National Hurricane Center monitoring what could be Isaias, may track to the East Coast – Press of Atlantic City

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Tropical Storm Isaias will likely develop this week

An already record breaking pace to the 2020 Hurricane Season will likely increase its buffer room. On Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center said its monitoring a tropical wave traveling across the lower latitude of the Atlantic Ocean.

As of 8 a.m. Monday morning, Invest 92L has a 80% chance of turning into a tropical system by Wednesday morning. The next name on the list is called Isaias.

Called Invest 92L, this has an 80% chance of turning into Tropical Storm Iasias by Wednesday morning and a 90% chance of that happening by Saturday morning.

The National Hurricane Center's forecast takes the storm through the central Atlantic Ocean and have it pass through the Lesser Antilles by the end of the week.

From there, the storm will likely have a track north of Puerto Rico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The storm could make multiple landfalls on these islands, which would weaken the storm as it passes. The reason for this is a large area of high pressure in the Atlantic Ocean, extending from Spain to Bermuda. The storm will be steered around the high pressure into the weekend.

The tropical wave, marked with an L in the Central Atlantic Ocean, will follow along the southern edge of a sprawling area of high pressure in the ocean.

From there, the forecast becomes less certain. The strength of the high pressure, as well an incoming system from the United States will play a role in its track during the first weekend of August.

More than likely, though, this storm will make a curve to the north as it nears the East Coast of the United States, continuing around the high pressure system.

The spaghetti plots, a group of different model runs places on the same map, shows the storm likely making a turn up the East Coast sometime during the weekend of Aug. 1-2.

If the high pressure is weaker, or further away from the U.S., the storm will likely spin harmlessly out to sea, or impact Bermuda. If the storm is further west, there would be a greater likelihood of an East Coast landfall. The high pressure may also be so strong that it pushes the storm into Florida or the Gulf of Mexico. However, there is no official forecast this far out for the storm.

Yes, but just as much of a chance as any other storm that's in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean 7 to 10 days before making its closest approach, wherever that may be.

The July 7 Atlantic Hurricane season update from Colorado State University has another incre

There have only been 10 tropical storms and hurricanes to make landfall in South Jersey since 1900, but does that include Tropical Storm Fay July 10. That being said, a storm 100-200 miles out can still bring impacts. Hurricane Michael in October 2018, Hurricane Florence in September 2018 and Hurricane Hermine in 2016 are all recent storms that tracked near South Jersey and brought at least high seas, rip currents and coastal flooding. Hurricane Dorian passed well offshore the Jersey Shore, but still bring rain and wind.

Remnants from Hurricane Dorian empty the Ventnor Boardwalk in September.

New Jersey is generally shielded from the worst of tropical activity from North Carolina. Located to the south of the state, storms may strike the Carolina coast and then bring a weakened version of itself to New Jersey. Furthermore, storms may make landfall on the Gulf Coast and bring remnants to the region, instead of the full impacts. Still, though, heavy rain can occur as the tropical moisture is carried hundreds of miles north.

Isaias would be the ninth named tropical system in the Atlantic Hurricane basin. That would continue to outpace the 2005 season for the most active on record.

Hurricane Hanna, which make landfall in South Jersey Saturday, turned into a Tropical Storm on July 23. That was more than two weeks ahead of 2005's pace, which was Tropical Storm Harvey.

Hurricane Irene developed as a tropical storm August 7, 2005, a mark Isaias will almost surely beat out.

The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane season in the most active on record, which goes back to 1851 (though the advent of weather satellites in the 1960s means hurricane seasons before then may not have been accurately calculated). That year 28 named storms developed, exhausting the alphabet list of storms. The NHC then had to turn to the Greek Alphabet for names.

If the names sound familiar, that's because the National Hurricane Center reuses names every 6 years. Though notable storms, like Sandy and Harvey, can be retired by the World Meteorological Organization.

"Isaias" is the Spanish and Portuguese word for the biblical Isaiah. It is pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs.

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National Hurricane Center monitoring what could be Isaias, may track to the East Coast - Press of Atlantic City

Revaluing the Oceans – Architecture – e-flux – E-Flux

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The oceans throughout history provided seemingly inexhaustible fish for people brave and skillful enough to exploit them. Whenever fish catches declined, fishers would sail farther and farther from home to meet their needs.1 Nowadays the entire global ocean is accessible. Large factory ships and the magic of refrigeration have allowed fishers to venture out for months or years, and more efficient and diverse ways of fishing have increased catches with little care or understanding about the incremental reduction of fish stocks.2 Before the middle of the twentieth century, no one but a few scientists worried about how long the bounty could last, until suddenly, everything began to collapse. Mini wars over fishing rights between Iceland and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s, along with increasingly protective measures by other nations, led to the unilateral establishment of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) to keep foreign fishers away, the legitimacy of which were formally recognized in 1982 under the auspices of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. Yet even still, as in Newfoundland, fisheries kept collapsing, with tragic consequences for entire communities.

The great majority of fisheries data come from coastal ecosystems including estuaries, marsh and mangrove wetlands, seagrass meadows, kelp forests, and coral reefs. In spite of great differences in their inhabitants, the dominant predators in each of these environments were historically large animals, including some combination of killer whales, sharks, seals, crocodiles, predatory fishes like tunas and sharks, and seabirds.3 Nowadays, however, most of these animals are so severely depleted as to be ecologically extinct. Humans have taken their place as the dominant predators at almost all trophic levels above the zooplankton.4 There is even a major fishery for krill in Antarctica, which are critically important for the survival of whales, without the necessary ecological data for an adequate stock assessment to know what is sustainable.5

Biomass of groundfish and sharks has been diminished by an order of magnitude in the northwest Atlantic.6 Similar depredations have affected coral reefs, kelp forests, estuaries and coastal seas, and the high seas.7 Many fisheries biologists originally claimed that the depletions of fish stocks were overstated, but a detailed assessment by the US National Research Council strongly supported the original claims.8 It is now generally accepted that two-thirds of global fisheries are overfished and getting worse, while many of the remaining, better-managed fisheries are not yet sufficiently recovered to be economically viable.9

Global fish catches are declining in spite of increased capacity supported by misguided government subsidies that only accentuate the problem.10 The greatest losses are for large-scale industrial fisheries, whereas artisanal catches appear to be more sustainable. Risks of biological extinction are also increasing for large animals.11 Caribbean Monk seals have already been lost, and their Hawaiian and Mediterranean counterparts are gravely threatened.12 Killer whales are rapidly diminishing globally, especially those species that depend on highly specific overfished prey like salmon.13 Caribbean sea turtles have declined in abundance 100-fold, and Caribbean crocodiles are threatened to endangered throughout most of their range.14 Sharks are globally threatened with losses of numerous species exceeding 90% or more.15

The oceans have long been the terminal point for our garbage, excrement, and chemicals. Coastal pollution most obviously began in the stench of estuaries like New York Harbor, which by the nineteenth century had become serious hazards to human health.16 Soon afterwards, entire semi-enclosed seas like the Baltic and Adriatic seas, Chesapeake Bay, and embayments of the Mississippi Delta were so polluted by excess nutrients and organic matter that oxygen levels declined, and fish kills were commonplace.17 More recently, the industrial pollution of toxic chemicals and greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels have extended to the farthest reaches of the oceans and the atmosphere, poisoning tuna and swordfish with mercury and littering the oceans with plastic.18

There are currently more than 500 coastal hypoxic dead zones worldwide that are largely due to massive increases in nutrient runoff from intensive agriculture made possible by cheap nitrogen fertilizer manufactured from petroleum.19 Excess nitrogen runoff fuels population explosions of phytoplankton far beyond the capacity of zooplankton and other suspension feeders to consume them. As a result, the excess phytoplankton die and sink to the seafloor where they are metabolized by microbes, a process that consumes most or all of the oxygen in bottom waters. Animals including fisheries species that cannot swim away die from asphyxia, except for a very few species that can survive in extremely low oxygen conditions.

The structural integrity of coastal marine habitats, from the tropics to the temperate zone, is dependent on the abundance of a small number of structurally dominant species of mangroves, saltmarshes, seagrasses, kelps, and reef corals that stabilize sediments and provide critical shoreline protection from storms.20 They are also important sites of carbon deposition and sequestration, and are important nursery habitats for fisheries.21 Coastal development and climate change effectively kills the environment, reducing biological structural stability and complexity. Global losses have been alarming, reaching 50% for mangroves and 30% for seagrasses.22 Global declines in living coral cover on reefs is also highly variable but commonly exceeds 50% throughout the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific.23

Other increasingly widespread forms of anthropogenic habitat change are more immediately destructive in reducing habitat complexity and biodiversity.24 The most damaging include dynamite fishing on coral reefs to harvest the fish that float to the surface; seabed trawling for shrimp, scallops, and groundfish that transforms biodiverse underwater forests into depauperate level bottoms of mud; and deep seafloor mining that, if it is allowed to proceed, will inevitably destroy seafloor ecosystems for decades and possibly centuries.25 Container ship traffic is also increasing almost exponentially and carries the double risk of fatal collisions with endangered whales and sound pollution that is dangerous for all cetaceans.26 Seismic oil and gas exploration causes even more severe sound pollution that can cause mass mortalities of whales and dolphins.27

Introductions of exotic species are also increasing due to expanding ship traffic, which discharge ever-increasing volumes of ballast water that contain larval stages of invertebrates, fishes, plankton, and pathogens.28 While the data are mostly circumstantial, the first mass mortality of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum occurred next to the Caribbean entrance of the Panama Canal, and the first widespread outbreaks of coral diseases in the Caribbean were recorded from nearby Colombia and adjacent Netherlands Antilles.29 Coral diseases are exacerbated by global warming, but these first Caribbean disease outbreaks occurred two decades before the first reports of coral bleaching due to extreme warming events.30 Introductions also occur due to deliberate or accidental release from aquaria, as with the Indo-Pacific lionfish that has devasted native fish populations of the Caribbean.31

Farmed salmon bones preserved in a laboratory in collaboration with palaeontologists at the University of Bergen, Norway. Michelle-Marie Letelier,Outline for The Bonding (Still #3), 2017. 16mm film transferred to HD. Image courtesy of the artist.

Impacts of climate change due to the burning of fossil fuels are also both direct and indirect, including rising average temperatures, extreme heating events, declining oxygen, ocean acidification, disease outbreaks, and intensification of extreme storms.32 Sea surface temperatures are rising globally, but disproportionately, with the greatest increases in polar seas and semi-enclosed basins in the temperate zones, such as the Gulf of Maine. The latitudinal limits of myriad species are rapidly increasing in response, as in the case of the Humboldt squid, whose northern limit shifted from southern California to the Gulf of Alaska in just a few decades due to a combination of climate change and overfishing that reduced the abundance of predators.33 Most species range shifts are more gradual but pervasive, with great implications for fisheries.34 For example, optimal conditions for Atlantic and Barents Sea cod are moving northward out of traditional fishing grounds and into different international jurisdictions, further exacerbating the consequences of historical overfishing.35 Tropical reef corals are also migrating towards higher latitudes, most strikingly along the southwest coast of Australia, where kelp forests are dying off and being replaced by subtropical species including reef corals.36

As oceans continue to warm, species characteristic of colder polar conditions have nowhere else to migrate and are at risk of extinction. Arctic species and entire ecosystems are increasingly threated by the loss of summer sea ice.37 Populations of polar bears, which historically fed on seals captured at breathing holes, are plummeting, and starving bears are showing up around human settlements where they forage on garbage and potentially whatever else.38 Other effects on polar food webs are still poorly understood, but the collapse of Antarctic krill, for example, would have grave impacts on the baleen whales that feed upon them.39

Global warming is also causing increases in the magnitude and frequency of extreme heating events wherein sea surface temperatures may rise 2 to 3C above normal maxima in just a few months.40 Consequences for reef corals can be catastrophic.41 Healthy reef corals exist in symbiosis with the dinoflagellates within their tissues that are critical to coral nutrition and calcification.42 Extreme heat breaks down this symbiosis, whereby corals evict the symbiont (which leaves them ghostly white, hence bleached). This is commonly fatal to the corals unless symbiosis is reestablished within a matter of weeks. Mass bleaching events are increasingly frequent and severe, raising questions about the very survival of coral reefs. The most recent extreme example was in 20152016 when most corals along the northern Great Barrier Reef bleached and died, and similar mass bleaching and mortality occurred across the Pacific.43 Another example is the enormous blob of hot water that appeared in the northeast Pacific in 2014 that was associated with collapses in species abundance and outbreaks of diseases.44

Climate change also sets off a cascading series of indirect effects that magnify its impact. The impact of coral diseases has greatly increased, especially in connection with mass bleaching events.45 Outbreaks of coral diseases are especially impactful on polluted reefs and those where overfishing has resulted in population explosions of fleshy algae, which have been shown experimentally to increase the vulnerability of corals to disease.46 In contrast, disease outbreaks are comparatively rare on unpolluted reefs in marine protected areas with abundant grazing fishes. Lobsters along the northeast coast of North America are also more vulnerable to shell wasting disease as waters warm, effectively wiping out the fishery in Long Island Sound.47

Oxygen concentrations are declining in the open ocean because warming surface waters makes them lighter, which in turn slows down the vertical mixing of the oceans; a runaway process that decreases the rate of oxygen transport to the deep sea and upwelling of nutrients to the sea surface.48 The process is especially striking in the equatorial Pacific, and in the Arctic ocean where the cover of summer sea ice is rapidly decreasing.49 Sea ice is highly reflective, dispersing heat back into the atmosphere, whereas seawater absorbs heat and sets up a positive feedback that is effectively irreversible. Reduced nutrient upwelling and declining oxygen are strongly associated with decreases in open ocean productivity, which is the basis for high seas fisheries.50

The ocean is also becoming more acidic. Solution in seawater of increasing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide has resulted in a global reduction in ocean pH of 0.1 units over the past century.51 The biologic consequences of acidification are still poorly understood and controversial, but could affect the reproduction, physiology, growth, and development of a wide variety of plants and animals. The most obvious impacts are on organisms that form their skeletons of calcium carbonate, which is more easily dissolved under more acidic conditions. This is already affecting shellfish aquaculture industries in the state of Washington, where pH has been steadily declining.52 Aquaculturists have been forced to raise vulnerable juvenile clams and oysters under less acidic conditions in aquaria on land before placing them in the ocean.53 Reef corals are also vulnerable to increasing acidity. Corals grown under present-day more acidic conditions grew 15% more slowly than corals where pH was maintained at historically less acidic conditions.54

Bird watchers were pioneers in the early rise of the conservation movement, with organizations such as the Audubon Society fighting to stop the slaughter of herons and egrets for womens hats.55 Similarly, its not just important for tourism that increasing numbers of people pay good money to see whales up close in the wild and increasingly to SCUBA dive with sharks.56 Besides the thrill of witnessing their power and grace, whale and shark watchers learn about the lives and behavior of these animals and how they fit into ocean ecosystems which, in turn, leads to increased support for their protection.

Horror at the slaughter of whales was a major factor in the establishment of the International Whaling Commission in 1946 which, despite persistent opposition from a few countries, has resulted in dramatic recoveries of most whale species.57 In addition to the ethical issues inherent in the mass slaughter of such animals, we now know that the great whales were once (and increasingly are now again) vitally important ecosystem engineers, as predators of massive amounts of fish and invertebrates, prey for other large predators, highly mobile reservoirs of carbon and nutrients, and as carcasses, sources of energy and habitat in the deep sea.58

Similar public concerns about the loss of other marine mammals were a driving factor in the enactment of the United States Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, which prohibits the killing, harm, harassment, or collection of any marine mammal in US territorial waters or by US citizens anywhere else. It also forbids the importation of any marine mammal products or parts. Populations of most marine mammals have varyingly recovered, although their comparative success is strongly associated with their life histories, habitat requirements, and geographic range.59 The depletion of essential forage fish due to overfishing also inhibits their recovery.60 One obvious manifestation of success is the greatly increased abundance of seals along the east and west coasts of the US, where their activities and real or perceived impacts on fisheries are not always welcome. Their rebound has also led to increases in great white sharks near shore, restoring a degree of balance to marine food webs while generating new questions about perceived risks to humans and potential impacts on endangered species.61

Increased tourist revenues have also led to the banning of shark fishing on coral reefs by entire nations because the sharks are vastly more lucrative alive than dead. Economic analysis for the government of Palau demonstrated that diver tourism provides 39% of the countrys total GDP, and that 21% of divers come principally to dive with sharks. The approximately 100 sharks in prime shark dive sites are each worth about US$180,000 per year in tourist revenue, or US$1.9 million during their lifetimes, versus about $110 for their fins and meat.62 Shark diving is a burgeoning global industry that is not without its environmental concerns, although if it is done responsibly, the net conservation value appears to be generally positive.63

New studies of the remarkable behavior and migrations of ocean species are also increasing public support for increased protections.64 The electronic tagging of thousands of individuals of different species of Pacific whales, seabirds, seaturtles, tunas and other large fish, and sharks has revealed striking transoceanic migrations of some species versus others that move much smaller distances.65 Bluefin tuna, for example, move back and forth across the Atlantic and Pacific, hanging out for up to a year or more in the same general location before moving on.66 In contrast, eastern Pacific great white sharks move back and forth between the California coast where they feed on burgeoning seal populations and an area of deep ocean halfway between Baja California and Hawaii dubbed the White Shark Caf, where they feed on vertically migrating fishes and invertebrates.67 Over 200 of these sharks have been tagged and followed for up to twenty years.68

Wild salmon eggs at Arna Sport Fishermens Association, Norway. Michelle-Marie Letelier,Outline for The Bonding (Still #5), 2017. 16mm film transferred to HD. Image courtesy of the artist.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly popular and effective conservation strategy for biodiversity and habitat protection when effectively financed, administered, and enforced.69 Unprotected paper parks, however, can do more harm than good by lulling people into thinking everything is fine when it is not.70 MPAs are also controversial from the perspective of fisheries management, with some arguing that MPAs are the most effective tool available versus those who believe that other management tools such as catch shares and gear restrictions are more effective in most cases than simple area closures.71

Cabo Pulmo in the southern Sea of Cortez is one of the most spectacular success stories of an effectively enforced MPA.72 Although it was severely overfished at the time, Cabo Pulmo was designated as a Mexican marine national park in 1995 on the basis of its coral populations. Protections did not become effective until local villagers self-organized to enforce the entire park as a no-take area in the late 1990s. Fish biomass was less than one metric ton per hectare in 1999, comparable to other unprotected areas or paper parks throughout the Gulf of California. Subsequent to the villagers protection, biomass increased over the following ten protected years to about 4.5 metric tons, while all other areas failed to increase. Biomass and diversity have fluctuated since 2009, in large part due to the community evolving towards a more natural composition that includes greater populations of schooling fishes as well as more abundant corals. The greatest potential threat to Cabo Pulmo is its notorious success, which attracts burgeoning numbers of tourists and development.

A network of nine well enforced no-take MPAs and two partial-take MPAs was established around four of the northern Channel Islands off the coast of California in 2003 and revisited ten years later.73 The biomass of preferred fisheries species approximately doubled within MPAs at three of the four islands, but non-targeted species showed little response. The biomass of targeted species outside the reserves also increased by about one quarter, possibly because of a spillover effect. Similar results were obtained the Cowcod Conservation Areas established in the southern Channel Islands in 2001, where abundances of six of eight targeted species and four of seven non-targeted rockfish species increased regionally from 1998 to 2013.74 Rising temperatures during the study are a complicating factor. Nevertheless, 75% of targeted species but none of the non-targeted species increased inside compared to outside of the MPAs while controlling for environmental factors.

The establishment of very large marine protected areas within exclusive economic zones has increased the area of ocean within MPAs to only 3.5%, about half of which are under strong protection.75 Meanwhile, most ocean ecosystems are hemorrhaging, as major fishing fleets continue to expand their global operations.76 This may be changing, however, as the international community finally begins to seriously consider international governance of the high seas defined as areas beyond national jurisdictions. The first major achievement in this was the agreement to establish the worlds largest marine protected area by the twenty-five-national-member Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.77 The agreement protects all wildlife and bans fishing for overfished krill and Patagonian and Antarctic Toothfish in 600,000 square miles in the Ross Sea for thirty-five years. Much more will have to be done, however, to preserve populations around Antarctica where these species are threatened by overfishing and rapid climate change and have ripple effects on the marine mammals and penguins that depend upon them.

The scientific case for closing the high seas to fisheries is strong. Nearly 98% of global seafood production comes from the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of individual nations and aquaculture. What does come from the high seas is mostly luxury species such as tuna and billfishes, yet their commercial value is even less.78 Moreover, most high seas fisheries are heavily dependent on government subsidies by a small number of wealthy countries that can afford the enormous costs.79 Closure of the high seas to fishing would therefore have great economic and social benefits in addition to environmental protections of fish stocks and the long-distance migration routes of marine megafauna.80 Most compellingly, the overwhelming majority of high seas fishery species are also major components of fisheries within national EEZs, which means that closure of the high seas to fishing would produce a vast MPA where commercially important species could prosper, reproduce, and spill over into EEZs whose potential catches would increase.81 Further advantages would include simplification of policing the rampant problem of pirate fishing and transfers at sea.82

While commonly overshadowed by bad news, concerted actions to reduce pollution and protect keystone species have resulted in many recoveries of marine populations and ecosystems.83 The installation of modern sewage systems and the reduction in nutrient runoff have varyingly improved water quality, reduced excess planktonic productivity and toxic algal blooms, and restored seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and fisheries in estuaries around the world.84 These efforts demonstrate that even greater progress could be achieved in stabilizing coastal ecosystems if adequate measures are taken to eliminate or greatly reduce pollutant runoff, and most importantly agricultural nutrients.85 Serious efforts to do so have not yet materialized, however, because farmers dont have to pay for what they pollute. There is also a problem of scale in semi-enclosed seas like the Baltic because nutrient buildups in sediments are already so great that simply reducing nutrient runoff may not suffice.

Banning the use of fish pots around Bermuda in 1990, where fish populations had collapsed due to overfishing, resulted in rapid rebounding of fish populations dominated by schools of large parrotfish.86 Since then, abundances have remained high except for the large predatory fish that remain overfished. Coral populations also have steadily increased due to the control of algal populations by the abundant parrotfish. Caribbean coral reefs are generally extremely overfished, but the few places where both fishing and pollution are effectively controlled uniquely support high coral abundance.

Detail of farmed salmon scales, Norway. Michelle-Marie Letelier,Outline for The Bonding (Still #2), 2017. 16mm film transferred to HD. Image courtesy of the artist.

Despite important accomplishments, comprehensive policies are lacking to address the unsustainability of the modern economy that is driving ecosystem collapses and threatening human wellbeing.87 Nature is a complex system, and much of that system as we knew it is irreversibly breaking down.88 Environmental perturbations in one place almost inevitably have repercussions down the line, be it agricultural pollution in the US cornbelt causing the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico or the effects of runoff and overfishing on outbreaks of disease affecting reef corals. Huge energy and investment in projects to restore populations of corals in Florida and on the Great Barrier Reef are making much progress in terms of the technical details of raising, breeding, and growing corals, but they are also absurdly expensive and small scale, not to mention that putting the corals back into the same nutrient polluted environments and expecting them to somehow survive is folly. More fundamentally, they are bandaids to address the symptoms of ocean decline rather than addressing the fundamental root causes of the ocean crisis: global warming, overfishing, and land-based pollution.89

The most encouraging development towards adapting to and managing these realities is that large scale efforts to decarbonize the global economy are beginning to gain traction despite political intransigence, not least because, in addition to its obvious advantages for human health and the environment, green energy is financially a better option than heavily subsidized fossil fuels.90 California, the fifth largest global economy, is committed to be carbon neutral by 2045 and is well on track, and electric cars are becoming a more practical alternative to gasoline and diesel. The outstanding question is how rapidly opposition can be overcome to speed things up and take actions on the appropriate scales.

This paper is adapted from a presentation at the University of Utah submitted to Island Press. The author is grateful to Jennifer Jacquet for her helpful review of the manuscript.

Oceans in Transformation is a collaboration between TBA21Academy and e-flux Architecture within the context of the eponymous exhibition at Ocean Space in Venice by Territorial Agency and its manifestation on Ocean Archive.

Jeremy Jackson is Senior Scientist Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution and Professor of Oceanography Emeritus at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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Revaluing the Oceans - Architecture - e-flux - E-Flux

Nihilism: Examples and Definition | Philosophy Terms

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I. Definition

What do you believe in? What gives your life meaning? How do you know whats true? If you can answer these questions without saying nothing, youre not a nihilist. Nihilism, most simply, means believing in nothing. The word is derived from Latin, nihil, which means nothing.

Nihilism can mean believing that nothing is real, believing that its impossible to know anything, believing that all values are based on nothing, especially moral values, or believing that life is inherently and utterly meaningless. We will discuss these different kinds of nihilism through its history and in section five.

Most philosophers have feared nihilism, believing that it leads to hopelessness, immorality, weakness, and destruction. Nihilism has probably been the most universally demonized philosophy in the Western world. In the East, its quite different, because, Buddhism is considered nihilistic by many philosophers, but is thought to lead to compassion and peace. We will discuss this too in the following sections.

Although many philosophers have considered nihilism almost synonymous with amorality and the idea that life has no meaning, this point of view may be outdated. Nihilism gained its fame during the years when people in the Western world were just beginning to cope with the idea that there may be no God, or that all value systems are relative to culture, and they couldnt imagine living a moral or meaningful life without God and traditional culture to fall back on. However, more recent generations have seen more optimistic versions of nihilism (see section seven).

Nihilism was named by the philosopher Friedrich Jacobi in the early 19th century; Jacobi believed that Immanuel Kants transcendental idealism implied what we will call metaphysical nihilismthe idea that nothing is real. Although this was not to be the most famous and supposedly dangerous form of nihilism, it was a criticism of Kants philosophy. Jacobi was not a nihilist. However, this motivation for nihilismthe analysis of reality as a subjective construction of minds, is a central reason for most forms nihilismthe recognition that in one way or another all meaning in the universe is created by the minds of those that perceive it.

The roots of nihilism in the Western world go back to the Greeks (like everything in philosophy!) The ancient Greek Skeptics believed that one should doubt, question, and examine all beliefs. Whether there would be any truths left afterwards remained an open question. The skeptical attitude became a crucial element of science and reason, but did not bear the fruit of nihilism in the West until after rationalism and materialism became major philosophies in the 18th and 19th centuries. Together, rationalism and materialism implied to many people that the universe was a soul-less machine, therefore devoid of real meaning.

The first famous nihilist was a fictional character in Russian author Turgenevs novel Fathers and Sons. And this reflected a reality; nihilism was growing rapidly in Russia at this time and in the late 19th century, it became political nihilism, a movement against both the church and the Russian governmenta rejection of all traditional authority. Rationalism, materialism, atheism, anarchism, nihilism, and the possibility of violent revolution all seemed closely related at that timewhich is also why nihilism is still associated with violence and destruction in many minds.

At the same time, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the most famous theorist of nihilism, argued that the world at that time was bound to become increasingly nihilistic for many years, and therefore full of despair, immorality, and pointless destruction. But, he also claimed that it was probably necessary for humanity to go through such a period in order to wipe away the irrationality of age-old traditional beliefs and eventually create a better basis for ethics and life-meaning. Of course, Nietzsches superman, the perfection of humanity, would be a nihilist, not bound by inherited ideas, creating his or her own meaning, according to their will.

Nietzsche recognized that developments in philosophy were going to encourage all of us towards nihilismrationalism, materialism, skepticism, science, and the recognition of cultural relativity. Many philosophers saw this problem and many agree that Nietzsches predictions were correct, that we have been living through the horrors that he foresaw resulting from nihilism. It would be easy to argue that much of the immorality and pointless violence we see in the world today is partially rooted in nihilism; but, we must then also note that a lot of violence is also caused by the opposite of nihilismfaith in traditional beliefs.

If 19th century philosophers saw nihilism as an approaching demon, 20th century philosophers saw it as a fact of life and searched for ways to cope with it. Existentialism, the central philosophy of the 20th century, was certainly nihilistic. And depressingly so for many; existential nihilism focuses on the ultimate meaninglessness of existence. Existentialism taught that there is no objective meaning; but, existentialists also emphasized our freedom to create meaning. And this is where nihilism began to move in a better direction. The existentialists, although often depressed, promoted the idea that we can (in fact must) give life our own meaning.

In the second half of the 20th century, new philosophies developed carrying nihilism in another directionwhich many philosophers find at least as distressing as any previous versions! Those are the philosophies / art movements of deconstruction and post-modernism. Deconstruction was a method of analysis which showed in many ways how meanings are constructed, supposedly with no ultimate foundationno solid reality behind them. And post-modernism consisted mainly of artists playing with the consequences of deconstruction and trying to create new human meaning out of this nihilistic world-view.

Every version of nihilism (see section five) has been feared by people who felt that without a foundation in objective truth or faith, it is impossible to have morality, life-meaning, or knowledge. However, there are many philosophies, such as secular humanism, Buddhism, and post-modernism which claim that it is possible to develop new and better forms of morality, knowledge, and life-meaning, without reliance on faith, which may be seen as deceptive and limiting. Buddhists base their morality on the recognition that all living things suffer and depend on each other. Post-modernists use new artistic techniques that recognize the artificially constructed nature of meaning, such as when characters in movies speak directly to the audience. So, it seems that nihilism can also lead to new and valuable forms of morality and meaning-making.

I praise, I do not reproach, [nihilisms] arrival. I believe it is one of the greatest crises, a moment of the deepest self-reflection of humanity. Whether man recovers from it, whether he becomes master of this crisis, is a question of his strength Friedrich Nietzsche

As remarked above, Nietzsche is known for sounding the alarm about nihilism in Western philosophy. More interesting is that he saw nihilism as an opportunity for humanity to master itself, and a test of our strength. It can be inferred from his other writings that Nietzsche though human beings could and should create positive meaning, if they could free themselves from the limitations of irrational traditions.

But todays society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness. If one is not cognizant of this difference and holds that an individuals value stems only from his present usefulness, then, believe me, one owes it only to personal inconsistency not to plead for euthanasia along the lines of Hitlers program, that is to say, mercy killing of all those who have lost their social usefulness, be it because of old age, incurable illness, mental deterioration, or whatever handicap they may suffer. Confounding the dignity of man with mere usefulness arises from conceptual confusion that in turn may be traced back to the contemporary nihilism transmitted on many an academic campus and many an analytical couch. Viktor E. Frankl, Mans Search for Meaning

In this quote, Victor Frankl claims that our society values people only for their usefulness, and blames this attitude on a kind of nihilism, which he associates with academics, and psychotherapy. He is talking about the reduction of human meaning, by reason, to materialism and functionalismthat the only things that matter are materials and what things (or people) do, practically. He argues that if you really believe in this world-view you should support the idea of killing off all useless members of society, as Hitler wished to do. Frankls fear that nihilism could support Nazi-like policies was a common fear among philosophers in the mid-twentieth century.

Here, we define each type of nihilism, most of which are also discussed in sections I and II.

The philosophy that we cannot know anything for sure. Also known as radical skepticism. This might be considered the gateway philosophy for nihilism. It seems to be a consequence of rationalism.

The belief that nothing is real, or that nothing really exists. Historically, based on idealismthe philosophy that everything is made of either ideas, or consciousness. Buddhism could be considered a kind of metaphysical nihilism.

The rejection of faith in traditional authorities including the government and the churchalso specifically a movement of this sort in late 19th century Russia.

The philosophy that existence ultimately has no meaning, including no God, no afterlife, and no transcendental domain of any kind. Often thought of as a philosophy of despair.

The belief that there is no solid basis for morality or any ethos, and therefore, that anything is permitted. Many people have felt this is a necessary consequence of atheism, but most atheists disagree.

Methods of literary analysis and art based on the idea that all meanings are constructed by minds and culture, and have no real basis.

Buddhism teaches a form of idealismthat consciousness is the fundamental reality, and that all conceivable objects and thoughts are temporary, illusory, and ultimately emptylike thoughts. Form is emptiness; emptiness is form is a major Buddhist quote. However, in Buddhism, this realization is supposed to lead to compassion and peace.

Historically, nihilism has been closely associated with atheismthe belief that there is no God. Because traditionally, people were raised to think of God and religion as the ultimate source of meanings and morality. However, although atheism, or at least agnosticism, would seem to be a necessary part of nihilism, they are not the same. An atheist may still believe in meaning, morality, or even spirituality. For example, nature-worshipper can be atheists but still believe in nature. And some atheists, such as Buddhists, believe in the goodness of human nature and the value of compassion.

Popular film has been full of nihilistsTyler Durden of Fight Club, Agent Smith of the Matrix, Heath Ledgers Joker in The Dark Knight all express nihilistic world-views. Fight Club seems to examine the causes and consequences of contemporary existential nihilism, but not necessarily to promote it; although the urge to burn it all down has a cathartic appeal to many viewers, in the end, the protagonist tries to save lives, perhaps showing that he is not a total nihilist.

And now, for something completely different:

Eric Idles Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Monty Pythons film The Life of Brian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

The setting for this musical number makes the main lyrics of this song bitterly absurd; in this context, they express the meaningless absurdity of life. You will notice though, that as the song goes on, the lyrics more and more directly express a philosophy of existentialist nihilism. The Life of Brian was banned in Britain for years, due to its implicit atheism.

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Nihilism: Examples and Definition | Philosophy Terms

Nihilism – RationalWiki

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Nihilism is the philosophical belief that life and the universe have no meaning. In general, nihilists are considered to be wanton hedonists since their life has no meaning, yet the concept is also commonly associated with the opposite extreme of suicidal depression.

Classical Russian nihilism concerned itself primarily with trying to destroy pretty much everything (because nihilism here meant "annihilating" everything old, so it makes way for the new way). Things would start over ex nihilo, from nothing... supposedly. In reality it was a philosophical and socio-cultural movement against the socially extremely backward Czarist Empire at an age of secularism and growing religious apathy. For the Russian nihilists, the term meant the complete destruction of an antiquated, oppressive world that in their view could not be reformed without being destroyed. Their references were the French Revolution and French early socialism, British utilitarianism and German materialism.

For some reason, despite the number of atheistic philosophies that still find purpose and joy in life, many religious people consider nihilism the logical extension of atheism. This is despite the fact that the most eloquent expression of nihilism is actually found in a holy book:

On the other hand, secular atheists, particularly intellectuals and philosophers, have also thought of nihilism, in the sense of 'urge to destroy indiscriminately' as a precursor to Nazism and totalitarianism,[1] probably because they are evocative of images of unethical practices and wholesale atrocities. But these were carried out in the name of social, political and racial purposes, i.e. in the name of moral values like race or class. No historically attested totalitarian is known to have had nihilistic views in the philosophical sense. Quite the opposite. It is reasonable to think that such views would be highly counter-productive to their power and the moral beliefs underlying it.

Sren Kierkegaard was one of the first modern philosophers to discuss nihilism. He posited a philosophy of nihilism known as leveling, -- a process of suppressing and removing individuality to such a point where an individual lacks the traits that make him unique. Without being an individual, life and one's very existence becomes void of any meaning. This philosophy is not the fully developed nihilism that was to come because Kierkegaard believed leveling created a life without meaning or value, but that life itself has inherent meaning and value.[2] Modern nihilism, beginning with Nietzsche, would claim life has no inherent meaning period. If however nihilism is defined as the doctrine of negation in reference to religion of morals then Marquis de Sade, Julien Offray de La Mettrie or Max Stirner deserve the label just as much as (if indeed not more than) Nietzsche.

But Nietzsche remains the philosopher most popularly identified as a nihilist and the first philosopher popularly thought of when nihilism is mentioned. He generally describes nihilism as "a condition of tension, as a disproportion between what we want to value (or need) and how the world appears to operate." Nietzsche, however, is mainly associated with the philosophical statement "God is dead", which holds that the Christian God is no longer a viable source of any moral principles, therefore leading to a rejection of an objective and universal moral law, with a lack of moral basis ultimately turning into nihilism. However he also states that with God out of the way, human creative abilities could fully blossom and without turning an eye toward a spiritual realm, humanity could begin to acknowledge the value of the world. Nietzsche was thus not a nihilist himself (at least in his later years) but rather dedicated to combating nihilism, which he feared was overtaking the West. He is usually identified as an existentialist. In fact, both he and Kierkegaard are sometimes labeled the "father of existentialism" though obviously they had very different positions, especially on Christianity.

However, other modern-era figures that could be called 'nihilists' too like Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume or Albert Camus have distinct positions as well. As such nihilism cannot unequivocally be connected with a single person unlike most philosophical schools of thought and is not very useful when it comes to grouping different thinkers. Its rarity and looseness as a doctrine is perhaps due to an innate 'senselessness' or 'meaninglessness' or its flirtations with philosophical irrationalism and just plain irrationality. Or it could be due to a certain supra-historical dimension reflecting the social domination throughout history of value-based systems of thought, religious or otherwise.

On an unrelated note, nihilism is not just the most ludicrous or comical but the most metal and 'grim' and 'brutal' of philosophies, being propounded by both Toki Wartooth and Skwisgaar Skwigelf. ANUS (American Nihilist Underground Society) is also one of the first heavy metal databases (founded back in 1987), who like to use big, complex words to daze the reader into believing they are accomplished intellectuals, as well as finding ways to draw correlations between nihilism and any metal band whatsoever.[3] Making Sense? Ha!

When taken to extremes, one can then state that life itself is meaningless, and that everyone around them is meaningless, you can then justify murder or suicide based on the fact you think all morality has no meaning. Luckily, most nihilists do not go to this extreme.

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Nihilism - RationalWiki

A Timeline Of Nihilism And Fecklessness – Outside The Beltway – Mobile Edition

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How about crowd sourcing a timeline for all of Trump's enablers?

Kingdaddy Monday, July 20, 2020 12 comments

Steven Taylors concise summary of Trumps mishandling of the pandemic is extremely useful. I would propose that we need the same type of timeline for his enablers. Not only must Trump go, but so too all of the people who gave him the gas can and matches, then stood by as he burned down the country. What were they doing at key moments since January 2017?

While the list of enablers is quite long, perhaps it would be sufficiently manageable if we were to limit it, for starters, to the US Congress. Take, for example, US Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colorado). As the screenshot shown above from his web site suggests, he is a very typical Republican senator who, among other typical behaviors, trumpets his ability to bring federal benefits to his state, and enjoys being photographed with the troops, a folksy shorthand to young men and women who have committed to putting themselves in harms way in defense of the rest of us.

Just a couple of weeks ago though, due to the Trumpian time dilation effect, it feels like months a major story concerning the troops broke. Russian agents were paying the Taliban bounties for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan, and the current regime had done nothing about it. After the story appeared in The New York Times, Trump and White House officials focused on defending themselves against accusations that presidents should read their daily intelligence briefings. They did not state whether would be any action against Russia.

What was Cory Gardner talking about in the days after the story broke? In his Twitter feed and his Facebook posts (pretty much the same content), Gardner said nothing about the Russian bounties. Gardner did continue to promote his earlier idea to label Russia a sponsor of state terrorism. To his credit, Cory Gardner after the Times published the story did not undercut past Cory Gardner. Unfortunately, he also let Trump off the hook, saying that Congressional Democrats had the same information. Of course, if that were true, he is implicitly assuming that they had the obligation to read it, and paid them the backhanded compliment that they probably lived up to that high standard. He is also implying that the President of the United States has no more obligation to review intelligence and act on it than a member of the House or Senate.

It did not take me long to unearth how Gardner enabled Trump through the painfully familiar pattern of first ignoring something horrible that Trump did, then attempting to shift blame when confronted with that fact. It would not be hard to expand that effort to more senators, and more moments like these. Imagine if there were a crowd-sourced effort to map every senators response or non-response to a terrible Trump action or statement. Children in cages, betraying the Kurds, hawking hydroxychloroquine, violating the Hatch Act on the behalf of a Trump-friendly bean tycoon, pardoning Roger Stone, saying that white supremacists included some very fine people, chasing non-existent election fraud in a transparent effort to suppress voting, firing the FBI director for not swearing loyalty to Trump personally, forcefully clearing Lafayette Square of peaceful protesters so that he could hold a Bible for the camerasWhat was the senator from the great state of [fill in the blank] doing that day, and in the days afterwards?

If it were not for this group, Trump would be a toxic clown, instead of an active threat to public health, the economy, Americas standing in the world, and our political system. They deserve just as much scrutiny of their cynical and pointless efforts to stay in office, in lieu of what they could have done to prevent these calamities, as does the Current Occupant.

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Beware, ye Muslims, of the misleading ways of Liberalism – Kashmir Reader

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Mugees ul Kaisar

Modernist Muslims who cut themselves off from tradition, thinking that with the passage of time we develop better understanding of things, are putting themselves in a quite vulnerable position. Their actions suggest that modernity and post-modernity are closer in conformity to truth than Prophet Muhammad was, 14 centuries ago.Religion is based on metaphysical intellect which is trans-temporal and trans-historical. Truth is one and the same since primordial man and will remain so till the day of apocalypse. It is modern (western) mans arrogance to assume that all tradition, all humankind, everywhere in all ages got it all wrong. This man assumes that only recently, post the enlightenment in Europe, we have finally been able to crack the mystery of existence. Although modern physics particularly quantum physics has successfully restored the scent of mystery back into our lives, upsetting modern rational mans expectation on how the universe should behave, and the two world wars in the 20th century have shattered the myth of scientific progress and enlightenment, the two great rallying points for the project of modernity.A striking similarity between modernity and modernist liberal Muslims is the divorce from tradition and a radical emphasis on the individual. We see many modern Muslim scholars stepping outside of tradition and relying on their own individual capacities and capabilities. We need to have an estimate of what this radical emphasis on the individual has brought forth in western arts, sciences, and cultures. Cartesian Cogito (individual thinking ego) which was the central point of division between physics and metaphysics formed the departure point of Humanism and Individualism. It failed to comprehend reality and thus hit a dead end in Nihilism and Absurdism. This is because reality is about a whole while a ripped off individual is not.This problem gradually became prominent with the advent of post-Nietzschean western era. The subjectivity of modernity (with its polar objectivity) became over-subjectivity in post-modernity and finally dissolved into absurdity. The human subject defined by evolutionism, psychologism and neuroscience was severed from transcendence, and put at the centre of the knowledge enterprise. This individual human which was supposed to be the sole decipherer of the mystery of existence stands deconstructed in the post-modern abyss. Devoid of dimensions, immersed in physicalism, cut off from tradition, separated from a larger metaphysic, the western man (and his narrative) is left alone and dejected.Any Muslim attempt to digress or deviate from Islamic tradition, with the sole trust on individual, is dangerous and a recipe for their destruction.Lets delve into Muslim attempts of reconciling tradition with modern liberalism and secularism. Many Muslims naively think that liberalism is some kind of universal human sensibility, with reference to which we should evolve all our narratives including religion. All demythologising, de-sacralising, liberalising and secularising attempts are product of this mentality. When in fact the truth of the matter is that liberalism and liberal attitude is nothing but white man-centric sensibility. Cutting off hands of a thief is barbaric, crude and disgusting, but homosexuality, incest, bastard children are normalised. We need to see through the facade and ask pressing critical questions.One of the main arguments that secularists & liberals employ against Islam is that many Islamic laws are against human rights. Although this claim is contentious, let us for the sake of argument accept it. The question that arises is how modern liberals (most of whom are moral nihilists & relativists) can even make objective moral judgments in the first place? Who gives them the right to make moral judgments when according to them there are no true objective morals at all? In the post-Nietzschean western world, where God is Dead, there are no objective moral standards that can be referred to. As for human rights, we need to ask what exactly are they?A fluid, contingent, destabilised, Eurocentric, made-up list of rights of man is not a universal standard at all. In 1948 some white men got together and wrote down the charter of human rights. It is not a god-given document. In the Muslim world there is the concept of mothers rights, whereby a son has to be good to his mother. Such a right is not entertained at all in human rights. It is not even conceived. These are two different ontic worlds with contrasting epistemologies. Why should Islam be held accountable to white mens sensibility which has no ontological grounding and is a product of ever evolving convention? Since when did the wests moral sensibility become the objective norm and the universal standard?All liberalising and secularising attempts of religion are nothing but infatuations left over by colonialism. It is the disease of Eurocentrism that continues to haunt us.Muslims need to understand that religion is a trans-temporal reality at its core. Liberalism is a sub-human discourse which mutates every now and then. Yesterday, homosexuality was a crime, today it is a human right. This is what Zygmunt Bauman refers to as Liquid Modernity. No doubt that religion has the aspect of mutagayaraat, the variables, but their functioning (how they play out) is dictated by the static foundation of religion itself and not whimsical progress of fluid human sensibility. This is the reason Ahmed Javed does not consider modernity (and its liberal outgrowths) as any kind of static worldview that could define or regulate human behaviour, because it sees the individual man as the measure of all things (homo mensura) who decides not in reference to any metaphysic but is rather like a clever animal (thanks to Darwin) who only acts according to a particular problem/ situation at hand, as John Dewey would say.Therefore, our youth should shun this false idea that liberalism is some kind of objective, collective treasure of mankind that we should conform to. Any attempt to conform and reconcile religion with liberalism or for that matter any other modern ism, uncritically assumes that liberalism (or these isms) are somehow objectively true standards with reference to which we should judge religion. Who gave us these standards? Who and what justifies these standards? Who provides the first principle proofs of their truth and certainty? If it is social pressure which is fluid, dynamic and relative, then we cannot objectively hold them to be of any standard value. If we hold these rights and moral sensibilities to be trans-human objective realities then we need God (who transcends all contingent subjectivities) as a grounding to support those values. But how far is the present secular/ liberal world open and accommodating to the idea of God? It is not difficult to guess given the way God has been forced out from all spheres of our lives.

The writer is a student of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

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Beware, ye Muslims, of the misleading ways of Liberalism - Kashmir Reader

Finding livable balance: It’s 2020 and I’m pretty OK – The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

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When I was a senior in high school, I noted one day that my nemesis was carrying a compact little tome called 14,000 Things to Be Happy About, which she conspicuously read between classes.

Because I was at a time in my life when I thought I should be reading stuff like The Dharma Bums and Naked Lunch two books Ive yet to finish because land the plane already, Jack Kerouac, and WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT, WILLIAM BURROUGHS??? I sneered at her simple-minded literary choice.

I did, however, surreptitiously sneak a peek at Barbara Ann Kipfers obsessive opus the next time I was at B. Dalton in Mesa Mall.

What I remember is being underwhelmed by suggestions that I be happy about the purest potato taste imaginable and bean lovers, as well as a reflective turn of mind and a special spirit of enjoyment found in New England. Since that time, Ive had the opportunity to be screamed at by enraged drivers in Boston, so I guess Ms. Kipfer can take that reflective turn of mind and stick it in the yacht supply stations shes so happy about.

But Ill confess, Ive been harking back to those 14,000 things lately because, well, I think many of us can agree that 2020 hasnt exactly been an explosion of Dilly Bars and winning lottery tickets. I believe the term most often used to describe this year is Dumpster fire, to the point that its clich and I spend a lot of time pondering what could replace it. Diaper failure? Check engine light? Robo-spam calls?

While Im not saying cock-eyed optimism is the answer, I dont think an Eeyore-ish wallow in nihilism is, either. Im just flailing around with all the grace of a newborn giraffe on roller skates, trying to figure out a livable balance. So, Im keeping a running mental tally of Stuff I Feel Pretty OK About.

It may not be blissful joy, but neither is it a live reading of The Bell Jar. Its pretty OK, and Im pretty OK with that. In no particular order, then, some Stuff I Feel Pretty OK About:

Learning that Id accrued enough grocery store points to get 20 cents off per gallon of gas. Granted, that means Id spent $200 at the grocery store and $183 of those dollars went toward sour cream and cheddar Baked Ruffles, but still: 20 cents off per gallon!

Eating sour cream and cheddar Baked Ruffles.

Walking barefoot to get the mail, across the concrete front steps and driveway, and the concrete is hot but falls just short of being unbearable. Its pretty OK when my lazy refusal to put on flip flops is rewarded.

Stopping my cats just before they eat something weird off the floor.

Reaffirming that I remember all the world capitals. Its one of my party tricks: I know all 197 world capitals, so probably you should never play Categories with me because I WILL choose world capitals and I WILL get full points on every single one. Anyway, every so often I go to sporcle.com and take the world capitals quiz, just to reaffirm that yep, I know em all.

Getting everything to fit in the dishwasher even though some of it probably wont get clean.

Harmonizing with Johnny Cash on Streets of Laredo (the version from American IV). Why this particular song? Couldnt tell you, but Johnny and I sound pretty OK together.

Checking Instagram for new items tagged #catsareweird or #babyhippo.

Emptying the change out of my wallet and into the gallon glass jar in which I save it, and saying the word plink as I drop coins individually through the narrow neck.

Informing my morning glory tower that its creepy. I planted morning glories in a big pot and built a tower out of chicken wire for them to climb, which they have and now theyre twisting and knotting all over each other at the top. I tell them its creepy, but secretly I think its neat.

Sitting in my adult-size beanbag chair and calling it exactly that: adult-size beanbag chair.

Lying in bed and making arbitrary mental lists as I drift to sleep: The 10 best things Ive ever eaten. My top five Bob Dylan albums. Seven literary characters I wish were real and I could be friends with them.

Reminding myself that for now, pretty OK is actually pretty darn good.

n

Rachel Sauer is at rs81501@gmail.com and would love to hear what you feel pretty OK about.

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Finding livable balance: It's 2020 and I'm pretty OK - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

The Battle over Ole Miss: Why a flagship university has stood behind a nickname with a racist past – CNN

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The University of Mississippi is facing a fight over its very identity.

Like other universities, the state's flagship campus in Oxford is not generally addressed by its full name. For more than a century, it's been called Ole Miss. It sounds like folksy shorthand for Old Mississippi.

The term's actual origin is more unsettling.

In 1896, a fraternity-backed council asked students to name the new school yearbook. Student Elma Meek proffered Ole Miss.

She borrowed it from the vernacular of the antebellum "darkey," who used it as a term of reverence for the slave master's wife, Meek told the university newspaper in 1937.

The story, which explains how the term became "the valued possession" of the university at large, ran under the headline: "Ole Miss takes its name from darky dialect, not abbreviation of state."

She felt the term was a tribute to Southern women, the paper reported.

'We will continue to use the terms'

The university declined CNN's requests to discuss the matter with the chancellor or provost, saying, "Our leadership is absorbed with Covid-19 planning as we prepare to resume on-campus operations safely."

UM has been here before

They see what's happened across the nation since Floyd's death. His killing ignited a simmering movement to redefine the legacies of Confederates and other historic figures -- and statues have dropped like bowling pins since.

"It feels like you're in the Upside Down. Everywhere else in the country these statues are coming down," UM associate history professor Anne Twitty said. "You feel like you're fighting the battle of 15, 20 years ago."

Thinking back on the struggles she's seen since joining the faculty in 2010, she said, "The battle over Ole Miss will be particularly hot."

Last month, Blake Hinson, a guard on UM's basketball team, put the school's ties to the Confederacy in the headlines by transferring to Iowa State.

The dangerous messaging at play

Jack Carey received his master's and doctorate at the university. He devoted a section of his dissertation to "the invention of Ole Miss" and is writing a book, "Jim Crow U.," about flagship Southern universities during segregation.

"There's really no ambiguity about what (Elma Meek's) tapping into: a romanticized vision of the Old South and slavery," said Carey, a University of Alabama instructor of American studies. "A lot of people don't think that much about it, which makes it all the more important to acknowledge the origin. It's quite a bit to try to explain away or rationalize."

Aside from sending an unwelcoming message to more than a third of the state's residents, who are Black -- along with those who feel those residents' lives and feelings matter -- retaining the nickname poses deeper dangers in its messaging, he said:

By romanticizing slavery, Carey said, an institution doesn't have to confront it.

"To speak honestly about the origin requires a pretty serious reckoning not just with the name but also the institution's identity," Carey said.

By fighting to keep its name and other holdovers of the Confederacy, he said, the university sends a strong message to prospective Black students: "Go somewhere else."

"That is not the way that a flagship state university should be imagining itself," Carey said. "That's really exclusionary in terms of who that university would welcome, and its commitment to academic freedom and diversity of thought."

'I think rebellion is a good thing'

Not everyone concurs with Carey. On Facebook and in interviews, many students and alumni -- and some would argue most -- feel the same way the university does about keeping Ole Miss. Despite their alignment with university leaders, they worry because the school has defended traditions like Colonel Reb and "Dixie" in the past, only to relent under pressure, said Howie Morgan, a 2000 graduate and political consultant.

"I think the problem that anyone's going to have in the current climate is the University of Mississippi, through its leadership over the last several decades, has not been honest with the students, alumni and fan base in their argument to change the symbols," he said.

That the Ku Klux Klan and other hatemongers co-opted the flag after the Civil War is just an example of groups stealing symbols, he said: "The Klan also used an American flag. The Nazis also stole a Christian symbol."

He frowns on efforts to change Ole Miss or Rebels, echoing his alma mater's assertion that they've taken on new meanings. Those who fought for suffrage and to end child labor were rebels, he said.

"I think rebellion is a good thing," he said.

He worries outside pressure is pushing administrators to "change from a niche market into a more bland university so we would blend in with all the other universities across the United States."

'We're destined to repeat the bad'

For senior Lauren Moses, a columnist for the school paper, the controversial symbols, along with Ole Miss and Rebels, are not honors. They're reminders, she said.

"Things that happened around the Civil War, we remember those things. We don't celebrate them, but we remember. I don't think the majority of students who utter the words support neo-Nazis or racism," she said. "For me, Ole Miss means both the good parts and the bad parts of our history."

"I see a sort of nihilism. We're trying to whitewash our history and get rid of everything that's bad," she told CNN. "I think that's dangerous for society and dangerous for Ole Miss specifically. We're destined to repeat the bad."

'If they're not willing to unlearn, we're at a standstill'

Carl Tart, 22, the university's first homecoming king, faced backlash when he told his family he was attending UM. Relatives disapproved of its racist and Confederate history, he said, but he had attended an all-Black high school in Yazoo City.

"I knew the world wasn't going to be all Black," he said. "I wanted to learn how to navigate the world with people who are different from me."

Once on campus, he'd experience a range of racism. He shared anecdotes about hateful messages Facebook and screen grabs of death threats on Snapchat targeting Black students. Other bigotry he experienced was more Archie Bunker than Bull Connor, he said.

White students at pep rallies couldn't tell star wide receiver D.K. Metcalf from other Black players, he said. They'd blurt out the n-word while singing along with rap music in local bars. At tailgates in The Grove, Tart and other Black students had to check each other's backs to make sure no one put "Our State Flag" stickers on them. Unwilling to study in halls named for racists (the contextualization plaques "didn't go far enough"), Tart did most of his schoolwork at home, he said.

Despite his stature, 6-foot-5 and almost 300 pounds, he found himself anxious when a vehicle pulled alongside him bearing the Confederate flag.

"I tense up because I have no idea if these people are about to target me. I have no clue what's going to happen from this point forward," he said.

On June 19, he issued an ultimatum: If his alma mater breaks ground on a shrine glorifying the relocated Confederate statue, count him out of any marketing initiatives expected of him as homecoming king.

"It's time for change and change is happening whether people like it or not. We have to start leaving behind these old traditions and these old prejudiced ways and bring positivity to the change," he said.

Now a graduate student at Louisiana State, Tart bristles at the idea Ole Miss can be "rebranded" with new meaning. He doesn't understand how university leaders can continue to justify its use, he said.

"We're expected to basically assimilate into a culture that's not ours. You can teach a person so many things, but if they're not willing to unlearn, we're at a standstill," he said. "It's not OK you're allowing Black students to live in fear."

A conflicted Black student experience

"The biggest problem is Ole Miss is a brand. It's making money," she said.

The 22-year-old graduated in May and is destined for the other Oxford, in England, come fall, but she has made the drive from her hometown, Tunica, for campus protests. The statue has spawned a few.

As a young orientation ambassador, Hudson recalls debunking "wild" rumors from prospective Black students -- no, the KKK doesn't live on campus; no, they're not still lynching people in Oxford -- while affirming other disturbing elements of the university's history.

"Some of this stuff happened, but that doesn't mean you don't belong here," she'd tell them.

She occasionally wears Ole Miss apparel but takes a harder line on Rebels gear. Her aunt won't wear any of it, she said. Depending on Hudson's audience, Ole Miss might slip out in conversation, but never in interviews or academic settings. Still, Hudson thinks the sobriquet sends a negative message, she said.

"I think it definitely means we haven't come to terms with all the history of the University of Mississippi and our role with slavery, with Jim Crow, within the Reconstruction era," she said.

Honesty and transparency are often missing from the debate, she said, echoing a complaint heard from both sides. Administrators too often announce a victory, only to hatch secret plans "to glorify Lost Cause mythology rather than contextualize Civil War history," which is what Hudson believes happened with the statue, she said.

Real dialogue means listening to all sides and using opposing arguments to hone her own, she said.

"You have to get more people engaged with that history and understanding that history," she said. "Education pulls people to your side."

Administrators also do the right things for the wrong reasons, she and other students and faculty complained.

The stadium stick ban was purportedly about safety, rather than denouncing the Confederate flag. Ditching "Dixie" and Colonel Reb were couched as efforts to make pregame more inclusive. The new names for buildings and the statue relocation came after a consulting firm said such honors hurt the school's reputation.

"That's not the only problem or the main problem," she said, explaining that just once she'd like hear university leaders say, "No matter how much it costs or how much we lose, it's wrong and we're going to take it down."

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The Battle over Ole Miss: Why a flagship university has stood behind a nickname with a racist past - CNN

TD9 and Exchange Inflows: Reasons for Caution as Bitcoin Hits $10,440 – Cointelegraph

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The price of Bitcoin hit $10,463 on BitMEX, slightly below the previous peak in June. But two indicators are signaling a BTC cool-off: TD9 and exchange inflows.

The price of Bitcoin tests a crucial resistance level. Source: Raoul Pal

The TD9 is a trend-reversal indicator that is a part of the TD sequential system. It typically indicates if a rally or a correction is over-extended.

Similarly, exchange inflows, especially among whales, often suggest that the ongoing rally could be overcrowded.

A TD9 sell signal triggers essentially when the price of Bitcoin rises for nine consecutive days without a major pullback. If nine candles all stay above the close of the four candles prior, then a TD9 lights up.

Since July 19, the price of Bitcoin has increased from $9,219 to $10,463. The four candles prior to the most recent nine daily candles closed at $9,150, making a TD9.

The TD9 in itself could be unreliable. It does not take into account the fundamentals or technicals of an asset. But when BTC rallies for nine straight days, and it coincides with other factors, it might hint at a pullback.

Apart from the TD9, analysts are exploring exchange inflows of BTC. According to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young-Ju, exchange inflows spiked upon Bitcoins latest rally. He suggested that some whales could be getting cautious. He said:

BTC price went up too fast. Seems like other whales think so too.

Bitcoin exchange inflows spike as BTC surges. Source: CryptoQuant

The funding rates of perpetual futures contracts across major exchanges, like BitMEX and Binance Futures, are also surging.

Perpetual futures contracts do not have any expiration dates, unlike conventional futures contracts. As such, exchanges use a mechanism called funding to incentivize users that bet against the majority of the market.

For example, if the Bitcoin futures market has more than 60% of longs, the funding rate would increase and incentivize short holders.

Currently, the funding rates on BitMEX and Binance Futures are 0.072% and 0.054%, respectively. Usually, the funding rate of BTC perpetual contracts hovers at around 0.01%. It indicates that the majority of the market are longing, which might leave BTC vulnerable to a long squeeze.

Meanwhile, some other traders and technical analysts believe that Bitcoin may continue to rally without major pullbacks.

Zoran Kole, a cryptocurrency trader, said he expects Bitcoin to stabilize at the $10,000 to $10,100 support range, before moving upwards. Based on market structure, the trader explained that BTC could surge to as high as $11,500. He wrote:

Looking to long range high retest/DBS Zone. Invalidation below weekly open/9900 sweep. Targeting 11.5-11.6 weekly kumo top.

Raoul Pal, the CEO of Real Vision Group, said that the real rally of Bitcoin starts when BTC crosses $10,500. Whether it corrects before hitting the crucial resistance level is an uncertainty, Pal said. But he noted that he expects the momentum to continue. He said:

The real game in bitcoin begins over $10,500. Maybe it corrects first, maybe not but I'm hodling.

Simon Peters, a cryptoasset analyst at global investment platform eToro, shared his comments, saying:

Bitcoins network metrics are also looking pretty healthy. Glassnodes Reserve Risk metric is currently signaling an attractive risk-to-reward level, indicating that confidence is high and the price is low.

While several fundamental indicators point toward a minor short-term pullback, some traders believe the momentum of BTC is too strong for a deep correction.

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TD9 and Exchange Inflows: Reasons for Caution as Bitcoin Hits $10,440 - Cointelegraph

Global uncertainty appears to benefit gold, bitcoin and gold-backed stablecoins – Yahoo Finance

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Rallies in gold and bitcoin continued into Monday's morning trading session, a development underpinned by uncertainty around the global economy and a weakening U.S. dollar.

Bullion soared to record highs above $1,900 per once while bitcoin topped $10,300, its highest level since February. Meanwhile, the benchmark S&P 500 Index has shed more than 1% over the last five days.

As reported by The Financial Times, this year's gold rally has made it one of the best-performing assets against a backdrop of economic uncertainty tied to COVID-19 and possible inflation stemming from the subsequent fiscal and monetary measures. Meanwhile, the dollar has taken a hit, falling to a nearly two-year low relative to the euro, as reported by CNBC.

In a research note to clients, Goldman Sachs noted that it sees a strong case for "structural dollar weakness."

"Gold stands out as the clearest outperformer, exceeding its already-high beta to real yields. The dollar has also slightly underperformed as many pro-risk and Euro-centric currencies have seen even stronger-than-expected returns," the bank said.

Macquarie Group's Gareth Berry said during an interview with CNBC that the U.S. dollar would continue to weaken heading into the November presidential election.

"We are quite bearish on the U.S. dollar, not massively so ... but we do see scope for broad-based U.S. dollar weakness into the U.S. presidential elections in November," Berry said.

Demand for gold in this environment appears to have spilled over to the stablecoin gold world as well.

In an email to The Block, Tether said it saw a 60x increase in 24-hour trading volumes in its Tether Gold product, increasing from $67,000 to $677,000.

"While no one could of course have anticipated the severe challenges that we've all had to adapt to in 2020, it is clear that in times of uncertainty people like having accessibility to gold," Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said in a statement.

2020The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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Global uncertainty appears to benefit gold, bitcoin and gold-backed stablecoins - Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin Daily Transaction Value Is Set to Fall Below Tethers – Bloomberg

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Bitcoin was supposed to be the cryptocurrency for the masses. Instead, a different type of digital token has emerged as the blockchain worlds dominant force.

The aggregate daily dollar value of transactions made in stablecoins --essentially, digital assets such as Tether and USD coin that are pegged to world currencies like the greenback -- surpassed that of Bitcoins for the first time on June 29, according to researcher Coin Metrics. Tether is poised to surpass Bitcoin by itself, according to researcher Messari.

At this pace it looks like Tether alone will catch Bitcoin within a month or two, said Nic Carter, co-founder of Coin Metrics, whose data Messari used.

In U.S. dollars

Source: Coin Metrics

Tether, the dominant stablecoin, has also been the most controversial since its debut in 2015. The entities that control the coin are currently embroiled in a dispute with New Yorks attorney general over alleged misuse of client funds, claim the company has denied.

Tether and other stablecoins are often used by people operating outside banking and government controls such as for settlement by Asian export and import businesses, and in various lending and borrowing apps that have sprung up.

Most users do not want to transact in volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ether, preferring to hold them instead, so stablecoins are a great complement, said Ryan Watkins, research analyst at Messari.

The daily amount doesnt include transactions that occur within crypto exchanges, where Tether often serves as a conduit to conduct trading between different coins.

This doesnt mean there isnt a role for native cryptocurrencies to play, but it does mean that they have surrendered a fraction of their touted utility to the more convenient stablecoins, Carter said.

Read More: Tether, Not Bitcoin, Likely the Worlds Most Used Cryptocurrency

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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Bitcoin Daily Transaction Value Is Set to Fall Below Tethers - Bloomberg

Bitcoin Interest Wanes As A Violent Breakout Looms – Forbes

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Volatility Ahead Caution Sign - Blue Sky Background

Since the halving, bitcoins price has traded mostly between $9,000 and $10,000, compared to the red hot DeFi and alt coins that regularly post triple digit returns. In recent weeks, bitcoins range has tightened with many analysts noting a potentially violent price breakout on the horizon. However, there is no consensus on which direction the breakout will assume.

Charles Edwards, Founder of Capriole Investments, suggests bitcoins fundamentals have never looked better. I have a very bullish outlook in the mid to long term. For example, energy value is at all time highs, suggesting BTC is more valuable than ever before. When this is increasing, it is historically very bullish. This longer term indicator may suggest that a breakout leans towards the bulls.

Interestingly, bitcoins tightening volatility is not a new phenomenon, and occurred from late-September to early-November 2018, which ultimately broke out to the downside, falling from $6,500 to $3,400. One quantitative risk indicator value has been dropping quickly coupled with compressing price volatility. The only other time this dynamic unfolded was November 2018, which could suggest that a stark price fall is on the horizon. The caveat is that this signal has only occurred once before, thus suffers from a small sample size.

https://weeklyjab.substack.com/p/weekly-jab-bitcoin-analysis-3

Additionally, the anonymous Founder of Decentrader, Filb, notes derivatives open interest (OI) increasing as we have consolidated through this period by about 45%, is a similar amount seen before the fall in Q3 last year, to around 8k. It appears OI has been net increasing on dumps. This implies that...the market needs a catalyst to clear this OI out.

Tradingview.com, Decentrader.com

Furthermore, Filb adds, alts have continued their downward trajectory over the past few days, which are probably quite important as to what happens next; particularly if they start dumping and the money flowing back into bitcoin isnt doing anything. Something to pay attention to for sure.

Lastly, Bo Collins, CEO of San Juan Mercantile Bank and Trust, notes bitcoin CME futures volume growth from 2019 to 2020 is only approximately +10%, at the time of writing. This number becomes weaker when considering yearly foreign exchange (FX) futures volume growth can regularly eclipse +30%, e.g. 2018. Tepid bitcoin futures growth calls into question the institutional adoption narrative in some respects, and may imply less buying demand than originally suspected.

However, as shown by Glassnode.io, the amount of bitcoin held on centralized exchanges has dropped considerably since March, which seems bullish for bitcoin as spot investors appear to be holding for the long-term rather than short-term trading.

https://glassnode.com/

Furthermore, per Blockchair.com, bitcoin days destroyed supports the aforementioned notion, with 2020 metrics well within the historical average, including far smaller spikes than previous all-time highs, thus bullish.

https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/charts/coindays-destroyed?interval=full

Despite the differing analyses, the only thing that is certain, is that a strong breakout for bitcoin looms. Only time will tell which faction of analysts are proven correct.

Disclosure: The author owns bitcoin and ethereum.

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Bitcoin Interest Wanes As A Violent Breakout Looms - Forbes

Coinbase says it halted more than $280,000 in bitcoin transactions during Twitter hack – The Verge

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The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said that it stopped around 1,100 customers from sending bitcoin to hackers who gained access to high-profile Twitter accounts last week.

Last Wednesday, over 100 Twitter accounts, some belonging to major companies like Apple and high-profile people like Vice President Joe Biden and Bill Gates, were hacked as part of a massive coordinated bitcoin scam. According to Twitter, the hackers were able to convince some of the companys employees to use internal systems and tools to access the accounts and help the hackers defraud users into sending them bitcoin.

According to Forbes, Coinbase and other cryptocurrency exchanges were able to stop some customers from sending bitcoin to the hackers by blacklisting the hackers wallet address. Specifically, Coinbase says it prevented just over 1,000 customers from sending around $280,000 worth of bitcoin during last Wednesdays attack. Roughly 14 Coinbase users sent around $3,000 worth of bitcoin to the scams bitcoin address before the company moved to blacklist it, the company said.

We noticed the scam and began blocking transactions within a couple of minutes of the initial wave of scam posts, a Coinbase spokesperson told The Verge on Monday.

Twitter accounts belonging to cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance and Gemini were also targeted during Wednesdays attack. Coinbases chief information officer told Forbes on Sunday that it learned of the scam shortly after tweets were posted from fellow exchanges accounts.

As of Monday, Twitter is still investigating Wednesdays attack. On Friday, the company put out a blog post confirming that 130 accounts were targeted and the hackers were able to initiative a password reset, log in to the account, and send tweets for 45 of those accounts. Twitter also said that the hackers were able to download account data belonging to eight unverified users.

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Coinbase says it halted more than $280,000 in bitcoin transactions during Twitter hack - The Verge

Bitcoins price will more than double following the OCC decision – Crypto News Flash

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Source: R.Danyliuk - Shutterstock

The past few weeks have seen perhaps the biggest news of the year for the crypto space. As CNF reported, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published a letter clarifying that all licensed banks in the US are allowed to offer cryptocurrency custody services. Specifically, the U.S. authority stated that every bank in the country may store and manage cryptographic keys for its customers.

Even if Bitcoin reacted with a slight upward movement the BTC price is close to USD 9,600 at the time of writing the long-term effects could be massive. In a series of tweets, the founder of Capriole Investments, Charles Edwards, described why the OCCs decision is so important. As Edwards explained, the decision will trigger a domino effect:

US financial institutions drive much of global financial actions. This will be a global domino effect, and enable:

Increased public awareness & trust in Bitcoin

Multiple new demand and on-boarding streams

Furthermore, Edwards also pointed out that it is now clear that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies can no longer be banned.

Exhibit: legalisation in Germany, India, Korea earlier in 2020now USA. This cant be stopped.

Edwards also said that the Bitcoin price could explode quickly if banks put only 1% in the market. According to the Digital Asset Manager of Capriole Investments, Bitcoin could more than double under the above condition. To substantiate this, Edwards referred to a diagram of the Federal Reserve, which shows that US commercial banks have assets of 20 trillion US dollars:

Just 1 NASDAQ stock (Grayscale) already owns 2% of circulating Bitcoin supply today.

Its not hard to see where this is going.

Source: https://twitter.com/caprioleio/status/1286237259658919936

Already last month, Messari researcher Ryan Watkins explained that an institutional allocation of a total of 1% for Bitcoin could slightly increase the total value of Bitcoin to over $1 trillion (1,000 billion) USD. Watkins called it a perfect storm that could drive the Bitcoin price above $50,000 USD. According to the report, the storm would be driven by a phenomenon Messari describes as a Fiat amplifier:

Flows in and out of an asset do not necessarily cause one-to-one movements in the price of the asset and can be amplified to much larger price movements.

If foundations, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and mutual funds were to invest only a small amount of between $20 and $480, depending on the institution, the investment could double up to 22 times, as the table below shows, due to the higher liquidity and reflexivity.

Source: https://twitter.com/RyanWatkins_/status/1275426694237741057/photo/1

OCCs decision could thus lay the foundation for a massive bull run for Bitcoin.

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Bitcoins price will more than double following the OCC decision - Crypto News Flash

Bitcoin is above $10000! Here’s why I’d ignore the hype and buy cheap FTSE 100 shares instead – Yahoo Finance UK

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A depiction of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin

I think nows a great time to buy cheap FTSE 100 shares. But plenty of people disagree and are rushing into crypto-currency Bitcoin instead. The price has just topped $10,000, sparking a rash of publicity, as it always does when it smashes through some symbolic number.

The FTSE 100 is flirting with its own symbolic number, hovering just above 6,000. If it falls through that, we can expect yet another rash of gloomy headlines. In both cases, you need to look beyond the short-term hype, and consider the long-term advantages of investing in these two very different asset classes.

The FTSE 100 looks cheap right now, trading almost 20% below its January high of 7,674. Theres a reason for that. The UKs GDP plummeted by an unthinkable 20.4% during Aprils lockdown, the largest fall since monthly records began 23 years ago. The recovery has begun, but itll be slow, amid nervousness and confusion about social distancing rules.

Dozens of companies on the index have cut or suspended their dividends. Profits have plunged. Certain sectors, notably travel and entertainment, face an existential crisis. Yet history shows its at times like these investors enjoy the greatest opportunities.

In a crash, financially sound companies get sold off along with the strugglers. There are cheap FTSE 100 shares all over the place. Some of these companies may take a short-term hit, but their long-term future is solid.

Top UK blue-chips such as AstraZeneca, Diageo, GlaxoSmithKline, National Grid, Phoenix Group Holdings, Prudential, Rio Tinto, Unilever and United Utilities Groupare just a few that spring to mind. There are plenty more out there.

Many of these continue to pay dividends. Thats not to be sniffed at, given todays near-zero interest rates. Especially when these FTSE 100 shares are so cheap. Better still, theyre plugged into the real-world economy, and will benefit when the pandemic eases and activity picks up.

Story continues

I still see little connection between Bitcoin and the real world. Has anyone yet found a unique practical use for this crypto yet? I havent seen it. This is a radical innovation, with no USP. It doesnt even fill a gap in the market.

Bitcoin is purely a play on its own volatility. A traders toy. Price movements are driven almost entirely by sentiment. The only use I can see is getting your money out of an embattled country before authorities impose capital controls, or the economy goes into meltdown.

So the news that its climbed above $10,000 is neither here nor there. It did the same in June last year. Everyone got excited too. I cant, not any longer.

Im so over Bitcoin. I prefer to buy the shares FTSE 100 companies that offer products or services real people want to buy today. Particularly when those shares are cheap, as now. This is how I plan to build my wealth for the future.

Not by gambling on Bitcoin.

The post Bitcoin is above $10,000! Heres why Id ignore the hype and buy cheap FTSE 100 shares instead appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Harvey Jones has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Diageo, GlaxoSmithKline, Prudential, and Unilever. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Motley Fool UK 2020

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Bitcoin is above $10000! Here's why I'd ignore the hype and buy cheap FTSE 100 shares instead - Yahoo Finance UK

Bots, Inc to Repurpose the first Bitcoin Cryptocurrency bit and Use it to Pay an Income Producing Asset as Dividend to Shareholders – GlobeNewswire

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SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO, July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- BOTS, Inc. (OTC: BTZI) (EXCHANGE: M06.SG), an emerging innovator of products, technologies, and services for the rapidly growing digital robotic automation and manufacturing industry announced today that it is in the process of repurposing and renaming FIRST BITCOIN (COIN:BIT) into the Basic Income Token while retaining BIT as the digital currencys symbol.

There is a growing demand for a socialistic Universal Basic Income scheme in the United States of America heralded by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, however, our hybrid public benefit/capitalistic concept is to deliver an asset to our shareholders that produces income simply by keeping their wallets opened. The more wallets that remain open, the more secure the cryptocurrency becomes. This income will self-generate BITs 24/7 via Proof of Stake Mining (POS) protocol. Once we have hundreds of our 10s of thousands of shareholders keeping their wallets open, the blockchain becomes exceptionally secure while automatically generating BITS via Proof of Stake Mining.

Bots, Inc. and First Bitcoin Capital (OTC:BITCF) are working closely together to ensure a seamless transition of this major asset consisting of billions of BITs. Once the name of BIT is changed to Basic Income Token, Bots Inc. intends to distribute 1 BIT for each share of Bots Inc. to be held on a record date to be set for distribution as soon as August30, 2020.

This asset is only one cryptocurrency of a larger inventory of more than 100 unique digital cryptocurrencies acquired from and previously owned by First Bitcoin Capital Corp. The most significant of the transferences of these cryptocurrencies to Bots Inc., included, but was not limited to, the majority ownership of First Bitcoin (COIN:BIT), a cryptocurrency based on a unique blockchain similar to an improved version of Litecoin. This unique coin trades onLivecoin.netwith BIT included on the premier website for tracking of cryptocurrencies viahttps://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/first-bitcoin/

Additionally BOTS, Inc. in conjunction with First Bitcoin Capital has generated the interface required to manage issuance of units of a newly minted cryptocurrency based on Bitcoins blockchain utilizing the Omni protocols which are also used by Tether (COIN:USDT) in an effort to alternatively fulfill Yangs vision, defined as follows: Universal Basic Income (COIN:UBI) commemorates the presidential candidate Andrew Yangs plan for distributing $1000 per month per citizen so that each world citizen is entitled to 1000 UBI per month upon request from Bots, Inc.

In a recent article published in nature.com, Pandemic Speeds Largest Test Yet of Universal Basic Income Economists welcomed the chance to see whether giving people cash, to spend however they choose, would improve their livelihoods. Spains government has started what might just be remembered as the worlds biggest economics experiment. On 15 June, spurred by the coronavirus crisis and its economic fallout, Spain launched a website offering monthly payments of up to 1,015 (US$1,145) to the nations poorest families.

The program, which will support 850,000 households, is the largest test yet of an idea called universal basic income (UBI) in which people are given a cash payment each month to spend however they choose. It has been oft-discussed but never satisfactorily tested, and economists around the world are watching closely to see what the impact of the scheme on livelihoods will be.

The move comes at a time of unprecedented economic turmoil brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Spain was one of the hardest-hit countries in the early days of the pandemic. The nationwide lockdown curbed the spread of the virus, but came at a staggering financial price. Millions of people lost their jobs as the economy shrank rapidly, putting many of the most vulnerable citizens at risk.

If theres ever an opportunity to try to push for some sort of income floor that can be paid out in cash to people, this is the time to do it, says Damon Jones, an economist at the University of Chicago in Illinois.

Bots, Inc. has become the first publicly traded company to announce the launch of a corporate initiated Universal Basic Income Token (UBI). Interested parties may signup to receive an invite linked here: https://www.bots.bz/ubi

Those whom request this monthly UBI distribution will be required to cover Bots nominal Bitcoin transference costs and both Bots and First Bitcoin Capital will share in a 1% transference fee to be earned in kind. We will develop unique bots that are equipped to handle the inclusion of each requesting world- citizen wishing to use our automation in order to handle the sign ups and transfers stated newly elected Company Chairman, Simon Rubin.

The creation of UBI which is under the management of Bots Inc and First Bitcoin Capital can be witnessed here: https://omniexplorer.info/asset/829

About First Bitcoin Capital Corp

First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC:BITCF) is the largest shareholder of Bots, Inc. as a result of exchanging the majority of its assets therefor, but began developing digital currencies, proprietary blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange -www.CoinQX.com(in Beta) in early 2014. We saw this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex blockchain technologies and in developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company, we provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.

The Company began developing its own blockchain and cryptocurrency called First Bitcoin (COIN:BIT) in 2016. Prior to transferring the majority of this asset to Bots, Inc., the Company updated the BIT wallet and added more functionality. Users are able to generate BIT through the processes of POW and POS mining. The First Bitcoin (COIN:BIT) cryptocurrency has a current supply of 20,707,629,255 BIT. It is currently trading onLIVECOIN.netwith its explorer atwww.explorer.bitcf.net.See: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/first-bitcoin/Contact us via:info@firstbitcoin.ioor visitwww.firstbitcoin.iofollow us on Twitter; @1stBitCapitalfollow us on Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/company/first-bitcoin-capital-corp/follow us on FaceBook:https://www.facebook.com/BITCF/

About BOTS, Inc.

Headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico, BOTS, Inc. - publicly traded on the OTC Markets under the symbol (BTZI) and on Brse Stuttgart under ticker (M06.SG) - is a diversified company developing and servicing blockchain solutions and robotics for its clientele. The Company is committed to drive the innovations needed to shape the future of digital robotic automation management through digital technology and decentralized blockchain solutions. Management is dedicated to the strong growth of Distributed Asset Technology and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).Bots, Inc. has been featured in media nationwide, including CNBC, Bloomberg,TheStreet.com. For more information, visithttp://www.bots.bzVisit us on Facebook @https://www.facebook.com/Bots.Bz/Follow us on Twitter @Bots_bz

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's website and filings.Contact:Paul RosenbergCEOpaul@bots.bz

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Bots, Inc to Repurpose the first Bitcoin Cryptocurrency bit and Use it to Pay an Income Producing Asset as Dividend to Shareholders - GlobeNewswire

People on the Move: July 27, 2020 – Las Vegas Sun

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All In Aviation hired six new team members, including Broderick Orr, a full-time flight instructor, Fletcher Moulton, line technician, and Ryan Celestino, line tech intern, as well as three part-time team members to handle retail service for the pilot shop. The company also announced the upcoming expansion of its fleet with four new aircraft this fall, which will allow it to expand its training services and increased enrollment of new student pilots.

For the second consecutive year, Caesars Entertainment Corporation was named to 3BL Medias 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking. Evaluated against the companies of the Russell 1000 Index, Caesars ranked No.17 overall, as well as No. 1 in the consumer services industry for its standout environmental, social and governance transparency, and performance among public companies. Additionally, Caesars was recently named a 2020 honoree of The Civic 50 by Points of Light, the worlds largest organization dedicated to volunteer service. The award acknowledges Caesars as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the country based on four dimensions of its U.S. community engagement program including investment, integration, institutionalization and impact.

Two restaurants at South Point won Awards of Excellence from Wine Spectator for the eighth consecutive year. Don Vitos and Silverado Steak House won for their expansive wine collection and program. The awards recognize wine lists that feature a high-quality and well thought-out wine assortment.

Eleven attorneys with Howard & Howard were named to Mountain States Super Lawyers and Mountain States Rising Stars 2020. The attorneys listed as Super Lawyers are: W. West Allen, intellectual property litigation; Robert W. Hernquist, business litigation; Matthew J. Kreutzer, franchise/dealership; Brian J. Pezzillo, construction litigation; L.Christopher Rose, business litigation; Robert L. Rosenthal, employment litigation: defense; and Jay Young, alternative dispute resolution. The Rising Stars include: Stephanie Buntin, intellectual property; Kirill Mikhaylov, business litigation; Cami M. Perkins, business/corporate; and Jason P. Weiland, business litigation.

Two attorneys from Black & LoBello Attorneys at Law formed a new boutique law firm focused on family law/domestic relations and estate planning legal services. Michele T. LoBello, practicing exclusively in the area of family law, and John D. Jones, practicing primarily in domestic relations and family law, partnered to structure Jones & LoBello Attorneys at Law. Black & LoBello will continue to serve current and future clients as a separate firm by the name of Black & Wadhams.

SCE Credit Union opened its fourth branch in the Las Vegas Valley at 2215 E. Lone Mountain Road, North Las Vegas. Offering a range of banking services to its members, including savings and checking accounts, home and auto loans, credit cards and investment planning, the credit union concentrates on a member-owned approach by reinvesting profits back to its members.

St. Judes Ranch for Children hired Olympia Lazar to serve as human resources director.

The Sunrise Health Graduate Medical Education Consortium, based at MountainView Hospital, welcomed its 2020 residents and new fellows to the Sunrise Health System. The class of 2020 includes residents in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, OB-GYN, physical medicine and rehabilitation and transitional year based at MountainView Hospital, and family medicine, psychiatry and transitional year based at Southern Hills Hospital. Additionally, the inaugural classes of diagnostic radiology and neurology residents joined the MountainView and Southern Hills hospital campuses, respectively. This is MountainViews fifth and Southern Hills fourth incoming class of residents. Sunrise Health GME also welcomed its second class of fellows into two fellowship programs: endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism fellowship and gastroenterology fellowship.

Adam S. Kutner, Injury Attorneys, opened an office at 11201 S. Eastern Ave., Suite210, Henderson. Kutner and his personal injury team, paralegals and support staff specialize in car accidents and slip and falls, and also have experience in nursing home abuse and neglect, dog bites, pedestrian accidents, product defect liability, workers compensation, and business interruption insurance claims.

NAIOP Southern Nevada, an organization representing commercial real estate developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate, held its 23rd annual Spotlight Awards in a June 25 virtual awards ceremony. The following are Southern Nevadas 2020 Spotlight Award recipients for Industry Awards: Financial Firm of the Year, CommCap Advisors; Engineering Firm of the Year, Kimley-Horn; Brokerage Firm of the Year, Colliers International; Property Management Firm of the Year, Sun Property Management; Architecture Firm of the Year, Lee & Sakahara Architects Inc.; General Contracting Firm of the Year, DC Building Group; Broker Team of the Year Industrial, Doherty Industrial Group, Colliers International; Broker Team of the Year Office, Thill Dillon Team, Colliers International; Broker Team of the Year Retail, Adam Malan & Deana Marcello and Malan Marcello Retail & Investment Advisors, Logic Commercial Real Estate; Developing Leader of the Year, Samantha Flaherty; Development Firm of the Year, Panattoni Development Company; Special Recognition, 2019 Community Service Committee and St. Judes Ranch for Children Project; Associate Member of the Year, Chris Teachman; and Principal Member of the Year, Jay Heller. Project Award winners included: Retail Tenant Improvement, Shake Shack at LAS; Hospitality Tenant Improvement, Palazzo Casino Remodel; Health Care Tenant Improvement, UMC Emergency Room Renovation; Health Care Building, UHS Spring Valley Constant Care; Redevelopment Project, Planet 13 Las Vegas-Phase II Tenant Build-Outs; Multi-family Project, UNLV The Degree; Mixed-use Development, University Gateway; Special Use, East Las Vegas Library; Office Tenant Improvement, The Howard Hughes Corporation at Two Summerlin; Office Building, UNLV Harry Reid Research & Technology Park One; Industrial Tenant Improvement, WIN Distribution; Industrial Building Build to Suit, Amazon LAS 7 Robotic Sort Facility; Industrial Building Spec, I-15 Speedway Logistics Center 4; and Industrial Park, Warm Springs Business Center 1-4.

This story appeared in Las VegasWeekly.

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People on the Move: July 27, 2020 - Las Vegas Sun

NBC resets focus for Tokyo while looking ahead to Beijing – Las Vegas Sun

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Associated Press

Monday, July 27, 2020 | 9:04 a.m.

When Molly Solomon took over as executive producer and president of NBC's Olympics production unit last November, she expected to be in Tokyo right now with the games in full swing. But with the Summer Olympics postponed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, Solomon and her team have reset their countdown clocks while trying to adjust to a new set of challenges.

Any Olympics provides plenty of compelling storylines, but Solomon says Tokyo's turn takes on bigger importance with everything that has transpired worldwide this year.

We have tried to reset everything because what we are working on is even more important than forever, Solomon said. The impact of the Olympics is profound. The delay only adds to the promise.

Everybody from NBC to athletes and prominent business executives around the world are hoping the Tokyo Games delivers on that promise after the pandemic created numerous issues for the Olympic movement on multiple levels.

NBC which has the U.S. media rights through the 2032 Summer Games had already done most of its features and taped promos before the International Olympic Committee postponed the games in March. With hardly any access to athletes currently, the network is asking them to chronicle their revised training routines for any updates or new features.

Other issues include how many people NBC will send to Tokyo. There are usually more than 2,000 in the contingent, but that is likely to be cut back, with an additional percentage of the production emanating from NBC Sports Group's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

Solomon said that even though the production processes might change, how the network will cover the games will remain the same.

We document the competition and the inspiring stories and introduce the host city, she said. After everything we have been through, people are craving anything from the ordinary to the extraordinary. It is still about the storytelling and the fascination with the athletes. People know Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, but there will be other athletes emerge as well. There's always an interesting mix of familiar and new athletes.

With three straight Summer and Winter Games being held in Asia, NBC has the advantage of airing most of the popular sports live in prime time in the Eastern and Central U.S. time zones. The Mountain and Pacific zones also will have live prime-time events after NBC went to a prime time-plus model instead of late-night shows in 2018.

But NBC also is facing a mammoth task that hasn't been encountered since 1984, which is one network doing two Olympics in a six-month span. However, NBC's task is more daunting when one considers the hours of production involved now.

ABC aired 63 hours from the Sarajevo Winter Games and 180 from the Los Angeles Summer Games, which were both records at the time. NBC's coverage from Tokyo will be more than 7,000 hours and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games 2,500. While ABC used only one channel for its coverage, NBC will again air across many channels along with online streaming.

The fact that it is a big challenge is even more attractive to our team because the Olympics are the most complex to produce, Solomon said. The good thing about Beijing is there is a familiarity with the area (from the 2008 Summer Games), with the only new areas we have to see are the mountain venues.

While NBC and the athletes work on their plans, advertising and marketing executives are looking to make the most of the extra time to prepare for Tokyo while keeping Beijing in 2022 in mind as well.

Dan Lovinger, executive vice president for advertising sales for NBC, said in early March it had surpassed $1.25 billion for Tokyo, which already was an Olympic record.

Jeannie Goldstein, who has overseen marketing and sponsorship strategy for prominent Olympic sponsors such as United Airlines, VISA, McDonald's and Coca-Cola in the past, said the biggest unknown is the companies that have not committed yet beyond Tokyo.

Theres this nebulous time period where not everybody has the rights to both of those games, said Goldstein, a partner at Chicago Sports & Entertainment Partners. "Now, whether they step up or they figure out a way to get people to back 2022, I dont know how, there might need to be some creativity on the sponsorship-sales side of this.

Adam Lippard, the head of global sports and entertainment consulting for GMR Marketing, which represents half of Olympics top global partner program, is unsure if there will be a buyer's market for sponsorship and marketing deals, but he does see similarities between the upcoming Tokyo Games and the last time the city hosted the Olympics in 1964.

It was really their coming-out party in 1964 off the backs of World War II. And now they have that same seminal opportunity to ... bring humans back together, reunite the globe," he said. "And I think as difficult as it has been on everybody within the Olympic family, from the organizers to the brands to the athletes, first and foremost, this is hopefully going to be a healing moment for everybody when we can get this event back on.

Solomon and her team did a virtual toast on July 23, when the opening ceremony was supposed to take place. She thinks next year's ceremony could be just as important.

It could be the most profound in Olympic history with many overcome challenges," she said. It has the potential to be such and amazing and powerful moment.

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NBC resets focus for Tokyo while looking ahead to Beijing - Las Vegas Sun

City of Las Vegas Partners with Flowbird to Unveil Frictionless Mobile Solution – Parking Network

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The City of Las Vegas, in partnership with Flowbird Group, has launched a new mobility solution, combining on-street and off-street parking into a personalized, seamless experience. The Flowbird App, a multi-solution application, combines an advanced user interface, congestion optimization, and off-street parking reservations to offer the ultimate one-of-a-kind mobile solution.

The City of Las Vegas takes entertainment seriously. Residents and visitors to the downtown hub enjoy world-class dining, shopping, concerts, comedy shows, and much more. As the City begins to reopen amid recent closures, it is now more important than ever to venture out with a plan. Using the Flowbird App platform, drivers can easily find, reserve, and pay for parking long before they arrive at their destination, avoiding circling the block in search of the ideal parking space.

Flowbirds enhanced mobile experience allows drivers to pay for their on-street parking or reserve off-street parking with a platform powered by Arrive, a leader in the parking reservations space. The combination allows the City to increase the visibility of parking options and optimize parking occupancy downtown. The result - a frictionless parking app that is simple to use and uniquely customizable.

Users can view real-time inventory and pricing displayed on a searchable map or list on the app. Results can be filtered according to individual preferences, sorting by various features such as price, EV charging, covered parking, security, and more. The ultra-intuitive platform even allows users to search by event, pinpointing the venue, and highlighting the best options for parking on that specific day.

We are very excited to continue to improve the parking experience for Las Vegas customers, said Brandy Stanley, CAPP, Parking Services Manager for the City of Las Vegas. The Flowbird app will cut down on the time it takes to pay for parking, and customers will now be able to use the app to pay and reserve parking in the citys parking garages.

Flowbird is also proud to announce that the City of Las Vegas is the first to upgrade its Strada Pay Stations with the new S5 upgrade kit, bringing the latest pay station technology to the parking operation in Las Vegas. The Strada S5 features a 9.7 touch screen providing an enhanced user interface on the existing pay station housings.

The start of our conversion to the enhanced meters is in full swing with more than 100 meters to be upgraded over the next two weeks, said Stanley, These new screens make the meters so much easier to see in full sun and interact with.

The City of Las Vegas has been a partner of Flowbird since 2013 when they implemented a Pay-by-Space parking system throughout their downtown core. The importance of customer convenience then, holds true to the Citys values today, as they enter into a new era of mobility with the Flowbird App and digital platform.

We are very excited to reinforce our strong partnership with the City of Las Vegas and to bring a unique mobility solution to residents and visitors for an easier and frictionless parking experience, said Benoit Reliquet, President of Flowbird North America.

Flowbirds app platform has over 2.5 million users worldwide and offers an easy, fast, and secure option to make mobile parking payments. Las Vegas joins other popular U.S. tourist destinations such as Atlanta, Niagara Falls, Lake Placid, and Virginia Beach on the Flowbird app platform.

Flowbirdoperates in over 5,000 towns and cities in 70 countries. The company is constantly innovating and breaking new ground to help provide solutions. Its mission is to facilitate the individual journey and maximize a citys unique mobility potential while considering all city stakeholders and end-user experiences. Through its devices, elite service platform, and teams, Flowbird enables a new era for maximizing urban harmony and value throughout the citys core.

Arrivepowers the last mile of mobility through smart parking solutions. It offers the only seamless mobility experience that predicts and recommends the best parking solution for any journey. Arrive powers smart parking and other connected mobility services through apps, websites, voice platforms, and in-dash integrations to hundreds of clients including smart cities, automakers, fleets, venues, navigation and voice platforms, as well as to its own ParkWhiz and BestParking consumer brands.

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City of Las Vegas Partners with Flowbird to Unveil Frictionless Mobile Solution - Parking Network

What killed hundreds of elephants in Botswana? Still unknown – Las Vegas Sun

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Published Monday, July 27, 2020 | 3:07 a.m.

Updated 7 hours, 40 minutes ago

GABORONE, Botswana (AP) Botswanas government says it still doesnt know what caused the deaths of hundreds of elephants in recent weeks, but testing continues.

Poaching and anthrax have been ruled out as the likely cause. Other possibilities being examined include a novel virus and poisoning. The investigation involves help from laboratories in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Britain and the United States.

While there has not been any indication of fresh carcasses or signs that the mortality has spread beyond the initial area of concern, the district team on the ground will continue to monitor the situation, remove ivory from carcasses and take them to safe custody as well as destroy carcasses that are close to the villages and human settlements, the acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Oduetse Koboto, told diplomats Saturday.

The investigations, including an aerial survey, are expected to be completed this week.

Botswanas National Veterinary Laboratory has not been able to establish the causes of death despite examining 281 of the elephant carcasses found in the popular Okavango Delta area of the countrys north.

This is one of the biggest disasters to impact elephants this century, and right in the middle of one of Africas top tourism destinations, the director of conservation group National Park Rescue, Mark Hiley, has saidl.

Botswana has the worlds highest population of elephants with more than 156,000 counted in a 2013 aerial survey in the north.

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What killed hundreds of elephants in Botswana? Still unknown - Las Vegas Sun