ISI admission test 2020 postponed again – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: Indian Statistical Institute admission test 2020 has been postponed again. The ISI admission test 2020 which was earlier scheduled to conduct on August 2, has now been postponed. The rescheduled date for the exam will be released later.An official notice issued in this regard available on the official website says that "The ISI Admission Test 2020, which had earlier been rescheduled to August 02, 2020, is postponed. In view of the uncertainty prevailing on account of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is not possible to declare a firm date for the Test at this time, but it is not expected to be held before the second week of September 2020. Announcement of the exact date will be made after proper assessment of the situation, bearing in mind the well-being and safety of the candidates, and ensuring that they are able to appear for the Test without any risk or hardship. Candidates will be duly notified of the new date for the Admission Test well in advance."Once the exam date is announced, the registered candidates will be given an option to change their exam centre preferences and uploading pending documents such as results of qualifying exams (if appeared in 2020). The notice further reads that As soon as the date is announced, all registered candidates will be provided a small window for making changes in their centre preferences and uploading pending documents like results of qualifying examination (if appeared in 2020), and those related to reservation category (OBC- NCL/SC/ST/PwD), GATE and INMO, by logging into their accounts on the online Application portal.

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ISI admission test 2020 postponed again - Times of India

H.266 is coming and your video files will be half the size they are with H.265/HEVC – DIYphotography

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Video compression tech doesnt seem to change all that often, but when it does it sure takes some big leaps. H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC) was first introduced back in 2003. Its still pretty prevalent today, despite H.265/High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) being released a decade later in 2013. Now, the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute has done it again with H.266/Versatile Video Coding (VVC), cutting the files sizes down to a quarter of H.264.

The lack of h.265 adoption has largely been due to patent issues but it brought massive benefits over its predecessor, including higher quality footage with a big reduction in filesize. H.265 also has some pretty demanding hardware needs and its taken a while for some companies to catch up. Premiere Pro, for example, only really started to get GPU acceleration for H.265.

But H.265 allowed you to get a similar level of quality at half the file size of H.264. The new Versatile Video Coding engine, also known as H.266 looks set to cut those file sizes in half essentially offering you the same level of quality as H.264 but at only a quarter of the file size.

According to The Verge, Fraunhofer says that VCC could be the path forward for the industry. It will allow companies to completely skip H.264 and H.265 without having to deal with patents, royalties and licensing headaches.

Through a reduction of data requirements, H.266/VVC makes video transmission in mobile networks (where data capacity is limited) more efficient. For instance, the previous standard H.265/HEVC requires 10 gigabytes of data to transmit a 90-min UHD video.

With this new technology, only 5 gigabytes of data are required to achieve the same quality. Because H.266/VVC was developed with ultra-high-resolution video content in mind, the new standard is particularly beneficial when streaming 4K or 8K videos on a flat screen TV. Furthermore, H.266/VVC is ideal for all types of moving images: from high-resolution 360 video panoramas to screen sharing contents.

Primarily, the benefit mentioned is on the bandwidth requirements for mobile networks. But it has further implications. I know people who still dont even upload to YouTube in 4K because of the file sizes required (4x larger than 1080p if you want the same level of quality). The new H.266 codec would bring those 4K videos down to the same file sizes as their current 1080p videos, making it much easier to deal with those higher resolution upload times, especially on slower connections.

And with the push to 8K (which would be 16x larger files than 1080p at the same codec and relative bitrate) very few will be uploading in that resolution, even if theyre able to shoot it, due to the massive data requirements. And phones are shooting 8K now, too, even if its pretty terrible. So H.266 would allow you to save some of that precious storage space especially as so many Android device manufacturers seem to be ditching microSD card slots now.

Fraunhofer says that the Media Coding Industry Forum (which includes companies such as Apple, Canon, Intel and Sony) is working towards chip designs that can support H.266 at the hardware level. Itll probably be at least a couple of years before we see any serious implementations but it sounds very promising for the future of video delivery.

[via The Verge]

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H.266 is coming and your video files will be half the size they are with H.265/HEVC - DIYphotography

This Brand Is Turning Art Exhibition Posters into Graphic Tees – Gear Patrol

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Graphic tees are an art form. The medium is ink and the canvas is cotton jersey, screen printed and heat pressed (among other methods) with a message to say. Whether that message is profound or not, is another question.

It could be a tee to represent your alma mater or your local pizza joint, to commemorate an event, or to support a movement like Black Lives Matter. For many, it's a way to show your allegiance (or sense of irony) to your favorite band.

Band tees have been pumped out for every album release, world tour and local show, but what about other artists? What about pivotal art exhibitions? That's what the team behind Flat File had in mind when creating the brand.

Courtesy Flat File

The side project of the denim brand 3sixteen's Andrew Chen and Wesley Scott, and graphic designer Jordan Butcher, Flat File launched this year with the approach of making something like a concert tee, but for artists. The team released their first capsule in late April and featured exhibitions of Isamu Noguchi, Sol Lewitt, Ellsworth Kelly and Alexander Calder. The second release drops today and includes Constantin Brancusi, Donald Judd, Henri Matisse and Jackson Pollock.

To learn more, we talked with Wesley Scott about the project.

Learn More: Here

What is Flat File? Whats the concept?

We think of Flat File as a bootleg art merch project. On multiple occasions, Andrew and I left museum exhibitions or gallery shows wishing there was some sort of merch we could buy that was well-designed. I think that harkens back to buying merch at a concert. There's that feeling of leaving a show with something to memorialize the experience that is so impactful.

For Flat File, were making merch for shows we never had the chance to see. Its our way of memorializing some of these major events in the art worlds history. For example, we have a Donald Judd t-shirt this drop from his first solo sculpture show. That show marked huge shift in his career and for us, as Judd fans, its exciting to be able share that moment through a t-shirt. All of us at Flat File come from graphic tee backgrounds in some form so t-shirts are the vehicle to share our interests. Our graphic designer, Jordan Butcher, has an incredible ability to take exhibit or show posters and flyers and distill them down to something that feels reminiscent of the bootleg tees we love without losing the artists ethos.

Courtesy Flat File

How do you select the artists and posters for each drop? Do you think of the artist first? Do you come across an art exhibit poster first?

Honestly, it all starts with a good poster. We have a Slack channel and Pinterest board where we are constantly uploading photos and screen grabs of great exhibition posters. For each release we might have 25 posters we are discussing until we eventually land on four.

Sometimes, though, it does start with the artist. Like this Brancusi tee for example. We knew we wanted to do a Brancusi tee and found a show that resonated with us. Given how long ago he was showing, its much harder to find information on his shows than others we do so that took more digging to pull all the elements from this show in place rather than just pulling from one poster.

Courtesy Flat File

What else is coming up for the future? Can we expect to see more lesser-known niche artists, or even up-and-coming contemporary artists?

Were definitely going to be releasing some niche artist pieces in the future. Initially, we wanted to share some heavy-hitters that we love, but with each additional release there will be more niche artists or movements appearing. The three of us have a wide variety of interests, so Im excited for some surprise that will come in future releases.

Our dream one day is to get the opportunity to design and produce promotional merchandise for museums or galleries in the same vein as what weve been doing.

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This Brand Is Turning Art Exhibition Posters into Graphic Tees - Gear Patrol

August Alsina shares cryptic message after Jada Pinkett Smith confirms romance during split from husband Will – The Sun

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AUGUST Alsina shared a cryptic message in the wake of Jada Pinkett Smith confirming her romance with the 27-year-old singer.

Following August's revelation in early July that he had been in love with the actress, the 48-year-old admitted to a relationship with the rapper when he was 23 during a break from her marriage to Will Smith.

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However, in the hours after Jada's appearance on her Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk, he took to social media to reveal he was moving on, writing: "Anyway, NEXT!!!"

He tweeted: "Imagine not knowing how to mind the business that pay you.

"I catch all the subliminals. (Not just about today) & you can call me whatever you like, Mess is constantly inserting yourself in topics you have nun to do w/. Go play w/ ya MAMMY! Not me!"

He added: "If you have something to say, say it w/ ya CHEST kids.

"Its always very perplexing cause I real deal be showing people genuine love. Whole time that envy eating ya lil heart. Anyway, NEXT!!! (sic)"

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His comments came after Jada explained that she had met August through their then 18-year-old son Jaden.

Jada said: "Four-and-a-half years ago [I] started a friendship with August and we became really, really good friends and it all started with him just needing some help, me wanting to help his health and mental state."

Speaking directly to Will in the heart-to-heart chat, Jada shared: "The outpouring for him from our family was initially about his health.

"We found all those different resources to help pull him through and, from there, you and I were going through a very difficult time."

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Will, 51, added: "I was done with your a**, marriages have that though," to which Jada said: "We broke up."

Pushing her to continue, Will asked: "And then what did you do, Jada?"

She replied: "As time went on I got into a different kind of entanglement with August."

When Will asked what she meant by entanglement, his wife told him: "It was a relationship, absolutely."

Who is August Alsina?

August is 27 years old and from New Orleans.

He began singing aged 14 and started uploading covers to YouTube, and as a singer-songwriter, he is most known for his hit I Luv This S*** with Trinidad James.

His music falls into the hip hop and R&B genres.

August had a troubled childhood as both his dad and stepdad were addicted to crack cocaine, then he later got kicked out of home by his mum.

He's been open about his own health issues in recent years; in 2014 he collapsed on stage and a few years later revealed he has an autoimmune disease that attacks his liver, causing him health scares.

Jada refused to call the relationship a "transgression," revealing she "learned so much" about herself during that time but said "it was a little weird" it was coming out now as August had chosen to stop all contact when she reunited with Will.

August had formed a friendship with the family in 2015, accompanying the famous clan on a vacation to Hawaii in 2016 and attending the 2017 BET Awards with Jada.

But he made bombshell revelations in an interview in July, in which he claimed: "I actually sat down with Will [Smith] and had a conversation due to the transformation from their marriage to life partnership... he gave me his blessing."

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He added: "I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life, and I truly and really, really deeply love and have a ton of love for her."

Discussing the "blessing" claim Jada said on Friday's show: "The only person that can give permission in that particular circumstance is myself.

"I could actually see how he would perceive it as permission because we were separated amicably and I think he also wanted to make it clear that he's also not a home-wrecker. Which he's not."

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August Alsina shares cryptic message after Jada Pinkett Smith confirms romance during split from husband Will - The Sun

With No End in Sight to the Coronavirus, Some Teachers Are Retiring Rather Than Going Back to School – TIME

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When Christina Curfman thought about whether she could return to her second-grade classroom in the fall, she struggled to imagine the logistics. How would she make sure her 8-year-old students kept their face masks on all day? How would they do hands-on science experiments that required working in pairs? How would she keep six feet of distance between children accustomed to sharing desks and huddling together on one rug to read books?

The only way to keep kids six feet apart is to have four or five kids, says Curfman, a teacher at Catoctin Elementary School in Leesburg, Virginia, who typically has 22 students in a class. Her district shut schools on March 12, and at least 55 staff members have since tested positive for the coronavirus. Classrooms in general are pretty tight, she says. And then how do you teach a reading group, how do you teach someone one-on-one from six feet apart? You cant.

So Curfmanwho has an autoimmune disease that makes her more vulnerable to COVID-19consulted her doctor, weighed the risks of returning to school and decided to retire early after 28 years of teaching. At 55, shes eligible for partial retirement benefits and will take home less pay than if she had worked for a few more years, but the decision gave her peace of mind.

Its either that or risk your health, she says. Its kind of a no-brainer.

Recent surveys suggest shes not alone. Faced with the risks of an uncertain back-to-school plan, some teachers, who spent the last few months teaching over computers and struggling to reach students who couldnt access online lessons, are choosing not to return in the fall. The rising number of coronavirus cases in many parts of the country, and recent evidence that suggests the virus can spread indoors via tiny respiratory droplets lingering in the air, have fueled teachers safety concerns, even as President Trump demands that schools fully reopen and threatens to cut federal funding from those that dont. (Trump has said that older teachers, who are more vulnerable to the virus, could sit it out for a little while, unless we come up with the vaccine sooner.)

About 20% of teachers said they arent likely to return to teaching if schools reopen in the fall, according to a USA Today/Ipsos poll conducted in late May. EdWeek Research Center surveys conducted around the same time found that more than 10% of teachers are more likely to leave the profession now than they were before the pandemic, and 65% of educators said they want school buildings to remain closed to slow the spread of the virus.

But the pressure to reopen schools is strong. Recent studies show that students have likely suffered significant learning loss during this period of remote schooling, worsening the achievement gap between affluent and low-income students. Meanwhile, research shows that children are much less likely to suffer the most severe health effects of the virus. The American Academy of Pediatrics released guidance on June 25, recommending that all back-to-school policies aim to have students physically present in school, citing the importance of in-person learning and raising concerns about social isolation, abuse and food insecurity for children forced to remain at home. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the countrys top infectious disease expert, agrees. I feel very strongly we need to do whatever we can to get the children back to school, he said during testimony before the Senate on June 30.

But the health risks are greater for some educators and other school employees, including bus drivers and custodians, than they are for children. Adults over age 65 account for the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. And 18% of public and private school teachers and 27% of principals are 55 or older, according to federal data. Thats why researchers at the American Enterprise Institute warned of a school personnel crisis, recommending in May that school districts provide early retirement incentives or create a virtual teaching corps for those who feel safer working remotely.

I still have not seen any state really address this in their reopening plans. Theres passing references to schools needing to do something for their vulnerable population, but you just dont see the activity that would match the personnel challenge that schools are going to face, says John Bailey, an American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow, who wrote the May report. We shouldnt be putting teachers in a situation where they have to decide between their financial security and their health security.

In Connecticutwhere a union survey found that 43% of teachers think theyre at higher risk for severe illness if they contract COVID-19 because of their age or an underlying medical conditionAndrea Cohen, who is over 65, decided to retire as an elementary school social worker. The decision was driven by concerns she could bring the virus home to her 95-year-old mother and to her grandchild, who is due to be born in September. I felt like this was the safest thing to do, she says.

I trust that theyre going to try to come up with some good system, but I just didnt know what the system was going to be, and I couldnt visualize how it was going to work for me in my school office, Cohen says. All I could see was me in my tiny little office, with six kids, and how it wouldnt be safe for anybody.

In Michiganwhere 30% of teachers told the Michigan Education Association they were considering leaving teaching or retiring earlier than planned because of the pandemicTheresa Mills, 58, decided to retire after an anxiety-ridden spring of teaching literature remotely and trying to build relationships with students online. The whole idea of being remote and disconnected was equally daunting as the fear of not being safe, she says about the upcoming school year.

Many school districts are considering hybrid plans that involve students rotating between in-person classes and remote learning on different days of the week. But Education Secretary Betsy DeVos criticized those plans during a call with governors on Tuesday, urging schools to be fully operational with in-person instruction five days a week, the Associated Press reported.

Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia, the district where Curfman taught, is planning for students to attend in-person classes two days a week and learn at home the rest of the time, but it is also allowing parents to opt for full-time remote learning.

Curfman says about five families have already asked her to privately tutor her former students and their siblings at home on distance-learning days. Its one example of the nontraditional approaches to schooling caused by the pandemic. As long as she can do so safely, Curfman is considering it.

Theres no evidence that teachers are retiring en masse. In the middle of an economic crisis that has left millions unemployed, including public school employees, many teachers arent looking to flee the profession, despite their concerns about this fall.

I kind of dont come from a family that retires, says Vicki Baker, a 64-year-old math teacher at the Philadelphia High School for Girls, but she wants to feel safe when she returns to her classroom. I feel like we have one time to get this right because theres so many things at risk, she says. If somebody gets sick because theyre at school, the students bring it home to their families. I bring it home to mine.

Rachel Bardes holds a sign in front of the Orange County Public Schools headquarters in Orlando, Fla., on July 7, 2020, as teachers protest a mandate that all public schools open in August despite the spike in coronavirus cases in Florida.

Joe BurbankOrlando Sentinel/AP

College professors have raised similar concerns. Hundreds of Georgia Tech faculty members called for the continuation of remote learning this fall, arguing in an open letter that no faculty, staff, or student should be coerced into risking their health and the health of their families by working and/or learning on campus when there is a remote/online equivalent. Professors at the University of Notre Dame asked that they be allowed to decide individually whether to teach in-person or online.

Meanwhile, the surge in coronavirus cases from Florida to Texas to Arizona has added urgency to the need for safe back-to-school plans.

Before the pandemic, Caren Gonzalez, a chemistry teacher at Tuloso-Midway High School in Corpus Christi, Texas, was planning to retire next year, having promised the Class of 2021 that she would be there to teach them AP Chemistry. During the last few months, she shifted her lesson plans online, uploading videos of herself writing out chemical equations and offering students one-on-one help over Zoom, sometimes meeting as late as 10:30 p.m. to accommodate their schedules. These are not normal times, she told them. You dont need to apologize.

But Gonzalez, who will turn 60 in July, questioned whether it would be safe to return to school before theres a coronavirus vaccine, and she decided to retire now. Its just the uncertainty, she says. Nobody knows quite whats going to happen.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that schools space desks six feet apart; seat only one child per row on school buses; discourage students from sharing toys, books or sports equipment; close communal spaces, such as cafeterias and playgrounds; and create staggered drop-off and pick-up schedules to limit contact between large groups of students and parents. On Wednesday, Trump said he disagreed with the CDCs very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things.

Guidance released Tuesday by the Texas Education Agency requires schools to hold daily in-person instruction, but allows parents to opt for remote learning instead. The guidelines say schools should attempt to have hand sanitizer or hand washing stations at every entrance and in every classroom, should keep windows open to increase airflow when possible and should consider spacing desks six feet apart.

Gonzalez worries that such guidance will be difficult to implement on the ground and that students or teachers will suffer the consequences.

Six feet apart becomes three feet apart, becomes Dont worry about it at lunchtime in the lunch room, so it just kind of degrades, Gonzalez says. And its not because the districts are trying to cheat teachers or their students or anything. Theyre just trying to do what theyre told with the resources that they have.

Without a boost in state or federal funding, many school districts might not have the resources they need. An analysis by the American Federation of Teachers estimated that the average school will need an extra $1.2 million, or $2,300 per student, to reopen safely. An analysis by the School Superintendents Association estimated it would cost less, but still nearly $2 million for the average school district to buy enough hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and masks and to hire more custodial staff and nurses or aides to check temperatures regularly.

I dont think anybody is going back, thinking, This is fine, everythings normal,' Gonzalez says. I think everybodys got a little bit of apprehension if theyve been paying attention.

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Write to Katie Reilly at Katie.Reilly@time.com.

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With No End in Sight to the Coronavirus, Some Teachers Are Retiring Rather Than Going Back to School - TIME

The rise of Thirst Trap culture among Gen Z Indian women – ETtech.com

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This practice of picture-posting is referred to as sharing thirst traps. The Cambridge dictionary defines thirst trap as a statement by or photograph of someone on social media intended to attract attention, or to make people who see it sexually interested in them.

Thirst-trapping is a pronounced culture in the US, popularised by influencers like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner over the last couple of years. At least 150-200 thirst trap tweets are posted every hour on Twitter on a daily basis and more than half of these are from the US, as per analytics portal Hashtagify. The practice is age-agnostic, with celebrities in their 60s, like Madonna, making headlines for posting thirst traps on Instagram earlier this week.

Thirst trap culture has gained traction in India recently. Google Trends India suggests the interest for the term has peaked thrice in the last six months, indicating its growing influence among Indian social media users. The last spike was seen in May 2020.

These Gen Z women are part of over 470 million people in the country as per Bloomberg analysis born roughly between the year 1996 and 2010. They were born alongside the birth of the internet. Growing up, theyve had their accounts on every social media platform from Facebook to Instagram. And their internet habits are very different from their predecessors, the millennials.

According to Facebooks advertising vertical, Facebook.com/Ads, over 4 million women Instagrammers from India in the 18-24 age group show interest in human sexuality as a topic, as opposed to 2.7 million in the 25-31 cohort.

Theyre fluid about their identity online, notes Ishtaarth Dalmia, an anthropologist and AVP at digital agency Dentsu Webchutney. Most of these womens social media bios don't reflect their names but have emoticons or random words instead. They are quick to open and shut social accounts. They have private Instagram accounts dedicated to posting thirst traps that have several thousand in followers.

Seeking Validation

Thirst trapping is also a shortcut to getting validation, an important marker of identity formation for Gen Z.

This generation feels so overwhelmed by its inability to control everything thats going on in the world that fetching likes and shares brings in a sense of control to them. Its something they can rely on, says Dalmia.

Influencers like the Kardashians glorify this idea as well. They are indirectly sending this message that posting provocative content can make you the next youngest millionaire, says Sascha Kirpalani, a Mumbai-based psychologist.

However, the motivation behind posting thirst traps is a lot deeper, she quickly adds. It is a means to self-expression for a lot of women in this generation, a form of feminism, of reclaiming power over their own body.

To some, like Pooja Mishra from Mumbai, it implies breaking away from the repression theyve seen the previous generations of women go through.

I dont mind sharing thirst traps. Its a part of me, not my entire personality. That's my face and body I walk around with 24x7. I shouldn't have to hide it in the online world because of the threat of someone being creepy, says the Gen Z chartered accountant.

Even its predecessors note that this cohort is far more vocal about its sexuality and love for erotica, both in words and visuals, than they are. What you see them post online is actually a manifestation of what we used to write in our diaries, says Shreemi Verma, a Mumbai-based content creator in her late 20s.

A lot of these women post thirst pictures via their alt-accounts (alternate accounts). Perhaps thats why they find it to be a safer space as it doesnt come with judgement from peers or family, Verma reckons.

Changing Perceptions

Gen Z women are now having an outsized influence on the way women, in general, express their sexuality online.

Before Gen Z Twitter became popular, hardly anyone spoke of erotica. People labelled it as explicit content, notes Srishti Millicent, a digital marketer based in Chandigarh.

Now these 18-23-year-olds put thirst traps and they go viral, she adds.

By the way, Millicent is only 25. But she too feels it's the "younger" girls who make her feel more comfortable about posting thirst traps online now.

On Twitter, thirst traps start with one person from this Gen Z community tweeting and urging others to post their pictures, notes Kejal Shah, a 27-year-old HR professional from Mumbai. Thats how it starts trending. You dont feel awkward doing it because everyone else is getting on board as well.

Shah herself has posted an occasional thirst trap on her social media accounts in recent times.

Pune-based Ira, a 24-year-old radio jockey, sees this trend as part of an attempt where Women make online spaces safer for women.

Ira shares a story of a fellow Gen Z woman who was recently harassed by a man about one of her pictures online. She traced him to his Facebook account which led her to the guys mothers profile. She then confronted him with screenshots of his inappropriate messages, asking if she should show his mother what her son is up to. The guy was profusely apologetic.

Across social media platforms, these women have now created a sorority of their own.

Every Gen Z woman in India, who is comfortable posting thirst traps online, is likely to follow several others like her. Inside this tiny community, people hype each other as enthusiastically as they cancel a member who isnt genuine, says Ira.

They operate under pseudonymous accounts, but a look at the list of people they follow gives an insight into their minds. It has artists, poets, activists, fake news and misinformation fighters. Satire and irony are dominating themes of their content.

For advertisers targetting Gen Z, this segment is still an enigma theyre trying to decrypt, notes Dentsu Webchutney anthropologist Dalmia.

Some of them also post pictures of celebrities they are thirsting for. Others highlight the problematic nature of 365 Days, a Polish erotica movie streaming on Netflix that has been trending on the platform in India for weeks now arguing that it glorifies molestation and abduction.

Many have developed a thick skin when it comes to receiving unwarranted comments from men on their posts. However, some question if these lot are indeed being anti-feminist since they eventually end up catering to a male fantasy of women.

Many thirst trappers end up deleting their pictures after uploading them, fearing negative attention. Some of them also worry they may attach their self-esteem to the number of likes they get on these pictures for good.

They say thirst traps are part of the larger realm of body-positivity content. But they also know that while every thirst trap is body-positive, not all body-positive posts are thirst traps.

On social media, however, all are happily welcome to co-exist.

(Illustration and graphics by Rahul Awasthi)

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Moyra Davey and Kate Zambreno on Writing As If You Were Dead – frieze.com

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Moyra Davey:Drifts [2020] is your most voluptuous and sensuous work to date, even though much of the novel is about struggle and feeling at a miserable impasse with the book you are writing. You manage to both write the problem and, simultaneously, provide the solution. You talk about block, but the writing feels like its opposite: flow. You invoke the [new] texture of boredom, the energy of the internet, its distracted nature and wonder how to invest the writing with these particular drives, how to replicate the mind wandering. You name the affect you crave for your novel and, immediately, the writing serves it up. You have found the perfect form: a novel made up of fragments, using the note-taking practice you find so vital.

I know from the conversations between you and your friends in Drifts that, like me, you prize your relationships with writer-friends, the (usually women) interlocutors who prod us, open doors and offer sympathetic guidance, often with lightning speed. Try to be with flowers, the poet Bhanu Kapil says to you in Drifts; later, in an exchange with the writer Sofia Samatar, you talk about empty[ing] a text in order to fill it. This speaks to a particular difficulty Im having with a shapeless, bloated text, about which Ive come to feel phobic. I wondered if you could expand on that particular point: the emptying out that might lead to structure.

Kate Zambreno:Theres something monstrous to the shapeless. I have a fear of it as well. I like to think of writers block, the dread of it, as resulting from too much material too many notebooks filled up. For the period I dramatize in Drifts, it was also about the desire for my work to feel private and ongoing rather than being instantly published and commodified to be read only by my correspondents, my addressees, entirely women and non-binary writers.

In the book, one of the characters, Anna, says to the narrator that the notes are the work. I tend to gravitate towards writing that is about process yours, Kapils, Samatars, Herv Guiberts and W.G. Sebalds. I dont think about structure, per se, or story, but I am interested in narrative and form and repetition. Theres such an organic flow to the form of your books Les Goddesses/Hemlock Forest [2017] and Burn the Diaries [2014] the titles, the places, the sense of travelling through that every writer who reads them begins to mimic it. These books read like they were written in the time they were conceived and are about time. When my writing feels shapeless and bloated, like it does now, malingering for years around the study of Guibert I have been working on, which was supposed to be a short text, I realize that writing is time, and must take the time it needs.

Ive always been drawn to the suspense in Thomas Bernhard, Sophie Calle, Guibert and Sebald. Their works are note-like and documentary, but also read like detective stories. Theres an atmospheric moodiness or tension, also something thats withheld from us throughout. In The Compassion Protocol [1995], Guiberts narrator says Im paraphrasing here that he most feels like hes writing fiction when hes writing in a diary. Theres a noir or speculative quality to Drifts the sense of a coded reality that the narrator is trying to figure out.

MD:The last line of Drifts mentions beauty not knowing what beauty is, but that it adheres to many things. I wondered how you would end this book, as it builds towards an almost unbearable tension: your fear of not being able to finish it, mounting material anxieties, your pregnant body about to explode. The pressure seems almost uncontainable. And then there is a pause, a muting and you re-emerge using the beautiful device of simply noting a date, 7 December, to mark the event of your daughters birth. It is the opposite of Maggie Nelsons choice to narrate the minutiae of giving birth in The Argonauts [2015], but your laconic version is extraordinary in its own way, communicating something momentous with a rare economy of means. It shifts from the compulsive, yet no less compelling, uploading of life that characterizes most of the book. Drifts gives the fantastic impression of living and writing life simultaneously, and of doing it without shame, or perhaps doing it in such a way that shame becomes beautiful.

KZ:Originally, the ending included more of the duration and exhaustion of my labour; I was in prodromal labour for almost a month. I had already written about this fugue state in Appendix Project [2019], and I always imagined Id pick it up again in Ghosts, the as-yet-unwritten novel thats supposed to be its sequel. Vertigo the second half of Drifts is elliptical and fragmentary; less an exhaustive recitation of the facts of a life and more about the claustrophobic intimacy of it. It was important to me that the book didnt show a journey of motherhood; I didnt want a baby to solve the main protagonists existential crisis, which is a crisis of the book she is trying to write. It was Samatar who told me that too much of the baby even the joy of her overdetermined the book. In a way, it goes against what some readers might want. Also, I am resistant to the ways a birth story is often told as a coherent narrative. Trauma is more fragmented, remembered later, in glimpses.

MD:The few details you give us wholly convey this bewildered state, but you make the experience completely your own. Your tender, yet slightly detached, observations of the baby and the hilarious depiction of the postpartum, scatological scene of retention/expulsion are consistent with all the earlier, non-maternal writing in Drifts. Ive read quite a bit of the literature of motherhood and your voice is like no other Ive encountered.

KZ:I want to hear more about writing and shame, its relationship to beauty, as its something I think about a lot. I wonder if its why we are both so drawn to Guibert, Kapil and David Wojnarowicz. Theres this moment at the end of Drifts where I cite you, trying to reference a work of yours, Dr. Y., Dr. Y. [2014], in which you are naked and pregnant in bed with your dog. A line from Anne Sextons Words for Dr. Y. [1978] frames the central image: Why else keep a journal, if not to examine your own filth? So much of your work, both the videos and the writing, engages with the diary or notebook the intimate space of the domestic. But theres also an intriguing opacity in your work that I identify with, in tension, perhaps, with this beautiful transparency of the daily: the refusal to go back to trauma or childhood, that space of memoir you refer to as the wet in Les Goddesses/Hemlock Forest.

MD:Shame is only ugly when its hidden. It can be breathtakingly beautiful when a writer puts it out there without fanfare. Im quite preoccupied with shame, so I home in on authors whove found ways to write it. Thats what good literature does: in the right hands, shame doesnt even exist because it becomes something else. I think it was Nadine Gordimer who said: Write as if you were dead. This is something I try to do, but I am not there yet. The artwork with my dog and me in bed is surrounded by little photos of her shitting. I thought the curve of her arched back mimicked my pregnant belly; I was no doubt projecting onto her defecation a wish to empty myself out. The unofficial title for that piece was Ante-Partum Document. I showed it to my gallerist at the time, Colin de Land, and he recoiled from it, compared it to the worst of feminist art. I dont hold any of this against him, but I was ashamed and put the piece away. I have Gregg Bordowitz to thank for encouraging me to revisit it nearly 20 years later and remake it using the Sexton quote. I was reading Sexton for another project, the video Notes on Blue [2015], and came across that line in Words for Dr. Y., which is dedicated to her analyst. Entirely coincidentally, Dr. Y. was the name I gave my shrink in the video Fifty Minutes [2006], so I titled the new piece Dr. Y., Dr. Y.

KZ:So much of your art seems to be about The Problem of Reading, to quote the title of a 2003 work of yours.

MD:There are many problems of reading. There is the research problem trying to put your hand on the right thing, and often not knowing what that is. I met a graduate student in Toronto, named Kate Whiteway, who used the expression: Being in the Eros of research. My oldest friend, the writer and translator Alison Strayer, spoke of that zone of reading as a state of bliss, when theres never a question, where one thing leads to another. But, for me, there is also the problem of being over-identified with reading, and so I am trying to change it up. In my latest work-in-progress, I originally decided there would be no citations, but then I felt utterly compelled to write about Hilton Als, Carson McCullers and Christa Wolf. I dont know that Ill ever write something that is not dependent on communion and connection.

KZ:I also feel Im often over-identified with reading. It seems people sometimes read my work to get a bibliography out of it. Which is perverse because I frequently go through periods of extreme reading allergy. So much of Drifts involves searching for books to read but finding everything too porous. Its a relief when I am reading ecstatically, when I have the time and space. Especially when Im pregnant Im again in my second trimester I cant read much. I spend a lot of time looking and thinking and feeling, and then eating and sleeping. I become like my dog. Which reminds me of that moment in Burn the Diaries, where you describe Eileen Myless passage about her dog, Rosie, shitting and you feeling a kinship looking at your own dog, Bella. I felt such an uncanny affinity reading that passage, because so much of my notetaking was observing dailiness. Im inspired by the way your mind makes connections over texts. Much of Drifts came from walking around my neighbourhood and the city, desiring to take series of photographs, whether of my dog on the porch or the bark of the trees or the feral cats or Halloween decorations. Throughout, I was thinking about images, like the 16th-century prints of Albrecht Drer, Peter Hujars photographs of animals [1960s80s], Sarah Charlesworths Stills [1980]. The book includes not only some of my amateur photographs but also collages and diptychs. I admire how you use and philosophize photography, including your own, in your writing. Was your writing practice always concurrent with your image-making practice?

MD:For a long time, I only made photographs, and dabbled in the moving image. I didnt really start to write until after editing Mother Reader [2001], at which point I wanted to take a break from photography and focus on writing and video. My most recent photographs are black and white images of chickens, horses and dogs taken with my late-1960s Hasselblad. The series was spawned partly by a recent film project and partly by a desire to actively channel Hujars animal portraits. That was a humbling learning experience. Its uncanny how we have overlapping spheres of influence and projective desire for certain artists and writers, even down to the title of your forthcoming book on Guibert, To Write as if Already Dead. I love hearing that the impulse to write Drifts was so strongly linked to your photographic drive. Maybe that is the answer to my bloated, stalled text: to reconnect again with images, as filtered through writing.

This article first appeared in frieze issue 212.

Main image: Moyra Davey, Jane (detail), 1984, gelatin silver print, 5141cm. Courtesy: the artist, greengrassi, London, and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York

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Moyra Davey and Kate Zambreno on Writing As If You Were Dead - frieze.com

What Makes A YouTube Video Hit The Trending Tab? This Data Scientist Broke Down Every Single Video That Trended In 2019. – Tubefilter

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Ah, the Trending tab. YouTubes showcase of videos that a wide range of viewers would find interesting. Like many other facets of the platforms content recommendation algorithm, the Trending tab has been a frequent target of suspicion from creators who want to know more about its inner workingsnotably how and why it surfaces some seemingly popular videos, but not others.

Well likely never get a true peek under the hood from YouTube itself. But thanks to data scientist Ammar Alyousfi, we now have a massive amount of data about every single video that hit the tab in 2019, as well as corresponding conclusions about what qualities these videos tend to share.

To compile his report, Alyousfi ran an automated script that scraped data from YouTubes Trending tab every day throughout the year. According to YouTube, Trending isnt personalized and displays the same list of trending videos in each country to all users so he didnt have to account for the possibility that different videos might show up for users in different regions.

Alyousfi found that over the course of 2019, YouTubes Trending tab displayed 11,177 unique videos. If that sounds smaller than expected, its because Trending actually displayed 72,994 total entries, or around 200 videos per day, but a number of those videos trended for multiple days. For the purpose of his report, Alyousfi chose to examine data on all of the 72,994 trending videos, not on unique trending videos only, he said. The reasoning behind this is that we are interested in videos considered trending by YouTube. So if a video is considered trending for 3 days, then we believe it has more trending power and more trending characteristics than a video trending for 1 day only; thus, it should have more weight. So we include the 3 occurrences of that video in the analysis.

So, which videos had the most trending power? In 2019, six videos appeared on the Trending tab for a staggering 30 days:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, three of them are music videos, and two are related to mega-popular kpop band BTSwhich was also behind YouTubes most-watched Trending video of 2019. The music video for Boy With Luv, its Halsey collaboration, had 195,376,667 views when it first appeared on the tab April 23,Alyousfi found. (For scale, he found 90% of videos hit Trending for the first time when they had less than 2,752,317 views. The smallest number of views a Trending video had when it entered was 53,796, and the average view count was 1,387,466.)

None of the longest-trending videos came from YouTube channels that most frequently produced trending content. Alyousfis data showed that, globally, the top Trending channel of 2019 was Canadian YouTuber Linus Sebastians Linus Tech Tips(11 million subscribers, 120 million views per month), which had a whopping 365 uploads appear on the tab. His channel was closely followed by cooking-focused Binging with Babish (7.3 million, 70 million), which produced around 360 Trending videos.

Other top Trending channels include: culinary magazine Bon Apptit (likely thanks to its incredibly popular, recently controversial series Bon Apptit Test Kitchen) with 355 videos; life hack channel The King of Random (12 million, 40 million) with 350; tech creator and YouTube Original star Marques Brownlee (11 million, 60 million) with 350;WWE (62 million, 1.5 billionyes, seriously, 1.5 billion views per month) with around 345; and Tati Westbrook (9.3 million, 10 million) with 330.

Here are all 19 top Trending channels:

Creators have long wondered whether uploading on specific days or at specific times, using all caps in their titles, or having lengthy/link-riddled descriptions affects the reach of their content. Alyousfi broke down these and a few more hypotheses to find out if any, well, trends show up amongst videos that appeared on the tab.

He found that Trending uploads were spread pretty evenly across days of the week. Tuesday, with 11,986 trending videos, was the highest posting day, while Saturday (7,345) lagged noticeably behind all other days. As for time of day, he found that videos uploaded between noon and 2 p.m. Eastern were the most likely to hit Trending, while videos uploaded between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. Eastern were the least.

With that in mind, though, its worth noting that the majority of videos did not appear on Trending on the actual day they were published. On average, a video appears on the trending list after 5.6 days of publishing, Alyousfi wrote. Also, 95% of the videos took less than 13 days to appear.

His data showed several additional trends among video titles, including: a full 50% of Trending videos had no all-caps words in their titles; titles were generally between 36 and 64 characters in length; and the most common words used in Trending titles were official, video, 2019, vs, trailer, music, game, new, highlights, first, and challenge. (Also, the fire emoji was the most commonly used on Trending videos.)

One of the last findings Alyousfi discusses is video tags. He says almost all Trending videos used tags, and the average number used per video is 21. But, he notes, YouTube tells creators that, Tags can be useful if content in your video is commonly misspelled. Otherwise, tags play a minimal role in helping viewers find your video.

But if that was true, why would YouTube add a lot of tags to their videos? he asks, pointing out that YouTubes 2019 Rewind video had 39 tags. He didnt reach any concrete conclusions about whether tags affect video surfacing, but said that just 3.5% of Trending videos had no tags.

You can see his full report here.

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Sunday might be hottest in 2 years; cooling stations available – Las Vegas Review-Journal

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Clark County has opened four cooling stations in the Las Vegas Valley at various times and days for anyone looking to escape dangerously rising temperatures during a heat warning set to last through Monday night.

The National Weather Service has forecast Sunday as the hottest day this year, said meteorologist Alex Boothe. It may also be the hottest official temperature recorded in the valley for nearly two years, he said.

Its been a long time since weve been this hot, Boothe said.

The cooling locations will be open at various times from Saturday to Monday, the county said in a news release. The four locations, one of which is in Henderson, will have precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including screening protocols, social distancing and mask requirements, the county said.

An excessive heat warning is in effect for Clark County through 8 p.m. Monday, when temperatures are forecast at more than 110 degrees, Boothe said.

Saturday reached 111 degrees, and the overnight low is expected to dip to 89, Boothe said.

Sunday is set to reach 114 degrees the highest temperature in the valley since late July 2018 recorded by the weather service, which measures official temperatures for the Las Vegas Valley at McCarran International Airport, Boothe said.

Overnight temperatures on Monday morning are expected to drop to 88, and highs on Monday are set to reach 111, he said. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to have highs of 108 and 107, respectively.

The heat warning means temperatures will reach dangerously high levels through Monday, especially if conditions dont cool down overnight, Boothe said.

It tends to really affect people who are outside, he said. The homeless population is really at risk for heatstroke and heat-related illness during these stretches.

He said the same heat pattern, caused by a high-pressure system, is also affecting Arizona and New Mexico and is creating rising temperatures throughout the Southwest. Boothe said there is no rain forecast for the valley through Wednesday, but early next week should see breezy afternoons, with gusts topping out at 25 to 30 mph.

In the Las Vegas Valley, the cooling stations open at various times through Monday are:

Courtyard Homeless Resource Center, 1401 Las Vegas Blvd. North., open 24 hours a day. Call 702-229-6117

Cambridge Recreation Center, 3930 Cambridge S., open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday only. Call 702-455-7169

Downtown Recreation Center, 105 W. Basic Road in Henderson, open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, closed on Sunday, and open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday. Call 702-267-4040

SHARE Village Las Vegas, 50 N. 21st St., open daily 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. to noon for hydration only. Call 702-222-1680.

Cooling stations outside of the valley:

In Laughlin: American Legion Richard Springston Post 60, 1510 Bruce Woodbury Drive, open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on days with temperatures more than 112 degrees. An outside cooling area will be open for pets on a leash or in a carrier, but no pets will be allowed inside the building. Call 702-299-1510.

In Mesquite: the Salvation Army at 742 Pioneer Blvd., Suite D, will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday only. Call 702-345-5116.

Daytime shelters for those who are homeless will be open in Clark County through Sept. 30, the county said. The Shade Tree shelter is open at 1 W. Owens Ave. in North Las Vegas from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for women and children only. Shade Tree can be reached at 702-385-0072.

The Salvation Army daytime homeless shelter in Las Vegas, at 35 W. Owens Ave., will be open for adults starting Monday. The shelter will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and can be contacted at 702-701-5369.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.

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Most Wanted in Las Vegas for week of July 5, 2020 – KTNV Las Vegas

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Police in the Las Vegas area are asking for the public's help in locating the following individuals. Anyone with information is asked to contact the appropriate police department or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.

Las Vegas police detectives are seeking the publics assistance to identifying suspects involved in a string of robberies that have occurred in the northwest valley and North Las Vegas. In these events, three unidentified suspects attacked unsuspecting victims walking through parking garages robbing them and stealing their cars. The first suspect is described as a black male, late teens to early 20s, small build. He was last seen wearing a black short-sleeve shirt with a vertical white stripe, black pants wearing a surgical face mask. The second suspect is described as a black male or female, early 20s, heavyset with short hair. This suspect was last seen wearing a yellow short-sleeve shirt, black pants, white shoes wearing a surgical face mask. The third suspect is described as a black male in his early 20s, thin build. He was last seen wearing a short sleeve black shirt, black track-type pants, black shoes wearing a surgical face mask. Surveillance photos of the suspects, and a stolen Honda CRV with damage to the drivers side rear door accompany this release.

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Nevada’s COVID-19 Task Force budgeting to provide thousands of Las Vegas families with internet before school starts – FOX5 Las Vegas

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Rovell: Las Vegas Bettor Wagers $600K on 4 UFC 251 Bouts – The Action Network

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Steve Marcus/Getty Images. Pictured: UFC featherweight Max Holloway.

The fights might not be in Las Vegas this time, but the Sin City still delivers the bettors.

A bettor walked up to the counter at the Bellagio on Saturday and plunked down $600,000 to make his bets on UFC 251.

His most risky bets are $100,000 each on the underdogs in the co-main and main event Jorge Masvidal (+200) and Max Holloway (+175). A bold bet considering both their opponents Kamaru Usman and Alexander Volkanovski have two career losses combined. Winning both bets would net $375,000.

But hes not all in on Masvidal and Holloway. He put two more $100,000 bets that those two fights wont go the distance. For the co-main that bet would net $175,000, while Usman-Masvidal failing to go the distance would win $57,142.

For his final $100,000 bets, he took two favorites Petr Yan (-230) to beat Jose Aldo, which would net $43,478, and strawweight Rose Namajunas (-210) to beat Jessica Andrade. That would net $47,619.

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UNLV researcher explores the Thai American experience via cuisine – Las Vegas Sun

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Christopher DeVargas

Mark Padoongpatt, UNLV associate professor of Asian and Asian American Studies, is shown in his home office, Friday, June 26,2020.

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Saturday, July 11, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Mark Padoongpatt seems to be asked this question frequently: Wheres the best place to get Thai food in Las Vegas?

Lotus of Siam, he quickly answers, naming one of the valleys most established restaurant brands, regardless of cuisine. His favorite dish is the Khao Soi, crispy duck on egg noodles.

But Padoongpatt says theres plenty of other places and dishes to try throughout the city, such as the duck larb at Weera Thai on Sahara Avenue.

Once you ask me about a food recommendation, I just keep going, said Padoongpatt, an Asian American professor at UNLV and authority on all things Thai.

Padoongpatt, a second-generation Thai American, shared that knowledge with Taste the Nation, a new Hulu series where noted cookbook author Padma Lakshmi travels across America for the best immigrant cuisine. The show debuted three weeks ago.

He literally wrote the book on the history of Thai people in America through food, Lakshmi says of Padoongpatt in the episode.

That book, Flavors of Empire: Food and the Making of Thai America, started as his dissertation paper in the early 2010s when earning a doctorate at the University of Southern California. The project took nearly 10 years the product of limited information on Thai culture, he says. He collected data through newspaper clippings, menus and interviews with community members.

He explains the historical relationship between food and identity in the Thai American community, specifically in Los Angeles, where most Thai immigrants settled after World War II. His parents arrived in the 1970s.

I try to make it clear that I cant be a representative voice for the Thai community. I am one voice, Padoongpatt said. But I have become an authority because its what I study and my Thai American experience growing up in the United States.

PBS recently aired a five-hour documentary on the Asian American experience in the U.S. It was well done and informative, Padoongpatt said, but it made no mention of Thai Americans.

Being part of the Hulu episode was important because it brought attention to an overlooked and proud culture, he said.

Even in my field of Asian American history, Thai people are overwhelmingly ignored and overlooked, he said. My immediate network of scholars and colleagues loved the fact that Thai Americans were finally represented (in the show).

Padoongpatt came to UNLV in 2012 as a professor of interdisciplinary studies. He is the director of the Asian and Asian American Studies program, which he helped launch in 2018. His research explores new Asian and Pacific Islander populations in America.

He got turned onto the area of Thai culture during a history and ethnic studies course during his undergraduate studies at the University of Oregon. A professor commented about how there was little knowledge on Thai culture in America and said it with be worth pursuing. It was a perfect fit because he had the background of growing up in a Thai American community in Southern California.

I feel comfortable with the title of a scholarly expert in Thai American history and the responsibility that comes with that, he said. I have some authority because I am the first one to study it. Hopefully, I will be one of many.

Padoongpatts next book will detail how Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Las Vegas are creating space for themselves through food and sports.

When he moved here he was really fascinated by the city because it was way more diverse, racially and ethnically, than people think. There is a lot of different communities because of the service industry, he said.

That means theres plenty of food for Padoongpatt to try and talk about.

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Jacksonville Fishing Report: Red snapper season is (almost) here. – The Florida Times-Union

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In this weeks Jacksonville Fishing Report, read about what you need to know heading into this years red snapper season.

The circus returns to Mayport on Friday, the long-awaited opener of this years four-day red snapper season.

The season runs from July 10th to July 12 and will reopen for the final day on July 17. Youre now required to register for a free State Reef Fish Angler endorsement from FWC if you will be bottom fishing. And starting July 15, bottom anglers will also be required to have a descending device on their boat.

Snapper have been abundant on local reefs this summer, even on the public inshore numbers. The hard part will be finding a parking spot at the boat ramps, even for boaters not participating in the highly popular season. If your boat doesnt live at a marina, you better wake up early this weekend.

RELATED | Read more Outdoors coverage

I wont get into the controversy surrounding the red snapper regulations, because the world has more than enough problems right now. Please do your best this weekend to avoid becoming another one. Practicing the golden rule and respect for our daily afternoon thunderstorms would be a good start.

Mother Ocean has signed up as a sponsor for this years snapper season, as the weather forecast calls for Lake Atlantic conditions through the weekend. Just dont forget about that nasty thunderstorm that will be waiting for you back on the hill.

Nearshore/offshore

The bad news about bait is the pogie pods remain elusive. But on the days theyre flipping, the pogies are big. And theres a good chance a tarpon is nearby.

"I had five tarpon bites yesterday in the pogie pods on the beach, but the bait is there one day, gone the next," said Capt. John Eggers in a text message Wednesday.

Some nice kingfish were caught over the weekend, including a 37 pounder by Chuck Darner and his grandson Byron. This is welcome news a week ahead of the Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament.

The junior tournament will be held July 14, and the two-day general tournament will be on July 16 and July 17. The contest will pay 10 places deep, with the winner taking home a 24-foot Contender with a 300 horsepower Yamaha outboard and trailer thats valued at $141,000.

This years contest will not require a check-out. Entry is $305, and registration is open until July 15.

Capt. Kirk Waltz said the kingfish bite has been great between 3 and 9 miles off the beach despite the pogie problems. The good news is that theres plenty of bait to be jigged up if you have sabiki rigs on the boat.

"I caught some cobia this week too, and the tarpon are starting to show up in good numbers," Waltz said in a text message.

Capt. Kris Kell said he isnt going any further than 12 miles offshore to find his kingfish, and hes found plenty this week. Hes also seven cobia, but all but one was too short to keep.

Sailfish are also lurking at the nearshore wrecks, and Capt. Steve Mullen caught a beautiful one over the weekend while slow trolling for kingfish.

Inshore

Capt. Tony Bozzella fished Wednesday with Craig and Shopia Meyer. They fished lures early during the high outgoing tide and found a steady bite of spanish mackerel, blue fish, jacks and ladyfish. As the tide dropped, they moved back into the shallow waters of Hannah Mills Creek and caught a 25-inch trout, 27-inch redfish and a flounder to bring home an inshore slam. They caught the fish on shrimp and quarter-ounce jig heads.

Capt. Ron Schurr said the backcountry bite has been surprisingly decent despite the hot muddy water. He said hes catching most of his fish around dead low tide on jigs and shrimp.

Eggers said the redfish have been biting well during low incoming tides in the morning on topwater plugs. When the tide turns, hell switch to mud minnows on jig heads to target a "pretty good" flounder bite. Hes finding fish along dropoff edges of the Intracoastal Waterway and grass lines during high tide.

Surf

Surf anglers have been catching lots of big whiting and a few nice pompano during the last week, said Spencer Brogden.

It can be easy to overlook surf fishing during the summer, but last week proved you dont have to go far to fill the cooler. My advice is to follow Brogdens "Brokenreel23 Northeast Florida Surf Fishing" group on Facebook, where he provides daily updates on whats biting at our local beaches.

Freshwater

South of downtown Jacksonville, the croaker and yellow mouth trout bite has been "on fire" in the St. Johns River at Mile Markers 18 and 19, said Jon Hamilton. He also said the striped bass are chewing well under the Buckman Bridge and in Doctors Lake.

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Jacksonville Fishing Report: Red snapper season is (almost) here. - The Florida Times-Union

CBSE Board Results 2020: Results not on July 11 and 13, CBSE says notice fake – The Financial Express

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CBSE Board Results 2020: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will not announce its class 12 and 10 board results on July 11 and 13. A notice was circulated on social media regarding the same, however CBSE said that it is fake. News Agency ANI later deleted the tweet.

Earlier, the board submitted in the Supreme Court that it will announce result by 15th July. The results of students of classes 10th and 12th will be available on the official website of the CBSE.

Where to check resultscbseresults.nic.inresults.nic.incbse.nic.in

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CBSE Board Results 2020: Results not on July 11 and 13, CBSE says notice fake - The Financial Express

[OPINION | Dash of SAS] If you want to empower women, pay them for their work – Rappler

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When Dove, via Instagram, invited fashion designer Mich Dulce to be part of a new shampoo campaign to empower women with the confidence to go for their own definition of beauty, she became incensed.

Dulce was invited to support the campaign song with her own creative playful, adventurous, and real musical interpretation. A toolkit and suggested hashtags to go along with her post were included in the message.

Dulce responded with a note to say that if Dove truly wanted to empower women they should start by paying them for marketing the brand instead of perpetuating unpaid work in the guise of empowerment.

In a Facebook post that has since gone viral, Dulce shared the message exchange with the brands public relations (PR) agency and wrote:

Naghihirap na ang mundo (the world is suffering), yet large corporate global brands like Dove will continue to capitalize on causes like 'women empowerment' for free marketing. Sorry, I've hit my tolerance point with this. I know so many people who got paid with soap in exchange for Dove campaigns which ordinarily would pay models thousands of pesos...

The PR agency who approached Dulce apologized and said that they were planning to pay for the posts and would send in an agreement outlining those terms.

By then, Dulces Facebook post had already gone viral as other women shared similar stories.

Another woman who had received the same invitation as Dulce tried negotiating for compensation but was offered a modest token that was rationalized as not a talent fee but more of a token of thanks for supporting women. Another shared how she did an ad for the brand a few years back. The ad which featured her image was plastered along major thoroughfares. She was compensated with shampoo. (READ: Fortune 500 feminism)

In an email interview, Unilever released this statement from Ed Sunico, Vice President for Sustainable Business Communications: Through the years, Doves purpose has been to make beauty a positive experience for every woman making her develop a positive relationship with the way she looks, helping her raise her self-esteem, and realize her full potential. For a new campaign, Dove Philippines reached out to individuals who have the voice and the influence to further the brands purpose of helping women break free from conventions and express their own definition of beauty.

On the subject of equal and fair pay as an integral part of gender equality and empowering women, Sunico answered, As a brand, we work with different partners and advocates in various ways whether as talent, or social media influencer. We compensate all talents depending on the work they do, based on mutually agreed engagements. We continue to listen to our community and are constantly reviewing our practices as the industry evolves because our partners are important to us.

Femvertising

Dulce, who is also the lead singer of the feminist punk band The Male Gaze and is co-founder of feminist group Grrrl Gang Manila, brings up the touchy issue of femvertisingor how brands use feminist ideals like empowerment to sell their products. There are many thought pieces online about femvertising but one of the best is this piece by Andi Zeislar of Bitch Media. Zeislar termed it as empowertising and described it as the commodification of feminism.

The business of marketing and selling to women literally depends on creating and then addressing female insecurity.... There was good reason for industries that sustained themselves on the self-hatred of women to dread the potential reach of feminist movements. Co-opting the language of liberation to sell their products allowed them to have it both ways, celebrating the spirit of the movement while fostering a new set of insecurities ('natural-look' cosmetics, anyone?) and new aspirational archetypes, wrote Zeislar.

My view is that femvertising or empowertising is where advertising and advocacy meet. This intersection is not necessarily a bad thing if brands recognize and live up to the responsibility of taking up a social cause.

Think about all your favorite ads over the last couple of years. Media scholars have acknowledged the power of carefully made and well-thought out advertising in 30 seconds or less. These compact films can challenge long held beliefs and usher new perspectives. Take the Budweiser commercial that honored stepdads and blended families. This Bench ad talks about the importance of parentss acceptance of their LGBT children and this Nido ad series which is particularly personal to me shattered the unspoken stigma of non-nuclear families by normalizing them.

There is power in advertising. But when advertising ventures to speak the language of advocacy, it brings together two worlds that were previously separate.

Advertising was once a realm dominated by fantasy and multi-dollar endorsements by A-lister celebrities, promoting a product that made you feel like you could compensate for not being a celebrity, by buying a product that would somehow make you feel like one.

Advertising was also an industry that was built on the objectification of women (think about all the early car and liquor ads) from the era when advertising agencies and campaigns were developed almost exclusively by men.

Advertising capitalizes on creating want and unmet needs and addressing it with a product.

Advocacy is highlighting and addressing the gaps between public policy and citizens aspirations. Advocacy is the fight for a cause.

By its very nature, advertising and public relations are for profit. The essence of advocacy is social justice.

Factors like the internet and social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram democratized the advertising space. Ordinary people became influencers and content creators, a shift that drew emphasis to authenticity and representation advertising and advocacy began sharing words of the same language.

And this is where it can get tricky both in terms of just compensation and the question of the superficial use of a cause like feminism to kick up the bottomline.

Celebrity endorsers can negotiate mutli-million dollar contracts that will spell out in no unclear terms how many times their image will be used, what and where it will be used for and for how long. They are paid primarily for their fame and their stature, not exclusively for their affiliation to a cause.

When a brand that dabbles into social issues contracts an everyday person or an influencer like Dulce, they do it for their backstory, the authenticity of their lived experience adds credence to a brands claim of support for a social issue like equality.

Dulces work in Grrrl Gang Manila and The Male Gaze are undoubtedly why Dove saw her endorsement as valuable to the brands message of female empowerment and self-love. Dulces curly locks were a bonus to the shampoo brands call for freedom to express yourself through your hair.

But as Dulce pointed out, Dove pays models and celebrities upwards of thousands to do the same. Why did it seem like they were avoiding doing the same with her and as seen from the stories in her thread with other women?

Norman Agatep, who is a board member of the Philippine Society of Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) explained that there is no clear industry standard for influencer pricing as of yet because it has not been fully established if influencer marketing is under PR's domain.

The influencer marketing industry has seen rapid growth but brands have not responded as quickly, he said.

Some brands assign influencer marketing to PR agencies thinking that the resulting publicity is earned (a term for an influencer or media outlet writing about/endorsing a brand because of its relevance and newsworthiness). Other brands assign influencer marketing to ad agencies or to digital agencies since influencer content often appears on digital space, Agatep added.

Emphasizing that he was expressing his own opinion and not speaking for the PR industry, Agatep said, I believe influencers must be remunerated. Once brands request influencers to do something on the brand's behalf, that is already stepping into paid territory.

This kind of engagement, said Agatep, would necessitate a discussion on work involved and metrics like number of followers and level of engagement including types of compensation packages whether exchange deals, cash, or a mix of both. (READ: [PODCAST] Making Space: Achieving equality for women in the workplace)

I know this feels like compensation is determined on a case-to-case basis. For a huge part, it really is. I have heard a story, for instance, about a micro influencer who was insulted when offered to be paid in cash it was as if this person was being paid to think a certain way, Agatep explained.

Beyond the aesthetics of feminism

This highlights another truth that is sidestepped in the overlap of advertising and advocacy. Often, peoples involvement in advocacy work is not driven by money but by their own experience of othering. Supporting a cause they believe in is doing their part in making sure others do not experience the same kind of marginalization not to sell a product. This crossover requires a discussion, rather than an assumption that an advocate or influencer will participate in a campaign for a token of appreciation.

When brands use feminism and its ideals of equality, it needs to go beyond cherry picking the easy and trendy aspects of it like empowerment. The idea of empowerment may have become mainstream but its core premise of equality remains the same. Equality goes beyond embracing the way we look and the myriad shapes and sizes our bodies come in. (READ: #2030Now: This is how you give women real political and social power)

Brands who use a social cause like gender equality as part of their advertising need to acknowledge that doing so comes with the responsibility of practicing what they trumpet and includes the subject of equal and just pay. (READ: Feminism beyond the jargon)

Being an ally of gender equality means incorporating equality into everything they do and that includes equitably paying women and influencers invited to associate themselves with their brand. Accepting our brown skin, our wide noses, and our curly hair is but a small part of feeling empowered. The struggle for gender equality is also an economic one. Globally, women still make less than men and for certain jobs like care, domestic, and agricultural work, women are not paid at all. Brand endorsements shouldnt be added to the list of jobs that women are not paid for. Rappler.com

Ana P. Santos writes about sexual health rights, sexuality and gender for Rappler. She is the 2014 Miel Fellow under the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and a 2018 Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in Southeast Asia.Follow her on Twitter at @iamAnaSantos and on Facebook at @SexandSensibilities.com

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Who is Britney Spears ex Kevin Federline and does he have custody of their kids? – The Sun

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Kevin Federline was born on March 21, 1978, in Fresno, California.

He is an American rapper, DJ, actor, television personality, professional wrestler and fashion model.

3

His career began as a back-up dancer with a non-profit organization called Dance Empowerment.

He served as a backup dancer for Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Destinys Child, Pink and LFO for a number of years.

He became a high-profile personnel after a two year marriage with singer Britney Spears in September 2004.

On November 7, 2006, Spears filed for divorce from Federline, citing irreconcilable differences and asked for both physical and legal custody of their two sons.

3

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Federline filed a response to Spears divorce petition, also seeking physical and legal custody of their children.

On October 1, 2007, a court ruling granted Federline sole physical custody of his children, with legal custody to be decided.

On January 3, 2008, police were called to Spears home after the singer reportedly refused to relinquish custody of her children to Federline, locking herself in a room with the child.

Spears was taken from her home on a stretcher and hospitalized for appearing to be under the influence with an unknown substance.

As a result of this, Federline was awarded sole legal and sole physical custody of the minor children.

Under the hashtag #freebritney, fans of Spears are calling for the end of her conservatorship after Kanye West, who has been diagnosed with a mental disorder, announced he would be running for president of the United States.

Britney currently hasno legal control over her estate or financial and personal assets those rights were granted to her father and a lawyer 12 years ago.

She is said to be worth $59million.

Specifically, fans are calling for Britney to have access to her own lawyer in her case.

The topic blew up on Twitter after West announced his intention to run for office as fans noted that he, too, was hospitalized for mental illness and held against his will.

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Britney's conservatorship was implemented in 2008 after the star had a series of public meltdowns.

The arrangement put her financial assets, estate, and personal assets under the control of her father and lawyer.

Conservatorships are designed to protect people who cannot take care of themselves.

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Who is Britney Spears ex Kevin Federline and does he have custody of their kids? - The Sun

Artists Nick Cave And Bob Faust Asking Neighbors To Fight Racism By Airing Their ‘Dirty Laundry’ – Block Club Chicago

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IRVING PARK Artists Nick Caveand Bob Faust are asking neighbors to contribute to Amends, a community-based art project aimed at helping to eradicate systemic racism.

Amends is a collection of artwork where neighbors from the citys more privileged communities share how they have benefitted from structural racism, Faust said.

Cave and Faust are inviting neighbors to visit Carl Schurz Public High School, 3601 N. Milwaukee Ave., so they can add reflections and apologies.The event runs 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.

It was important to us to not just collect peoples amends but to have them sit with it and write it themselves. When you do personal work like this it takes time. Writing it out, you get a little deeper into it and it helps you think about how change can occur, Faust said.

Participants will write their thoughts and personal commitments of change on yellow ribbons, which will be tied to a clothesline as part of the Dirty Laundry component of theAmends project.

In June, the first part of Amends was a collection of handwritten reflections from friends and acquaintances, called Letters to the World Toward the Eradication of Racism.

These reflections were written on the windows of the Facility, an Irving Park arts hub at 3618-3622 N. Milwaukee Ave.the artists opened in 2018.

RELATED: Artist Nick Cave Turning Vintage Irving Park Building Into Studio, Gallery

The idea for the Amends project came about after Faust and his daughter joined in a protest for the Black Lives Matter movement after a Minneapolis Police officer killed George Floyd.

My daughter and I came back from the protest feeling super empowered and thinking things would change quickly. But that was our perspective due to white privilege, Faust said.

Cave wondered aloud if people will still be willing to fight against structural racism and talk about how they benefit from it months after Floyds death, Faust said. The Amends project began as a way to keep the conversation going.

Organizing marches and voting to change public policies to fight racism are important. But you also need to make it disappear from more personal places, Faust said. We hope this project can help dismantle the most surface layer of structural racism by having people talking about it at their kitchen table or workplace.

Cave is best known for hissoundsuits wearable fabric sculptures that fully conceal the body and act as a second skin that obscures race, gender and class.

The soundsuits originated as metaphorical suits of armor in response to the Rodney King beatings and have evolved into vehicles for empowerment, according to Cavesportfolio.

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‘Distancing not an option for people with disabilities’ – Daijiworld.com

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By Siddhi Jain

New Delhi, Jul 11 (IANSlife): Often reliant on a robust caregiving and support network, people with disabilities (PwDs) are a community hit hard during the lockdown and resulting operational slowdown - impacting jobs, businesses and livelihood.

Dr Jitender Aggarwal, a practising dentist who turned disability rights activist when he gradually lost vision to macular degeneration of retina in 2004, says that for PwDs, challenges are aplenty during the pandemic.

Dr Aggarwal, who is the founder of Sarthak Educational Trust, says distancing is not an option for many as they rely on others including personal support workers and caregivers to support their needs including movement, bathing, and feeding. He feels information on COVID-19 infection prevention strategies focused on the needs of people with disabilities are not being disseminated through media or other sources.

"Due to COVID-19 restriction, many people with disabilities who operated small businesses or other informal livelihood ventures (i.e. home cell phone repair or machine repair shops, selling goods etc) are unable to work and there is a significant loss of income, which is not compensated by government programs.

"Country-wide lockdown which places restrictions on movement within the community (including bus travel) and lack of income prevents them from acquiring needed protective material including face masks, hand sanitizers and hand wash. Acquiring these materials is particularly important for people with disabilities as many are in direct physical contact with caregivers and support workers. In addition, COVID-19 rules surrounding restriction of movement within the community affects people with mobility issues even more, creating another barrier to obtaining these materials. Government programs provide basic needs including rice and grains, but not protective material," Dr Aggarwal told IANSlife over email.

Dr Aggarwal, whose NGO focuses on making PwDs self-reliant by skilling them and helping them get jobs, says job loss affects not just the individual, but also family income.

Speaking about the viability of telemedicine for people with disabilities, he said that it is a substitute but not the solution as early intervention therapies need manual intervention but social distancing restricts this. "Telemedicine is more dependent on parental/caretaker support, supervision followed by sensitivity among the individual."

Dr Aggarwal's initiative, Sarthak, imparted training via the online medium to around 1200 people with disabilities, and provided job opportunities to 300 PwDs under work-from-home model, along with online counselling of individuals and families on multiple themes. It also connected people with disabilities with available community resources which are difficult to access during this period of lockdown including pharmacies, medical clinics and assistive equipment providers.

"Sarthak always advocates for the business model - hire a PwD on the basis of his talent and not on his disability," he said.

The activist highlights initiatives that must be taken at the policy and community level to better-enable the community in these hard times. Among those, are providing accessible information to people with disabilities, diverting a percentage of PM Cares fund towards disability empowerment, redirecting CSR funds towards healthcare and skill-building and promoting digitisation and e-learning.

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SPOTLIGHT: THE DEMONS WITHIN – DAWN.com

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Illustration by Samiah Bilal

Ushna Shah is one of Pakistans brightest, most promising young stars. This doesnt mean that shes always happy. Shes experienced rave reviews and the love of fans but shes also seen the flipside to fame: online trolls judging actors on everything from the way they perform to the way they dress, often using religion or morality as a tool to bash her. And thats not even considering the malice and competition that simmers just beneath the surface of entertainments glamorous veneer.

Its a high anxiety job, Ushna observes. It isnt natural to have ones personal life displayed and open for public judgment, but people dont realise this. The world forgets to differentiate between person and personality, and tends to discuss you without realising that youre an actual human being with feelings.

One consequence of this is that it makes you second guess yourself and fear your own success. Obviously, one wants to work and do well but theres always this fear that if you do well, you will be thrust even more into the limelight, peoples fascination with you will grow during this popular phase, and you will end up becoming a target once again. The constant fear of being misquoted, having something you say exaggerated, some scandal or the other being printed and becoming the topic of the latest gossip, can be emotionally exhausting. Imagine high school, multiplied by 10,000.

Ushna continues, Fearing happiness and being afraid to celebrate is not a fun way to live. You have to constantly keep your mental state in check, develop an extremely thick skin and keep a guarded circle of trusted people around you, who will love you and protect you, and are able to see beyond the personality to the person that you are.

A life constantly in the limelight, perpetually open for public dissection, constantly sidestepping a minefield of political partisanship and competition, can trigger emotional distress and even depression. Showbiz stars share their personal battles with mental health...

In a similar vein, Saba Qamars recent YouTube video, Kab Samjho Gay? flits through a series of disturbing visuals and comments: Saba laughing, curled up and crying in a fetal position, glaring at the camera while she talks about how trolling and societal pressures can kill people with more sensitive hearts. How many more lives will we take? she asks. A single sentence, a single phrase, a single troll can ruin someones life why do you play God? You see everything else so clearly but you are unable to see someones pain.

The video came soon after Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide, a death that sparked off commentaries on both sides of the border about how an artists life may appear glamorous but can be wrought with anxiety, fears, politics and extreme pressures. Of course, anxiety and its associated emotion, depression, are hardly restricted to the celebrity life.

In fact, Hania Aamir, a celebrity who has especially been very vocal about discussing mental health and her personal struggle with it, once said to me that anxiety is an ailment as common as the flu, and needs to be treated accordingly. However, there is no denying that a life constantly in the limelight, perpetually open for public dissection, constantly sidestepping a minefield of political partisanship and competition, can trigger emotional distress.

All that glitters

As performers, we also tend to be very sensitive, and that makes us more susceptible towards feeling anxious, observes RJ Anoushey Ashraf. Were just always in the public eye and, while we are on the receiving end of a lot of love, we also have to bear with a lot of flak. People will judge us on what were wearing, what were saying, anything and everything and over time, we have to learn to ignore it all.

There is also the pressure of putting up a faade. I hosted a morning show for five years two years for Dawn News and before that, three years for Health TV and just getting up every morning, five days a week and putting on a constant cheerful face took its toll on me. I could have cried all night and my eyes would be puffy in the morning, or someone at home could be ill but I would have no choice. It was emotionally draining and, ultimately, I decided that I couldnt do it anymore.

Thinking back, she continues, But even when I was younger, I do think that I experienced panic attacks. My family and I just never really recognised them for what they were. I would throw up before any major exam and would feel sick to my stomach. We always thought that it was just tension, although perhaps it was an indication of a more deeply-rooted underlying problem. Generally speaking, a lot of times, parents dont realise that, when they think that they are encouraging their children, they are actually putting unwarranted pressure on them. It can have some very serious long-term consequences.

Its important to take steps that counter anxiety. Some people seek help with a therapist, others meditate. In my case, I have recently realised that going on a social media detox really works for me. For a few months, I just switched off and it was very calming. I also refuse to check up on social media first thing in the morning. I dont want to read a disturbing piece of news as soon as I wake up. I prefer to get done with my work for the day before I go online.

Actress Hania Aamir can similarly trace her anxiety back to her teenage years when she would sometimes cry for no reason. Things got worse once I started working because I initially overcommitted. I would constantly be rushing from one project to the other, and it took a toll on me mentally. There were also these constant feelings of self-doubt, every time someone criticised me online: what was wrong with me? Did people not like me?

I went through a difficult patch when I didnt want to wake up in the morning and see the sunlight. I would get overwhelmed by even the smallest things, and I ended up coming late for work or cancelling out on a shoot. People termed me as difficult. They assumed that I was throwing tantrums, but I was just battling my personal demons.

Eventually, Hania realised that she had to help herself. The people around me may be there for me but they cant understand what Im going through all the time. I decided that I had to help myself. I didnt want to waste my life by feeling miserable all the time. I pushed myself to go to work and fight off my apprehensions. I try not to cry for too long because that means that Im prolonging my pain. I really believe in the power of prayer. I try to do things that make me feel better so that I dont succumb to the anxiety.

There are still times when I find it hard to cope. Ill be celebrating with my friends, having a great time and suddenly, I wont be able to deal with all the emotions around me. There are days when just choosing what to wear seems like the most difficult thing in the world, says Hania.

Actor Yasir Hussain observes that depression can also settle in because of bad career choices. Actors sometimes overwork themselves with shifts that start early in the morning and go on till late in the night. At other times, they just take any and every role that is offered to them. This may have its temporary lucrative benefits but, in the long run, they end up being slotted as second leads and being offered forgettable roles. This can lead to career stress and depression.

Negative shades

Many other actors have talked about their struggles with anxiety and how it heightened as a consequence of their work. Adnan Malik recalls how his first stint as an actor, in the 2014 drama Sadqay Tumharay, would keep him up at night, worrying about his performance. In a post on his Instagram page, he confessed that the character that he played took a toll on him and ever since having acted in the drama, he has been going to therapy, on and off. He elaborated, Now the thing that I didnt know about acting was that, when the director calls cut, I should leave the character there as well. But I didnt. I took Khalil [my character] home with me. I slowly became Khalil. I didnt know where I started and he ended.

I remember there were times when I had to do 30 retakes because I would sabotage my own performance, thinking it wasnt good enough. I was constantly battling my own demons on the inside When I had to be angry, I didnt know how to access authentic anger, so I dug deep into my childhood to find it. Places in my subconscious that I had buried I triggered them I began to resent my parents, disconnected myself from all my friends and relationships and it all became too overwhelming I needed help.

When bullying gets out of hand

Another by-product of fame that can act as a trigger is a grueling, nerve-racking social media experience. There have been so many in recent times: Momina Mustehsan and Ahad Raza Mir relentlessly bashed for their Coke Studio rendition of Ko Ko Korina, Mahira Khan in the midst of controversy due to leaked pictures with Indian actor Ranbir Kapoor, and Sadaf Kanwal and Shehroz Sabzwari enduring a very tough time when they announced their marriage, a few months following Shehrozs divorce from first wife Syra.

A few weeks following the release of Ko Ko Korina and the cyber bullying that ensued Momina Mustehsan put up an image on her social media of a note where she had repetitively scrawled, I am okay, I am okay. It was possibly an indication of how disturbed she was. For a year following the songs release, Momina went off the radar, only returning to the limelight at last years Lux Style Awards, where she opened the show with a performance focusing on women empowerment.

Power of prayer

But while social media may have made life more difficult for todays stars, greater awareness about mental health can also help them recognise and cope with anxiety. Actor Zahid Ahmed points out, No ones forcing you to be an actor. You have to realise that. There will be times when you will be ignored or suddenly replaced in a project, but you cant obsess over it. It really helps if you look at the bigger picture and seek solace in prayer.

Similarly, actor and producer Sheheryar Munawar recounts how he recovered from a panic attack earlier this year, when life came to a halt due to the coronavirus. I couldnt focus, couldnt move and I was losing my consciousness. As actors, we are perpetually on a high-octane schedule, constantly traveling, shuffling from one project to the other. Now, suddenly, everything had slowed down. I had never really had the time to listen to my own voice and emotions and now that I did, it scared me.

Prayer, family and a healthy routine helped Sheheryar calm down. Its important to have a coping mechanism. I realised that I needed to ground myself and do things that made me feel positively about myself, he says.

Ayesha Omar, who has often discussed the mental stress of being a target for online trolling, also places importance on a healthy lifestyle. If Im having a panic attack, I try to counteract it by upping my vitamin intake. I have friends who are not from the industry and talking to them is very therapeutic. I listen to the Holy Quran. I eat healthy and herbs that release mental stress, such as holy basil and ashwagandha, are a regular part of my diet. Knowing how to deal with a panic attack or recognising the signs that can help stop it really helps.

Faith is very important, says actor Shaan Shahid. My career spans over three decades now and I have seen highs and lows. In 2014, when I spoke against Bollywood at the ARY Film Awards and Ali Zafar argued with me, I felt anxious. Would people stop working with me now? Would they unite against me? But then, I got over it. I have faith in what I do and I leave everything else to God. And through good times and bad times, I have always thanked God.

He adds, If you need an example, you can just try nurturing a plant. Watch it bloom, then watch its leaves wither away, only to bloom again. Good times come and so do the bad. As long as we remember that, we wont lose hope.

For a person battling clinical depression, this is easier said than done. But perhaps, when the going gets tough and the pressures are high, remembering that one plant, shriveling before reviving again, could be a first step towards better mental health.

Published in Dawn, ICON, July 12th, 2020

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SPOTLIGHT: THE DEMONS WITHIN - DAWN.com