Guam records island’s youngest coronavirus-related fatality over Labor Day weekend – Stars and Stripes

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A woman who died Monday morning was the youngest victim so far on Guam of the coronavirus and one of four who succumbed over Labor Day weekend, according to the Guam governors office.

The pandemic death toll on Guam is now 19.

All but one of the deaths took place at Guam Memorial Hospital, the governors office said. The first, a 55-year-old man, happened late Friday, and the second, a 49-year-old woman, took place early Sunday. Both patients suffered conditions compounded by the virus, a statement said.

The youngest, a 31-year-old woman with underlying health issues, was pronounced dead on arrival Monday at Guam Regional Medical City, according to another statement. The fourth death occurred the same day, a 65-year-old man who had been admitted to Guam Memorial Hospital on Thursday after testing positive for the illness.

Yet another death a 64-year-old woman who tested positive on Aug. 25 was announced Tuesday afternoon.

It is never easy losing a member of our community to this virus, and my heart breaks every time I receive these calls, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said in a Monday statement offering her condolences. We cannot afford to lose any more people in this pandemic. Please do what you need to do to protect yourselves and your loved ones.

Guerrero, who recovered from the coronavirus after testing positive last month, recently extended a stay-at-home order until noon Friday. It directs all persons on Guam to remain in their residences, except for essential activities such as food shopping, medical care or commuting to and from work.

The U.S. territory has been under a Pandemic Condition of Readiness 1 since Aug. 15. That order, which is set to expire Sept. 30, shutters nonessential businesses; forces schools to use virtual instruction; prohibits most public gatherings; and closes parks and beaches to most visitors.

As of Monday, Guam had recorded 1,671 coronavirus infections. Of those, 233 are U.S. service members.

The U.S. military on Guam, which is under Health Protection Condition-Charlie, signifying a substantial risk of infection there, does not regularly publicize new cases.

news@stripes.comTwitter: @starsandstripes

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Guam records island's youngest coronavirus-related fatality over Labor Day weekend - Stars and Stripes

Amended orders: Inter-island travel restrictions eased among most islands – EyeWitness News

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS Amended emergency orders released yesterday eliminates the need to obtain a negative COVID-19 test prior to inter-island travel with the exception of traveling from and between Grand Bahama and New Providence.

The order amends the Emergency Powers (COVID 19 Pandemic) No. 5) Orders 2020.

According to the amended orders, anyone seeking to travel to another island must still obtain a travel visa prior to traveling, and upon arrival on the island submit to mandatory quarantine at a government approved facility for 14 days.

However, anyone traveling from New Providence and Grand Bahama which lead the country in COVID-19 cases must obtain a negative RTPCR COVID-19 test prior to applying for a travel visa.

This also applies to travelers between the two islands.

The result of the COVID-19 test must be valid for a period of five days from the date which the test was taken.

Children 10-years-old or younger are exempt from the testing requirement, but will also be required to quarantine.

Quarantine for 14-days is not required for anyone traveling among islands in the first schedule of the orders, which include Chub Cay, Harbour Island, Long Cay, Long Island, Ragged Island, Rum Cay, San Salvador, and Spanish Wells.

The amended orders maintain that all passenger must wear face masks, and operators or any aircraft or mailboat carrying passenger inter-island must deny anyone not wearing a mask or who has not presented to the carrier upon embarking, a travel visa.

An operator who permits a person to travel contrary to the order shall be liable upon conviction of a fine of $500 per passenger.

Exceptions

A person traveling inter-island for an emergency, evidenced by written confirmation from a health officer or the police force; and employees of an operator or an aircraft or vessel transporting freight and passengers will be exempted from obtaining a health visa or quarantine upon arrival.

The competent authority reserves the right to exempt in writing any person traveling inter island from the requirement to undergo quarantine where exceptional circumstances exist.

The amended order provides for public officers traveling for government business who have written confirmation that they are traveling for immediate government business will also be exempted from the quarantine requirement.

A COVID-19 negative test in still required for a public officer in these circumstances.

Additionally, the orders give the minister of education the authority to grant approval to a school to engage in face to face instructions provided the Ministry of Health has determined it is safe to do so.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis signed the order dated September 4.

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Amended orders: Inter-island travel restrictions eased among most islands - EyeWitness News

The best hotels on the British and Channel islands | Telegraph Travel – The Telegraph

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EiggYoull love if you love: Canada

Jurassic rock formations, looming cliffs, a population of 100 and dolphins, porpoises and whales lurking in the navy blue ocean; Eigg can feel an awful lot like the brooding, eastern coastline of Labrador and Newfoundland. The local population shares the eco-credentials of the Great White North with electricity supplied entirely by wind, sun and wave power, some of it used to generate power for the islands ultra-cool micro label, Lost Map Records. This is one of the last places in Scotland where eagles still breed, though getting here can be tough: there are currently only seven ferries per week (none on Wednesdays) in the winter months that make the 75 minute crossing from Mallaig.

Bothys are the Scottish term for hikers huts, usually free to stay in, which are scattered across the most remote parts of the country. Sweenys Bothy is a spruced up version of these spartan refuges, located on a working sheep farm. In the shadow of the brooding Cleadale cliffs and with views out onto the neighbouring island of Rum, its a simple but hugely charismatic space with a bed, reached by ladder, a wood burning stove and an outdoor shower heated, naturally, by solar power.

Two-night minimum stay from 190 (eiggtime.com)

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The best hotels on the British and Channel islands | Telegraph Travel - The Telegraph

Oak Island aimed for an ‘impossibly fast’ reopening. Was it too rushed? – Port City Daily

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Piles of sand still block the side streets and more than half of Oak Islands public parking locations one month after Hurricane Isaias made landfall. (Port City Daily photo/Johanna F. Still)

OAK ISLAND After being closed off to traffic and visitors for a month in the middle of the islands busiest season, Oak Island reopened its west end Friday morning, right in time for Labor Day weekend.

For town officials and residents anxious to get the town back open after Hurricane Isaias, the move is a sign of hope and progress. With so much revenue already lost, Labor Day weekend may be the towns last chance to recoup funds before tourist season settles down.

Related: After Isaias, Oak Island to consider new mandatory evacuation policy for named storms

But for many others, the towns decision to reopen seems like a mistake. Isaias hardest-hit coastal community is still recovering from a six-foot storm surge that flooded dozens of cars and wiped out ground-level structures. Though the town has authorized a $2 million construction debris and removal contract, the damage still litters many right-of-ways, though crews have begun the process of cleaning up the water-damaged materials.

By now, the overwash sand has been scraped and cleared from all roadways, but piles of sand remain lumped along every other oceanside side street. The sand must be sifted and cleaned before the town is able to use it to replenish its devastated dune structures, but can only do so after Nov. 15 to comply with federal sea turtle protection rules.

This conundrum needing sand, having it, but being unable to use it while it blocks public accesses and roadways leaves the island still in bad shape post-Isaias. Its still hurricane season, with the possibility of another major storm posing a major threat to any oceanfront property owner.

When the town announced it would officially reopen, residents pushed back, describing the western end as a disaster zone.

Full-time resident Shannon Read said Friday the town gave itself an impossible task in promising a Labor Day weekend reopening date. Several people have had flat tires from construction debris, construction crews frequent the roads, and internet and cell service is still spotty, she said.

It looks like a war zone still with all the debris all over, she said. Short term rentals should not be allowed until this is all cleaned in my opinion.

Less than half of all public accesses and parking areas remain closed as of Thursday, according to a town parking guide. With parking limited and pent-up demand possibly high, visitors may have a hard time finding a spot among the lumps of sand.

Oak Island Water Rescue Chief Tony Young said though its out of his purview, he is concerned about beachgoers crossing the road safely while debris continues to block views and construction crews are abundant.

Just being on a rescue squad, you worry about peoples safety, Young said. Its going to be a while until they get all of that out there.

Though Young wouldnt say the beachfront was 100% safe, he said most floating debris had already surfaced by now. I think its as safe as it can be. But theres always a chance something could show back up.

Mostly, his safety concerns surround foot traffic on the western end. Its just going to be a lot of people in an area that right now I dont think in that area is ready.

On Monday, Mayor Ken Thomas told his Facebook followers the town was moving at an impossibly fast pace to get opened by Friday. When announcing the met goal, Thomas wrote, Its not pretty but were open!

Thomas did not respond to requests to address residents concerns about reopening.

Tuesday, Council will consider adopting a new policy that would automatically trigger the mandatory evacuation of visitors for named storms projected to make landfall near the island. Failing to issue a mandatory evacuation before Isaias has been a major criticism the town has faced in its recovery efforts, given the extensive oceanfront damage it suffered during the Category 1 hurricane.

Read more coverage out of Oak Island post-Isaias:

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Oak Island aimed for an 'impossibly fast' reopening. Was it too rushed? - Port City Daily

Neuralink Is Impressive Tech, Wrapped in Musk Hype – WIRED

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Musk didnt seem to think this was essential. A lot of people think, I couldnt possibly work at Neuralink because I dont know anything about how brains work, he said at last Fridays demo. Well, thats OK. You can learn. But we need software engineering, we need mechanical engineering, electrical engineering chip design, robotics, and all the things a company needs to work.

At some point, someone is going to have to know something about how brains work. The Neuralink picks up electrical signalsthe spikes or action potentials that run the length of neurons when theyre activated, and signal the squirting of neurotransmitter chemicals across synapses. But some of what the team said seemed to imply that given enough of those signals, theyd be able to interpolate actual thoughts or memories. Nobodys really sure thats true. In fact, its possible (though unlikely) that the electricity, the movement of charged ions into and out of neurons, is just an epiphenomenonthe exhaust that a brain coughs out while doing the work of creating and maintaining consciousness.

Even if its possible to correctly infer mental state from those electrical signals (and it probably is), they still just happen to be what people can measure. There are things you can do with the neural signals. Theyre the expression of things like memories. The retrieval of a memory will be instantiated, we think, in terms of a pattern of brain activity. Thats true, Frank says. But thats not how people store that memory for future retrieval, which doesnt bode well for recording specific ones, saving them somewhere else, and replaying them. The storage of the memory involves huge numbers of chemical reactions at synapses between brain cells, Frank says. Those things can be modified by brain activity, but theyre not the same as brain activity.

In other words: The electrical activity of the brain happens while you are thinking or remembering, but it may not be what you are thinking or remembering. Just being able to sense and record that activity isnt recording actual thought. It correlates, but may not cause.

Musk went even farther, though. Its read-write in every channel, he said. He meant that each one of those 1,024 channels can both pick up signals from, and send them to, adjacent neurons. Now, Musk didnt specify in what sense he meant that phrase. Neuroscientists talk about the capacity to read out signals from a brain, and the ability to write in, so send signals back. They can read out signals from motor neurons to control a robot arm, for example, or write in auditory information, sound, via a cochlear implant. Theyre working on doing the same for sending images to the retina, or the visual cortex. Researchers can record what neurons are doing, and stimulate them so they activate.

Computer engineers, though, talk about reading and writing as getting digital information from a storage medium, or putting information in one.

Is Musk using the terminology interchangeably? Or does he think that the technologys ability to do the primitive version will lead to the more sophisticated one? I dont know.

But if its the latter, Neuralink might be headed for a metaphor-based failure. Neuroelectrical writing-in is very different from the digital version. The techniques they have to write information in are primarily electrical stimulation, and thats just awful, Frank says. Imagine when you wrote to a hard drive that you targeted a particular sector or byte, but what you hit was five other bytes first. Thats what happens with electrical stimulation to the brain. Axons, the long projecting connections between neurons, have a lower activation threshold than the cells themselves. So sending a signal pulse down one of those Neuralink electrodes activates that mesh of connections, a whole lot of cells, before hitting a target neuronand thats assuming you know exactly which neuron to target.

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Neuralink Is Impressive Tech, Wrapped in Musk Hype - WIRED

A live digital Platform behind the scenes for more effective and transparent country response – World Health Organization

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When COVID-19 began spreading, countries needed to immediately plan to respond to a global pandemic. Pakistan, for example, recognized the urgency for a strategic approach to identify needs, develop a country-level response plan, and coordinate at both the national and provincial level. Of particular importance would be a real time mechanism to help monitor the flow of contributions in support of the response. Pakistan health officials began to work closely with WHO for the COVID-19 response. By using the COVID-19 Partners Platform action checklist, resource tracking and the Supply Portal, Pakistan was able to create its preparedness and response plan and coordinate with local donors. For the first time we have a tool that allows us to monitor fund flow, this is both operationally useful and a great service to all our partners, says Mr Julien Harneis, UN Resident Coordinator of Pakistan.

The online Partners Platform, launched with United Nations Development Coordination office (UNDCO) on March 16th, was built upon a WHO-vetted checklist of 143 actions, drawn from the most up-to-date guidance created by international experts. Countries choose actions from the checklist to create their COVID-19 preparedness and response plans. They can then note if they have initiated or fully completed the actions. Since all actions are fully costed, countries can also note where they need financial assistance. The transparency of the Platform allows donors to track what actions are taking place, where the biggest resource needs and gaps lie, and how to prioritize which allocations go where.

WHO / Blink Media Fabeha Monir

When we started emailing COVID-19 checklists and plans to countries in January thelist of countries was growing rapidly, says Mr Scott Pendergast, Director of Strategic Planning and Partnerships for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme; we realized we needed a live digital Platform to provide updated guidance on the new pandemic to help all public health officials in all countries around the world share what steps they were taking with each other, says Dr. Lucy Boulanger, head of WHOs new COVID-19 Partners Platform. Her team immediately began developing the first digital Platform where governments, UN agencies, and partners can plan and coordinate together in one place.

Countries quickly recognized the value in the Platform and became highly engaged. At the time of this story, 123 countries, areas and territories are actively using the Platform, with 110 plans uploaded and 106 countries tracking their activities using the action checklist across eight pillars of the public health response and a ninth pillar on maintaining essential health services and systems. Boulanger describes the Platform as a rich repository of ideas.

Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of WHOs Health Emergencies programme, stresses the Platforms importance in keeping health systems from breaking down. Health emergencies weaken health systems, and weak health systems exacerbate health emergencies. Its a negative cycle unless you can turn it around. The Platform can be used to help countries maintain essential health services like vaccinations during a pandemic. Dr Boulanger, a medical epidemiologist and part of WHOs Health Emergencies programmes preparedness division, offers Italy as an example of a country whose health system was put under extreme stress early on during the pandemic constraining their ability to offer most essential health services.

WHO / Blink Media Fabeha Monir

The need for the Platform concept existed before COVID-19 came on the scene. This Platform grew out of extraordinary frustration during the last five years of Ebola coordination, says Dr Boulanger, who spent two years responding to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Countries desires to respond to health emergencies grew exponentially following the Ebola outbreak. It could no longer be a static system over email. It had to be user-friendly, country-focused, and data driven in real time, says Boulanger.

The Platform is constantly evolving based on the needs of the more than 3500 stakeholders actively utilizing the platform. Operational guidance can be adjusted immediately as new information on the virus develops. For example, guidance for rolling out vaccines to different countries (the Access to COVID-19 tools (ACT) accelerator) is going to be changing rapidly, and the only way to update and track that efficiently is on a web-based platform, says Boulanger.

Using data gathered from all WHO regions, the Partners Platform data dashboard provides all users with visualizations highlighting global, regional and country datasets; analysis comparing actions, resource needs, contributions and gaps; and data to inform decision-making.

Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of the Platform is its transparency, particularly the visibility of countries response plans, resource gaps and donor allocations. As of 1 September, 88 countries have shared resource needs across nine pillars of public health totaling US $9.1 billion. Donors have responded with more than 600 contributions totaling US $7.5 billion.

The Platform facilitates requests for funds but does not match funds with needs. A country goes onto the Platform and makes a request for a resource (i.e. Personal Protective Equipment), and then, should they need funding, makes a request for financial support for that resource. If funding comes in for that request, the country can then move into the Supply Portal within the Platform to request the supplies and see committed funds. As of 1 Sep, 88 countries have used the Supply Portal.

Donors can request information from the Platform on what needs exist and what actions are being implemented when and where. We can see that the most widely planned actions on countries checklists are for coordination, surveillance, risk communication, and community engagement. The actions with the highest price tag are case management (work force and supplies to take care of patients) and maintaining essential health services.

The Partners Platform is the only place where the major donor partners (World Bank, Development Banks, the EU, UAE, Canada, Germany, Gavi, Japan and The Global Fund) can see what each other is doing in emergency response, make informed decisions, and coordinate. In this way funding goes towards internationally standardized interventions. Donors can ensure their contributions are going towards implementing key activities, says Boulanger. The Philippines, for example, has 36 NGO partners engaged on the Platform. By using the Platform, partners can visualize which regions in the country need more help and direct their donations accordingly.

The Platform also promotes coordination between countries. AFRO aims to register at least one member of a Government Ministry in each country with the Platform. This dedicated engagement strategy has led to a tide change of interest from Ministries: 45% of AFRO countries (22 countries) have now appointed a Ministry member on the Platform, with 65% of users from the Ministry of Health.Kenya wants to use it as their national reporting system.

WHO / Blink Media - Gilliane Soupe

The Platform represents an additional way for countries to provide technical leadership and support to neighbouring countries as well as globally. United Arab Emirates was one of the first in the Eastern Mediterranean Region to upload its response plan to the Platform. In addition to using the Platform to monitor regional and global resource needs, the Platform helps countries with cross-border preparedness/response planning (like international travel).

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General appreciates that the Partners Platform was conceived from the beginning with countries needs in mind. The Partners Platform is country centered. The countries decide what information they want to share with the world about their actions and resources. It gives the power to the countries and the visibility to the world, says Boulanger.

WHOs Partners Platform is an exemplary mechanism for solidarity in response to COVID-19. It integrates and streamlines the planning, financing and monitoring of the global response, with transparency that has never been seen before. WHO hopes the Platform can be used for future global health emergencies with plug and play modules depending on the epidemic. Some authorities have inquired if it may be used as a model for socio-economic protection or economic risk mitigation. I cant grow it fast enough, says Boulanger.

Read more about WHO COVID-19 Partners Platform and Supply Portal

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A live digital Platform behind the scenes for more effective and transparent country response - World Health Organization

Glow & Lovely has launched its new campaign, but why does it look and feel exactly like Fair & Lovely? – Business Insider India

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It announced that it will drop the word Fair from its name and restrict using discriminatory White/Whitening', Light/Lightening from all its packs and communications. It soon renamed the brand to Glow & Lovely as a reactive measure to an uprising. A few experts rejoiced this move, while some expected HUL to drop the product completely that stands for colourism in India.

To make sure consumers dont forget Fair & Lovely is now Glow & Lovely, the advertisement illustrates the transition to the new name twice -- to really hammer it in the consumer's minds.

Vani Gupta Dandia, Founder, CherryPeachPlum Growth Partners - a marketing-led business consultancy said the steps HUL took till here -- to establish its transformation -- were fine.

Telling us further how she would have gone about establishing the identity change in the market, Dandia said, If I were the business head, I'd first spend a lot of money on just ensuring that the name change be registered. I'd do that with small edits - 5 and 10 seconders. And use other media similarly. High frequency, high recency modeling. However, quickly justifying the name with a tacky reason to believe undermines the intelligence of consumers. It does sound like the same old in a new bottle - worse still justified with the same old science. So are you telling me you can provide just about any benefit with the same old science? What is the difference between Fairness and Glow? If we were to respect consumers' intelligence, would we not like to explain why glow or radiance is aspirational?

So, Vani Gupta Dandia also expected to see a bolder advertisement this time, that truly empowers women.

Fair & Lovely has offered glowing skin in the past as well and its packaging style hasnt changed either.

This was an opportunity for HUL to include darker-skinned models in the ad and win millions of hearts. It wasnt something new that a brand in India would have experimented with. Dove India has changed its narrative from selling milky skin to offering a bar that cleanses. However, there is still a void for an inclusive beauty brand in India that celebrates diversity, skin colours, body types and body hair in its truest form and HUL, a giant that holds a lot of influence in our country, could have led that narrative.

Fair/Glow & Lovely's actual buyers are mainly dispersed in the small towns of India. Karthik Srinivasan, Social Media Expert and Independent Brand Consultant, said that Glow & Lovelys target audience perhaps doesn't really care for its name, they care more about making their skin whiter or fairer.

Srinivasan said, The product, no matter what it is called, has set the notion that being fair is the ticket to success in life. The change in name was mandated by global standards of 'saying the right thing' and is hardly indicative of the product's or the parent company's stand to offer meaningful change on the ground. The addition of that laughably silly assertion - that you will now get HD glow - further hammers the fact that there is no change, beyond a name. It also leads one to question, albeit pointlessly, if the earlier named cream offered only standard definition glow! Beyond very few marketing media, I really don't think anyone really cares for either the name change or the new ad. And HUL knows this all too well - the actual consumers of the product only see the product benefit that is imprinted in their mind.

Fair & Lovely has been in India for over 45 years now and has been one of the best-selling creams. According to The Drum, Fair & Lovely had entered the Rs 200 crore market back in 2017 and held a 60-70% share of the skin whitening industry.

Ronita Mitra, Business Consultant - Founder, Brand Eagle Consulting, said, The new communication is a rational communication with its primary objective being an announcement of the change in brand name. The name change through the branding on the pack as well as the TVC is being communicated very emphatically. One can see that continuity has been maintained in all other aspects, understandably so, in order to seamlessly migrate existing consumers and equity to the new brand. In the foreseeable future, the identity in the consumers' minds will, in all probability, continue to be that of the erstwhile Fair & Lovely identity.

Chawla thinks dark-skinned women of our country deserve an apology from fairness skin brands.

Suggesting how HUL can undo the damage it has done, Chawla said, The brand has a great opportunity to break the barriers of social conditioning pertinent to skin colour, and perhaps repair the damage done over the years to the psyche of dark skinned women. They can do so many things - from issuing a simple apology, to repositioning and overhauling the brand name, colours, key messaging. Conglomerates have the potential to change social perceptions. It is time they invested in the same. And on the social media front, the ad has a lot of potential to invite sufficient trolling and criticism, but honestly, the beauty of this change needs to go beyond skin deep.

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Glow & Lovely has launched its new campaign, but why does it look and feel exactly like Fair & Lovely? - Business Insider India

During the pandemic, local companies help seniors bridge the technology gap – Chesterfield Observer

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Midlothian-based Remote Health Solutions eVer Home Kit and accessories allow for patients to be remotely monitored from afar. Photos Courtesy of Remote Health Solutions

Modern technology has become a saving grace for many who are trying to remain safe and responsible until the dangers of the coronavirus pandemic abate.

Trips to the grocery store have been replaced with online orders and home delivery. Happy hours and family get-togethers now occur through video conferencing apps like Zoom. Medical checkups are increasingly virtual.

Though these solutions decrease the risk of coronavirus transmission, not everyone has equal access to them. Senior citizens in particular are more likely to face barriers everything from unfamiliarity with the technology to hearing and vision loss and dementia that make interacting with the world through a screen more challenging.

Even with retiree interest group AARP reporting in January that generational gaps in technology usage are narrowing, there is concern that too many seniors are being left behind, leading to increased health risks and isolation.

Presently, a handful of local companies are working to address some of the challenges facing seniors as they try to navigate the virtual world during the pandemic.

Midlothian-based Remote Health Solutions has seen a 50% increase in seniors utilizing its remote patient monitoring technology since the pandemic hit. Through RHS devices, some people with chronic illnesses or those who require in-home elderly care can monitor their own health at home instead of visiting doctors offices or requiring hospitalization.

The devices monitor health readings like blood pressure, body temperature and oxygen saturation in blood, then upload the data via Bluetooth wireless technology to an online portal. On the other end, an RHS nurse makes sure those vital signs stay within the health parameters for that patient. Should something be amiss, RHS can alert a patients doctor.

Not only does the remote monitoring reduce in-person visits to medical professionals, but the data can help bridge information gaps between different physicians caring for the same patient.

[Weve] had a really great success in the reduction of hospitalizations, says Sean Sullivan, RHS director of business development. Its not a 6-month checkup for someone thats recovering from a heart attack. Its a daily monitoring.

Since the pandemic hit, Sullivan says the telehealth industry has experienced a sudden increase in patients who are embracing this technology. In a July 2020 survey by healthinsurance.com, seniors reported a 300% increase in the use of telemedicine services since the pandemic hit .

The numbers and statistics are staggering. We definitely have seen an increase, but the industry has just exploded, he says. In the beginning of the pandemic, immediately people looked to telehealth as an amazing tool, frankly, that continued to provide care so that people could still see their doctor, still socially distance, still maintain the same level of care that they would get in a physical checkup. You can give them the efficacy of an in-person visit using diagnostic medical tools without ever leaving their home.

Sullivan and Melissa White, president of RHS Services, say their tools have created peace of mind for patients.

Its really provided them that sense of ease in knowing that theyre able to receive care without having to get exposed to the virus and having to go out unless its a medically necessary, emergent thing, says White.

RHS kits are tailor-made to each patient, and are built with senior patients in mind. Each device is already paired and programmed, so all a patient has to do is turn it on. The devices feature large icons to help patients who may have vision or cognitive impairments; should a patient have an issue, they can contact their assigned nurse for help. Sullivan and White say their patients have rarely experienced problems using their devices.

Though not solely focused on providing telehealth opportunities for its clients, Midlothian-based managed service provider Networking Technologies + Support offers technology options that can assist seniors. One such option allows family members to directly dial into a seniors television and receive instant access.

A family member can dial in without the requirement of even the owner saying, Accept the call, so [family members] can get a visual. Are they laying on the floor? Do they look healthy? says Brent Kranda, vice president of infrastructure services for NTS. Alternatively, NTS programming can be set up to allow the call after a senior gives a voice command.

One NTS technology package allows for health monitoring, where seniors can track their own health using EKG pads and a smartphone. If a user isnt feeling well, they can easily send the data to a doctor or family member. Because NTS technology is built to adapt to standard hardware, a family member can easily replace it with a store-bought device.

For seniors who dont wish to move to an assisted living community, Kranda says the technology is an affordable way to allow independence while still letting family members check in unobtrusively.

Chuck Renfro, CEO of Chesterfield-based Thinking CAP Technologies, says the pandemic is increasing isolation for seniors, and expects more seniors to embrace telehealth solutions as the pandemic continues. Through his company, Renfro has spent the past seven years coaching seniors on how to navigate the digital realm, including working with the county to teach classes on topics like how to utilize smartphones and communicate with grandkids using the iPhone app FaceTime.

Renfro, 71, started Thinking CAP Technologies in 2007 as a computer networking company, but pivoted to teaching seniors after attending an event in Henrico where a speaker instructed the audience to visit a website to learn more about Medicaid. Some seniors raised their hands, inquiring about how to use the internet.

Seniors who dont know how to take advantage of modern technology run the risk of isolation, Renfro says, especially during the pandemic. Technology can serve as a way to safely communicate with family, play games, find entertainment and seek information.

Its fun to see the lightbulbs go off in their eyes, when his students master a new digital tool, he says. They go, Now I get it! Its a rewarding situation.

So far, Renfro says hes only had one client ask for help installing a video conferencing app in order to have a remote appointment with their doctor. On a more personal level, he says he recently helped his wife operate a similar video conferencing app to interact digitally with her doctor. Though the appointment was only to renew a prescription, the doctor preferred a video conference instead of one by phone.

The doctor just said, I want to see you face-to-face and see if youre doing okay, Renfro says.

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During the pandemic, local companies help seniors bridge the technology gap - Chesterfield Observer

How group streaming could look in the future – Mashable

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Mashable's series Tech in 2025 explores how the challenges of today will dramatically change the near future.

With COVID-19 canceling in-person movie nights for the time being, it's unfortunate that group streaming technology for the socially distant equivalent isn't outstanding.

There are more remote movie night services and apps than ever, such as Netflix Party and Scener, and many of them work decently enough. However, nothing has recreated the experience of sitting down in front of a gorgeous television with a group of friends.

The good news for a variety of reasons is that 2020 won't last forever. Group streaming can, should, and probably will get better.

It's tough to project exactly how it will look in 2025 given that few of us ever thought we would even need group streaming just six months ago. As new apps pop up with new features on a regular basis, the best we can do is take stock of what we have now and use that to build a list of what we want, like better TV compatibility and less tech troubleshooting.

The good news is there's at least one way to stream every major service such as Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu with other people.

Hulu and Amazon Prime Video have led the charge with their own official group streaming apps. Hulu Watch Party is one of the most bare-bones and restrictive options, as every user needs an ad-free Hulu login. It also only works in a web browser, which is the same with Prime Video Watch Party. Amazon's offering is exclusive to paying Prime members and, like Hulu's, it only provides basic text chat for communication.

Other streaming stalwarts like HBO, Netflix, and Disney have yet to produce their own official solutions. You can use unofficial Google Chrome extensions like Netflix Party and Disney Plus Party to watch those streaming networks with your pals, or you can turn to sites like TwoSeven and Scener that bundle a handful of different streaming services into one group streaming UI.

HBO offers only the finest in televised entertainment.

Image: alex perry / mashable

Scener is unique among its peers in that it partnered with HBO near the beginning of the pandemic in the United States, making it the "official" way to group watch HBO content despite also offering Netflix, Hulu, and a bundle of other options.

In case you're wondering how that works, Scener founder Joe Braidwood told Mashable that steaming services aren't necessarily against third-party sites as long as nothing is being stolen.

"[The HBO deal] would not happen if we weren't friendly to the industry, if we weren't additive to the goals that they have, and if they didn't see us as a great way to drive the conversation around their own content," Braidwood said.

If you don't care what content houses like Disney think about your viewing habits, Plex Watch Together is arguably the most limitless solution right now. Instead of pulling content from other people, Plex lets you upload any video file you have to a private server and share it with friends. If you just so happened to have a movie lying around on your hard drive, you could watch it with friends on Plex. It also works on a TV through an app (with no native chat features), unlike everything else we've covered.

Group streaming went from being a novelty for some to a necessity for many in a jiffy. It exploded due to unprecedented global conditions, making it difficult to predict exactly where it will go. That doesn't mean we can't try.

In our conversation with Braidwood, the Scener founder pointed out something that tends to be true in the tech world: One company could do it better than everyone and force the rest of the industry to follow suit.

"I think that there will be one big winner...and then I think that these experiences will be piecemeal integrated into every viewing platform," Braidwood said.

It's just a little too early to tell exactly who will change the game to that degree. We reached out to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Disney to ask if they had plans to introduce official group streaming features or expand their existing ones. All of them were tight-lipped, so it's up to us to figure out the future.

The 'Stranger Things' kids will presumably look much older in 2025.

First things first, someone needs to solve the TV problem. Watching Michael Mann's 1995 artistic achievement Heat with your buds (as I did recently) is a great time, but the experience is diminished on a laptop screen. It's a visual art form, one that needs to be experienced on the best display you own.

Sadly, modern TVs and streaming devices weren't built with any of this in mind. How do you chat with people on devices with no cameras, microphones, or keyboards built in? Companies are going to need to experiment with some deeply goofy ideas to make this work. Let's start with a basic one: Living room TVs with webcams built in.

That should set off every privacy alarm you have, but it's a possibility if we have to keep watching content this way. In 2025, Sony, Vizio, or any other manufacturer could sell you a breathtaking 8K set that's spying on you as you eat too many Doritos on the couch. On the plus side, you'd be able to watch sports (if they still exist) with your buddies and gauge their reactions in real-time thanks to small webcam windows around the screen.

Even if TVs don't include webcams in their hardware, there's plenty of room for third-party alternatives. You can already plug some of them into TVs for big-screen video chats. Gaming consoles could also help out, given that PlayStation and Xbox already include robust social features like voice chat. It's probably worth noting that Netflix is incredibly popular on Xbox, so there might be demand going forward.

If TV manufacturers don't seize the opportunity, standalone streaming hardware might step in. In one potential (and potentially annoying) scenario, a company like Roku could add social features to its lineup of streaming devices. Maybe you could curate a friends list and see a social feed showing what everyone's watching just like you already do with music on Spotify, perhaps even with a way to hop in and join if you have the right login. Of course, those devices might have to have webcams built in, too.

Ideally, we won't be stuck in the same place every day five years from now.

However, none of this matters if content creators aren't on board. The worst-case scenario would be companies like Netflix putting barriers around their content by creating their own hardware for group streaming, which could be expensive and exclusionary. There's no reason for a Netflix box to exist in 2020, but five years from now, the company could decide that owning one is the only way to remotely watch season 17 of Stranger Things with friends.

If group streaming takes off, we may see a power struggle between studios and third-party app developers going forward. Roku may not implement group streaming at the system level because a company like TwoSeven or Scener could step in with a TV-compatible app of their own. You might need to memorize which streaming services work with which group watch apps, much like how you have to memorize which shows and movies are on which services right now. Confusion is just great, isn't it?

The best possible outcome is an end to the COVID-19 pandemic and a return to our normal lives where we don't need group streaming to the same extent that we do now. That's the most powerful wrench that could be thrown into every single one of those predictions.

There is, of course, plenty of demand right now. According to Braidwood, Scener's usage has grown greatly since the pandemic started and the site is on track for more than a million weekly active users by the end of 2020. That's just one example, but it might be a sign that people are generally interested in doing this going forward.

Ideally, we won't have to rely on group streaming to watch classics with our friends once the pandemic fades. That said, it's proven itself useful under the current circumstances and could still facilitate long-distance movie nights even when it's safe to see people again. Whether it's out of necessity or not, group streaming can and arguably should factor into the future of on-demand entertainment.

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How group streaming could look in the future - Mashable

Back to the books: Glen Cove Public Library is now open for browsing – liherald

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By Jennifer Corr

As many Glen Cove residents are preparing to go back to school, two of the citys resource centers have reopened the Glen Cove Public Library and the North Shore Historical Museum.

While both had to close in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, many programs continued to connect patrons to programs, resources and opportunities for learning.

We have English as a Second Language classes, citizenship classes, and yoga is a big hit, Kathie Flynn, the library director, said.

But computers and sitting areas have been blocked off. The aisles of DVDs and books have arrows on the floor to keep patrons from walking past one another. And markers keep patrons six feet apart at checkout.

We are going to have a security guard at the door, and the security guard will have masks available so that if people dont have one with them, they can get one, Flynn said. There will be no congregating. Its basically browse, get your materials and then leave so that other people can come in, since we do have limited capacity.

Nalini Shyam, an avid reader from Glen Cove, said she was excited about browsing the shelves of the library again after using the curbside pickup service it has been offering for months. Im a retired teacher, so now I have the time to read, said Shyam, who was checking out a number of books from the library on Tuesday. Its nice to actually touch and feel the books.

Flynn said that the curbside pickup, for books and other media, will continue for those who still have reservations about being in public spaces.

At the North Shore Historical Museum, Director Amy Driscoll and board trustee and City Councilman Gaitley Stevenson-Mathews took to Facebook to announce its opening on Wednesday.

Driscoll and board directors like Stevenson-Mathews have been using Facebook to upload Pop-Up Visits, which provide viewers with history lessons on the North Shore or the museum. I cant believe this would have been our 14th pop-up episode, Driscoll said. Time has really flown the past few months.

Im so thrilled that finally, youll be able to come to the museum, she said. Thats right: On Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 1 p.m. our doors will open, and you are all invited to come see our wonderful exhibit on the art of Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.

Tiffany, who was born in New York City in 1848, is mostly known for his stained glass art, including lamps. The lecture to go along with the exhibit will be presented online on Sept. 9, Driscoll said.

Just like anywhere else, we require a six-foot distance and for everyone to wear masks, Driscoll said. Weve been cleaning and sanitizing, and we will continue to do so to make it safe for you to visit.

Please know that we still need your support, Stevenson-Mathews said. Volunteers have been here helping us get ready and set back up. Of course we need your support financially. We need your support in attendance.

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Back to the books: Glen Cove Public Library is now open for browsing - liherald

Widespread Report on the Global Refracting Telescope Market 2020-2028 with the Leading Players Celestron, Vixen Optics, ASTRO-PHYSICS, ORION, Barska,…

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Due to the pandemic, we have included a special section on the Impact of COVID 19 on the Refracting Telescope Market which would mention How the Covid-19 is affecting the Refracting Telescope Industry, Market Trends and Potential Opportunities in the COVID-19 Landscape, Covid-19 Impact on Key Regions and Proposal for Refracting Telescope Players to Combat Covid-19 Impact.

The global Refracting Telescope Market research report offers a fundamental overview of global market. It presents the extensive outline of the global market based on different parameters like market trends, market shares, size and various specifications of the market.

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The Top Key Players of Global Refracting Telescope Market:

Celestron, Vixen Optics, ASTRO-PHYSICS, ORION, Barska, TianLang, SharpStar, Bosma, Visionking, Sky Watcher, Bushnell, TAKAHASHI, Meade, Bresser

It encompasses a massive database featuring numerous market segments and sub-segments. The study also offers importance on latest platforms along with the effect of certain platforms on market growth. It compiles in-depth informative data of the market by applying proven research techniques.

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Regionally, the global Refracting Telescope market has been classified into different regions such as North America, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Africa. Collectively, the overall analysis of the global market helps to make complex business decisions and helps to navigate global clients towards a successful future.

Market Segmentation by Type:

Market Segmentation by Application:

The global Refracting Telescope market report provides detailed elaboration with respect to market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities. Industry analysis tools such as SWOT and Porters five techniques have been used for analyzing the global market. Moreover, development plans and policies are also presented in the report.

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Table of Contents:

Chapter 1. Refracting Telescope Market Overview

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Chapter 4. Sales and revenue by Type

Chapter 5. Refracting Telescope Market Sales and revenue by Application

Chapter 6. Market Players profiles and sales data

Chapter 7. Manufacturing Cost Analysis

Chapter 8. Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Down Stream Buyers

Chapter 9. Market Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

Chapter 10. Refracting Telescope Market effective factors Analysis

Chapter 11. Market Size and Forecast

Chapter12. Conclusion

Chapter13. Appendix

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University subject profile: physics – The Guardian

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What youll learnPhysics is the study of the fundamental forces that govern our universe. Youll learn about physical phenomena from the largest to the smallest scales, from galaxies to quarks and beyond. Youll also delve into particle physics (the basic building blocks that make up the world around us), and classical and special relativity (how objects act under the effects of forces, and how this changes under extreme conditions).

Its a subject that requires good maths knowledge, as youll be expected to be able to explain the physical world in mathematical terms. You will also get the chance to enhance your computing skills.

Universities offer three- and four-year undergraduate courses. Your course should cover the fundamentals: electromagnetism, quantum and classical mechanics, statistical physics and thermodynamics, and the properties of matter. You could then choose specialist topics, such as astronomy, space science, or applied physics.

By the time you leave university, you will understand key physical laws and principles and be able to solve problems or at least have an idea of how to. You will be able to plan and carry out experiments, and know how to analyse and interpret your findings.

You will also know how to produce clear and accurate scientific reports and present complex information concisely.

How youll learnYoull learn through a combination of lectures, lab sessions and tutorials. Most courses will require you to complete a research project during your fourth year, probably with a research group. Some courses will encourage you to complete work placements.

Entry requirementsMany universities will want top grades, though not all. Many courses are accredited by the Institute of Physics the professional body for physicists. You will probably need to have studied maths and physics at A-level (or equivalent). Further maths, chemistry and computing or computer science are helpful.

What job can you get?Many physics graduates go on to further study and pursue careers in research. Those who leave academia often become data scientists or work in computing or engineering.

The skills you learn in problem-solving and computing will be highly prized by employers in a range of fields. Physics graduates can also be found in the public sector, business and teaching.

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University subject profile: physics - The Guardian

UK Part of New NSF Physics Frontier Center Focused on Neutron Star Modeling in ‘Gravitational Wave Era’ – UKNow

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 1, 2020) The University of Kentucky is part of a new Physics Frontier Center (PFC) that launched today at the University of California, Berkeley. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Network for Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries (N3AS)PFC seeks to improve understanding of the most extreme events known in the universe: mergers of neutron stars and their explosive aftermath which includes ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves.

Susan Gardner, professor in the UK Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, is leading the effort on behalf of UK.

I am really enthusiastic about the new Physics Frontier Center and am delighted at having the chance to participate in it, Gardner said. The ability to detect gravitational waves opens new windows on the study of cold matter at high densities, and the potential for new scientific discoveries is high. I feel that my broad background in nuclear, particleand astrophysics is helpful to making connections within our multi-institution collaboration."

Gardner is currentlyworking with Berkeley postdoc Jeff Berrymanat UK under their existing N3AS consortium to study possible new particle interactions and how they might be probed in this new regime. Sheexpects to address similar topics within the PFC with a future postdoc.

We operate as a single team, combining our expertise in order to tackle the complex multi-physics problems thatarise in astrophysics problems that are beyond the capacity of a single investigator, said Wick Haxton, theoretical nuclear physicist in Berkeley Labs Nuclear Science Division and principal investigator of the PFC.

The center builds upon an NSF-funded research hub in multi-messenger nuclear astrophysics that was established in 2017, and a foundation of support for this field of research by the Office of Nuclear Physics within the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science. With the upgrade to a Physics Frontier Center, there will now be broader community participation in the effort and an expanded scope of research. The NSF commitment to the N3AS Center will be $10.9 million over five years.

The newly established Network for Neutrinos, Nuclear Astrophysics, and Symmetries Physics Frontier Center will reveal new information about the physics in extreme astrophysical environments, allowing scientists to address major questions in physics and multi-messenger astrophysics, said Jean Cottam Allen, NSF program officer overseeing the Physics Frontier Centers.

Institutional members of the PFC include: UC Berkeley, Los Alamos National Laboratory, North Carolina State University, Northwestern University, Ohio University, Pennsylvania State University, UC San Diego, University of Kentucky, University of Minnesota, University of New Hampshire, University of Notre Dame, University of Washington, and University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Read the full press release at: https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2020/08/17/new-nsf-physics-frontier-center-will-focus-on-neutron-star-modeling-in-gravitational-wave-era/

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UK Part of New NSF Physics Frontier Center Focused on Neutron Star Modeling in 'Gravitational Wave Era' - UKNow

Scientists discover first ‘intermediate-mass’ black hole in massive merger – Big Think

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In May 2019, a ripple of gravitational waves passed through Earth after traveling across the cosmos for 7 billion years. The ripple came in four waves, each lasting just a fraction of a second. Although the ancient signal was faint, its source was cataclysmic: the biggest merger of two black holes ever observed.

It occurred when two mid-sized black holes 66 and 85 times the mass of our Sun drifted close together, began spinning around each other and merged into one black hole roughly 142 times the mass of our Sun.

"It's the biggest bang since the Big Bang observed by humanity," Caltech physicist Alan Weinstein, who was part of the discovery team, told The Associated Press.

A massive bang, sure. But a black hole of this size actually falls within the "intermediate-mass" category, which ranges from about 50 to 1,000 times the mass of our Sun.

Scientists know relatively little about these mid-sized black holes. They've catalogued small black holes only a few times more massive than the Sun, as well as supermassive black holes more than six billion times the mass of our star. But direct evidence of intermediate-mass black holes has remained elusive.

"Long have we searched for an intermediate-mass black hole to bridge the gap between stellar-mass and supermassive black holes," Christopher Berry, a professor at Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics), told Northwestern Now. "Now, we have proof that intermediate-mass black holes do exist."

Still, how these middleweight black holes form is a mystery. Scientists know that smaller black holes form when stars explode in violent events called supernovas. But mid-sized black holes couldn't form this way, according to current physics, because stars of a certain mass range undergo a death process called pair instability, where they explode and leave nothing behind, not even a black hole.

This chart compares the mass of black-hole merger events observed by LIGO-Virgo.

Credit: LIGO/Caltech/MIT/R. Hurt (IPAC)

As for supermassive black holes? Scientists are pretty sure that these behemoths, which lie in the center of most galaxies, grow huge by gobbling up ancient dust, gas and other cosmic matter including other black holes. Intermediate black holes may form in a similar way, by small-ish black holes repeatedly merging together.

In other words, an intermediate black hole might be on its way to becoming supermassive.

"We're talking here about a hierarchy of mergers, a possible pathway to make bigger and bigger black holes," Martin Hendry, a professor of gravitational astrophysics and cosmology at Glasgow University, told the BBC. "So, who knows? This 142-solar-mass black hole may have gone on to have merged with other very massive black holes as part of a build-up process that goes all the way to those supermassive black holes we think are at the heart of galaxies."

Visualization of a black hole.

Credit: NASA

The recent discovery sheds light on how black holes form, but questions still remain. Scientists with the LIGO-Virgo collaboration hope to continue studying the newly discovered intermediate black hole dubbed GW190521 in 2021 when the facilities will be up and running again with improved instruments.

"Our ability to find a black hole a few hundred kilometers-wide from half-way across the Universe is one of the most striking realizations of this discovery," Karan Jani, an astrophysicist with LIGO told The Malaysian Reserve.

The discovery was described in two papers published in the Physical Review Letters and The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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This triple star system warped the protoplanetary discs around it, new research says – CTV News

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TORONTO -- New research into a stellar system where three stars compete for attention has unearthed the first evidence that stars can rip apart and warp massive discs of planet-forming material.

Researchers identified a specific star system where planets are not formed on an even plane like in our solar system, but instead on an inclined ring within a warped circumstellar disk around multiple stars, a press release stated.

The system is called GW Orionis, and is located 1,200 light years away in the constellation of Orion.

According to researchers, if you were standing on a planet inside this star system, you could be treated to a double, or even a triple sunset, similar to the iconic Star Wars planet Tatooine.

Published in Science Mag last week, the new observations of GW Orionis provides the first concrete evidence for theoretical models that predicted if the planet-forming disc around a star system was misaligned with the orbital plane of the stars themselves, gravitational forces from the multiple stars could warp the disc and actually break it into rings, something called disc tearing.

An international team led by researchers from the University of Exeter used data from several large telescopes or arrays and a new infrared imager, called MIRC-X, to gain these new insights into the star system.

In star formation, a disk of dust and gas swirls around the growing star, feeding it. Once the star has formed, leftover material within that circumstellar disk forms into planetary bodies and moons.

"We're really excited that our new MIRC-X imager has provided the sharpest view yet of this intriguing system and revealed the gravitational dance of the three stars in the system, said Stefan Kraus, professor of astrophysics at the University of Exeter, in the press release. Normally, planets form around a flat disc of swirling dust and gas yet our images reveal an extreme case where the disc is not flat at all.

"Instead it is warped and has a misaligned ring that has broken away from the disc. The misaligned ring is located in the inner part of the disc, close to the three stars.

Researchers confirmed the existence of this misaligned ring by observing the shadow of the inner ring as it was cast on the rest of the disc.

An artists rendering of the star system shows what looks like a smaller ring of dust and gas tilted in opposition to a more oval disc of material rotating around it.

The inner ring alone contains enough dust and gas to make the mass of Earth 30 times over, meaning it is more than capable of forming planets. If planets could be formed on an inner ring like this, in this star system and others, this means we could see more star systems where planets orbit in increasingly unique ways.

And it could mean there are already planets out there that we havent discovered in star systems were already aware of, on wide and oblique orbits.

"Since more than half of stars in the sky are born with one or more companions, this raises an exciting prospect: there could be an unknown population of exoplanets that orbit their stars on very inclined and distant orbits, Alexander Kreplin, of the University of Exeter, said in the press release.

Its not just the discs of dust and gas that are misaligned with each other, but the stars themselves. The research team observed GW Orionis carefully for more than 11 years, and observed that the orbit of the stars are not on the same plane, but are also misaligned.

The final step for researchers was to take the painstaking observations and load them into computer simulations. This was when it became clear to researchers that they had clear evidence that the discs were torn apart by the competing gravitational forces of the three misaligned stars, proving what had long been only theory.

If three suns, one solar system seems like a familiar scenario, there might be a reason for that.

Its a real-life example of the Three-Body Problem, both a real scientific theory -- a physics and classical mechanics problem trying to track how three objects would move around a single gravitational point -- and a Hugo Award-winning science fiction novel by Chinese writer Liu Cixin that describes the exact scenario occurring in the new research: a star system with three stars in an unstable orbit.

So far, the new research has not predicted an imminent alien invasion to match the events of the novel, so some parts at least, remain science fiction.

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This triple star system warped the protoplanetary discs around it, new research says - CTV News

Looking skin deep at the growth of neutron stars – Washington University in St. Louis Newsroom

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In atomic nuclei, protons and neutrons share energy and momentum in tight quarters. But exactly how they share the energy that keeps them bound within the nucleus and even where they are within the nucleus remain key puzzles for nuclear scientists.

A new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California tackled these questions by leveraging data from nuclear scattering experiments to make stringent constraints on how nucleons (neutrons and protons) arrange themselves in the nucleus. The research appears in two corresponding papers in Physical Review C and Physical Review Letters.

Robert J. Charity, research professor of chemistry, Willem H. Dickhoff, professor of physics, and Lee G. Sobotka, professor of chemistry and of physics, all in Arts & Sciences, are co-authors on the papers led by Cole Pruitt, presently a postdoctoral fellow at LLNL, who earned his PhD at Washington University in 2019. Pruitt completed the majority of the work for these papers as part of his thesis effort.

Their analysis shows that for several cornerstone nuclei, a tiny fraction of the protons and neutrons possess the lions share of the overall energy that keeps them bound in nuclei, roughly 50% more than expected from standard theoretical treatments.

Further, the study makes new predictions for the neutron skin a region where extra neutrons pile up of several neutron-rich nuclei. In turn, these predictions are tightly connected to how large neutron stars grow and what elements are likely synthesized in neutron star mergers.

Our results quantitatively indicate how asymmetry, charge and shell effects contribute to neutron skin generation and drive a disproportionate share of the total binding energy to the deepest nucleons, Pruitt said.

Understanding how nuclear asymmetry energy changes with density is an essential input to the neutron equation-of-state, which determines neutron star structure. But its not easy to directly measure neutron skins.

A comprehensive model should not only reproduce integrated quantities (like the charge radius or total binding energy) but also specify how nucleons share momentum and energy, all while being realistic about the model uncertainty of its predictions, Pruitt said.

The work reported by Pruitt and collaborators provides a powerful bridge between nuclear physics and astrophysics in the new era of multi-messenger astronomy. The measurement of the neutron skin of several nuclei reported in the letter (Physical Review Letters) could provide stringent constraints on the equation of state of neutron-rich matter, which is a critical ingredient for understanding neutron stars, said Jorge Piekarewicz, professor of physics at Florida State University, a leading theorist who was not involved in these studies.

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Scientists detect massive galactic collision between black holes that "aren’t supposed to exist" – Boing Boing

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Earlier this week, an international team of scientists from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration published two reports one in thePhysical Review Letters, and the other inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters about a strange gravitational wave phenomena they observed.

Approximately 17 billion light-years away from the Earth, a black hole that was 85 times the mass of our sun collided with another black hole that was 66 times the mass of our sun, resulting in a new black hole measured at about 142 solar masses. (If that math doesn't add up in your limited comprehension of astrophysics, that's OK; that's part of why it's so interesting.) Dennis Overbye described the aftermath in the New York Times as being, "eight or so suns' worth of mass and energy [that] disappeared into gravitational waves, ripples of the space-time fabric, in a split-second of cosmic frenzy, ringing the universe like a bell."

That's a pretty remarkable passage of prose. But what's more remarkable about this event is that it challenges our current understanding of how black holes are formed. Also from the Times:

Most known black holes are the corpses of massive stars that have died and collapsed catastrophically into nothing: dark things a few times as massive as the sun. But galaxies harbor black holes millions or billions of times more massive than that. How these objects can grow so big is an abiding mystery of astronomy.

Until recently there had been scant evidence of black holes of intermediate sizes, with 100 to 100,000 solar masses. The black hole created in the GW190521 merger is the first solid example of this missing link.

At least one (if not both) of the colliding black holes was too large to have been formed by a collapsing star; and as far as any scientists are aware, there were never any stars where those black holes had been located.

So the bad news is, black holes can basically smash themselves together and form newer, larger black holes, which can then consume other black holes to continue adding to their masses.

The good news is, if this trend continues, it means we're one step closer to a super-massive hybrid black hole swallowing reality and resetting our timeline back to January 8, 2016 the day that David Bowie released his "Blackstar" album before dying two days later from complications involving another dense mass. Then at least we'll have another chance to make things right.

These Black Holes Shouldn't Exist, but There They Are [Dennis Overbye / The New York Times]

Image: Public Domain via NASA/JPL-Caltech

Lasts week, we lost iconic avant-garde fashion designer, Kansai Yamamoto. Yamamoto is best known for this long-term collaboration with David Bowie, especially the costumes for the Martian rocker's Ziggy Stardust tour. On the Fashion United website, there's a piece about the 2018 Brooklyn Museum evening with Yamamoto, done in support of the David Bowie Is []

This interview presents a conversation with Eisner Award-winning comic book creator Michael Allred (Madman, iZombie, Red Rocket 7, X-Ray Robot, Silver Surfer, X-Statix, Bug! The Adventures of Forager) about BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams. Jeffery Klaehn: Please tell me about BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams. Michael Allred: It's a visual biography about how []

David Bowie's Let's Dance was released 37 years ago today. His 15th studio record, Let's Dance would become his most commercially successful album but it was not well-received by critics and hardcore fans at the time and Bowie himself would end up regretting the record and the tours and albums that followed (Tonight, Never Let []

While Labor Day is a moment to solemnly consider the role that work serves in all of our lives, there are certain workers among us who will not benefit from a day of celebration and reflection. Robot vacuums, you just keep working like normal this weekend. Look, it's not that we don't appreciate you. But []

Whenever you happen to need a charging cable or a power batteryhey, wait a minute, where did that go? Between the house, your vehicle and all those evildoers that blatantly steal your stuff (otherwise known as family, friends and co-workers), it's tough to keep track of where all your tech accessories are at a moment's []

It's already one of the most iconic items in film history. Unless you've been off-world for the past few years, you already know all about the all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet. It's the weapon wielded by the Mad Titan Thanos in his quest to reshape the cosmos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, culminating in a heart-stopping smackdown []

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Scientists detect massive galactic collision between black holes that "aren't supposed to exist" - Boing Boing

China’s secretive ‘space plane’ makes successful return to Earth – CNET

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China's reusable experimental spacecraft, rumored to be a space plane like the above, spent two days in orbit, according to Chinese state-run media outlets.

China's "reusable experimental spacecraft" has successfully returned to Earth after spending two days in low-Earth orbit. The secretive mission released an unknown object during its time in space and marks an "important breakthrough" in the country's reusable spacecraft research program, according to Chinese state-run Xinhua media outlet.

The spacecraft launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Friday, atop a Long March 2F rocket. It is believed to be a space plane similar to the US Air Force X-37B but no images of the launch or return have been released. The veil of secrecy have led some space-watchers to suggest it could be a military space plane.

Subscribe to the CNET Now newsletter for our editors' picks of the most important stories of the day.

On Monday, the People's Daily Science account on Twitter posted a brusque update, echoing the sentiments published by Xinhua. No details of the landing time or site have been released.

According to Andrew Jones, a journalist covering China's space program, further flights are expected to follow the initial test launch and, quoting Chen Hongbo, an official with China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, he suggests the new vehicle may be able to fly "more than 20 times."

The reusable space plane is believed to be more Space Shuttle than SpaceX. It launches vertically but lands horizontally, coasting onto a runway during its return to Earth. Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and other internet sleuths suggest the experimental spacecraft may have landed at an airbase in the Taklamakan desertin northwest China.

Monday also saw China launch a Long March 4B rocket from the Taiyun Satellite Launch Center in northern China. The rocket's first stage booster came crashing back to Earth shortly after launch, with harrowing footage uploaded to Chinese social media site Weibo of the booster exploding near a school.

Launches you may be familiar with in the US, such as those conducted by SpaceX and NASA, take place close to the coast, but China often launches from inland sites, resulting in debris falling back to Earth over populated areas which sometimes have to be evacuated prior to launch.

See the rest here:

China's secretive 'space plane' makes successful return to Earth - CNET

Roger Ver: ‘Bitcoin Cash Can Be the Superior Store of …

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Crypto Titans is a series of personal interviews conducted by CoinMarketCap with prominent and forward-thinking minds tinkering on and behind the scenes of the cryptocurrency landscape. Click here to see all the Crypto Titan interviews up to today!

This Friday June 26 at 10AM (New York)/ 3PM (London)/ 10PM (Singapore), Roger himself will be LIVE on the CoinMarketCap Chat answering any burning question you may have for him! You can start by dropping your question in the channel #AMA With Roger Ver. See you folks there on CoinMarketCap Chat!

Roger Ver, Bitcoin Jesus, a former U.S. citizen, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion one of cryptocurrencys most prolific and early investors goes by many names.

Ver first heard of Bitcoin as early as 2011, and began investing in small crypto startups that have now become household names today (at least in crypto), including BitPay, Kraken and Blockchain.com.

As Ver was (and still is) one of the most vocal proponents of an increased block size leading him to unequivocally align himself with the Bitcoin Cash fork in 2017 he firmly remains a supporter of cryptocurrency as an instant, basically free, anonymous way to send money to anyone, anywhere in the world. Even if, as he notes, right now the corona pandemic seems to just be causing the crypto curious to spend more time on blockchain-based online poker.

As an incredibly early adopter of Bitcoin, what was your go-to way of getting people interested in the cryptocurrency way back in 2011?

My pitch for Bitcoin in 2011 is the same pitch for Bitcoin Cash in 2020.

You can send or receive any amount of money with anyone in the world, instantly, basically for free, anonymously, and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop it.

That description today is still true of Bitcoin Cash, but no longer true for Bitcoin.

Debunk a common myth or misconception in crypto that you often run into.

People seem to think I created Bitcoin Cash. I had nothing to do with the creation of Bitcoin Cash and I didnt start promoting Bitcoin Cash until it became clear that Bitcoin wasnt going to be allowed to scale to be permissionless money for the world.

When you were first investing in Bitcoin companies, what convinced you of a projects soundness?

Seeing people naturally start using Bitcoin for commerce on the Silk Road provided the empirical evidence that Bitcoin was fantastic money, that people around the world would start to use without anyone needing to force them into it.

Whats the biggest mistake youve made that youve learned from (in crypto or in general)?

I underestimated how big an effect censorship can have on a community. I watched first hand as the small block Bitcoiners used censorship and propaganda against the big block Bitcoiners who supported free speech.

In a short amount of time, people went from knowing the truth to believing lies because they were repeated often and loudly enough while the truth and dissenting opinions were banned.

I suppose this is a large part of the reason governments in every country make sure to control the schools.

Youve said before that observing the mini-economy of tobacco, stamps, etc. in prison gave you insight into theories of the origin of money. Can you expand on that? Were there any specific instances that served as important examples for you?

In order for something to be usable as a store of value it MUST have an additional use case outside of being a store of value.

The dollar is used as a store of value because you can spend them anywhere.

In prison stamps or tobacco are used as a store of value because you can mail letters or smoke them.

Bitcoin turning its back on its usefulness in commerce undermines its usefulness as a store of value.

If Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are equally scarce, but Bitcoin Cash has the added benefit of being easily spendable at merchants, Bitcoin Cash will end up being the superior store of value as well.

Do you think that the coronavirus pandemic will end up highlighting the benefits of crypto over fiat?

It doesnt seem to be having much effect other than more people using crypto online for things like blockchain.poker.

Has quarantine given you more time to practice jiu-jitsu?

No, because I need partners to train with. I didnt get to train at all for two months, but recently things have opened up again and Im training 6 days a week.

Whats a piece of advice to follow for those wanting to enter crypto? Whats something they should ignore?

Try actually transacting with crypto. Get some BTC or BCH and then buy something from Amazon at a 25% discount from Purse.io. (You will save more money by using Bitcoin Cash)

You can also try playing some poker at blockchain.poker.

The Bitcoin Cash discussion platforms support free speech. Bitcoin discussion platforms openly support censorship.

Thats all you need to know in order to figure out who has the better ideas.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Enjoyed reading our Crypto Titan series? Catch our last interview with Litecoin founder Charlie Lee! Or check out the full list here.

This article contains links to third-party websites or other content for information purposes only (Third-Party Sites). The Third-Party Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any association with its operators.

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Roger Ver: 'Bitcoin Cash Can Be the Superior Store of ...

Roger Ver – Wikipedia

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Roger Keith Ver (born 27 January 1979[1]) is an early investor in bitcoin, bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of bitcoin.[2] He has been known as "Bitcoin Jesus" for his promotion of bitcoin.[2] He now promotes Bitcoin Cash.[3]

Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he sold explosives on eBay and later pleaded guilty to three related felony charges.[4] He served 10 months in prison, then moved to Japan in 2005. He renounced his United States citizenship in 2014 after obtaining a Saint Kitts and Nevis passport. He went on to serve as CEO of Bitcoin.com.[5]

Ver was born in San Jose, California. He attended De Anza College for a year, dropping out to pursue his business interests. He identifies as a libertarian, an anarcho-capitalist, peace advocate, and an advocate for individualism and voluntaryism.[citation needed] He moved to Japan in 2005 after serving a 10-month prison sentence for illegally selling explosives.[4][6]

Ver renounced his United States citizenship in 2014 after he became a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis.[7][8] In 2015, he was denied a visa to reenter the United States by the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, which claimed that he had not sufficiently proven ties outside of the United States that would motivate him to leave at the end of his visit, causing fears he might become an illegal immigrant.[6][8][9] Later in the same year his visa was approved by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and he visited the United States in June 2016 to speak at a conference in Denver, Colorado.[citation needed] Ver's name was published in the 2018 Q1 Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate.[10] In 2019 Ver was denied a visa to travel to Australia.[11]

According to an interview he gave in 2016, Ver describes Brazilian jiu-jitsu as one of his major passions in life. Ver can be seen in videos competing in BJJ world championships[12] and has achieved the rank of brown belt.[13]

In 2018 he was ranked number 36 in Fortune's The Ledger 40 under 40[14] for transforming business at the leading edge of finance and technology.

He was the CEO of MemoryDealers.com from 1999 until 2012.[15] In 2000, he attempted to enter politics by running for California State Assembly as a candidate for the Libertarian Party.[16]

In 2002, Ver pleaded guilty to selling explosives without a license, to illegally storing explosives, and to mailing the explosives. Ver bought 49 pounds of "Pest Control Report 2000" explosives, sold at least 14 pounds of them as large firecrackers on eBay, stored the explosives in a residential apartment building, and mailed them to customers via the U.S. Postal Service. He was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison.[7][6][4][17]

Ver began investing in bitcoin in early 2011.[2] The first investment he made was for Charlie Shrems Bitinstant.[18] Ver's investment allowed the company to hire a designer and another programmer.[19] He invested over a million dollars into new bitcoin related startups including Ripple, Blockchain.info, Bitpay[20] and Kraken.[7] In 2011, Ver's company Memorydealers was the first to accept bitcoin as payment.[21] His early advocacy for bitcoin earned him the moniker of Bitcoin Jesus.[2] He has been a prominent supporter of bitcoin adoption and saw bitcoin as a means to promote economic freedom.

In 2012, Ver was organising bitcoin meetups in Sunnyvale.[22] He is one of five founders of the Bitcoin Foundation.[23] Ver wants bitcoin to rival major fiat currencies.

He is one of the main proponents of a larger block size. He supported the development of Bitcoin XT as a hard fork method towards an increase. Ver and his high school friend Jesse Powell attempted to re-establish the Mt Gox exchange during the June 2011 bitcoin price crash.[22]

Ver served as CEO of Bitcoin.com[24] until 1 August 2019, at which point he transitioned to Executive Chairman. Fortune Magazine in early 2020 referred to Roger Ver as the co-creator of Bitcoin Cash.[25]

In late 2013, Ver donated more than $1million worth of bitcoin to the Foundation for Economic Education.[2]

"Episode 687: Buy This Passport". Planet Money. 10 March 2016.

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Roger Ver - Wikipedia