Ashes Of The Singularity: Escalation Will Get An Update In February – Bleeding Cool News

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Stardock Entertainment revealed this past week that Ashes Of The Singularity: Escalation will be getting a major update. It's been a long minute since we've heard anything about this game as it has been riding on only minor updates here and there. But nothing major has come down the pipeline in a while until this past week when the developers revealed that Version 3.0 is on the way. According to the announcement, this update is going to be a near-complete overhaul of the game's balance as they will leave very little of it as it once was. These changes will include units, buildings, orbital abilities, and more. It's not going to break the game (fingers crossed) but it will definitely change the way you see things and play it. We have more info on the update below as the update will roll out sometime in the month of February.

"Game balance is constantly a work in progress," said Brian Clair, the VP of Publishing for Stardock who worked extensively on the update. "This version is huge our major focus was to completely overhaul the game balance and optimize performance. GPUs and CPUs are constantly evolving. We wanted to make sure that the benchmark evolved with it. We removed redundant units and armies, revised to show more unit types, and updated camera views and positions for an overall better look."

Both game factions have had their units and buildings carefully balanced against each other. Rather than just adjusting hit points and unit cost, v3.0 focuses on giving each unit a unique role to play. The AI has also been updated significantly, which should provide players with new and exciting challenges when playing against a computer opponent. v3.0 brings a new benchmark, performance optimizations, and major improvements to visual effects. New maps, campaign adjustments, and much more are also included in the massive update.

Gavin is the current Games Editor for Bleeding Cool. He has been a lifelong geek who can chat with you about comics, television, video games, and even pro wrestling. He can also teach you how to play Star Trek chess, be your Mercy on Overwatch, recommend random cool music, and goes rogue in D&D. He also enjoys hundreds of other geeky things that can't be covered in a single paragraph. Follow @TheGavinSheehan on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vero, for random pictures and musings.

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GR Josh: Reading the grief – Greater Kashmir

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It is the pain and suffering that over shadows almost all human endeavours, and keeps the pot boiling for the endless stretch of agonies for mankind. The galleries of art, carvings on stones, and various other manifestations of human feelings and emotions paint the elegy of human suffering. Pleasure is an ephemeral break that fails to last long. Ghulam Rasool Josh, one of the remarkable modern poets of Kashmir, weaves his poetry around this phenomenon. Pain and grief constitute the major motifs of his poetics. He sings pain! He doesnt celebrate it though. He has a strong aspirational tendency that prevents him from acceding this pain as something divine and predetermined. Nevertheless, procrastination prevails his poetic discourse. He makes a bold confession to this cunctation:

Labi ander taam gashi zechun manz ti fehlay yoos

Shahre manz aaes baang dapan me oos gomut cheer.

In the interiors of walls I spread through rays of light

Adhan was raised in the city, and I was late!

Surprisingly when the stalwarts of Kashmiri poetry and his contemporaries explored the theories of aestheticism and pleasure in poetry, Josh maintains his singularity. When Prof. Rahman Rahi, an icon of Kashmiri poetry and mentor of Josh, could not escape the luring attractions of life and wrote:

Su golaab roie deuthum bay az golaab chavaan

Me chi ven misaalene manz rambe ven khayaal ravaan

Josh remained unmoved.

Yi chu Josh zindagi huend jate josh vuchni Aamut

Nate harde kale kansta tsaraan bahar aasiya

Josh has come to discern the glitter of life

could there be someone searching Spring in Autumn

Thus the themes of isolation and grief are very dominate in his poetics. They may not be radically new or exclusively his own, nevertheless his treatment and perennial association with these themes make him an out-standing poet of grief.

Brought up in the second half of the 20th century when the fabric of family and society was thinning away and individuality overtook all earlier corporate and social dimensions of society the poet laments the loss of human feelings:

Bihith majlisi ander kanh lari ne kaansay

Akis akh kun tavy kathe kari ne kaansay

Together, yet all apart from each other

None talks to each other now

Josh is an anti-romantic and an iconoclast who shatters all hypocrisy, and illusion by the rod of truth:

Faaqae het lukh intizaaras manz stagus kun vuchan

Ishtihaaras peth lekhith oosukh azab te dilberi

Starved souls waitingly looking at the Podium

The Poster had been printed on; penance and romance.

He propounds a realism that is unromantic and unsentimental and thus devoid of any great outburst of emotions and sentiments. As Emerson sets off his aims in poetry:

I will not read a pretty tale

To pretty people in a nice saloon

Borrowed from their expectation

But I will sing aloud and free

From the heart of the world

Josh sets to unpack the mysteries of the heart of the world. He unravels his loneliness that seems enveloping him day in and day out. In his poem Saffar Saffar Tanha he espouses:

Siriyes kariha kancha thour

Zameen ti nachiha ruch khand lot

Be ti dev labeha

Sani khamooshi manz

Ani gati

Pan ni tanhayee hund voont.

May someone shield the sun

May the earth slow her rotation

So I may find

In the deep silence

And utter dark

The depth of my loneliness

The depth is unfathomable and a mere material and physical outreach cant make the poet discover it. This loneliness is the common denominator of all mankind. An individual is caught in a fix in the modern age. As Firaq Gorakhpori puts it as:

Is door mai zindagi basher ki

Beemaar ki raat hogaye hai

The life of an individual in this age

Has become the night of a sick

Bade chi dapaan aasaar chi tith ven taraqee karo

Shure chi lamaan hagrus te dapaan hay rail vuchiv

Elders say that that signs of development there are

Street boys pull the cart and call it a rail!

The poet personifies the pain and agony outside and struggles against it. This struggle is painstaking and at times suffocating, however, the poet is not disappointed by such things. He says:

Chu ketihaan hoosh ravan yaam deshaan kainatek rung

Magar as Josh hoshus thaph kerith zagaan chu shaitaanan

Many lose consciousness at the sight of facets of the Universe

But Josh is now cautiously ambushing the Satans!

The socio-political injustices that have added miseries and woes of the masses disturb the poet. To deconstruct the power structure and outdo the authoritative establishments, the poet makes some daring choices. The poet, nevertheless, maintains his cool and saves himself from becoming a political sloganeer. He didnt let the poetry become subservient to physical and material needs. He didnt look down upon these needs though. He espouses the tyrant structures be pulled down with inteligence and inner power that every human being possess within. The poet laments all those structures that discourage the aspirational tendencies of mankind. He writes:

Sawala kor jawaba diyut te pake brounh

Vuniyuk taamuth dalaan chu ne ame neber kanh

Here is a question, there is an answer, and thus we move

Till now this is the limit of all the human movement

The poet is not, however, a Niobe figure. Niobe , as per greek mythology, lost all her sons to Leto. The poet, on the contrary, rises phoenix-like. Through out his ouvere he never succumbs, and surrender is never an option in the scheme of things he devises. He doesnt make his reader fall in a bottomless gorge. He finds him already fallen. He has his own approach to make him out and that is not self destruction or self annihilation. That is the Self Realisation! However, the journey to the Self Realisation is not an easy go. It needs a strong, unflinching and unwavering character that shall overcome all the miseries and challenges on this path. The development of such a character is evolutionary. The poet believes that there is a metaphysical and spiritual force that guides one in this voyage of self. This voyage demands Sacrifice. Sacrifice is an antithesis to Self Anhilation.

Yi chi aze kathe mashemech yi chu shooq raaase gomut

Nate wante cha yi mumkin Mansoor khasi ne daarus.

Its a forgotten tale and the Love has been eroded

Otherwise, is it possible that Mansoor kisses not the gallows

However, the poet doesnt ignore the physical dimension of being in this supernatural foray. He achieves the self realisation through this physical and material orbit.

Banan tufaan bazay shooq miyounoe

magar chapi tati panun zuu jaan dede

My longing turns at times into a storm

It needs my immolation though.

The poet undoes all these things with a cool mind. In this journey his register is marked with soberness and there is no sense of urgency unlike most of the reformists and revolutionaries. This journey is one of metaphysical and transcendental nature, thus free from any hubbub and bedlam.

This Realisation leads to Reconstruction. The Self-effulgent nature of human soul shall illuminate the darkness that prevents the soul to reach its perfection. This stage is one of utter celebration and utter joy. The Realisation does not land you into some Utopean landscape. It makes you to live and live with your physical self. However, an immense reservoir of spiritual strength makes you to undo all the rough edges. Josh writes in poemThor:

Zameen nachaan nachaan

Gov langi piyounta akh

Akhtabus thor

Te

Banev

Shehjar me kiyut

The Earth while on rotation

A mere twig became

A shield to the Sun

And

A shade for me.

Mohammad Shafi Rather is Lecturer in English, Govt Higher Secondary School Pakherpora.

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Thousands More Satellites Will Soon Orbit EarthWe Need Better Rules to Prevent Space Crashes – Singularity Hub

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In recent years, satellites have become smaller, cheaper, and easier to make with commercial off-the-shelf parts. Some even weigh as little as one gram. This means more people can afford to send them into orbit. Now, satellite operators have started launching mega-constellationsgroups of hundreds or even thousands of small satellites working togetherinto orbit around Earth.

Instead of one large satellite, groups of small satellites can provide coverage of the entire planet at once. Civil, military, and private operators are increasingly using constellations to create global and continuous coverage of the Earth. Constellations can provide a variety of functions, including climate monitoring, disaster management, or digital connectivity, like satellite broadband.

But to provide coverage of the entire planet with small satellites requires a lot of them. On top of this, they have to orbit close to Earths surface to reduce interruption of coverage and communication delays. This means they take up an already busy area of space called low Earth orbit, the space 100 to 2,000km above the Earths surface.

There are many issues associated with introducing this many satellites into orbit, from the dangers of space junk to obstructing our view of the night sky. But the shift toward mega-constellations is also a challenge for global space governance.

There are almost 3,000 active satellites in orbit around Earth today, and this is set to skyrocket in the coming years. The European Commission, for example, recently announced plans to launch thousands of satellites into orbit around Earth, adding to a growing list of planned mega-constellation launches.

As companies and governments around the world continue to pursue mega-constellations, it is critical that the governance framework is able to support the rise in activity. There are a number of important problems that need to be considered.

Satellites are regulated at the national level and through licensing, guided by the principles of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Though the terms constellation or mega-constellation are not found in the treaty, they are considered space objects, like all other satellites.

As procedures and regulations vary from country to country, the challenge is how to govern mega-constellations without creating legal fragmentation. It is imperative that the topic is discussed at the international level.

Yet currently, there is no legally binding definition for a satellite constellation, nor for the newer term mega-constellation. Exactly how many satellites make up a mega-constellation is unknown, and each country could consider the term to mean something different. Clarity at the international level could pave the way for creating guidelines specifically for mega-constellations, which could aid the safe and sustainable use of low Earth orbit.

Most satellites in low Earth orbit are operating between 600 and 800km above sea level. This is considered a congested area, as there are lots of satellites there already. Small satellites have shorter lifespans than the larger satellites, which typically orbit above low Earth orbit.

However, it can still take up to about 150 years for satellites to be removed, by re-entering the atmosphere and burning up, if they are about 750km above sea level. Some are removed purposefully, through controlled re-entry, and others are designed to fall in an uncontrolled way. Satellite and mega-constellation operators must consider ways of reducing the debris caused by these satellites above and beyond the usual procedure, in order to maintain a sustainable use of low Earth orbit.

Given the amount of future mega-constellations currently planned, the space around Earth termed low Earth orbit could easily become a limited resource.

This is not only true when it comes to physical space, but also radio use. To communicate, satellites use the radio spectrum. With the increase in mega-constellations, there is a danger of operators warehousing radio frequencies, stockpiling them before they actually need them.

To prevent this, a United Nations specialized agency for satellite radio spectrum use has recently updated its regulatory framework, dealing with the issue separately from other space regulation. Mega-constellations will be put on a flexible timeline, only being granted use of the frequencies they need at the time.

If low Earth orbit becomes overcrowded with satellite and mega-constellations, avoiding collisions will become more difficult. In September 2019, the European Space Agency had to fire the boosters on one of its satellites to get it out of the way of another satellite, otherwise the two wouldve collided.

As the orbit becomes more congested, there may be need for more collision avoidance maneuvers and better communication between satellite operators.

There are national endeavors, predominately in the United States, for satellite tracking and collision avoidance maneuvering. A system alerts satellite operators to potential collision paths and allows for course corrections where possible.

Hopefully, mega-constellations will be discussed by member states at the UN as soon as they are able to do so. Though work in the committee can be slow and highly political, international guidelines along with national licensing procedures need to add considerations for mega-constellations.

The benefits of constellations and mega-constellations in low Earth orbit for socio-economic and environmental purposes are great. Because of this, it looks likely that the numbers of constellations will increase in the near future. To make sure we avoid problems arising, the rules and definitions surrounding mega-constellations should be made clear, on an international scale.

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

Image Credit: Starlink Mission/Wikimedia Commons

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Epic Games Reveals The Mandalorian Mandos Bounty Mode for Fortnite – Superherohype.com

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Epic Games Reveals The Mandalorian Mandos Bounty Mode for Fortnite

It appears that Mandalores way has taken over theFortniteUniverse.In a recent press release, Epic Games announced a new limited time mode inspired byThe Mandalorian. For a week starting today, Mandos Bounty will allow the players tocompete with and out-hunt all their opponents. Things get interesting when a player becomes the lead, because thats when theFortnite version ofDin Djarinstarts the top player hunt. Should a player survive all his opponents including Mando and win the Victory Royale, he or she will receive a specially-forged Beskar Umbrella bearingthe signet of a clan of two.

Like in the TV series, players have to eliminate their Bounty Puck target tocollect galactic credits.The first one to reach the credit goal while keeping his or her three lives wins the match. And to immerse everyone even more into theStar Warsatmosphere, fans canvisit Kits new cantina on the Island, located in the desert. Epic Games has also released a funny Mandos Bounty trailer. You can see Peely gettingencased in carbonite after a close encounter with Mando.

Take a look at the video in the player here below.

Star Warsfans have been pleased since they heard that the Mandalorians skin had been added to the game starting with the fifth season of ForniteChapter 2. Of course,Din Djarin made his debut flanked by the ever-presentBaby Yoda, a.k.a. Grogu. InForniteChapter 2 Season 5, the story follows the Zero Point exposition, the extremely dense singularity in the game. Agent Jones has gathered some of the best hunters across all universes to prevent people from escaping the loop.

You can playForniteon PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The new Mandos BountyLTM is available from Feb. 2 to Feb. 9 at 9 a.m. ET.

Are you going to playMandos Bounty onFortnite? Let us know in the comments section below.

Recommended Reading:The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season One)

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The Astonishing Berlin Level in ‘Hitman 3’ Is a Landmark in the Series – VICE

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'Hitman 3' screenshots by author

I found Hitman 3 to be an uneven experience, but I cannot lie to you: theres one level thats got me excited enough to dive back into it over and over again. Club Hlle is a dance club thats tucked into the forest outside Berlin in the remains of a nuclear facility, and its an aberration of a map. But its this singularity, this weirdness among its cohort, that makes it something worth traveling back to over and over again.

Berlin just doesnt work like any other Hitman level. The first time you play it, youre not given targets that glow red through when you hit your investigative vision button. Instead, you have to simply wander through the level waiting to see if another assassin will be foolish enough to use their radio and give away their position. Thats because Berlin is a cat-and-mouse game. Youre hunting the people who have been sent to hunt you, and youre locked in this little cage where you can all ping-pong off each other until youve completed your mission of assassinating five of a possible ten opponents in the club and its surrounding facilities.

This works in the campaign. I found it exciting and thrilling, but like so many things in Hitman, this assassination mission takes on a whole new register when you revisit the location and start working on its challenges and different story missions that show off the whole level to you (something we talked about extensively in this episode of Waypoint Radio).

Er, uh, except that Berlin doesnt have any story missions. It does not have a mode of directing you around the level. You are entirely left to your own devices to discover the different ways of hunting down your enemies, and thats balanced by now being able to access their red highlights when youre using your Hitman Vision (I honestly have no idea what this ability is called, and I will never learn).

You still have challenges, though, and they give you strong hints about what you need to do in order to trigger some pseudo-story missions. A challenge to electrocute two assassins by using an EDM light show that has been overloaded with power gives you a sense that you need to be around the light show, but it doesnt give you any direct markers about what you need to accomplish, and I spent 30 minutes or more fumbling around a big, weird lighting setup to figure out what I had to sabotage and then, later, how I had to manipulate the music as a DJ to setup a perfectly...electrifying...crime.

There are more of these little situations. You can deliver food to a biker gang, and you can poison the fan system of a grow op. Theres a sword made of salvaged materials, and you can find that bad boy and start slinging it around. You can serve juice.

While all of these things are signaled in the challenges, how they are accomplished is all up for your personal discovery, and to me this makes Berlin a keystone map in the entire World of Assassination Trilogy precisely because it trusts that youve done all this enough that you can recognize opportunities without being directed to them. Watching a food delivery guy mill around talking on a cell phone is Hitmans visual rhetoric for something wild is possible here, and you need to see where it leads you. This is the freedom that I love so much about the Hitman games across the board. If you see something happening, you can probably intervene in it, and that is most often going to open up newer and weirder pathways of action or movement that will allow you to accomplish your goals in ways you might not have thought about.

And, you know, maybe thats not all that special across the trilogy. There have been plenty of moments of improvisation and opportunity-exploitation across these three games. But in a lot of ways, I feel like the Berlin levels hands-off approach and large number of targets is the apex of what Hitman is doing, and it would have made so much more sense as a big finale than the deeply disappointing train level that actually caps off the game. This trilogy ends in what is essentially a plodding score challenge, and it would have been so much more fulfilling to be given this strange social space, with its Florida Man, drug dealer, security guards, drug-dealing biker bros, and juice servers, and told to accomplish something complex and unguided. It would have felt like Agent 47 was really doing the damn thing.

That didnt happen, though, so instead we have this excellent little playground thats smack in the middle of the game. And I am so glad for it, because it really is a highlight for me, and I keep diving back in to see what other strange playthroughs I can accomplish after unlocking secret entrances and new starting points. I havent reached it yet, but I am eager to attempt the Terminator challenge in which Agent 47 takes on the whole level in a biker costume with a shotgun, warping two fictional worlds into each other with clothes and weapons.

Im sure that well see Agent 47 again sometime in the future, and Im hopeful for more Berlins. More small operations with complicated tasks, please, and fewer big missions with huge stakes.

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The Astonishing Berlin Level in 'Hitman 3' Is a Landmark in the Series - VICE

Design – Innovation and changing perspectives – Superyacht News – The Superyacht Report

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I am often asked the question as to what technical game-changing innovations are around the corner in the marine industry, be that in the superyacht, defence or commercial marine sectors. These questions tend to arise at the start of new projects, when the foundations of design intent are being laid, and how engineering will serve to deliver them.

We operate in a mature industry, where significant innovations have happened over a long period of time. Many have in fact come, gone and come back again. Some many times over, and with every cycle, are often even held up as new innovations. It would be slightly arrogant to suppose that further significant advancements are not there to be innovated; however, the reality is that innovation is (in the main) incremental and progressive in nature.

I would suggest that asking such a question is to only see part of the answer. We live in a period where change is accelerating, both in a technical and social context. I for one enjoy, in my world of engineering, this pace of change; I enjoy that capitalism drives the search for a competitive edge, which in turn drives the advancement of knowledge and progress. There is a theory called the Technology Singularity, which suggests that eventually the pace of change will be so advanced that it will happen instantaneously.

Whether or not you believe in that being possible, we all experience that change (driven by innovation) finds its way to market at an increasingly faster rate. Consumer products that would typically have had several product generations on the same fundamental platform are now achieving market penetration at an accelerated rate, in turn driving a faster market response and a rapid need for the next generation product.

However, there is a problem with comparing superyachts with the generalities of consumer products. We are building artisanal products (on a grand scale perhaps), mostly all unique prototypes, in a very niche market, with multiyear delivery timescales. Our throughput is tiny by comparison. The result of this is that progress will continue to be incremental. We should embrace that, because it will drive investment in a long-term view.

But is our industry responding to change in the right way? We seem to be selling pretty much the same product we were 10-plus years ago. Many are significantly better, in design, engineering, materials and quality terms, but in essence its the same. Are we limited by the incremental pace of innovation in our industry?

The seemingly frustrating technological limitations of the present should force us to reflect on our actual needs, and whether our perceived needs are based on real facts or ingrained paradigms.

The seemingly frustrating technological limitations of the present should force us to reflect on our actual needs, and whether our perceived needs are based on real facts or ingrained paradigms. Change the question and perhaps we can answer it well with the technology we have today, and better serve the real needs of our customers, while advancing science and engineering and driving progress.

To give this some context, lets look at some ingrained paradigms. Yachts have developed over many centuries; today, we have some broad labels we apply, principally motoryacht and sailing yacht. Our industry has certain narratives around each type of vessel; the customers who might buy them and what they might enjoy about them. Alongside this, we point to certain specifics and hold them up as the future, such as hydrogen and other alternative fuels for example.

Imagine now a world with no ingrained paradigms. A yacht is a yacht, if you want carbon neutral propulsion, then that technology exists in the wind. Go apply it. Dont misread me, I am not promoting sailing yachts (although that is a passion), I am promoting adjusting our perspective. Perhaps the next game-changer lies not in what answer we are going to apply to our existing question; the game-changer may lie in looking at the whole question from a different perspective.

The challenge here is making it compelling in the market, because it is unlikely to sit well with the majority who wear the spectacles of existing beliefs and perceptions. Taking this example, why cant we make sail a compelling proposition to those who see a focus on zero emissions? The answer is not to sell them a sailing yacht. Im not sure what the answer is, but it will lie in act of innovating.

Of course, this is a fairly fluffy cloud example. In the real world our clients do have ingrained paradigms. They know what they want (largely) and while wanting to be unique they dont want to be the wildcard. But it serves to highlight that not all innovation lies in new answers. It equally lies in new questions as well.

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Planet Earth Report –"ET Visitation Hypothesis Creates a Crisis in Science to Age of ‘Technosignatures’ is Dawning" – The Daily Galaxy…

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Planet Earth Report provides descriptive links to headline news by leading science journalists about the extraordinary discoveries, technology, people, and events changing our knowledge of Planet Earth and the future of the human species.

Astronomer Avi Loeb Says Aliens Have Visited, and Hes Not Kidding In conversation, the Harvard University astrophysicist explains his shocking hypothesisand calls out what he sees as a crisis in science, reports Lee Billings for Scientific American.

How Universes Might Bubble Up and Collide What lies beyond all we can see? The question may seem unanswerable. Nevertheless, some cosmologists have a response: Our universe is a swelling bubble. Outside it, more bubble universes exist, all immersed in an eternally expanding and energized seathe multiverse, reports Charlie Wood for Nautil.us.

New Liquid AI Learns Continuously From Its Experience of the World, reports Singularity Hub. For all its comparisons to the human brain, AI still isnt much like us. Maybe thats alright. In the animal kingdom, brains come in all shapes and sizes. So, in a new machine learning approach, engineers did away with the human brain and all its beautiful complexityturning instead to the brain of a lowly worm for inspiration.

A new frontier is opening in the search for extraterrestrial life, reports astrophysicist Adam Frank for The Washington Post. The reason we havent found life elsewhere in the universe is simple: We havent really looked until now. Something remarkable is happening in the science of life and intelligence beyond Earth. The age of technosignatures is dawning.

The missing link that triggered the ice ages -Melting icebergs from Antarctica are the key, according to a new study, reports Science Norway. Researchers have suspected that the Southern Ocean and Antarctica were crucial to global climate, but this has not been documented in the geological data until now, according to Margit Hildegard Simon, a researcher at Norce, the Norwegian Research Centre.

Building a Higgs Factory the highest priority collider after the LHC, reports CERN. Despite this great success, the Higgs boson is connected to many of the most troublesome aspects of the Standard Model. It is for this reason that the recently concluded update of the European strategy for particle physics advocated an electronpositron Higgs factory as the highest priority collider after the LHC, to allow detailed study of this novel and unique particle.

Did a Supermassive Black Hole Influence the Evolution of Life on Earth? asks Harvards Avi Loeb for Scientific American The idea isnt as crazy as it might sounds. Traditionally, the Sun was thought to be the only astronomical source of light that affected life on Earth. But it is also possible that the black hole, SgrA* played an important role in shaping the history of terrestrial life.

The Enduring Mystery of Earths Water New clues have emerged about exactly where your last drink came from, reports astrophysicist Caleb Scharf for Scientific American.

How to redesign COVID vaccines so they protect against variantsLineages that can evade immunity are spurring vaccine makers to explore ways to redesign their shots, reports Nature.

Why Anthropology MattersIts the antidote to nativism; the enemy of hate; a vaccine of understanding, tolerance and compassion tha

Orca Outcasts Is Now Dominating an Entire SeaKiller whales that feast on seals and hunt in small packs are thriving while their widely beloved siblings are dying out, reports Katherine Gammon for The Atlantic.

No Trees Harmed: MIT Aims to One Day Grow Your Kitchen Table in a Lab,reports Singularity Hub.MIT researchers will soon publish a paper describing a proof-of-concept for lab-grown plant tissues, like wood and fiber. The research is early, but its a big vision. The idea is to grow instead of build some products made of biomaterials.

Parisians want to recover a legendary river now buried under concreteThe Bivre flowed through Victor Hugos Paris. Conservation efforts may bring the historic river back, reports National Geographic.

The Complete Morons Guide to GameStops Stock Roller Coaster, reports Kyle Orland for Ars Technica. The WallStreetBets subreddit (WSB) describes itself as like 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal, and thats not a bad description. WSB is a generally disorganized mess of posters throwing up memes and slang that can be hard to parse for an outsider. At the center of it, though, are members who analyze the market for opportunities so they can try to rally the subs millions of subscribers (2.9 million as of this writing) to a potential value play.

The Galaxy Report brings you exclusive, twice-weekly news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.

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Ctrl IQ debuts solution for performance intensive workflows – KMWorld Magazine

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Ctrl IQ, Inc. is officially unveiling its first full technology stack that merges the key capabilities of enterprises, hyper-scale, cloud, and high-performance computing (HPC).

Founded to meet the growing global demand for securing and orchestrating computational-intensive workflows, Ctrl IQs multi-cloud, multi-site, and performance-focused orchestration solution opens access to artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, and scientific workflows everywhere, according to the vendor.

Machine learning, artificial intelligence, scientific computing and large-scale data analytics common in research and HPC are becoming a requirement in enterprise, said Gregory Kurtzer, founder and chief executive officer at Ctrl IQ, Inc. Ctrl IQ was founded to integrate key capabilities in enterprise, hyper-scale, cloud and HPC technologies necessary for performance-intensive workflows. Were thrilled to be introducing orchestration that is intelligent, secure and performance-focused and accessible everywhere, from onsite to the cloud to the edge, and across multiple architectures.

Ctrl IQ was formed by Kurtzer, high performance computing (HPC) veteran and creator of open source projects CentOS and Rocky Linux, and debuts with $4 million in Series A backing from OpenDrives Inc. and IAG Capital Partners.

Ctrl IQs fully supported technology stack was created to accelerate speed and efficiency of multi-prem, multi-cloud, multi-architecture orchestration of workflows. The solution fits within existing enterprise architecture and infrastructures, and will include:

With experience rooted in performance and security, Kurtzer architected the technology for HPC and scientific computation groups at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and UC Berkeley. He also founded Warewulf and Singularity, in addition to CentOS and Rocky Linux. Kurtzer is joined by former Dell Inc. technologist Robert Adolph as VP of Strategy and Business Development, in addition to a software and architecture team with expertise in HPC and cloud architectures.

Ctrl IQ is currently working with customers and organizations in the military, aerospace, chip manufacturing, national labs, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and enterprise organizations. Demos and early build-outs are available starting today.

For more information about this news, visit http://www.ctrliq.com.

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Reddit’s WallStreetBets is back, taking on GameStop stock after intentional lockdown – CNET

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One of Reddit's most active communities is no longer public.

For the past week, Reddit's r/WallStreetBets community has been the center of an epic war between large Wall Street investors and small-scale social media betters. On Wednesday evening, the community reeled from seeing the subreddit locked and hidden, only to be made public again about an hour later. Meanwhile, chat app Discord has banned WallStreetBets outright.

Around the same time,spooked investorsappeared to dump GameStop and AMC shares the community had been buying up to take on people betting against the company's futures.

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Then, as suddenly as everything began, the subreddit came back, a new Discord community was formed, and others bought in to the stocks, sending AMC and GameStop prices back up.

OK.

If all this is confusing, don't feel bad. These fast and dramatic moves are happening amid one of the most dramatic weeks on Wall Street in years. At stake are millions of dollars that small-time investors working together on social media have made while taking on Wall Street investors who bet GameStop and AMC stock would plummet. Instead, as the two company's stocks have soared, the Wall Street investors have reportedly hemorrhaged billions of dollars.

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As the drama unfolded from the Discord ban and the Reddit community going on lockdown, GameStop shares fell 32% in after-hours trading late Wednesday, to $218.32 per share, down from $347.51 at their close. During the day, they'd more than doubled. AMC shares also fell, dropping more than 40%, to $11.90 per share, after closing at $19.90. That stock had risen more than 301% during the day.

Both stocks have recovered somewhat, and the r/WallStreetBets community is back. If you'd taken an hour and a halfto watch Pixar's new movie, Soul, you'd have missed it.

Though GameStop shares have been jumping in recent days, analysts and experts say they're doing so because of quirks in the market and not because of actual increased value for the struggling video game retailer. The same is true for the movie theater chain AMC, which had warned it was near bankruptcy late last year.

All this wasn't the only bad news for the WallStreetBets community. Its worst community members, who repeatedly broke Discord's rules, caused the group to be banned from the platform, the chat app company said in a statement. "Today, we decided to remove the server and its owner from Discord for continuing to allow hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings," Discord said. It added that the ban had nothing to do with any talk of finances or stock that happened among WallStreetBets users.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla who's helped to drive attention to the GameStop stock madness, tweeted his disappointment with Discord Wednesday.

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Heres how Lansing Economic Area Partnership plans to help the BIPOC community – WLNS

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Posted: Feb 3, 2021 / 09:59 AM EST / Updated: Feb 3, 2021 / 10:01 AM EST

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)The Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) is creating a new department to expand opportunities for low-income people that are primarily Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).

The new department will be called the Department of Equitable Economic Planning (DEEP).

Prioritizing the empowerment of historically disenfranchised communities does more than elevate those communities circumstances, said Tony Willis, the person selected as the Chief Equity Development Officer to lead DEEP.

Strategically infusing equity into economic development practices grows quality jobs and increases entrepreneurship, ownership and wealth while increasing profit opportunities for our businesses, which in turn cultivates a stronger, more competitive economy on the whole, Willis said.

Investing in equity practices just makes good economic sense. Since 2000, the United States economy lost an estimated $16 trillion due to discrimination, according to a September 2020 study byCiti Group. By addressing the racial wealth gap by 2028, U.S. GDP would grow by an estimated $1.5 trillion, or 6% of its current level, according to an August 2019McKinsey report.

Currently, LEAPs equity-focused programming includesOne and All, an inclusive entrepreneurship initiative launched in 2020 andThe Hatchingbusiness pitch competition series. Together these programs aredesigned to increase successful entrepreneurship and small-business ownership among historically underrepresented populations and those who are struggling to maintain a basic cost of living and are open toresidents of Clinton, Eaton, Ingham and Shiawassee counties.

Additionally, LEAP staff participates in a diversity, equity and inclusion training pilot program at Lansing Community College, which began in January 2020.

In its first year, DEEPs strategic goals include plans to support the conversion of existing DBAs to LLCs andhelp support and reconstitute business organizations within the Black and Hispanic community;revising and improving LEAPs existingdiversity statement, which is readopted and signed by LEAPs board of directors each year; creating a comprehensive application, review and award process for LEAPs annual Diversity Star Award program; and developing a strategic approach to seeking grant funding to increase capacity for long-term goals and future programming.

Long-term goals for the department include programs to strengthen business ownership, from supply chain advancement to cooperative creation; community empowerment and economic development education; and advocation for and implementation of progressive business policy.

Addressing systemic inequitybeginsby just getting started, said Willis. As an organization and as a community, theres much work to be done. The creation of DEEP represents an important, intentional step to more vibrant, equitable communities that truly represent our vision of stronger together.

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CoLab – Middlebury College News and Events

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CoLab cultivates relationships between neighboring universities and communities to collaboratively address complex local problems through research, professional development, resource mobilization, and jointaction.

We explorehow higher education institutions can have meaningful, long-term engagements to better serve their local communities. Our vision is aMonterey County in which communities and neighboring universities co-create knowledge that promotes equity, that advances social justice, and solves localchallenges.

In addition to the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, our current higher education collaborators includeCalifornia State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB).

CoLab prioritizes the following values in ourprojects andpartnerships:

Community members, faculty, and students from local universities leverage their respective strengths and experiences to create change and positively impact theircommunities.

We understand and honor that expertiseknowledge of root problems and their solutionslies equally in communities and universities. CoLab creates conditions to join these perspectives so that partners see each other as assets for achieving mutually agreed upongoals.

We recognize that understanding and confronting complex challenges takes time. At the heart of CoLabs work is an emphasis on building trust, exercising transparency, and cultivating mutually-beneficial relationships between community partners anduniversities.

CriticalAction

Colab projects are intentional. Partnerships result in useful and tangible outcomes from the perspectives of everyoneinvolved.

Ourfirst iteration is in partnership with the City of Gonzales. The Gonzales CoLab supports and builds on the innovative, youth-centered community-building processes currently underway in this small, rural community of 9,000 residents in MontereyCounty.

The Gonzales CoLab will mobilize higher educations research, data-gathering, analysis, and interpretation resources to strengthen the decision-making processes, quality, and positive impact of programs in Gonzales. The primary goal is to engage in collaborative inquiry to a) analyze and reflect on current efforts, and b) make changes that enhance the communitys capacity to be more thoughtful and grow from their experiences in publicinnovation.

In addition, the higher education partners will be able to identify and bring into the conversation other best practices from communities across the country and across the globe, who are similarly experimenting with innovative approaches to community-building and to enhancing the quality of life for theirresidents.

CoLab will bring students from the Middlebury Instituteand CSUMB to Gonzales as collaborators and research assistants. The presence of young college students will help connect the dots, in a very personal and human way, between the youth of Gonzales today, and their own future as college graduates andprofessionals.

For more information,visit the CoLab site.

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Wellness real estate software market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7% over the forecast period (2019 2027), owing to the rising investment…

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Rising consumer demand for wellness lifestyle real estate and communitiesin the recent past has aided the global wellness real estate software market in the recent past and is expected to continue the same trend over the forecast period. People are getting gradually aware about the impact of lifestyle and social factors on their well-being. Wellness real estate services are developing to enable healthier lives for individuals and communities. It comprises of various components, of which the primary types are wellness lifestyle estate and wellness communities. This industry is an evolving industry which identifies the potential to meet immense health challenges. Many activities like green and sustainable building movement, urbanism and intentional communities among others are being modified and executed in different ways into a novel and forthcoming wellness-focused real estate projects. Global wellness real-estate mainly includes investments, buildings, transactions, single family and multi-family housing. It also includes houses that are constructed beside destination spas, wellness retreats and hospitality projects.

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The need for wellness industry has been increasing day by day. The rising need for wellness establishment leads to the increasing demand for the wellness real-estate software in the market. Decades back, wellness buildings were normal buildings to stay, isolated and included care takers. After the outbreak of technology, the demand for wellness-based technologies steeply rose, which paved way for wellness real-estate software market. A major factor that drives the market is the changing attitude of people towards wellness institutions. On earlier days, people considered wellness real estate building for treating people who were affected by mental illness. Nowadays, modern working environment resulted in creating huge work pressure among the employees which forced them to adopt the wellness mechanism. It boosts the demand for the wellness real-estate software in the market. The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) claims that residential real estate will be a major trend that is drastically evolving throughout the wellness industry. Rising market share for tech companies in the real estate sector is creating a major revolution in the market. Even though technology has not completely consumed the wellness real estate sector, rising advancements in the technologies is driving the wellness real-estate software market. The market has also witnessed huge investments in real estate software. Its majorly due to the limited number of companies in the market which further attracts new investors due to the untapped potential within the market. Investment has followed in suit with over $2.2 billion in 97 modern wellness startups globally.

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In terms of revenue, global wellness real estate software market was valued at US$ 458.6 million in 2018 and is expected to reach US$ 835.5 million by 2027, growing at an estimated CAGR of 7% over the forecast period (2019 2027). The detailed research study provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of wellness real estate software market. The market has been analyzed from demand as well as supply side. The demand side analysis covers market revenue across regions and further across all the major countries. The supply side analysis covers the major market players and their regional and global presence and strategies. The geographical analysis done emphasizes majorly on the different geographical regions world wide

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From the in-depth analysis and segregation, we serve our clients to fulfill their immediate as well as ongoing research requirements. Minute analysis impact large decisions and thereby the source of business intelligence (BI) plays an important role, which keeps us upgraded with current and upcoming market scenarios.

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Healthcare experts work to overcome vaccine fears and doubts – AZ Big Media

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As the daughter of a medical technician, Hanna Hyland was raised to put her faith in science. But Hyland, 18, also was raised as a person of color in a country with a healthcare system marred by historic instances of racism. When it comes to deciding whether to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or not, the latter and vaccine fears for others is winning out, for now.

As an Asian American, I know the United States has had no issue with lucrative testing in marginalized groups, said Hyland, a freshman at Mesa Community College. I have never had an issue with getting any sort of vaccination. In fact, I think getting fully vaccinated is important to personal safety and to protect those around you, but I am skeptical about this vaccine for many reasons.

Those reasons vary, but center on examples of medical experimentation on people of color starting withnonconsensual surgeriesperformed on slaves in the U.S., the Tuskegee syphilisstudiesin which Black men went untreated for decades so researchers could observe the diseases progression, and the covert biological warfareresearchthe Japanese army conducted on Chinese civilians in the 1940s.

Hyland isnt alone in her vaccine fears and worries. As the nation undertakes an enormous vaccination effort to combat a disease that has cost the lives of some 450,000 Americans, medical experts are working to overcome skepticism andmisinformationprompting some to think twice about getting the shots from false claims the vaccines can cause infertility to concerns that they were approved too quickly to be safe.

Hyland said she considers these first vaccinations a test trial, one that can be used to later develop the vaccine.

There are many COVID strains and mutations that have not been accounted for, so as progression of the virus continues, I am sure a more accurate vaccine will come out, she said.

In a survey released Jan. 27 by theCensus Bureau, 51% of adults who had not yet gotten a COVID-19 vaccination said they planned to. Those numbers varied by age, race and ethnicity, however.

Although Black, Native American and Latino people all are more likely than white people to contract the virus, just 47% of Hispanics and 30% of Blacks in the survey said they would get vaccinated, compared with 55% of whites.

A Kaiser Family Foundationanalysisof the most recent available data finds that vaccinations of people of color appear to be lagging behind those of whites. As of Jan. 19, 17 states were publicly reporting vaccination data by race or ethnicity. Among Black people, the share of vaccinations was smaller than their share of cases in 16 states and smaller than their share of deaths in 15 states.

Similarly, Hispanics accounted for a smaller share of vaccinations compared with their share of cases and deaths in most states reporting data. In contrast, vaccinations among white people were higher than their share of the total population in most states.

The Arizona Department of Health Services doesnt report vaccination data by race and ethnicity. When asked why, or whether the department plans to in the future, a spokesperson declined to comment.

As of Feb. 2, an estimated 700,000 vaccine doses have been administered across the state, and about 100,000 people or just more than 1% of the states population have received both shots, according to theDepartment of Health Services.

Gov. Doug Ducey last week issuedan advisoryaiming to speed up the pace, as experts believeat least 80%of people in the United States need to get vaccinated to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

More and more organizations across the country have begun answering the call to promote vaccination.

On Jan. 22, theMayo Clinichosted a free virtual town hall to build trust around vaccines and debunk the myths and misconceptions around COVID-19 in minority communities. Experts on the panel said the best way to minimize fear is for medical professionals to listen to peoples concerns and connect them with correct and accessible information.

We have to be transparent with people, we have to talk about stuff, but we always have to start by listening, understanding and trying to correct the distortions that people may be having, said Dr. Francisco Moreno, professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizonas College of Medicine.

Dr. Juan Gea-Banacloche, an infectious disease expert at the Mayo Clinic who served on a federal advisory committee that reviewed the Pfizer vaccine, said during the town hall that although vaccine data is limited, the efficacy and the benefits clearly outweigh any risks.

You may feel very tired, you may have a headache, you may be unable to function at work for one day, but those are effects that usually last for 24 hours and they typically resolve within three days, Gea-Banacloche said, adding that those side effects of the vaccine are nothing compared with even a mild case of COVID.

The vaccine is just as effective in people of color, he said, noting that the process around authorization has been extremely transparent and that clinical trials included people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.Pfizerreports 26% of participants in its vaccine trials identified as Hispanic or Latino and 10% as Black.

Its very important to be aware that nothing has been under the table in the authorization of these vaccines, Gea-Banacloche said.

In an interview withArizona Horizon, Gea-Banacloche added there has been a big effort on the part of the federal government to make vaccine information available to those who dont speak English; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasfact sheetsin more than 20 languages.

Charlene Tarver, head of theBlack Arizona COVID-19 Task Force, said racist incidents of the past have dramatically decreased the willingness of people of color to participate in the vaccine process and that without more comprehensive outreach, they wont be signing up.

Given historical disparities and distrust there needs to be a much more intentional strategy around how to educate communities of color about COVID-19, about what the public health aspect of this looks like and how the vaccination would roll out, and I think we missed the mark on that, she said.

I think that there needs to be a much more intentional public health campaign across the state that speaks to the concerns and challenges of those communities.

That can start at home, Ivan Porter, a nephrology specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, said in the town hall, noting that everyone has an individual responsibility to protect those they care about through education and partnership.

We have to concentrate on the data that we have, Porter said. It is OK to be afraid about what we dont know, but that doesnt mean we can ignore the data thats in front of us. That is what we know.

Story by Jamie Landers, Cronkite News

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Indigenous Tourism BC crafts new plan to help businesses survive the pandemic – Vancouver Is Awesome

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Indigenous Tourism BC has announced a three-year strategy to help hundreds of businesses get through the pandemic.

Indigenous businesses across British Columbia struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic will have continued support this year and into the future.

Indigenous Tourism BC has just announced a new three-year strategy geared towardhelping businesses survive the pandemic, as well as an additional $5 million in funding for extra grants this year.

The Indigenous Alignment Strategy, 2021-2024, aims to rebuild and grow the provinces Indigenous tourism sector after many businesses, especially those in remote areas, were devastated by shifting travel patterns and lost expenditures from Canadian and international markets.

Destination BC has estimated B.C.s $21.5 billion annual tourism industry may see a reduction down to$6.7 billion in2020 results, or a 67 per cent drop, becauseofthe pandemic.

For indigenous businesses, the impact has been huge.

A survey of ITBCstakeholders shows that 91 per cent of businesses have been forced to close or operate in a limited capacity, while 74 per cent have laid off employees.

Brenda Baptiste, chair of ITBCs board of directors, said the new planwould refocusits previous Pulling Together corporate strategy by targeting areas that will have the biggest impact on recovery and growth for businesses and First Nation communities.

Looking ahead, we are making space for recovery and continuing to rise together, with our actions being very intentional to support Indigenous tourism businesses and communities to succeed, she said.

The Alignment Strategy enables us to build on their support and carve a path for a new generation of business leaders, so we can emerge stronger than ever before.

The strategy has six short term goals to help reimagine and reinvent the post-COVID-19 tourism economy.

The goals include putting programs and tools in place to ensure the survival of 400 Indigenous tourism businesses across the province; further stakeholder engagement and strengthening of relationships; supporting businesses in adopting a digital marketing plan; an increased focus on domestic markets; and working to develop new Indigenous tourism experiences to entice future visitors.

On top of this, Baptiste said the strategy has tactics to directly support stakeholders through funding programs, training and skills development, foundations classes and roundtable discussions.

In the past year, ITBC has distributed close to $6 million of non-repayable grants, with funding support from the provincial government, to Indigenous businesses and has announced a further $5 million in grants through the BC Indigenous Tourism Recovery Fund, in partnership with Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sportthis month.

The fund will provide non-repayable grant contributions of up to $45,000 to eligible Indigenous tourism businesses.

Local businesses continue to struggle and Indigenous businesses are particularly vulnerable, as the majority are small-to medium-sized enterprises that face unique challenges accessing loans or credit, said Baptiste.

An extra $45,000 can go a long way in bridging the gap between the slower winter season and planning for the busier summer, and we hope this funding enables Indigenous tourism businesses across B.C. to continue operating as we move through recovery.

She saidIndigenous tourism businesses on the North Shore have benefited from ITBC'sfunding and marketing programs this past year.

One of the biggest challenges for Indigenous tourism moving forward right now is theIndigenous tourism businesses located on the North Shore have benefited from our funding and marketing programs this past year. uncertainty of when normal travel will resume, explained Baptiste.

With the uncertainties around the pandemic, it is unclear when people will be able to travel within B.C. and to B.C., she said.

As well, for many Indigenous tourism experiences, the international markets are key to the survival of their operations. Shifting from international to domestic can be a challenge in such a short time.

If businesses cannot run their operations due to travel restrictions, they need to receive financial support to ensure their survival. ITBC is thankful for the funding contributions from our partners to support the Indigenous tourism businesses thus far, but more funding will be needed if travel cannot occur in the near future.

While its been an extremely tough year for many businesses, Baptiste said a positive hasbeen seeing a bigger focus on supporting local and sustainable tourism.

The pandemic has made many reflect on what is important, and how much we rely on each other, she said.

Once tourism re-opens, we suspect travel will be more deliberate with a much more pronounced trend towards eco-tourism which is crucial for our communities, and sustainability.

Business owners looking for help, can take part in ITBC bi-weekly roundtable discussions andfind a wealth of information for support at the ITBC Corporate website.

The federal government is offering small and medium-sized Indigenous businesses support through a number of avenues including,Canada's COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, theIndigenous Community Business Fund, and theIndigenous Tourism Stimulus Development Fund.

ElisiaSeeberis the North Shore News Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by theLocal Journalism Initiative.

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4 Times Rihanna Showed Solidarity for Social Movements Around the World – Global Citizen

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Why Global Citizens Should Care

When Rihanna isnt selling out her beauty and clothing brands, or inspiring viral memes, shes using her platform to highlight the worlds most pressing social issues.

The superstar shared a CNN article about the escalation of a months-long protest staged by Indian farmers in New Delhi in a now widely shared tweet on Tuesday. Why arent we talking about this? she asked, adding the hashtag #FarmersProtest.

Rihannas post received backlash from pro-government supporters while other Indians applauded her for highlighting the situation.

Also shared by Greta Thunberg, the CNN article reported that the Indian government has blocked the internet in several districts surrounding the New Delhi area after protesters and police clashed over the weekend. Critics have called the shutdown undemocratic.

Indian farmers started demonstrating after three agricultural laws passed in September that they view as a threat to their livelihoods. The laws loosen restrictions on crop selling and farmers believe they could industrialize the agricultural sector and result in corporations taking advantage of them.

Rihannas post was just one of many ways the singer has given back over the years.

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE)Global Ambassadorhasn't been shy about using her platform tocallon world leaders to help bring education to underserved communities around the world. Since 2017, she's joined Global Citizen's campaigns andtweeted at theleaders of the UK, France, Australia, Norway, Canada, Argentina, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands,and Germany, urgingthem to step up their governments' support for GPE, which works to ensure every child in the world has access to a fair, high-quality education.

Working alongside Global Citizens, Rihanna's campaigning efforts not only gotworld leaders to respond and increase their funding, but alsohelped getGermany todouble itscontributionto GPE twice.

She'salso the education ambassador of her home country Barbados and donated $5 million to frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to shining a light on the farmer protests in India this week, here arefour other social movements Rihanna has recently shown support for and helped spread awareness on to her more than 100 million Twitter followers.

Related Stories Dec. 3, 2020 Why Indian Farmers Are Protesting for Their 'Very Survival' in New Delhi

The Myanmar military arrested President Win Myint, leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and activists, and then declared a one-year state of emergency in the city of Naypyidaw on Monday. Following the overwhelming victory of the National League for Democracy party in the November national elections, the military claimed unfounded election fraud and voting irregularities.

Rihanna tweeted a post in solidarity with the people of Myanmar on Tuesday. My prayers are with you #myanmar! she wrote.

The star retweeted a post from the organization Human Rights Watch calling for the international community to unite to demand that the Myanmar military accept the results of the recent election and relinquish power.

The #EndSARS hashtag first went viral in 2017 calling to dissolve Nigerias Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for carrying out violence against citizens without any consequences. Following new evidence of a brutal violent attack on Oct. 8, 2020, the online protest moved to the streets, and cities outside the country marched in solidarity.

A week later, on Oct. 20, 2020, Rihanna tweeted a photo of a protester holding a bloody Nigerian flag. Its such a betrayal to the citizen, the very people put in place to protect are the ones we are most afraid of being murdered by! she wrote.

Rihanna also shared words of encouragement for protesters.

Im so proud of your strength and not letting up on the fight for whats right! #ENDSARS, she added.

The murder of George Floyd a Black man murdered by a white police officer on camera in May 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota sparked a global uprising against racial injustice. Floyds death increased support for the Black Lives Matter movement, initially launched in 2013 in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the man who shot unarmed Black teen Trayvon Martin.

Rihanna shared a photo of Floyd on May 29, 2020: If intentional MURDER is the fit consequence for drugs or resisting arrest....then whats the fit consequence for MURDER???! #GeorgeFloyd #AhmaudArbery #BreonnaTaylor, she wrote.

Rihanna included hashtags for the names of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, two other Black Americans who were murdered in 2020.

A few months later, Rihanna reshared a petition by the racial justice organization Color of Change calling for the cops who shot Taylor to be held accountable.

Civil unrest erupted in Sudan in June 2019 following military crackdowns on pro-democracy protests. Protesters who rallied to stand up against President Omar al-Bashirs oppressive rule were met with violence from police.

Rihanna showed solidarity for Sudanese protesters on June 30, 2019, in a Twitter thread. They have a right to speak out and demand peace, justice, and a transition to civilian rule, she wrote in the first tweet. The star pointed out the violence that had occurred at previous protests and called for peace.

Praying for no more killings or abuse today, she wrote with a photo of protestors. Fight for human rights in #Africa and stand with protesters in #Sudan. #BlueforSudan #IAmSudaneseRevolution #Watch_Sudan_on_June30th.

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GDIT’s Amy Gilliland on Bringing Technology Vision to Life in Federal IT MeriTalk – MeriTalk

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Throughout the pandemic, large government contractors like General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) have played a significant role in partnering with government agencies to keep the lights on while simultaneously advancing their critical missions.

We recently spoke with Amy Gilliland, president of GDIT, and covered a lot of ground from her background in military service and dedication to lifting up diverse viewpoints to her thoughts on the convergence of cloud, cyber, and AI in the government IT landscape.

MeriTalk: Your background charts an intriguing path from the Naval Academy to the top of a preeminent technology company. Can you share with us a couple of key experiences or decisions along the way that shaped your path?

Gilliland: Serving as a young Navy Lieutenant shipboard division officer on an Arleigh Burke Destroyer in harms way helped me understand first-hand the gravity of the mission, the dynamic nature of enemy threats, and the importance of technology support to the warfighter. My shipboard experiences also showed me the importance of cohesive teams and strong leadership, which I continue to value and champion to this day.

Another significant turning point was my decision to leave the military to pursue a career in the private sector. At the time, service to my country was still my intention, but I wanted to realize it in new ways. It was important to me to join a company with values that aligned with that purpose, one that would allow me to lead, innovate, and transform through a mission-focused lens. I found that with General Dynamics (GD).

My path at GD has been nonlinear and somewhat non-traditional, but also invaluable. Ive benefited from incredibly diverse experiences from strategic planning and investor relations to serving as Chief of Staff to GDs Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and leading Human Resources. The perspectives I gained from each of these experiences gave me the foundation to lead GDIT.

MeriTalk: How important was your military service along that path? How has it shaped you?

Gilliland: I come from three generations of military service, going back to my great-grandfather, who emigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland at 18 and later joined the Navy. That history gave me a strong sense of pride and deeply influenced my desire to pursue a career of service.

One of the most valuable aspects of my military service was the opportunity to be a part of teams with a shared commitment to a clear mission. Throughout my journey at GD, and now GDIT, that mission focus is paramount, especially when it comes to supporting our customers. It is a privilege to partner with our customers to navigate and innovate around the challenges and opportunities they face as they protect and serve our nation. Equally important to the mission is our culture at GDIT, where we strive to create the best, brightest, most diverse team we can to address the mission.

Being visible and approachable while also setting accountability and high performance expectations are traits I developed while in the Navy and continue to rely on today.

MeriTalk: You have been an outspoken leader on the importance of diversity and ensuring GDIT fosters a culture of respect and inclusion. How does GDIT build a culture that embraces this mindset?

Gilliland: I wholeheartedly believe that diversity, in all its dimensions, brings forth better ideas and enables us to be an innovation powerhouse, the partner of choice to our customers, and a career destination for top talent.

We have been very intentional about the culture we want to foster at GDIT, and Im proud of the progress weve made. We established technical and community forums that give employees additional ways to engage within GDIT outside their project work.

Our Communities of Interest allow technologists to collaborate around key tech domains like AI and cyber. With GDIT Cares, our employees volunteer in their communities and work with organizations like Black Girls Code and Out Teach. And our nine Employee Resource Groups build connectivity and allyship, allowing employees to support one another. These groups were especially valuable over the last year as we engaged in candid conversations on social justice and equality, and they helped us improve how we operate and communicate to better reach all employees.

Even after this very tough year where so many of our employees worked remotely, I believe our culture is as strong as ever. We will continue to put our time and resources toward initiatives that put the power of diversity and inclusivity to work at GDIT for our customers and communities.

MeriTalk: GDIT seems ideally positioned to shape the next chapter in the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution. Can you give us a high-level outlook on how your strengths in cloud, AI, and cyber play together for Federal customers?

Gilliland: In many ways, the convergence of these technologies is a game-changer. Not only will it make our government more secure and efficient, it can dramatically transform how we live, how we work, and how we defend our nation from our adversaries, both on the battlefield and within cyberspace.

With this in mind, after we acquired CSRA, we reshaped our portfolio and investment strategy to focus on core technology competencies such as enterprise IT, AI, cloud, and cyber, and we continued to evolve skillsets and delivery models to keep pace with the speed at which technology evolves. This positions us to innovate rapidly and accelerate capability to mission while bringing the full breadth of GDIT to all our customers.

As a result, GDIT has established a leading position in key markets. For example in cloud, GDIT is delivering two of the three clouds called out in the DoD Cloud Strategy through milCloud 2.0 and the Defense Enterprise Office Solution (DEOS). In addition to providing enhanced collaboration and rapid access to the cloud, these enterprise-wide DoD clouds reduce the threat surface and provide unified cyber protection.They also provide a platform for additional 4IR capabilities.

In the health sector, GDIT provides cloud capabilities for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which operates one of the largest public clouds in the federal government, hosting and securing more than 100 highly-visible, critical applications.

To stay ahead, we have strategic alliance partnerships with a network of exceptional commercial partners to bring both big tech and emerging tech to integrate capabilities at speed and scale. We also bring the capabilities of General Dynamics to our customers missions. As an example, GDIT and General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) partner to deliver secure networks and integrated product and services in support of multiple classified customers.

MeriTalk: In our talks with Federal CIOs, its clear that agencies embracing cloud services have been able to navigate the pandemic more surely. How has the urgency for Federal cloud adoption and other technologies changed, and how do you help your customers on that journey?

Gilliland: The last decade has seen a surge in cloud adoption across the commercial and Federal space. The pandemic has accelerated cloud adoption precipitously and magnified the importance of cloud technologies, enabling agencies to pivot quickly in order to maintain mission continuity. Recent cyber-attacks add to the urgency to retire legacy data centers and networks and move to the cloud to improve security posture.

Expanding our cloud practice has been an imperative for GDIT. We operate cloud services from providers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google. We are also a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) through our milCloud 2.0 solution for the DoD, and we run enterprise cloud services for agencies in the Intelligence Community and for customers in the federal civilian market, like the Federal Aviation Administration and Health and Human Services.

This gives us extensive experience in deploying secure hybrid, multi-cloud capabilities for a range of missions. And we keep building: we recently announced the expansion of milCloud 2.0 to include cloud services from AWS. This aligns with the DoD multi-cloud strategy and simplifies acquisition and choice for the DoD and DISA mission partners. They can now take advantage of the latest technology and innovate more quickly with artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber sensing, and other emerging capabilities.

Like our customers, we have been employing cloud and other technologies within GDIT to provide agility and resilience. For example, by adopting both AWS and Azure we were able to close seven internal data centers over the past few years, driving efficiencies and access to advanced technologies like AI and analytics services. These investments in our infrastructure and other cloud technologies enabled us to transition 60% of our employees to secure remote work environments within days of the pandemic unfolding. We kept our 30,000 employees connected and productive regardless of where they work while continuing to meet our customers stringent security requirements.

MeriTalk: What is the government doing from a technology perspective to get ready for pandemic recovery and meet whatever challenges the future may bring?

Gilliland: The pandemic required our customers to accelerate adoption of technologies to virtually and securely connect and collaborate across the globe. Agencies will continue to invest in workforce productivity, user experience, and secure mobility solutions that enable employees to work anywhere, from any device.

Agencies will also continue to turn to solutions like performance-based managed services to securely shift more responsibilities to vendors, and use other transactional authorities (OTAs) to accelerate bringing technologies to critical programs. The use of DevSecOps in conjunction with the cloud will also hasten the governments ability to bring new mission capabilities to production.

Cybersecurity remains a top priority, and there needs to be a greater focus on consolidating systems to reduce the threat surface. In addition, at GDIT, we are working to stay ahead of the threat landscape by developing intelligent systems driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence.

There is so much happening across government to address from the pandemic to increased cyber threats and the technology is there to respond. Were excited to apply these game changing technologies to our customers toughest challenges, which can have such a profound impact on their missions.

GDIT is kicking off Emerge 2021 a three-part virtual event series this spring, covering critical issues in Digital Modernization, Emerging Technology, and Defense Cloud. Learn more and register.

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GDIT's Amy Gilliland on Bringing Technology Vision to Life in Federal IT MeriTalk - MeriTalk

Md. Legislation To Be Reviewed For Racial Impact – WGMD Radio

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Maryland legislative leaders have announced a pilot project to include racial impact statements as part of legislative analysis for the General Assembly.

The Department of Legislative Services will be working with Bowie State and the University of Baltimore Schaefer Center to compile data regarding racial impact of major criminal justice reform legislation. Members of the public will also have access to the information.

Three other states also conduct this type of legislative analysis. Proposals are under consideration in several other states.

There is finally a broader understanding across Maryland and the country of the existence of structural racism but we have to have better and deeper information in order to reverse its impact, House Speaker Adrienne Jones, D- Baltimore County, said. I am pleased that the Maryland General Assembly is leading in this area and Im hopeful that it will lead to better decision making and policy decisions in the coming years. I want to thank Delegate Jazz Lewis for his tireless effort over the last several years to make this happen.

Undoing issues of systemic inequity requires us to develop intentional strategies for measuring and combating disparate impacts. We do not add to the legislative evaluation process lightly, but we must have a better picture of the racial impact of proposed legislation, Senate President Bill Ferguson, D- Baltimore City, added. This is an important step forward, and it will provide a more holistic picture of the effect of legislation proposed and debated by the General Assembly. Communities of color deserve our best effort to ensure fairness in the legislative process.

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Md. Legislation To Be Reviewed For Racial Impact - WGMD Radio

Biden: Tool of the Partisan Left, Not Socialism – National Review

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President Biden signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., January 20, 2021.(Tom Brenner/Reuters)

AlthoughPoliticos flagship product, Playbook,is still recovering from Ben Shapiros problematic guest appearance a couple weeks back, todays iteration of the morning newsletter still managed to scrounge together some interesting quotes from a longtime Biden aide, who remains unnamed. Per the aide, the White Houses decision to move forward with a reckless $1.9 trillion relief package instead of pursuing a less frivolous bipartisan bill, runs counter to Bidens instincts. Noting the harsh tone of the statement Biden issued on the Republican proposal, the advisor mused that I think it sounded more like Ron Klain than Joe Biden. Klain, Bidens chief of staff, is reportedly still bitter over Republican opposition to the Affordable Care Act a decade ago, and his governing philosophy was warped by the experience. Politicos source explained Ron has this whole thing: Remember how they rat-fed us on the ACA!, the expletive standing in for disagreed with.

One of the Trump campaigns favorite attacks on Biden was that he would be a Trojan horse for socialism. Neither Bidens affect nor his record lent itself to this message. What is true is that Biden is susceptible to having his back-slapping instincts overridden by the technocratic partisans hes surrounded himself with. Partisans who are irrationally vexed by any pushback on their agenda, and who believe any such pushback to be obstructionism for obstructionisms sake.

Biden may not be Bernie Sanders with a grin, but his is likely to be the Vox.com presidency, and any illusions of unity or a return to regular order in Congress should be discarded after his outright rejection of a good-faith effort at bipartisanship.

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Biden: Tool of the Partisan Left, Not Socialism - National Review

Rapper arrested in Austria and accused of publishing neo-Nazi songs – Euronews

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A far-right rapper has been arrested in Austria and accused of publishing music that is neo-Nazi, antisemitic and racist, the government announced.

One of the suspect's songs was used as a soundtrack by the perpetrator in the terror attack in Halle, Germany, in October 2019, reported AFP news agency.

Two people were killed by a gunman after he failed to shoot in his way into a synagogue in the city while broadcasting the attack live on a popular gaming platform.

The attack on Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day, is considered one of the worst anti-Semitic assaults in Germanys post-war history.

Last month, a German court sentenced the gunman, a 28-year-old man, to life in prison for murder and attempted murder.

Austria's Interior Ministry said the rapper had been arrested "on the orders of the public prosecutor's office in Vienna" and had been taken into custody following a search on 20 January.

The suspect from Carinthia is being prosecuted for producing and spreading Nazi ideas and inciting hatred, added AFP.

Using an anonymous pseudonym Mr Bond, the man is accused of encouraging members of neo-Nazi forums to commit terrorist attacks since 2016. Austrian intelligence had been trying to unmask the suspect for months.

"The lyrics of his songs glorify National Socialism and are antisemitic, racist and xenophobic," the Interior Ministry said.

During the search, hard disks, weapons, a military flag of the Third Reich, Nazi objects, and a mixing console were seized by the authorities.

"The fight against right-wing extremism is our historical responsibility", said Interior Minister Karl Nehammer.

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Rapper arrested in Austria and accused of publishing neo-Nazi songs - Euronews

Letters To The Editor: Feb. 3, 2021 – The Rhino Times of Greensboro – The Rhino TImes

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TheMarch Continues

Dear Editor,

The Imperial Edicts, aka EOs, just keep coming. And you arent hearing squat from either chamber of Congress, with a couple of exceptions, because theyre letting their puppet take all the heat. And who can blame them. His actions allow them to operate under the radar, in the shadows, a place they love and thrive in.

Two Democrats, not (National Socialist) Democrats, but realDemocrats, have shown an amazing level of intestinal fortitude and openness about what they believe and are willing to fight for. And as a result, theyve become public enemy No.1 to the (National Socialist) Democrat politburo. They have unleashed their attack dog, AOC, on them, and shes dedicating resources towards eliminating them as obstructions in the march towards their ultimate goal of national socialism.

These two individuals are executing the duties and responsibilities of the positions they were elected to, those being to represent the interests of the people that put them there, one representing the people directly and the other representing the interests of their state. In the case of Sen. Joe Minchin, he holds a major card in the game in that his vote will decide if or if not the filibuster option survives. That is the only thing holding back a complete takeover by the (National Socialist) Democrat politburo of both chambers of Congress.

As Ive said earlier, the (National Socialist) Democrat politburo have the next two years to solidify their power over the American people. And having the mainstream mediarunning interference for them is going to make it a little easier. People are going to have to watch very carefully for the small, subtle steps they take to make sure they retain what they have managed to steal. They currently have control, albeit tenuous, of the executive and legislative branches. The only thing between them and us is the judicial, and they are working on that. Dont think theyve given up on the idea of packing the Supreme Court, and there are reports of a plan to try to dilute the appointments made to the federal courts by President Trump.

We must pay attention to whats happening, not just on the surface in high profile actions but also watch what they are doing below the surface. We must identify the RINOs and the conservatives that are not working for the people but for their special interest handlers and their own interests.

Alan Marshall

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Letters To The Editor: Feb. 3, 2021 - The Rhino Times of Greensboro - The Rhino TImes