The Pentagon Is Quietly Working on a Military Space Station Outpost

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Shooting Star

The Department of Defense has quietly awarded a contract for the Sierra Nevada Corporation to turn its Shooting Star cargo spacecraft into a small experimental space station, The Drive reports.

The defense contractor has been developing the spacecraft since 2016 as a way to resupply the International Space Station under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program.

The craft is 16 feet long and is designed to carry 10,000 pounds of cargo into orbit. Six thrusters allow it to adjust its orbit independently. SNC’s Dream Chaser, a Space Shuttle lookalike, is designed to carry the capsule into orbit and even as far as Moon’s orbit.

Space Barracks

The company is hoping to turn the Shooting Star into a small space station meant for “space assembly, microgravity, experimentation, logistics, manufacturing, training, test and evaluation,” according to a press release.

“We’re excited by the multi-mission nature of Shooting Star,” SNC CEO Fatih Ozmen said in the press release. “The possible applications for Shooting Star are really endless.”

Free-Flying Destination

The company is already looking at sending such a space station to orbits far beyond the ISS, including geosynchronous Earth orbits, and even cislunar orbits.

“We are proud to offer our transport vehicle to DoD as a free-flying destination for experimentation and testing, expanding beyond its current payload service capabilities for Dream Chaser cargo missions,” said senior vice president of strategy for SNC’s Space Systems Steve Lindsey.

While initial Shooting Star capsules will be unmanned, The Drive suggests the Pentagon may be interested in moving on using it as a manned outpost as well.

More on Shooting Star: NASA Will Test Beautiful Spaceship That Looks Like the Space Shuttle

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NASA Just Picked a Date for SpaceX to Bring Back Its Astronauts

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

NASA is expecting to start returning SpaceX Crew Dragon pilots Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to Earth from the ISS on August 1.

It’s a Date

On May 30, SpaceX made history by launching the first astronauts to the International Space Station from U.S. ground since the retirement of NASA’s Space Shuttle program in 2011.

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley may have piloted the the futuristic Crew Dragon space capsule with ease — but the mission, dubbed Demo-2, is far from over.

Both astronauts will still have to make their return journey inside the capsule — and NASA has finally picked a tentative date for exactly that: disengaging from the ISS on August 1, as CNBC reports, with splashdown in the Atlantic ocean scheduled for 3pm on August 2.

NEWS: We're targeting an Aug. 1 departure of @SpaceX's Dragon Endeavour spacecraft from the @Space_Station to bring @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug home after their historic #LaunchAmerica mission. Splashdown is targeted for Aug. 2. Weather will drive the actual date. Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/VOCV51gzLi
— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) July 17, 2020

Completing the Mission

The plan is to undock from the ISS, blaze through the Earth’s atmosphere during descent, and splash into the Atlantic to be picked up by a nearby ship — a journey already completed by a preceding, uncrewed Crew Dragon capsule last year.

Exact departure time from the space station is still “a bit of a moving target” thanks to changing weather conditions as NASA’s Johnson Space Center, public affairs officer Kyle Herring told CNBC. As of right now, the plan is to undock at around 8 pm Eastern on August 1.

Behnken and Hurely have kept busy since arriving at the ISS on May 31, by replacing the space station’s aging old solar array batteries with lithium ion ones during a trio of spacewalks.

More on Crew Dragon: NASA Astronaut Says SpaceX Crew Dragon Looked “Awesome” During Spacewalk

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State-Backed Russian Hackers Are Targeting Coronavirus Vaccine Research

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

UK authorities issued a warning on Thursday, claiming that Russian hackers with ties to the Kremlin have been targeting coronavirus vaccine research.

The UK National Cyber Security Centre, (NCSC) in conjunction with their US and Canadian intelligence counterparts, warned on Thursday that Russian hackers with ties to the Kremlin have been targeting coronavirus vaccine development since the early days of the pandemic.

The warnings were accompanied by a detailed 16-page document, outlining how Russian hackers might be attempting to steal information from researchers through custom malware and other exploits.

“We would urge organizations to familiarize themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks,” NCSC Director of Operations Paul Chichester said in a statement.

“It is completely unacceptable that the Russian Intelligence Services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic,” Dominic Raab, the UK’s foreign secretary, added in a separate statement to the press.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany took a far more nuanced approach.

“We worked very closely with our allies to ensure that we would take measures to keep that information safe and we continue do so so,” she said, as quoted by AP.

Russia shot back, saying it had no idea what they were talking about.

“We don’t know who tried to carry out the hacking attacks in the United Kingdom, but Russia certainly has nothing to do with it,” Dmitry Peskov, president Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told reporters today, as reported by state-run Russian news network Tass.

“We continuously confront attempted cyber attacks against our computer databases, and those of our departments,” Peskov added. “Our agencies regularly repel such attacks, since it is a common problem. We strongly reject these groundless accusations against us.”

Western intelligence claims the group behind the hacks is APT29, also known as Cozy Bear, the same group that was found to be involved in hacking Democratic email accounts during the 2016 US presidential election.

Peskov claimed that “we know absolutely nothing about the group and who it is affiliated with,” when asked about Cozy Bear’s affiliations with the Kremlin, Tass reports.

The news comes after a Wall Street Journal report published in May claimed that Chinese and Iranian hackers were targeting US efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine. At the time, no specific hacking groups were named.

READ MORE: Russia is hacking virus vaccine trials, US, UK, Canada say [Associated Press]

More on hacks: US Officials: Chinese Hackers Are Targeting Vaccine Research

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Scientists Discover “Vantablack” Deep-Sea Creatures

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

A team of marine biologists have discovered 16 new species of terrifying deep-sea fish that reflect almost no light at all, Wired reports — much like the ultra-black material Vantablack.

Marine biologist Karen Osborn was astonished when she attempted to take pictures of a fangtooth, a terrifying fanged monster of the deep sea, for cataloguing reasons. The fish appeared to absorb almost all of the light her underwater studio shone at it, leaving only eerie silhouettes.

Credit for all images: Karen Osborn/Smithsonian

“I had tried to take pictures of deep-sea fish before and got nothing but these really horrible pictures, where you can’t see any detail,” Osborn, who co-authored a paper about the fish published in Current Biology, told Wired. “How is it that I can shine two strobe lights at them and all that light just disappears?”

“It’s like looking at a black hole,” lead author Alexander Davis, a Duke University biologist, told The New York Times.

Some of the newly discovered species are so dark that they absorb 99.956 percent of light that hits it. For context, last year MIT engineers claimed they accidentally created the darkest material that absorbs 99.995 percent of incoming light — 10 times darker than Vantablack, an extremely dark and difficult to produce carbon nanotube material designed by British nanotech company Surrey Nanosystems.

“We had no idea that there were any fishes at all that were ultra-black,” Davis told Wired. “As far as we knew, the only vertebrates that were ultra-black at all were these birds-of-paradise and a couple other bird species.”

“It was the first case we have of something this black really being used as camouflage as well,” he added.

Deep sea oceans are actually much brighter than you might think. There may be little or no natural light penetrating hundreds of meters of ocean water, but bioluminescent creatures and bacteria produce plenty of light all by themselves.

At the same time, light produced by these organisms tends to draw the attention of prey, suggesting the ultra-black fish may be camouflaging themselves to stop them from being detected as they stalk their prey — or hide from other predators.

So how do these fish get so dark? Special layers of melanosomes, tiny cellular structures stuffed with melanin — the same natural pigment that colors human skin — scatter incoming photons and stop them from finding their way back out.

One species, the threadfin dragonfish, was even found to only be ultra-black when its young — likely a defense mechanism to protect it when it needs to hide from predators.

Other species had melanosomes lining their guts to make sure any bioluminescent fish they ate won’t give away their position. “You don’t want to be swimming around with a glowing belly, right?” Osborne told Wired. “That’s just asking for trouble.”

So will we be able to make our own deep sea fish-inspired Vantablack coating? According to Davis, you’d need to be able to make the nanoparticles just the right size and shape, “then you should be able to just coat anything with it,” as he explained to Wired.

READ MORE: Vantablack? Meh. Meet the Ultra-Black Vantafish [Wired]

More on Vantablack: This Vantablack Watch Costs $75,000

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Geologists Say a New Ocean Is Opening up in Africa

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Geologists are using new techniques like precise GPS measurements to figure out what's driving apart three tectonic plates in Ethiopia.

Breaking Up

In somewhere between five and ten million years, the tectonic plates that form Africa are likely to rip apart so much that it’ll eventually split the continent in two.

Within Ethiopia’s Afar region, the Arabian, Nubian, and Somali tectonic plates are slowly pulling away from each other, NBC News reports, gradually creating a vast rift — slowly forming a new ocean.

“We can see that oceanic crust is starting to form, because it’s distinctly different from continental crust in its composition and density,” University of Leeds Ph.D. student Christopher Moore told NBC.

Unique Opportunity

Scientists have suspected that the plates are pulling apart for a while, but new improvements to GPS are helping them figure out exactly what’s happening beneath the surface.

The new ocean will give geologists an unprecedented opportunity to figure out how such a tectonic break happens, according to NBC. While the Earth’s tectonic plates are constantly moving around, scientists still don’t know what, specifically, is driving these three away from each other.

Slow And Steady

The leading theory right now is that massive, superheated rocks are bubbling up from the mantle right at the point where the three plates meet, but ideas like these are difficult to prove.

“With GPS measurements, you can measure rates of movement down to a few millimeters per year,” University of California, Santa Barbara marine geophysicist Ken Macdonald told NBC. “As we get more and more measurements from GPS, we can get a much greater sense of what’s going on.”

More on geology: Experts Predict What Earth’s Next Supercontinent Will Look Like

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Looking to Reduce Inflammation? This Specially-Designed CBD Could Be The Answer.

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

For centuries, doctors and scientists viewed inflammation as a necessary and unavoidable systemic response to illness or injury. However, over the last few decades, we have seen a major shift in thinking on the subject. Today we understand that inflammation is as much a cause of major medical issues as it is a symptom. In fact, a lot of doctors now argue that being able to control and reduce inflammation is the future of preventative medicine. That’s why the scientists at Mellowment developed Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation, which combines the world’s most advanced CBD with curcumin extract for maximum inflammation relief, recovery, and comfort.

Why Reduce Inflammation?

Inflammation is an essential survival mechanism of the human immune system. When cells are in distress, they release chemicals that alert the immune system. The immune system responds by sending inflammatory cells to capture the pathogens or heal damaged tissue, and blood vessels in the area expand to accommodate the additional immune system traffic and bring fluid to the site of the injury or infection. This is called acute inflammation. And while it is painful and uncomfortable, it is also a sign that our body is healing itself.

Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, sometimes this natural immune system response does not get switched off. Sometimes it’s because the cause of the initial immune system response cannot be eliminated. Sometimes the immune system simply malfunctions. Either way, the immune system tells white blood cells to attack healthy tissues and organs, which results in chronic inflammation.

We now know that chronic inflammation is a major contributing factor to many degenerative diseases, including things like coronary artery disease, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. For years doctors tried to treat the symptoms of these diseases with surgeries and medications. However, now they are starting to realize it may be more beneficial to treat, control, and reduce inflammation.

Luckily, when it comes to fighting inflammation, we have a couple of very effective all-natural tools at our disposal.

CBD and Curcumin

One of the natural tools we have to combat inflammation is CBD. Short for cannabidiol, CBD is one of 113 different cannabinoid compounds found in cannabis plants. Unlike THC, the cannabinoid that gets you high when you ingest marijuana, CBD has zero psychoactive effects. However, people say it is very effective in relieving discomfort caused by pain, inflammation, insomnia, stress, and anxiety. When it comes to inflammation, in particular, the most recent studies suggest it works by modulating the endocannabinoid system and disrupting the production of cytokines, which are proteins secreted by immune cells that trigger inflammation.

The other natural tool we have to reduce inflammation is curcumin, a compound found in the spice turmeric that has been used as an herbal medicine in India for thousands of years. Modern science has shown that curcumin has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and numerous studies have shown it to be effective in treating inflammation and pain associated with arthritis.

Unfortunately, treating inflammation effectively with CBD and curcumin is not easy. In their natural states, both CBD and curcumin have poor bioavailability, which means they don’t actually get into your system due to poor absorption, first-pass metabolism, and rapid elimination.

Luckily, Mellowment has solved the bioavailability problem.

Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation Softgels

Mellowment CBD bottle — Photo via Mellowment

Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation Softgels contain 25mg of CBD and 10mg of curcumin. They are made using an advanced nano-emulsification process that shrinks the active ingredients and suspends them in microscopic droplets of oil which can easily pass through cell walls. This process more than doubles the natural bioavailability of CBD and curcumin, which means more CBD and curcumin reach systemic circulation, ensuring maximum effectiveness.

However, it’s not just the nano emulsification process that sets Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation apart from other products. Mellowment’s CBD extracts are meticulously engineered from Colorado-grown hemp using an advanced chromatography process that removes all THC, eliminating the risk of failed drug tests and undesired psychoactive effects.

Each bottle of Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation contains 30 softgels. They are formulated to be taken as needed, and most customers take between one and four softgels per day.

Mellowment High Impact for Inflammation is not a miracle cure. However, there are a lot of people who swear that it alleviates discomfort caused by inflammation and speeds up their recovery from workouts. So you are looking for a natural way to reduce inflammation, this one is definitely worth a try.

This supplement has not been evaluated by the FDA, and is not intended to cure or treat any ailments. Do not take CBD products if you are allergic to any of the ingredients in the product you are consuming. Tell your doctor about all medicines you may be on before consuming CBD to avoid negative reactions. Tell your doctor about all medical conditions. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, including prescription and nonprescription medicines, vitamins and herbal products. Other side effects of CBD include dry mouth, cloudy thoughts, and wakefulness. You are encouraged to report negative side effects of any drugs to the FDA. Visit http://www.fda.gov/medwatch, or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

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Government Leak: Cops Terrified Masks Will Block Facial Recognition

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

The Department of Homeland Safety has been circulating a memo about how masls could block facial recognition since Black Lives Matter protests began.

Foiled Again!

It turns out that the masks that keep us safe from COVID-19 are a real pain for the police.

Leaked documents reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been particularly concerned about how masks block the facial recognition used to surveil Americans, The Intercept reports. Apparently, federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been circulating these concerns since late May, when the mass Black Lives Matter protests began to sweep the country.

Dangerous Conjecture

The DHS memo is specifically concerned that “violent adversaries” might exploit current mask-wearing guidelines to hide in plain sight while waging war against the state, The Intercept reports.

The evidence? One member of an online white supremacist forum who suggested attacking infrastructure in a mask and other pre-pandemic online chatter.

“…while we have no specific information that violent extremists or other criminals in the United States are using protective face coverings to conduct attacks,” the memo reads, “some of these entities have previously expressed interest in avoiding face recognition and promulgated simple instructions to conceal one’s identity, both prior to and during the current Covid-19 pandemic.”

Troubling Disconnect

Without getting too heavy-handed, the memo is an unfortunate insight into how law enforcement’s priorities conflict with public health. During an unprecedented global crisis, the DHS is scared that mask-wearing will become too commonplace.

The challenge for law enforcement will be finding a way around it: Police banned masks during previous social movements, The Intercept reports, but it will be hard to do so during the pandemic.

More on surveillance: Oh No, Spying on Protestors Might Make the Public Distrust Surveillance

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Watch a 3D Printer Spit Out an Entire Two-Story House

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Big Printer

Europe’s largest 3D printer just spat out an entire two-story tall home, an effort by Belgian sustainable construction company Kamp C. According to the company, it’s the biggest house printed in one piece, with a fixed printer, in history.

The 32-by-32 foot printer works in much the same way as its much smaller plastic-printing additive cousins — except that it uses a specially mixed concrete to build layer by layer.

Faster, Cheaper, Stronger

Such a process has key advantages over conventional builds: It’s significantly faster, it’s far more judicious with material usage, and could even cut construction costs as a result.

“The material’s compressive strength is three times greater than that of the conventional quick build brick,” Marijke Aerts, the project manager, told New Atlas. “Besides the fibers in the concrete, the amount of wire-mesh reinforcement used is extremely limited. As a result of the printing technology used, formwork was redundant, saving an estimated sixty percent on material, time, and budget.”

The 980 square feet two-story home is still more of a demo than a livable structure, but it’s technically large enough and even features sustainable amenities, like solar panels and underfloor heating.

“Printing this building is mainly a statement,” Emiel Ascione, project manager at Kamp C, told Digital Trends. “It shows the construction industry the accessibility and potential of this technique.”

READ MORE: Europe’s biggest 3D printer helps create an entire two-story house [Digital Trends]

More on printing houses: These Adorable 3D-Printed Houses Could Solve Homelessness

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Scientists Hack Mouse Brains to “Erase” Opioid Addiction

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

One of the hardest parts of treating addiction is keeping patients from relapsing.

Now, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say that they’ve “interrupted the brain pathway responsible for morphine-associated memories in mice, that is, ‘erasing’ the drug-associated memory from the brain.”

The work could point to a possible way to stop relapses from happening after treating an opioid addiction. And while the human brain is far more complex than that of a mouse — as well as humans’ reasons for relapsing — the finding is promising.

To treat the mice, the team gave them brain implants: a fiber optic that shined light onto a region called the paraventricular thalamus and blocked withdrawal symptoms. A day later, the mice no longer sought out morphine and relapse — or at least do the lab mouse version of relapsing — even after two weeks.

According to the new research, published Thursday in the journal Neuron, people relapse partially because they miss the high, but more so because the symptoms of withdrawal can often be overwhelming. By tamping down those symptoms, the mice appear to be able to kick the habit more easily.

“Our success in preventing relapse in rodents may one day translate to an enduring treatment of opioid addiction in people,” CAS researcher Zhu Yingjie said in a press release.

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Scientists: Climate Change Will Get So Hot Your Organs Shut Down

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Organ Failure

In the coming years, climate change will heat some parts of the world so much that merely working outdoors could become life-threatening.

New models suggest that unless greenhouse gases are reined in, millions of people — especially in developing nations — will be exposed to dangerous levels of heat that could cause heat stress, a dangerous condition that can cause your organs to shut down, BBC News reports. And with workplace fans shut off and heavier protective garments due to the pandemic, even more people are likely to be affected.

Space Heater

Unfortunately, switching on your air conditioner to get some relief — already not an option in many developing nations — is only going to make things worse, according to an unrelated U.N. report published Friday.

“If we deal with cooling wrong, we essentially cook ourselves,” Gabrielle Dreyfus, manager of the cool efficiency program at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said on a press call attended by Earther.

Warning Signs

Warning signs for this dire future can already be seen in medics who have to treat patients in tropical climates wearing heavy protective gear, Dr. Jimmy Lee, an emergency medic treating COVID-19 patients in Singapore, told BBC. Soon, the dangerous heats those medics face could become an everyday experience for everyone else, too.

“This climate change will be a bigger monster and we really need a coordinated effort across nations to prepare for what is to come,” Lee told BBC. “If not, there’ll be a price to be paid.”

READ MORE: Climate change: Summers could become ‘too hot for humans’ [BBC News]

More on climate change: Doomsday Report Author: Earth’s Leaders Have Failed

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Dog With Snout Brutally Chopped Off Is Living Her Best Life One Year Later – Lady Freethinker

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Image Credit: Facebook/Borneo Animal Welfare Society, Sabah

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One year after making international headlines when someone sliced off her snout in Malaysia, an adorable dog named Noobu is now thriving at her loving forever home. Seemingly unaware that shes missing her nose, Noobu happily plays with her guardian Lylian Lee and her furry friends.

The former stray, whose name means Baby in the Tibetan language, is lucky to be alive. Fearing that nobody would want to adopt her because of her mutilated face and the costly surgery and recovery, the veterinarian who eventually treated Noobu recommended euthanasia. But Noobus rescuers remained dedicated to saving her life.

Lylian first noticed Noobu at the veterinary clinic, where a Borneo Animal Welfare Society Sabah (BAWSS) volunteer took the severely injured canine for treatment.

My initial reaction when I saw Noobu was, how can someone be so cruel to an animal?, Lylian said. I felt sorry for the dog and wished I could help in any way.

In a Facebook post, BAWSS appealed to the public for information about the despicable act of animal cruelty after Noobu was found in the street last year with her two puppies. Unfortunately, nobody came forward, and Noobus abuser remains free.

Noobu has made tremendous strides in her difficult and remarkable journey, and she now lives a rather ordinary life. She even eats on her own, according to Lylian, who hopes the canines story inspires people to be kinder to strays.

She has a happy life now. she said. She eats and sleeps well, too. No stray asked to be homeless.

Pet health an issue with owners transitioning back to work – The Union of Grass Valley

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding peoples mental health and the best ways to deal with stress and anxiety during the coronavirus quarantine, but what about their pets?

Jokes have been going around about how happy dogs are to have their people home all the time two months ago a dog owner in the United Kingdom shared that her dachshund sprained his tail from wagging it too much and that maybe independent cats arent so thrilled about their owners invading their space during the day.

So now, as more businesses reopen and people go back to work, the question remains, what will happen to the mental health of their pets?

Over at the Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe, the pet shelter in Truckee is closed yet accepting adoptions by appointment only. Normally receiving 70-80% of its pets (usually at risk of being euthanized) from overcrowded and underfunded shelters in large cities such as San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles, staff at HSTT is starting to see an influx of animals going back to shelters as people go back to work. And with animal shelters being closed, this is the worst time to surrender a pet.

When the pandemic hit, shelters were told to try to keep animals from coming in by urging people to keep them in their homes, probably because we dont have any volunteers to check on them as everyone is working from home, says HSTT Community Engagement Director Erin Ellis.

She adds that with a skeletal staff managing the shelter and not being around, its best for the pets wellbeing if they can stay in their home a little longer.

Ellis does believe that pet problems may start to spring up when owners go back to work, and they dont get lots of walks and constant companionship anymore.

That was my first thought, is that as businesses start to reopen there may be behavioral issues associated with people going back to work, Ellis says.

When people cant exercise their dogs anymore or have never crate-trained their pet, it may cause a shift in the pet-owner dynamic.

Before the pandemic happened, Ellis admits that she and her husband adopted a 6-month old puppy that required a lot of training.

Hes not used to us being away from him, so we wonder how that is going to go, Ellis said.

To prepare for the back-to-work transition, HSTT staff is being proactive by setting up resources online, giving people tips for how to make a symbiotic relationship work between pets and their owners.

We expect to be really busy when the shelter opens back up again, she said. So first we want to direct people to the website and provide information and resources for training pets. If that doesnt work, then we can provide information about reputable trainers available to hire that can go to their home. We do have staff available on a limited basis, so people can also call us, and we can try to walk them through some of those behavioral issues.

We are doing all of this with the hope that people wont be turning their pets in, that theyll keep them in their home, she added. However, dogs will probably have some separation anxiety when the owner leaves especially with puppies.

Keeping the health and safety of the community and pets first and foremost in mind, the HSTT doesnt have an estimated time when volunteers will be back to socialize, train, and take care of the pets. Fortunately, in an animal-centric place like Lake Tahoe, all HSTTs pets are currently in foster homes right now.

If pets cant handle the shelter then they go into foster care, she said. We track cats and dogs health every day and do progress reports, checking to see if theyre eating, vomiting, being destructive in their room. We monitor their mental health and wellbeing on an individual case-by-case scenario.

She said they will be expanding their foster program with the goal to bring in more adult dogs from other areas that are more at risk for euthanasia and adopting them out into Tahoe.

Were hoping to be able to house another 20-30 dogs in the shelter because theyre the ones more likely to be euthanized, she said.

The number of fostered dogs and adoptions changes daily, but there are generally around 20-30 cats and dogs that are out in foster homes at any given time.

The plan is to keep the shelter full, within reason, and increase the foster program, Ellis said. There are times when we have a big transport from Los Angeles with kittens and cats. Were just keeping an eye on other communities. We dont have a problem necessarily here but in other areas it can be bad, especially in kitten season (which is right now).

In the new fostering program, the humane society has started facilitating video meetings between the foster and adopting parents to talk about any issues that the forever pet owners should be aware of.

Had this pandemic not happened we wouldnt have seen or thought of some of these new processes, so thats been the positive thats come from this, at least in our little world, she said. Were slowly reopening right now and when we have dogs back on our adoption floor, they will be available to pick up by appointment only. The adoption process is so well-solidified. Ive never seen a huge tidal wave of animals coming back, even in the recession.

Therefore, the best way to maintain your pets mental health is to keep them around and understand that they might act out if theyre not getting the attention that they had during the pandemic.

And for those who are now spending more time working from home and are in a position to foster or adopt a pet, they can always email adoptions@hstt.org to start the process.

To access additional information about how to maintain your pets mental health, visit https://hstt.org/.

Kayla Anderson is a staff writer for the Tahoe Daily Tribune, a sister publication of The Union.

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Pet health an issue with owners transitioning back to work - The Union of Grass Valley

Explained: Why annual floods are essential for the survival of Kaziranga – The Indian Express

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Written by Tora Agarwala, Edited by Explained Desk | Guwahati | Updated: July 17, 2020 7:19:18 pm A one-horned rhinoceros along with her baby stands in floodwater inside Kaziranga National Park, in Golaghat district, Thursday, July 16, 2020. (PTI Photo)

As a fresh wave of floods ravages Assam, killing 73 and affecting nearly 40 lakh people across the state, 85 per cent of the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) remains submerged. On Thursday, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal visited the park to take stock of the situation. So far, 125 animals have been rescued and 86 have died, including rhinos, deer and wild boar, in the sixth worst flood since 1988.

Yet, the annual deluge is considered essential for the survival of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. We explain the role of floods in Kazirangas ecosystem, how increasing high floods can become a problem, and what can be done to keep it in check.

Assam is traditionally flood prone, and the 1,055 sq km KNPTR sandwiched between the Brahmaputra river and the Karbi Anglong Hills is no exception. Among experts there is a consensus that floods are necessary for Kaziranga by virtue of its ecosystem. It is a riverine ecosystem, not a solid landmass-based ecosystem, said P Sivakumar, Director, KNPTR, The system wont survive without water. The entire area of Kaziranga formed by alluvial deposits from the Brahmaputra and its tributaries is centred around the river.

According to Uttam Saikia, Honorary Wildlife Warden of Kaziranga, this floodplain eco system has not only been created by floods but also feeds off it.

The regenerative nature of floods helps replenish Kazirangas water bodies and maintain its landscape, a mix of wetlands, grasslands and semi-evergreen deciduous forests. Saikia said the floodwaters also function as a breeding ground for fish. The same fish are carried away by the receding waters into the Brahmaputra in a way, the park replenishes the rivers stock of fish too, he said.

The waters also help get rid of unwanted plants such as water hyacinth which collect in huge masses in the landscape. In a herbivore-dominated area like Kaziranga, it is important we maintain its grassland status. If it were not for the annual floods, the area would become a woodland, said Sivakumar.

Many also believe that floods are a way of natural selection. A number of animals especially the old, weak cannot survive the floods. Only the ones with superior genes survive, said Rabindra Sarma, Wildlife Research Officer at KNPTR since 1998.

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Earlier, a big flood would come once in ten years, said Rathin Barman, who heads the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), which takes in injured and orphaned wild animals of the park. Now, they happen every other year, he said, adding that massive deforestation in catchment areas or release of waters by dams upstream may be contributory factors. Climate change models, too, predict that floods will become increasingly devastating with each year.

Barring 2018, the years between 2016 and 2020 have all featured high floods (or floods which submerge more than 60 per cent of the park) killing and injuring hundreds of animals.

Animals adapt naturally to floods but when the waters hit a certain level, they gravitate towards safer, higher ground in the Karbi Anglong hills.

In pictures | Lakhs displaced in Assam floods, national parks hit

While in the past, Kaziranga and Karbi Anglong were part of the same landscape, the animals now have to cross the bustling National Highway 37 which cuts across the park. Over the years, the highway is getting increasingly tough to cross. A few of the nine wildlife corridors on the highway Panbari, Haldibari, Bagori, Harmati, Kanchanjuri, Hatidandi, Deosur, Chirang and Amguri are choked by traffic, said Dr Naveen Pandey, Deputy Director and Veterinary Advisor, The Corbett Foundation, Kaziranga. Mushrooming of hotels, restaurants, shops, and ancillary structures of the tea industry has not helped either.

As a result, animals that venture out of the park, die either under the wheels of speeding vehicles on the highway, or are killed by poachers who take advantage of their vulnerability. In recent years, due to vigilant patrolling, these numbers have decreased. Those that remain in the park often young or the very old die by drowning, entangled in the debris under water as they try to swim.

According to Dr Varun Goswami, Senior Scientist at Conservation Initiatives, an Assam-based organisation that works in the Kaziranga landscape, wildlife in KNPTR have adapted to the natural flood regime by finding refuge on higher ground south of the park. If their safe passage is not ensured, major floods can cause serious losses.

This year four rhinos as well as a number of boar and deer have drowned, and 14 hog deer have died in road accidents so far. The authorities will be able to ascertain the actual number of deaths only once the waters recede.

As per Sarma, at least 25 out of 75 fringe villages on the southern periphery of the park are affected by the floods. Fleeing floodwaters, animals stray from the boundary of the park, and there is an increased interaction between humans and wildlife, at times leading to conflict. Rhino calves get separated from their mothers, tigers swim and take refuge inside homes, deer amble into villages, said Sarma. Even so, most villagers, along with the frontline staff of the forest department and other organisations such as Wildlife Trust of Indias CWRC, are part of the tough rescue operations during the floods guiding strayed animals to safer ground, treating those injured and generally keeping a strict vigil round the clock.

Also read | Through rain and floods, Assams community workers battle pandemic

Preparedness begins a month before floods hit. The authorities keep a track of updates from the Central Water Commission, and monitor water levels of the Brahmaputra tributaries upstream in Arunachal Pradesh.

According to Dr Pandey, the civil administration, park authority, NGOs, and local communities work together to tackle the floods. To avoid disease outbreaks, a door-to-door vaccination is organised every year pre-floods, he said, Thereafter, camps are organised to create awareness against poaching and harming wild animals that are rendered vulnerable during the floods.

Moreover, when the floods hit, Section 144 is imposed along NH-37, speed limits are enforced and fines levied. Barricades are also placed to help animals cross over to Karbi Anglong. The efforts of the forest departments frontline staff become crucial during the season.

Over the years, another mitigation measure has been artificial highlands (111 in the Nineties, 33 in 2016-17) built inside the park for wild animals to take refuge in during the flood.

While these highlands have helped a fair bit in reducing the number of animal casualties during floods, some feel that it is not a permanent solution.

Animals do take refuge there especially rhino and swamp deer but it is not viable to build more highlands since such constructions will ruin the natural ecosystem, said Sarma, terming the highlands a temporary refuge. These 33 highlands cannot accommodate all animals of Kaziranga, and the older ones are more or less dilapidated, he said.

Editorial | Assams flood problem cannot be entirely blamed on vagaries of nature. It needs to jettison outmoded flood control measures

According to Honorary Wildlife Warden Saikia, some animals do not take to the highlands naturally. They have been migrating to natural highlands of Karbi Anglong for centuries; suddenly these artificial constructions do not inspire confidence, they do not find it secure, he said.

Experts believe that emphasis needs to be put on securing animal corridors and ensuring a safe passage to the Karbi hills.

To that end, a 35-km-long flyover constructed over NH-37 was proposed by the Centre in September 2019.

While this flyover will help, 35 km is a lengthy stretch and might take time to build, said Sivakumar, So the focus should be on doing it quickly, using modern technology that will cause minimal disturbance to the animals during construction.

In April 2019, the Supreme Court banned all types of mining and related activities along the parks southern boundary and in the entire catchment area of the rivers that originate in the Karbi Anglong hill ranges and flow into Kaziranga, as well as new construction activities in private lands on nine animal corridors.

Apart from facilitating safe and unhindered wildlife movement, Dr. Goswami of Conservation Initiatives recommends the need for a landscape-scale conservation approach that recognises the value of the Karbi Anglong hills to the south. Kaziranga, with its rich grassland habitats has a primary role to play in supporting these wildlife populations, but the highlands of Karbi Anglong, where these animals take refuge, are the lifeline of the park during the floods, he said.

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Explained: Why annual floods are essential for the survival of Kaziranga - The Indian Express

PC Ecosystem Is the Most Diverse- Xbox Chief Phil Spencer – Essentially Sports

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

New-gen consoles are closing in for an official release date. The gaming community is on the edge of their seats to hear the exciting news. However, both companies are taking different routes with their products. Xbox has a new way of looking at the market.

Microsofts Executive Vice President of Gaming and Xbox Chief Phil Spencer was in an interview with GamesIndustry where he addressed some rumored setbacks.

Frankly, held back is a meme that gets created by people who are too caught up in device competition. I just look at Windows. Its almost certain if the developer is building a Windows version of their game, then the most powerful and highest fidelity version is the PC version. You can even see that with some of our first-party console games going to PC, even from our competitors, that the richest version is the PC version. Yet the PC ecosystem is the most diverse when it comes to hardware when you think about the CPUs and GPUs from years ago that are there.

What Spencer said has been a long-debate in the world of gaming. PC is indeed a more powerful platform when compared to consoles. Spencer was of the opinion that players should applaud load times, frame rate, and input latency but all of that should not exclude people from being able to play.

The Xbox Chief also stated that the idea that developers dont know how to build games that work across different platforms do not hold any truth. He further says that the capability of PC to run any game and rival any platform is the proof for the said statement.

The experience while using the new Xbox Series X will no doubt be different. Spencer highlighted that people need to applaud the SSD, audio, frame rate, and other areas that everyone is working on.

We should applaud the work that is going on with the SSD, and the work that is going on with audio, to pick some of the areas that Jim [Ryan] and Mark [Cerny] and the stuff that [PlayStation] is focused on. We should applaud load times and fidelity of scenes and framerate and input latency. And all of these things that weve focused on with the next generation. But that should not exclude people from being able to play. Thats our point. How do we create an ecosystem where if you want to play an Xbox game, were going to give you a way to go play it?

The way that PC and Xbox platform works are totally different. But Spencer wants the community to understand how the market operates. The next-gen consoles will be a different landmark in gaming.

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PC Ecosystem Is the Most Diverse- Xbox Chief Phil Spencer - Essentially Sports

Here Are The Most Amazing Shots of the NEOWISE Comet – Futurism

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Comet C/2020 F3 better known as NEOWISE, for the Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope that first discovered it has came so close to Earth over the weekendthat its visible to the naked eye, blazing brightly over Northern skies. The rare event was captured on camera by amateurs and professionals alike from around the globe and the results are dazzling.

For instance, just check out this short video from the International Space Station.

The space rock was about 194 million miles from the Sun when first discovered in March, making it far too faint to see with the naked eye. But over the last few months, the comet has become far brighter as its approached.

On July 3, it was only 27.3 million miles (44 million km) from the Sun. To put that into perspective, the closest flyby of the Sun by an artificial object was NASAs Parker Solar Probe back in January, passing by our star at a mere 18.7 million kilometers.

In fact, the solar probe was able to get its own look at the comet on July 5, according to NASA.

Astronomers were concerned the comet would not survive such a close encounter, but as evidenced by this weekends sightings, it seems to be doing fine.

Its tail or coma is extremely visible, making it stand out against its predecessors, ATLAS and SWAN, as Space.com reports, which only had very faint paths of condensed heat following their paths.

While astronomers discover hundreds of comets every single year, every once in a while a great comet passes by our planet and appears considerably brighter. According to Space.com, the last comet that was of a comparable brightness was Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997.

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What an awe inspiring experience. A celestial visitor that has been around since the beginning of our universe. What stories it could tell, what sights it has beheld. How this cosmic being has brought humankind together. Regardless of race, color, sex, creed, age, profession, or any other distinguishing characteristics, we cannot help but gaze towards the heavens and become lost in its beauty. Take a minute to forget everything else going on right now. Just breathe, feel, love. We are all one world, never forget that. . . . Shot on the @sonyalpha A7RIV with the @sigmaphoto 105mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.4 Art lenses. . . #lestertsaiphotography #neowise #cometneowise #discoverwithalpha #sonyalpha #sonya7riv #sigmaart #mykgw #bbcearth #nationalgeographic #koin6news #fox12news #pnwphotographer #mthoodterritory #oregonexplored #pnwisbeautiful #pnwonderland #pnwadventurers #mthood #pnwphotography #portlandphotographer #pdxphotographer #pdxphotography #portlandphotography #comet #nightsky #myplanetdaily #earthfocus #keepportlandweird

A post shared by (@lestertsaiphotography) on Jul 11, 2020 at 1:44pm PDT

READ MORE: Comet NEOWISE could give skywatchers a dazzling show this month. Heres what to know. [Space.com]

More on comets: NASA: Something Is Off About This Interstellar Comet

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Here Are The Most Amazing Shots of the NEOWISE Comet - Futurism

6 Steps To Get You On Track Towards Financial Independence

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Financial independence is achievable, but you have to follow the steps to get there. These are the 6 steps to get you on track towards financial independence.Financial independence isnt the same thing as retirement.

Retirement means the end of your working life (although as people retire younger and live longer, the definition is changing). Financial independence means merely the end of mandatory work, semi-early retirement. Like Mr Money Mustache!

Financial independence means being able to do whatever you want in life without having to worry about money.

You get a new boss who is impossible to work with? Just quit.

Do you want to go back to school to become a teacher? Enroll!

Do you want to spend a year traveling the world? Pack your bags!

Do you want to start your own business? Start writing up a business plan!

You cant get there overnight. Achieving financial freedom takes the right planning and the discipline to stick to the plan even if things are sometimes harsh. It also means a lot of sacrifices. Your friends are taking exotic vacations, buying brand new cars, buying big houses with swimming pools and outdoor kitchens.

Youre staycationing. You drive a ten-year-old Toyota. Youre still living in the same apartment youve been living in since you moved out of your college apartment. You keep your annual spending low. You have a savings goal.

But all of the sacrificing is front loaded. When you get to the sixth and final step on this list, you will be free while all of those people youve spent years envying are chained in place by credit card debt, car loans, and a huge mortgage.

You in? Good, lets start right now. Here are 6 steps towards financial independence that you can follow to reach the freedom youve always wanted.

Getting control of your money is simple; spend less than you earn.

What are your monthly expenses? Some of us bury our head in the sand when it comes to our spending. Facing it can be scary but you must.

Next, you can set up a budget. A good rule of thumb is the 50/30/20 method to allocate your money. This will work well for most people, but remember, were trying to achieve financial independence here!

The more money you can save, the better. This allocation doesnt mean you have to spend the entire 50% on essentials. And if you have debt, swap the 30 and 20. Put 30% towards paying off debt (at least) and 20% for discretionary expenses.

Now set up your budget categories. It might take a few weeks or months of tracking to see your patterns, but it will be worth it.

Lets talk about debt. Every month it costs you money. You cant achieve financial independence if youre being held back by debt. Credit card debt is the most serious since it usually has the highest interest rate. Attack it with the snowball or stacking method.

Student loan debt can be refinanced with Earnest for a better interest rate which will save you thousands of dollars over time. Lending Club can do the same for any personal loan debt you have.

You must rid yourself of this debt as quickly as possible.

Its important to see your whole financial picture and our favorite tool to od this isPersonal Capital. Its free and will help you budget, manage your investments, plan for retirement, and calculate your net worth.

Link your financial accounts, and Personal Capital will pull in all of the information. This not only lets you see how much you make and spend, it shows you on what and gives you a 1,000-foot overview of your finances.

Having completed Step 1, we now understand where our money is going. Knowing is half the battle when youre working towards financial independence. The other half is slicing out the fat. No one becomes wealthy by spending all their money.

Cutting the fat isnt always easy but remember, we told you some sacrifices would be made. Once you trim your budget, youll see your money starting to pile up much faster, and youll see it was worth it.If it seems overwhelming, choose one category a week and focus on pairing that down.

Food is always a good place to start because so many of us overspend on it. Bringing lunch to work is an excellent first step. It doesnt have to be fancy at first, just make a PB & J.

Seeing how much youre saving each week will be an incentive to keep going and get a bit more creative when it comes to cutting expenses. Let Trim and Billshark do some of the heavy lifting.

Trim will cancel recurring expenses for things like subscription boxes, gym memberships, and music services. When youre striving for financial independence, these things are luxuries you can do without. I work out every day, and I dont belong to a gym.

Billshark will negotiate lower prices for things like your cable and internet bills. Although you should really cut the cord, no one watches cable anymore!

At some point, there isnt any more fat to cut so if you want to reach financial independence, youll have to make extra money.

Start where you are, ask for a raise. Go in prepared. Know how much people in similar jobs in areas with a similar cost of living are making on Glassdoor. Know the number you want. Lay out all of the reasons you deserve a raise.

If you dont get a deserved raise, start looking for another job. The average raise is a paltry 3% when you change jobs; the average increase is 15-20%.

Job hopping, long frowned upon is going to be a big part of your path towards financial independence. Those who dont change jobs requently make less money than their less than loyal colleagues. How much less?

The worst kept secret is that employees are making less on average every year. There are millions of reasons for this, but were going to focus on one that we can control. Staying employed at the same company for over two years on average is going to make you earn less over your lifetime by about 50% or more.

Americans watch an average of five hours of television a day, 35 hours a week which is nearly another full-time job! A criminal waste of time. Take some of those hours and use them to do something that will aid in your journey to financial independence.

Drive for Uber, babysit with Sittercity, sell stuff on eBay or Poshmark. Everyone should have more than one income stream, but that is doubly so for those trying to become financially independent.

At some point, you have no more time left that can be used to make more money. Youre working a regular job and have at least one additional income stream. We have to find ways to make money that dont require our time.

Thats called passive income, and one of the best forms of passive income is investing. When you invest your money, it makes money for you. You dont need a lot of money to start investing, but you will never have a lot of money if you fail to invest.

There are many ways to invest and build your nest egg opening retirement accounts like a Roth IRA or 401k, investing in the stock market, mutual funds, index funds, rental properties the list goes on.

Since we already have many great posts on investing were not going to go in depth here. Instead, we will leave you with links to our best beginner investment posts.

Everything in here is low risk and low effort. We want you to have the peace of mind knowing that your money is safe and growing while you focus on other important things like your family, Xbox, etc.

There are plenty of tools that you can utilize to help you smooth your path to financial independence.

The right tool for the right job will make things easier and allow you to monitor your progress.

These tools can budget for you, help regulate your investments automatically, find you savings when you do spend or even challenge you to increase your savings by rewarding you with cash for doing so!

These are our tried and tested personal finance tools.

Betterment is the ideal investing tool for beginners. You dont have to know anything about investing to get started, there is no minimum required to invest, and the fees are low.

Betterment is hands-off, there are no humans making investing decisions which might sound scary but 79% of human money managers dont beat the market.

AS we mentioned above, Personal Capitals software can help develop your long-term financial strategy calculate your net worth, set a budget, manage investment accounts, and plan for retirement.

Be sure to check out Personal Capitals Fee Analyzer. You can use a huge percentage of your retirement money to fees over time. Personal Capital can help you find and eliminate unreasonable investing fees.

Did you know that investors with 20% allocated to real estate outperform those who only invest in stocks and bonds? Youd love to do that, but you dont have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in real estate.

You are going to love Fundrise! Fundrise lets the rest of us get in on real estate investing too. You can invest for as little as $500. Fundrise has an impressive track record boasting anannual return of 12-14%.

If youre worried about liquidity, dont. Fundrise allows investors to liquidate any amount of their holdings quarterly.

For the full list of resources weuse to manage ourfinances,click here.

For people that are ready for a more hands-on approach (and a bit more growth potential), this section is for you!

It will take a bit more work than a set it and forget it strategy, but you dont need to be a rocket scientist to make gains here. Just remember, take the risks seriously.

When you are ready to further diversify your investments and take on a little risk, take a look at our list of the best Vanguard funds.

A retirement account is a tax-advantaged account. If you have retirement accounts (you should!), you can further maximize them. Gather up any 401ks from previous jobs and roll them over into an IRA. This allows you to consolidate retirement accounts, gives you more choice, and usually much lower fees.

And check out these super advanced (and super advantaged!) Roth strategies. Part of achieving financial independence will depend on how good you are at (legally) avoiding taxes. These strategies will help you do that.

If you want to live like most people cant, you have to be willing to do what most people wont. There will be times along the way when you want to give up. You want to do all of the things everyone else gets to do.

When you feel that way, just imagine what life will be like once youve become financially independent. You can do what you want to do when you want to do it.

No Monday morning dread, no depressed feeling when you realize your once a year vacation is almost over and you have to go back to real life soon. No going to a job you hate surrounded by people you cant stand. You have no debt keeping you up at night.

If you can stay the course and retire early, Im sure youll agree that once you reach financial freedom, it was all worth it.

If you want to read more, check out fatfire on Reddit and Mr. Money Mustaches blog. Lots of like-minded folks working towards financial independence.

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6 Steps To Get You On Track Towards Financial Independence

Hoping to Retire Early? DONT! Even if You Can – Yahoo News Canada

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Retiring early is the goal of everyone. Even when you were young, one day you knew youd be ready to retire and be able to do what you want, when you want. But can you?

As the years tick by, and that day seems closer, you begin to ask yourself whether you can retire early. Wouldnt that be great? Weve all heard the FIRE acronym: Financial Independence; Retire Early.

But there are a number of problems with early retirement, and its the reason you should ask yourself some hard questions before taking the plunge. After all, while it can be easy to jump into retirement, it can be incredibly hard to jump back out. So, before you retire, ask yourself these three questions.

Im sure you already have a goal in mind for how much you need to have before you retire. But is that number reasonable? In fact, did you decide that number when you were 30 and making $45,000 a year? Because now, youre more likely making even double that. Youve become used to a lifestyle that perhaps you simply cant keep upwhen you retire.

So, before you retire, take a hard look at what you really think youll want to spend on a regular basis. Youll need to be able to create a paycheque similar to the one you have now, combining your pension and savings all of it. And once that moneys gone, its gone. So, make sure you have a realistic goal that means you wont have to retire poor after living large.

Sure, we all plan to start up a hobby, travel the world, volunteer for charities. However, that can only take up so much time. Is it really that you just want to stop working? Digging even deeper, is it perhaps that you just dont want to work at the job you have now?

Instead of retiring all together, maybe its time for a career change. See if your savings can support the cost of perhaps starting up consulting, freelance projects, or a side gig of sewing sweaters for dogs. The world is your oyster! Once youre set up, then maybe its time to leave that old life behind and start a new one. While its far more freeing than the job you had before, youll still have money coming in.

Its nice to imagine that in the future, everything will be shiny and new. But life doesnt always work out that way. Anything can happen that suddenly affects your finances. Those numbers you worked so meticulously on suddenly make no sense at all.

Instead, all of these points mean you should be working towards the goal of financial independence, not the goal to retire. At what point do you think youll be emotionally, mentally, and even physically unable to work the way you are now? When that point comes, where will all your money be coming from? And what can you do to make sure you can continue to bring in money, even after 20 years of retirement?

To meet this goal, its important to meet with a financial advisor and come up with some options to invest in your future. By purchasing shares in steady stocks, you can bring in cash, even decades after you retire. Bank stocks are a great option, as each Big Six Bank has over a hundred years of steady growth and dividends that have grown year over year, sometimes even during severe economic downturns.

If youre looking for a great bank option, that will even give you strong dividend income during retirement, right now, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is an excellent choice. It has the highest dividend income, is a bargain share price, and has plenty of room to grow. Todays investors can lock in a 6.41% dividend yield. You can even use that income to put aside travel money. After all, just because you arent going to retire today doesnt mean you cant have fun!

The post Hoping to Retire Early? DONT! Even if You Can appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

The Hidden Toll of California’s Black Exodus – KQED

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

In adopted hometowns, Black Californians face newer, subtler forms of segregation. Old regimes of legal housing and job discrimination have given way to predatory loans, shifting patterns of disinvestment and flare ups of racism or violence in areas that once promised a level playing field, reports fromUC Berkeley,UCLAandsocial services groupshave found.

Now, as Black Lives Matter protests collide with anxiety about COVID-19sdisproportionate Black death tolland anxiety about a comingwave of evictions, at issue is whether these overlapping crises will accelerate Californias Black exodus or force a reckoning both inside and outside major cities.

Wilson had never been to Elk Grove before she moved there in 2002 to start a family. Shed never been called the n-word before she moved there, either.

By 2017, after years of working a day job in sales and doing hair late into the night, her own salon in Old Town Elk Grove was thriving. She went back to L.A. often to dream up business ideas with her sister and make sure her kids werent too far out of the loop on Black culture. But one day, a stylist at Wilsons salon found a note jammed in the door. It was riddled with racial slurs and said to get out soon.

It didnt make me want to leave, Wilson said. It made me want to force them to understand who I am, what Im about, and that I add value to this community just like everybody else.

In 2000, just before Wilson left L.A., California had the countrys second-largest Black population at more than 2.2 million people. But under the surface, a seismic shift was happening in where people lived, the opportunities they chased and the social networks they relied on.

After white flight, Black flight had accelerated in the 1980s. Outer suburbs like Palmdale, Antioch and Elk Grove saw exponential growth.

The state went from a high of 7.7% Black in 1980 to 5.5% Black in 2018, Census data shows, even as it added 15 million residents who were mostly Latino, Asian or multi-racial. Nearly 75,000 Black Californians left the state in 2018, according to a CalMatters analysis of federal estimates, compared to 48,000 Black people who moved in. The three most popular states for Black ex-Californians were Nevada, Texas and Georgia, reflecting both anational reversalof last centurys Great Migration and movement to emergingmiddle class hubsfor Black homeownership, education and entrepreneurship.

The first time Cierra Washington-Griffin left California was in 2010, when she was 23 and fresh off a breakup. Three days on a Greyhound from her hometown of Sacramento to Fort Benning, Georgia, gave her plenty of time to think about starting over.

Within a month, she had a car, a job at a hotel and a two-bedroom duplex that cost $450 a month a rapid shift to financial independence that had seemed impossible back home. She also didnt have to change her voice to sound white like when she applied for work in affluent California suburbs. It was just so much simpler there, said Washington-Griffin, now 33.

Her grandmother was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and she sees things differently. Barbara Washington followed family from St. Louis to California in the 1970s, at the tail end of the migration that brought hundreds of thousands of Black people to California from the South. Washington settled in Richmond, part of the Bay Areas jobs-rich former war corridor, a center of Black life forged by discriminatory housing practices.

Washington worked as a nurse, and by the time her children were having children in the 80s, the Bay Area seemed too fast. They moved to the cow town of Sacramento, and she never regretted moving to California.

We wanted something different for the kids, Washington said on a recent 100-degree day at a park in Elk Grove, where she moved after the house she rented in Sacramento was sold.

See, thats weird though, said Washington-Griffin, who moved back in last year with plans to leave again but now is unsure. I feel like its better out there, especially for people of color, in the South.

Her grandmother shook her head. I dont think so, she said.

Timing is everything in Californias winner-take-most economy. The longer it takes Black residents to cash in when times are good and the harder theyre hit when things turn bad, the wider the states racial wealth gap grows.

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The Hidden Toll of California's Black Exodus - KQED

Blockchain technology will remove barriers to instant international settlement – Banking Dive

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

HaohanXu is chief executive officer of Apifiny, a global trading and value transfer network. Views expressed are the author's own.

Barriers are springing up everywhere for remittance companies and banks. Overcoming obstacles to cross-border payments is especially daunting right now, with slow settlement times, high fees and fresh competition bringing new challenges.

COVID-19 has brought unwelcome complications to international settlement. The World Bank in April issued an alarming report: Its experts project global remittances to decline by roughly 20% in 2020 the sharpest drop in recent history because of the pandemic and resulting shutdowns. This means banks are losing business from a wide swath of society: employees ranging from seasonal workers to those who work for embassies, international organizations and foreign companies.

Adverse global conditions arising from the coronavirus have played a huge part in this disruption of international remittance growth. However, even a vaccine won't cure the challenges for remittances. If international workers must still pay high fees and endure long settlement times, they will forcefully demand better and more affordable services, and may actively explore alternative international payments solutions.

It's not too late for banking institutions to retain these customers. However, they must recognize the barriers preventing the execution of cross-border payments that are faster, more cost-effective and more reliable.

Banks and payments companies face two key international remittance roadblocks:

No global network.International payments are painful because no single global network or service exists for all banks participation that enables real-time funds settlement.

While the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) protocol is far-reaching, it is a messaging service and not a true banking network. A bank in one region can send a message to a bank in another with SWIFT, but they must have a bilateral arrangement or rely on other banks that have the relationships. SWIFT unquestionably improved on the lack of international coordination preceding it. However, its structure remains inefficient and convoluted, causing long settlement cycles.

This lack of a global settlement network carries higher transaction costs, too. The global average cost of sending $200 was 6.8%in the first quarter of 2020, according to the World Bank. In Sub-Saharan Africa, that cost is around 9% high enough to be a deterrent.

Outdated tech.Most banks'post-execution technology platforms are increasingly outdated. They also typically prove difficult and expensive to change. These platforms often comprise multiple interoperating systems including middle office, clearing and settlement, books and records, risk systems for securities processing, payment systems and general ledger processing.

As a result, banks must undergo high-risk, expensive, multiyear projects to elevate their processing platforms to modern standards.

Although clearing and settlement for securities differ from remittances, a closer look at securities settlement provides a window to how banks can revitalize remittances.

For securities, there is typically a central depository and a centralized clearing and settlement service such as The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) in the U.S. for the financial markets. Together, these two entities provide clearing, settlement and custody services for member firms, meaning all transactions from financial institutions and their counterparties must be submitted. DTCC is the custodian of the stock certificates and, via the Continuous Net Settlement process, it provides each member with a net obligation between counterparties that it's due to deliver or receive for each security, without physically transferring the stock certificates.

While this netting provides efficiency and reduces counterparty risk, it is a centralized process that takes two days in the U.S.

Member firms must also pledge capital or securities to cover for potential failures, tying up capital that could be deployed elsewhere. A major overhaul of DTCC technology would be required to enable real-time settlement.

DTCC is actively addressing that securities sector roadblock, evaluating distributed ledger technology (DLT)solutions that it hopes will significantly accelerate settlement for their industry. Dual DTCC initiatives Project Ion and Project Whitney have been announced to better integrate DLT with capital markets. DLT is a key component of blockchain, a rapidly maturing technology with the proven ability to execute peer-to-peer, direct-value transfer between parties for traditional assets like fiat currency, securities and commodities.

Blockchain technology is a leading candidate to sweep away the roadblocks noted above and many more in the drive to transform global settlement. It can enable banks to make transactions transparent to all relevant parties in minutes. The evolution of the financial account paradigm into the token paradigm via blockchain technology enables traditional assets like fiat currency, securities and commodities to be digitized as tokens. Blockchain technology can "mirror"virtually any asset for instantaneous value transfer between parties, with complete transparency.

This technology eliminates the need for much of the middle-office processing used to successfully confirm transactions and identities between parties. Real-time settlement reduces the need to spread reserves across multiple exchanges, optimizing capital utilization and reducing trading costs.

Banks and other parties to a transaction are ready to benefit from the next generation of blockchain-based solutions. The latest blockchain technology advancements are fully capable of creating a network that goes beyond simply being a messaging service like SWIFT to one that optimizes transactions using smart contracts to fulfill the settlement lifecycle. Participants on such a network can transact and have the transaction visible and settled between parties in minutes or even seconds instead of days, leading to significant increases in transparency and efficiency in step with cost reductions.

The banking industry could be on the verge of moving settlement to the next level. Transaction participants are hungry for a new kind of transparent, global 24/7 network boosted by seamless access and near-instant transactions for a fraction of today's costs. Banks must take courageous action to transcend the status quo. The speed, cost savings and customer satisfaction rewards of a blockchain-based settlement network will reward their bravery.

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Blockchain technology will remove barriers to instant international settlement - Banking Dive

What are the Pros and Cons of Blockchain? – CIOReview

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Danzig

Blockchain is a growing technology that as helped businesses helm their financial transactions and revolutionise the way they store data. However, it comes with its own list of pros and cons that firms must consider before implementation.

FREMONT, CA: The 21st century has primarily driven several technological practices, and the financial world is not necessarily untouched by it. Blockchain has emerged as a digital leader to cater to all kinds of transactional leads, offering a safe and secure harbor.

A blockchain is a tech tool that facilitates the transfer of digital currency, for instance, cryptocurrency, and other similar assets. It has played a pivotal role in advancing the usage and reach of cryptocurrency by offering multi-fold benefits.

Offers Transparency- It offers unique transactional transparency that is absent in traditional mediums, and is commonly termed as an "incorruptible digital ledger" or record. It paves the way for verification without the need to rely on external or third parties.

Maximum Trust Verification- All transactions and detailed parts of the block secured by protected cryptography shall take its entry only after the maximum trust verification. Every participant will have a say in what all recorded in the ledger. Additionally, there would not be an alteration in the data or deletion due to the append-only feature.

Decentralization- Another unique feature of blockchain is the decentralization of data, where data transactions are stores in millions of devices partaking in the chain. Therefore, recovering lost data is as easy as a breeze.

While there is an evident upside to it, blockchain comes with its fair share of drawbacks. Industry experts have pointed out that blockchains often become overhyped. Businesses are advised to strategically evaluate their company needs, to ascertain if blockchain is indeed feasible for them. Few might not even see the returns in the initial years.

Although it is far into the mainstream, blockchain should be not be trusted blindly. Even with a complex algorithm, there is always the chance that hackers can use the most advanced technologies. Sometimes the stored data might not be agreeable or trustworthy to all participants.

Although the pros outweigh the cons, the current market climate is still acclimating to the changes brought about by cryptocurrency. They are still restricted optimum exposure required for blockchain tools to thrive.