Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Up $2.28 On 4 Hour Chart, Started Today Up 1.1%; in an Uptrend Over Past 30 Days – CFDTrading

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Bitcoin Cash 4 Hour Price Update

Updated August 13, 2020 03:19 PM GMT (11:19 AM EST)

The back and forth price flow continues for Bitcoin Cash, which started the current 4 hour candle off at 280.17 US dollars, down 1.24% ($3.53) from the last 4 hour candle. On a relative basis, Bitcoin Cash was the worst performer out of all 5 of the assets in the Top Cryptos asset class during the last 4 hour candle.

The back and forth price flow continues for Bitcoin Cash, which started today off at 284.86 US dollars, up 1.1% ($3.09) from yesterday. This move happened on lower volume, as yesterdays volume was down 30.39% from the day before and down 31.28% from the same day the week before. Relative to other instruments in the Top Cryptos asset class, Bitcoin Cash ranked 3rd since yesterday in terms of percentage price change. Below is a daily price chart of Bitcoin Cash.

The first thing we should note is that Bitcoin Cash is now close to its 20 day averages, located at 287.13 respectively, and thus may be at a key juncture along those timeframes. Volatility for Bitcoin Cash has been contracting over the past two weeks relative to volatility over the past month. Whether volatility reverts will be something to watch. Trend traders will want to observe that the strongest trend appears on the 30 day horizon; over that time period, price has been moving up. For additional context, note that price has gone up 6 out of the past 10 days. And for candlestick traders, a special treat: there is a pin bar pattern showing up on the charts as well. Rejoice!

Behold! Here are the top tweets related to Bitcoin Cash:

@jtoomim @BCHFrance @vinarmani @CryptoKelso @MarcDeMesel @rogerkver @deadalnix We(users, exchanges) need a reference client or its pure chaos when/if miners run incompatible Bitcoin Cash software. ABC has a proven track record, so its an obvious choice.BCHN is offering a no-8% IFP with the risk of orphaned blocks if majority miners stay with ABC

@BlockpartySh @KeepBitcoinFree @jtoomim @oorion_ @CryptoKelso @BCHFrance @MarcDeMesel @rogerkver @deadalnix So everyone who uses Bitcoin Cash are not the users and when people say the community rejected this tax they are speaking on behalf of everyone who uses Bitcoin Cash?So is someone who thinks the coinbase rule is a good idea not part of everyone who uses Bitcoin Cash?

@vinarmani @KeepBitcoinFree @jtoomim @oorion_ @CryptoKelso @BCHFrance @MarcDeMesel @rogerkver @deadalnix > who would be the primary consistent contributorsNever stated this. I stated I was sure that Bitcoin Cash developers could achieve ~$1m in voluntary funding if they consistently deliver.

In terms of news links for Bitcoin Cash heres one to try:

The Mythical Community and the Permissionless of Bitcoin Cash

This, however, is the Marrakech market in the evening.So what exactly is the Marrakech market?People may even call it the Marrakech market but there would always be a new and old market.What has any of this to do with Bitcoin Cash?Can the market want something?Like the Marrakech market, the Bitcoin Cash community exists in the totality of peoples expectations and behaviors over time.

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Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Up $2.28 On 4 Hour Chart, Started Today Up 1.1%; in an Uptrend Over Past 30 Days - CFDTrading

Bitcoin Cash [BCH] Bitcoin.com Published Worries About November Update on Bitcoin Cash Network – Crypto Economy

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Dennis Jarvis, CEO of Bitcoin.com, published a blog post about the future upgrade on Bitcoin Cash Network. Bitcoin.com is a company focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain-based products.

Its mission is based-on providing digital currency for regular people. The executives believe Bitcoin Cash can fulfil the needs for this mission and tries to participate as more as possible on the related products.

Many development teams collaborate on providing changes and features for Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin.com is one of the many. These teams usually have challenges with each other regarding which tools and modifications to add to the main network.

The long-age problems have caused splits in the Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash network. Jarvis believes the upcoming upgrade for Bitcoin Cash may result in more fractures among Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash developer community.

CEO of Bitcoin.com focuses on the proposed changes in the Bitcoin Cash network for November 2020 Update in his blog post:

Recently, competing teams of open-source software developers have proposed changes to the Bitcoin Cash network that diverge at the fundamental level again. These changes are scheduled to take effect in November. The main point of contention between these teams is whether or not to implement a technical and economic mechanism to fund ongoing open-source software development. This mechanism, colloquially known as IFP, has been controversial, to say the least. Endless debate of its technical, economic, and governance merits (or lack thereof) rages on in social media and in private and public meetings.

Dennis Jarvis explicitly shows his position (and of his company) against IFP. He believes other Bitcoin Cash miners should follow the same principle. Jarvis encourages all participants in the Bitcoin Cash network to run software without IFP in the November update.

Bitcoin.com CEO finished his blog post with demanding Bitcoin Cash contributors to not using IFP in the upcoming update.

Thus in our view, the ideal outcome this November would be for all competing Bitcoin Cash software implementations to jointly agree to not implement the IFP feature at this time and instead come together to form such a free association so that we may also join and contribute, he added.

If you found this article interesting, here you can find more Bitcoin Cash News

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Bitcoin Cash [BCH] Bitcoin.com Published Worries About November Update on Bitcoin Cash Network - Crypto Economy

Bitcoin Cash whales are falling, why is it falling? – Somag News

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Since the beginning of August BCH has been growing above US $ 300, but at the same time the whales of Bitcoin Cash are decreasing. Why? Find out.

When a cryptocurrency increases in price considerably, one of the most common trends is to take advantage of it to obtain the benefits of an initial investment. This appeared to be the case for some Bitcoin Cash (BCH) whales. Find out the details.

Recently, BCH increased its price by almost 39%. After this, some people noticed that the number of Bitcoin Cash whales dropped from August 1. An example of this was Ali Martinez, a Twitter user interested in cryptocurrencies.

To be a Bitcoin Cash whale you must be an investor who has the equivalent of US $ 3 million in this cryptocurrency. That is, it has between 10,000 and 100,000 BCH.

It is estimated that 10 whales stopped being so after they sold their BCH when it exceeded US $ 311. Martnez added that, according to an analysis of the data provided by Santiment, the number of investors who have between 10,000-100,000 Bitcoin Cash (BCH ) decreased.

This reminds us that BCH is right now the fifth largest crypto asset by market cap at nearly $ 5.6 billion, with Bitcoin SV (BSV) trailing behind Chainlink with a capitalization of $ 4.1 million. All this according to CoinMarketCap.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash is trading at $ 302.09, having risen 0.83% in the last 24 hours. However, if we look at the price graph in the last seven days we will see that the day with the most boom for this cryptocurrency was last August 7. At that time it reached US $ 323.72.

Despite what is happening to the price of Bitcoin Cash, perhaps the whales that sold are anticipating a price drop fueled by proposals to improve the difficulty adjustment algorithm of BCH.

Specifically, we are talking about a kind of tax that was previously called the Infrastructure Financing Plan (IFP) and that now reappears as a rule for the issuance of this cryptocurrency. What this measure does is impose a contribution of 8% on the rewards for each new block created.

Something that further increases the rejection of this measure is that it was approved without a voting process to obtain the opinion of the majority. Subsequently, users have highlighted that they do not trust the use that would be given to that fund.

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Bitcoin Cash whales are falling, why is it falling? - Somag News

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Up $0.71 Over Past 4 Hours, Started Today Up 0.8%; in an Uptrend Over Past 30 Days – CFDTrading

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Bitcoin Cash 4 Hour Price Update

Updated August 11, 2020 11:18 AM GMT (07:18 AM EST)

The back and forth price flow continues for Bitcoin Cash, which started the current 4 hour candle off at 297.85 US dollars, up 0.24% ($0.71) from the last 4 hour candle. On a relative basis, the last 4 hour candle were pretty good: Bitcoin Cash bested all 5 of the assets in the Top Cryptos class

The back and forth price flow continues for Bitcoin Cash, which started today off at 302.39 US dollars, up 0.8% ($2.39) from the previous day. The change in price came along side change in volume that was up 11.78% from previous day, but down 30.68% from the Monday of last week. On a relative basis, Bitcoin Cash was the worst performer out of all 5 of the assets in the Top Cryptos asset class during the previous day. Below is a daily price chart of Bitcoin Cash.

Volatility for Bitcoin Cash has been contracting over the past two weeks relative to volatility over the past month. Whether volatility reverts will be something to watch. Trend traders will want to observe that the strongest trend appears on the 30 day horizon; over that time period, price has been moving up. For another vantage point, consider that Bitcoin Cashs price has gone up 16 of the previous 30 trading days.

Over on Twitter, here were the top tweets about Bitcoin Cash:

@PeterMcCormack I think youre missing the value that Bitcoin Cash (fork of Bitcoin), Horizen (fork of ZClassic, which is a fork of ZCash), Stellar (fork of XRP), and ETC (fork of Ethereum) bring to institutional investors.

@Grayscale I cant believe you spent that much money, didnt say Bitcoin, and actually listed Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic (which is currently under centralized attack) in this ad. I was hyped for this and I must say it was a disappointment.

2/ If you decide to not use it, dont forget ABC provided the main Bitcoin Cash node, based on voluntary work, for years. So, be respectful, and just use another client from now on.

As for a news story related to Bitcoin Cash getting some buzz:

To Our Customers, Regarding the Bitcoin Cash Network Upgrade in November

With this in mind, Bitcoin.com will continue to fund ad hoc Bitcoin Cash network development as we have done in the past, and at increasing levels commensurate with the growth of our company. We additionally desire to join free associations of developers as a financial supporter of and corporate participant in development and we will continue to encourage other businesses in our industry to do the same. Thus in our view, the ideal outcome this November would be for all competing Bitcoin Cash software implementations to jointly agree to not implement the IFP feature at this time and instead come together to form such a free association so that we may also join and contribute. Personally, I am willing and able to assist in any way I can in such an endeavor and I will continue to reiterate our vision for peer-to-peer electronic cash and our position in this matter at each and every opportunity I have with any network participant especially our customers and users of Bitcoin Cash.Thats up to Amaury, but as things stand if ABC has a minority of the hash rate backing them, they will fork away from BCH.Unless ABC change their consensus rules to remove the IFP code, theyll remain forked from BCH indefinitely, and if Amaury stays with ABC at that point and doesnt contribute to other BCH projects, then he will leave BCH.We will work with the various Bitcoin Cash node implementations to include code to implement verification of this miner funding as part of the May 2020 protocol upgrade.Go BCH!bch is the only way if you dont understand.

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Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Up $0.71 Over Past 4 Hours, Started Today Up 0.8%; in an Uptrend Over Past 30 Days - CFDTrading

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Up $4.34 in Last 4 Hours, Started Today Down 6.82%; Price Base in Formation Over Past 14 Days – CFDTrading

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Bitcoin Cash 4 Hour Price Update

Updated August 12, 2020 11:19 AM GMT (07:19 AM EST)

Bitcoin Cash closed the previous 4 hours up 1.53% ($4.34); this denotes the 2nd candle in a row it has gone up. Out of the 5 instruments in the Top Cryptos asset class, Bitcoin Cash ended up ranking 2nd for the four-hour candle in terms of price change relative to the previous 4 hours.

The back and forth price flow continues for Bitcoin Cash, which started today off at 281.77 US dollars, down 6.82% ($20.62) from the previous day. The price move occurred on stronger volume; specifically, yesterdays volume was up 44.14% from the day prior, and up 16.6% from the same day the week before. Out of the 5 instruments in the Top Cryptos asset class, Bitcoin Cash ended up ranking 4th for the day in terms of price change relative to the previous day. Lets take a look at the daily price chart of Bitcoin Cash.

First things first: Bitcoin Cash crossed below its 20 day moving average yesterday. Volatility for Bitcoin Cash has been contracting over the past two weeks relative to volatility over the past month. Whether volatility reverts will be something to watch. Trend traders will want to observe that the strongest trend appears on the 30 day horizon; over that time period, price has been moving up. Also of note is that on a 14 day basis price appears to be forming a base which could the stage for it being a support/resistance level going forward. For another vantage point, consider that Bitcoin Cashs price has gone up 15 of the previous 30 trading days.

For laughs, fights, or genuinely useful information, lets see what the most popular tweets pertaining to Bitcoin Cash for the past day were:

New Bitcoin Cash monthly report format coming tomorrow.

@CyPhlux What is the problem here?!? One thing is to be suspicious, but this is like holding BTC in 2017, before they forked it to Bitcoin Cash and then say-no thanks I dont want those tokens.

@KBClientPicks Im all about winning paper man. Bitcoin cash, Up here in Canada im a shark. Join me. Im darth vader be anakin !

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Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Up $4.34 in Last 4 Hours, Started Today Down 6.82%; Price Base in Formation Over Past 14 Days - CFDTrading

Coinbase Customers in Select U.S. States Will Soon Be Able to Borrow 30% of Their Bitcoin Holdings in… – Coinspeaker

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Coinbase has unveiled its borrowing service which will go live later in the fall. Customers will get access to up to 30% of their BTC holdings.

At the heart of any business offering is the need to satisfy customers based on their consistent request. The Coinbase exchange, one of the worlds leading centralized cryptocurrency exchanges has come to terms with its customers request and is set to start giving out credit facilities in cash. The facility will be given to customers up to 30% of their Bitcoin (BTC) holdings.

We hear from customers that they need cash for expenses like home renovations or car repairs, but they do not want to prematurely sell their crypto, or take out high-interest loans that could come with 20%+ APR. With portfolio-backed loans on Coinbase, customers can borrow cash quickly from their Coinbase accounts. No need to fill out a long application or go through a credit check. Customers can simply sign up with a few taps and get the cash in their accounts within 23 days, Coinbase said in a statement.

The move by Coinbase exchange is similar to decentralized finance lending, a key trend in the crypto space as we have it today. Despite Coinbase being a centralized exchange, its move to delve into the world of lending shows in retrospect how flexible blockchain firms can be in responding to the worlds financial needs.

The Coinbase borrow service is scheduled to go live this fall and will be available in 17 states in the United States including New Jersey, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Oregon amongst others.

Just as described, the borrowing process with Coinbase exchange will be more simplified when compared to what is obtainable in traditional banks. Through a simple online application filling out, customers can get their loans approved in 2-3 days. The Coinbase loan will be hedged against collateral which in this case is in Bitcoin.

This loan offering is unique as it will prevent customers from selling out their Bitcoins prematurely. The interest rate is pegged at 8% which is much lower than what is obtainable in banks. Each month, borrowers will only need to pay the interest accrued on the loan while and they can wait up to 1 year to repay the principal subject to Coinbase additional terms

While awaiting the official launch date, Coinbase is calling on eligible and interested customers to join the waitlist in order to have first-time access to the game-changing service.

The original purveyors of lending services in the blockchain ecosystem are DeFi platforms such as MakerDAO, Compound, and Aave amongst others. While the DeFi platforms loan service is similar to Coinbases version in terms of collateralization, the offerings differ in who takes the gain.

DeFi platforms are not just keen on bringing financial succor to the borrower, they aim for anyone with residual cash on their platform to benefit. This is unlike Coinbase which shares profit with no external parties.

The true manifestation of Decentralized Finance is to enable the comprehensive empowering of the masses, away from the grip of financial service providers who give little or no room for people to get to the point where they personalize their financial transactions.

While the Coinbase borrowing service is a key for a centralized exchange, its potential impacts are too soon to analyze but from the exchanges antecedents, this will be another service to extend its lead in the space.

Benjamin Godfrey is a blockchain enthusiast and journalists who relish writing about the real life applications of blockchain technology and innovations to drive general acceptance and worldwide integration of the emerging technology. His desires to educate people about cryptocurrencies inspires his contributions to renowned blockchain based media and sites. Benjamin Godfrey is a lover of sports and agriculture.

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Coinbase Customers in Select U.S. States Will Soon Be Able to Borrow 30% of Their Bitcoin Holdings in... - Coinspeaker

The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers August 8th, 2020 – Yahoo Finance

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Bitcoin, BTC to USD, fell by 1.52% on Friday. Reversing a 0.20% gain from Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $11,580.0.

It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin rose to an early morning intraday high $11,900 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $11,914, Bitcoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $11,326.

Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $11,581 and the second major support level at $11,402.

Finding late support, however, Bitcoin broke back through the second major support level to end the day at $11,580.

The first major support level at $11,581 pinned Bitcoin back late in the day.

The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by the latest move through to $11,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.

Across the rest of the majors, it was a bearish day for the majors on Friday.

Bitcoin Cash SV (-4.48%), Cardanos ADA (-3.93%), Ethereum (-3.93%), Litecoin (-3.10%), Stellars Lumen (-3.44%), and Tezos (-4.53%) led the way down.

Binance Coin (-1.85%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-2.15%), EOS (-2.54%), Moneros XMR (-1.10%), Ripples XRP (-2.87%), and Trons TRX (-1.83%) saw relatively modest losses on the day.

In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $323.88bn to a Thursday high $355.09bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $342.33bn.

Bitcoins dominance fell from a Monday high 62.46% to a Tuesday low 61.24%. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 62.69%.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.17% to $11,599.6. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $11,523.0 before rising to a high $11,608.0.

Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day.

Binance Coin (-1.02%), Cardanos ADA (-0.09%), EOS (-0.38%), Moneros XMR (-0.80%), Stellars Lumen (-0.02%), Tezos (-0.74%), and Trons TRX (-0.90%) saw red.

It was a bullish start for the rest of the majors, however.

Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 0.22% to lead the way.

Bitcoin would need to move through the $11,600 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $11,878.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break back through to $11,800 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Fridays high $11,900 would likely cap any upside.

In the event of a crypto breakout, Bitcoin could eye the second major resistance level at $12,176.

Failure to move through the $11,600 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $11,304 into play.

Barring another extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$11,000 levels. The second major support level at $11,028 should limit any downside.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers August 8th, 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Will There Be Sooner Football In 2020? – Sooner Maven

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The word from SI's Pat Forde this morning isn't what you would call encouraging.

In a year that's brought an absolute avalanche of bad news, the gut punch for college football fans across the nation could be on the horizon.

Yep.

It's admittedly very hard to take this at face value without verging on nihilism. After all, it's been nearly five months since the sports world ground to an unprecedented halt and went into a virtual shutdown. By all accounts, this entire saga was supposed to be over by now. COVID-19 was supposed to have been ancient history by the time football season rolled around.

And yet here we are on Aug. 8, very much on the precipice of truly uncharted territory. Not since the MLB's 1994 strike has there been such an impactful stoppage of play across American sports. And let's be honest: 2020 transcends any comparison. This isn't a strike. This is a pandemic, and there's frankly no end in sight at the moment.

To offer conjecture here would be pointless. There is no shred of certainty as to what the coming days or even the coming hours will bring. But though it may be the harshest of realities, it's time to square up with the fact of the matter.

There may not be Sooner football in 2020.

The MAC announced today that they intend to postpone football until the spring. Several FCS conferences have done the same. Yahoo Sports' Pete Thamel tweeted that the Big Ten could be close to issuing a similar ruling.

Let's recall that the Big Ten was first through the wall in cancelling its schools' nonconference games, a precedent that every other Power 5 conference eventually fell in line with.

None of this bodes well for the prospect of a football season this fall.

Lincoln Riley and the Sooner staff have done a tremendous job adapting to a changing environment and keeping the Sooners completely free of COVID-19. But they're the exception, not the rule. Oklahoma's near-flawless response to the virus simply hasn't been emulated or duplicated at other programs across the country, and even the most airtight plans can't account for the relentless machinations of the inhuman juggernaut that is COVID-19.

In an ideal world, the Big Ten presidents convene and decide to move forward with their conference-only plan, preserving some semblance of a path for Power 5 football to happen this fall. But how many times over the course of the year 2020 have we operated under the premise of "an ideal world," and how many times has the resulting scenario come to fruition?

We can continue to hope for the best. But it looks like it's come time to start preparing for the worst.

Turn your social media notifications on now, because today is shaping up to be another landmark day for college athletics.

To get the latest OU posts as they happen, join the SI Sooners Community by clicking Follow at the top right corner of the page (mobile users can click the notifications bell icon), and follow SI Sooners on Twitter @All_Sooners.

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Will There Be Sooner Football In 2020? - Sooner Maven

Walking with the Wind – TAPinto.net

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Reflecting on the words of the great John Lewis, which were printed after his death, I am struck by the importance, especially in 2020, to heed his directive that voting and participating in the democratic process is a key.

His admonition is not a foreign concept to me. My father taught my sister and me that, as citizens, it was our duty to share in the democratic process, which included paying close attention to current affairs. I remember at age 12 taking some of my hard-earned money washing cars to buy a five-year subscription to Time magazine, which I dutifully read each week. In the Martorano household, the nightly news and, of course presidential press conferences and addresses, were mandatory viewing and were witnessed without complaint or distraction.

We listened attentively to the words of presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson as history was made right before our eyes. Later, when I was on my own, my interest in public affairs only intensified. Looking back over the hundreds of speeches and addresses that I have taken in over my lifetime, I must confess to having been inspired countless times by soaring rhetoric, which as a general rule, called on us to reach higher, try harder and never give up our efforts to achieve and maintain the true promise of America.

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My dad was a diehard Republican. Yet, as partisan as he was, he still believed that all of us (Democrats and Republicans) were members of the same choir; we just had different verses. He believed to his dying breath that, when all was said and done, we all shared the same values; we just prioritized them differently. He taught my sister and me that no matter your political stripe, you had a duty to join your fellow citizens in working to improve the lives of all people within the framework of our democratic process.

Yet, over the last two decades, there has been a societal erosion of my fathers belief that we are all members of the same choir. We have been witness to the unmistakable introduction of a nihilistic thread into our countrys consciousness and political system.

Historically, nihilism, as an epistemological term, references a small branch of philosophy that asserts that nothing is knowable or worth knowing. However, the nihilism I refer to today is that which can be assigned more appropriately to the world of ethics. Nihilism, in this sense, maintains that all moral judgments are irrational, relative, and finally meaningless. Once accepted either intellectually or merely in practice, it frees its proponent from the shackles of duty, truth, or even morality in general.

When I speak of todays nihilism, I am not referring to the mistrust of government that is a perennial feature of democracy. As a Yorktown councilperson, I remember recoiling in horror whenever I overheard someone comment with conviction that all politicians are corrupt. Although I found such beliefs insulting, I always understood that the questioning of a skeptical public was a healthy tool in keeping government on its toes. Nor am I referencing the mantra of first-time candidates (which I had to endure on several occasions) that it was time for a change. That expression inferred, ever so gently, that if you are in office a long time, either staleness or corruption is inevitable. These types of cynicism, far from being malevolent, have often proved effective in holding elected officials accountable.

The nihilism I am referring to, so widespread today, is much more sinister and exponentially more dangerous to a democracy than the normal skepticism voiced by an electorate often hungry for new voices. The underpinnings of the modern-day version are simple: there is no morality, good and evil, right or wrongonly power. This view rejects an objective reality, science, accountability, ethical standards, morality, honor or equity. Its goal is no less than the annihilation of our faith in our democratic institutions themselves. Historically speaking, this type of dark sentiment has always thrived best during times of marked societal apprehension.

Ivan Turgenevs novel in 1862, Fathers and Sons, popularized nihilism as a repudiation of an utterly corrupt political and legal system. Unlike todays version, it concurrently offered a vision of a better world. But most of us associate nihilism with the prominent German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Although I doubt he ever envisioned the present misuse of his ideas, Nietzsche wrote about a Superman (Zarathustra) who, liberated from the constraints of culture, religion, and ethics, was free to assert himself in the world. Nietzsche was reacting to what he considered the religious and cultural straightjackets of his time, which he believed stifled the creative process. Even though he never intended it, his conception of an existential Superman was, after his death, perversely misused by tyrants to justify their advancement of authoritarian political systems.

Nihilism in 2020 flourishes in a jittery world full of conspiracy theories, a pandemic crisis, economic dispossession, and virulent racism. Its twin emotional engines of fear and hatred are easily manipulated by bad actors that have the perverse skill to use it to their advantage. Todays conspiracy theories are actually devoid of theory. Their methodology is the repetition of bold-faced lies (without a shred of evidence) designed to feed this new destructive impulse, which undermines faith in our democratic institutions. Once the nihilists goal has been achieved, the converted have lost all belief in, or need for, science (or rationality for that matter), the truth, social justice, the law, or any ethical conceptions of morality or equity.

Removed from the constraints of morality, tradition, ethics, much like Nietzsches Superman, all that matters for todays nihilist is a brute existential assertion of will, which certifies their identity and maintains their power. Concurrently, they exhibit a Holden Caulfield-like need to transgress. For them, humanity is viewed by means of a supremely myopic and self-absorbed lens through which streams a constant flow of self-serving misinformation, further reinforcing their false perspective on reality. All information that runs contrary to their interest is deemed fake and its source treated as an enemy. This type of nihilism had never, until recently, invaded our mainstream politics. But its here now for all to see, revealing itself in behavior that is alternatively outrageous, provocative, or transgressive. When effective, the result is a blurring of the lines between the offensive and the genuine.

We have to decide this year whether we agree that we are all in the same choir, as my dad insisted, or has the world really shifted that much? Will we perceive our election as a joining of our voices, once again, in one majestic expression of democracy or are we engaged in a fight to the finish?

What can we do? If we truly believe in the democratic process, we must require evidence for assertions made by all those who seek our vote. Claims by themselves should not be accepted as true, even if they cater to our prior beliefs. As good citizens, we must reject the lure of nihilism and its proponents while holding fast in protecting and promoting our values by participating robustly in the democratic process. We must demand a positive vision of the future from all the candidates, even those who share our own party affiliation. It is time to be inspired again, to reach higher, try harder and never give up in our efforts to achieve and maintain the true promise of America.

Perhaps John Lewis put in best when, in his final words, he wrote, So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.

The choice is ours, my friends.

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Walking with the Wind - TAPinto.net

How to watch the Joker movie in the UK – ExaminerLive

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The Oscar-winning film Joker is heading to UK streaming services for the first time this month.

The Joaquin Phoenix fronted film will arrive to NowTV on Friday, August 7 via the Cinema Pass.

Viewers can sign up to the pass for a seven-day free trial at nowtv.com. Then you can cancel it before your free trial is up or continue it and pay 11.99 per month.

Based on DC Comics characters the film is set in in 1981, it follows Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian whose descent into insanity and nihilism inspires a violent counter-cultural revolution against the wealthy in a decaying Gotham City.

The film also features Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz and Frances Conroy and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards winning two, including Best Actor for Phoenix.

Upon its release the film received polarising reviews with praise for Phoenix and the film's score, while some criticised the violence in the film and portrayal of mental illness.

The NowTV Cinema Pass is also home to big hits Spider-Man: Far From Home, Detective Pikachu, Rocketman, Toy Story 4 and The Lion King.

To find out more and to sign up go to NowTV website here.

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How to watch the Joker movie in the UK - ExaminerLive

Star Trek: Lower Decks review: an animated show that hasnt found its comedic edge yet – The Verge

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Turning Star Trek into an animated comedy for adults is, honestly, a genius idea. If youre not super into the franchise, its easy to assume Star Trek is stodgy and self-serious, the sci-fi show for people who like thinking more than fun. Actually watch Star Trek, and youll find all sorts of quirky idiosyncrasies and plenty of comedy because Star Trek is really just about meeting people who are different than you, and sometimes that has very funny results. This makes CBS All Access series Star Trek: Lower Decks great idea but it also, strangely, feels stale because Rick and Morty has already beaten it at its own game.

At first glance, the comparison doesnt seem apt, but thats only because Lower Decks delights in Trek minutiae. The show follows the crew staffing the eponymous lower decks on the U.S.S. Cerritos, handling much of the menial labor that keeps a starship running while the bridge crew gets to have all the fun you see in most other Star Trek shows. While each episode features a number of characters, most stories center on Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), an incredibly irreverent ensign who really doesnt care about her job but also happens to be very good at it.

Mariner is both the strongest aspect of the show and its biggest hurdle. Newsome imbues her character with charisma capable of powering three whole shows, making Mariner a one-woman hurricane that is a delight to watch. Unfortunately, she also feels like a character from another show where everything is wackier. Mariner would fit right in on an episode of Adventure Time or blowing through Bobs Burgers. It helps that everything in Lower Decks is a little more ridiculous than Star Trek normally is. This also means it kind of just feels like any other animated comedy, just with more sci-fi jargon and a few in-jokes.

Its only about midway through a given episode usually when Mariner or one of her colleagues, like fellow ensign Brad Boimer (Jack Quaid), get roped into a strange altercation on an alien world that Rick and Morty starts to haunt the show. Lower Decks seems primed for Rick and Mortys brand of clever, irreverent comedy thats also rich in ideas and having a ball. With a bit less nihilism, Rick and Morty would make for a pretty good Trek homage. Curiously, though, Lower Decks is more interested in zany situations than ideas in one episode, a rage plague turns the majority of the Cerritos crew into zombies and even isnt terribly interested in being very adult.

As a result, the show fails to distinguish itself, even as it is well-animated and performed. If youre a Trek fan and not too much of a purist, youll have a great time watching the show gently take the piss out of the grandeur of Star Trek. Otherwise, the best way to approach Lower Decks is as a workplace comedy about under-appreciated labor. Many episodes hinge on the feeling of being overlooked for being in a support position, of characters who arent respected as autonomous and skilled by bosses who let their position get to their head.

In most cases, thats fine. But there are moments when Lower Decks, entirely in passing, makes jokes that suggest an altogether more interesting show. One of the best gags the show has at its disposal is how working for Starfleet will kind of mess you up. Ever been trapped in a sentient cave? Mariner asks at one point. Thats a dark place that knows things.

The crew working Starfleets least-glamorous jobs have seen some shit, and I wish Lower Decks dove a little more into this. Some jobs especially those that are frequently life-threatening but mostly mundane cant help but make you a little bit weirder as time wears on. (I should know. I work on, and for, the internet.) The characters on Star Trek: Lower Decks have jobs that are unimaginably weird, and Id love it if the show felt a little stronger or more like it was maybe boldly going where no one has gone before? Is that anything?

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Star Trek: Lower Decks review: an animated show that hasnt found its comedic edge yet - The Verge

Every David Ayer Movie Ranked From Worst To Best | Screen Rant – Screen Rant

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Here's every David Ayermovie ranked from worst to best, including the Suicide Squad director's most recent release, The Tax Collector. David Ayer made an auspicious start in Hollywood. Having never attended film school and not having grown up in the industry, Ayer wrote his first screenplay based on his experience as a submarine sonar technician in the United States Navy. U-571 garnered him enough attention to get more high-profile gigs, including a co-writing credit on The Fast and the Furious. After his screenplays for Training Day and S.W.A.T. gained him top reviews, he made the jump to directing in 2005 and has worked consistently since then.

Ayer's work is typically categorized by its focus on the city of Los Angeles, where Ayer moved to as a teenager and which he credits as a key inspiration for his work. He is especially interested in stories of law and disorder, from the officers of the Los Angeles Police Department to the tank crews of World War 2. These are stories of men on a mission akin to one of his greatest influences, The Dirty Dozen (a film he is attached to a remake of).

RELATED:The Tax Collector Cast Guide: Where You Know The Actors From

Expect scenes of strong violence and emotional bleakness. For many critics, Ayer's work is overladen with nihilism and a lack of true purpose, while others have been won over by his rough-around-the-edges approach to familiar tales and his refusal to sugar-coat anything. With his eighth film as director now available on VOD, The Tax Collector,here's how his filmography stacks up.

Its not that the concept for Bright was an unsalvageable one. Fantasy fiction is built on allegory and the use of the speculative to explore real-life socio-political concerns. Its not uncommon to see fictional creatures and animals used as stand-ins for issues of racial and ethnic justice. Bright, however, made every conceivable mistake in bringing its tale to life. Based on a script by the now-infamous Max Landis, who said the film was going to be his Lord of the Rings, Bright tries to blend together a grimy buddy cop dramedy with the warring inner-city factions of Los Angeles, only this time there are orcs, elves, and occasionally dragons.

The sight of orcs dressed in gang colors and using AAVE, therefore coding them explicitly as Black and Latinx, is an awkward viewing experience, to put it mildly. The movie has no grasp of the layers or implications of its poorly thought-out allegorical approach, and it doesnt help that the narrative is so messy. Hearing Will Smith say fairy lives dont matter today may be the real low-point of the beloved actors career. The one shining light is Joel Edgerton, who manages to bring pathos to the screen even as he is swamped under layers of orc prosthetics.

The chaos of 2016s Suicide Squad is now the stuff of Hollywood cautionary tales. Its a narrative thats been so thoroughly picked over, parodied, and pitied that by this point in time its hard not to feel at least a little bit sort for Ayer himself. The movie's failings are plentiful and obvious: The incoherent tone; the jumbled plot that veers between ridiculous and incomprehensible; the grimdark aesthetic clashes with the rushed neon overlay added in reshoots; the reshootsof Suicide Squadare evident from first glance and seem to have been shoehorned awkwardly into the narrative; everything Jared Leto does as the Joker raises eyebrows and guffaws of laughter.

Related:Can The Suicide Squad Director's Cut Redeem Jared Leto's Joker?

Of course, whatever you think of Ayer's work, it's worth remembering that he never got to fully complete his vision for Suicide Squad, between the brief six-week period he was given to write the script to the multiple edits demanded by the studio. Still, it's his name on the movie and questions remain over whether Ayer's brand of solemn sleaze was ever right for such a story. Calls for an Ayer cut of the movie continue.

After the big-budget and much-hyped efforts of Suicide Squad and Bright, Ayer decided to take things back to basics with The Tax Collector, a film that has more in common with his earlier efforts than the franchise fare. Shia LaBeouf reunites with Ayer for another gritty Los Angeles-based drama about a pair of "tax collectors" who work for a local crime lord collecting his money from across the city. As is befitting a David Ayer movie, it's gruesome and violent and heavily skewed towards a more nihilistic tone. It's also painfully trite and derivative of dozens of other movies that have trodden this familiar territory. This vein of mean-spiritedness could work given the bleakness of the plot but it all plays out so dully. It doesn't help that the film is defined by its seriously questionable portrayal of Latinx people, dialogue, and culture, something Ayer has been called out for many times before. The most interesting aspect of the film - the massive chest tattoo LeBeouf got for the movie - is barely on-screen too.

Released the same year as Fury, Sabotage takes its influence from a rather unexpected source: The Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None. In one of his strongest roles following his post-Governorship return to acting, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the leader of a DEA special task force set to take on a deadly drug cartel in one of their safe houses. The job seems to be going well until, one by one, the team members are picked off in bloody fashion, and everyone is a suspect. The mystery aspects of the film work more than the typical bloody action stuff but the former is much less present than it deserves to be. Instead, it's another bleak bloodbath oddly devoid of purpose.

Street Kings started out life as a screenplay draft written by the legendary crime author James Ellroy, with directors as acclaimed as Spike Lee and Oliver Stone reportedly attached to direct (the latter denied this) before Ayer took over. It's easy to see why Street Kings would have attracted the attention of Ayer so early on in his career but less so for Lee, given that the end result is a rather forgettable action thriller that's somewhat buoyed by a strong cast that includes Keanu Reeves, Hugh Laurie, Naomie Harris, and Common. While it is interesting to see a film about the Los Angeles Police Department that refuses to deify or whitewash the oft-ignored corruption of the American justice system, the story doesn't take things far enough.

Related:Will David Ayer's Suicide Squad Get A Director's Cut?

Ayer's directorial debut Harsh Times followed the familiar territory of his screenplays, with another Los Angeles-set tale of a traumatized veteran who wants to do the right thing but finds himself in a downward spiral of violence and corruption. Ayer had the great fortune to land the impeccable Christian Bale for his leading man and the actor predictably throws himself into the part of a man so fractured by his trauma that he cannot escape his fatal circumstances. Freddy Rodriguez and Eva Longoria are also excellent and help lift the material to its emotional peaks when the narrative gets a bit too silly. Its climax, however, lands with real force.

Ayer has always had a love for films about morally grey men on a mission, the darker the better. With Fury, he came the closest to capturing that vibe with his ultraviolent homage to The Dirty Dozen. Brad Pitt may be the name above the title and Shia LeBeouf was the one who got all the press attention for his Method tactics, but Fury belongs to Logan Lerman, who is beyond striking as the inexperience newcomer to the tank who slowly loses his innocence and potentially his mind. It's a story of nihilism and the twisted kind of brotherhood that forms in the face of ceaseless violence, and Ayer certainly did not skimp on the blood with Fury. Just in terms of literal filth, Fury may be one of the more striking war films that fully conveys the stain, literal and metal, of such conflict.

It may have been his third movie as a director, but 2012's End of Watch arrived with the kind of force and fury that signaled the arrival of a film-maker to watch. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pea are a formidable duo as two close friends and LAPD partners whose day-to-day police work and off-duty lives bleed together in oft-dangerous ways. Even though the movie ticks off more than enough cop movie clichs, there's a real freshness to End of Watch, an abrasive realism that taps into something more honest than just another buddy cop drama. Pea and Gyllenhaals chemistry is the stuff that most film-makers can only dream of, bringing warmth and familiarity not only to their violent confrontations but their quieter, playful moments as friends. It's a real peak for Gyllenhaal, an actor who constantly sets himself new standards as an actor, and the movie that Ayer will be living up to for the rest of his career.

NEXT:Tax Collector Ending Explained: What The Wizard Twist Really Means

Star Wars: Why Palpatine Really Saved Darth Vader On Mustafar

Kayleigh Donaldson is a full-time pop culture and film writer from Scotland. A features contributor to Screen Rant, her work can also be found regularly on Pajiba and SYFY FANGRRLS. She also co-hosts The Hollywood Read podcast. Her favorite topics include star studies, classic Hollywood, box office analysis, industry gossip, and caring way too much about the Oscars. She can mostly be found on Twitter at @Ceilidhann.

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Every David Ayer Movie Ranked From Worst To Best | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

The end of the universe? Its a fun thing to think about astrophysically speaking – The Irish Times

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Its just a fun thing to think about as a physicist. I really enjoy it.

Interviewing someone who finds real pleasure in their work is always an enriching experience, and Katie Mack certainly does seem to love what she does.

A theoretical astrophysicist a cosmologist, to be precise; someone who works within the field of astrophysics which studies the physical origins and evolution of the universe Mack is an assistant professor of physics at North Carolina State University.

She has written a popular book to make some of the most fascinating aspects of what she does accessible to a general audience and during lockdown, I call her at home in Canada via Skype. The fun thing to think about that she mentioned? That would be the end of the universe.

There are a lot of books about the beginning of the universe, but the ending? Thats a part of the story that people find so intriguing, so scary. It really comes down to wanting to know Whats going to happen to us? Where is the meaning if we live in a universe thats ultimately going to be destroyed?

So Mack is interested in the coming apocalypse. Its not a question of if, she says, so much as when. She wrote The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) to explore five theories of how the whole thing might go bottom up (not literally astrophysics is complicated but I dont think thats one of the potential outcomes she describes).

They all have names that sound like coroners shorthand for various types of ironic, accidental deaths while attempting extreme sports on a sun holiday theres Big Crunch, Heat Death, Big Rip, Vacuum Decay and Bounce. Each one is an intriguing narrative about what the end might look like.

These theories are enjoyable to read about; Macks pop culture references (theres even a Hozier quote in the book - and the singer name checks her in his 2019 song No Plan) and buoyant, jocund tone she calls it cheerful nihilism - ensure the book is far from grim or disheartening.

The thing that most of us struggle with in relation to all of these theories, according to Mack and the panicked emails she says she gets from people around the world who are horrified by the prospect of the universe just ceasing to exist, is our own irrelevance in the story.

Human beings tend to centre ourselves as the cause of and solution to most problems. This one, Mack says, shakes us so deeply because we want to be the hero in the story, or at least the main character. The idea that that doesnt matter to these forces that sweep over the universe is hard for our egos.

In a very 2020 set of circumstances, the publication of The End of Everything was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Mack had concerns that the book might feel too weighty given the general pall under which we have all been living this year.

I have worried that maybe the book casts a gloominess and apocalyptic tone that people dont feel they need right now she says. The original idea was that it would come out before the presidential election and that cheerful nihilism would be a fun relief. We are all used to the kind of terrible that politics is, but we arent used to the kind of terrible that a pandemic is. The level of suffering and pain has been so high, so I have worried, but the book is, despite appearances, actually quite light.

Mack does manage to write about our impending doom with a sort of ironic levity that ultimately contextualises what might be considered the frightening lack of relevance human beings have in the grander reality.

She is something of an anomaly in her field. Shes gregarious; excited by the prospect of translating her expert knowledge into a form that can be shared with non-experts. She is not a classic academic, horrified by the idea of dumbing down concepts for normal people. Quite the contrary, Mack has grown an enormous social media following by engaging widely with the public and presenting physics as something for all.

Mack works in the theoretical side of things these days, she says, though the book references both a fire (a quite small one, she stresses when I ask about it) and an explosion while she was training; neither incident, she labours to emphasise in the book, was her fault.

She leaves the references dangling spicily in the book, so I ask for the stories and can confirm that there isnt a court in the land that would convict her. She prefers the creativity of theory, and was drawn to the topic of the book mostly because its just so very weird, such a fascinating notion that technically it could all end at any moment, though of course that last bit is incredibly unlikely.

What meaning might we take from the prospect of the end of the universe? This is something Mack herself says she has wrestled with. Mack cant and doesnt ultimately offer a salve for those wounds after all, it isnt really her job to do so. She is hopeful, though, that people might find it a nice distraction, since we have all been swept up in this thing this pandemic that is so much bigger than we are. It would be good if the book can help some people to have the perspective its helped me to have just to appreciate what you have in the moment even if its impermanent, and even if we dont know whats going to happen.

Of course, the end of it all will likely happen on a timescale that is so distant as to be irrelevant to most people. Physicists dont really think about time the way the rest of us do, so Mack is still not super chill about it, she chuckles.

Im quite disturbed by the thought of death, and of everything that has meaning to human beings just ceasing to exist. But it has given me a better sense of the transience of my own life, and that you have to find ways for things to matter as they happen, while they exist. I dont know if it all only matters if it lasts forever, but I do know that it has to matter now.

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The end of the universe? Its a fun thing to think about astrophysically speaking - The Irish Times

‘Atomic plague’: how the UK press reported Hiroshima – The Conversation UK

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On August 7 1945, few Britons expected the war to end soon. The relief of VE Day three months earlier had already faded. Thousands of British soldiers, sailors and airmen were still involved in gruelling battles against Japanese imperial forces. Many who had fought across Europe expected to be sent to join them.

On Okinawa, American forces had lost 10,000 in their campaign to expel the Japanese garrison. A Sunday Times correspondent wrote that:

The protracted and extremely bitter fighting and the substantial casualties incurred by the attackers convey the obvious warning that the invasion of the Japanese homeland, if and when it comes, may be a very tough and expensive affair.

So, the reports about the attack on Hiroshima the previous day came as a complete surprise. My research into newspaper archives, only available electronically by subscription, reveals that journalists were stunned by the scientific breakthrough.

The Manhattan Project, whose team of American, British and Canadian scientists had designed and assembled atomic bombs at the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico, was an intensely guarded secret. Beyond a tiny elite, the weapon that would radically alter the military and diplomatic power of the USA and define the strategic politics of the post-war world, was unheard of and unimagined.

The Manchester Guardians initial report of the Hiroshima bomb explained that it was the result, as its headline related, of Immense Co-Operative Effort by Ourselves and US. A combination of awe at the scientific achievement and patriotic pride united newspapers of left and right.

From New York, the Daily Mails James Brough predicted that Japan faced obliteration by the mightiest destructive force the world has ever known unless she surrenders unconditionally in a few days. A second report told how the workers who built the bomb had never seen their final product and until today, they did not know what they were doing.

Just days later, The Times correspondent in Washington DC explained that Japanese resistance had shaped the decision to attack Hiroshima:

Until early June, the president and military leaders were in agreement that this weapon should not be used but those responsible came to the conclusion that they were justified in using any and all means to bring the war in the Pacific to a close within the shortest possible time.

But, amid astonishment at the new weapon, concern was not entirely buried. Winston Churchill wrote in the Daily Mail that: This revelation of the secrets of nature, long mercifully withheld from man, should arouse the most solemn reflections in the mind and conscience of every human capable of comprehension.

The Daily Mirror sought to make sense of the weapons power by relating it to its readers own lives. In a fine example of quality popular journalism, commissioned just 24 hours after the first bomb fell, the Mirror asked its reporters to explain what would have happened if an atomic bomb had hit their city.

From Edinburgh, the Mirror reported that: All historic Edinburgh would have disappeared. In London: There would be a swathe of utter destruction from Kensington Church to the Mansion House, as wide as the parks and the West End, from Bayswater Road and Oxford Street, across to Piccadilly and the Strand. Manchester believed everything between Victoria Station and Old Trafford would be levelled.

The Manchester Guardians London correspondent lamented: The fact, so suddenly and appallingly revealed to us, is that we have devised a machine that will either end war or end us all. The Listener, a weekly title owned by the BBC, prayed that work to maintain peace would be pursued with as much vigour as the science that had split the atom. Newspapers hoped the new technology would be used to generate cheap energy.

Eyewitness accounts of the condition of survivors poisoned by radiation were slow to emerge. Wilfred Burchetts account for the Daily Express, headlined Atomic Plague, was published on September 5. The authorised eyewitness account of the second, Nagasaki bombing, by William L Laurence for the New York Times was released on September 9. These would change the tenor of debate.

The Guardians London correspondent described people wondering how the capital would have stood it had the Germans been first with the atomic bombs. What a hair-trigger business the world has become.

In early September, the Daily Mail reported that Japanese doctors in Hiroshima were seeing patients die at the rate of about one hundred daily through delayed action effects of the atomic bomb. The Times reported warnings that: No state would be more at the mercy of any future atomic bomb attacks than Britain which had immense aggregations of people in its great cities.

Concern about the consequences of atomic warfare emerged more rapidly in newspapers than any about conventional bombing of German or Japanese cities. This had killed more civilians. Within weeks of the bombings, British newspapers had raised questions about how future use of atomic power might be effectively controlled and whether it could be used for peaceful purposes.

Read more: VE Day as reported by British newspapers: relief, joy and a saucy comic strip

Japan raised the question of moral culpability. This is not war, not even murder, it is pure nihilism, declared its state broadcaster. Such responses begin to explain why, eight decades later, few Germans challenge their nations war guilt, but many Japanese consider their country a victim as much as a perpetrator of war.

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What is an entrepreneurial ecosystem? And why you need one to raise a startup – TNW

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The geography of entrepreneurship is spiky, meaning that from region to region there are significant variations in rates of startups and, in particular, scaleups new businesses that are evolving into larger enterprises.

This can be explained by the fact that successful entrepreneurship occurs in fertile soil economic and social environments conducive to entrepreneurial activity. And in some places these environments or ecosystems are much better at generating and supporting entrepreneurial activity than others.

An entrepreneurial ecosystem is a clustering of interconnected individuals, organizations, and bodies that facilitates and supports entrepreneurial activity. This ecosystem provides startup businesses with resources money, people, markets, and infrastructure within an open, inclusive culture that has supportive policies and leadership.

[Read: Most universities neglect to teach entrepreneurship to science students its time to fix that]

Supporting the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems is now a prime focus of economic development policy. Cities and regions typically have dozens of entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) that are fully-funded public bodies or not-for-profit organizations whose funding comes from government. These ESOs provide information, advice, networking, training, mentoring, and financial help that is considered essential for entrepreneurial activity.

In Scotland, for example, one recent study identified 43 ESOs in Edinburgh focused just on technology entrepreneurs. Our own ongoing research has identified 87 ESOs in Glasgow covering all sectors including social enterprise.

However, this profusion of ESOs is thought to be confusing for entrepreneurs who find it difficult to navigate the support infrastructure, raising concerns that there is overlap in the services that ESOs provide. But this is to misunderstand how entrepreneurial ecosystems work.

Every year the University of Glasgow runs a program to support four startup teams with a grant of 2,500 and 12 weeks of one-to-one mentorship from the student enterprise manager. This includes an introduction to ESOs in the wider ecosystem, training, and space in the universitys incubator to help teams develop their embryonic startup.

Businesses that have successfully completed the program have gone on to receive further support from a variety of ESOs in the local ecosystem and beyond. Typically, each participant receives a package of support from the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE). This helps them to connect to the local ecosystem to access lawyers, accountants, and other specialists, provides assistance with startup competitions, and access to networking events.

For example, Dragons Den contestant Corien Staels, founder of WheelAir a company that has developed a cooling backrest for wheelchair users received support from an ESO called Enterprise Campus to cover initial operational expenses.

Staels went on to win the SIE New Ventures competition and several other awards that provided money, business support, training, and mentorship. Having turned down a funding offer from Dragons Den, she has gone on to raise equity funding from several individuals.

Staels example demonstrates the interconnectedness of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, with ESOs providing a range of different forms of assistance. The learning and support needs of entrepreneurs change as their business develops. No single organization can provide all of the support and resources that new ventures need as they progress. This is precisely why many ESOs target specific types of entrepreneurs and stages in the process idea, startup, growth , and so on specializing in the types of support they provide. This means entrepreneurs can draw upon a variety of organizations as their business evolves.

Crucially, these relationships within the entrepreneurial ecosystem are reciprocal. Just as businesses that emerge from startup programs need a range of support to develop, ESOs need springboard initiatives such as the Glasgow University program, which germinate startups that in due course will become their clients.

Policymakers should not interpret the abundance of ESOs as an indication of duplication and waste. The real world is messy. The diversity of entrepreneurs and their changing needs on the entrepreneurial journey means that there also has to be a diversity of support available for these ecosystems to be effective.

Entrepreneurial support organizations offer advice, support, training, and mentoring which help new startups develop their business. Shutterstock

Instead, they should ask key questions to assess the health of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Do the services provided by the ESOs involved cover the whole entrepreneurial journey, enabling individual organizations to hand over entrepreneurs as their needs change, ensuring ongoing support as their businesses develop?

Do the ESOs collectively provide an appropriate mix of generic and specialist resources and support? Do they have shared goals and a sense of collective mission? Or is each in competition with one another, claiming successful businesses as a result of their own efforts? And finally, are these ESOs run by people with business startup experience by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs?

What is critical here is to recognize the need for connectivity between these various ESOs. Operating in isolation from one another does not help young startups, which will thrive best in an environment where ESOs recognize that their effectiveness is contingent on one another. To paraphrase the African proverb: it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an ecosystem not a single individual or organization to feed, nurture, and raise a successful entrepreneurial venture.

This article is republished from The Conversation by Colin Mason, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Adam Smith business school, University of Glasgow and Michaela Hruskova, PhD Researcher in Management Adam Smith School of Business, University of Glasgow under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Published August 10, 2020 08:47 UTC

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What is an entrepreneurial ecosystem? And why you need one to raise a startup - TNW

Eisai will shift U.S. HQ to New Jersey ‘bio-ecosystem’ in move to boost oncology, neurology portfolios – FiercePharma

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Japanese drugmaker Eisai has established asolid foothold in the U.S. market and found some success with its Merck & Co.-partnered oncology med Lenvima. And alongside BIogen, it's in the FDA queue for a landmark decision in Alzheimer's disease.

But Eisai'sstateside ambitions are broader than thatand as if to illustrate that point, the company is plotting a new U.S. headquarters on a high-tech New Jersey campus.

Eisai will relocateits U.S. headquarters from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, to a 15-story complex at the ON3 "bio-ecosystem" in Nutley, New Jersey, by the end of 2021,the Tokyo-based drugmaker said Tuesday.

Accelerate Clinical Operations Across Sponsors, CROs, and Partners

The most advanced life sciences organizations know that digital innovation and multi-platform integrations are essential for enabling product development. New platforms are providing the life sciences industry with an opportunity to improve the efficiency of clinical trials and reduce costs while remaining compliant and reducing risk.

Eisai will be the first biopharma tenant at the 116-acre site,formerly Roche'sU.S. headquarters, alongside residents from the healthcare, R&D and diagnostics fields. All told, Eisai will ship 1,200 of its corporate and R&D employees to the site, which the drugmaker called "technologically advanced and cutting edge."

The move will give Eisai the opportunity to collaborate outside biopharma to boost its oncology, Alzheimer's disease and neurological portfolios, the company said. The location in a brand-new hub will also help Eisai recruit talented employees, a spokesperson said.

Eisai's relocation comes as the Japanese drugmaker works to boost its top-sellingoncology med Lenvima, which has found a promising partnership with Merck's Keytrudaalong with its share of setbacks.

Meanwhile, the drugmaker is also working with partner Biogen on controversial Alzheimer's drug aducanumab, which the FDA accepted for priority review last week.The agency expects to decide the fate of the treatment by March 7.

RELATED:Merck, Eisai's Keytruda-Lenvima combo stonewalled in liver cancer after Roche's first-in-class green light

That was a big loss for the duo, which still has just one FDA approval to its credit inendometrial carcinoma.The partners hoped an approval would put themup againstRoches pairing of immuno-oncology agent Tecentriq and anti-VEGF drug Avastin, which recently scoredan FDA nod in first-line liver cancer with gold-standard data showing they could help patients live longer.

The two companies are stilltesting the Keytruda-Lenvima combo as a first-line liver cancer therapy in the phase 3 Leap-002 study, which isfully enrolled.

RELATED:Eisai preps for launch with insomnia med Dayvigo after buying out Purdue

Meanwhile, Eisai has worked to flesh out its neurology business, scoring an FDA approval in December for Dayvigo, an insomnia castoff from Purdue Pharma.

Eisai took full ownership of Dayvigoin May 2019 after itbought outPurdue's stake in the drug in 2015.The drug is an orexin receptor antagonist that works by targeting the wake center of the brain, according to EisaiCEO and president of itsglobal neurology businessIvan Cheung, who called the approval "very exciting" at the time.

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Eisai will shift U.S. HQ to New Jersey 'bio-ecosystem' in move to boost oncology, neurology portfolios - FiercePharma

Thales Expands Technology Partner Ecosystem to Accelerate Enterprises’ Cloud and Digital Transformation Initiatives – Business Wire

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PARIS LA DFENSE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Enterprises can now reduce cyber risk and secure their digital transformation initiatives in new markets including Blockchain, Cloud, DevOps, IoT and Code Signing as Thales unveils an expansion of its data protection ecosystem to more than 300 technology partners.

Through these expanded technology integrations, which now include more than 500 IT products and services, Thales is enabling more organisations to integrate its data encryption, hardware security modules, key management and access management technologies with their existing IT infrastructure and cloud services to protect applications, data and identities. This will empower organisations to implement centralised data protection and access management controls for the whole customer journey.

The use of the cloud and digital transformation is now the cornerstone of any modern company, said Sebastien Cano, Senior Vice President for Cloud Protection and Licensing Activities at Thales. Vitally though, those that are truly leading the way are doing so by integrating security by design into their processes from the start. By integrating our data protection products and services with hundreds of technology partners, we can ensure customers and their sensitive data are protected throughout their entire transformation journey and remain at the forefront of their industries.

Protecting Blockchain

Thales is collaborating with leading companies that are driving the adoption of Blockchain technology by integrating its Luna Network Hardware Security Modules (HSM) as the root of trust to secure blockchain-based transactions. Recently, Thales integrated its Luna Network HSM with CLS Group a dedicated crypto processor that is specifically designed for the protection of the crypto key lifecycle and Hyperledger a multi-project open source collaborative effort hosted by The Linux Foundation, created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies.

Enabling Secure Cloud Transformation

Today, organisations on average use 29 cloud services for their collaboration, computing, customer relationship management and storage needs. Thales is helping companies secure the move to the cloud with cloud key management and access management solutions that integrate with the most widely used cloud platforms and services including AWS, Azure, Box, Office365 and Slack.

Thaless SafeNet Trusted Access enables organisations to modernise their IT and Identity and Access Management (IAM) schemes, as part of their cloud transformation initiatives. For example, integrations with IGA vendors such as SailPoint enable secure identity governance and identity management workflows; Security for privileged users is achieved by securing PAM solutions such as BeyondTrust, at the access point; and continuous authentication and access control is enabled by working with CipherClouds CASB solution.

Securing Hybrid IT Environments

While organisations are rapidly adopting cloud services and moving infrastructure to the cloud, the majority are maintaining hybrid IT environments. One of the key challenges they face in doing so is bridging between modern and cloud IAM schemes. To this end, SafeNet Trusted Accesss integration with F5 BIG IP enables enterprises to implement smart SSO for cloud services while securing on premises legacy applications.

Data and applications are fast becoming the lifeblood of any organisation, no matter the industry, said John Morgan, VP & GM Security at F5. For any customer to truly take advantage of this digital transformation, applications and their underlying data must be secure. By joining the Thales partner ecosystem, we are continuing our long history of collaboration to help customers achieve positive business outcomes through secure digital transformation.

Enabling Trust for DevOps

Digital certificates play an integral role in DevOps workflows, securing authentication across users, devices and applications. The secure identities and certificates establish trust within enterprise infrastructure, pipeline, code and containers. Thales has expanded its DevOps technology partners to include Red Hat, HashiCorp, Kubernetes, VMWare Tanzu, Docker and Google for secure DevOps to enable customers to realise the benefits of automation, scale, & cloud native applications and digital transformation.

Securing the Identities and Data in IoT

In order to secure, manage and authenticate the billions of identities that will be created with the Internet of Things, Thales has recently expanded integrations for its HSMs, Data Encryption and Key Management solutions with leading providers of IoT security solutions such as Cisco, Microsoft, DigiCert, Sectigo, GlobalSign, KeyFactor and Venafi to help organisations secure the billions of identities that will be created over the next few years.

Code Signing becomes an essential service for businesses

Code signing has emerged as an essential ingredient to doing business for virtually any organisation that distributes code to customers and partners. Code signing verifies who the publisher of a specific set of code is and attests that it has not been modified since it was signed. Certificates delivered along with software that has been signed are a key way for users to determine whether software originates from a legitimate source before installing. Today, many software marketplaces, including mobile app stores, require code to be compliant with specific digital signing requirements.

One of those mandates is for applicants to generate and store their private key using a FIPS 140-2 Level 2 certified hardware solution. This can be a Hardware Security Module (HSM) that protects the identity, whether it is the server, virtualization server or the user. Thales' HSMs take the security one step further by storing the signing material in a hardware device, thus ensuring authenticity and integrity of a code file. Thales code signing partners include Adobe, DigiCert, Garantir GlobalSign, Keyfactor, Microsoft and Venafi.

About Thales

Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global technology leader shaping the world of tomorrow today. The Group provides solutions, services and products to customers in the aeronautics, space, transport, digital identity and security, and defence markets. With 83,000 employees in 68 countries, Thales generated sales of 19 billion in 2019 (on a pro forma basis including Gemalto over 12 months).

Thales is investing in particular in digital innovations connectivity, Big Data, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity technologies that support businesses, organisations and governments in their decisive moments.

PLEASE VISITThales Group Market page

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Thales Expands Technology Partner Ecosystem to Accelerate Enterprises' Cloud and Digital Transformation Initiatives - Business Wire

Navajo Nation and Environmental Groups Oppose Dam Project Impacting Grand Canyon Ecosystem – Between The Lines

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The Grand Canyon ecosystem is more than just Grand Canyon National Park, and developers are now hoping to build three dams on a tributary of the Colorado River just east the Grand Canyon. The proposed dams would be part of a pumped hydro- storage project to store electricity when its in surplus to be used when renewable energy is not available.

The latest proposal for Big Canyon would dam a side canyon of the Little Colorado River about 10 miles from Grand Canyon National Park, entirely on Navajo Nation land. The application to conduct feasibility studies was accepted in June by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, but FERC must provide more approvals if the project is to be built.

Between The Lines Melinda Tuhus spoke with Roger Clark, Grand Canyon program director with the Grand Canyon Trust, about the dangers the project poses to endangered species, the cultural heritage of indigenous nations, and the scarce regional water supply that will be even more stressed by the planets accelerating climate crisis.

ROGER CLARK: The project itself would store about 44,000 acre feet 44,000 football fields a foot deep. A football field is about an acre, so imagine a football field with a foot on it. Well, this would be 44,000 acre-feet of water in the lower reservoir. And then there would be three upper reservoirs, that would contain water for storage and producing electricity.

The water for this side canyon project would come not from water flowing down the canyon, although it floods seasonally from time to time. The water would come from ground water, and the developer is proposing to put three wells in the bottom of the canyon floor, and then pump all that ground water into the biggest storage reservoir in the bottom. And they would have to replenish that reservoir, because every time you pump it up to the upper reservoirs, it sits for awhile; it evaporates. The geology of the area is a limestone thats notorious for being leaky, so thered be some loss to evaporation and seepage so theyd have to replace maybe a third of the water needed to fill that reservoir every year, possibly more. Thats a concern because the nearest groundwater for that canyon is also the source of springs that come out of the side and the bottom of the Little Colorado River gorge.

And that part of the canyon is about 1,500 feet from the bottom to the top, and it gets deeper 2,000 feet, 3,000 feet deep by the time it gets down to the Grand Canyon. So its functionally hydrologically, ecologically, and, for the tribes, culturally part of the Grand Canyon.

So, the water that comes out of the springs that would be affected by this groundwater pumping to fill the reservoirs is filled with calcium carbonite; it creates a beautiful aquamarine color. It is warm and its much different than the water in the main stem of the Colorado River, and for that reason there are several fish that are found in the Colorado River system that are endemic only to that system. One of those is the humpback chub, and its prime breeding ground in the Grand Canyon is the Little Colorado River tributary: its that water that theyre adapted to breed in, which are endangered.

The Fish and Wildlife Service was moving to downlist that designation to threatened based on the success of the reproduction of the humpback chub population in the Little Colorado River. This dam would certainly alter the amount of water coming down the Little Colorado River on a regular basis. It would affects its chemistry, it would affect its temperature, and one fisheries biologist said, I couldnt think of a more complete way to destroy the habitat of the chub. So its a serious threat.

MELINDA TUHUS: Roger Clark, can you say more about the impact on the indigenous people living there?

ROGER CLARK: For Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, 11 affiliated tribes in the Grand Canyon, that entire reach of river is very important culturally. Theres a traditional salt trail that Hopis have used since time immemorial to access salt in the Grand Canyon. Its listed by the Navajo Nation as being culturally important as a traditional cultural place. So theres cultural impacts, theres endangered fish impacts.

And, the most important I think, is that FERC issued permits to this company for two previous applications, which then gives the company three years to conduct and prepare a plan to apply for a license, without ever consulting with or ever getting the permission of the people who live there. The local chapters the Navajo chapters all oppose it. The grazing committees all oppose it and so does the Navajo Nation. They just submitted their comments on this, and basically the Navajo Nation says until we get a government to government consultation with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, all action on this permit should stop.

So, even if after three years, they did the feasibility studies and then they apply for a license, FERC says then you can consult with the tribes. Well, theyre not going to give permission, so why just go ahead and issue a permit? FERC has the discretion and they have the responsibility. It is a sovereign nation and this is an outside developer who has come in with a proposal that will never be built under the federal rules, so lets just stop it before it gets started.

For more information, visit Grand Canyon Trust at grandcanyontrust.org.

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Navajo Nation and Environmental Groups Oppose Dam Project Impacting Grand Canyon Ecosystem - Between The Lines

Alchemy Goes Public With Developer Platform in Bid to Grow DeFi Ecosystem – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

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Blockchain infrastructure startup Alchemy, which helps decentralized finance (DeFi) projects run or access nodes, just launched its full suite of products to the public, after a two-year closed beta serving teams including MakerDAO and Kyber Network.

DeFi projects like MakerDAO, 0x and others all use Alchemys solutions to access Ethereum blockchain data, rather than run their own nodes. Alchemy CEO Nikil Viswanathan said more than 70% of top Ethereum applications and more than $2.8 billion worth of assets locked in DeFi rely on Alchemy for access to blockchain data.

Weve replaced all the infrastructure providers for most of them, Viswanathan said, referring to hundreds of Ethereum startups that pay for Alchemys software services. One such user, Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou, said in a press statement his startup relies on Alchemy for managing infrastructure, plus enterprise-grade tools and support, so the team can focus on shipping code.

It appears as though most Ethereum startups use one of three infrastructure providers, if not all three of them. For example, Infura, the rival service provider partially owned by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, offers a similar API service. Bison Trails is the other major player in the Ethereum infrastructure trifecta.

Developers pay startups like Infura and Alchemy for access to distant hardware (typically managed by Amazon or Google) and tools to easily use blockchain data. This isnt a dont trust, verify approach, but it does make it easier for startups to focus on serving retail users.

Right now, building with blockchain, its like trying to build a skyscraper with a hammer and a shovel. Alchemy is bringing the construction equipment so its easier to build things, Viswanathan said. We are a pipe to a decentralized network, there are other pipes and people can use whatever pipes that they want.

From his perspective, having a remote-first company with deliberate redundancy offers a type of decentralization, albeit one divorced from bitcoins full stack of self-sovereign aspirations.

Viswanathan said his startup facilitated roughly $7.5 billion worth of on-chain transactions over the last year, from exchanges to loan platforms.

That may, in part, be thanks to the fact the startup attracted well-connected investors like Coinbase Ventures, which also invested in Bison Trails.

As the de facto standard in blockchain, Alchemy already powers the most sophisticated teams, investor Paul Veradittakit of Pantera Capital said in a press statement.

Even after an explosive year of growth, its not hard to imagine all the teams responsible for the DeFi ecosystem fitting in a single university lecture hall. In fact, both Alchemy co-founders graduated from Stanford University and attracted investment from their alma mater as well.

By making some of these services free to the public, Viswanathan said he aims to diversify the DeFi ecosystem.

Our mission is to make blockchain development accessible to every developer, Viswanathan said, describing the newly public beta. Now anyone can sign up and use the same tools powering the biggest companies in crypto.

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Alchemy Goes Public With Developer Platform in Bid to Grow DeFi Ecosystem - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Ecosystem Services: Nature’s Gifts That Help Us Thrive | Earth 911 – Earth911.com

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How valuable is nature? A recent study of the economic value that could be created by protecting 30% of the worlds land as wilderness, which absorbs carbon from the atmosphere and provides biological diversity, found that the cost would be repaid by more than 500%.

Environmentalists understand that the natural world is intrinsically valuable and species have a right to exist separate from human needs. But many people disregard any argument for the value of wildlands that is not framed in terms of human benefit, and preferably in financial units. These people are often successful in defending environmental destruction as an economic necessity.

The concept of ecosystem services developed to describe the many tangible benefits of healthy ecosystems that economic analyses usually ignore. The new report, Protecting 30% of the planet for nature: costs, benefits and economic implications, is the first to combine scientific and economic assessments. Lets take a closer look at the value of ecosystem services.

It is impossible to reduce to a dollar amount all the benefits of a clean environment. But it is possible to quantify some of the financial impacts of the loss of healthy ecosystems. An ecosystem service is any positive benefit humans derive from the natural world.

The United Nations helped to popularize the concept of ecosystem services with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). The objective of the MA was to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. It concluded that the ability of natural systems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted, and that action is needed to conserve and sustainably use natural systems that contribute to our welfare.

The findings also helped establish the vocabulary for discussing ecosystem services, which are now commonly grouped into the following four categories.

Provisioning services refers to the products humans obtain directly from ecosystems. For example, forage and livestock production from hay and pasture land generate about $45 billion per year in the United States. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is a global initiative focused on integrating the values of biodiversity and ecosystem services into decision-making at all levels. Their TEEBAgriFood initiative attempts a comprehensive economic evaluation demonstrating the significant externalities that distort agricultural economics.

Other provisioning services include clean drinking water and wild food sources like the $5.6 billion fishing industry. Provisioning goes beyond food to include the products of any extractive industry, like timber, fossil fuels, or even peat moss for gardens.

These industries rise and fall with the health of the ecosystems that support them. When the economic impact of overfishing, overgrazing, or aquifer depletion is made clear, industries are less resistant to regulation and more likely to adopt sustainable practices.

Wild food sources like these sockeye salmon fall into the category of provisioning services.

Regulating services are the benefits obtained from the moderating influences of natural systems. They include climate regulation, water regulation, and pest and disease regulation. For example, wetlands reduce flooding during heavy rainfall and release water during droughts.

Ecosystem service valuation can be used to leverage funding for conservation and restoration. For example, in Mobile Bay, Alabama, waterfront property owners supported the construction of artificial reefs after learning of their shoreline stabilization effects.

Anthropogenic climate change is degrading the planets ability to regulate climate possibly to the tune of 10.5% of the U.S. GDP by the end of the century. Thus, redirecting up to 10% of our economic activity to fighting climate change could be considered cost-effective.

Rainforests help stabilize the worlds climate by absorbing carbon dioxide, an essential regulating service.

Cultural services are nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems. The health and aesthetic benefits of experiencing nature are well known but are hard to quantify. A meadow is more aesthetic than a parking lot, but what is that worth? Its hard to say, but real estate experts claim an ocean view can double the value of a house, while even a nearby park might earn a 5%-10% premium.

Cultural services also include outdoor recreation (a $427.2 billion industry in the U.S.) and ecotourism.

Many would agree that this pristine environment is irreplaceable. Image by Tiago Cipriano from Pixabay

Supporting services are the basic functions of ecosystem processes, such as soil formation, nutrient cycling, and photosynthesis. Habitat provision is a supporting service. So is the maintenance of genetic diversity, which is the 2020 focus of World Environment Day.

Supporting services are indirect, and so are very hard to valuate. But they are prerequisites to ecosystems ability to produce the other kinds of ecosystem services; in that sense they are priceless.

Soil formation, photosynthesis, and other supporting services are essential to ecosystems. Image by analogicus from Pixabay

These four categories are useful for talking about the services ecosystems provide to humans. But a formal classification, the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES), is under development to facilitate the integration of ecosystem services in environmental accounting. The EU uses the Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) framework for ecosystem services assessments. The U.S. lacks any such standards, but the EPA does provide resources to facilitate ecosystem service assessments for those who would like to incorporate the concept into project accounting.

As long as decisions continue to be driven by the bottom line, incorporating ecosystem services into accounting and assessments can help tip the balance toward more environmentally sound decision making. It allows communities to see when the true costs of a proposed development are too high. It can be used to minimize the loss of environmental value when siting projects. And it can justify the additional costs of building greener designs.

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Ecosystem Services: Nature's Gifts That Help Us Thrive | Earth 911 - Earth911.com