Author Archives: Danzig

Private six-acre Connecticut island hits the market for $2.5million and it’s just an hour from NYC – Brinkwire

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A private island just one hour from New York City is up for sale at $2.5million, featuring a sprawling six acres which is said to bring real enjoyment to social distancing.

Copps Island, in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a 73-minute car ride north of Midtown Manhattan, and with its position where the Long Island Sound meets the Norwalk River, provides unobstructed views for the ultimate escape from the city.

Surrounded by plenty of green and tucked away behind trees, the three-bedroom two-bathroom cottage on the island also provides ample privacy.

After traveling to the Cove Marina in East Norwalk, owners can take a short boat ride to the island, which is on the southernmost point of the Norwalk Islands.

As the location that gave Copps Island Oysters its name, not only is it a seafood lovers paradise, but listings agent, Sothebys describes it as the ideal getaway amid the coronavirus pandemic this summer.

Once visitors begin the boat ride the island, it immediately feels like they are a million miles away from the hustle, tension and restrictions of everyday life.

Its all thanks to the smells and sounds associated with the island surrounded by oyster beds.

Sothebys calls the cottages large screened porch the centerpiece of the home. Its positioned as a great space to socialize and make the most of island life.

It features an area for casual hangouts as well as a formal table for al fresco dining. The outdoor space is the perfect area for a TV to enhance entertainment options.

Even from inside the 2,624 sq ft home, the next owner wont feel cooped up.

Looking out from the impressive great room surrounded by floor to ceiling windows, one has views of the expansive lawn that stretches down to the waters edge.

As its positioned on the highest point on the island, it has lighthouse-like benefits.

The largest bedroom on the second story of the home features a beautiful cathedral ceiling with wrap around windows letting in plenty of light to the hexagonal room.

Magnificent views of the Sound are also suite available from the suite.

The cottage also contains two smaller bedrooms currently painted green and blue one backs on to the nautical themed great room, which connects to a terrace.

Ceiling fans are fitted throughout the charming property, which has wood exterior siding, an oven range and a refrigerator/freezer.

In stark contrast to the concrete jungle, the next buyer could get lost in the lush gardens and instead of competing for space at one of NYCs beaches, simply take a sun lounger down to the waters edge too escape and soak up some vitamin D.

But come winter, the residents might want to to head back to Big Apple because the home has no heating.

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Private six-acre Connecticut island hits the market for $2.5million and it's just an hour from NYC - Brinkwire

Where to stay in St Vincent and the Grenadines for a tropical ‘air bridge’ holiday – The Telegraph

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Please note our writers visited St Vincent and the Grenadines prior to the coronavirus pandemic

This 32-island nation is real get-away-from-it-all territory, from lush, mountainous St Vincent to the magical Grenadine islands. Several private islands have a single hotel such as Petit St Vincent and Palm Island, but the most exclusive, with villas and a few hotels, is Mustique, offering privacy, luxury and a country-club atmosphere for the rich and famous. To partake in local life, head for friendly little Bequia. Its villagey capital, Port Elizabeth, is set at the back of pretty, yacht-filled Admiralty Bay, and the island has excellent beaches, some good restaurants and laid-back bars.

St Vincent and the Grenadines has just been announced as an air bridge partner for Britain, meaning tourists can visit without quarantine at either end or any restrictions. So wherever you choose to stay, your time can be spent soaking up the glorious scenery and making full use of everything on offer. Be sure to make a trip to the Tobago Cays, a cluster of uninhabited islands in a coral reef lagoon offering fantastic snorkelling and swimming with turtles.

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Where to stay in St Vincent and the Grenadines for a tropical 'air bridge' holiday - The Telegraph

Partiers prompt Baker to review gathering limits – Taunton Daily Gazette

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BOSTON -- With upticks in positive COVID-19 testing rates linked to larger social events, Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday that his administration is reviewing the state's guidance on gathering sizes, but blamed the behavior of people choosing to party without precaution for the clusters of infections that have sprung up.

A large party in Chatham has been linked to a cluster of new infections there, while a number of lifeguards who attended a party in Falmouth walked away infected by COVID-19. And on Nantucket, officials are considering scaling back restaurant hours as infection numbers on the island have ticked up and people have been observed gathering on beaches close to one another without masks.

"I think that's one of the things we're talking about," Baker said at a press conference when asked about the state's gathering size limits. "But the bigger issue is not so much the nature of the size of some of these gatherings, especially the private ones that are going on in backyards and places like that. The bigger issue is honestly the behavior generally at those, which is not socially distant, no masks and in some respects a lack of respect for how this virus works and how it moves from person to person."

Baker's assessment of the situation echoed that of frustrated Cape Cod officials, who pointed Thursday to house parties and other private gatherings as a driver of new COVID-19 infections in the region. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo also told her constituents to tone down the summer partying as she took action to reduce permissable gathering sizes in the Ocean State.

"To all our residents I can't express this enough. Don't be careless or complacent," Baker said.

The state's guidance instructs people to limit indoor gatherings to 25 people, and a maximum of 100 people outdoors depending on the size of the venue. The state's positive test rate is at 2 percent currently, which is still low, but has been rising slightly over the past week or so.

Baker was at Pfizer's facilities in Andover where the pharmaceutical giant this week entered stage three efficacy trials for a vaccine for COVID-19 that is expected to involve up to 30,000 test patients. Pfizer is one of several Massachusetts companies chasing a vaccine, and company officials hope to be able to file for regulatory approvals for use by October.

The company said it expects to produce 100 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year, and will have the capability to make 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021. Pfizer's is an mRNA vaccine that requires two doses per patient. Cambridge-based Moderna has also begun widespread testing of its vaccine on humans, and another vaccine candidate linked with Massachusetts, this one being pursued by Johnson & Johnson with researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has shown potential in a study with monkeys, and is entering an early-stage clinical trial in people.

"Until we have a treatment or a vaccine, and I know you're working on that one, we have to learn how to continue to live with this virus," Baker said, with Pfizer executives standing nearby.

Vaira Harik of the Barnstable County Department of Human Services said on a call with members of Cape Cod's reopening task force on Thursday that it was "irresponsible" to host or attend a group gathering without physical distancing and masks, whether the event is indoors or outdoors.

"If you can hear the frustration in our voices, you are not mishearing this," Harik said.

Thirteen people tested positive for COVID-19 in connection with a house party earlier this month in Chatham, Board of Selectmen chair Shareen Davis said. The Cape Cod Times reported Monday that eight Falmouth lifeguards had also tested positive after attending a party.

Davis called it "reckless and dangerous" to ignore public health guidance and said officials wanted to impress upon young people "that their actions have impact" and they could spread the highly contagious virus to loved ones who may be at higher risk.

Sen. Julian Cyr, a Truro Democrat, said holding parties where people don't wear masks or keep their distance is "profoundly disrespectful to Cape Codders who have been working very hard and done, broadly, a pretty good job to slow community spread."

"There's evidence that the community spread is limited, so we're talking about private events, which admittedly is frustrating, particularly given the fact that there is ample fresh air and sunlight and breezes on Cape Cod," Cyr said. "It's frustrating to see these private events occurring, particularly if they're occurring indoors. Private events at which physical distancing and mask-wearing are not occurring are the clear accelerant that is spreading the virus on Cape Cod."

Cyr said he can relate to the desire to socialize and suggested visiting with friends outdoors, in chairs spaced apart from one another.

In Rhode Island, Gov. Raimondo dropped the maximum gathering size from 25 to 15 after what officials there have described as a slight uptick in cases. In a Wednesday press conference, the governor said an analysis of more than 4,000 COVID-19 cases reported in Rhode Island made one thing "crystal clear."

"We're partying too much," she said.

Raimondo said her state has traced cases back to a house party with more than 50 people, birthday parties in backyards and restaurants, a baby shower, a sports banquet and large pool parties. The patterns are the same, she said -- more than 25 people gathering in close contact for hours, with no masks or social distancing.

"If you're doing this, I need you to knock it off, because people are getting sick, people are dying, and it's unnecessary," Raimondo said. "Yes, it's summer, I know you want to have a good time -- we all do -- but I have friends now whose loved ones are on ventilators. Your right to have a party should not infringe on their right to live."

Stricter rules for anyone traveling from the majority of states outside New England to Massachusetts take effect on Saturday. People arriving from 42 states will need to either self-isolate for 14 days or provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result within the previous 72 hours, or risk fines. The rules apply to those moving in to university campuses for the fall semester, and some colleges will have their own testing protocols in place.

Cyr said the ability to return to campus might incentivize college students to behave responsibly in the remaining weeks of their summer breaks.

"That fun summer night on Cape Cod may actually have some pretty significant consequences for you not being able to attend classes in person, being stuck at home with whoever your parents are for a long, cold academically remote winter," he said.

Baker said the uptick in cases on the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket -- popular summer vacation destinations -- were part of the reason he put more teeth behind the state's inbound travel restrictions.

The Massachusetts governor paused his discussion of the coronavirus at Thursday's press conference to caution people not to plant mysterious seeds from packages that have been arriving unsolicited from foreign countries and may contain invasive species harmful to the environment.

"Locusts? What's next?" the governor muttered, almost to himself.

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Partiers prompt Baker to review gathering limits - Taunton Daily Gazette

We might have dozens of contactable Alien neighbors – SBS

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At this point, it appears all but assured that we are not alone. I mean, the evidence is overwhelming: a quintet of cows, mysteriously sapped of all blood and surgically separated from their genitals? Sounds like aliens, according to us and also the local sheriffs deputy. All those strange, apparently physics-defying flight machines Navy pilots have reported encountering for years? Even the Pentagon now feels comfortable confirming that these are UFOs, wobbling spookily across our skies. And while we cannot assume that these are, for sure, captained by space invaders, consider this: A new, somewhat hypothetical census of our potential extraterrestrial neighbours has determined that the Milky Way Galaxy hosts 36 intelligent alien civilisations - at a minimum.

I think it is extremely important and exciting because for the first time we really have an estimate for this number of active intelligent, communicating civilisations that we potentially could contact and find out there is other life in the universe, Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham and a co-author of research published Monday in the Astrophysical Journal, told the Guardian.

The current go-to calculation for ball-parking Milky Way residents is the Drake equation, which identifies seven factors allegedly necessary to make an educated alien count.

The current go-to calculation for ball-parking Milky Way residents is the Drake equation, which identifies seven factors allegedly necessary to make an educated alien count. Yet the Drake equation provides no firm answers, so Conselice and colleagues tweaked it to account for certain ingredients crucial to the development of life on Earth things like the presence of a metal-rich environment, and the likelihood that other stars may have Earth-like planets in their orbits. It also introduced an assumption that intelligent life would form in about 5 billion years, as it did here. According to the Guardian, all of this worked out to between four and 211 intelligent, communication-ready alien civilisations in our galaxy, although Conselice believes there are most likely 36.

Its just one theory, and even if it did prove correct, wed still be looking at a thousands-of-years wait (at least 6,120 years, per the research) before we can engage in a game of intragalactic telephone; Conselice suspects the closest aliens could live about 17,000 light-years away. Unfortunately, the way things are going, we probably dont have that kind of time.

This article originally appeared on Science of Us 2020 All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content

War of the Worldscontinues weekly at 9:30pm from Thursday 16 July. Episodes will be available onSBS On Demandeach week on the same day as broadcast. The series will also be subtitled inSimplified ChineseandArabicfor SBS On Demand.

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We might have dozens of contactable Alien neighbors - SBS

Thousands Of Migrants In The U.K. Are Seeking Relief From No Recourse To Public Funds – Forbes

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A homeless man and members of the public in London. (Photo by Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket ... [+] via Getty Images)

A controversial part of the U.K. immigration system which bars migrants without permanent residency from access public funds is under increased scrutiny, as the amount of people applying to have their ban lifted increases more than 500%.

The clause is known as "No Recourse To Public Funds" or NRPF for short. It means any migrant without permanent residency (known in the U.K. as Indefinite Leave to Remain, or ILR) is barred from accessing the state support afforded citizens and permanent residents, such as welfare, school meal subsidies, disability allowance and child support. The U.K. Home Office, responsible for immigration in the country, says ILR is an established threshold for permitting migrants to access public funds, and that this is in the public interest.

Campaign groups have been lobbying for an easing of NRPF for years, but if this is the first time youve heard about it, youre not the only one. At the end of May, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared confused when asked by MP Stephen Timms about NRPF: "Hang on Stephen, why aren't they eligible for Universal Credit or Employment Support Allowance?"

After Timms explained it all to him, the PM promised to look into it: "Clearly (...) people who've worked hard for this country, who live and work here, should have support of one kind or another." That was at the end of May, but by early June it was clear the U.K. government was not going to change things, and at the end of June, parliament voted 337-248 against pausing NRPF during the pandemic.

By this point of course, COVID-19 had already wrought a severe economic and human toll in the U.K., not least for those migrants already in tenuous or low-paid employment who were unable to apply for help when their jobs disappeared. The latest government numbers on individual NRPF relief applications reflect this: in the first quarter of 2020, 843 people applied to have their ban lifted to save them and their families from destitution. In the second quarter, there were 5,665 applications. That's an increase of 572%.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is causing an economic crisis of unprecedented scale and has translated into a large increase in unemployment and income losses for a substantial share of the population," wrote Maria Fernndez-Reino, a senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at Oxford University in a recent briefing note. "Recent research has shown that this crisis is expected to widen the existing economic inequalities and has put many migrants with NRPF, particularly those in precarious types of employment, in a vulnerable position."

Another serious concern is the impact of NRPF on victims of domestic abuse. As has been noted, cases of domestic and gender-based violence have spiked during the pandemic, and the government has acknowledged that NRPF can make it harder for people to seek shelter, meaning some victims might be forced to choose between staying with their abuser or living on the streets. An amendment to the recently passed Domestic Abuse Bill which would have lifted NRPF for migrant victims of domestic abuse was rejected 331-207 in the House of Commons.

The Migration Observatory estimates there are around 1.376 million people currently holding U.K. visas that would be subject to NRPF. The majority of these are likely to be in a position to support themselves and will not be experiencing financial hardship approaching destitution. For those less fortunate, however, there are significant barriers to getting help.

In May, a High Court decision led to the Home Office extending the criteria for individual NRPF relief, meaning those in the country on family or private life visas could be allowed to access public funds. This still leaves many people ineligible, in particular people on work visas who have lost their income due to the coronavirus pandemic. Even those who can apply, and are aware that they can apply, face significant obstacles.

"It is a very complicated process, even though they say that it's been made as simple as possible," says Mary Atkinson, family reunion campaigner at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI). "What we see is that people really do need legal advice to be able to lift the conditions."

Complexity alone is not the only barrier to applying. A successful lifting of NRPF would in many cases double the amount of time the migrant needs to be in the country before she gains permanent residency, up to ten years from the usual five. Prolonging this process would mean thousands of pounds of extra fees the already destitute family would have to pay. Various groups have described this as a punishment or penalty for applying for assistance. The Home Office says this provision reflects a fairness to those immigrants who don't seek taxpayer support during their process towards ILR.

A government spokesperson said: Those seeking to establish their family life in the U.K. must do so on a basis that prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. However, individuals who have a right to be in the U.K. on account of their family life or other human rights reasons can apply to have the NRPF condition lifted by making a change of conditions application if their financial circumstances change.

Today's NRPF-relief application numbers show a steady increase in acceptance over the last few years. 89% of the applications made so far in Q2 2020 to lift NRPF have been approved, compared to 41% in Q3 2017. Various charities continue to call for an overall lifting of NRPF, however, in light of a significant rise in the homeless population, which will include many migrant workers who are not in the position to apply for their own relief.

"People are getting in touch on a daily basis, saying 'me and my partner both lost our jobs and we don't know where to turn,'" says the JCWI's Mary Atkinson. "Currently, there are very, very few places they can turn to."

But Atkinson also says the attention on NRPF only makes an existing problem more visible. "It shows the desperate situation that these policies have put people in for years. The fact that there's been this surge doesn't mean that people haven't been in desperate need before."

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Thousands Of Migrants In The U.K. Are Seeking Relief From No Recourse To Public Funds - Forbes

This father-daughter duo lent a helping hand during the Covid crisis – Economic Times

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Chairman of the Raizing Group, Rajji Rai is one of the stalwarts of the Indian tourism industry. His entrepreneurial daughter, Srishti Jindal, is also carving her own path now. During the Covid-19 crisis, both of them, despite their busy schedules of remotely running offices across Asia, never forgot to extend a helping hand to those in need.

We distributed around 70,000 prepared food plates to people of JJ clusters, migrant labourers and vulnerable people affected by the Covid crisis, said Rai, who is also the vice-president of Panchsheel Society, New Delhi. The team of volunteers from the society also distributed thousands of masks, clean water, sanitisers and food packets every day during the lockdown.

Rai also motivated people with means to donate rations for the cause. His noble work received appreciation from Delhi Police and South Delhi Municipal Corporation. Jindal also donated food and other supplies and independently supervised the volunteers working in the field through video calls.

She focused on providing sanitary supplies, medicines and personal care items to vulnerable women.

I would love to be present at the distribution centres. But because of my seven-month-old baby, I couldnt be there personally, she said.

Srishti Jindal runs a successful travel media, research, events and branding company, Swift Media International. It has worked with leading airlines of the world and the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. She has won several awards for her contribution to the tourism industry, including the prestigious APJ Abdul Kalam Award for innovation in 2017. She has always been passionate about creative and original work. Srishti Jindal has also recently launched a virtual platform, http://www.theterrene.com, to highlight and support young creative individuals from around the world.

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This father-daughter duo lent a helping hand during the Covid crisis - Economic Times

Ecosystem- Structure, Functions and Types of Ecosystem

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Ecosystem Definition

An ecosystem is defined as a community of lifeforms in concurrence with non-living components, interacting with each other.

What is an Ecosystem?

The ecosystem is the structural and functional unit of ecology where the living organisms interact with each other and the surrounding environment. In other words, an ecosystem is a chain of interaction between organisms and their environment. The term Ecosystem was first coined by A.G.Tansley, an English botanist, in the year 1935.

Read on to explore the types, structure, components, types and functions of the ecosystem in the ecosystem notes provided below.

Types of Ecosystem

An ecosystem can be as small as an oasis in a desert, or as big as an ocean, spanning thousands of miles. There are two types of ecosystem:

Terrestrial Ecosystems

Terrestrial ecosystems are exclusively land-based ecosystems. There are different types of terrestrial ecosystems distributed around various geological zones. They are as follows:

A forest ecosystem consists of several plants, animals and microorganisms that live in coordination with the abiotic factors of the environment. Forests help in maintaining the temperature of the earth and are the major carbon sink.

In a grassland ecosystem, the vegetation is dominated by grasses and herbs. Temperate grasslands, savanna grasslands are some of the examples of grassland ecosystems.

Tundra ecosystems are devoid of trees and are found in cold climates or where rainfall is scarce. These are covered with snow for most of the year. The ecosystem in the Arctic or mountain tops is tundra type.

Deserts are found throughout the world. These are regions with very little rainfall. The days are hot, and the nights are cold.

Aquatic Ecosystem

Aquatic ecosystems are ecosystems present in a body of water. These can be further divided into two types, namely:

The freshwater ecosystem is an aquatic ecosystem that includes lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and wetlands. These have no salt content in contrast with the marine ecosystem.

The marine ecosystem includes seas and oceans. These have a more substantial salt content and greater biodiversity in comparison to the freshwater ecosystem.

Structure of the Ecosystem

The structure of an ecosystem is characterised by the organisation of both biotic and abiotic components. This includes the distribution of energy in our environment. It also includes the climatic conditions prevailing in that particular environment.

The structure of an ecosystem can be split into two main components, namely:

The biotic and abiotic components are interrelated in an ecosystem. It is an open system where the energy and components can flow throughout the boundaries.

Structure of Ecosystem highlighting the biotic and abiotic factors

Biotic Components

Biotic components refer to all life in anecosystem. Based on nutrition, biotic components can be categorised into autotrophs, heterotrophs andsaprotrophs (or decomposers).

Abiotic Components

Abiotic components are the non-living component of an ecosystem. It includes air, water, soil, minerals, sunlight, temperature, nutrients, wind, altitude, turbidity etc.

Functions of Ecosystem

The functions of the ecosystem are as follows:

It regulates the essential ecological processes, supports life systems and renders stability.

It is also responsible for the cycling ofnutrientsbetween biotic and abiotic components.

It maintains a balance among the various trophic levels in the ecosystem.

It cycles the minerals through the biosphere.

The abiotic components help in the synthesis of organic components that involves the exchange of energy.

Important Ecological Concepts

The sun is the ultimate source of energy on earth. It provides the energy required for all plant life. The plants utilise this energy for the process of photosynthesis, which is used to synthesise their food.

During this biological process, light energy is converted into chemical energy and is passed on through successive levels. The flow of energy from a producer, to a consumer and eventually, to an apex predator or a detritivore is called the food chain.

Dead and decaying matter, along with organic debris, is broken down into its constituents by scavengers. The reducers then absorb these constituents. After gaining the energy, the reducers liberate molecules to the environment, which can be utilised again by the producers.

A classic example of a food chain in an ecosystem

An ecological pyramid is the graphical representation of the number, energy, and biomass of the successive trophic levels of an ecosystem. Charles Elton was the first ecologist to describe the ecological pyramid and its principals in the year 1927.

The biomass, number, and energy of organisms ranging from the producer level to the consumer level are represented in the form of a pyramid; hence, it is known as the ecological pyramid.

The base of the ecological pyramid comprises the producers, followed by primary and secondary consumers. The tertiary consumers hold the apex. In some food chains, the quaternary consumers are at the very apex of the food chain.

The producers generally outnumber the primary consumers, and similarly, the primary consumers outnumber the secondary consumers. And lastly, apex predators also follow the same trend as the other consumers; wherein, their numbers are considerably lower than the secondary consumers.

For example, Grasshoppers feed on crops such as cotton and wheat, which are plentiful. These grasshoppers are then preyed upon by common mice, which are comparatively less in number. The mice are preyed upon by snakes such as cobras. Snakes are ultimately preyed on by apex predators such as the brown snake eagle.

In essence:

Food web is a network of interconnected food chains. It comprises all the food chains within a single ecosystem. It helps in understanding that plants lay the foundation of all the food chains.

Main article:Food web

To learn more about what is an ecosystem, its structure, types, components, and functions, register at BYJUS website or download BYJUS app.

The ecosystem is the community of living organisms in conjunction with non-living components of their environment, interacting as a system.

The different types of the ecosystem include:

We live in a terrestrial ecosystem. This is the ecosystem where organisms live and develop in the soil and in the air that surrounds a specific terrestrial space.

The structure of the ecosystem includes the organisms and physical features of the environment, including the amount and distribution of nutrients in a particular habitat. It also provides information regarding the climatic conditions of that area.

The largest ecosystem in the world is the aquatic ecosystem. It comprises the freshwater and marine ecosystem. It constitutes 70% of the surface of the earth.

The ecosystem is the functional unit of the environment system. The abiotic components provide the matrix for the synthesis of organic components. This process involves the exchange of energy.

A good ecosystem consists of native plants and animal species interacting with each other and the environment. A healthy ecosystem has an energy source and the decomposers that break down dead plants and animal matter, returning essential nutrients to the soil.

The non-living things in an ecosystem include air, wind, water, rocks, soil, temperature and sunlight. These are known as the abiotic factors of an ecosystem.

Register at BYJUS for easy ecosystem notes. Refer to these notes for reference.

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Ecosystem- Structure, Functions and Types of Ecosystem

ecosystem | Definition, Components, Examples, Structure …

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Ecosystem, the complex of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space.

Britannica Quiz

Ecosystems

What is a taiga?

A brief treatment of ecosystems follows. For full treatment, see biosphere.

An ecosystem can be categorized into its abiotic constituents, including minerals, climate, soil, water, sunlight, and all other nonliving elements, and its biotic constituents, consisting of all its living members. Linking these constituents together are two major forces: the flow of energy through the ecosystem, and the cycling of nutrients within the ecosystem.

The fundamental source of energy in almost all ecosystems is radiant energy from the Sun. The energy of sunlight is used by the ecosystems autotrophic, or self-sustaining, organisms. Consisting largely of green vegetation, these organisms are capable of photosynthesisi.e., they can use the energy of sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into simple, energy-rich carbohydrates. The autotrophs use the energy stored within the simple carbohydrates to produce the more complex organic compounds, such as proteins, lipids, and starches, that maintain the organisms life processes. The autotrophic segment of the ecosystem is commonly referred to as the producer level.

Organic matter generated by autotrophs directly or indirectly sustains heterotrophic organisms. Heterotrophs are the consumers of the ecosystem; they cannot make their own food. They use, rearrange, and ultimately decompose the complex organic materials built up by the autotrophs. All animals and fungi are heterotrophs, as are most bacteria and many other microorganisms.

Together, the autotrophs and heterotrophs form various trophic (feeding) levels in the ecosystem: the producer level, composed of those organisms that make their own food; the primary consumer level, composed of those organisms that feed on producers; the secondary consumer level, composed of those organisms that feed on primary consumers; and so on. The movement of organic matter and energy from the producer level through various consumer levels makes up a food chain. For example, a typical food chain in a grassland might be grass (producer) mouse (primary consumer) snake (secondary consumer) hawk (tertiary consumer). Actually, in many cases the food chains of the ecosystem overlap and interconnect, forming what ecologists call a food web. The final link in all food chains is made up of decomposers, those heterotrophs that break down dead organisms and organic wastes. A food chain in which the primary consumer feeds on living plants is called a grazing pathway; that in which the primary consumer feeds on dead plant matter is known as a detritus pathway. Both pathways are important in accounting for the energy budget of the ecosystem.

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ecosystem | Definition, Components, Examples, Structure ...

Beyond conservation, why our natural ecosystems need restoration – Down To Earth Magazine

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Significant strides have been made in both the science and practice of restoration over the last three decades, with specialisation across diverse ecosystems

Ecosystem degradation has emerged as one of the biggest environmental threats around the world over the last three decades. Almost all our ecosystems, terrestrial or otherwise, stand degraded to varying degrees due to a mix of factors such as developmental pressures, population growth, over-exploitation, etc.

Other stressors such as invasive alien species and climate change also impact many ecosystems.

While the impact of ecological degradation on biodiversity is well-known, its impact on ecosystem services is less appreciated. Degradation of natural ecosystems in the Western Ghats pose a direct threat to water security, and in turn, to livelihoods of millions of people in the plains. Degradation, therefore, has serious implications for human well-being and economic sustainability.

Traditional approaches to ecological conservation focus on protecting and keeping natural spaces inviolate. However, this has proved to be nearly impossible, thanks to a persistent increase in anthropogenic pressures.

Many of our ecosystems today are damaged beyond unassisted self-recovery. Mangroves along our coastline are severely impaired and need intervention. Many protected areas like national parks stand ecologically unprotected due to invasion by species such as Lantana camara.

We are, therefore, in a situation where conservation alone is no longer enough.

What is ecological restoration?

Ecological restoration is defined as the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged or destroyed. Ecosystems are in a constant state of evolution.

Hence, the objective of restoration is to assist an ecosystem to recover to its pre-degradation trajectory (or close to it). This is done through a scientific process of benchmarking with reference models from the same native ecosystem.

Ecosystem integrity, covering both biotic and abiotic aspects, forms the foundation of ecological restoration. A restored site is expected to have the key structural and species characteristics that are representative of the native ecosystem type it belongs to.

Key principles underpinning ecological restoration. Source: The SER international standards

Restoration adopts a holistic approach focused on all elements of an ecosystem such as soil, hydrology, flora, fauna, etc. This helps build resilience and regenerative ability of the ecosystem.

Importance is given to all groups of flora such as grasses, shrubs, trees, etc. as well as to habitat needs of different groups of fauna ranging from insects to large mammals.

These are essential differences between restoration and other rehabilitation approaches such as afforestation and reforestation, which mainly focus on planting of saplings of a few tree species.

Such methods often lead to creation of areas low in resilience and biodiversity, and ecosystem alteration is a common result.

Growth of the restoration discipline

Significant strides have been made in both the science and practice of restoration over the last three decades, with specialisation across diverse ecosystems such as tropical forests, grasslands, rivers, mangroves, oceans, urban habitats, etc. Functional specialisation has grown in many aspects such as seed science, soil conservation, invasive species management, etc.

Restoration methodologies have been developed worldwide for different degradation scenarios including for extreme ones like landslides, mining, forest fires, etc. The scale of projects is also increasing from site-level initiatives to landscape-level projects.

An important milestone for the discipline has been the publication of the standards for the practice of ecological restoration by the Society for Ecological Restoration, the leading global body for the discipline. Of universal application, these standards provide the core principles and framework for restoration.

The ecological recovery wheel (left) and social benefits wheel (right) help measure the ecological and social impacts of a restoration project.Source: The SER international standards

They also include leading-edge monitoring methods to measure the ecological as well as social outcomes of restoration initiatives.

The Bonn Challenge declaration and the United Nations declaration of 2021-30 as the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration have placed ecological restoration at the forefront of the worlds biodiversity and climate change agendas.

Research findings indicate clearly that biodiverse ecosystems are far more effective in sequestering carbon than monoculture plantations. This should encourage climate change programmes to embrace restoration principles so that biodiversity goals are achieved simultaneously.

The Indian context

Ecological restoration is still a developing discipline in India, with a limited number of practitioners and projects. Most initiatives are small and site-specific. On the other hand, the need for restoration is considerable and urgent.

For example, most forests lying outside protected areas have been degraded due to high human pressure. Our protected areas, in turn, are affected by factors like invasive alien species.

At a ballpark estimate, around 40 per cent of our forests may need to be restored. If we extrapolate this to other ecosystems, one can see that the opportunity to improve biodiversity, improve quality of human lives and increase good habitats for fauna is significant. More importantly, restoration has the capacity to generate substantial rural livelihoods and reduce human-wildlife conflicts.

India has an ambitious target of restoring 26 million hectares of degraded lands by 2030. Reaching this target will require certain key enablers to be in place.

First, achieving this scale will need a large number of well-trained restoration practitioners. Restoration ecology has a rather low presence in academic curriculum in India at present and this needs attention.

We will also require separate mechanisms to train field-level personnel who will be handling implementation and monitoring of programmes. Second, we have to make sure that projects adhere to the core principles of restoration. The international standards can help in this regard, with suitable adaptation for Indian conditions.

Last, a typical restoration project lasts well over five-six years, and calls for sustained funding and focus. These enablers will make the difference between successful restoration and otherwise.

The author is a certified ecological restoration practitioner and managing trustee of Junglescapes, a grassroots NGO working on restoration of forest habitats in South India. He is a member of the Board of the Society for Ecological Restoration.

Views expressed are the authors own and dont necessarily reflectthose of Down To Earth

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Beyond conservation, why our natural ecosystems need restoration - Down To Earth Magazine

What kind of civilisation do we want to be? – The Daily Star

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Around 3.5 billion years ago, something extraordinary happened in the realm of the observable universe. From non-living matters emerged living organisms that started to occupy the surface of planet earth. Tiny particles like quarks and electrons formed atoms to molecules in various sizes, in such combinations from which emerged living cells. These cells went on a journey of billions of years of evolution leading to numerous kinds of species. After a considerable length of time, life reached a certain species so capable that it could change the face of their home planet.

Humankind, a species that evolved out of the African savannah, has invaded their planet, polymerised it in every manner possible. Human species rose above all other species, and having no other beings to compete with, they developed a sense of superiority. But for thousands of years, humankind fought against many natural forces and even between themselves. They were helpless to famine, diseases, and even gruesome wars. Ultimately, thanks to human ingenuity and scientific development in the last century, humankind achieved amazing feats and found themselves in an unprecedented position. There are still natural threats to consider but those have largely transformed from being an uncontrollable force of nature into something preventable. The collective knowledge and the beginning of greater cooperation among nations have helped them significantly.

What, then, is the human civilisation trying to achieve or become? A plausible answer may lie in a model called the Kardashev scale. The Kardashev scale, proposed by Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev in 1964, categorises advanced civilisations by taking into account their capacity to harness and utilise the energy available to them. It is a semi-quantitative way to define a civilisation's advancement. The energy consumption part is merely a guideline, and there are other factors as well.

"Type 0 Civilisation"is one that can harness the energy available to its home planet, but not to its full potential yet. Human civilisation is currently at 0.73 on this scale. It is expected that it will reach Type 1 in about a century. The Kardashev scale didn't have any civilisation categorised as Type 0, but this is where the human civilisation is currently poised. Moreover, most of the energy consumption of our civilisation largely depends on the low-tech harnessing of fossil fuels rather than renewable energy sources.

"Type 1 Civilisation" is a planetary civilisation that can harness all the energy available to its home planet at the fullest efficiency, keeping the planet habitable. A Type 1 civilisation can control a planet's weather, influence the climate, and prevent natural events like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and asteroid impacts. They are also capable of interplanetary travels.

"Type 2 Civilisation" is a stellar civilisation that can harness the total energy output of their home star. They are capable of building structures at a planetary scale and also capable of interstellar travel. They could avoid catastrophic events that may lead to their extinction, like a supernova explosion, by moving to other star systems.

"Type 3 Civilisation" is a galactic civilisation that can harness the energy of an entire galaxy. They can mine and transport stars and manipulate black holes. Type 3 is the most advanced stage of civilisation defined by Kardashev, with the ability of a galactic magnitude. Its people can make intergalactic voyages, and deal with energy levels of the magnitude of a galaxy. This civilisation could survive everything short of the end of the universe.

Currently, the human civilisation is set to make the transition from Type 0 to Type 1. But any attempt to measure how advanced the human civilisation is, and how advanced it might become in the future, must be linked to the factor of avoiding extinction. Eventually, the graduation from Type 0 and the intermediate period of "technological adolescence" is not going to be easy. It's not clear if we're going to make it. As per a mathematical equation, there should be thousands of Type 1, 2, and 3 civilisations in the galaxy but when we look at outer space, we detect no evidence of any whatsoever. Maybe they couldn't make it in the outer space eithersince the transition from Type 0 to 1 is the most arduous and important of all transitions, not because of the tremendous technological achievements that are needed but because of the challenges of building a planetary civilisation tolerant of many cultures. It's a race against time and tendency. As theoretical physicist Michio Kaku says, "On the one hand, we have the forces of integration, the forces of tolerance, a multi-cultural fabric emerging before our eyes. On the other hand, we have weapons of mass destruction, germ warfare, nuclear warfare, also the rise of international terrorism." Add to that the incompatible values of exponential growth and sustainability among nations and within cultures. These are the obstacles to reach Type 1 civilisation.

Ironically, there is no natural famine these days on the planet, but only political famine. If any human being dies on the planet earth because they don't have enough food to eat, it's not probably for any natural cause. At least not in its entirety. It may be because some political leaders or governments or ideologues want them to starve to death. Human civilisation has reached a point where there are more threats resulting from politics and incompetence than the uncontrollable natural forces. However, as always, there is recognition and denial at the same time. The tenuous attempts to reconcile and manage this contradiction of exponential growth and sustainability are falling apart.

The contradiction may not be as fallacious as it seems, however. Contradictions are civilisation's engines, pushing forward creativity and dynamism of human species. Incompatible values are still an essential feature of human civilisation. As historian Yuval Noah Harari put it: "Consider the gradual acceptance of two conflicting values like freedom and equality. Equality can be ensured only by curtailing the freedoms of those who are better off. Guaranteeing that every individual will be free to do as he wishes inevitably short-changes equality. The entire political history of the world since 1789 can be seen as a series of attempts to reconcile this contradiction." Since the industrial revolution, human civilisation has been dealing with questions of exponential growth and sustainability. Human civilisation teeters on the edges of these two imperatives in which it can be understood best. There is the urge for negotiation and dialogue between these imperatives but polarisation is surging as well.

This fury of polarisation left human civilisation baffled. Nations around the planet stockpiled weapons of mass destruction. The threat of these weapons is still severe, and stories of close calls over the past decades only show how lucky we have been. But luck doesn't protect a species indefinitely. Humankind has done embarrassingly little about global threats like climate change. The global population is going through a sense of horror as they are bombarded with news of the threats of climate change, environmental pollution, extremism, terrorism, technological disruptions, pandemics, and whatnot. Traumatised minds get further afflicted by the repetitive cultivation of talks about the problems created by humans instead of what human civilisation is capable of doing to negotiate with these civilisational crises.

What institutional and political preparations are there to overcome this? Are we expecting history to wait for us to reach an agreement? Is the delay due to our perpetual hunger for power? Or short-sighted nationalism? Can we handle the growth in physical power, survive our chaotic technological adolescence, and mature into a species with a chance of reaching old age? Or shall we become the reason for our own extinction because our technology has progressed more rapidly than our wisdom? Maybe there is a hidden urge for conflict in human nature leaving a wound on the face of human civilisation.

Debashish Chakrabarty is an artist and a photography graduate of the Pathshala South Asian Media Institute in Dhaka.

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What kind of civilisation do we want to be? - The Daily Star

Freedom of the great outdoors – Farm and Dairy

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A recent headline in this very paper stated that camping gains popularity in uncertain times. This makes perfect sense. When so many have been effectively grounded at home for months, the lure of the great outdoors is obviously strong.

On the surface, camping makes no sense. If the great outdoors had a motto it might be you probably wont die. Still, a growing number of people say, lets take clothing, bedding and food that is readily available in our homes and take it on the road.

Somehow, once we are there, however, it all just fits.

Where else can you socially distance away from home while still somewhat bringing your home with you?

Dont let me front like Im outdoorsy. I am a recreational vehicle camper. I like my camping to occur in a trailer with hot and cold running water, air conditioning, refrigeration and electric service. I am also picky about my mattress.

Roughing it is really not in my lexicon. I like to roll up with all the amenities, shake out an outdoor rug and set up reclining lawn chairs. From here, we like to boat, eat and repeat for the entire duration of our stay. That is the life.

Dont let the tent folks fool you, however. We have friends who are lifelong tent campers. I would really call it glamping. Their tent is both larger and nicer than our first house. Seriously, there are wings, closets, entire rooms I dont think I have ever seen. They have actual beds and cots and the whole thing is just amazing. Its like a playhouse for adults.

Last campout, they installed a ceiling fan no lie.

We had fallen off the camping wagon, so to speak, the last few years. We morphed from multiple trips with groups of friends many times per year, to going exactly once last summer for work.

Due to our not having a lick of sense, we hauled a 34-foot camper straight up the side of a mountain in a severe thunderstorm. The hairpin curves were also a nice touch. It was one of the few times Ive seen Mr. Wonderful sweat.

It was so bad I had sent our two small dogs ahead with BoyWonder in the other truck. I was being very dramatic. If we dont make it, take good care of Jack (Jackson Jack Seabolt is the dog)! My son was not impressed that neither he or his sister made my speech. Hey, they are bright kids. I know they will be fine. Jack is adorable, but his job skills are negligible.

This weekend trip was far less eventful. We ate a lot of food cooked with fire. It was very caveman-ey. We laughed an awful lot.

We asked the dogs to shush about one hundred times. They ignored us over one hundred times as well. We boated, swam, wake-boarded and tubed until we were weak with exertion and too much sun, but, oh, the Vitamin D! Let me assure you the place was packed!

With no concerts, endless travel restrictions, no major sports, most amusements, fairs, festivals and really any semblance of official fun on time out, being outdoors is one of the only options open these days. From the campground to the lake people were out in droves, making the best of things and maybe making some good memories of summer 2020 too.

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The distance ahead: John Lewis, Gov. John Patterson and the challenges of reconciliation – Montgomery Advertiser

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Warning: This story contains offensive language.

A half-century after he condemned the Freedom Riders, former Alabama Gov. John Patterson said he admired them.

It meant so much to the state of Alabama that they came here and did what they did, under grave, adverse circumstances, he said in the courtroom in the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse Complex on May 20, 2011. It took a lot of nerve and guts to do what they did, and they deserve a lot of credit for it.

On Pattersons left stood U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who had sat down with other veterans of the Freedom Rides for a lunch with the former governor.The congressman said the meeting says something about the distance that we have come and the progress we have made in the nation.

Ceremonies honoring Lewis, who died on July 17 at age 80, have stressed his courage and the transformative power of the civil rights movement. Stories of repentant white segregationists like Patterson have become a major part of southern political lore. Former Alabama Gov. George Wallace sought forgiveness from Lewis and other Black leaders in the last decades of his life. Patterson disowned some of his prior stands defending segregation.

And on the surface, at least, the 2011 meeting between Lewis, Patterson, and the Freedom Ridersappeared to be a landmark in the white Souths long reckoning with the sins of its past.

But interviews with attendees and footage from the closed-door meeting recently made available to the Advertiser by the Alabama Historical Commission present a far more complicated picture, one that shows how much distance remains between the movement's goals and present realities.

Patterson and the Freedom Riders spoke to each other with respect. The governor expressed his admiration for the group and some regrets for previous actions. The Freedom Riders got to ask Patterson about his decisions before and after the Freedom Rides.

But Patterson often deflected or talked around those questions. Calls for action were met with awkward or uncertain responses.

Arrested Freedom Riders in the back of a police van after their arrival at the Greyhound station in Birmingham, Alabama in May, 1961.(Photo: Alabama Department of Archives and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group. Photo by Robert Adams or Norman Dean, Birmingham News.)

The 2011 meeting between John Lewis, Patterson and the Freedom Riders suggests the major challenges the nation faces in uprooting the poisonous tendrils of white supremacy. It alsoshows the difficulties in reaching and even in definingreconciliation, especially when the human toll of past oppression goes unacknowledged.

I didnt want to go to the meeting, said Kwame Lillard, a Freedom Rider who was present. I refused to take a picture with him. I wanted him to do more than have a make-believe apology. A make-believe reconciliation.

Upended car damaged and smoking after a riot protesting the Freedom Riders' arrival in Montgomery, Alabama on May 21, 1961.(Photo: Alabama Department of Archives and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group. Photo by Norman Dean, Birmingham News.)

Pattersons time as governor gets obscured by the long shadow of Wallace, who knew better than his contemporaries how to evoke feelings of siege and self-pity in his white supporters. But as attorney general and governor, Patterson was as much an opponent of the civil rights movement as Wallace, and arguably a more effective one. (Reached by phone recently, Patterson who will turn 99 in September said he could not remember the 2011 meeting with Lewis and the Freedom Riders.)

In 1956, during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, then-Attorney General Patterson secured an injunction against the NAACP, barring them from organizing or operating in Alabama. The action led to a years-long court fight that twice went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The NAACP prevailed, but the battle made the groups Alabama chapter, once one of the largest in the South, moribund in the state during a key period of the civil rights movement. He began his 1958 gubernatorial campaign declaringthere will be no mixing of the races while I am in office," a campaign where a letter that went out over signature called Robert Shelton, a leader of a Ku Klux Klan chapter in Alabama, "our mutual friend."

More: As calls to remove Confederate monuments grew louder, states passed new laws to protect them

As governor, Patterson embraced a trumped-up prosecution of the Rev. Martin Luther KingJr. on tax charges. When Alabama State University students organized a sit-in to protest segregation in 1960, Patterson forced the ASU President H. Councill Trenholm to expel nine of the students and place the rest on probation.Later, Patterson ordered Trenholm to fire ASU faculty allied with King.(ASU was under the direct authority of the Alabama State Board of Education at the time; it did not have an independent Board of Trustees until 1975.)

This was the man who led the state as the Freedom Riders entered Alabama in the spring of 1961. The activistswanted topressure the federal government to enforce court decisions outlawing segregation in interstate travel. Most Southern governments refused to abide by them.

Freedom riders Jim Zwerg and Paul Brock entering the white waiting room for intrastate passengers at the Greyhound bus station in Birmingham, Alabama.(Photo: Alabama Department of Archives and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group. Photo by Tom Self or Ed Jones, Birmingham News)

We integrated Greyhound and Trailways in Nashville, said Earnest Rip Patton, a Freedom Rider, in a recent interview. Once you get to Birmingham, theyre talking about segregation.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson was a 14-year-old living in Tuskegee during these events. He knew the humiliations of segregation first hand. Like many Black families, Thompsons family relied on the Green Book to ensure they could find adequate accommodations when they traveled.

So if you went from (Montgomery) to say Tennessee and you stopped in Birmingham, you stopped at the home of a friend, he said. If we didnt have a friend, we called a friend who knew someone else you could stay with. Segregated transportation was for real.

Once, when a gas station refused to allow Thompson and his brother to use the restroom, his mother told the attendants to pull the gas hose out of the tank.

More: John Lewis' leadership driven by 'sincerity without arrogance,' college roommate says

I remember sitting on buses and sitting on the back of a bus and being humiliated, he said. It was horrible. It was devastating. It was demeaning. It was a horrible way to grow up.

In later years, Thompson avoided occasions where he could have shaken George Wallaces hand. Thats how strong I felt, he said.

'Stand Up For America': George Wallace's chaotic, prophetic presidential campaign

The Freedom Riders encountered violence in South Carolina, but the attacks picked up force once they crossed the Alabama state line. In Anniston, a white mob attacked and burned one of their buses. Members of the mob tried to hold the doors closed as the fires broke out.

Later, Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor allowed Klansmen to beat the Freedom Riders (along with reporters and some bystanders) for 15 minutes before police interfered. Later, a mob set upon a Freedom Rider bus that arrived in Montgomery. A white member of the mob beat Lewis into unconsciousness with a wooden crate.

The bus for Freedom Riders is burning after been fire bombed in Anniston, Ala., May 14, 1961. The bus had stopped because of a flat tire. The passengers escaped without serious injury.(Photo: AP Photo)

As governor, Patterson did not encourage the violence, but his conduct was hardly heroic. According to civil rights historian Taylor Branch, Patterson refused to guarantee the safety of Freedom Riders coming through Alabama. He snubbed the White House when it tried to contact him to discuss ways to endthe violence. When he met with John Seigenthaler, a former newspaper editor and aide to U.S. Attorney General RobertKennedy, Patterson bragged about the public support he was getting and said (according to Branch) Theres nobody in the whole country thats got the spine to stand up to the goddamned niggers except me.

The governor only deployed the National Guard after a negotiation with Patterson and Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett. In return, federal officials allowed local police to arrest Freedom Riders when they violated segregation laws.

In 1961, Mississippi arrested wave after wave of Freedom Riders that dared to enter an "all-white" area of the bus station, including future Congressman John Lewis. They were arrested, convicted and sent to Mississippi's most notorious prison, the State Penitentiary at Parchman. Lewis was finally freed on July 7, 1961.(Photo: Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

Even with the protection, the dangers to the Freedom Riders were present. Patton, who rode the bus from Montgomery to Jackson, Miss., remembered a planned stop in Selma getting canceled amid rumors that Klansmen in the city planned to attack them.

It was very somber, he said. This was a time to rest, a time to pray. The National Guards of both Alabama and Mississippi had fixed bayonets on their rifles, like we were going to do something.

Once the Freedom Riders challenged the segregation laws in Mississippi, police arrested them and sent them to the states notorious Parchman Prison. The activists, Patton remembered, sang as prison guards removed their mattresses and put laxatives in their food.

Even when we got stool softener in the food, we sang Aint going to let stool softener turn us around, turn us around, he said.

National Guard members protecting the bus for the Freedom Riders leaving Montgomery, Alabama, for Jackson, Mississippi.(Photo: Alabama Department of Archives and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group. Photo by Norman Dean, Birmingham News)

By the 1980s, Patterson by then a state appellate court judge publicly renounced his earlier defenses of segregation. He said in 1988 that officials should remove the Confederate flag from the Alabama Capitol, and spoke out to preserve the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery where the white mob attacked the Freedom Riders in 1961.In a 2007 documentary, "John Patterson: In the Wake of the Assassins,"Patterson said he wished he had the white mob that burned the bus in Anniston arrested.

But if he distanced himself from those stands, Patterson alsoseemed to distance himself from his own actions. In the documentary and a 2007interview that yearwith the Montgomery Advertiser, Patterson said that he had been deceived by Birmingham and Montgomery police about their willingness to protect the Freedom Riders. But the former governor did not confront his own rhetoric at the time, or couchedit in terms of political expediency.

Rip Patton talks about his time as a Freedom Rider during the civil rights movement in Nashville.(Photo: Larry McCormack / tennessean)

"It became evident very quickly that the people were more interested in discussing segregation in the public schools, more than any other issue," Patterson said while discussing the 1958 governor's racein the 2007 documentary. "If you were perceived to be weak on that question, you were finished."

The idea to bring the Freedom Riders together with Patterson came from Thompson and his fellow U.S. District Judge Harold Albritton. Albritton had known Patterson for a long time, and Thompson appreciated Pattersons call to preserve the station.

Myron Thompson during the Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed's Inauguration at the Montgomery Performing Arts Center in Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesday November 12, 2019.(Photo: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)

From our end, Gov. Patterson was very much interested in doing itand wanted to do it in some form, Albritton said in a recent interview. Judge Thompson was working on the John Lewis end. We heard he was interested as well.

Former Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, a friend of Pattersons, said by that point the former governor, who was nearly 90, had cut back his public appearances.

I encouraged him to do it, she said. He agreed if I would go with him and stay with him.

Lewis also expressed interest in the meeting.

More: A nation John Lewis helped unite salutes him on his final journey across Selma bridge

He was a man who strongly believed in reconciliation and peace, and looking forward, Thompson said. That didnt mean forgetting the past. I think he saw this as an opportunity, in his words, to break bread.

John Lewis, celebrated civil right icon, is celebrated in Montgomery at the Alabama State Capitol Montgomery Advertiser

The meeting between Lewis, Patterson, and the Freedom Riders took place in a law library once used by U.S. Circuit Judge Frank Johnson, author of several key civil rights decisions. Some of the Freedom Riders approached the meeting with caution.

I went into that meeting first of all not even knowing what was going to happen, Patton said. I was just there for the numbers.

Footage of the meeting shows Lewis and Patterson warmly greeting each other.

Ive been reading all about you, Patterson told Lewis. Thank you for coming here and everything youve done.

Lewis thanked Patterson for his presence, saying it sends a powerful message.

Patterson chose to sit at the side of the table, next to Lewis, and spoke with Lewis and other Freedom Riders during the meeting.

Everything was sort of tentative at first when we got back there, Albritton said. It wasnt tentative with Gov. Patterson and John Lewis. They immediately spoke and shook hands and started talking. Things kind of warmed up with people conversing around. There was no animosity shown.

But memories remained. Lillard, who felt drawn into a photo op for the former governor, refused to sit at the table with Patterson.

Maybe John is more of a Christian to forgive him, Lillard said. Im not. I cant do it. Too much blood, too much terror.

Kwame Lillard speaks at a previous African-American Cultural Alliance Kwanzaa celebrate. AACA will mark its 37th annual Nashville Kwanzaa celebration with an interactive family event with music, stories and food from 6-9 p.m. Dec. 27.(Photo: Submitted)

Lillard reminded the former governor of his past. He demanded that Patterson take public steps to show that he had changed. He suggested raising money for scholarships in the names of the 9 ASU students that Patterson had helped to expel. Lillard also demanded that Patterson set up an annual contribution to the NAACP the group he tried to destroy as attorney general in the name of Floyd Mann, the Alabama Public Safety Director who intervened to protect the Freedom Riders in Montgomery as the white mob attacked them.

What I want you do is convince me that theres follow-up to reconciliation, Lillard said to Patterson. That it be tangible and concrete.

Patterson responded that his political connections have waned considerably.

Theres not a great deal of influence I have in the state government or legislature, he said. But I understand what youre talking about. Let me give some thought to that and Ill see what I can come up with.

Lillard asked the most pointed questions in the meeting, with most other Freedom Riders present letting him speak. Patton said that reflected training they received, ensuring everyone played their assigned role.

We were trained to listen, and not butt in, Patton said. If we had a spokesperson, let that spokesperson speak. I was satisfied with just being there, as part of the number.

Lillard said he felt his job was to hold Pattersons feet to the fire.

I just adopted a position: Im the engineer, Im the scientist and Im going to take this apart and look at it, he said. We all have our skills, our fortes, and that was my forte.

Other Freedom Riders engaged Patterson. Hank Thomas, a Freedom Rider who was on the bus that the white mob set on fire in Anniston, asked Patterson if he would make a public statement denouncing the violence of the spring of 1961.

In other cases, other states, even though some of the governors were not governors at that particular time, they would make an official statement, a written statement, acknowledging that what happened 50 years ago was a travesty in terms of Alabama citizens, Thomas said. (A message seeking comment was sent to Thomas through the Morehouse School of Medicine, where he serves as a trustee.)

Alabama Gov. John Patterson at a meeting with two men during the Freedom Riders' stay in Montgomery, Alabama in May 1961.(Photo: Alabama Department of Archives and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group. Photo by Norman Dean, Birmingham News.)

Patterson said he would be perfectly glad to do anything I possibly can if I get an opportunity to write something or express myself to somebody.

But you must realize I am out of Alabama politics, he said. Nobody in Montgomery calls me up and asks me for my advice.

At one point, Patterson did express regret for what happened, saying whatever I did to prolong that thing, Im very sorry about it. But footage of the meeting does not show Patterson explicitly engaging with his rhetoric during the Freedom Rides, or his actions toward the NAACP or ASU. At other times, Patterson seemed to distance himself from the events of May 1961, treating himself as a spectator and not a major player.

I admire what the Freedom Riders did, he said. I think it took a tremendous amount of courage to do it. It got everything moving. Everything was sitting still.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and former Alabama Gov. John Patterson following a lunch at the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse Complex on May 20, 2011. In the back row (left to right): Freedom Riders Bernard Lafayette; Bill Harbour; Matthew Walker; Hank Thomas; Jim Zwerg; Earnest "Rip" Patton, and Margaret Leonard. Freedom Rider Catherine Burks Brooks is seated to Patterson's left.(Photo: Alabama Historical Commission)

Patton and Lillard said they both noticed this distancing.

I think thats why Kwame pressed him a little bit, Patton said.

In the available footage, Lewis says relatively little, but near the end he praised Patterson, and called the meeting historic.

The governor has been so wonderful to take the time out to meet us, to have lunch with us, he said. I think he may be the only governor I know of, former governor, governor, to sit down and meet with us as a group with the Freedom Riders.

Cobb, who attended the meeting at Pattersons request, said Lewis comment was appreciated.

He was grateful that Gov. Patterson was there, she said. He expressed all the things that John Lewis would say. It was a loving, caring comment.

Beyond that, though, its not certain if it led to any major changes. Patterson did not appear to movefrom his earlier stated regrets, or confront the rhetoric he used in 1961.

I think that a verbal apology would have been nice, Patton said. But then, to back it up. Back up what youre saying. I apologize for such and such and such and such. And I am going to do what I can to make this better in Montgomery. To make that better in Montgomery, to make that better in state of Alabama.

Lillard felt the governor had been evasive when he asked about his past. In a recent interview, Lillard pointed to South Africa, which developed a new constitution and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission after apartheid ended in that country.

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I dont think progress is how many Confederate monuments you take down, he said. I dont think its how many times you sing We Shall Overcome. There needs to be a fundamental analysis of what the South was, what the nation was.

Thompson said he doesnt believe there could be closure over such issues. But he noted that Lewis could sit down with past enemies without losing sight of present struggles.

He was willing to do all this, but the issues for him remained pressing and looming, he said. If closure means everything is over and its OK, no. If closure means this is help and a healing process so we can move forward and make sure that peoples rights are respected and vindicated, yes. But thats a lifelong process.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or blyman@gannett.com. Updated at 11:43 a.m. with comments from Patterson's 1958 campaign.

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The distance ahead: John Lewis, Gov. John Patterson and the challenges of reconciliation - Montgomery Advertiser

Fake news and COVID-19, a neverending saga – The New Indian Express

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By Express News Service

Fakenews witnessed an alltime high during the pandemic. A survey done by Social Media Matters (social media ninjas working for social change), along with the Institute for Governance, Policies and Politics (a think tank initiative dedicated for public policy research and analysis) has revealed that 69 per cent of people received fake news during the lockdown.

The major source of fake news was WhatsApp with 88.4 per cent respondents reporting it, followed by Facebook (reported by 42.5 per cent) and Instagram (reported by 21.96 per cent). The fake news included the details of repatriation flights, preventive measures, and treatment for COVID-19, information regarding containment zones or impending lockdowns in various areas, etc. Social Media Matters Founder Amitabh Kumar says that on witnessing an increase in fake news regarding COVID-19, they decided to do the survey.

Questionnaires in Hindi and English were filled out by 3,752 respondents from across India. While the majority of participants are between 18 to 25 years old (2,766 respondents), it was closely followed by the age group of 25 to 35 with 565 respondents. The survey was supported by Sarvahitey and Youth Online Learning Opportunities. Dr Manish Tiwari, Senior Fellow, IGPP, said, Social media is becoming the new carrier of infodemics in these times of pandemic.

From the figures, it is clear that young people are being targeted to further spread the misinformation and fake news as they are prime users of social media platforms. According to the survey, 69 per cent respondents reported receiving fake news regarding COVID-19 during the lockdown, and 84 per cent stated that they dont trust such news. Since the news is being spread in huge numbers, people have also become vigilant. Seventy percent of the respondents reported cross checking and verifying news which seemed fake.

The major sources of fact checking were Google Search (48.8 per cent) and Government sources (36.6 per cent). A total of 76 per cent people said that they informed others about the fake news, once recognised. While 89 per cent were aware that the dissemination of fake news is a crime as per the law, only 30 per cent reported such news because 68 per cent didnt know the online mechanism to report it. About 95 per cent feel that there is a need to raise more awareness on the reporting mechanisms, informs Kumar, adding, This information will help the government and tech platforms create better policies and tools to curb this infodemic of misinformation. But a lot of work still needs to be done by social media platforms to achieve this. We need to take up a systematic approach to ensure we build capacities of fact seeking.

Survey highlights

According to the survey, 69 per cent respondents reported receiving fake news regarding COVID-19 during the lockdown, and 84 per cent stated that they dont trust such news. Since the news is being spread in huge numbers, people have also become vigilant. Seventy percent of the respondents reported cross checking and verifying news which seemed fake. The major sources of fact checking were Google Search (48.8 per cent) and Government sources (36.6 per cent). A total of 76 per cent people said that they informed others about the fake news, once recognised.

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Fake news and COVID-19, a neverending saga - The New Indian Express

The Most Ridiculous Countries to Have Ever Existed – Gentside UK

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Creating your own country is not as difficult as you might think. Based on the 5 micronations in our list, it seems like just about anybody can create their own (with whatever outrageous laws they want)!

The territory of the Republic of Minerva remained independent for only a short time during 1972. It consists of a group of atolls in the Pacific Ocean. The captain of the HMS Herald discovered these islands and named them after a whaler that was shipwrecked there in 1829. The Republic of Minerva proclaimed its independence in 1972, and Morris C. Davis was provisionally elected president. However, he was removed very quickly because Tonga claimed possession of the island. The captain tried again to recover his islands by occupying them in 1982, but he was then once again expelled very quickly.

This micronation claims the territory of the municipality of Seborga in Italy. Originally, the fiefdom of Seborga was ceded by the Count of Ventimiglia to the abbots Lrins in 954. It was in 1963 that the place obtained the status of principality when the town's florist, Giorgio Carbone, proclaimed himself 'Prince Giorgio I of Seborga.' The population of the village later approved this decision almost unanimously in a plebiscite.

This district in Copenhagen, Denmark was the self-proclaimed 'Free City of Christiania' in 1971. This 'country' was created by a group of squatters, those who were unemployed, and hippies. This city is particularly known because of its decriminalisation of drugs. At the beginning of the 2000s, the state had 1000 inhabitants spread over 34 hectares. Not bad.

This micronation, founded by Kevin Baugh, is located in the middle of the state of Nevada, USA. The nation defines itself as a 'dictatorial banana republic,' which seems to comes straight out of his imagination. To make his country official, Kevin Baugh, who became president in 1999, launched a petition on the whitehouse.gov website. At the last census, the 1.9 square mile state had a population of 27.

The Principality of Sealand settled on a former military platform called Fort Roughs in the middle of the North Sea. Roy Bates, a former British military man, after consulting lawyers and maritime law specialists, realised that there was nothing to prevent the island from being taken over in international waters. In 1966, he decided to approach the island and proclaimed himself sovereign in 1967. Sealand has its own currency, the 'Sealand dollar,' and an average of five inhabitants live on the 5,920 square feet of land in the middle of the sea.

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Man wanting to go to Mars isolates for 366 days in tiny habitat with 5 others as part of study – CBS17.com

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RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) A man in Hawaii wants to be selected to go to planet Mars one day and hes doing everything he can right now to prepare.

Tristan Bassingthwaighte is an architect and is researching and designing habitats that humans can survive in on the moon and Mars. He wants a one-way ticket to the red planet.

While it might suck for me personally to get to Mars, what that could bring back to the species eventually through the many things we need to make it possible, is how we move forward as a species really, Bassingthwaighte said.

In 2016, he spent 366 days in a tiny habitat located on top of a volcano on Hawaiis big island. The year-long stay was part of an ongoing study by the University of Hawaii and NASA. The HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) is a habitat 8,200 feet above sea level on Mauna Loa. The conditions are designed to be similar to those of a planetary exploration mission.

Tristan was part of mission four in 2016 and said It was really fun, but added he knows a lot of people were worried about the isolation or the confinement, or youre going to be living in a little room type of thing for a year, but Ive always wanted to be an astronaut since I was like six.

The crew of six had to eat like they were in space and wear a spacesuit to go outside. Tristan said the whole idea is to create a crew that can survive the trip and stay.

Youll go in and find out that I might want to go to Mars, but hanging out with the same five people in a close quarter for a year or a real Mars mission, two years, might be a little much, Bassingthwaighte said.

He said the biggest thing he learned was that there can be people on a mission that have all of the skills and would be good at it, but their focus could never really move outside of themselves.

I was just surprised that even people with doctoral degrees and have worked with NASA before, not everyone was actually a team player, Bassingthwaighte said.

He said the year-long isolation on Hawaiis volcano allowed scientists to gather information on how to make better space habitats.

I want to be the theoretical lead designer for the Mars Colony for SpaceX, said Bassingthwaighte.

CBS 17s Laura Smith had to ask Tristan how hes handling quarantine because of coronavirus after spending a year in a tiny home with five other people. He said the biggest advice he can give is not to focus on when it will end.

So instead of looking for some future thing that we obviously cant pin down, you know what you really could do, is figure out what will get you through today and pretend that its the new normal, he said.

He said pick up a hobby and be selfish when you can.

Unlike work here on Earth, youre stuck with that person so you just have to find levels of patience that maybe you didnt know you had. Id go to my room and read and listen to music for an hour or two. If you rather just play Mario Kart, then just go play Mario Kart, like take care of yourself, Bassingthwaighte said.

HI-SEAS continues to study how humans will survive on the moon and mars. However, the pandemic is slowing the study down.

We have had several missions take place this year and we will have more starting in September. We had to delay four missions in collaboration with NASA to next year due to the pandemic, said HI-SEAS Director Michaela Musilova.

NASA also plans to send people to mars and the moon. You can learn more here about that.

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To Infinity And Beyond – farmingdale-observer.com

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Farmingdale High School senior aims for interstellar colonizationLily Coffin(Photo courtesy ofLily Coffin)

Lily Coffin wants to go to Mars. Its a dream shes latched onto ever since her eighth-grade earth science teacher screened a documentary about a Mars One project whose goal was to explore the Red Planet.This documentary was about creating a colony on Mars and I decided thats what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, she said.

Coffin is well on her way to reaching that dream. Shell be attending the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as a mechanical engineering/planetary science double major in the fall, a perfect fit for her future plans.Cal Tech is attached to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Coffin explained. They have a really strong emphasis on research and Ive done a lot of research in high school. So its a really good fit for me in terms of what Ill be able to do as an undergrad because Ive always wanted something beyond the classroom setting. Even in high school, I worked in four labs in three years. A place where I could do research was important to me. Plus, theyre ranked something like number five globally. Its a very good school.

Helping out with the tuition are a trio of grants Coffin was surprised to receivethe Two Brothers Scrap Metal Environmental Conservation Scholarship ($1,000), a PTA Merit Scholarship ($350) and the Dr. Roger S. Weinblatt Memorial Scholarship ($1,000).We werent told what scholarships we were actually receiving, she said. We just had to sit through the hour-long video that they posted. I was really surprised to end up with three of them.

Hard work has enabled the Farmingdale native to wind up matriculating at a top university. In addition to spending her senior year commuting to the Cold Spring Harbor lab on a weekly basis, Coffin spent summer 2019 as part of the Siemens Research Program, a competitive initiative that featured students from around the country descending on Stony Brook University to do research. Prior to this, the Farmingdale High School senior toiled away in labs in summer 2018 (Molloy College) and summer 2017 (Stony Brook University). The common thread for all these experiences was that Coffin spent her time doing either microbiology or computational biology research.

And while the idea of one day colonizing Mars might seem to be quite a tall order, Coffin credits robotics team advisor Ann Grady with inspiring her to aim so high.Coach Grady has worked with a lot of kids in Farmingdale that pursued research, so she knew about all the lab stuff, Coffins said. She taught me how to conduct myself in the research pursuit. She always made it seem like the adult part of looking into research opportunities wasnt too far out of my reach. The reason I was so successful in science research and getting into such a competitive school was because a lot of kids wait to feel like theyre mature enough to do something. Were all waiting to all go to college and be qualified to do something. But [Grady] kind of taught me that being in high school, as long as you have the motivation to want to learn something, you dont need to have the prerequisite knowledge to work in a lab, because thats why Im thereto learn.

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Musk says Tesla is open to supplying batteries and technology to competitors – Autoblog

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In response to reports that German automakers are working feverishly to catch up to Tesla in the electric vehicle segment, Elon Musk tweeted that the U.S.-based EV maker that he helms is willing to help them close the gap. The Tesla CEO tweeted that the company is open to licensing software, supplying powertrains and batteries, and even sharing access to closely-held technologies like Autopilot.

This wouldn't be the first time that Tesla has made overtures toward sharing its proprietary EV technology. In fact, both Mercedes-Benz and Toyota have partnered with Tesla and used its battery and electric drivetrain technology, but at the time both automakers had made sizable investments into Musk's company.

And way back in 2014, Musk said the automaker would make all of its patents in EV technology open to other companies getting into the electric space, though that was more of a we-promise-not-to-sue-you type of deal that very few established car companies had interest in pursuing. Just recently, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Rivian for allegedly poaching its employees and stealing trade secrets. It has also sued China's Xpeng and self-driving startup Zoox.

At this point, it's not clear what powertrains or batteries Musk, who said in a recent earnings conference call that the biggest limitation to Teslas continued growth is battery cell production at an affordable price, is willing to license or supply. Tesla currently runs a battery joint venture with Panasonic, but also sources batteries from Chinas Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) and South Korea's LG Chem.

Reports from Silicon Valley suggest that Tesla is currently working on an expanded battery manufacturing center at its current headquarters in Fremont, California. That project, dubbed Roadrunner, would have three shifts of employees and run all day, every day, seemingly pumping out batteries.

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Texans DE J.J. Watt jokes with Elon Musk about the price of a Tesla solar panel – Texans Wire

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What makes Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt one of the best pass-rushers of his generation is timing. The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year just has a knack for making the right play at key times of the game.

Watts timing is also evident in his retorts and comebacks, which is what made him a compelling guest host on Saturday Night Live and also encouraged Fox executives to give him and his brothers a shot hosting Ultimate Tag.

The former 2011 first-round picks timing was on display Friday on Twitter. Billionaire tech genius Elon Musk was hawking his Tesla solar panels on the social media platform, stating their cost was $1.49 per Watt.

J.J. fired back: How much are they for everyone else?

Of course, some people missed Watts joke entirely and argued with each other in the mentions over the cost and benefit of solar. However, some Twitter users saw Watts remark as ultimate dad humor.

The funny tweets give Watt something else to do other than throw a tennis ball to his dogs 650 times an hour when he isnt training.

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Texans DE J.J. Watt jokes with Elon Musk about the price of a Tesla solar panel - Texans Wire

Elon Musk’s Plea Tripled This Stock in 1 Week! – The Motley Fool Canada

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Elon Musk called out to the nickel miners of the world this week to request a more sustainable way to mine the mineral. A tiny Toronto-based miner seems to have accepted the challenge and could win a major contract from the billionaires company if their sustainable nickel production facility comes through.

Canada Nickel Co. (TSXV:CNC) saw its stock price triple in just four days since Musk made the plea. Now, the company could be on the verge of a major breakthrough that could unlock immense value for early investors. Heres a closer look.

The fact that the tech billionaire turned his attention to nickel mining shouldnt come as a surprise. Musk has built a fortune by focusing on sustainable energy solutions and electric transport. Commodities like nickel play a pivotal role in both areas.

According to Musk, nickel-based battery cells have higher energy density than the traditional lithium-ion cells currently used in his electric vehicles. Higher density means longer range without the added weight that would compromise speed and traction for Tesla cars.

Nickel-based cells could be particularly useful in larger vehicles, such as the upcoming Cybertruck and Semi. In other words, the commodity could play a key role in Teslas future which is why Musk promised a lucrative deal for any miner who could come up with a greener, more sustainable way to extract the element.

Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time, if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally-sensitive way, Musk said during a recent earnings call with Wall Street analysts.

Thats where Canada Nickel comes in.

Toronto-based Canada Nickel Company told Bloomberg this week that it is poised to build a facility that could process nickel in a zero-carbon way. CEO Mark Selby said the facility could be based in the Timmins-Cochrane region of Northern Ontario.

The electric vehicle chain and broader market in general is crying out for a zero-carbon product, Selby told Bloomberg. The report ignited investor interest at a stunning pace and the company is now worth thrice as much as it was last week.

Canada Nickel is currently valued at $196 million. However, if it gains funding from Musk or wins a contract with any electric vehicle maker, the stock could shoot much higher.

The global battery industry was worth $108 billion last year. Its expected to grow 14% every year until 2027. Demand should accelerate as more people swap traditional gasoline-powered vehicles for electric cars. Meanwhile, demand is further magnified by the need for storage at wind and solar farms. The market could be worth $250 billion by 2027.

If nickel mining becomes more sustainable, miners like Canada Nickel could be poised for a massive windfall.

Nickel could be a pivotal element in the future of electric transport. Elon Musk seems to believe that an environmentally-friendly nickel mining process could unlock its true potential. Hes offered a contract to any company that can deliver on this potential. Canada Nickel Co. could on the verge of doing just that.

Fool contributor Vishesh Raisinghani has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. David Gardner owns shares of Tesla. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla.

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Elon Musk's Plea Tripled This Stock in 1 Week! - The Motley Fool Canada

Grocery supply chains must invest in automation as delivery becomes the norm – Supply Chain Dive

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This is a contributed op-ed written by Ryan Yost, VP and general manager for the printer solutions division at Avery Dennison Corporation. Opinions are the author's own.

The days of a primarily B2B supply chain may be ending. The shift to consumer-delivery models during the COVID-19 pandemic has upended supply chain operations, and in the grocery retail sector alone online sales increased 100% in March, according to Adobe Analytics.

Significant investment in technology and automation will be necessary to meet the delivery movement. With 40% of essential items now being bought online, supply chains need to evolve operations to accommodate much higher volumes in direct-to-consumer shipping, according to the Food Industry Associations annual U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends study.

In terms of fulfillment, 18% of online grocery shoppers (including 8% doing so for the first time during the pandemic) are opting for same- or next-day delivery, according to the study, compared to 16% (including 9% of first-timers) for curbside pickup and 14% (including 7% of first-timers) for in-store pickup. Seventeen percent choose home delivery with standard shipping, and 8% subscribe for ongoing deliveries.

There are several pain points that need to be addressed along the supply chain. In a study,FMI found that 4% of respondents reported problems with online grocery shopping, namely in terms of inventory and fulfillment. Out-of-stocks issues cited by customers include paper products (43%) and preferred foods (43%). Also, 40% encountered delays after ordering goods or saw no acceptable times for home delivery (20%) or pickup (19%).

How fulfillment executives manage ongoing disruption will be a matter of the "survival of the fittest." However, new fitness metrics will focus on how well supply chains incorporate agility into lean logistics. As workforces shrink to meet cost-cutting needs, smaller staffs will be stretched by increasing consumer-delivery demands. The only means to meet these ends is technology that automates processes.

"As workforces shrink to meet cost-cutting needs, smaller staffs will be stretched by increasing consumer-delivery demands. The only means to meet these ends is technology that automates processes."

Agility in supply chain operations will be the new standard to meet the evolving needs of manufacturers, retailers and distribution centers. The first objective is to enable end-to-end inventory visibility which will allow the entire supply chain to quickly respond to shifts in consumer demand without similar ebbs and flows in labor and resource allocation.

The total impact of consumer demand disruption has yet to be seen. Shopping habit changes during the pandemic may result in future upheavals that may compromise brand loyalty but could likely cause a streamlining of the supply chain.

According to a report from market-research firm Nielsen, cited by Food Dive, "the average number of product offerings in grocery stores declined 7.3% during the four weeks ended June 13 ... The drop came across a range of product categories, with frozen down 8.5%, deli slipping 7.7%, meat posting a decline of 7.1% and dairy falling 6.6%."

For example, some IGA grocery stores now offer only four choices of toilet paper. A few months ago, the chains 1,100 U.S. stores typically carried about 40 varieties.

According to the Wall Street Journal, executives at some of the most widely-known food giants have said they are trimming less-efficient and less-profitable products, while shelving some in development. PepsiCo,for example, stopped producing a fifth of its products during the COVID-19 crisis and will have 3-5% fewer products going forward than it had pre-pandemic in its Frito-Lay snacks business.

By discontinuing some less popular items that may be more complicated to produce, factories and distribution networks can become more efficient at their end of the supply chain.

Additionally, when consumers are also offered visibility into the inventory levels, they are less likely to hoard items that potentially disrupt the flow of goods. The pandemic disruption proved to supply chain executives that technology to provide end-to-end visibility throughout a global supply chain would be the best way forward.

Supply chain executives accustomed to B2B processes will swiftly learn a hard lesson,if they dont move to automate quickly and effectively. The present pandemic is a true test of the ability to flex with new demands, especially those that will now be primarily consumer-driven.

With logistical adjustments made on the fly to meet consumer fulfillment needs, now is the time to look back, understand what went right and wrong, and adjust.

"The pandemic disruption proved to supply chain executives that technology to provide end-to-end visibility throughout a global supply chain would be the best way forward."

By giving products a digital unique identifier at the origin of the supply chain, full inventory transparency at the product-level is possible. This is vital to meet a continued increase in delivery expectations. Digitization of the goods through technologies such as RFID and barcodes provide that full transparency of inventory, at the product-level throughout every step of the supply chain.

Historically, brand logic has focused on increasing sales by offering customers endless varieties of goods that would take up more and more retail and supermarket shelf space especially in big box-stores and warehouse clubs. However, digitization of goods will serve brands well as they continue to shrink product offerings. Flexibility to add and subtract items to meet production, distribution and sales goals may be an ongoing roller coaster.

"In looking towards the future, most consumers expect to return to their pre-pandemic levels of in-store grocery shopping and more than a fourth of consumers expect to be ordering more groceries online in the future," FMI President and CEO Leslie Sarasin said in a statement. "The food industry will continue to listen to consumers and let them guide us on how to best meet their changing household needs."

While B2B will always exist, the ebbs and flows of consumer delivery and product choices will make the fulfillment world look very different in the months and years to come. Agility needs to be the focus at every link of the supply chain.

This story was first published in our weekly newsletter, Supply Chain Dive: Operations. Sign up here.

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Grocery supply chains must invest in automation as delivery becomes the norm - Supply Chain Dive