that humans have done to her.

Scientific pantheism is the only form of spirituality we know of which fully embraces science as part of the human exploration of Earth and Cosmos. We wonder at the picture of a vast, creative and often violent Universerevealed by the Hubble Space Telescope. We regard stargazing as a spiritual practice. We oppose climate change denial and evolution denial, especially in education.

Scientific pantheism has a joyous affirmative approach to life. It has a healthy and positive attitude to sex and life in the body. We wont tell you what you should be smoking or doing in the bedroom. We fully accept diverse gender choices, and we oppose all forms of discrimination.

Scientific pantheism moves beyond God and defines itself by positives.Atheism and Agnosticism both define themselves negatively, in relation to a God that they deny or doubt. These are useful starting points but they dont take us very far. Most people also need positive beliefs and feelings about their place in Nature and the wider Universe. We take Nature and the Universe as our start and finish point, not some preconceived idea of God. We do not believe in a supernatural creator god who watches or judges us. Most of us avoid god-language or religious words like church, worship, divinity and so on. We regard them as misleading. Some of us do like these words, but they use them metaphorically, in a similar way to how Einstein used the word.

Get the Scientific Pantheism handbook.

Our beliefs and values are summarized in our Pantheist Statement of Principles.The statement was drawn up by fallible humans. It is not required dogma it is simply a notice on our door, to show what we are about so people can decide if it suits them or if they want to learn more.These are the key elements:

Many people feel the need to belong to a religious community. Research shows that such groups provide mutual support and friends and are good for physical and mental health. Theres no good reason why groups of like-minded non-theistic folk should not enjoy similar benefits.

In the WPM we are spiritual but not religious. We dont have churches, priests, or prescribed dogma and rituals. But we do aim to provide a home base for people who love Nature and the Universe and do not believe in supernatural entities.

Two of the major benefits our members and friends say they value are gaining new like-minded friends and finding a place where they can share their enthusiasms without fear of being ostracized or feeling isolated. There have been many local meetings of members across the USA and in other parts of the world, where people have found a rare level of fellowship and stimulation.

The WPMs short term goals are to:

In the longer term, as resources permit, we hope to:

If you would like to help promote these goals, please consider becoming a WPM member. Volunteering is another great way of supporting the WPM.

All who agree with our principles are encouraged to join our Facebook page (with more than 160,000 fans), or join our Facebook discussion groupwith more than 10,000 members.

We use the name pantheism because the term encompasses a long and venerable history dating back to Heraclitus and Marcus Aurelius and extending to Einstein, D. H. Lawrence and beyond.

Our beliefs (see the Statement of Principles) are entirely compatible with atheism, humanism, agnosticism, universalism, and symbolic paganism (viewing magic, gods and spirits as symbols rather than objective realities). We offer a home to all forms of naturalistic spirituality however you may choose to label it. Other paths that approximate include philosophical Taoism, modern Stoicism, Western forms of Buddhism that celebrate Nature and daily life without supernatural beliefs, and Unitarian Universalists who do not believe in supernatural beings.

You are free to adopt the terms and practices you prefer and draw on other traditions for inspiration or celebration. Some call this a religion (a positive one), while others call it a philosophy, a way of life, or a form of general spirituality. Its up to you.

Please explore our pages. If you have any questions, please contact us.

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World Pantheism Revering the Universe, Caring for Nature ...

Pig welfare, feral pigs and ASF in Pig Progress 6 – Pig Progress

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

In the 6th edition of Pig Progress we visit a farm in the Netherlands where prioritising pig welfare proves to be profitable. We take a closer look at the ASF outbreak in Belgium and Poland and discuss the growing number of feral pigs (wild boar) in the US and Canada, where control of the population is a challenge.

There is an enormous, growing population of feral pigs in the US and Canada, and while African Swine Fever has not yet been detected in North or South America, just one case could spread very quickly. Control of the population in both countries has proven fruitless so far. Page 6

These massive feral pigs (or wild boar) often live in groups and their individual weights can exceed 270kg (about 600 pounds). Photo: Dr Ryan K. Brook

Belgium hopes that by autumn 2020, the country can declare a free from ASF status. African Swine Fever took Belgium by surprise in September 2018 when it was detected in wild boar. Page 8

Many kilometres of fencing were installed in Belgium in an effort to contain the ASF outbreak in the country. Photo: Twan Wiermans

The number of cases of African Swine Fever continues to rise in Poland, a country struggling to get to grips with the virus. The current situation poses a serious threat for the rest of northwestern Europe. Page 12

Between November 2019 and July 2020, the number of places where infected wild boar had been found had risen to 961, with 1,826 victims. Photo: Iwana Markowska Daniel

The EU PiG Innovation Group aims to discover and share best practices and innovations in swine production in Europe. In this episode we look at the 5S Lean Programme, a simple innovation that can have a significant impact. Page 15

Some of the best innovations are the simplest, and this is one of them. Photo: OKeeffe Piggeries

Owner of Ten Have farm in the Netherlands, Annechien ten Have-Mellema, has embarked on a journey to disprove the theory that consumers will always choose cheap pork over premium pork. Page 18

Pigs at the Ten Have farm are kept on straw when they are indoors. They are free to wander outside, too. Photo: Koos Groenewold

Researchers at a university in China have found supplementing piglet diets with oyster mushrooms resulted in a better immune response and a healthy gut, contributing to a reduction in the incidence of diarrhoea. Page 22

Mushrooms have high fibre content and these dietary fibres may decrease intestinal transit time, thus promoting better nutrient digestibility. Photo: Michel Zoeter

In 2014, it became known that viruses were being transmitted in feed. In this article we look at what has been discovered and awareness to action. Page 24

The worlds feed industry has become very aware of how viruses can survive in and be transported in feed ingredients. Photo: Ruben Keestra

Genetic selection has caused an ever-growing increase in the number of pigs born alive. Other important factors in pig production have, however, been overlooked, including pre-weaning mortality, and Hernias and other genetic defects. Is it time for a fundamental rethink? Page 26

A hernia umbilicalis in a piglet a common genetic defect. Photo: Robin Britstra

A 2016 survey revealed that more than 80% of male pigs are castrated, and only 5% of this castrated population received anaesthesia and analgesia. We would like your input. Page 30

To read the full articles, simply click on the digital magazine section and then on Pig Progress 2020-6. Registration is free.

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Pig welfare, feral pigs and ASF in Pig Progress 6 - Pig Progress

Steps toward progress in the Legislature – Blair Enterprise Publishing

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Days 49 through 53 of this years 60-day legislative session concluded July 31. Though real progress during the second half of this session has been hard to come by, senators took some steps last week that will make a difference.

LB 1053, a priority bill by the Health and Human Services Committee, which I am a member of, advanced on a 47-0 vote. This bill changes reimbursement rates for hospitals and nursing facilities.

It also included a bill I introduced, LB 1043, that would change how nursing homes are placed into receivership by the state. Facilities are placed into receivership when they can no longer operate for any number of reasons, but often because of financial difficulty. This bill prioritizes patient safety by making sure that companies taking control of these facilities are held to higher standards than they were previously. Our office receives regular questions about supporting nursing homes in Legislative District 16 and Im happy to have sponsored this bill.

Another bill I introduced, LB 1044, was included in a bill prioritized by Sen. Bruce Bostelman of Legislative District 23. My portion of the bill helped fix a problem that may have held up food for medical patients by clarifying that nutrition therapists may order patient diets with their own authority when working in consultation with physicians.

The debate became quite heated when a bill introduced by Sen. Suzanne Geist of Lincoln to prohibit dismemberment abortions came up on the floor. The bill, LB 814, would outlaw the practice of dismemberment abortion in the state of Nebraska. The bill, however, failed to come up for a vote after a filibuster by pro-abortion senators.

This is by far the bill Ive heard about most from constituents. Through calls, emails and Facebook messages, constituents in LD 16 have made their voices heard that they do not support this practice and want to see it ended in Nebraska. As a co-sponsor of the bill, along with more than 20 other senators, I fully intend to bring this bill to a vote and end this horrendous practice.

Ive also heard from many constituents about LB 720, the ImagiNE Nebraska Act. This bill would sunset our current business incentive program, Nebraska Advantage, and implement a new program. Our region has benefited greatly from business incentives that are needed to attract and retain large employers in the area. Though there have been issues with Nebraska Advantage in the past, this new program would provide more incentives to small businesses. This bill has been tied together with property tax relief for much of the session and I agree that it should be. I see the value of LB 720 and will vote for it when property tax relief is delivered to the people who need it most.

As always you can contact me at bhansen@leg.ne.gov or contact the office to speak with my

Administrative Assistant Ellie Stangl or my Legislative Aide Jacob Campbell. To read all

introduced legislation please visit nebraskalegislature.gov. You may watch the live stream of the

session when available at netnebraska.org.

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Steps toward progress in the Legislature - Blair Enterprise Publishing

Arkansas Quarterbacks, Offensive Line Making Progress According to Sam Pittman – KNWA

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

FAYETTEVILLE On Thursday during a Zoom conference, Sam Pittman talked about how the quarterbacks and offensive line have looked thus far.

The Razorbacks started five quarterbacks last season. This season, they have seniors Feleipe Franks and Jack Lindsey, sophomore John Stephen Jones, redshirt freshman KJ Jefferson and true freshman Malik Hornsby competing for the job. Franks brings obvious experience to the competition following a very good career at Florida. He was asked about how the quarterbacks are looking so far.

Well, we havent been able to anything full speed, were not allowed to do there, Pittman said. Im not positive how theyre throwing the football, but how theyre running the offense, all of them have done a really good job. Ive been really pleased with how KJ Jefferson has picked up the offense and sees where hes supposed to go with the ball and things of that nature. Of course, were happy Feleipe Franks is here. Hes doing a really good job. You look at Malik and John, I think were doing pretty good up there, and Jack Lindsey. Kendal Briles offense is not that hard to learn, its just fast. You have to know the ins and outs of everything, because hes going to snap the football and you need to understand where youre supposed to go pretty fast.

Pittman talked about how Franks has approached the practices so far.

Hes approaching it like a guy whos been an SEC starter for two-plus years, Pittman said. Hes a grown man. Hes mature. Hes approaching it like hes been there before. I think thats very important for us, especially because we didnt have spring ball. But we have a guy on our football team thats played a lot of football at quarterback and won a New Years Day bowl as the starting quarterback. We have a veteran guy and I think thats important. I didnt not just say that hes won the starting job. How can do you do that in walk-throughs? But I did say that were awful glad that hes on our football team.

Some have speculated Franks could get another year at Arkansas if he applied for it though some sources have indicated to this reporter its very unlikely he tries for that.

Possibly. I think if he has a good year, which we anticipate him doing, that hell be gone, Pittman said. In all honesty, Im planning on him, if he wins the starting job, to have such a good year that we cant keep him. Thats my plan.

As far as the offensive line, Pittman did offer an interesting scenario possibly unfolding at center. Sophomore Ricky Stromberg started at offensive guard last season, but is competing with senior Ty Clary at center right now as well.

Tys playing center for us, and we havent put the pads on, so, Pittman said. Were trying to put the five best players on the offensive line, and then number six and number seven, all that. But you cant have your third- or second-best player playing behind your best player just because he plays left tackle. I mean, doesnt make any sense. So, were trying to find our five best, and the hardest place to play on the O-line is center, so were trying to develop at least three centers. If we can get more in the top 10, we would do that too, but were trying to at least be able to travel and three deep at center. Therefore, we started looking at Ricky at center, and hes played a lot of it in these walk-throughs for us. And Ty obviously has played center, as well. So, Im sure if that was the case that they both would stay at center, and theyd have a competitive battle there, and then youd have to see if the one who didnt win the center spot, is he in our top five to play for us.

Pittman was asked about a timeline for knowing who the five best on the offensive line are and then the next five?

Well, with your first five, youd probably like to do that no later than two and a half weeks before your first game, Pittman said. The other guys, 6, 7, 8, theyll always swing. Until you can get 10 good offensive linemen, youll have your third tackle and youll have your third guard and youll have your second center-guard combination. All those things. Id like to settle in maybe two, two-and-a-half weeks before the first game with exactly what were going to do. And of course you know injuries disrupt all that. So therefore you have to have your third-best tackle that can play both sides and etc. I hope I answered your question.

Pittman did have praise for two offensive linemen who redshirted last year. Noah Gatlin tore his ACL on the first day of preseason drills and Luke Jones transferred in from Notre Dame.

Gatlin has done well, Pittman said. Ive been impressed with Luke Jones. I dont know if he redshirted; I think he was more of a transfer. He redshirted, he transferred.

Pittman did say junior Dalton Wagner and senior Myron Cunningham have been good leaders on the offensive line.

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Arkansas Quarterbacks, Offensive Line Making Progress According to Sam Pittman - KNWA

NASDAQ 100 sits on nearly $1T in cash and weve got the charts to prove it – The Next Web

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Earlier this week, Google parent Alphabet raised $10 billiondespite already sitting on $121 billion in cash a decision no doubt fuelled by the Feds souped-up money printer and record low interest rates.

But the Mountain View giant is not alone; the rest of US tech is hoarding too.

In 2012, the companies currently featured in the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 (NDX) stock index collectively held $405 billion in cash and other small investments.Now, theyve amassed more than $927 billion more than half a trillion dollars saved in eight years.

As one might expect, the biggest tech giants have the deepest pockets. But five companies in particular are saving more than any other: Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.

Together, theyve added $323 billion since 2012. Now,the reserves of those five tech companies represent more than half of the total cash controlled by the entire NDX, which includes around 100 firms.

On the other hand, some would rather deplete their war chests. Hard Fork found networking mainstay Cisco saved the least, now with $20 billion less compared to 2012; biotech play Amgen $14 billion has less; and eBay $3.8 billion.

Still, more than 80% of the companies currently in the NDX added cash to their kitties since 2012.

The real question is: what does Big Tech plan on doing with all its billions? Some companies use extra cash to reward shareholders with dividends, and others opt to buy back their own shares to inspire demand, or some kind of combination.

[Read:Big Tech told Congress theres loads of competition. This chart says otherwise]

But considering the sheer size of the fortunes amassed by techs biggest companies,its equally likely we could see even more acquisitions in the near future no doubt only when all that pesky antitrust nonsense with Congress is over with. Surely.

Published August 6, 2020 17:09 UTC

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NASDAQ 100 sits on nearly $1T in cash and weve got the charts to prove it - The Next Web

The secrets of quantum thermodynamics – SelectScience

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

The QuamNESS consortium unites researchers in University of Bristol, Queens University of Belfast and Trinity College Dublin to explore the thermodynamics of quantum machines and technologies, thanks to a major grant boost

Thermodynamics is one of the pillars of natural sciences: it studies the way energy is exchanged between bodies at different temperature, predicts the likeliness of certain chemical reactions, and explains why even the most energy-efficient engine will always produce waste.

However, what happens when the processes of interest involve systems as simple as electrons, atoms or simple molecules? For such nanoscale building blocks of matter, the laws of physics experienced in the everyday world are no longer valid, and quantum mechanics come into play. Therefore, to provide an accurate description of energy-exchange processes occurring at microscopic scales, thermodynamics must be blended with the quantum framework.

Such new avenues of investigation promise to deliver minuscule devices able to make use of the counter-intuitive laws of quantum mechanics to outperform their classical counterparts. Miniaturized to only handfuls of atoms, these machines hold the promise of offering highly efficient ways of generating power, managing heat flows and recovering wasted energy in wide-ranging technologies, from microprocessors to chemical reactions.

The UK-Irish consortium QuamNESS, comprising researchers at the University of Bristol, Queens University Belfast, and Trinity College Dublin, will address this challenging perspective. By developing novel mathematical tools and powerful simulation methods the fundamental principles governing the performance of the smallest possible engines will be revealed. Supported by a large grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland (EPSRC-SFI), totaling more than 1.6 million, the QuamNESS team will work towards a fully-fledged understanding of how to engineer new technologies that benefit from super-efficient (quantum-enhanced) thermal management.

Dr Stephen Clark, Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Bristol and one of the principal investigators of QuamNESS, said: Developing the tools to unravel quantum enhancements is of paramount importance to near-future technologies and is the main objective of our project.

Quantum systems are well known to behave in very unintuitive ways. Under certain conditions, these strange quantum effects can both compete and radically alter the way energy is transformed. Our project will sharpen the view of this interplay by reassessing the fundamental concepts of irreversibility and fluctuations. The long-term aim is then to design schemes to harness quantum effects to make more efficient nanoscale machines.

A crucial feature of QuamNESS is that it brings together a uniquely well-suited team of researchers across world-class institutions in England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Consequently, the EPSRC-SFI partnership scheme was perfectly placed to support a project built on such close cross-border collaboration.

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