Fact and fiction – Telegraph India

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The world of social media has, in recent times, seen a deluge of extreme instances of freedom of expression. This has given rise to the need for fact-checking to distinguish facts from false information. However, if J.S. Mill did not allow even the majority to delimit an individuals freedom of expression to avoid the tyranny of the majority how can facts be called on to delimit it? More importantly, is fact-checking of free expression internal or external to liberalism? I would like to argue that it is indeed intrinsic. If that is so, why was this not factored in earlier but is being considered only now? The answer to this lies in the huge chasm between studying liberalism and living it in our daily lives. Many users of liberalism have not read much on the subject. The lack of knowledge is an orthodox trait that is opposed to modernity. Nevertheless, this trait has somehow crept into liberalism.

Those who practise religion may not know much about it; those who claim to be followers of Marxism may not have actually read Marx; and those who use liberal ideas may not have read Mill. Now ignorance in a religious worshipper may be pardonable; but it cannot be an excuse for the last two segments as they belong to modernity. To understand this conflict between the philosophy and its practical use, we need to revisit liberalism.

Liberalism highlights the importance of the freedom of expression. But this freedom itself can push liberalism towards an extreme form of subjectivism, as is being increasingly seen on social media. Do I, for instance, have the right to express a statement that is not a fact? Let us consider the claim of Donald Trump regarding his conversation with Narendra Modi on Indias military stand-off with China a claim that was proved to be patently false. Do I have a right to express my ideas freely even if they go against objective facts? If the answer is yes, then my unfettered freedom can lead to an extreme form of subjectivism, similar to the instances seen on social media. If the answer is no, then I am being denied my freedom. This leads to the possibility of an eventual breaking apart of freedom and objectivity. The alarming consequences of this should compel us to take help of objective facts and circumvent the negative aspects of the freedom of expression.

Mill, it must be admitted, is a votary of individual freedom and objectivism, as is evident in his book,A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive. These are two important aspects of liberalism. This saved him from lapsing into extreme subjectivism. Not recognizing this has led to recent distortions of liberalism in social media and on television. There is a variance between the modern uses of freedom and dissent and those by Mill. Many modern users of freedom strongly hold their belief to be true; consequently, they learn nothing from the opposite view. In contrast, modernity liberalism in particular rejects the very idea of ultimate truth and highlights the importance of objective inquiry. In fact, it did so even before Mill. Rousseau begins his famous book,The Social Contract, thus; I mean to inquire... Modernity, notably modern science, rejected Greek metaphysics and Christian theology for disregarding the importance of objective inquiry. They placed science at the altar of unverifiable beliefs, privileging universal truths like god, which are not, and cannot be, verified. Blind adherence to authority and beliefs not based on evidence rendered them static.

In contrast, modernity set out methods and procedures to rigorously ascertain objectivity and continuously work to falsify them. The programme of verificationism set by the Vienna Circle and the falsification principle proposed by Karl Popper are two sides of the same coin. They sought to establish facts that are objective and invariant. They institutionalized dissent and established that legitimate dissent is rewarded rather than punished. The burning alive of Giordano Bruno for supporting the Copernicus theory and the persecution of Galileo were behind this liberal initiative. Unlike the unquestioning acceptance of authority that was rewarded in classical times, it is disagreement supported by evidence that is encouraged in modern times. This institutional validity to critique current views upheld by liberalism is the result of the sacrifices of many who fought against traditional authority.

Liberalism advocates individual freedom of expression not because individuals always uphold the truth but because there is a possibility that there may be a grain of truth in what they have to say, which might disprove an existing theory. Proven validity of a dissenters view is not accepted as an eternal truth. The view is accepted only till it is proved to be false or incorrect or is limited by another theory. Meanwhile, the job of the community is to constantly either verify or falsify existing theories. This ensures that no theory is considered universally true. It also ensures the continuous exercising of objectivity. According to this reading of liberalism, the purpose of dissent or freedom of expression is not to aggrandize the individuals view and assign a truth value to it, but to continually improve on the objectivity of tentative truths.

Let us compare this liberal position to the contemporary uses of freedom of expression, particularly in the public domain of politics, television or social media. How many people in these spheres today accept that their views may not be true? Do we find any openness towards others point of view? Is there a willingness to learn by way of inquiry, or merely a desire to reinforce their pre-existing views? More importantly, is there any change in the nature and status of their view before the discussion and after? The presence or absence of change indicates whether there has been any growth of knowledge a core provision of liberalism. The lack of willingness to question and learn will only lead to the abuse of sophisticated technological services like social media, making a mockery of the achievements of the brilliant scientists who made these available to us. In the midst of this rampant misuse, the ghosts of Bruno and Galileo might walk into TV newsrooms like Guru Dutt inPyaasaand lisp the reverberating lines of Sahir Ludhianvi in S.D. Burmans composition Jala do isey phoonk daalo yeh vignan Mere saamne se hata lo yeh vignan yeh vignan agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai.

The author teaches philosophy at the Indian Institute of Technology, Tirupati

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Fact and fiction - Telegraph India

Liberal elite wouldnt know proper art if it smacked them in the face, says LEO McKINSTRY – Daily Express

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Nothing embodies this spirit of cultural and ethical vandalism more than their embrace of pretentious modern art. They set themselves up as the arbiters of taste, yet they have no standards, no appreciation of beauty, no respect for craft. Their puerile desire to shock is matched by the malignant impulse to celebrate the vulgar and vacuous.

A disturbing example of this attitude lies in the choice of the latest new artistic object to fill the empty fourth plinth in Londons Trafalgar Square.

Given that this is one of the most famous sites in the world, dominated by the majesty of Nelsons column and the classical grandeur of the National Gallery, the chosen sculpture should have been something inspiring.

Instead, it is predictably degrading.

In a move that resembles a sick joke rather than a considered decision, the commissioning body for the plinth opted for a giant representation of a swirl of whipped cream, complete with a cherry on top, a drone on one side and a fly on the other.

If this is the best that British artists can produce, then British art is lost. It is cold, mechanical, conceptual bull****

Labour Minister Kim Howells on the Turner Prize

Unveiled last week, this nine-feet tall frivolous piece of tat could hardly be in greater contrast to the magnificence of either Nelsons statute by Edward Hodges Baily or the four great bronze lions at the column's base, by Sir Edwin Landseer.

Mind you, those sublime works must have grown used to the parade of mediocrity that has filled the fourth plinth in recent years, including a blue cockerel and a human hand with an elongated thumb.

This latest depressing effort is by the artist Heather Phillipson, who, like so many of the avante-garde, is indifferent to the richness of Britain's past.

"I only knew Trafalgar Square from protests," she said in a recent interview, during which, typically, she wore anti-Tory badges.

With equal inevitability, she says the work was driven by a feeling of doom provoked in 2016 by Brexit and the election of Donald Trump.

"We've been at a point of some kind of entropy for some time", she claimed portentously.

So much modern art represents a two-fingered salute to the mainstream public by privileged insiders and their cheerleading critics.

Indeed, art is hardly the word for this drivel, which requires no real skill to make and has no aesthetic merit.

Only a movement without integrity would honour works like Tracey Emins unmade bed or Martin Creed's Number 227, which comprises a room where the lights go on and off every five minutes.

Some fashionable offerings are wilfully offensive, like Chris Olifi's "hip-hop" portrait of the Holy Virgin Mary, made with elephant dung and cuttings from pornographic magazines.

In 2002, the brave Labour Minister Kim Howells said of the Turner Prize show, "If this is the best that British artists can produce, then British art is lost. It is cold, mechanical, conceptual bull****."

Those words have even more resonance today, as the arts sink ever deeper into the mire of self-indulgent crassness.

And this is where the western canon has ended up.

Europe once produced Da Vinci and Monet, Britain Turner and Constable.

Now, the British arts establishment revels in whipped cream, vomit and Marxist gyrations.

If a society can be judged by the art it leaves behind, then we are living in a truly decadent age.

That decadence incorporates an obsession with modernity and a determination to re-write the past.

Brimming with misplaced superiority, the elitists treat our heritage, not with any reverence, but as a vehicle for their own virtue-signalling propaganda.

That is why they want to pull down statues, demolish period buildings, "decolonise" the school curriculum and remove works of arts.

The little known Left-wing writer Afua Hirsch even called for Nelson's column to be torn down on the grounds that the great admiral was "a white supremacist."

Similarly, Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy recently demanded that several epic murals be removed from the Foreign Office in Whitehall because of their imperialist imagery.

This sort of nonsense has to be resisted.

The architecture, sculpture and visual art that survive from previous centuries are far better than today's embarrassing, fraudulent output.

The cream on the fourth plinth is an unappetising symbol of decline.

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Liberal elite wouldnt know proper art if it smacked them in the face, says LEO McKINSTRY - Daily Express

John Abbott or Andrew Furey to be named Liberal Party leader – CBC.ca

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After many months of campaigning, debating and a delaydue to COVID-19, either John Abbott or Andrew Furey will become Newfoundland and Labrador's new Liberal Party leader Monday night and the province's premier-designate.

It started in February with outgoing Premier Dwight Ball dropping a bombshell announcement of his resignation from the post.

Ball's announcement came amid growing scandals within his caucus such as former Municipal Affairs and Environment Minister Perry Trimper'sinadvertent "very racist"voicemail to Innu Nation stafferDominic Rich, the hiring of Carla Foote without competition to a top job at The Rooms and subsequent investigation into then-Tourism Minister Christopher Mitchelmore's involvement, the hiring ofGordon McIntoshto a $350,000 contract with Nalcor Energy also without competition and thesaga of a harassment claimset forth by then cabinet Minister Sherry Gambin-Walsh which saw the removal ofthen-Liberal MHA Eddie Joyce and cabinet minister Dale Kirby.

Ball was first elected as premier in 2015, and re-elected in 2019.

But either Abbott or Furey will also inherit other problems, such as the province's troubling financial situation, which has since worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing push to bring theMuskrat Falls hydroelectric project online.

The race for a new Liberal leader began shortly after Ball's resignation in February.Abbott was the first to declare his candidacy for leadership, with Fureyentering the ring not long after.

The whole process came to a halt in late March amid a wave of pandemic-related closures, before starting back up in early June.

Abbott, who is CEO of the Newfoundland and Labrador branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, has experience in the public sphere after workingtwo stints as deputy minister of health under Ball andformer premier Danny Williams. He hasnever run for public office before this race.

Fureycomes from afamily of long-time politicians. His father, George Furey, is the speaker of the Senate. Furey's uncle,Chuck Furey, is a former provincial cabinet minister.

But the younger Furey, too, has never run for office until now. Anorthopedic surgeon, he founded thehumanitarian group Team Broken Earthand co-founded the Dollar A Day Foundation.

Over the course of the race, Abbott remained on the attack, twice raisingconcerns abouthowFureyformed his contactlist, a list that resulted in a convicted murderer getting an invitation to Furey's campaign launch.

The two men also went to battle over health care, with FureyaccusingAbbott of not doing enough to fix the system while he held hissenior position ingovernment.

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John Abbott or Andrew Furey to be named Liberal Party leader - CBC.ca

Twilight of the Liberal Right – The New York Times

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Anne Applebaums new book, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism, begins cinematically, with a party she threw at a Polish manor house to mark the dawn of the new millennium.

Applebaums husband was then the deputy foreign minister in Polands center-right government; she was a right-leaning journalist who would go on to write a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Soviet gulag. Many of the guests came from the cosmopolitan anti-Communist intelligentsia. About half of them, she writes, no longer speak to the other half.

In Twilight of Democracy, Applebaum tries to understand why so many of her old friends conservatives who once fancied themselves champions of democracy and classical liberalism have become paranoid right-wing populists. Were some of our friends always closet authoritarians? she asks. Or have the people with whom we clinked glasses in the first minutes of the new millennium somehow changed over the subsequent two decades?

To Applebaum, todays right, in both America and Europe, has little in common with most of the political movements that have been so described since the Second World War. Until recently, she writes, the right was dedicated not just to representative democracy, but to religious tolerance, independent judiciaries, free press and speech, economic integration, international institutions, the trans-Atlantic alliance and a political idea of the West. What happened?

Like Applebaum, Im astonished to see erstwhile Cold Warriors abase themselves before Vladimir Putin. But I think shes working from a mistaken premise about what once constituted conservatism. Liberal democracy per se was never the animating passion of the trans-Atlantic right anti-Communism was. When the threat of Communist expansion disappeared, so did most of the rights commitment to a set of values that, its now evident, were purely instrumental.

Reading Applebaums book, I kept thinking of an infamous 1981 interview given by the Republican campaign consultant Lee Atwater. In the 1950s, Atwater said, Southern conservatives would just repeat a vile racial slur. By 1968, that hurts you, backfires, he said. So you say stuff like forced busing, states rights, and all that stuff. From there, right-wing politics grew even more abstract, so now youre talking about cutting taxes, and all these things youre talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites, he said.

There were always some American conservatives who really were in it for laissez-faire economics. But its now clear that those conservatives were wrong about their movements animating passion. So too with those on the center-right who thought their comrades were opposed to authoritarianism on principle.

Back when the idea of a President Trump still seemed an absurdist impossibility, the political theorist Corey Robin wrote, in his 2011 book The Reactionary Mind, about the recurring argument that conservatism had slipped its sober mooring to become populist and radical.

He saw this as a misunderstanding of the right. In his view, reaction has always had a revolutionary edge. Conservatism, he wrote, seeks to make privilege popular, to transform a tottering old regime into a dynamic, ideologically coherent movement of the masses. Seen this way, corrupt autocratic populists like Trump and Viktor Orban of Hungary fit quite neatly into the tradition Applebaum was once part of.

In her book, Applebaum explores the purported ideological evolution of the Fox News host and Trump sycophant Laura Ingraham, an anti-immigrant demagogue who has three adopted immigrant children. In the 1990s, Applebaum associated Ingraham with a kind of post-Cold War optimism, an American conservatism that was energetic, reformist and generous.

But its hard to see what was ever reformist, never mind generous, about Ingraham. She first came to public notice as the editor of a conservative college newspaper who sent an undercover reporter to a meeting of a gay student group and published attendees intimate revelations.

Many adults, of course, transcend their college selves, but Ingraham never seemed to. It was 2003, not 2016, that Ingraham complained about police departments, hospitals, courts, schools and government agencies that now prefer hiring multilingual employees owing to the number of illegal and non-English-speaking immigrants in the community. Her conversion to Trumpism doesnt require much explanation.

Im genuinely grateful for the moral courage and concrete political work of anti-Trump conservatives. It cant be easy to break with the politics and the people that have defined ones life. Im aware, too, that the left has its own ingrained pathologies; Applebaums center-right views were shaped by the lived reality of Soviet Communism.

Twilight of Democracy is certainly worth reading. Applebaum has a keen understanding of how conspiracism and corruption intertwine to suffocate democracy. Her description of Polands Law and Justice government, which has put a fantasy at the heart of government policy, helps illuminate the role Trumps obsession with the deep state has played in our own rolling catastrophe.

But theres no mystery in the rights surrender to authoritarianism, because for many of the people Applebaum describes, it wasnt a surrender at all. It was a liberation.

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Twilight of the Liberal Right - The New York Times

Liberals and progressives – The Recorder

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Published: 7/31/2020 11:26:40 AM

In his book, Bias, former CBS news reporter Bernard Goldberg claims that there is a liberal bias in the national news media. He writes The bias Im talking about, by the way, isnt so much political bias of the Democratic-versus-Republican sort. For me that isnt the real problem. The problem comes in the big social and cultural issues abortion, gun control, feminism ,gay rights, the environment, school prayer.

Nowhere in his list do any of the economic and financial struggles of the poor, the near-poor, the lower classes, and the middle classes appear.

He is among a number of conservatives who seem to suggest that the liberals of the 1960s were primarily concerned with the bread-and-butter issues of survival of these groups as well as with expanding the social safety-net federal government programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps), while the progressives of 2020 seem to be primarily concerned with the social, identity-politics and culture-wars issues.

To the extent that this is accurate. You can put me down as siding more with the liberals of the 1960s than with the progressives of 2020.

(This letter to the editor is dedicated to the Suffragist Alice Paul.)

Stewart B. Epstein

Rochester, N.Y.

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Liberals and progressives - The Recorder

Independents out, Liberal and Labor in, as Huon and Rosevears voters have their say – ABC News

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Tasmania's Upper House appears set to be dominated by the major parties for the first time in its history, with new faces looking likely to enter the state's Parliament from the divisions of both Huon and Rosevears.

After a campaign prolonged by the coronavirus pandemic, voters have finally had their say on representation in the Legislative Council seats of Huon, south of Hobart, and Rosevears along the West Tamar in Tasmania's north.

In Rosevears, Liberal candidate Jo Palmer and independent Janie Finlay a former Launceston Mayor were virtually neck-and-neck throughout early counting, before strong performances in Legana and Riverside booths helped push former newsreader Ms Palmer ahead.

Ms Palmer was on 41 per cent of first preference votes at the close of counting on Saturday night, and Ms Finlay behind on 30 per cent, with 63 per cent of votes counted.

The other four candidates in Rosevears all remained in single digits.

In Huon, Labor candidate Bastian Seidel led the counting all night, polling 31 per cent of first preference votes, with 64 per cent of votes counted.

The incumbent, conservative independent Robert Armstrong, overtook Greens candidate Pat Caruana on postal votes to finish the night in second place with 19 per cent, ahead of Mr Caruana's 17 per cent.

Electoral analyst Kevin Bonham posted on his Twitter feed at 1:00am "called. Huon ALP gain".

Earlier, Professor Bonham said it would be "very difficult for the candidates in second place, which is now Finlay and Robert Armstrong in Huon, it's very difficult for them to get up from here".

If the final result is as predicted, there will be no significant change in the make-up of the Legislative Council in terms of progressives and conservatives.

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Dr Seidel would replace the conservative Mr Armstrong for Labor in Huon, but retired progressive Kerry Finch would be replaced by Jo Palmer for the Liberals.

It would also be the first time in its history that party members have outnumbered independents in the Legislative Council, with both Labor and the Liberals adding new members over the past few years.

Labor would end up with five members in the Upper House, and the Liberals three.

"Party representation in the Legislative Council as a percentage was already at an all-time high even before this election, so if the parties win both these seats it will go up to eight out of 15 which will be a majority for the first time," Dr Bonham said earlier on Saturday night.

"It will also be the highest number of party members in the council at one time, there was a time in the old Legislative Council with 19 seats where there were seven party members in."

Final results may not be known until after postal votes close on Tuesday, August 11.

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Independents out, Liberal and Labor in, as Huon and Rosevears voters have their say - ABC News

Liberal media blurs costs and destruction of ongoing Black Lives Matter/Antifa race riots – Washington Times

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ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The Chinese Communist coronavirus isnt the only epidemic in the land.

Americas news media are suffering mass amnesia, stuffing down a memory hole the extent of destruction from the ongoing Black Lives Matter/Antifa race riots.

Apart from lots of happy stories depicting the whole country kneeling to the BLMs anti-White, Marxist demands, you wont see much about the real costs.

Its gotten so bad that Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, unleashed an eight-minute video during a House committee meeting that was grilling Attorney General William P. Barr last Tuesday.

The video begins with a mashup of a dozen or so reporters and politicians repeating the phrase peaceful protests or peaceful protesters followed by riot footage. The next portion features the widow of slain St. Louis retired police Capt. David Dorn, a father of five who was killed while responding to an alarm at a pawnshop. As she speaks, scenes of mob violence unfold.

The effect is devastating. Which is why the video has come under attack. CNNs Jake Tapper drew some blood, showing that two CNN reporters who use the phrase peaceful protests are taken out of context. Hes right. Both reporters note that while the daytime protests they were covering were peaceful, they were followed by nighttime violence. That part was omitted. Welcome to what happens to conservatives when theyre interviewed by Mr. Tappers network.

But two wrongs dont make a right, and well give you this one, Jake. You had the guts to report how similar editing created the colossal lie that President Trump praised White supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, even though he unequivocally condemned them.

However, Mr. Tapper does not dent the Jordan videos powerful message. Extreme media bias pervades riot coverage and political stories. Just Google Trump. The media are really good at covering up what they dont want known. Theyve sugar-coated abortion for decades while serving up the party line about choice. Theyve played down horrific Black-on-Black urban violence, focusing instead on a handful of police brutality cases. Theyre doing the same with the current riots.

If it bleeds, it leads isnt in force now. If Americans actually saw the extent of lawlessness in Democrat-run cities, they might realize whos responsible.

Given the Democrats wink and a nod to the rioters while defunding police, its not a reach to describe BLM/Antifa as the militant wing of the Democratic Party. Those are not Young Republicans out smashing windows, looting stores, burning buildings, beating up people and overturning police cars.

Ive searched in vain for news about the riots overall cost. The media seem profoundly incurious. How many people have been killed? How many police officers have been injured or died? How many businesses have been destroyed? How much will it cost to fix everything thats been broken?

Theres anecdotal evidence. Between May 25 and June 8, at least 17 people were killed in what the media call unrest. More than 700 law enforcers were injured by early June.

Property damage has run into the billions, and were not done yet. Portland continues to simmer, and cities explode nightly, like Richmond this past week.

Looters have struck at least 250 CVS pharmacies and 350 Walgreens nationwide, according to an insurance website. Crime is out of control in several major cities, with Chicago enduring double-digit murder numbers on weekends. In Los Angeles, Democrats plan to cut the police budget by more than $100 million despite homicides rising by 250% in early June.

Since we dont have reliable, comprehensive data, lets go to the nations largest city for a snapshot.

New York Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio has cut $1 billion from the NYPD budget and disbanded the 600-member plainclothes police unit. Between June 1 and June 30, shootings increased by 130% over June 2019. Murders rose by more than 30%, burglaries increased by 118% and auto thefts rose by 52%.

As for New Yorks finest you know, the guys in blue who ran into the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks, most of whom never came out here are some of their costs.

Since May 28, a total of 458 officers of all ranks have been injured, according to spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Frances ODonnell. Seven officers were admitted to the hospital, 303 were treated and released from the hospital, five were treated by EMS and 150 refused medical attention. Forty-seven officers remain out sick due to their injuries.

From May 28 to July 22, 303 NYPD vehicles have been vandalized during the protests, she reported in an email, adding that, 14 vehicles were a total loss due to arson and condemned.

The damage so far is estimated at $996,700.Thats just for the department.

The NYPD has seen a surge in the number of officers filing for retirement, said Sgt. ODonnell.

Well, why not? When you work for a mayor who hates your guts and the media treat you as the bad guys, why risk your life?

As for the rest of us, just because the media have amnesia, we shouldnt forget the real costs of the Democrats experiment in street justice.

Or the ongoing sacrifices of the thin blue line.

Robert Knight is a contributor to The Washington Times. His website is robertHknight.com.

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Liberal media blurs costs and destruction of ongoing Black Lives Matter/Antifa race riots - Washington Times

Crimes and Misdemeanors | Issue 139 – Philosophy Now

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I remember my father telling me, The eyes of God are on us always. The eyes of God. What a phrase to a young boy. What were Gods eyes like? Unimaginably penetrating, intense eyes, I assumed. And I wonder if it was just a coincidence that I made my specialty ophthalmology. Judah (in Crimes and Misdemeanors)

O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you not ashamed of this? Socrates (in Platos Apology)

Since the mid-Sixties, Woody Allen has graced our screens with humorous, quirky films. From his oeuvre of more than sixty movies, one in particular stands out as a philosophical masterpiece. Crimes and Misdemeanors was released in 1989, but the question it poses is as old as the hills: whether living an ethical life is worthwhile in itself. The higher the cost of doing the right thing (or avoiding doing the wrong thing), the harder the choice. Allen addresses this conflict between egoism and altruism by drawing a realistic character who is forced into a dilemma between protecting his happiness and reputation through committing an evil deed, or renouncing the evil deed, knowing that this will cost him his social status and happiness.

In a sense, even to ask the question Why should I be moral? presupposes an amoral, self-interested outlook, since asking Whats in it for me? totally negates the idea that virtue might be its own reward and discounts any motive other than a selfish one. Intuitively it seems that anyone who has to ask what he will get in return for a good deed is probably not a virtuous person, since the question itself presupposes that a self-interested calculation of reward is the only motivator. If push comes to shove, in a dilemma between his own interests and the interests of others, the egoist will always look out for Number One. An ethical life, if it is to be distinguished from selfishness which seems the opposite of an ethical life must involve altruism performed from a genuine regard for ones fellow human beings.

Yet, it still seems to make sense to ask how being good benefits us. If there is no benefit to being good, then moral rules are unfounded and would appear altogether unreasonable. Crimes and Misdemeanors wrestles with this paradox, in ways redolent of ancient Greek attempts to deal with situations in which there was a conflict between moral duty and self-interest.

In Book II of Platos Republic, an affluent Athenian called Glaucon attacks Socrates view that justice is intrinsically preferable to injustice. On Glaucons view, justice is nothing but a social convention that arises from human weakness and vulnerability: since we can all suffer from injustice, we make an implicit social contract to be decent towards one another. We only allow these constraints on our freedom because we know we would stand to suffer even greater losses in their absence. He argues that justice is not something practiced for its own sake, but is something one engages in out of fear and weakness, or prudence. He claims that most persons act justly not because they think its better to do so but really because they lack the power to act unjustly with impunity.

To illustrate his point, Glaucon tells the story of Gyges the Lydian, who discovered a ring with magical powers that allowed him to be invisible on command. Possessing the ring gave Gyges the power to commit injustices with complete impunity. He exploited its powers to the full, seducing the queen, killing the king and seizing the throne. Glaucon concludes his story by claiming that anyone in possession of such powers would be a fool not to use them, and that the only reason anyone would pretend to disagree with this is for the appearance of social respectability. Given the magic ring, not even the most ardent moral idealist would be able to resist the temptation to use it to their advantage.

Socrates takes exception to this outlook and tries to refute it. He wants to demonstrate that the supreme object of a mans efforts, in public and private life, must be the reality of goodness rather than its mere appearance .

Socrates main adversaries to this point-of-view were the Sophists. These teachers of rhetoric were the ancient Greek counterparts to modern-day marketing experts and spin-doctors. They specialized in the art of persuasion, and their aim was to win public favour for their client, irrespective of whether this was beneficial or harmful. To Socrates, their skill consisted largely in making the worse cause appear the better.

Platos Gorgias provides what is probably the clearest attempt by Socrates to answer the Sophists opposition of nature and law. Callicles is Socrates third and final opponent in this dialogue. He refuses to grant Socrates premise, that doing wrong is more base than suffering wrong. Callicles claims that Socrates has erred in assuming that the ethical truth is consistent with conventional social rules. In reality, he says natures laws of survival and self-protection are superior to man-made principles. Laws encoding justice and fairness are inconsistent with natures laws, even if Socrates previous two opponents were ashamed to say so.

Against this cynical view, Socrates argues that power and influence gained by unjust means would be hollow, for they would not bring true fulfilment to those who possess them. The bearer of advantages so gained could never view them as his own achievements, and, even if he could fool others, would know that they were not deserved. While the man whose achievements were gained via deception might enjoy material rewards and a good reputation, these would only serve to mask an interior disharmony, a sickness of the soul.

There is no better modern cinematic illustration of Socrates argument than Allens Crimes and Misdemeanors. Allen uses the predicament of Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau), a successful and happily married ophthalmologist, to bring the issues into focus, offering viewers an opportunity to consider whether or not Socrates is correct. Does injustice pay only hollow rewards? Allen revisited these themes again in his 2005 psychological thriller, Match Point, but Crimes and Misdemeanors remains his most elegant and enduring exploration of these questions first posed in Platos dialogues.

Having engaged in a long-term extra-marital affair, Judahs somewhat neurotic mistress, Dolores (Angelica Houston), has grown weary of being sidelined and now wants him to fulfil past promises made to her by leaving his wife. From the start of the film we find Judah struggling to keep a lid on the situation calmly at first, then desperately while Dolores persistently threatens to expose the affair, as well as some of Judahs financial misdeeds. From an ordinary perspective, Judah stands to lose everything his marriage, the love and respect of his wife and family, his financial comfort, his hard-earned prestige as a medical professional, and his domestic bliss.

At the height of his crisis, Judah confides in a close family friend, the rabbi Ben (Sam Waterston). Ben says he couldnt live if he didnt think there were some sort of a moral structure and genuine forgiveness. He advises Judah to confess the wrong to his wife Miriam (Claire Bloom) and hope for forgiveness from her. Judah cannot imagine that Miriam could forgive him, and admits that he cant bear the thought of the consequences for himself, as well as for Miriams pride. Eventually Judahs desperation leads him to call his brother Jack (Jerry Orbach), who has a history of dirty business, such as eliminating unwanted nuisances.

Like Socrates interlocutors Glaucon and Callicles, Jack has a hard-nosed approach to life. He defines real life in terms of sheer power over others, and real men know how to wield it when necessary. The only plane of existence he acknowledges is the pragmatic: the world where forgiveness and justice belong to those who have the political or physical power to dispense them. Abstract notions of moral duty or personal integrity are irrelevant.

In a moment of particularly poignant bad faith, Judah adopts Jacks outlook to rationalize his decision to hire a hit man to eliminate his mistress and the threat she poses to his comfortable lifestyle.

However, having gone through with the murderous deed, Judah is then plagued by guilt. Not convinced by his own rationalization, he begins to have deep misgivings, even to the extent that he questions his atheism.

In a nostalgic reverie, we are transported back in time to Judahs childhood memory of a dinner table conversation between his father, a rabbi, and his aunt, a cynical teacher who insists that this world is governed by might makes right. To bolster her argument, she cites the Nazi mass murderers who escaped justice and went on to live contented lives free of punishment or hardship. Her brother balks at the suggestion that there is no over-arching moral authority, and insists that those who do wrong will pay, whether in this life or the next.

His appeal is to a metaphysical realm beyond the conventions of human laws and their imperfect dispensation of justice. Judah is left wondering which of his relatives is right, The answer has huge implications for his own soul (if indeed there is any such thing). For a time Judah is consumed by self-doubt, to the point that he becomes alienated from his family and suffers constant anxiety and depression. He has saved his reputation and his family, but feels hollow. He is with his loved ones but feels absent at a deeper level because he has become a stranger to himself. As an escape from his bad conscience, he begins to drink unhealthy amounts of alcohol, and his once warm and buoyant demeanor is replaced by cantankerous irritability.

Alongside his fear for his soul there is the equally pressing fear that he will be found out by the police. But after a time, a drifter with a criminal record is arrested for the crime and Judahs fears of being discovered fade away. He has gotten away with murder. Allen explores the question of how a man like Judah can live with himself, knowing that he has committed a great evil.

To explore the issue of selfish and unprincipled versus unselfish and principled in more depth, Allen includes a lighter sub-plot that runs parallel to the main plot and opposes two characters with completely different values and life-goals. On one hand is Judahs brother in-law Clifford (played by Woody Allen himself), a struggling artist who makes serious documentaries about philosophical issues. Meanwhile, Cliffords other brother-in-law Lester (Alan Alda) is a hugely successful commercial television producer/director. While Lester has fame, wealth and romantic success, Clifford is unemployed, professionally unsuccessful, and unhappily married. He escapes from his troubles to the cinema with his teenage niece; but is eventually pressured by his wife to take charity from Lester in the form of directing a biographical profile documentary about Lester. As Lester pontificates arrogantly about himself in front of the camera, Clifford is forced to silently record the narcissistic ramblings of this womanizing egomaniac, while Cliffords own more worthy project about a brilliant but obscure philosophy professor remains unfunded because it lacks commercial appeal. Nevertheless, Clifford continues to pursue this project as a hobby, and also pursues an attractive producer from the crew of Lesters profile, Halley Reed (Mia Farrow). Halley herself is impressed by the more successful Lester, and begins to fall prey to his charms, much to Cliffords chagrin. Allen seems to be suggesting here that another disadvantage for the man of integrity is that women prefer successful men rather than men of moral or intellectual substance. Clifford seems to have lost everything pleasant in life by being a decent man, while his brother-in-law is a highly-rewarded sell-out who thrives on producing programming that deadens the senses of the American public.

In the final act, Allen brings the two plot threads together by having a family wedding at which Clifford and Judah find themselves alone in a room and share a quiet chat. Judah covertly confesses his crimes to Clifford by pretending theyre an idea for a movie. The ending of Judahs film sees the murderer reconciled with his deed: after much time has passed, his feelings of guilt abate, and he is able to go on with his life as normal. Clifford mulls this over and responds that he would change the ending to have the murderer confess the wrong, because in the absence of a God or something he is then forced to assume that responsibility himself, and then you have tragedy. Judah responds that thats movies and not reality echoing the Callicles and Glaucons retorts to Socrates, accusing him of promoting rarified ideals incompatible with the real world.

The film ends with a flashback voiceover by Professor Levy, the subject of Lesters documentary (who has committed suicide). An existentialist, he explains that we all make decisions throughout our lives, large and small: Man defines himself by the choices he has made. We are, in fact, the sum total of our choices, he explains. Events unfold in a manner indifferent to human happiness. As he says this we watch a montage including a clip of Mussolini, reminding us that among the events over which we have little control are the machinations of those with power; but at the same time, in the light of Professor Levys existentialism, we are able to see that these too are outcomes of human choices. Thus the movie ends on a note of hope rather than despair, because it is only us, with our capacity to love, that give meaning to the indifferent universe.

In extreme situations, such as war, individuals are forced back into the age-old Socratic dilemma: whether it is better to suffer evil or to inflict it. Ones choices could be narrowed to a terrible dichotomy between collaboration with powerful persecutors or dissent and victimisation by them. A radio interviewer once asked German philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) about exactly this type of situation. Arendt replied that Socrates had maintained that there was no proof that a man must conduct himself one way or the other. Rather, theres an existential commitment to be made and the decision one way or the other, says Arendt, is based on how we choose to live with ourselves. For Socrates, this meant not acting against his own conscience or what could be construed as his better nature. At the core of this existentialist vision is a realistic admission that the universe does not offer us an over-arching moral order, nor does it protect us. Nevertheless, we are charged with the responsibility, and the opportunity, to fashion lives for ourselves that are worthy of the freedom we uniquely possess.

Terri Murray 2020

Terri Murray is the author of Feminist Film Studies: A Teachers Guide. With a BFA degree in Film & Television Studies from New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, she has taught A-Level film studies for over 16 years.

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Crimes and Misdemeanors | Issue 139 - Philosophy Now

Astronauts back on Earth after ‘extraordinary’ Dragon test flight – Spaceflight Now

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SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecraft splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico Sunday with two NASA astronauts on-board. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Returning home after a 64-day test flight, astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken blazed through Earths atmosphere and parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Sunday, a final major step before NASA formally certifies the crew capsule for operational missions to the International Space Station.

The successful homecoming for Hurley and Behnken signaled a turning point in NASAs commercial crew program, which fostered public-private partnerships with U.S. companies to design, develop and fly new human-rated space taxis after the retirement of the space shuttle.

The astronauts launched inside SpaceXs Crew Dragon spaceship May 30, when they rode a Falcon 9 rocket into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center. The launch was the first time a crew rocketed into orbit from U.S. soil since the last space shuttle flight in 2011.

With Sundays splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, NASA is on the verge of certifying the Crew Dragon spacecraft for regular trips to and from the space station. That will allow the space agency to end its reliance on Russia for crew transportation.

This has been quite an odyssey the last, five, seven, eight years five years since Bob and I started working on this program, Hurley said after Sundays return. And to be where we are now, (with) the first crewed flight of Dragon, is just unbelievable.

Not only was Sundays splashdown a major milestone for NASA, it also made history in the realm of commercial spaceflight. The Crew Dragon became the first privately-owned spacecraft to carry a crew into orbit and return them safely to Earth.

I do think what this heralds really is fundamentally a new era in spaceflight, a new era in space exploration, said Elon Musk, SpaceXs founder and CEO, in remarks Sunday evening in Houston to welcome home Hurley and Behnken. Were going to go to the moon. Were going to have a base on the moon. Were going to send people to Mars, and make life multi-planetary.

After detaching from the International Space Station on Saturday night, the Dragon spacecraft carrying Hurley and Behnken lined up for a southwest-to-northeast approach to a splashdown zone in the Gulf around 34 miles (54 kilometers) off the Florida coast near Pensacola.

The capsule jettisoned its unpressurized trunk section with the ships solar panels and thermal control radiator just before firing a set of Draco rocket jets at 1:56 p.m. EDT (1756 GMT) for a deorbit burn lasting more than 11 minutes.

The braking burn changed the capsules velocity enough toallow Earths gravity to pull the spacecraft back into the atmosphere, which did the rest of the work to slow Dragons speed from 17,500 mph (28,000 kilometers per hour) to just 15 mph (24 kilometers per hour) for splashdown.

The spacecraft closed its nose cone a few minutes later, then encountered the uppermost fringes of the discernible atmosphere at 2:36 p.m. EDT (1836 GMT).

Wearing their white SpaceX-madeflame-resistant pressure suits, the astronauts experienced up to 4Gs during entry. The capsule flew on autopilot, pointing its blunt end into the airflow as temperatures outside the spacecraft rose up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (over 1,900 degrees Celsius).

A plasma sheath enshrouded the capsule for several minutes, causing an expected communication blackout between the Crew Dragon which Hurley and Behnken named Endeavour and SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California.

Ground teams restored the voice link with the Dragon astronauts, and a pair of drogue parachutes unfurled to stabilize the capsule. Four orange and white main parachutes deployed at an altitude of about 18,000 feet (5,500 meters) to slow the capsules descent in the last few minutes before splashdown.

The 13-foot-wide (4-meter), 16-foot-tall (5-meter) capsule splashed down at 2:48 p.m. EDT (1848 GMT).

Endeavour, on behalf of the SpaceX and NASA teams, welcome back to planet Earth, radioed SpaceXs spacecraft communicatorMike Heiman. Thanks for flying SpaceX.

It was truly our honor and privilege to fly the (first) flight of the Crew Dragon Endeavour, Hurley replied moments after splashdown. Congratulations to everybody at SpaceX.

The splashdown near Pensacola was the first time U.S. astronauts returned from a space mission with a splashdown at sea since 1975, when the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission came back to Earth. It was also the first splashdown of astronauts in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurley and Behnkens mission known as Demo-2, or DM-2 lasted 64 days since they blasted off from Floridas Space Coast on May 30.

After reaching the space station May 31, the astronauts joined the Expedition 63 led by commander Chris Cassidy.

Cassidy and his two Russian crewmates Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner will remain aboard the space station until October, when they will return to a landing in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Three fresh crew members will launch to the space station Oct. 14 on a new Soyuz spaceship.

During their two-month stay, Hurley and Behnken assisted Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner with space station duties, performing experiments and maintenance. Behnken joined Cassidy on four spacewalks in June and July to replace batteries on the space stations solar power modules.

A SpaceX recovery vessel named Go Navigator was on station in the Gulf of Mexico to retrieve the Crew Dragon spaceship after it splashed down.

Two fast boats with recovery team members approached the capsule. After ensuring the spacecraft was safe, the larger recovery boat took position near the Dragon and hoisted the capsule out of the water using a lifting frame.

Once the Dragon was on the deck of Go Navigator, SpaceX technicians detected elevated levels of nitrogen tetroxide outside the spacecraft. The compound is used as an oxidizer for the spacecrafts maneuvering thrusters, and is highly toxic.

The recovery team purged part of the spacecraft to rid it of the toxic contaminants before opening the hath and helping Hurley and Behnken out of the capsule for initialmedical checks.

SpaceX said the recovery ship had around 44 people on-board, including SpaceX and NASA officials, doctors, nurses and other medical personnel. Spacecraft technicians were aboard to recover and secure the Dragon capsule.

Hurley and Behnken later rode a helicopter to Naval Air Station Pensacola, where they boarded a NASA aircraft for the flight back to their home base in Houston.

The astronauts came back to Earth with around 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of cargo, including frozen experiment specimens, personal gear, and a U.S. flag left on the space station by the final space shuttle crew in 2011.

Hurley was the pilot on the final space shuttle flight.

The flag also flew on STS-1, the first shuttle mission, in 1981. The final shuttle crew left it on the space station to be returned by the next astronauts to fly to the research lab on a U.S. spacecraft.

In the end, SpaceX won the capture the flag competition on the high frontier.

NASA awarded multibillion-dollar contracts to develop and fly new U.S.-built commercial crew capsules to SpaceX and Boeing in 2014, following several years of preliminary design work.

SpaceX, founded by Musk 18 years ago, launched a successful unpiloted Crew Dragon demonstration flight to the space station in March 2019, then overcame a setback during ground testing of the Crew Dragons launch abort system last year. After redesigning part of the abort system, and verifying new modifications to the capsules parachutes, SpaceX launched the first Crew Dragon mission with astronauts May 30.

Boeings CST-100 Starliner crew capsule launched into orbit for its first unpiloted test flight last December, but it ran into software problems that prevented the spacecraft from reaching the space station. Boeing recovered the spacecraft with a successful landing in New Mexico, but officials plan to re-fly the uncrewed demonstration mission later this year before clearing the Starliner to carry astronauts for the first time in 2021.

SpaceX has signed contracts with NASA on the Crew Dragon program valued at more than $3 billion. Boeing has a similar set of agreements with NASA worth more than $5 billion for the Starliner program.

Both companies have contributed undisclosed sums to the Crew Dragon and Starliner programs from their own corporate funds.

NASA says contracting out human spaceflight missions to low Earth orbit will reduce costs, freeing limited government funding for astronaut journeys to the moon, and eventually Mars.

With the Crew Dragons first round-trip space mission with astronauts in the books, SpaceX and NASA will analyze data from the Demo-2 test flight before formally certifying the commercial capsule for operational crew rotation launches.

The first such regular crew rotation flight, named Crew-1, is scheduled for launch this fall on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. Four astronauts are assigned to the Crew-1 flight.

Well do a few things to get ready for certification in a few different areas, said Steve Stich, manager of NASAs commercial crew program. One, well review all the telemetry, all the data from the Dragon. Weve done that for the whole flight to date. Well do that now for undocking all the way through splashdown and recovery.

We do it jointly with SpaceX, said Stich, a former NASA flight director. We have our NASA team and SpaceX working together and going through all the data for each of the various systems life support, propulsion, and so forth. So well go through all that data to make sure that theres nothing anomalous there.

Second, well look at the parachutes, Stich said. The parachutes are a very important system on the vehicle. SpaceX was doing a great job of recovering their chutes today, so well take those back and analyze those, look at it, just to see if they performed well.

The Dragon capsule that flew Hurley and Behnken into space will fly again on the Crew-2 mission next year. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceXs president and chief operating officer, said Sunday the companys new Dragon spacecraft design which comes in crew and cargo variants should be capable of five to 10 flights.

One of the benefits of reuse, I would say, is the fact that well take some of the vehicle apart, Stich said. The nose cone will come off, the heat shield comes off, well start to inspect part of the spacecraft, and sometimes we can learn things from that.

So well do that inspection, and then well put all that together and head into the certification review, probably toward the end of this month or early next month.

Subsequent Crew Dragon missions to the space station will also launch with up to four passengers, and the spaceship once certified after Demo-2s return will be capable of missions lasting up to 210 days.

While SpaceXs core market for crew missions is with NASA and government astronauts, the company has its eyes set on flying commercial passengers. Earlier this year, SpaceX announced agreements with Axiom Space and Space Adventures, two companies that are arranging orbital expeditions with space tourists, paying passengers, and other would-be space fliers in the private sector.

One future Crew Dragon passenger could be Tom Cruise, who is planning to film a movie in orbit through a partnership with SpaceX, according to the entertainment website Deadline.

This was an extraordinary mission, an extraordinary day for NASA, for SpaceX, and frankly for Americans and anyone interested in spaceflight, Shotwell said Sunday, referring to the conclusion of the Demo-2 test flight. This is really just the beginning. We are starting the journey of bringing people regularly to and from low Earth orbit, and on to the moon, and ultimately on to Mars.

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The Vostok Program: The Soviet’s first crewed spaceflight program – Space.com

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The Vostok program was a Soviet space program project that ran from 1960 to 1963 and achieved many spectacular milestones in spaceflight, including placing the first man in space, the first woman in space, and the first joint flight of two different crewed orbiters.

Vostok took place at the beginning of the space race, a series of competitive technology demonstrations between the United States and the Soviet Union, aiming to show superiority in spaceflight during the Cold War. The USSR was largely seen to be ahead in the early days of the space race.

Russia has a long and prestigious history of thinking about human spaceflight, all the way back to the pioneering work of engineer and mathematician Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who in 1903 first derived the rocket equation, which describes the movement of spacefaring vehicles. This helped give the Soviet Union a leg up at the dawn of the Space Age.

After launching Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, in 1957, the USSR began preparations for crewed missions, which included developing the Vostok spacecraft that would carry people into space, according to Astronautix.com, a website about space history. These spacecraft were placed atop the Vostok rocket, a 98-foot (30-meter) launch vehicle slightly larger than those used in NASA's Mercury program.

Between 1960 and '61, the Soviets launched several test Vostok capsules containing dogs, some of which were killed during their missions and some of which survived and landed safely on Earth, according to Russianspaceweb.com.

Related: Laika the dog & the first animals in space

History was made on April 12, 1961 when Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space and orbit the Earth during the Vostok 1 mission. Gagarin's flight lasted a short 108 minutes, as he travelled once around our planet before reentering the atmosphere.

Because engineers were uncertain about how weightlessness would affect Gagarin, the spherical one-person Vostok capsule had little in the way of onboard controls, with most actions being coordinated by planners on the ground. In case of an emergency, Gagarin was given an override code allowing him to take manual control.

The cramped Vostok cabin was only about 8 feet (2.5 m) in diameter and made of aluminum alloy. It sported two windows: One above the cosmonaut's head in the entry hatch and one at his feet. During that first flight, the capsule contained 10 days' worth of provisions in case the engines failed and Gagarin was required to wait for the orbit to naturally decay.

The Vostok spacecraft had no real maneuvering capabilities and couldn't land on its own. After reentry, Gagarin ejected from the spacecraft about 4 miles (7 kilometers) up and parachuted to the ground, landing in a potato field and startling a farmer and her granddaughter, according to Russianspaceweb.com.

Gagarin became a national and international hero, with hundreds of thousands of people cheering him during a celebratory parade in Red Square, a public plaza in Moscow. The anniversary of his flight is commemorated as "Cosmonautics day" in Russia.

On Aug. 6, 1961, the USSR launched Vostok 2, which carried cosmonaut Gherman Titov, who became the fourth person in space after American astronauts Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom flew suborbital flights for NASA's Mercury program. Titov became the first person to stay in space for more than a day, orbiting the Earth 17.5 times over the course of 25 hours, according to the New Zealand website Daryl's Space Collection.

Titov had been Gagarin's backup pilot for Vostok 1, and Vostok 2 was his only spaceflight. After his flight, he was grounded for medical reasons as he had the unfortunate honor of being the first person to experience space sickness, having been so nauseated that he could barely eat during his mission, according to Russianspaceweb.com.

Vostok 3 and 4 was a daring double mission in which two separate spacecraft launched within a day of each other, on Aug. 11 and 12, 1962. Cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev rode on Vostok 3 and Pavel Popovichflew aboard Vostok 4.

The simultaneous spacecraft were a response to the U.S. managing to successfully orbit one of their astronauts, John Glenn, earlier that year. The Soviets decided to show their superiority by demonstrating "formation flights" in space, according to Russianspaceweb.com.

Vostok 3 launched first and was in position when Vostok 4 arrived in orbit, with the two spacecraft coming within 3 miles (5 kilometers) of one another after Vostok 4's launch. The two pilots made radio contact with one another and Popovich reported being able to see Nikolayev's ship. But without maneuvering capabilities, the two soon drifted apart, according to Astronautix.com.

Vostok 4 had problems with its life support system, and the capsule's internal temperature dropped to 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). The pilot, Popovich, still wanted to complete his mission but had been told to radio ground control and say he was "observing thunderstorms" in case he felt space-sick like Titov.

Popovich, in fact, saw thunderstorms over the Gulf of Mexico and told mission control about it, which they then mistakenly took for the secret signal. He was brought down early, landing within a few minutes of Vostok 3. Each had been up for a few days.

The final two Vostok flights were another double mission. Vostok 5 launched June 14, 1963 and Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963, and the two spacecraft once again passed within 3 miles (5 km) of one another and established radio contact, according to Astronautix.com.

Vostok 5 carried cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky, whose five-day flight remains the longest solo spaceflight in Earth orbit to this day, according to Daryl's Space Collection.

Vostok 6 set an even more impressive record, carrying the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova. The idea for a female cosmonaut came from Sergei Korolev, the chief architect of the Soviet space program.

But Korolev was unhappy with Tereshkova's performance and wouldn't allow her to take manual control of the craft, as had been planned. It took another 19 years before another woman, Svetlana Savitskaya, flew in space and more than two decades before NASA launched a female astronaut, Sally Ride.

Related: Women in space: A gallery of fights

Several other Vostok flights had been in the planning stages, including a double mission involving two women and much longer solo flights, according to Astronautix.com. But these were all superseded by the Soviet Voskhod program, which conducted multi-person crews, and the Soyuz program, which remains the name for Russia's crewed spaceflight missions.

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Sixers look to bounce back tonight against the Spurs – Liberty Ballers

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Remember how excited we were for the return of Sixers basketball? Oh, how young and naive we were. While the worst case scenario of a major injury didnt transpire, its safe to say the heart of every optimistic Sixers fan was injured in Saturday nights excruciating loss to the Indiana Pacers. But you cant pronounce the word fanatic without the word addict, and were back for another hit of potential heartbreak tonight when Philadelphia takes on the San Antonio Spurs.

People had essentially written off the Spurs as an afterthought within the bubble. San Antonio is in the midst of a record-tying 22-year playoff streak, but the Spurs had the second-worst record among Western Conference teams invited to the bubble. With seven-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge sidelined after undergoing shoulder surgery in June, people basically assumed that streak was coming to an end. Even Gregg Popovich said two weeks ago that his main goal was elsewhere (courtesy of NBC Sports):

Each team has a goal here. Some teams are confident theyre a step away from winning an NBA championship. Other teams just want to be in the playoffs. Some teams are concerned mainly with development. If we play well enough to get into the playoffs, that would be great. But my goal is development right now.

However, the Spurs have opened the restart period with wins over Sacramento and Memphis. Suddenly, they find themselves in sole possession of ninth place in the West, just two games back of the Grizzlies. While veteran DeMar DeRozan remains a consistent contributor, San Antonio is succeeding in large part due to expanded roles for their young backcourt. Third-year guard Derrick White went off for 26 points, eight rebounds, and five assists against the Kings, and then fellow third-year guard Dejounte Murray led the team in scoring with 21 points and 10 rebounds against Memphis. Popovich has also inserted second-year player Lonnie Walker into the starting lineup, basically starting four guards in order to serve the youth movement.

One of the few positive takeaways for the Sixers on Saturday was the play of Joel Embiid, who exploded for 41 points and 21 rebounds. He should find similar success against San Antonio, who is depleted in the frontcourt with Aldridge out in addition to fellow starter Trey Lyles. Jakob Poeltl has been starting at center for the Spurs, and he can be very foul-prone; Poeltl fouled out in just 20 minutes yesterday against Memphis.

So thats one positive for the Sixers, as is the fact that theyre catching San Antonio on the tail end of a back-to-back a rarity in bubble play. You would also expect the various Sixers ball handlers to remember how to throw a simple pass, something that eluded them to a great extent two nights ago. Throw in the possibility of more than four combined points from Philadelphias starting backcourt and one fewer expletive-laden flare-up between starters on the sideline and you have to feel better about the Sixers chances this evening.

The real reason Sixers fans should feel confident about a victory tonight, though: its nominally a Sixers home game.

Injuries:Philadelphia: Mike Scott - out (knee); Zhaire Smith - out (knee); Glenn Robinson III - doubtful (hip pointer)San Antonio: LaMarcus Aldridge - out (shoulder surgery); Trey Lyles - out (appendicitis); Bryn Forbes - questionable (quad tightness); Marco Belinelli - questionable (ankle)

Who: Philadelphia 76ers vs. San Antonio SpursWhere: ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, Orlando, FL (The Bubble)When: 8:00pm ETWatch: NBC Sports PhiladelphiaListen: 97.5 The Fanatic

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Sixers look to bounce back tonight against the Spurs - Liberty Ballers

Have You Seen This? Dramatic lightning bolt lights up Statue of Liberty – KSL.com

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THE END TIMES There are five months left in the year 2020 and, at this point, if fire and brimstone rain down from the heavens, I wont be surprised. Is it really a month of 2020 if existential crises dont pop up like a game of whack-a-mole on expert mode? I think not.

There's been the plagues, earthquakes and even a scare with giant locusts. The curse in the proverb may you live in interesting times has become woefully clear. This dramatic video of a lightning bolt menacing the Statue of Liberty feels symbolic of the whole year. Take a look.

As severe storms thundered through New York City last week, Americas patron green-stained statue of freedom and acceptance is a constant target. The lightning in this video only seems to strike Lady Liberty (it's in the distance behind her, according to ABC News), but apparently, the copper statue is hit by lightning an estimated 600 times a year, so this onslaught is nothing new. That doesn't make it feel less legendary.

The lightning in this video lingers and re-ignites like a deity angry at its people; and if you told me this video came from the opening montage of an apocalyptic movie, Id believe you and say the filmmakers were heavy-handed on their symbolism. Lay off, Jeff from the SFX department, the real world is not so poetic! I mightve rolled my eyes. Except, you know, Jeff was right and a 10th grader with a flair for edgy symbolic cheap shots is now apparently writing reality.

So sit back, grab your popcorn and watch this video on repeat like the overly-ominous and wickedly cool sign of the times it feels like.

Correction: This story initially said the video shows the Statue of Liberty being repeatedly struck by lightning; it has been corrected to say that the lightning strikes in the distance behind the statue.

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Have You Seen This? Dramatic lightning bolt lights up Statue of Liberty - KSL.com

Global Nanosensors Market Huge Growth CAGR of 90.1% by 2026 | With Top Players- Linear Technologies, NXP Semiconductor, InvenSense, Knowles, Analog…

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Global Nanosensors Market By Product Type (Mechanical, Biological and Chemical Nanosensors), By Application (Security, Surveillance and Military, Biomedical and Healthcare, Environmental Monitoring, Food Management and others) By End Users (Aerospace, Environmental Monitoring, Healthcare and others), By Geography (North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2025

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Major Market Competitors/Players:Global Nanosensors Market

Some of the major players operating in the market are Linear Technologies, NXP Semiconductor, InvenSense, Knowles, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Hitachi, Nanomix, Murata Manufacturing, Atmel, Banner Engineering, ams, Rockwell Automation, TOWA, and Panasonic among others.

Competitive Analysis:

The Global Nano Sensors market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of absorbable and non-absorbable sutures market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.

The current trend pertaining to the demand supply and sales together with the recent developments have been given here to provide an exhaustive picture of this market. It also allows voluntarily accessible affordable reports of the research that is the end result of the personalized research carried by the internal team of professionals.

To comprehend Global Nanosensors market dynamics in the world mainly, the worldwide Nanosensors market is analyzed across major global regions.

Actual Numbers & In-Depth Analysis, Business opportunities, Market Size Estimation Available in Full Report.

Market Definition:

Nano sensors consist of nanomaterials or nano-chemicals used in monitoring moisture, temperature, and pressure. Nano sensors based devices are used in diagnostic machines. The main reason behind the use of nano-sensors in diagnostic kits is that nano-sensors even detect the minute change in the blood, urine sample or other samples. Nano-sensor devices detects the conditions in very early stage based on Nano sensors have wide mechanical, chemical and biological applications. Nanosensors have wide application in gas sensing technologies like RFID (Radio-frequency identification) systems have gas sensing capabilities. Zinc Oxide based nanosensors are used in modified electrodes and enzyme immobilization and biosensors performance. In Blood coagulation carbon nanotubes are used for detecting proteins, fibrinogen and coagulation factors.

Major Market Drivers and Restraints:

Table of Contents-Snapshot Executive SummaryChapter 1 Industry OverviewChapter 2 Industry Competition by ManufacturersChapter 3 Industry Production Market Share by RegionsChapter 4 Industry Consumption by RegionsChapter 5 Industry Production, Revenue, Price Trend by TypeChapter 6 Industry Analysis by ApplicationsChapter 7 Company Profiles and Key Figures in Industry BusinessChapter 8 Industry Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Marketing Channel, Distributors and CustomersChapter 10 Market DynamicsChapter 11 Industry ForecastChapter 12 Research Findings and ConclusionChapter 13 Methodology and Data Source

Key Developments in the Market:

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Global Nanosensors Market Huge Growth CAGR of 90.1% by 2026 | With Top Players- Linear Technologies, NXP Semiconductor, InvenSense, Knowles, Analog...

Shaft Measuring Machine Market Business Overview, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin, Product Specifications, Forecast 2025 – Owned

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Analysis of the Global Shaft Measuring Machine Market

The presented global Shaft Measuring Machine market report provides reliable and credible insights related to the various segments and sub-segments of the market. The market study throws light on the various factors that are projected to impact the overall dynamics of the global Shaft Measuring Machine market over the forecast period (20XX-20XX).

According to the report, the value of the Shaft Measuring Machine market was estimated to reach ~US$ XX in 2019 and attain a market value of ~US$ XX by the end of 2029. Further, the study reveals that the market is set to grow at a CAGR of XX% during the forecast period owing to a plethora of factors.

Get PDF Sample Copy of this Report to understand the structure of the complete report: (Including Full TOC, List of Tables & Figures, Chart) @ https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=2742768&source=atm

The market study aims to provide answers to the following questions related to the Shaft Measuring Machine market:

The report splits the global Shaft Measuring Machine market into different market segments such as:

The region-wise segmentation offers critical information such as the market share, size, revenue analysis, growth prospects, and market attractiveness of each region.

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Segment by Type, the Shaft Measuring Machine market is segmented intoMulti-SensorOpticalMechanical

Segment by Application, the Shaft Measuring Machine market is segmented intoAutomotiveElectric & ElectronicMechanicalOthers

Regional and Country-level AnalysisThe Shaft Measuring Machine market is analysed and market size information is provided by regions (countries).The key regions covered in the Shaft Measuring Machine market report are North America, Europe, China and Japan. It also covers key regions (countries), viz, the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Italy, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, etc.The report includes country-wise and region-wise market size for the period 2015-2026. It also includes market size and forecast by Type, and by Application segment in terms of production capacity, price and revenue for the period 2015-2026.Competitive Landscape and Shaft Measuring Machine Market Share Analysis

Shaft Measuring Machine market competitive landscape provides details and data information by manufacturers. The report offers comprehensive analysis and accurate statistics on production capacity, price, revenue of Shaft Measuring Machine by the player for the period 2015-2020. It also offers detailed analysis supported by reliable statistics on production, revenue (global and regional level) by players for the period 2015-2020. Details included are company description, major business, company total revenue, and the production capacity, price, revenue generated in Shaft Measuring Machine business, the date to enter into the Shaft Measuring Machine market, Shaft Measuring Machine product introduction, recent developments, etc.The major vendors covered:WenzelChien Wei Precise TechnologyRenishaw PlcCreaformHelmel Engineering ProductsWerth Messtechnik GmbHXian High-TechAeh Industrial MetrologyGroup,Nano (Xian) MetrologyAberlink LtdZeiss International (Subsidiary Of Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung)Faro TechnologiesHexagon ABMitutoyo CorporationNikon Metrology NVPerceptronDUKINInternational Metrology SystemsMetronorTRIMEK

Vital data enclosed in the report:

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Shaft Measuring Machine Market Business Overview, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin, Product Specifications, Forecast 2025 - Owned

Election 2020: Oregon psilocybin and drug decriminalization initiatives guide – Leafly

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The latest news on IP 34 and IP 44, Oregons drug reform initiatives

July 29 Oregons state Criminal Justice Commission released an analysis of the impact of IP 44, the statewide initiative to decriminalize small amounts of all drugs, on different racial and ethnic groups. The results, according to The Oregonian:

The draft racial and ethnic impact statement prepared by the Criminal Justice Commission suggests there would be a significant decrease in misdemeanor and felony drug possession convictions across demographic groups, if voters decide to decriminalize possession of small amounts of all drugs. Total convictions for Asian Oregonians could fall by 82.9%, for Latinos by 86.5%, for whites by 91.1%, for Blacks by 93.7% and for Native Americans by 94.2%.

Read the full text of the proposal here:Oregon Psilocybin Program Initiative (Initiative 34) (therapeutic use of psilocybin)

Read the full text of the proposal here:Oregons Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act (Initiative 44) (all-drug decriminalization and treatment)

Wellboth.

IP 34 (psilocybin) would legalize the medical use of psilocybin under the care of a licensed facilitator.

IP 44 (all-drug decrim) would decriminalize all drugs.

Its unclear whether IP 44, if passed, would make IP 34 redundant, as IP 44 would make possession of psilocybin no longer a criminal act.

Initiative 34, the Oregon Psilocybin Program Initiative, would create a program and screening process for providing psilocybin to individuals 21 years of age or older. Consumption would be supervised by licensed facilitators, and the program would exist under the purview of the Oregon Health Authority, as well as an advisory board of 14-16 individuals appointed by the governor. The measure requires a two-year development period for the Oregon Health Authority to lay out regulations for the program.

Initiative 44, Oregons Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act is the first measure of its kind to reach a statewide ballot in the United States. It would remove criminal penalties for the personal, non-commercial possession of all drugs listed as Schedule I, II, III, or IV by the federal Controlled Substances Act. Possession of small quantities would be classified as a violation similar to a speeding ticket. Penalties would be a $100 fine and/or a health assessment at an addiction recovery center.

IP 44 would alsoprovide holistic, wide-reaching treatment to drug users, including housing and accessible consultations with social service providers. The proposed program would be funded almost exclusively through $100 million in annual cannabis tax revenue.

Initiative 44 (drug decrim): No. Initiative 44 removes drug possession as an arrestable offense. There are no provisions within the initiative to allow or regulate the sale of drugs. I-44 does not remove or invalidate the states current regulations regarding the manufacture and sale of alcohol and cannabis.

Initiative 34 (psilocybin):Yes. The Oregon Psilocybin Services Program would license and regulate producers, processors, delivery services and possession of psilocybin exclusively for the administration of psilocybin services by licensed facilitators to qualified clients.

Initiative 44 (drug decrim): No. Because Initiative 44 does not allow or regulate the legal sale of drugs aside from alcohol and cannabis, there are no new taxes involved.

Initiative 34 (psilocybin): Yes. Medical psilocybin would be subject to a 15% excise tax.

We defer to the experts at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), who have the most accurate information available:

Psilocybin is the main ingredient found in several types of psychoactive mushrooms, making it perhaps the best-known naturally-occurring psychedelic drug.

Although psilocybin is considered active at doses around 3-4 mg, a common dose used in clinical research settings ranges from 14-30 mg. Its effects on the brain are attributed to its active metabolite, psilocin.

Psilocybin is most commonly found in wild or homegrown mushrooms and sold either fresh or dried. The most popular species of psilocybin mushrooms is Psilocybe cubensis, which is usually taken orally either by eating dried caps and stems or steeped in hot water and drunk as a tea, with a common dose around 1-2.5 grams.

For more in-depth information, see this Psilocybin Mushrooms Fact Sheet published by DPA.

Leaflys coverage of psilocybin and the medical uses of psychedelics includes these articles:

Silluh-SIGH-bin. Well go with author Michael Pollans pronunciation in this YouTube clip:

IP 34, medical psilocybin legalization:

IP 44, all-drug decrim:

IP 34, medical psilocybin legalization:

IP 44, all-drug decrim:

IP 34, medical psilocybin legalization:

IP 44, all-drug decriminalization:

IP 34, medical psilocybin legalization:

IP 44, all-drug decriminalization:

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Conservation NGOs welcome the reopening of intra-provincial nature-based tourism in no touch economy – Phoenix Sun

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The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected almost every aspect of life. In South Africa, alone, the economic effects are devastating with the GDP expected to decline by between eight and 10 percent in 2020. Job losses are estimated at over a million and more than 160, 000 businesses are expected to close their doors.

Under lockdown level three, many sectors have been allowed to trade or operate to some degree, which may have salvaged some businesses and prevented the further loss of jobs.

However, the tourism and leisure sectors have remained closed for months, impacting on thousands of jobs and with concomitant impacts on the fiscus and the wellbeing of millions of South Africans.

Despite concerns over job losses in major South African industries in recent years, the tourism sector has demonstrated resilience and, in 2017, the sector created 31, 752 new jobs which was the most number of net new jobs generated by tourism within a year in at least the previous eight years.

Nature-based tourism refers to all forms of tourism where relatively undisturbed natural environments form the primary attraction or setting.

The wildlife and nature-based tourism sectors specifically support a wide number of associated industries and sectors, such as the conservation sector, through income generation for park management, wildlife protection, anti-poaching and to some degree border control through the management of human movement in transfrontier parks.

For years, national and provincial conservation agencies have been generating significant revenue through nature-based tourism that contributes substantially to conservation management.

Game reserves in South Africa also generate significant benefits to the surrounding communities who contribute to goods and services consumed by visitors. In the absence of economic activity in these parks, there is increased risk of poaching, illegal resource extraction and park invasion.

Years of engaging communities to share in the benefits arising from conservation and nature-based tourism equitably will be undone if protected areas lose their economic value to the communities who depend on them, and should illegal resource use become their only means of survival.

It must be noted that many people employed in the nature-based tourism sector are unskilled/ semi-skilled and are usually breadwinners in their families. Reopening local tourism may not contribute to securing employment for many, and to securing livelihoods in the most vulnerable households and regions.

SANParks, as the custodian of about 70 percent of South Africas state-owned protected area network, derives 80 percent of its income from nature-based tourism activities.

A significant component of this revenue funds park management, anti-poaching, management of marine protected areas, ranger patrol and protection services including the aircraft and associated rhino security technologies as well as management of wildlife.

There are many community-owned reserves that generate income for clinics, schools, community recreation facilities as well many jobs linked to goods and services associated with these reserves, including catering and accommodation.

Several of these community-owned reserves are linked to national and provincial parks and benefit from visitors to parks or their own concessionaire managed lodges.

ALSO READ: A virtual expo of KZN tourism products for global buyers

Nature-based tourism is also a major outlet for people,who have been confined in urban areas. About 70 percent of visitors to national parks are local tourists and thus, the tourism sector can continue to support thousands of livelihoods even before our borders reopen.

The consequences of any extended lockdown for the wildlife and nature-based tourism sector, and by extension to the entire tourism industry, will be dire and potentially devastating as a result of:

Reduced income for conservation NGOs, who play a significant role in biodiversity conservation and community conservation in South Africa and are major employers in the sector.

The conservation NGOs listed below, therefore welcome the announcement by the minister for tourism that intra-provincial leisure travel may soon open up, under strict conditions, to ease the economic impact of COVID-19.

The NGOs fully support the introduction of intra-provincial nature-based tourism into the economic recovery under strong conditions and SOPs.

This is based on their belief that:

The NGOs signed believe that nature-based tourism not only offers guests the opportunities to have enjoyable, safe and healthy leisure time, but is one of the few sectors that stands to revitalise the economy and bring much-needed income back into South African households in the short term.

Allowing an early, phased and safe reopening of the local nature-based tourism sector offers the opportunity to increase the economic, mental and physical well-being of millions of people and sustain the conservation of South Africas natural resources for future generations.

The NGOs welcome the phased reopening of the local nature-based tourism sector and encourage South Africans to support their local nature-based tourism enterprises in the new no touch economy. The signed NGOs are the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), BirdLife South Africa (BLSA), Wildlife and Environment Society South Africa (WESSA) and Wilderness Foundation Africa (WFA).

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Conservation NGOs welcome the reopening of intra-provincial nature-based tourism in no touch economy - Phoenix Sun

PROS Holdings, Inc. Announces Appointment of Catherine A. Lesjak to Board of Directors – Business Wire

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HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PRO), a provider of AI-powered solutions that optimize selling in the digital economy, today announced the appointment of Catherine A. Lesjak to its board of directors effective August 3, 2020. Lesjak joins the board as an independent director.

Lesjak is a seasoned finance veteran in the tech industry, having built a 32-year career at HP, Inc. (NYSE: HPQ). Lesjak served in several executive leadership roles during her tenure, including EVP and CFO a role she held for 11 years before serving as interim COO for the company.

She currently serves as a director for technology pioneer and multinational conglomerate GE (NYSE: GE) and SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ: SPWR), a vertically integrated solar company. Lesjak also serves on the board of the Berkeley Haas Business School. She holds a B.S. from Stanford University and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley.

Cathie is an industry veteran who brings substantial financial and operational expertise to the board, said PROS Non-Executive Chairman of the Board Bill Russell. As PROS increases in scale, her experience and knowledge will be a great resource for us as we continue to build even greater long-term value for our shareholders.

I am excited to welcome Cathie to the PROS board, said PROS President and CEO Andres Reiner. Cathie brings a point of view anchored in global scale, execution, repeatability, and commercial success all elements that impact how we drive our SaaS portfolio and scale our global footprint rapidly.

I am truly honored to join the PROS Board of Directors during this inflection point in digital commerce and tremendous need for digital selling solutions, said Lesjak. I look forward to sharing my experience and expertise with PROS to best capitalize on this tremendous market opportunity at hand.

About PROSPROS Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PRO) provides AI-powered solutions that optimize selling in the digital economy. PROS solutions make it possible for companies to price, configure and sell their products and services in an omnichannel environment with speed, precision and consistency. Our customers, who are leaders in their markets, benefit from decades of data science expertise infused into our industry solutions.

Forward-looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about PROS market opportunity, PROS growth and scalability, the functionality and benefits of AI-powered solutions to organizations generally as well as the functionality and benefits of PROS software products. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon PROS historical experience and current expectations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described herein include, among others, the risks related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the scope and duration of the outbreak and timeframe for economic recovery, the addressability of an organizations AI-powered solution needs, the risks associated with PROS developing and enhancing products with the functionality necessary to deliver the stated results and the risks associated with the complex implementation and maintenance of AI-powered solutions such as PROS software products. Additional information relating to the uncertainty affecting PROS business is contained in PROS filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements represent PROS expectations as of the date of this press release. Subsequent events may cause these expectations to change, and PROS disclaims any obligations to update or alter these forward-looking statements in the future whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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PROS Holdings, Inc. Announces Appointment of Catherine A. Lesjak to Board of Directors - Business Wire

University Alliance to Deliver Economic and Social Benefits to Wales – Business News Wales

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The Governing Body of the University of South Wales (USW) and the Council of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) have agreed to a strategic alliance which will see both universities working closer together.

The move signals a significant strategic development for the higher education sector landscape in Wales and enables the two largest Post-92 universities to collaborate in order to respond to the economic and societal challenges facing Wales, particularly within a post-Covid context.

In agreeing a Deed of Association, both institutions commit to working together on a national mission to strengthen Wales innovation capacity, supporting economic regeneration and the renewal of its communities.

The Deed of Association acknowledges each institutions autonomy and distinctiveness as strong historic brands which will remain independent, but also marks the collective values of both institutions and their potential to deliver tangible benefits and impact for Wales though collaboration. In particular, working together to drive digital innovation, knowledge transfer, research innovation, workforce development and to provide a ready pipeline of skilled students and graduates, in partnership with employers within priority sectors.

Louise Evans, Chair of the Board of Governors at USW said:

Our aim is to generate innovative solutions to tackle grand challenges. We have a key role to work with the Welsh Government to build capacity and resilience within our communities. Exploiting our joint innovation, applied research and supporting the development of higher-level skills across a range of priority sector areas and linked to employers is key to our collaboration.

The recent Covid-19 engagement has reinforced the need to critically reflect upon the need for all institutions to consider flexible arrangements of association so that universities can make a significant contribution to the national recovery engagement. The need for strong and effective universities that are able to address economic, social and enterprise needs is imperative.

The Venerable Randolph Thomas, UWTSDs Chair of Council added:

This alliance will enable us to make a real difference, particularly in Wales recovery post-Covid, and to assist in developing a sustainable future for the communities we serve, to renew our learning communities and to develop their wellbeing and resilience.

The Deed of Association will build capacity and subject excellence, creating a strong resource base for development and inward investment. It will enable the universities to develop a more diverse entrepreneurial knowledge-based economy; building further on their track record for graduate start-ups.

It will also facilitate the development of a strong base for applied innovation and enterprise as well as a range of educational programmes and lifelong learning opportunities to further social capital and new innovative economic, environmental, cultural and social activity. Working with a range of stakeholders within key sectors across Wales it will address inequalities through widening access and promoting social inclusion and justice.

Professor Julie Lydon, OBE, Vice-Chancellor of USW said:

Both USW and UWTSD are significant players within higher education provision in Wales. Both represent a strong voice for the Post-92 sector and define a very clear agenda for economic and social change in Wales. The opportunity of crafting a new direction of travel which addresses the planning and delivery of education and skills development across further, higher and employment-based education through Wales will have a significant impact and will deliver key outcomes which will support economic and civic regeneration.

Professor Medwin Hughes, DL, Vice-Chancellor of UWTSD added:

Wales needs to be innovative in its educational system and delivery frameworks in order to establish inter and intra-regional groupings which will enhance economic delivery, support social capital and drive forward greater regional Post-16 educational pathways. In doing so, we will secure greater synergy in our skills delivery and establish far stronger strategic partnerships with government and employers.

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University Alliance to Deliver Economic and Social Benefits to Wales - Business News Wales

Gene therapy reverses memory loss from Alzheimer’s in mice – BioNews

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3 August 2020

Memory loss has been reversed in mice with Alzheimer's disease following gene therapy.

A study led bybrothersProfessor Lars Ittner and Dr Arne Ittner of the Macquarie University Dementia Research Centre in Sydney Australia, has shown that the gene therapy not only halts the progression of memory loss, but it can also reverse the effects when applied to mice with advanced Alzheimer's disease.

Discussing the findings, ProfessorIttner said: 'We were completely surprised. They actually recovered their memory function and their ability to learn returned. So, two months after we treated the mice at very old ages, these mice suddenly behaved like their normal siblings.'

By introducing genetic material into the cells of affected mice, the researchers were able to activate an enzymeknown as p38gamma. Previous research by the team revealed that this enzyme, when activated, is protective against the development of Alzheimer's disease. Their latest research builds on this, using gene therapy to enhance the activity of p38gamma in mice with established memory loss.

Results from the study suggest that this gene therapy may be useful in treating other forms of dementia, such as frontotemporal dementia, which typically affects a younger population. As there were no adverse events reported in the mice, even those treated with high doses over a longer period, the team are planning to trial the therapy in humans.

'There is no comparable therapy out there and no other gene therapy either,' said ProfessorIttner. 'This provides hope, as there is a lot of therapy out there focussed on prevention, but not much for those already affected by the disease.'

'It will be exciting to see how over ten years of basic research to understand the mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease will finally transition intoclinical developmentto eventually benefit those most in need, people living with dementia' he added.

The study was published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica.

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Gene therapy reverses memory loss from Alzheimer's in mice - BioNews

Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry Market Analysis by Size, Share, Growth, Application, Segmentation and Forecast to 2025 – Express Journal

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Global Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market Report 2020 presents critical information and factual data about the Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market, providing an overall statistical study of this market on the basis of market drivers, market limitations, and its future prospects. The widespread Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market opportunities and trends are also taken into consideration in Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry industry. with growth trends, various stakeholders like investors, traders, suppliers, SWOT analysis Opportunities and Threat to the organization and others.

The Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market report comprises of the key trends which influence the industry growth with respect to the regional terrain and competitive arena. The study highlights the opportunities that will support the industry expansion in existing and untapped markets along with the challenges the business sphere will face. Besides this, the report also offers an intricate analysis of case studies including those of COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim to provide a clear picture of this industry vertical to all shareholders.

Pivotal pointers from COVID-19 impact assessment:

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Analysis of the regional terrain:

Highlights of the Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market report:

Key Coverage of report:

Impact of the latest technological innovations on the Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market

Key growth strategies adopted by the prominent market players to address the challenges and restraints put forward by the COVID-19 pandemic

Historical and current trends likely to affect the overall market dynamics of the Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market

Growth assessment of the various market segments over the forecast timeline

Regional and global presence of major market players in the Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market

Table of Content:

1 Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market Introduction and Market Overview

1.1 Objectives of the Study

1.2 Overview of Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market

1.3 Scope of The Study

1.3.1 Key Market Segments

1.3.2 Players Covered

1.3.3 COVID-19's impact on the Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry industry

1.4 Methodology of The Study

1.5 Research Data Source

2 Executive Summary

2.1 Market Overview

2.1.1 Global Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market Size, 2015 - 2020

2.1.2 Global Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market Size by Type, 2015 - 2020

2.1.3 Global Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market Size by Application, 2015 - 2020

2.1.4 Global Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry market Size by Region, 2015 - 2025

2.2 Business Environment Analysis

2.2.1 Global COVID-19 Status and Economic Overview

2.2.2 Influence of COVID-19 Outbreak on Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry Industry Development

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Hemophilia Gene Therapy Industry Market Analysis by Size, Share, Growth, Application, Segmentation and Forecast to 2025 - Express Journal