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Mayor Fine calls it quits, wont run for second term on council – The Daily Post

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

Palo Alto Mayor Adrian Fine

BY SARA TABINDaily Post Staff Writer

Palo Alto Mayor Adrian Fine, who campaigned four years ago as an advocate for more housing, announced today that he will not seek re-election to City Council.

Fine, 34, said he chose not to run because his wife is having a baby in October.

While he was an advocate for more housing, the citys housing numbers did not grow during his four-year term. Only one affordable housing project, Wilton Court, was approved during his tenure while the city lost 75 units when council approved the conversion of the President Hotel from housing to a hotel. The council also approved 50 new apartments at 3001 El Camino in 2017, but none of those units are affordable.

Fine drew ire from council colleagues when he sent letters of support for SB50, a now abandoned bill that would have pre-empted local zoning near transit and jobs, and the Caltrain tax. Other members of the council accused him of trying to endorse controversial legislation on behalf of the city. Fine said it was his right, as mayor, to use city stationery for his letters to other officials on these issues.

At a June 8 meeting where dozens of residents spoke out against police brutality, Fine incited anger by telling residents they couldnt name specific cops who have been accused of misconduct.

Some of the speakers named individual cops including Tom DeStefano, who was the subject of a $250,000 civil settlement in 2013 and is named in a current claim for $3.8 million against the city for alleged brutality.

Mayor Adrian Fine asked residents to focus on policy not people.

Mark Loveland said Fine was tone-deaf and insensitive for telling residents not to call out city officials by name. He said that if the police wont hold officers accountable, and residents cant call for accountability, then residents have no recourse.

At the next meeting, the prohibition against naming names had been dropped.

Fines employed as the marketing director of Autonomic, an arm of Ford Motor Co. that is developing connected vehicles.

In the November election, four seats are up for grabs on City Council and, at this point, it appears there will be 11 candidates.

Incumbents Greg Tanaka and Lydia Kou are running for second terms.

Other candidates in the hunt for one of the four seats include former Mayor Pat Burt, Human Rights Commission member Steven Lee, Planning and Transportation Commission members Cari Templeton and Ed Lauing, systems engineer Raven Malone, lawyer Rebecca Eisenberg, WhatsApp product management director Varma Ajit, former Human Relations Commission member Greer Stone and Brett Schilke, who works for Singularity University.

The deadline to file papers to run for council is Wednesday (Aug. 12), but would-be candidates need to talk to the city clerk a few days before the deadline to pull the necessary papers.

Incumbent Liz Kniss is unable to run again due to term limits.

Western Slope Skies – The Limits of Space – KVNF Public Radio

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

We consider our universe to be limitless. Over the decades, people have explored that infinity to discover what is out there, even who is out there. But what about the space closest to us? The low Earth orbit is overcrowded by satellites, space junk, and the leftover remnants of space exploration. These leftover pieces affect how scientists and people experience space.

Episode aired Friday, Aug. 7th & Wednesday, Aug. 12th, 2020

Orbital debris, also known as space junk, are objects left in space that no longer function as intended. Objects in orbit will eventually return to the ground but are currently launching faster than they are re-entering. Many objects stay in orbit for decades. NASA estimates the amount of orbital debris in the low Earth orbit exceeds over 100 million pieces, ranging from one millimeter to over ten centimeters. This is enough for around one third of Americans to have their own piece of space junk.

The low Earth orbit also holds many objects currently in use, like satellites for weather and communications, the Hubble Telescope, and the International Space Station. However, even these essential devices contribute to overcrowding. When stargazing or photographing the night sky, it is hard not to see the bright streak of a satellite in view.

The oldest man-made object still in orbit is Vanguard 1. Launched in 1958, it was the fourth satellite launched into space. On Earth, after 50 years even trash becomes a part of an areas historical landscape. Do we leave these random remnants of past space projects in orbit to commemorate the history of human space exploration?

In order to preserve the beauty of our night sky, we must balance objects that provide value to humanity with decluttering our orbit.

This balance may not be hard to strike. We can sustain the overcrowding of the low Earth orbit by removing five of the highest risk objects each year, both small pieces that risk collision and large pieces that affect long-term accumulation. Scientists are currently working on the best way to remove items, however, there is no overarching regulatory body to create concrete removal plans.

We consider space to be limitless, but just like any other resource, it does have limits. We need to learn how to balance this resource. Not just for the humans of right now, but also those of the future. Will we look back in 30 years and wonder why no one tried to preserve it earlier?

Western Slope Skies is produced by members and friends of the Black Canyon Astronomical Society. This episode was written and recorded by Megan Spencer from Devils Tower National Monument.

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Western Slope Skies - The Limits of Space - KVNF Public Radio

The Eagle Has Landed – Georgia Southern University Newsroom

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

Georgia Southern Alumni Reflect on Work with NASA Space ProgramThe Vertical Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center

In the summer of 1967, Georgia Southern graduates Bob Pound (67) and Charlie Abner (67) hopped in a car and headed for Cape Canaveral with one missionto fix NASA.

In January of that year, NASA was conducting a pre-flight check for the crew of Apollo 1the programs first crewed missionwhen a fire broke out in the cockpit and killed its three astronauts.

After that, we said Lets go down there and put the space program back on its feet, said Pound, a native of Statesboro.

They didnt call. They didnt have an appointment. They just pulled into the badging station on U.S. 1 and figured theyd found their destination. Wasnt a very big building, but it had some rockets out front, said Pound.

What can we do for you? the attendant asked.

Well, we came down here to get a job, said Pound.

Okay, who with?

Well, NASA, of course! Isnt this NASAs place here? Pound said they didnt realize it at the time, but there were several hundred contractors coming in and out of Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

Uh, let me make a few phone calls, said the attendant, and motioned them to wait in the lobby.

Pound listened as the attendant talked on the phone.

No, they dont have an appointment.theyre here! Theyre sitting right here! No, they just came in and said theyre looking for a job. No, theyre here already!

They said that over and over, recalled Pound, laughing.

The attendant hung up the phone and said, Theyre going to call me back.

Pound and Abner waited and waited, wondering with each passing minute if theyd made the trip for nothing. Then the phone rang.

It was a call that not only changed their lives, but also carved a path for several Georgia Southern graduates who would follow in their footsteps.

Pound and Abner were the first graduates of Georgia Southerns physics and mathematics degrees to join the ranks at NASA, and the tale of their success quickly spread through the small department.

Sonny Belson (68) traveled down to Cape Canaveral the next summer and showed up unannounced the way his classmates had. He interviewed and was offered a job the next day. Chris Fairey (69) skipped class to drive down to KSC and get his name on the list, and he was hired the summer after graduation.

It was absolutely amazing that you literally walked in, a cold call off the street, and here I am, said Belson. And Im still at it after all theseyears.

Though they all graduated with the same degrees, they were each assigned to wildly different roles within the Apollo program. Pound says this was a testament to the college and its faculty, especially Carroll W. Bryant, Ph.D., professor emeritus and head of the physics department at Georgia Southern from 1963-1975. He passed away in Statesboroin 1988.

Bryant was an accomplished physicist who served as a scientific advisor to the U.S. Armed Forces and most notably worked on the development of the atomic bomb. He was not only a knowledgeable physicist, but also had the wealth of experience to convey physics practical use for his students.

He was really an amazing man in terms of what he could convey to us in terms of theory and physics and his own application. said Fairey. You ask yourself, How am I going to use all of this? And what you realize at the end is that what theyre teaching you are the tools. You may not necessarily use a particular theorem or a math equation, but you understand how it evolved and why its there and how it can be used.

When Pound, Abner, Belson, Fairey and other alumni joined NASA, they were thrust into a workforce of more than 400,000 employees, contractors and consultants working all over the United States to achieve one goal, set by President John F. Kennedy: before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely toearth.

Pound was assigned to the Ground Instrumentation Systems technical staff in the Central Information Facility (CIF). His team collected real-time telemetry data surrounding the Saturn V rocket, and displayed it on the huge Eidophor Projectors in the Control Room. Abner started as a ground station engineer, working up to ground station manager before leaving to join the Air Forcein 1968.

Fairey joined Pound in the CIF, the entire second floor of which housed two giant GE 635 computers that were responsible for managing data for Apollo. Today, you have more computing power on your phone! saidFairey.

Belson went to work with the design engineering directorate in the communications electronics area, where he installed and designed the operational television system at the launchpad and towers around the complex, and the mobile television vans for use during launch andevents.

As each took on their small piece of the larger puzzle, they couldnt immediately see the true impact and scale of what they were doing. It wasnt long, however, before the picture became crystal clear.

Well, at the time, of course, it was just a job, said Pound. Then we saw how big it was and what all it encompassed, and we thought, Wow! This is going to be something big! And we felt like we were doing a pretty important job.

Its easy to get lost in the massive scale of NASA. There, everythingis big.

Anytime you put together a large program like the Apollo program that involved human spaceflight as well as the manufacturing of the launch vehicle and the facilities that manage it, you realize the scale of the vehicle itself, saidFairey.

The biggest part of the Apollo program was the Saturn V rocket, which is still the most powerful rocket ever built.

The Saturn V was a three-stage, expendable, super-heavy lift launch vehicle that was used to send Apollo missions into space between 1967 and 1973. It was 363 feet tall, weighed more than 6.5 million pounds and reached speeds of more than 17,000 mph to break free from earths gravity. To house the construction of these rockets, NASA constructed the Vertical Assembly Buildingthe VABwhich is still the largest and most visible complex at KSC. The building is 526 feet tall and covers 8 acres of square footage. Its a vast cavern with 40 floors of scaffolds and railings that allow thousands of technicians to reach every part of the spacecraft.

Once the Saturn V was built, it had to be moved to one of two launch pads, the closest of which was 3.5 miles away. To accomplish this impossible task, NASA used one of two machines called crawlers, weighing 6 million pounds each, to carry the launch vehiclefully uprightacross the complex, traveling at less than 1 mph. The journey took roughly 8 hours to complete.

Even more impressive was the level of detail involved in creating these rockets and executing their missions. Each stage of each rocket was built by a different American company, and each wire, duct, nozzle, rivet and screw was carefully designed by engineers who were armed with nothing but slide rules and an expert grasp of their field.

For each Georgia Southern alumnus, their role supported one step in an impossibly large number of procedures and processes that all came to fruition on July 16, 1969. The launch of Apollo 11, which carried the first men to step foot on the moon, was a history-altering event each of them witnessed firsthand.

Its kind of hard to describe until you see it, saidFairey.

From a mankind standpoint, this was a significant achievement, said Belson. You know, if you look at where we are today in all of that, its based on how we got there. So its very, very important for mankind overall that we were able to go do this. And somehow we played a part in that.

Accomplishing the goal of manned space flight came with difficulty and sometimes tragedy,however.

In 1970, while more than 210,000 miles from earth, the crew of Apollo 13 was doing a routine stir of the oxygen tanks on the service module when a faulty wire ignited and caused an explosion. With the service module inoperative, the crew of three astronauts had to use the lunar excursion module (LEM) as their lifeboat home, but it was only designed to support two men for two days.

Back on earth, engineers at Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston worked around the clock to create procedures to reprogram and modify the LEM to support all three crew members for four days, and communicated the plans to astronauts who had limited power in their craft, a cold and wet cabin, and a shortage of potable water.

For Pound and others that worked in the Launch Control Center at KSC, these types of events meant quick decisions and immediate actionboth of which would mean the difference between life and death for the flight crew and ground personnel.

We used to say it was hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror, said Pound. And we had to be able to make decisions pretty quickly without talking to the other people. And then we had to know who to talk to in case we needed answers to get things done.

While the story of Apollo 13 ended happily, there were other space program missions thatdid not.

In 1986, Fairey was the shuttle project engineer for the Space Shuttle Challenger, and one of the key figures involved in its launch. On Jan. 28, 1986, he was in the control room of KSC when, only 73 second into liftoff, a leak in one of Challengers rocket boosters caused the external fuel tank to explode, disintegrating the shuttle and killing its crew.

It was a horrible dayespecially due to the fact that I had trained with the crew. I knew the crew, saidFairey.

I was midfield of the shuttle landing facility, and actually was there with some of the astronaut family, said Belson. Its very close and personal and, you know, I still wont watch the video. I wont watch it today. Yeah, it was very emotional.

Fairey and his engineers spent the next two years going over the accident, learning what happened. As a result, they completely reworked all of their procedures, software and training and then completely retrained with their colleagues in Houston and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,Alabama.

You do all you can to minimize the risk, but its risky business, said Fairey. I mean, youre sitting on top of a bombliquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It took a lot of people checking a lot of things, double checking, lots of tests and test firings. This is a risky business, and when you commit to human spaceflight, you have to be willing to take the risk.

Through both tragedy and triumph, mankinds pursuit of space changed the worldforever.

Since its establishment in 1958, and its charge to reach the moon within a decade in 1962, NASA has been a place where scientists and mathematicians can dream big. The space program enlarged those dreams, broadened them far beyond the bounds of earth, and made people believe that they could achieve anything to which they set their minds.

In addition to space exploration, however, the NASA space program also pioneered new technologies that people around the world now take for granted in their daily lives. Whether they use solar panel technology, cordless and battery-powered tools, reflective vests or even memory foam, they can thank NASA and the space program for these inventions.

The technology that came out of this program was awesome, said Fairey. It advanced the United States exponentially in terms of computing capability, material science and all thosethings.

During his tenure in the Apollo program, Fairey worked with researchers from the University of Arizona to pioneer a lightning detection system at KSC as lightning was an especially dangerous hazard during launch. Fairey worked on all the mathematical algorithms used in thesystem.

It was so accurate that you could actually see the electrical potential build up if a storm was coming from Orlando or out in the ocean, he said. And you could calculate when it would get here and make a determination of whether or not it was safe to launch. And so they use that today for all the launches.

Fairey passed away on April 8, 2020, but left a great legacy at NASA. He finished his career as the flow director for four missions of the Space Shuttle Discovery, an orbiter that launched several satellites and other hardware into space, including the Hubble Space Telescope. Most notably, Fairey arranged for Discovery astronauts to fly several Georgia Southern University flags on one of their missions, and then presented one of the flags to the University.

After more than 30 years of service, Fairey retired in 2002 and became a docent at NASA, sharing his knowledge and his love of teaching with camp participants and museum visitors, and inspiring the next generation of students interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)fields.

In his interview, he reflected on the program and the impact it had on the world.

Youre proud to have been a part of a team that worked so hard for so many years that achieved this unbelievable goal that many people thought was not even possible, he said. So youre very humbled in the aspect of you being such a small portion, and just one individual of a very large team that achieved this magnificent goal.

Abner returned to NASA in 1974 and finished his career as the chief engineer for the Space Shuttle program. He is currently semi-retired as a staff engineer at the United Space Alliance.

Belson worked with the design engineering directorate throughout his career at NASA, and helped design the video systems that film the countdowns and launches, as well as the video simulators that astronauts used to train for their missions in space. He left NASA after the Challenger accident and went to work for the Department Of Defence supporting Expendable Launch Vehicle satellite programs being flown from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Station in California.

It gives you a certain sense of fulfillment that we had the opportunity to even participate in this, said Belson. When I go back and look at the history, I remember watching Dr. Wernher von Braun on TV talking about rockets and going to the moon and landing on the moon. So its not a job, its more of a vocation, you know?

Pound finished his career as chief of the NASA Test Directors office, the culmination of his many roles in coordinating and planning for all the missions at KSC. He worked at NASA for 28 years and retiredin 1995.

I hope it makes Georgia Southern feel proud of us, said Pound. Thats what Im hoping. I think we did a pretty good job while we were down here and glad we could do what we could. And then the Georgia Southern people looking at it and looking at us saying, Well, we were part of that. So Georgia Southern was a part ofit, too.

It was a really fun career, he added. I enjoyed every minute of it, except for the moments of sheer terror.Doy Cave

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The Eagle Has Landed - Georgia Southern University Newsroom

Casetify launches NASA-branded tech accessories on day of Perseverance rover launch – Space.com

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

A new set of phone cases, Apple Watch bands and other trinkets allows you to carry your love for NASA with you everywhere you go.

Lifestyle brand Casetify launched a special collection including dozens of accessories that feature NASA's famous "meatball" and "worm" logos, among other space-themed designs. You can check out the entire group here. (NASA likely gave its endorsement to Casetify, as the agency has strict rules around using the logo for commercial purposes.)

The official launch date for the accessories was Thursday (July 30), the same date that NASA's Perseverance rover successfully lifted off from Florida on its way to search for ancient life on Mars. The old-school NASA "worm" logo re-debuted on the Demo-2 astronaut launch aboard a SpaceX rocket in May, which marked the first crewed commercial orbital launch from the U.S.

Related: NASA re-embraces the 'worm,' its retro cool retired logo, for new merchandise

The Casetify collection has 16 NASA-inspired designs for iPhone and iPad cases, Macbook shells and Apple Watch bands, along with insignia rings. The designs include an astronaut's access badge, blueprints of the space shuttle, and mission assignments. The cases for phones and other devices are designed to be protective for falls of up to 6.2 feet (1.9 meters).

"When it comes to advanced technology and exploration, there's no better source for inspiration than NASA," Wes Ng, Casetify CEO and co-founder, said in a company statement. "We know our community will be over the moon to see NASA's emblems reimagined in true Casetify style."

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Casetify launches NASA-branded tech accessories on day of Perseverance rover launch - Space.com

The next giant leaps: The UK missions getting us to the Moon – BBC Focus Magazine

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

In the middle of 2021, a small robotic spider may be taking its first tentative steps on the Moon. Its not exactly The Spiders From Mars, but the late David Bowie will have played a part in getting it there.

Pavlo Tanasyuk, CEO and founder of the British company Spacebit, remembers once listening to David Bowies The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars and wondering about one day building rovers with legs rather than wheels.

The idea lay dormant until Tanasyuk was visiting a friend at the Japan Aerospace Agency (JAXA), and mentioned his long-held idea of a spider robot on Mars or the Moon. The friend responded immediately with the Japanese proverb of the asagumo, the morning spider who brings fortune.

ITER, The Worlds Largest Nuclear Fusion Project: A Big Step Forward – Forbes

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

A picture shows the winding facility for the construction of poloidal field coils which will be ... [+] part of the magnetic system that will contribute to confine and model plasma during the launch of the assembly stage of nuclear fusion machine "Tokamak" of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, southeastern France, on July 28, 2020. - Thirty-five nations are collaborating in the ITER energy project aimed at mastering energy production from hydrogen fusion, as in the heart of the sun, a potential new source of carbon-free and non-polluting energy. (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP) (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

ITER the worlds largest nuclear fusion project reached a construction milestone last week as the final components of the reactor arrived on the build site in southeastern France. The $25 billion endeavor, which aims to produce sustainable fusion energy on a commercial scale, is financed by seven of the worlds largest energy powerhouses: the European Union, United Kingdom China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

The origins of the ambitious project go back to the Reagan-Gorbachev negotiations of the 1980s that envisioned equal participation by the Soviet Union, the United States, Japan and Europe. After decades of delays, the International Thermal Experimental Reactor was born. ITER began in earnest in 2010 and is now celebrating the commencement of the assembly phase wherein the reactors components can now start being put into place.

With millions of components manufactured from around the world, weighing in at 23,000 tons, and standing several stories high, ITER may be the most complicated engineering project in human history. The reactor will contain some 3,000 tons of superconducting magnets which will be linked by 160 miles of superconducting cables, all kept at -269C by the largest cryogenic plant in the world.

A picture shows a general view of the assembly hall during the launch of the assembly stage of ... [+] nuclear fusion machine "Tokamak" of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, southeastern France, on July 28, 2020. - Thirty-five nations are collaborating in the ITER energy project aimed at mastering energy production from hydrogen fusion, as in the heart of the sun, a potential new source of carbon-free and non-polluting energy. (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP) (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

The fusion process is the same one that powers our sun: you can think of a star as one gigantic fusion reactor. Hydrogen atoms forced together under immense heat and pressure break their atomic bonds, fusing into a new heavier element, helium. Some mass is lost in the process, and great amounts of energy are released as a result. This is what Einstein's famous formulaE=mc describes: the tiny bit of lost mass (m), multiplied by the square of the speed of light (c), results in a very large figure (E), which is the amount of energy created by a fusion reaction.

The catch is that these reactions generate very hot and very unstable globs of plasma (in excess of 100 million Kelvin/500 million degrees Fahrenheit) which require tremendous amounts of energy to maintain. To date, the longest recorded sustained plasma operation is just overone minutelong. Enormous magnets are required to keep the plasma in a doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber, which is called a tokamak. ITER is far and away the largest tokamak reactor in existence.

Like conventional nuclear (fission) reactions, the fusion process does not emit carbon dioxide, but unlike a nuclear plant, a fusion reactor cannot melt down. Fusion plants can be fueled by the hydrogen found in just a few ounces of seawater and dont rely on radioactive materials. As a result the process produces virtually no waste, making it a climate friendly, safe, and reliable source of near unlimited power if we can get one to work.

ITER is supposed to become the worlds first reactor capable of self-burning plasma and would ideally generate up to 10 times the amount of heat that it consumes. The components of the reactor include a 100ft-diameter cryostat, a device manufactured by India that is intended to surround the reactor and keep its vital components from overheating. US-manufactured central solenoid magnets responsible for inducing and stabilizing the superheated plasma make the backbone of the reactor. When at full power, these super magnets they will have the capacity to lift an aircraft carrier.

Technicians work in the winding facility for the construction of poloidal field coils which will be ... [+] part of the magnetic system that will contribute to confine and model plasma during the launch of the assembly stage of nuclear fusion machine "Tokamak" of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, southeastern France, on July 28, 2020. - Thirty-five nations are collaborating in the ITER energy project aimed at mastering energy production from hydrogen fusion, as in the heart of the sun, a potential new source of carbon-free and non-polluting energy. (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP) (Photo by CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

Large-scale international cooperation on such a complex project is an example how scientific research knows no geographic borders. This model was and should be adopted in other areas of science, such as space exploration. Yet, the ITER project appears to be both bulky and expensive, and has inspired many smaller enterprises to develop their versions of fusion generation technology.

These include UK-based Tokamak Energy, which has already raised over $130 million in investment. Similarly, California-based Tri Alpha Energy, which is backed by Microsoft MSFT co-founder Paul Allen and Google GOOGL has attracted some $500 million in investment for its unique particle accelerator technology. Canadas General Fusion uses a vortex of molten lead and lithium for its plasma containment design which has attracted the support of Amazon AMZN s Jeff Bezos, as well as Britains First Light Fusion. Americas Lockheed Martin LMT is in the midst of developing a secretive compact fusion reactor no bigger than a truck that it claims will be ready for testing by 2028.

The start of the assembly stage of this colossal international project, though remarkable, does not mean that the project is yet near the finish line. ITER plans for all the core parts of the reactor to be installed, fully integrated, and ready to produce its first plasma by November 2025 (the 40 year anniversary of of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachevs historic U.S.-Soviet Geneva summit). If successful, the reactor will draw 50 megawatts (MW) of electricity to ignite the fusion process and produce stable plasma. This plasma would then put out some 500MW of power (in short bursts), thereby generating a whopping 10x energy return.

Despite numerous delays over the years, ITER is aiming to achieve full plasma generation by 2030. While this may be consistent with a common adage in the power industry: Fusion power is always just 10 years away, progress in harnessing fusion is unquestionable, and, if commercial fusion is achieved, the current generation is likely to see a total revolution in energy in their lifetimes.

With Assistance from Bogdan Puchkov

Exploring applications of ultraviolet disinfection technology – Health Europa

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

UVC light energy in the germicidal wavelength range between 200nm and 280nm has an array of applications throughout the field of infection prevention and control, particularly but not limited to within the healthcare sector.

HEQ explores some of the use cases where UV disinfection has proved beneficial.

A 2019 study conducted in Houston, Texas found that automated UVC infection control was able to significantly reduce the spread of hospital acquired infections (HAIs) spread through high-touch computer workstation surfaces. The review investigated the cleanliness of computers at nurses stations, on mobile carts and in patient rooms; and reported: [These workstations] are rarely manually wiped down or disinfected and there is seldom training or documented procedures around cleaning of computer workstations. Housekeeping, nursing and IT dispute over who is responsible for the computer workstation cleaning, making computer workstations one of the dirtiest places in healthcare, contributing to the prevalence of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) that lead to morbidity, mortality and excess healthcare expenditure.

The study compared keyboard cultures from 52 high-use workstations at HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast before and after the installation of no-touch UVC disinfection technology. All post-disinfection samples showed 0% presence of all pathogens for which they were tested.

Ultraviolet radiation has long been used to eliminate harmful microorganisms from fruits, vegetables and water, with UV treatment deployed to disinfect water supplies in Marseille, France, in 1908 and UV-irradiated milk introduced to the US in 1928. In agrifood, UV radiation is frequently used to destroy surface pathogens on fruits and vegetables.

In early 2020, researchers at Cornell AgriTech, New York, teamed with Norways SAGA Robotics to develop an autonomous robot capable of applying UV treatment to wine grapes, in order to defend them from harmful powdery and downy mildew fungi. The mildew spores evolve swiftly and can develop immunity to antifungal sprays over the course of a single season but they are particularly vulnerable to light radiation. The UV robot, named Thorvald, is programmed to apply equal doses UV radiation to each vine; though the Cornell researchers are working in partnership with academics at Carnegie Mellon University to develop imaging technology which will enable Thorvald to identify and target vines affected by mildew.

Floor-scrubbing robots at Pittsburgh International Airport have been retrofitted with UVC technology to eliminate coronavirus from floor surfaces, in the first such test case in the US. If the pilot programme, developed with the assistance of Pittsburgh robotics firm Carnegie Robotics, is effective, researchers predict it could be rolled out across the USAs 149 international airports.

Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis praised the contributions of Pittsburghs flourishing robotics industry to the wider community during the unprecedented crisis od COVID-19, saying: We have a whole innovation culture that is looking for ways to do things better, especially in the pandemic; and one of the things that we recognised immediately is that while we have to manage the crisis day to day we have to keep a line of sight into the future, to help inspire confidence in travel again.

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) became an exceptionally pressing issue for healthcare staff. Recognising the need to enable the reuse of PPE without compromising the safety of workers, a cross-disciplinary team of engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York fast-tracked the development and production of a disinfection system which deploys UV radiation to sterilise protective face masks in large quantities.

Deepak Vashishth, Director of the RPI Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, said: Normally these things take a very long period of time, but given the national situation, I think there is an understanding at all levels that we need to look for solutions which are stable, good, and safe, and are delivered quickly. I think this is an example of where we came together to deliver a solution, and hopefully, this is going to be useful to the healthcare professionals and frontline workers.

As long form space missions become a closer possibility, many researchers have begun to focus on systems which will enable space travellers to eat and drink safely and cleanly while away from Earth for growing periods of time. One such project is the Biocontamination Integrated cOntrol of Wet sYstems for Space Exploration (BIOWYSE) project, supported by the EUs Horizon 2020 programme, which aims to address the issue of clean drinking water in space.

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are able to receive regular deliveries of food and water directly from Earth, with cargo spacecraft able to travel to the ISS in around six hours. For longer journeys, however, BIOWYSE is investigating ways to store and monitor water for contamination in real time. The project has developed a fully automated water dispenser which monitors water quality and automatically decontaminates it using UV radiation.

BIOWYSE co-ordinator Dr Emmanouil Detsis said: We wanted a system where you take it from A to Z, from storing the water to making it available for someone to drink. That means you store the water, you are able to monitor the biocontamination, you are able to disinfect if you have to, and finally you deliver to the cup for drinking. When someone wants to drink water, you press the button its like a water cooler.

In addition to producing potable drinking water, Detsis said, the machine is able to monitor and disinfect surfaces within the spacecraft which may be wet or damp from spillages or condensation, and which therefore may pose a potential contamination risk: Inside the closed habitat, you start having the humidity build up and you may have corners or areas where they are not clean, so we developed something that could check these areas in a fast way. The system is designed with future habitats in mind: a space station around the moon, or a field laboratory on Mars in decades to come. These are places where the water may have been sitting there some time before the crew arrives.

This article is from issue 14 of Health Europa. Clickhere to get your free subscription today.

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Exploring applications of ultraviolet disinfection technology - Health Europa

Sundays Are the Perfect Time to Buy the Bitcoin Dip, Data Shows – Cointelegraph

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

Recent data shows that Sunday evening is the best time to buy Bitcoin (BTC) according to Capriole digital asset manager Charles Edwards. As shown below, historically, BTC saw higher returns on Sunday evenings into early Monday morning.

Bitcoin shows higher returns on Sunday evenings. Source: Charles Edwards

Edwards said:

Bored on Sunday at midnight? It just so happens to be the best time to buy Bitcoin.

There are several reasons Bitcoin might perform better as the weekend comes to an end. First, the weekend typically records a lower volume, which raises the chances of high volatility.

Second, traditional markets that facilitate Bitcoin trades, like CME, close during weekends. As they open, it could cause a spike in volatility.

During the weekend, as traditional markets close, trading volume at Bitcoin exchanges also tends to drop off. When there are fewer active traders in the market, it leaves the market vulnerable to more volatile price action.

As an example, on July 25 and 26, the BTC/USDT pair on Binance recorded a daily volume of 40,000 BTC and 65,000 BTC respectively. Then, on July 27, which was a Monday, the volume abruptly surged to 150,000 BTC. Coincidentally, the price of Bitcoin also rose by 11%.

BTC-USD price and volume surge on Monday, July 27. Source: TradingView.com

Due to low Bitcoin trading volume during the weekend, BTC also tends to see sudden pullbacks. For instance, on Sunday, Aug 2, the price of BTC abruptly dropped by 6% overnight. This led to a volume spike, countering the above mentioned data.

The CME Bitcoin futures market and its closure during the weekend could also be impacting Bitcoins strong performances on Mondays. Similar to the U.S. stock market, CME closes its markets over the weekend and on national holidays.

Accredited and institutional investors that use the CME Bitcoin futures market have to wait until the market opens on Monday.

Unlike traditional assets, BTC is traded through the weekend and holidays on exchanges. Hence, when CME closes and opens on a Monday, there is usually a gap in price.

The CME gap fill is a theory that is widely recognized within the cryptocurrency market. Data shows that the Bitcoin exchange market usually moves to fill the gap between CME and the rest of the market. Consequently, following a weekend, Bitcoin often sees a major price action.

On Aug 2, when BTC declined by 6% within hours, more than $1 billion worth of futures contracts were wiped out. This coincidentally happened in the closing weekend of July, which is when the CME Bitcoin futures contract closes. The CME futures contract specification reads:

Trading terminates at 4:00 p.m. London time on the last Friday of the contract month. If this is not both a London and U.S. business day, trading terminates on the prior London and the U.S. business day.

In recent weeks, the open interest of the CME Bitcoin futures market has significantly increased and this could possibly be a reflection of how CME is increasing its influence over the global Bitcoin market.

Its also possible that the data is purely coincidental and reduced trading volume on weekends is the primary reason for Sundays offering discounted Bitcoin prices.

Bitcoin Association to partner with CSDN on Bitcoin SV DevCon: China – PRNewswire

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

ZUG, Switzerland, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitcoin Association, the global industry organization that works to advance business with Bitcoin SV, today announces the first Chinese-language edition of its popular Bitcoin SV DevCon series will be held August 29-30 in partnership with CSDN and nChain.

The two-day virtual event will be hosted entirely in Chinese and will feature leading figures from China's technology and blockchain communities teaching sessions designed to educate and upskill developers interested in working with the Bitcoin SV blockchain. The weekend-long programme will provide a foundational understanding of the Bitcoin network, in addition to introducing advanced blockchain functionalities including smart contracts, cloud computing implementations and the miner fee economy.

A full schedule for Bitcoin SV DevCon: China is available at https://bsvdevcon.net/bitcoin-sv-devcon-august-2020

The inaugural Bitcoin SV DevCon was held last month over the weekend of July 18-19, with more than 3,000 attendees participating live. Following a strong response to Bitcoin SV developer initiatives already rolled out this year in partnership with CSDN, Bitcoin SV DevCon: China will meet a growing demand for blockchain education programmes emerging and is the latest sign of Bitcoin Association's strong ongoing commitment to its Chinese-speaking community.

CSDN is the largest IT and software developer community in China, with 31 million users and a top 30 Alexa Global ranking.CSDN's participation will help distribute the Bitcoin SV DevCon: China educational content to a large audience.

Attendance is free and registration is open now at https://bss.csdn.net/m/topic/bsvdevcon

Speaking on today's announcement, Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen, commented:

"After the success of Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020 last month, Bitcoin Association are delighted to be able to extend our partnership with CSDN to produce our first-ever Chinese language DevCon for the growing Bitcoin SV community in China. There are great opportunities emerging for individuals with the knowledge and skillset to build with Bitcoin and I'm excited to see the development and innovation sure to emerge as a result of the DevCon."

Also speaking on today's announcement, CSDN Founder and Chairman Jiang Tao spoke of the importance of programmes like Bitcoin SV DevCon for developers:

"The 5G age will enhance the advantages of blockchain technology. Over the next decade, the Bitcoin blockchain platform will enable new industrial fields to emerge, meaning that now is a great time for developers to learn more about blockchain technologies."

Lise Li, China Manager for Bitcoin Association, commented on the organization's commitment to bringing further opportunities for China's Bitcoin SV community:

"Bitcoin SV developer initiatives have been a key goal for Bitcoin Association this year, which we've taken to implementing in China through a host of different measures, including the creation of the Bitcoin SV Developer Zone with CSDN, a series of Chinese-language webinars, and now, Bitcoin SV DevCon. Many innovative businesses and developers in China are working on blockchain solutions as present, so Bitcoin SV DevCon will be a good opportunity to introduce them to the power of the Bitcoin SV blockchain and show them what's possible when developing with it."

About Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Associationis theSwitzerland-basedglobal industry organization that works to advance business on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. It brings together essential components of the Bitcoin SV ecosystem enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others working alongside them, as well as in a representative capacity, to drive further use of the Bitcoin SV blockchain and uptake of the BSV digital currency.

The Association works to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while facilitating innovation using all aspects of Bitcoin technology. More than a digital currency and blockchain, Bitcoin is also a network protocol; just like Internet protocol, it is the foundational rule set for an entire data network. The Association supports use of the original Bitcoin protocol to operate the world's single blockchain on Bitcoin SV.

SOURCE Bitcoin Association

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Bitcoin Association to partner with CSDN on Bitcoin SV DevCon: China - PRNewswire

OKCoin Exchange Awards Grant to One of Bitcoin Core’s Most Active Developers – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

Announced Thursday, exchange OKCoin is awarding its largest individual grant so far to Bitcoin Core maintainer Marco Falke, the second-most prolific contributor to Bitcoin Core in the softwares history.

OKCoin is awarding Falke an Independent Developer Grant, which is the equivalent of a developer salary for the year, though Falke requested that the exact amount not be disclosed for the sake of his financial privacy.

With his grant, Falke will continue his work as maintainer of Bitcoin Core, the key software underpinning Bitcoin, which hes been heads-down on since 2016. His work helps to ensure that changes to Bitcoin Core are merged, helps to organize developers that are spread out over the globe, and runs tests to ensure the code is working properly, among other tasks.

When asked about his personal accomplishments, Falke emphasized that Bitcoin Core is a team effort, with developers from around the world making it what it is. I am proud to see what Bitcoin Core is today and how everyones contributions shaped Bitcoin Core for the future, Falke told CoinDesk.

'Maintenance' work

Falke is one of a handful of Bitcoin Core maintainers. Maintainers are sometimes described as the leaders of sorts of Bitcoins code. But, while maintainers are crucial to Bitcoin, the role isnt as authoritative as has been painted.

Some of my days are surprisingly unexciting maintenance work, as Falke put it.

Testing ensures code works as intended. He spends a lot of time keeping tests of the code in line, ensuring that any issues they expose will be fixed. On top of that, I am running my own nightly test runs, code coverage runs, benchmarks and fuzzers, Falke said.

In addition, he reviews proposed code changes and merges them into Bitcoin Core when they have been sufficiently vetted.

Helping to speed up this maintenance process is what he believes is his most useful contribution to Bitcoin Core.

DrahtBot

He created a little bot for GitHub, where Bitcoin Cores code is stored, and where developers propose code changes, and discuss them. The bot, called DrahtBot, does all the automatable things that I used to do, Falke said.

Many Bitcoin Core developers are working on the code at the same time. Its easy for little code clashes to arise. Once a change is approved and merged into the code base, it might impact other peoples code. DrahtBot notifies developers of these conflicts. The bot will also list all future conflicts, assuming a pull request was merged, to aid maintainers planning ahead, Falke added.

DrahtBot also builds the Bitcoin Core code into binaries that bitcoiners can run on their devices, among other tasks.

This bot frees up a lot more time for Falke to focus on other more difficult tasks, which cant be automated and taken over by a robot.

Fleeing COVID-19

One reason Falke is happy to be receiving this grant is that he is leaving Chaincode, a startup in New York City that funds developers and researchers dedicated to improving Bitcoin.

He decided to move back to his farm in Germany. Given that I grew up on a remote farm, away from big cities, NYC was definitely a new, lasting and exciting experience. Nonetheless, I couldnt see myself settle down in NYC long-term, Falke said.

Then, coronavirus hit, making New York City an even less attractive place to live for Falke.

Even before COVID, I saw many of my friends and colleagues leave NYC. Then with the COVID situation happening, and seeing politics and immigration policy becoming increasingly hostile towards immigrants and visa holders, it convinced me to move back to Germany, he said.

Chaincode only employs people who live in New York City. When Falke decided to depart, Chaincodes head of special projects Adam Jonas helped him find new funding at OKCoin.

Id like to thank Adam Jonas from Chaincode for reaching out to various companies in the space and showing them the importance of supporting Bitcoin developers, Falke said.

OKCoin: Funding Bitcoin Development

With a global health crisis thats far from over and a feeble world economy, 2020 has been a disaster of a year. The sliver of a silver lining, though, is that 2020 has been the best ever in terms of funding developers tinkering to make bitcoin better after a long dearth of funding.

These sorts of grants have been growing in popularity. Many open source Bitcoin developers work on the code as a side project, essentially improving the digital currency for free, despite their contributions helping everyone in the industry, including the companies profiting from it. But now, more exchanges and other bitcoin organizations are beginning to support this work financially.

We are inherently incentivized to invest in Bitcoin, which is fundamental to the growth of our industry, said OKCoin CEO Hong Fang in a statement. Supporting Marcos work on strengthening the testing framework in addition to his general responsibilities as a maintainer is important to continuing quality development.

OKCoin has awarded a number of grants this summer, including to Bitcoin Core contributor Amiti Uttarwar and to open-source payment processor BTCPay.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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OKCoin Exchange Awards Grant to One of Bitcoin Core's Most Active Developers - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Adin Steinsaltz, Groundbreaking Talmud Translator, Dies – The New York Times

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

JERUSALEM Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, a prolific Jewish scholar who spent 45 years compiling a monumental and ground-breaking translation of the Talmud, has died. He was 83.

The Steinsaltz Center, the Jerusalem educational institute he founded, said he died Friday in Jerusalem after suffering from pneumonia.

Steinsaltz, an educator who established a network of schools in Israel and the former Soviet Union, wrote more than 60 books on subjects ranging from zoology to theology. But the Talmud, the central text in mainstream Judaism, was his greatest passion.

The Talmud details rabbinical discussions over the centuries pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history. But because of its complexity, obscurity and the fact that much of it is written in the ancient Aramaic language, the rarified text for centuries remained beyond the scope of comprehension of all but a select group of scholarly Jews. The text, compiled in Mesopotamia in the 5th century, is broken into 63 sections and stretches over 2,700 double-sided pages.

I do believe that this knowledge, it is not just knowledge of history, it is knowledge of ourselves, it is our own picture, Steinsaltz told The Associated Press in a 2010 interview at the end of his work. Talmud is a book that has no real parallel it is a constant search for truth, for absolute truth.

Over 4 1/2 decades, working for up to 16 hours a day, he labored over the ancient texts, translating them from the Aramaic into modern Hebrew along with editions in English, French and Russian. The 45-volume series added his own explanations of phrases, terms and concepts, as well as listing the rulings of Jewish law derived from the text.

Steinsaltz coined his quest to educate Jews Let my people know, a play on Moses passage from Exodus: Let my people go.

There have been other, partial translations into English and other languages, but none are as comprehensive or have as extensive a commentary.

In the AP interview, Steinsaltz explained that he took to the Talmud like a musician takes to an instrument and he compared comprehension of it to that of math and music. It is a different language and you have to think in that language. It is a language of thought and not a language of words, he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remembered Steinsaltz as a Torah genius and a man of exemplary spirit.

His important works will stand for generations at the foundation of Jewish heritage, as an eternal flame in his memory, Netanyahu said.

Steinsaltz, who also used the Hebraized surname Even-Israel, was born in what is now Israel in 1937 to secular parents but became observant in his teens, when he entered seminary schools and learned Aramaic.

After studying physics and chemistry at Hebrew University, he became a math teacher and at the age of 24, according to his website, the youngest school principal in Israels history. Three years later, in 1965, he began working on what he called his hobby the translation of the Talmud. He wrote numerous commentaries on religious texts as well as My Rebbe, a biography and memoir of his close relationship with the revered spiritual leader of the Chabad movement the late Lubavitcher Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.

His effort earned him the 1988 Israel Prize the nations highest civilian honor, the Presidents Medal and a number of honorary doctorates.

He is survived by his wife, Sara, three children and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren, according to the center. He was scheduled to be buried Friday on Jerusalems Mount of Olives.

Adin Steinsaltz, Groundbreaking Talmud Translator, Dies - The New York Times

Introducing Minglr: New open source software developed at MIT Sloan helps overcome the limitations of videoconferences by supporting impromptu…

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --During the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom, Skype, and other videoconferencing systems have become our lifelines for workplace communication. But while those platforms work well for many kinds of virtual meetings and conferences, their capacity to replicate the kinds of spontaneous, informal interactions that take place when people are together in person is limited.

Enter Minglr,a new software platform developed by researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Minglr is designed to support the kinds of impromptu, private conversations that individuals have before and after meetings, in the lobby during breaks of conferences, and around the office coffee machine. By making these interactions possible online, systems like Minglr can further boost the desirability and feasibility of remote work, learning, and professional networking.

"I think ad-hoc interactionsthose 'hallway conversations'are among the most important things that people miss in today's work-from-home environment," says Thomas W. Malone, the Patrick J. McGovern (1959) Professor of Managementat MIT Sloan and the founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, who led the Minglr research team. "From a collective intelligence standpoint, lots of research suggests that those random encounters are key to creative innovations in cities, research labs, companies, and elsewhere. And we know from our own personal experiences that they are also critical to making new professional connections, forming social bonds, and building camaraderie in a group. But most people don't realize how straightforward it is to create videoconferencing software that supports these ad-hoc interactions."

"We want to demonstrate what is possible, and we hope that all major videoconferencing systems will implement functionality like that in Minglr."

To create Minglr, Prof. Malone teamed up with Jaeyoon Song, an incoming MIT Sloan PhD student, and Chris Riedl,associate professor for Information Systems and Network Science at the D'Amore-McKim School of BusinessatNortheasternUniversity. Together, they developed a prototype of the software, building on an open source videoconferencing system called jitsi.

The team plans to make Minglr available as open source software to anyone who is interested in using the tool, including developers who would like to contribute to it.

It works like this: At a virtual meeting or conference, participants and attendees log on to Minglr and see a list of people who are available to talk. The system lets them select the ones they want to speak with. They can also see the people who want to talk to them. And if they select one of those people, then both parties enter into a private video room where they can chat for as long or as short a time as they wish.

A working paper the team just released describes a pilot test of Minglr at the June MIT Collective Intelligence 2020 meeting, which was held online as a virtual conference. In one survey reported in the working paper, conference attendees indicated thatconversations in hallways, lobbies, and at social events were the most important part of attending an academic conference. And in another survey, 86% of participants who used the Minglr system successfully said that they thought future online conferences should employ something like it.

"The positive feedback we received on Minglr has helped us see new pathways for its functionality," says Song. "We knew that the system could be valuable at virtual business meetings and professional conferences, but now we see potential uses in virtual classes, parties, and other kinds ofsocial engagements. Minglr allows you to meet new people, chat with folks you already know, and spark different kinds of conversations. With Minglr, we see a future that involves much richer and deeper online interaction."

About MIT Sloan School of ManagementMIT Sloan School of Management is where smart, independent leaders come together to solve problems, create new organizations, and improve the world. Learn more at mitsloan.mit.edu

For further information, contact:

Paul Denning

Patricia Favreau

Director of Media Relations

Associate Director of Media Relations

617-253-0576

617-253-3492

denning@mit.edu

pfavreau@mit.edu

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SOURCE MIT Sloan School of Management

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Fans Are Rejecting ‘Woke’ Athletes [OPINION] – wbsm.com

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball games broadcast on ESPN have seen some pretty low numbers in terms of viewership so far. People are tired of being hammered with political correctness and feel let down that the athletes they support are contributing to the mess. As a result, they are tuning out.

Outkick.com says viewer ratings for some NBA and MLB games opened low. The site says baseball on national television Friday night drew very little interest from fans:

MLB (Friday, July 31 ESPN) Mets-Braves (4p) 922K Brewers-Cubs(7p) 1.0M Angels-As (10p) 797K

Outkick says the NBA's opening night didn't fare much better:

NBA (Friday, July 31 ESPN) Celtics-Bucks (6:30p) 1.3M Mavs-Rockets (9p)- 1.7M

Those who make the decisions for Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association did not heed the warnings from viewers when the controversy in the National Football League over players kneeling for the national anthem and the presentation of the flag was simmering. The fan base didn't like it at all. Attendance at some stadiums suffered as a result.

Even sports fans who might agree that there are social inequities within our society do not want to be pounded over the head by high-priced athletes during their downtime. Sports, for many, provides an opportunity to escape the day-to-day rigors for a few hours. It's a chance to punch out of reality for a while.

When athletes and sports leagues encroach on that time, it robs us of an opportunity for a bit of escapism, forcing us to look elsewhere to find peace and enjoyment. Not only that, many Americans, regardless of what the athletes tell us, believe that kneeling during the national anthem is disrespectful and that it is about the flag and our veterans.

For some reason, the people of pro sports don't want to understand that they are offending their fan base. I just don't get it.

Barry Richard is the host of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Contact him at barry@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @BarryJRichard58. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

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Fans Are Rejecting 'Woke' Athletes [OPINION] - wbsm.com

Bill Maher talks cancel culture and John Lewis with authors of Harper’s open ‘letter on justice’ – USA TODAY

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

James Corden slammed Bill Maher for saying fat-shaming needed to "make a comeback." USA TODAY

An open letter decrying the "intolerance of opposing views"published last month in Harper's Magazine got another moment in the spotlight Friday on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher".

Two of the letter's proponents,former New York Times opinion columnistBari Weissand "Self-Portrait in Black and White" authorThomas Chatterton Williams, talked to Maher about the pitfalls of cancel culture.

Weiss told Maher thatilliberalism, defined as intolerance, is different than criticism.

"We're used to criticism. Criticism is kosher in the work that we do, criticism'sgreat," she said. "What cancel culture is about is not criticism, it is about punishment, it is about making a person radioactive, it is about taking away their job."

July'sopen letter in Harpers Magazine was spearheaded by Williams and signed by Weiss as well as other notablewriters, artists and academics such asJ.K. Rowling, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood. The authors decriedthe weakening of public debate and warnedthat the free exchange ofinformation and ideas is in jeopardyamid a rise in what they call illiberalism.

Theletter comes amid a debate over so-called cancel cultureandprominent people coming under attackattack for sharing controversial opinionson social media.

Weiss told Maher that the Harper's letter was a "warning cry from inside the institutions." Weiss recently resigned from the Times due to"constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views," among other factors.

She recently stirred up controversy when she tweeted about the "civil war" going on inside the Times in the wake of uproar over Sen. Tom Cotton's (R-Ar.) viral "Send in the Troops" opinion piece.

More: Maher celebrates anniversary of women getting vote, calls it GOP D-Day

Weiss said cancel culture isn't "just about punishing the sinner," but also a "secondary boycott of people who would deign to speak to that person or appear ona platform with that person." She added that if conversation around disagreement becomes impossible then the only way to resolve conflict would beviolence.

The former Times staffer said that "politics has come to supplantreligion" and you see it with people on the right who look to Donald Trump as a "deity" and you see it on the left "where to be anything less than defunding the police or abolishthe police to choose the issue of the day, makes you something like a heretic." She added that this type of thinking points to the "collapse of moderates."

Maher noted that it's not just the celebrity elite who believe they will be chastised for saying something politically incorrect and that people "don't like walking around on eggshells."

"When the science has to come second to the political correctness, we're in trouble," Maher said before reading off part of Harper's letter that noted "professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes."

Williams said that cancel culture is not about bringing"elites back to Earth" but it has an "onlooker effect" that has "a chilling and stifling and narrowing influence on all of our behaviors."

He added that the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who died at 80 from cancer on July 17,also had a "point of view that was divergent from the consensus at the time that he was alive." Williams said that Lewis' stance seems "so clear to us now," but at the time Lewis was going against "consensus."

"We need to have all the points of view that we can have because we dont know what the truth is actually going to shake out to be 10, 20,50 years down the road," Williams said. "We need to challenge our consensus views, and when we think about John Lewis, we should think about that was a guy who saw something wrong and stood up and spoke up for it, and he didnt just adhere to the prevailing consensus at the time."

More: Twitter's cancel culture: A force for good or a digital witchhunt? The answer is complicated.

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Non-fiction reviews: Play By The Rules and other titles – Sydney Morning Herald

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

The popular image of Vincent van Gogh as the tortured, untutored genius who transformed modern painting is a central part of the mythology surrounding him. Vincent Alessis study convincingly argues that van Gogh never set out to be a tortured genius but rather an illustrator for popular magazines. He was an enthusiastic collector of prints and engravings from English magazines such as the Illustrated London News and much of his time during his three-year stay in London in the 1870s was dedicated to the disciplined study of these prints, from which he learned draughtsmanship. He also read George Eliot and Dickens in English, all big influences on his early social realist style. Of course, its the later French works that made him, but this is a very engaging and informative academic portrait of the evolution of van Gogh: the wild priest of high art whose grounding was in the popular art of the day.

How I Clawed My Way to the MiddleJohn WoodViking, $34.99

How I Clawed My Way To The Middle by John Wood.

Reading John Woods memoir, about his long career in TV and theatre, its impossible not to hear that familiar voice. Its a great title and captures the down-to-earth tone of the tale, which starts in the suburbs of Melbourne just after the war, taking in a chequered school record, work in the Victorian Railways, as a bricklayer, the abattoirs his father worked in and on to theatre. In some ways its the story of a working-class boy made good, helped along the way by figures such as John and Lois Ellis who encouraged him to apply for NIDA. From there doors on stage and TV gradually opened and he eventually became a household face and name, at one point noting that TV fame is odd in that people really do think they know you when they meet you in public. Hes an amusing writer he wrote On Yer Marx! and for TV and this is a very engaging read, while also being a snapshot of Australian drama through pivotal years.

Dissenting Opinions by Michael Sexton.

Dissenting OpinionsMichael SextonConnor Court, $39.95

This is an aptly titled collection of newspaper articles and book reviews published over the past 10 years, incorporating a wide range of views on a variety of topics Michael Sexton often, as in his views on ''political correctness'', at odds with more progressive views. At the same time he is the author of War for the Asking, about Australia and the Vietnam war, one of his articles highlighting Menzies Machiavellian role in ensnaring us in the conflict, rightly calling it a ''stain on his record''. Similarly, he lays into Malcolm Fraser and his role in the 1975 dismissal, saying Fraser "was responsible for the most cynical and unscrupulous exercise in Australian political history". On the other hand his views on the Brexit vote and the perceived faint-heartedness of literary festivals when it comes to dissenting opinions, may ruffle feathers. Forthright opinion pieces from a commentator who clearly goes his own way.

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Non-fiction reviews: Play By The Rules and other titles - Sydney Morning Herald

Patrick Mouratoglou: ‘Tennis Is The Most Politically Correct Sport’ – Last Word on Tennis

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Danzig

Patrick Mouratoglou, the current coach of Serena Williams, has been busy during the COVID-19 pandemic as he launched his innovative UTS (Ultimate Tennis Showdown) tournament in his academy in Nice, France. The tournament which has attracted top players like Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, and Dominic Thiem. The purpose of this tournament was to address some of the problems he sees in modern-day tennis.

The Double Bagel podcast interviewed Mouratoglou for his thoughts on UTS and other issues. Listen to the full podcast here.

Patrick Mouratoglous UTS features a tiebreak-like scoring format and is different compared to traditional tennis scoring, and is played in four 10-minute quarters.

I think now, especially the last 10 years, the way people consume sports have dramatically changed with social media, Netflix, and video games. It has completely changed peoples habits. I think the format of sports, the way we know them, are in trouble. Those formats, almost all of them, are long, they are quite slow. And people are not used to that anymore, says the Frenchman.

The purpose of this tournament, Mouratoglou says, was to bring younger tennis fans to the sport, as currently the average age of tennis fans is around 61 years old.

If you look a bit further, 10 or 20 years in the future, I am not sure this is going to be still working because the younger generation dont consume videos like that. So the idea of UTS was to propose a different tennis. With the goal to able to bring fans into tennispeople who are not watching tennis, and younger people.

Mouratoglou says due to the political correctness of tennis, it has not allowed players to fully express themselves in the media, which consequently has made the sport looking unattractive to watch for potential new tennis fans.

I think we have great personalities in tennis. I more think they dont dare expressing themselves as tennis is the most politically correct sport along with golf. And that is not great is because I think people want to get to know the players.

I think its important for players to understand that they have to showcase their personalities I think when you show who you are, people will like you. And some of us will dislike you. And thats fine. You cant please everybody, and if you try to please everybody- you please nobody. To think all the players, are nice, perfect, are loving each other. Thats not the truth.

With the US Open only a few weeks away, Mouratoglou will be preparing Serena Williams for another attempt of to capture her historic 24th Grand Slam title.

The preparation for this US Open is the weirdest in history. But I think all the players are in the same boat. Its been challenging for everyone in the same way.

When asked about how close Serena is to capturing #24, and whether it is a physical or mental hurdle that is holding her back.

When you start to lose a few times in the same situation, the mental aspect comes in. But the positive thing about it is that she has already reached four Grand Slam finals, which means she is not far. But the last step is always the most importantespecially when you make one step for history. So this is the challenge now.

The illustrious coaching career of Patrick Mouratoglou started in 1999 when he started coaching former World No.8 Marcos Baghdatis where he won the 2003 Australian Open Junior Boys title and reached the Australian Open final in 2006.

Since then, Mouratoglou has coached other world class tennis players such as Grigor Dimitrov, Laura Robson, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Serena Williams, and many others. It would be fair to say, if any coach knew what separates good players and great players, it would be Patrick.

If you ask me what are the three things that define a champion. I would say, ambition, competitivenessthe ability to be a great competitorand probably athleticism.

What separates good players from great players is their personality. If you look at the top 100, all the players are great players. But just a few are champions. What makes a difference is an extra thing they have. Its how much they believe in themselves, how much they want it, how bad they want it.

Listen to the full podcast on The Double Bagel.

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Patrick Mouratoglou: 'Tennis Is The Most Politically Correct Sport' - Last Word on Tennis

Top 10 experiences around the world revealed by TripAdvisor – The Scotsman

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Experience the red dunes of Dubai's Lahbab desert and enjoy activities like sandboarding, 4WD dune bash, camel riding, falcon interaction and more before enjoying a BBQ buffet dinner and live show. By OceanAir Travels.

Photo: OceanAir Travels

This experience from Walkabout Florence Tours allows foodies to delve into Florence's culinary scene with this pizza and gelato cooking experience - the highlight of which is enjoying the fruits of your labours.

Photo: Walkabout Florence Tours

Amsterdam's scenic canals are famous for a reason - enjoy a tour of the city on an open air boat, visiting landmarks like the Anne Frank House, the Jordaan, Rijksmuseum and more. Provided by Flagship Amsterdam.

Photo: Flagship Amsterdam

Discover Berlin with this half day walking tour from Original Berlin Walks and learn insider information on the German city's different eras and stop at monuments like the Berlin Wall, Holocaust Memorial and the rebuilt Reichstag.

Photo: Original Berlin Walks

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Top 10 experiences around the world revealed by TripAdvisor - The Scotsman

Gaming mailbag – Press of Atlantic City

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

A shuffle through the Gaming mailbag:

Q. I was playing slots online, and there was a free spin bonus where I wondered if your choices made a difference.

A lot of the payback came on free spins. The minimum was eight spins, but 16 was pretty common and I got 32 a few times, 40 once and I think one was 96 spins. That was fun.

Free spins paid double the usual, and when you got 16 or more spins, you were given a choice. You could take the double pays, or you could have half the spins with four-times pays. So I could take 16 spins doubled our eight spins with wins quadrupled.

I get that the average win for the round will come out the same either way. You add some volatility by taking fewer spins, but the average should be the same, right?

Aside from volatility preferences, does it make a difference whether I take the 2x spins or half as many as 4x?

A. If it is possible to trigger more free spins during the free spin round, then Id take the larger number of spins with the lower multiplier. That gives you more chances to add free spins to your free spins.

If free spins cant be retriggered, then youre correct. Your average payback will be the same whether you take half the spins with a 4x multiplier or all the spins with a 2x multiplier.

There is a diference in volatility. There larger multiplier means that if you happen to hit a big winner, it will be even bigger. The fewer spins mean a greater possibility that losing spins or a concentration of small winners could leave you with a low-paying round.

Whether you prefer higher or lower volatility is up to you. But if you can retrigger bonus spins, then Id take the larger number of spins to maximize the shot at extra spins.

Q. I was thinking about video blackjack. Not the elaborate multi-player games with video dealers where you can get some pretty good rules. I mean the one-player games where blackjacks pay only even money. Theres no 3-2 payoff, and not even 6-5. You just win the amount of your bet.

Does that call for a strategy change? Is there any gain to playing a blackjack as 11 and doubling down?

A. Are those games still around? The one-player video blackjack games Ive seen in recent years pay 3-2 on blackjacks.

If youre finding blackjack machines that pay even-money on two-card 21s, your best play remains to take your payoff and move on.

A blackjack is no ordinary 11. Its a 21, and it wins unless the dealer also has a 21 to push. It beats multi-card 21s.

Thats a really strong position. Its not as good as getting the 3-2 payoff, of course, but you win every hand where theres a decision.

I set up the blackjack hand calculator at wizardofodds.com for a single-deck game in which the dealer hits soft 17, but has a 1-1 payoff on blackjacks. Then I punched in a player hand of Ace-King vs. a dealers 6.

The average player win on the blackjack is $1 per $1 wagered. If you double down, youre going to lose some of the hands youd normally win or push. That decreases your average win to 68 cents per $1 of your original wager.

I wouldnt play a game that returns only even money on blackjacks. But if you do, be grateful when the blackjacks turn up and dont try to push the pace by doubling down.

Look for John Grochowski on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/7lzdt44) and Twitter (@GrochowskiJ).

Gaming mailbag - Press of Atlantic City

Skill vs Luck When Playing Slots – Are Slots Really Just Luck? – BestUSCasinos.org

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Slot machines arent the most strategic games in the casino. You can enjoy slots with ease regardless of your gambling experience.

You merely need to select the spin button to play. Therefore, you may feel that theres absolutely no skill to slot machines and your results are attributed to mere chance.

But are slot machines really just dumb luck? Or do they contain some form of skill that allows you to win more money than average player?

This guide answers these questions by covering the amount or lack of skill in slots and what you can do to boost your odds. It also discusses whether or not slot machines are worthwhile to skilled gamblers.

Blackjack is quite possibly the most strategic game in the casino. Every decision you make can impact the house edge and your chances of winning.

Therefore, you definitely want to study basic blackjack strategy before playing. After all, you have a stronger chance to win when you know how to make the correct decisions.

On a luck scale from blackjack to flipping a coin, slot machines lean more towards the latter. They dont involve a large degree of skill.

Once you push the spin button, youre leaving the rest up to fate. Everything from that point on depends upon the games odds, volatility, and return to player (RTP).

Slots do feature skill (covered later) that can affect your odds. Largely speaking, though, theyre one of the least strategy based games in the casino.

Slots arent full of strategy like blackjack and certain other casino games. However, they do feature some degree of skill.

Everything that you can control revolves around what you do before playing. Specifically, you want to look for games that offer high return to player (RTP).

RTP refers to how much a slot pays back in the long term. If a game features 97% RTP, then it will pay back $97 on every $100 wagered.

However, RTP is a figure thats not realized until after millions of spins. Just because you choose a game with 97% payback versus one with 94%, youre not necessarily going to win more money in the current session.

The key, though, is to continue choosing games that feature high payout percentages. If you routinely play high-paying games, then you have a stronger chance to win over time.

You should also be mindful of a slot machines volatility. The term volatility refers to how closely short-term results correlate with a statistical mean. Some developers actually offer a volatility rating so that you can see what type of game youre dealing with.

High volatility indicates that youll be able to win large payouts, but your short-term winnings will vary wildly. Low volatility alludes to lower maximum wins but more consistent payouts.

Volatility doesnt impact your long-term chances of winning money. However, it can be a nice tool for helping you out with bankroll management. Assuming youre dealing with a smaller bankroll, you stand to last longer on a less volatile slot. Youll pick up more wins this way and stay in the game.

If you have lots of money to risk, then more volatile slots are a fine option. Youll have the funds to wither droughts and, hopefully, win more payouts.

Slot machines dont give you the opportunity to make strategic plays and influence the results to a great degree. However, you can at least use the following steps to boost your chances of earning money.

The biggest thing you can do to improve your slots odds involves playing games with high RTP. But what exactly constitutes good payback?

Unfortunately, you wont be able to find payback figures with land-based machines. Developers give land-based casino operators a wide range of RTP options to choose from. So, they cant list specific payback in the info screen.

Luckily, you can find payout percentages for the majority of real money online slots. You simply need to navigate to the home screen and find the relevant information. Generally speaking, the average online slot offers around 96% RTP. Anything above this figure gives you a stronger chance to win money.

The Bonus Buy option allows you to automatically trigger a bonus on the next spin. You must pay a multiple of your current stake to use this feature.

For example, you might have to bet 50x your stake to use Bonus Buy. This is no small amount, but it can also lead to huge bonus wins.

You dont gain any strategic benefit at face value. However, some games see the RTP increase in the bonus round (e.g. 96% up to 97%).

In these cases, youre getting a small advantage when buying the bonus. Of course, you need to weigh whether the slight payback increase is worth risking so much money at one time.

Slot machines dont make casino bankroll management easy. They operate at a fast pace and, in some cases, feature a high house edge.

Nevertheless, you can still work out a bankroll management plan for these games. You just need to account for the right variables.

Heres an example of slots bankroll management:

Even detailed schemes can fall apart when playing slots due to the volatility. However, youre better off going in with some type of plan rather than none at all.

Coming up with a plan is only the first part of bankroll management. You also need to consider how your game and bet choices will impact your funds.

No matter how hard you look, youll always find negative-expectation slot machines. Therefore, you have to account for the fact that might lose money in any given session.

Volatility also plays a large part in how much you stand to lose in the short run. Assuming you chase the biggest prizes and most-lucrative bonuses, you risk suffering lots of short-term losses.

After all, a good portion of the payback will be wrapped up in huge jackpots. Games that offer these features will pay less consistently.

Slots arent the greatest games if you love using strategy to boost your chances of winning. They dont give you much of an opportunity to employ skill.

The biggest thing that you can do to win more money with slots involves consistently choosing games that feature high RTP. You may not benefit from this strategy in the beginning, but youll eventually make more money over time.

Higher payout percentages mean more winnings in the long run. You can find plenty of online slots that feature favorable RTP.

Assuming you want the absolute most out of slots, you can sometimes get an extra RTP boost through the Bonus Buy option. Buy bonus raises payback when the feature offers higher RTP than the base game. You can check the pay table to find out if this is the case.

You should also consider the volatility of a slot before playing. High-volatility games may offer larger jackpots and more bonus games, but they also pay less consistently.

Finally, you can develop a solid bankroll management plan and stick to it. Assuming you effectively manage your bankroll, you stand a better chance of earning profits.

Slots dont give you a large degree of influence the results. They mainly involve pushing the spin button and letting the programmed mathematics handle everything else.

You do have some measure of control, though, over the results. As long as you keep picking games with high RTP, then you can boost your long-term chances of winning.

You should also think about the volatility of slots and dedicate some time to bankroll management. In combination, these two steps will help you last longer on the reels.

In summary, you dont have a lot of options for influencing slots results. But you should definitely take advantage of whatever means you do have.

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Skill vs Luck When Playing Slots - Are Slots Really Just Luck? - BestUSCasinos.org

What You Need To Know About The Alt-Right Movement : NPR

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Danzig

Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-proclaimed leader of the movement, co-wrote a manifesto of sorts about what the alt-right believes. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-proclaimed leader of the movement, co-wrote a manifesto of sorts about what the alt-right believes.

The presidential candidates this week accused one another of racism and bigotry, with Hillary Clinton arguing that Donald Trump's rhetoric and policies are an invitation to the "alt-right" movement.

"This is not conservatism as we have known it," the Democratic nominee said on Thursday during a speech in Reno, Nev. "This is not Republicanism as we have known it. These are racist ideas. These are race-baiting ideas. Anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-women ideas all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the 'alt-right.'"

So what, exactly, is the "alt-right"?

The views of the alt-right are widely seen as anti-Semitic and white supremacist.

It is mostly an online movement that uses websites, chat boards, social media and memes to spread its message. (Remember the Star of David image that Trump received criticism for retweeting? That reportedly first appeared on an alt-right message board.)

Most of its members are young white men who see themselves first and foremost as champions of their own demographic. However, apart from their allegiance to their "tribe," as they call it, their greatest points of unity lie in what they are against: multiculturalism, immigration, feminism and, above all, political correctness.

"They see political correctness really as the greatest threat to their liberty," Nicole Hemmer, University of Virginia professor and author of a forthcoming book Messengers of the Right, explained on Morning Edition.

"So, they believe saying racist or anti-Semitic things it's is not an act of hate, but an act of freedom," she said.

For that reason, as well as for fun and notoriety, alt-righters like to troll, prank and provoke.

One of their favorite slams is to label someone a "cukservative," loosely translated by the Daily Caller as a cuckolded conservative, or "race traitor" who has surrendered his masculinity.

How does the alt-right movement differ from what we think of as traditional conservatism?

The movement's origins are traced to many conservatives' opposition to the policies of President George W. Bush, especially the U.S. invasion of Iraq (alt-righters are strictly isolationist).

They are also suspicious of free markets, a key tenet of conservatism, as they believe that business interests can often be in conflict with what they view as higher ideals those of cultural preservation and homogeneity.

Two self-proclaimed leaders of the alt-right movement Breitbart's Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos recently outlined a manifesto of sorts for what the group believes and who their allies are and are not. It claimed that "beltway conservatives" hate alt-right adherents even more "than Democrats or loopy progressives."

They see themselves, rather, as "natural conservatives," with an "instinctive wariness of the foreign and the unfamiliar," Bokhari and Yiannopoulos wrote.

What is Trump's connection to the alt-right?

Last week, the GOP presidential nominee announced that Stephen Bannon, chairman of Breitbart News Network, which Bannon has called "the platform for the alt-right," would be his campaign's new chief executive.

"By putting Brietbart front and center in his campaign," said Hemmer, "Trump has elevated the alt-right."

But Hemmer suspects that Trump and all but a small fraction of his supporters do not pledge allegiance to the alt-right movement.

Yet, the movement has embraced Trump.

"I think they are attracted to Trump [and] see him as a vessel for getting their ideas out there," Hemmer said.

Clinton is likely to continue drawing a link between Trump and the alt-right in the minds of voters.

"She's reminding those undecided voters that whatever the new moderate face of Donald Trump might be, there are the things he has said and here are the implications of the things he said and the people who he's brought into his campaign," Hemmer said.

How do alt-right leaders feel about Clinton's statements?

They seem to be loving the attention. As Michelle Goldberg wrote in Slate:

"The white nationalist Richard Spencer was on vacation in Japan when he learned that Hillary Clinton was planning to give a speech about Donald Trump's ties to the so-called alt right, and he was thrilled. 'It's hugely significant,' Spencer told me by Skype from Kyoto. 'When a presidential candidate and indeed the presidential candidate who is leading in most polls talks about your movement directly, I think you can safely say that you've made it.' "

What You Need To Know About The Alt-Right Movement : NPR

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