The evolution of home fitness – BBC News

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The internet and age of Covid-19

Which brings us to today. Spandex-clad actors in VHS tapes have been replaced with fitness influencers on social media platforms like Instagram, many of whom endorse the same kind of lose weight fast dietary supplements or exercise gadgets that the fitness industry always has.

Except now, we largely call it the wellness industry. Working out isnt just about staying in shape; the lines between fitness and the self-help movement have become blurred. We need exercise not just as a beauty regimen now, and not just as a heart and health situation, now we need to do it for our mental health. This is now a burden in all of our realms, says Hejtmanek.

And offerings have become even more complex, with cult-like group exercise phenomena like SoulCycle, mindfulness classes that mix yoga, aromatherapy and soundscapes, and luxury gyms like Equinox offering additional services like childcare and workspaces.

But that was pre-Covid. Now, with gyms closed and outings comprehensively curtailed, were all innovating; fitness instructors have been quick to move online, yoga classes have taken to Zoom, and sales of exercise equipment and downloads of fitness apps are all on the rise. Between January and March in the US, for example, sales of fitness equipment shot up 55% as lockdowns began to be activated. Some gyms are even introducing foster programmes for their equipment during the pandemic lending out machines to members for a fee.

Stark, the University of Leeds professor, thinks its too early to tell whether coronavirus could lead to a new home workout boom. He thinks the new online classes tap into something that didnt exist in home fitness before, but believes that the lure of the gym may prove stronger in the long term.

Gyms fulfil quite a different social role. They are places where exercises done by individuals can be communal and competitive, he says. When the lockdown is phased out and then ends, it is much more likely that people will flock back to gyms and sports fields to recapture the vital social, human contact which is also integral to exercise for so many.

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The evolution of home fitness - BBC News

‘Single-minded and unavoidable’: Evolution of the government’s Covid-19 comms plan – CampaignLive

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"Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives" is likely to go down as one of the most effective messages in the history of government communications. The vast majority of Britons heeded the warning about coronavirus and stayed at home in a remarkable act of civil obedience that few could have predicted before the middle of March.

Spontaneous and prompted awareness of the campaign were 77% and 92% respectively, the Cabinet Office told Campaign at the start of May, adding that 83% of people understood how their own behaviour can affect the spread of coronavirus. The marketing costs were undisclosed but were already thought to be more than "Get ready for Brexit", which cost 46m.

The three-part coronavirus slogan worked because it was "hard-hitting", "single-minded" and "unavoidable", according to Stephen Woodford, chief executive of the Advertising Association. "Nobody could be in any doubt about the need to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives."

A Whitehall source added: "The messaging has been simple. Thats why its been effective. Its got three points and people can remember it. Policy is important, but so are communications."

Yet it was also evident that Boris Johnsons government made mistakes in the early stages of the crisis. On 22 January, the UK rated the risk from the epidemic in China as "low" and, a week later, "moderate".

Within four weeks, and, following the first confirmed UK death on 28 February, the government was forced to reassess its position.

So began what would turn out to be a complex, multichannel public-information campaign that would have to adapt to the evolving situation.

Whitehall set up the Covid-19 Communications Hub to be what it called a "cross-government function to support the UKs efforts to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic".

Senior executives from its existing agencies, MullenLowe and Manning Gottlieb OMD, joined the effort inside the Cabinet Office.

The first phase was a "hygiene" campaign, which broke on radio, print, digital out-of-home, social, display and programmatic, and ran in rotation for the rest of the month.

At the crux of its message was the importance of washing hands regularly for 20 seconds.

However, in those early weeks, decision-making was slow because there were many stakeholders, including Number 10, the Department of Health, Public Health England and leading scientists, who all needed to approve the communications. As the death toll started to grow, policy shifted beyond the "contain" phase.

The "delay" part of the campaign launched on 15 March and featured Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, urging anyone with symptoms to self-isolate and, for the first time, it included TV advertising.

One day later the government advised people to work from home and, two days later, the announcement was made that schools would be closing as well as pubs, restaurants, gyms and other social venues.

Lockdown had begun. Daily, televised government news conferences, with the "Stay home" slogan on the lecterns, reinforced the messaging. "We saw that as our prime real estate," an insider said.

The business support part of the campaign launched on 1 April, with details of chancellor Rishi Sunaks furlough scheme and other emergency measures.

As Johnson fell gravely ill with coronavirus, the "Stay home" campaign took on a "crisis" tone with updated hygiene assets released.

Conrad Bird, who had worked on the governments Great Britain trade campaign, led what amounted to a virtual agency in the communications hub.

Isaac Levido, an Australian comms expert, who worked on Johnsons 2019 general election victory, also joined at the end of March and the messaging became harder-hitting. "If you go out, you can spread it. People will die," one ad warned.

Following the announcement on 17 April that lockdown would be extended for another three weeks, refined "stay home" messages were targeted at key demographics, including younger people and BAME communities.

Towards the end of the month, as testing came on stream, a campaign targeting key workers was launched as well as a mood film to thank people for staying at home and reminding them why they were doing so.

The communications challenge was far from over. As Woodford says, maintaining social distancing as the UK emerges from lockdown was going to require a new messaging with considerable "subtlety".

Never has the saying "If youre going through hell, keep going" by Johnsons hero, Winston Churchill seemed so apposite.

Joint chief strategy officer, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO

Early in March, Campaign reported that "some of the governments best comms people are being drafted into a Cabinet Office war room in an attempt to win the information war over coronavirus".

Two months on, and what school report should we give them? Pretty good, Id say.

The best public information does two things: it tells people what they should do and it gives them a compelling reason to do it. As simply and succinctly as possible.

"Dig for victory" (during WW2) being one of the very best examples of this.

We want you to grow your own vegetables to help Britain have a fighting chance of winning the war.

And I would say the most memorable of all the government Covid-19 messages to date does this well.

"Stay home. Protect the NHS. Saves lives."

We want you to stay at home to ensure the NHS can cope and as many people are spared as possible.

This particular message has the added bonus of being a tricolon (a rhetorical term for a series of three parallel words, phrases or clauses, as per "I came , I saw, I conquered"), which has helped make it sticky and memorable.

Of course, there have been numerous other messages from the government over the past eight weeks, from how to wash our hands, how often we can go out and for what reason, the symptoms to look out for, what to do (or not do) if we develop any and so forth. Fear has probably meant we are more of a captive audience than usual, but many of these less dramatic messages have also registered with us, and been followed.

And one final reflection on jeopardy. There have been many reports suggesting that positive messages are more effective in changing behaviour than negative ones. "Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives" is obviously an example of positive framing. But given that the "If you go out, you can spread it. People will die" comms is possibly the most memorable single piece of communication from the whole campaign, it does seem to make the case for occasionally needing to scare.

So far, then, so good. Easing us out of lockdown might not be quite so straightforward.

During March and April, the governments Covid-19 campaign broke in three phases and in several waves, using different channels to take account of the developing situation.

4 March

15 March

23 March

25 March

31 March

1 April

6 April

10 April

13 April

20 April

27 April

Chairman, Saatchi & Saatchi London

At the beginning of the crisis, I wrote in these very pages that our industry doesnt save lives. But in the case of the good folk at MullenLowe, I was wrong.

For a month, the agency has had the unenviable task of communicating the governments coronavirus advice to the nation. That it is doing this with extraordinarily limited production capabilities and at breakneck speed deserves our utmost respect.

But the brutal truth is that this work will be judged in one way only on its effectiveness. So, lets address this and this alone.

In this campaign, we have none of the strategic depth of the best government behaviour-change comms such as Abbott Mead Vickers BBDOs "30 for a reason" work or Euro RSCGs "fatty fags" campaign, honed by months of painstaking planning.

But what we do have is absolute clarity, particularly as the campaign has settled down around the message: "Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives."

It does have a whiff of the "message out" rather than "message received" style of communications favoured by politicians but sometimes we do get a little lost in the behavioural economics playbook when the task is far simpler.

And the task here is so incredibly simple. Stop people leaving their homes and putting the NHS and other peoples lives in danger. I dont need Millward Brown to know this work is effective the emptiness of our streets is testament to the fact.

Effectiveness that is amplified by the most powerful "distinctive brand asset" of this year, the emergency tape art direction. And by the choice of the NHS as the author of the communication, a brand that has stratospheric potency right now.

But heres the thing. While effectiveness is about the strategy, the message, the creative and the spend, it is also about the timing.

When the public inquiry is held into the disastrous way the government has handled the coronavirus crisis, this campaign will inevitably be dragged into its blades. The unequivocal "stay at home" message only appeared after Boris Johnsons decision to lockdown the UK on 23 March, by any objective measure far too late.

And ads that arent on air cant change anything.

So, yes, the good folk at MullenLowe are saving lives every single day.

But imagine how many more they could have saved had they been asked to do this sooner.

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'Single-minded and unavoidable': Evolution of the government's Covid-19 comms plan - CampaignLive

SWO Boss: ‘Insidious’ COVID-19 Spread on USS Kidd Shows Evolution of Navy Response to Pandemic – USNI News

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Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Sullivan, assigned to Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet Medical Readiness Division, center, addresses the medical team while preparing for Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100) as part of the Navy response to the COVID-19 outbreak aboard the ship on April 28, 2020. US Navy Photo

When COVID-19 was first detected on guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100) late last month, the Navy put into action a new set of procedures to stem the spread of the virus.

The crew had departed Hawaii in late March after being detached from the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group while USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) was grappling with its own virus outbreak that left aircraft carrier pier-side in Guam.

Almost a month later, the first signs of an outbreak appeared when the destroyer was operating off the Pacific coast of South America. The crew hadnt left the ship since their Hawaii port call, about a month prior to when the first sailor showed symptoms of an influenza-like illness or ILI on April 22. That day, the sailor was evacuated off the ship to a military hospital in San Antonio, Texas, and on April 23 the sailor tested positive for COVID-19. That positive test started a process the Navy has cobbled together over the last two months to purge the virus from deployed ships.

Pretty quickly into the U.S. spread of the pandemic, the Navy realized that the only real way to keep the virus off hulls and keep sailors healthy was to craft and maintain a fragile, virus-free bubble on their warships, Vice Adm. Richard Brown, the commander of Naval Surface Forces and Naval Surface Force Pacific, told USNI News in an interview on Friday.

USS Kidd (DDG-100) arrives in San Diego on April 28, 2020. US Navy Photo

When we started out this process, I started to say it was an algebra problem for us, he said.Then it became differential equations, and then it went to multivariable calculus, and in many respects now its almost theoretical physics trying to figure out what is the right thing to do.

For destroyers like Kidd, sailors are packed into tight crew quarters, and social distancing is an impossibility. Navy leadership has consistently updated procedures on the ship to slow the spread.

The things you should do in your galley, like theres no self-serve anymore. There are no community-use condiments, like the ketchup bottle. You get individual ketchup packages. Its all these little micro things you need to think about that you can provide guidance for in a general format that each individual commander can then apply, he said.When the Kidd got underway from Hawaii, they got our first email and they started the cleaning and the disinfecting and the social distancing as much as you can do on a destroyer. They stopped serving self-serve on the mess decks, they closed down their gyms and the classrooms.

However, the guts of a guided-missile destroyer are tailor-made to spread COVID-19. Narrow passageways, group heads and dozens of sailors crammed into three-bunk-high berthing spaces that would never pass a civilian fire marshals occupancy and safety inspections can quickly cause the virus to spread throughout a destroyer.

A sailor salutes the national ensign as he disembarks the guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100) at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on April 28, 2020. US Navy Photo

If it gets on, its on the ship. And you can slow and arrest the spread, but at some point, you start losing the battle, and thats when you have to take more urgent and decisive action, and thats what we did with Kidd,If we had left her out there, I would say at some point the entire crew would have been infected in a number of weeks.

Once the virus was discovered aboard Kidd, operational commanders weighed the need for the ship to continue its mission versus the long-term health of the ship and the crew. In this instance, once the positive case was detected, U.S. 4th Fleet, U.S. 3rd Fleet and U.S. Southern Command agreed to pull Kidd from its counter-narcotics mission and send it back to shore to begin the process of isolating the crew and disinfecting the ship.

We have an enormous respect for this virus. Its insidious, and the reason why its insidious is the asymptomatic spread, Brown said.On a DDG, where youre really packed in, there can be asymptomatic spread that can go on for a while before your first sailor shows up thats displaying any symptoms. Its just a really hard problem to get after.

The problem gets easier with non-deployed ships. Brown said that, as of Friday, he had nine ships in port that had sailors infected with the virus, most in the single digits. Care for those sailors and disinfecting the ships is easier due to the proximity to shore.

For example, the yet-to-be-commissioned amphibious assault ship Tripoli (LHA-7) had an outbreak when the ship was pier side doing its final upfit in Mississippi in mid-March, Brown said. The Navy decided to clear the ship of its 630 sailors after only a few sailors tested positive. In the end, only about two dozen sailors tested positive for the virus without creating major headaches for the ships entrance into the fleet. When an outbreak on USS Coronado (LCS-4) occurred in March, the Navy tested the entire crew after the first case emerged and was able to stop a wider spread.

Aviation Structural Mechanic Airman Preston Rosiere, from Wichita, Kan., sanitizes a hand rail aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) on April 19, 2020. US Navy Photo

For Brown and the rest of the Navy, the challenge becomes harder for deployed ships. The operational commanders have to weight the health of the crew with the need to complete the assigned mission. The Navy is keen to keep the numbers of infected ships as low as possible, given the service is still unsure how the virus got on Kidd and Theodore Roosevelt.

Two big tests of the Navys methodology are in the works now. This week, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) left its pier in Japan for sea trials ahead of its upcoming spring patrol. In San Diego, carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) is gathering its strike group and air wing for a round of exercises ahead of a deployment later this year.

Both strike groups have instituted their own bubble procedures based on not only the lessons of Kidd and Theodore Roosevelt.

Sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) on April 7, 2020. US Navy Photo

From the study of outbreaks on Kidd and Theodore Roosevelt, the Navy has crafted new guidelines and testing procedures, Vice Adm. Phillip Sawyer, deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategy (OPNAV N3/N5), and Navy Surgeon General Rear Adm. Bruce Gillingham told reporters on Wednesday.

The Navy has expanded on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines from their experience with the Theodore Roosevelt outbreak to create stricter rules for the service.

On TR, we expanded the CDC guidelines to wait until 14 days after the onset of symptoms and required two consecutive negative tests before we would clear that person to return to duty, Sawyer said.

That comes on top of virtually eliminating port visits and keeping sailors aboard the ship from training into their deployment.

Vice Adm. Richard Brown, commander, Naval Surface Forces, delivers the keynote address at the Surface Navy Associations 21st annual West Coast symposium on Aug. 22, 2019. US Navy Photo

The Navy is also employing more portable testing machines like BioFire and Abbotts machines to quickly screen for COVID-19-like infections to assist in quickly diagnosing potential problems.

Were using the newest gear the nation is producing. Were using portable gear out on our ships, and we have actually gone more conservative than the CDC guidelines, Sawyer said.

One major change for the carriers will be new restrictions on the C-2A Greyhound carrier onboard delivery detachments assigned to the ship. COD detachments, typically based onshore at major airports as the carrier moves around the world, bring aboard mail, supplies and visitors in a steady hum aboard the carriers.

While the source of the infection for Theodore Roosevelt is still inconclusive, the COD flights are a suspected vector for bringing the virus aboard the ship. Sawyer said lessons from the COD detachment assigned to Harry S. Trumans deployment in the North Arabian Sea in U.S. 5th Fleet are playing into how carriers will operate in the Pacific.

If the flight crew detachment is staying ashore for any period of time, they are restricted from movement from plane to wherever theyre staying, Sawyer said.Were working toward keeping them aboard the ship. So far, far fewer COD flights. Weve been able to do this very successfully in 5th fleet. Theyve given us a pretty good model to minimize those vectors into the bubble and were replicating that across the force.

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SWO Boss: 'Insidious' COVID-19 Spread on USS Kidd Shows Evolution of Navy Response to Pandemic - USNI News

Seafarers Must Adapt to the Rapid Evolution of Piracy – The Maritime Executive

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file photo courtesy of EU NAVFOR

By Francois Morizur 05-10-2020 07:24:03

In two recent articles, Sea Piracy in 2025: Piracy 2.0? and Countering Gulf of Guinea Piracy Towards 2025 I tried to map out the possible evolution of piracy within Gulf of Guinea until 2025. Then I analyzed the different possible actions to reduce this threat. This analysis cannot be complete without integrating the main actor, the seafarer. This third article therefore concerns the how seafarers must adapt to the rapid evolution of pirate activities.

Its noticeable that this domain for seafarers is based on regulatory documentation that is low in volume and weak in practical guidance. The Ship Security Plan (SSP) is the basis for maritime security regulations. This document, established after the USS Cole, Limburg and September 11 attacks, was mainly focused on maritime terrorism. The content has been lightly modified since, integrating some requirements arising from the evolution of piracy.

The ISPS regulation does not go deeper on practical measures concerning vessel, crew members, equipment and procedures when looking at piracy. To cover the seafarers practical needs a group of associations published a document called Best Management Practices in early 2000. This document, dedicated to deter piracy and enhance maritime security in the Red sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean and Arabian sea has been reviewed several times since (Last review BMP 5 June 2018). To respond to the specific Gulf of Guinea environment, one document, Guideline for Owners, Operators and Masters for Protection against Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea Region has been established by the same structure.

Finally, as the piracy epicenter as moved from East Africa to West Africa, one new document BMP West Africa has been issued beginning 2020 to provide threat mitigation guidance on counter-piracy/armed robbery at sea and to help companies and mariners to risk assess voyages while operating along the West African coast.

Despite the evolution of communications at sea, the captain is an isolated leader. His or her job requires quick decisions concerning a wide variety of situations. If the situation allows, he can try to establish a telephone connection but, the handset hung up, he becomes again, isolated. A piracy attack is a dynamic event testing a captain's competency and reactivity. This situation can be illustrated by the Captain Phillips movie scene where Tom Hanks calls the MSCHOA. As with everything else, a captain must be informed, trained, prepared.

This readiness must not only apply to seafarers, it should be also concern the vessel. If you ignore both your enemy and yourself, you will only count your fights by your defeats. This citation should be a guide for a captain or ship security officer (SSO) operating within the Gulf of Guinea. The pirates' boarding rate within Gulf of Guinea is very high. As said in my previous article, there are several reasons for this. Some are linked to the combination of operational capacities of pirates and the lack of military responses (PMSC / escort vessel) but it is obvious that somet of the reasons are linked to another conjunction: ignorance of West Africa pirates, to their profiles and their modes of action.

As such, it would be interesting to test the captains/SSOs to make them draw Gulf of Guinea pirates. To help their sketches, we can try to characterize them by some elements:

Use of fiber speed boat, eight to 10 meters long, usually sporting colored flags (mainly red or white), usually motorized by two outboard engines, 150/200 Hp, more than six men onboard (usually eight to 10), men armed with AK 47, speed boat fitted with an aluminum ladder eight to 10 meters long. Pirates can operate on one sole speed boat, sometimes in pairs.

Its noteworthy that numerous specialized articles speaking about Gulf of Guinea piracy are illustrated by a very well-known picture showing a speed boat having a mounted Cal 50 machine gun and transportingMEND militants. If the picture is beautiful, its not related to real Gulf of Guinea pirates. Sometimes this picture is replaced by the view of one skiff transporting Somalian sea pirates. This pictorial materialization may disturb the initial perception of what a Gulf of Guinea pirate is.

The fiber vessels don't offer a strong Radar Cross Section, navigational radars have limited capacities. The pirates' speed boat emerges on the radar screen at about three nautical miles when the sea state is under three and the speed is high. Its highly recommended that one radar be set on short pulse/ short range, the AC SEA/AC RAIN setting in accordance. Its possible that watchkeepers will detect the approach by the noise before sight or radar screen. The approach axes can be various but the CPA (Closest Point of Approach) is 0.

The time of the attack varies too and is evolving regularly. In 2018, almost two thirds of the piracy attacks was conducted by daylight. Currently, piracy attacks within Gulf of Guinea are mainly conducted at night time and mainly at the beginning or end of the night.

The location is, of course, one of the important facts to analyze. My previous article, Sea Piracy in 2025 analyzed the current trend of attack attempts very deep offshore ..or within non protected anchorage areas along the West African coast from Luanda till Abidjan.

This first enemy analysis realized, and to remind on the Sun Tzu citation, it may be even more important to know yourself. Turning back to the Gulf of Guinea piracy data, one element is alarming: its the number of vessels boarded without alarm/alert: No VHF.M distress call, no SSAS (Ship Security Alert System) alert, no vessel internal alert. The personnel on bridge duty discover the pirates when one is directly pointing a gun at them on the other side of the bridge glass.

For at least two cases in the last few months, the pirates have used.the pilot ladder left along the hull by night. These observation led to at least two main reflections: the seafarers had misjudged the threat and, because of this error, had not applied the adapted basic security measures.

Reviewing the current trends, appreciating more precisely the Gulf of Guinea pirates' modus operandi, its obvious that the area located between San Pedro and Luanda and taking a range of 200 nautical from the shore must be considered as High Risk Area for piracy. (Conakry Anchorage is a specific bubble which should be considered too.) This area is globally characterized on the specific chart established by the MDAT-GOG. Within this area, as said before, the pirates are currently acting on two modes:

Piracy attack deep/very deep offshore: Action is characterized by a direct attack against a vessel en route day or night. The detection of the threat is facilitated by the sparse maritime traffic, but the vessel is usually alone, not protected.

Maritime criminality within anchorage area: The pirates operate in discretion, by night against vessels anchored or on stand by. The detection of the threat is complicated by the numerous speed boats/canoes fishing in the area, but the vessel can benefit from security support from navy assets protecting the area.

The objective of these two pirates process is the same: kidnapping of crew members.

This being posed, and as the threat is focused on abduction, it is interesting to revisit the maritime operators possible internal self responses in 10 main actions:

Secure the vessel as much as possible by a security escort vessel or an embarked military security team: The pirates are focusing on soft targets!

Optimize your detection means for locating pirates as early as possible: One speed boat sailing 30 knots is along board six minutes after detection at three nautical miles!

Be able to classify the threat as soon as possible, using the piracy criteria declined above: Personnel on duty on the bridge should be informed, trained and regularly refreshed about local pirates.Raise the alarm about the attack by all means available (VHF.M 16 / SSAS/ GMDSS/ PHONE / HORN-SIREN/LIGHT)

Optimize internal alert systems to ensure all crew members will be aware of the alert sent.Conduct regular anti-piracy drills: piracy attack / alert / immediate communication / mustering / lock down control / anti-boarding measures / move to safe haven.

As soon as you operate within a high risk area, lock your vessel. All external doors locked, all portholes secured. Try to slow down the pirates progression onboard the vessel after boarding by the use of specific items (wire rack or other) on external stairs.

Use the navigation lights only, no deck light, all portholes blinded. By night level 4 or 5, when navigation lights are off, after change of course /speed, the vessel targeted disappears for pirates sailing onboard speed boat without radar, AIS or night vision goggles.

Optimize the vessel's readiness by using simple and efficient systems. As the maritime industry is strongly impacted by the general economic situation, focus on low cost equipment rather than hoping for the use of means that are certainly effective but financially unaffordable. As an example, one general public autonomous sensor sending sound, light and possibly video, set up on the obliged path from deck to bridge, can efficiently alert the watchkeeping team in case of initial surveillance/detection failure.

Consider the first internal door from navigation bridge to accommodations and lower decks as one essential element of your safe haven. Reinforce this door, reinforce the frame, complete the hardening with a mobile forestay. This first internal door will create an emergency initial secured bubble allowing a short time to alert and gather the crew in emergency in case of a late alert, pirates being already onboard. The four or five minutes it will take pirates to destroy this door will allow you to secure the full crew within the real final citadel.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive. Its established on the analysis of hundred of maritime piracy acts within the Gulf of Guinea and is mainly dedicated to avoiding crewmembers being kidnapped. It can be completed and/or adapted depending of vessel configuration and the good sense.

Franois Morizur is a maritime security expert and former French Navy officer.

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

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Seafarers Must Adapt to the Rapid Evolution of Piracy - The Maritime Executive

An extraordinary evolution: Temple’s campus throughout the years – Temple University News

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Its no secret that Temple continues to develop ambitious plans to make the campus experience as rewarding as possible for visitors, students and faculty alike.

Over the past several years, undeniably big changes have swept across campus. But some might be more obvious than others, so to celebrate the end of the spring semester and to reflect back with our graduating seniors, weve rounded up some of the most rewarding renovation projects you may (or may not) have missed.

The updated OConnor Plaza and Founders Garden, one of the most photographed spots on campus. (PHOTO: Betsy Manning)

OConnor Plaza and Founders Garden

In September 2017, the newly renovated Founders Garden and OConnor Plaza made their debuts. OConnor Plaza, created in the center of campus, included updated landscaping, a water wall and, most notably, a new bronze owl statue (Temples beloved mascot). Take a few steps down into Founders Garden, where you can see fresh pavement with a large Temple T and new furniture, including tables and chairs for students to take advantage of the outdoor space.

The glass skywalk connects the renovated 1810 Liacouras Walk building to Speakman Hall for students to easily navigate both buildings.(PHOTO: Joseph V. Labolito)

1810 Liacouras Walk and skywalk

Fox School of Business has been home to an ever-growing student body, and therefore began plans for expansion in 2017. Additional classrooms were created in 1810 Liacouras Walk, directly across from Alter Hall, along with improvements to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute. The historic facade of 1810 Liacouras has remained the same, however, preserving the buildings original look and feel. Additionally, an enclosed skywalk now connects the third floor of Speakman Hall to the fourth floor of 1810 Liacouras for easy access.

Charles Library, which opened in fall 2019, has become one of the hottest study spots on campus. (PHOTO: Ryan S. Brandenberg)

Charles Library

Perhaps the most obvious of the bunch, the highly anticipated Charles Library finally bedazzled campus in August 2019. The library boasts stunning architectural and design elements including tons of natural light, 2200 square feet of space, and meeting spaces for students to study and collaborate. Additionally, there is a makerspace, which includes a 3D printing farm with the ability to print several items at once, and a virtual reality studio. Added bonuses include one of the largest green roofs in Pennsylvania, Stellas Cafe serving fresh pastries and La Colombe coffee for brain fuel and, of course, the renowned BookBot to help you retrieve your books.

The first floor of the Science and Education Research Center (SERC) boasts plenty of natural light and lounging space.(PHOTO: Joseph V. Labolito)

Science and Education Research Center (SERC)

One of the most beautiful buildings on campus, the Science and Education Research Center (SERC) is dedicated to cutting-edge science and technology research. As home of the departments of Physics and Computer & Information Science and seven research centers, SERC provides one collaborative space for scientists and students from different fields to work side by side. The building started off as a vision in 2007 and, more than a decade later, has blossomed into reality.

The second floor of the Howard Gittis Student Center now has a variety of food options from your favorite chain restaurants, including Chick-fil-A and more. (PHOTO: Ryan S. Brandenberg)

New dining options

When you envision the overall college experience, the dining hall is probably one of the first pictures to come to mind. Temples new partnership with Aramark allowed for the renovation of the Howard Gittis Student Center food court and updated options at Morgan Hall, which both accept meal swipes. The Howard Gittis Food Center now has updated lighting, new finishes for floors and flows, and updated seating configurations to fit 750 students at a time. Options include popular chains such as BurgerFi, Chick-fil-A, Saladworks and more. And for all of the coffee addicts, you can grab Starbucks (located on the first floor) on your way to class.

The Student Training and Recreation (STAR) Complex allows space for many different workouts, including a free-weight room, track and turf.(PHOTO: Joseph V. Labolito)

Student Training and Recreation (STAR) Complex

The Aramark STAR Complex was unveiled in August 2017 as a multipurpose academic, athletics and recreation facility. The academic area features clinical training spaces for the College of Public Health, while the athletics area includes free-weight space, a climbing wall and turf field for intramural offerings and sports clubs. The best part? Treat yourself to a Jamba Juice after a grueling workout session, because youve definitely earned it.

Located behind the Bell Tower, all Owls are reminded every day that Perseverance Conquers. (PHOTO: Betsy Manning)

Perseverance Conquers

All of the additions above have inarguably improved the culture of campus, but maybe the most simple update is one of the most important. The grassy area behind the Bell Tower, that youd previously walk by without second thought, now has a new sign in place gently reminding all Owls that no matter what, perseverance always conquers.

Samara Grossel

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An extraordinary evolution: Temple's campus throughout the years - Temple University News

In Biology, Intelligent Designs that Amaze, Amuse, and Entertain – Discovery Institute

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A parade of amazing designs from the living world has passed through these pages over the years, and it shows no sign of stopping. Here are some entertaining examples from recent news.

Flea beetles, or Alticini, are high-jump champions among the coleopterans (beetles) in the insect world. There are some 9,900 species of flea beetles, a hyper-diverse group that inhabits environments from deserts to rainforests all over the world. ThePensoftblogshows a picture of one, saying, Exceptional catapulting jump mechanism in a tiny beetle could be applied in robotic limbs.

Thefascinatingandhighly efficientjumping mechanism in flea beetles is described in a new research article in the open-access journalZookeys. Despite having been known since 1929, theexplosive jump which is also the reason behind the colloquial name of this group of leaf beetles has so far not been fully understood. [Emphasis added.]

Because flea beetles often rest on leaves, they are exposed to predators. They have no need to worry. They can disappear in an instant. It must have been fun to watch them perform in the lab and then watch the high-speed video recordings.

The apparatus responsible for this exceptional jump is hidden inside the beetles hind legs and is relatively simple. It contains only three sclerotised parts and a few muscles. Yet, it is, in reality, ahighly efficient catapult,able to propel the beetle at a distancehundreds of times its body length.

The mechanism stores elastic potential energy which, upon release, converts to kinetic energy when the trigger is released, attaining an extraordinarily high acceleration. Because the jump is done without muscles, the beetles are able to perform 30 jumps in succession, the researchers found. This simple yet efficient mechanism could find wide application. The team made a blueprint of a robotic limb design of a bionic limb inspired by the studied beetles. And what do they say about this design? Why of course; it is an evolutionary success!

Some of the biologists atLehigh Universitymay be mocking Behes views on intelligent design, but engineer Keith Moorad is using them. He is studying the tail motions of toothed whales, including dolphins, in hopes of building underwater swimming robots.

Such robots would need to befast, efficient, highly maneuverable, and acoustically stealthy.In other words, they would have to be very much like bottlenose dolphinsor killer whales.

He has no time for the evolution hypothesis; he is too focused on the fin-tastic design of dolphins.

This fish swimming problem is areally exciting problembecause its so complicated, he says. Itsfascinatingto take this chaos of variables andsee order in it, tosee the structure in it, and tounderstandwhats fundamentally happening.

Hes also having fun using a $7 million grant from the Navy to study this. Someday, he thinks, dolphin mimics that could fool both fish and humans will be able to roam among schools to monitor fish stocks. If he can get his robot to jump and retrieve fish from a tower,find fish under the sea floor with echoes, or make baby robots, hell really be onto something.

Human eyes are limited to the visible spectrum. We can feel heat on the skin and sense the general direction its coming from, but imaging the source requires infrared cameras or night vision goggles. A surprisingly diverse group of animals, though, have infrared cameras built in.The International Society for Photonics and Optics, or SPIE, writes about Natures Infrared Club

A handful of biological species can detect Infrared radiation. Envious ofthis evolution-honed sensory superpower, researchers with technological visions are working to emulate it.

There are shrimp that can see hydrothermal vents, for instance. To the shrimp, the hot plumes of water might appear like gaudy illuminated fountains in a background of profound blackness. Many diverse species of snakes belong to the infrared club, such as the pit vipers that have special organs for sensing prey. They work like pinhole cameras and probably enable a kind of IR imaging, one herpetologist says. In addition, some butterflies use infrared light to detect the host plants for egg-laying. Rounding out the club are ticks, and even vampire bats, which employ IR to locate their warm-blooded hosts.

How might biologists join the infrared club? Gang Han at the University of Massachusetts proposes a Bionic-Man solution, applying lab-made nanoparticles to retinas that can absorb infrared light. So far, he has only demonstrated this capability with super-mice, but eventually, the technology might extend human vision into the infrared. Francis Collins, head of the NIH, was impressed with this dramatic advance that brings together material science and the mammalian vision system. The SPIE adds:

Han acknowledged that the plan is to take necessary steps, through a series of primate studies and then by navigating relevant ethical and regulatory challenges, to develop asafetechnology thatwould modify peoples eyes to directly see IR without any bulky goggles or other optical gadgetry. Its the sort of superpower thatbrings soldiers and first-responders to the minds eye. If the researchers succeed in delivering this human vision-enhancement technology,then people will join what always has been a rarefied and enviable club of the living kingdomthat can see infrared (IR) radiation.

The article includes electron micrographs of the pit organs that give snakes this kind of vision. The organs look elaborate, pointing like miniature cones into the environment. These organs must not only detect infrared, but send it to the appropriate portions of the brain that know how to interpret the information and act on it. And now, for the commercial: The pit organs structural and material details embodythe engineering brilliance that evolutionary forces can yield.

For a final example, consider origami. Paper sculptures are fun, but static. What if you could make a paper flower that blooms? Thats what scientists in Singapore did. Their secret was to take natural pollen and integrate it into the paper fabric. When exposed to moisture, the petals of their paper flower opened up just like a bloom. In another test, they were able to make paper walk through the self-actuation of pollen-impregnated paper. How does this work? Theres evolution involved, but not the Darwinian kind:

We interpret this differential behavior by noting that the smoother and more compact bottom layers of pollen paper demonstrate a greater propensity to hinder the diffusion of water molecules compared with the top layers.The result is an acceleration in the establishment of moisture equilibriumthroughout the paper,which leads to larger differences in the degree of swelling and evolution of internal stress between the two sides of the paper.As a result, compared with the top surface, the bottom surface generally exhibitedincreased curvature, as shown in Fig. 6E.

Many plant materials exhibit the same sensitivity to moisture. For instance, dandelion parachutes fold up in the rain, as shown in Illustra Medias 2-Minute Wonders video,An Uplifting Story.

The Singapore team published their work inPNASwith video clips of the action. This was serious fun.

In summary, using eco-friendly treatment of naturally occurring pollen that is rendered nonallergenic through a simple fabrication process, we have created aneconomically viable soft actuatorwith ahighly sensitive response to watervapor. This pollen actuator demonstrates thepotential for developing a wide spectrum of smart and eco-friendly actuation systems with tunable propertiesthat dynamically respond to different functional needs.

To summarize: Design science is more fun than Darwinism, and does more good for humanity.

Photo: A flea beetle, by Beatriz Moisset / CC BY-SA.

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In Biology, Intelligent Designs that Amaze, Amuse, and Entertain - Discovery Institute

Biobanking Evolution Enabled by Cloud-based Technology – Technology Networks

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Biobanks are rich collections of data and biospecimens, specifically developed as resources for research.1 These repositories are needed in multiple sectors, including pharma, academia, animal breeding and charitable foundations, and are important for the progress of research into disease pathologies and population-based studies in the fields of epigenetics, preventative medical programs, rare diseases and epidemiology.2 Biospecimens can come from a variety of species, and range from samples of specific tumor types to umbilical cord, blood and cerebrospinal fluid.

Ever-increasing quantities of complex data from a large variety of biospecimens pose a challenge for biobanks that must effectively manage their data in order to facilitate collaboration and better advance research. Similarly, researchers across a complex network of partners need to be able to locate and procure the right biospecimens for their studies, from often large and diverse databases. Cloud-based laboratory information management systems (LIMS) are emerging as a better way to store, analyze and share biospecimens, offering an opportunity for biobanks looking to invest in effective data management solutions to support these interrelated goals.

Biobanks need to manage not only the physical storage of biospecimens, but also associate the patient demographic, disease, consent, assay results and other metadata with the sample. Information like how many times a sample has been frozen, thawed and refrozen impacts the specimen integrity, and biobanks need to track this information to determine if a specimen can or cannot be used for further testing.

Traditional sample tracking systems are not designed to effectively handle such large amounts of complex data, making it difficult to manage information in a way that is sufficiently dynamic, accessible and reliable. Inconsistency is also an issue, as storage time variability can result from different collection protocols3 and inconsistencies in data entry can occur in free text formats.4 As biospecimens can be shared across different clinics and studies, it is critical that specimens are of consistent quality.5 The increasingly collaborative nature of research means that the ability to share data with other groups is becoming essential yet not all systems offer the required flexibility with ease.

These inefficiencies have far-reaching consequences. In-house system maintenance can be demanding on resources, as well as a major source of frustration. Further afield, specimen misidentification can contribute to erroneous data and the reproducibility crisis. If biobanks are not easily searchable, researchers do not know what biospecimens and data might be accessible to them creating an R&D bottleneck.

Biobanking organizations have a lot to coordinate, from specimen preparation, shipping, storage and retrieval, to inventory management and reporting. Compliance with data privacy laws needs to be ensured (e.g., the HIPAA in the US: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) while continuing to distribute biological resources effectively.6 With the -omics revolution well underway, biobanks now need further support for their big data operations.

Data associated with stored biospecimens needs to be accessible both within an organization and to external partners, and organized in a way that allows researchers to find the high-quality specimens they require for their experiments. As biobanking workflows vary across organizations and change over time, biobanks now need data management support in a more personalized and long-term capacity. To meet this need, cloud-based platforms have been developed that can be tailored to specific requirements.

Rather than having an IT specialist develop a platform, more personalized cloud-based technology is available that incorporates a solid understanding of the end-users perspective. Using a more individualized approach to development enables the creation of streamlined systems that reflect the order of real-life workflows.

Cloud-based technology enables biobanks to scale quickly to demand, while providing the ability to capture all related data in one place. For example, information on reagents and instruments used, date and time of movement, and freeze/thaw processes can be stored with raw files detailing assay results, DNA sequencing and genotyping analysis files. This traceability makes it easy to see if other analyses have already been performed on a sample.

Data management software for biobanking now extends beyond managing biospecimens; cloud-based LIMS can be used to manage requests, track stock of standards and reagents, and streamline and prioritize analyses. Validated security parameters help to ensure adherence with HIPAA and data privacy rules. Unlike introducing new on-site solutions, shifting to new cloud platforms can happen quickly, critically avoiding gaps in database coverage.

Cloud-based technology can benefit biobanks on many levels from improving the efficiency of day-to-day operations to supporting long-term growth and change. With more streamlined and consistent processes, data entry and access are easier, and the potential for error is greatly reduced. An intuitive interface also helps in this respect, as it reduces the risk of someone forgetting to log critical details. Backup checks can further help improve accuracy, either by requesting that critical data elements are entered in duplicate, or by linking barcode scanners to the database.4Cloud-based technology can strengthen security by utilizing multiple encryption layers, making compliance with HIPAA and other privacy laws easier. Management of specimen chain-of-custody records is also simplified as aliquots and derivatives can be tracked with absolute certainty.4 Unlike many traditional systems, cloud computing employs automatic upgrades and data backups, ensuring no data loss.7 Another major benefit is that maintenance and overhead costs are reduced, as there is no need for physical on-site data servers.4 Importantly, cloud-based technology also provides the flexibility to scale up or down, according to the organizations growth.

Youre inundated with requests for access to your samples. However, accepting and rejecting access is straightforward. Your request forms are standardized so you can quickly access everything you need to make your decisions.

Your vital supplies and consumables never run out, because your team has a near-automated system for monitoring and ordering.

One patient withdraws consent. A system administrator triggers the destruction of those samples, so you do not need to manage the request.

An external research group requests access to a data set. You enable continuous sharing. Theres no second-guessing which files are the most recent. The researchers can see which reagents and equipment were used to attain the data they have in front of them.

One client asks if their request can be fast-tracked. You simply adjust the priority of assays to be run that week.

Your colleague inspects a system report, and identifies and corrects a workflow bottleneck, giving you more time to consider a new collaboration proposal.

Cloud storage is arguably the best solution for supporting the rapidly growing biobanking needs. Streamlined data management software extends beyond sample tracking to reduce costs, shorten timelines and provide an unprecedented level of security and flexibility. Biobanking teams can have room to grow and adapt, and the possibilities for customized data management solutions are endless.

Nicole Rose is a senior manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific

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Biobanking Evolution Enabled by Cloud-based Technology - Technology Networks

Look mum, NoOps! How to empower the next evolution of IT operations – ITProPortal

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Todays customers expect a constant stream of new applications and digital service experiences, and so companies everywhere are transforming into software businesses to meet those demands. This trend has an even greater importance now, as the world battles with the current crisis, with digital services the primary link many of us have with the outside world both professionally and as consumers. Innovating at the rapid speed needed to meet these demands requires agility within IT operations, and almost all organisations are using the cloud in some capacity to achieve this. However, the clouds dynamic nature has also led to a surge in complexity, with 76 per cent of IT professionals stating this as the biggest barrier to productivity among operations teams.

IT teams spend enormous amounts of their time piecing together metrics and alerts to keep the lights on, as they struggle to manually capture everything happening in their IT environment using traditional performance management approaches. This massively eats into the time IT teams could be spending developing and delivering new, value-added services to the end-user. Its also especially challenging in the current situation as the majority of business and IT teams work remotely and are stretched more than ever. However, an automated approach to IT operations, known as NoOps, offers an attractive alternative for IT leaders, enabling them to run IT operations autonomously, so remote IT teams can develop and deploy new functions and services much faster and with far less friction.

NoOps is the concept of an IT environment whereby the use of automation and AI-assistance radically reduces operations staff. While this is especially attractive in the current crisis, as it reduces the need for employees to be physically present, NoOps is also crucial to improving IT operations in the longer term. Essentially, its driven by looking at what could potentially go wrong, taking steps to proactively prevent that through automation. However, this can only be achieved if businesses have a solid CI/CD toolchain in place with AIOps fully integrated into their ecosystem. With this approach, AI is used to analyse and triage monitoring data at a higher volume and faster speed than could ever be achieved manually. This uncovers precise answers and detailed performance insights, in real-time, creating a stream of software intelligence that makes sense of the endless alerts. This can then be used to trigger the automated responses that are at the heart of NoOps.

However, baking in automation and self-healing to create a continuous delivery process has some including Mike Gualtieri, the Forrester analyst who coined the term NoOps speculating if this will spell the end for DevOps. Their argument is that NoOps eliminates the need for developers to collaborate with operations, which may lead to a decline in ideas that drive innovation and help to maintain seamless user experiences. Unsurprisingly, this theory can lead to resistance from DevOps teams to embrace the NoOps approach, as they worry they will become redundant.

Contrary to what its critics profess, NoOps is far from the end for DevOps and more akin to its next natural evolution. With DevOps, operations teams apply development practices such as version control, scripting and automation to address potential performance issues. With NoOps, its like the inverse, as developers begin to think like operations teams. The result is operations teams can work in tandem with developers towards the common goal of driving innovation for the business and its end-users. DevOps teams will therefore no longer find themselves working at half power towards the goal of creating new services, as the other half of their team is occupied with keeping the lights on.

For organisations that achieve NoOps, it will be the biggest transformation of software delivery processes since the emergence of DevOps. Well begin to see DevOps evolving to align closer to the needs of the modern business, as organisations embark on the journey to autonomous cloud operations. This is far more suited to the current climate, where stretched IT teams must achieve a faster pace of innovation, as problems are fixed automatically in the development phase, speeding up the delivery of new software experiences to the business and its customers.

While organisations may recognise the benefits NoOps can bring, it can still be difficult for them to get DevOps teams on board. However, having the full support and commitment from those who will be involved in the shift to NoOps is crucial to success as it requires a fundamental transformation in how teams think and operate. Giving DevOps teams a more concrete idea of how NoOps will benefit them can dispel concerns that there will be no more need for collaboration between developers and operations.

Businesses should therefore embark on an education process to ensure teams are clear about how their roles will evolve, theyre comfortable with the tools that will be available to them and are happy about working with a shared goal in mind. For developers, this involves informing them of how NoOps can remove bottlenecks, as they wont have to spend time in a cycle of debugging to figure out where things went wrong with their code. For operations teams, IT leaders should highlight how NoOps can help them elevate their role within the organisation and take a more active role in driving innovation. Operations teams will no longer have to spend time on tasks that simply keep the lights on, instead they will be focussing on value-added activities such as continuous deployment and innovation.

As the scale and complexity of the cloud continues to grow, and organisations are also now busy working through the unprecedented situation the current crisis has created, businesses need to find a way to help their DevOps teams sooner rather than later to make sense of their IT environment and NoOps is the key to this. Those who implement it successfully will be able to supercharge innovation and deliver new, high quality services to end-users much faster than ever before.

Michael Allen, VP & CTO EMEA, Dynatrace

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Look mum, NoOps! How to empower the next evolution of IT operations - ITProPortal

Cosmic Gate on Emotion in Music, Evolution, and New Music – Festicket

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Electronic music has grown from dark, often literally underground clubs to perhaps the most dominant musicalforce across the globe today. In that time there have been, like all styles of music, progressions, evolutions, and trends, but perhaps no electronic genre has had a more precipitous rise and underlying influence on the popular takeover of EDM than trance.Its ability to convey soaring heights of emotion was critical to the foundation of sounds that fullybroughtelectronic music into the mainstream andintostadiums the world over.

One of trance's most enduring acts is German duo Cosmic Gate. Coming up in the late 90s during the genre's commercial heyday, Claus Terhoeven aka Nic Chagall and Stefan Bossems aka Bossi have beentopping bills and selling out shows for over two decades. Their unique ability to instil music with heartfelt emotion and euphoric builds and releases whilenever loosing that danceable beat has influenced an entire generation of DJs.

Even withthe whole world at a standstill the duo have remained busy, putting out a new single and the fourth instalment of their Wake Your Mind Session series, so we thought it might be fun to catch up with them and see how they're holding up.

This is what they had to say.

Yourlatest single 'Universal Love' seems a very appropriate anthem for these trying times we find ourselves in. Take me through how the song came together and the thinking behind it.

First of all, some background info. The original vocal from 'Universal Love' was written about 25 years ago from the Belgian group Natural Born Groovesand singer Bibi, and it was a popular track in the clubs we used toDJin back in the day in Germany.

About the new version; we started working on beats, baseline, etc, without having the 'Universal Love' vocal in mind at all, so as I said, we started working on the music, literally everything as you know it now, and at some point during the production, we felt the instrumental might need a vocal to fully live up to its potential. So then the search started, and after a while of trying out certain things and ideas, we somehow stumbled over this old tune, which we literallyhadn't listened to for over a decade: 'Universal Love'!

Long story short, we sampled and tried the vocal out, and fortunately it fit into the harmonies like it was literally made for the music. Sometimes you have to be lucky, and we were. Our record company then contacted with the original writers, and fortunately the guys liked what we did, and kindly gave us permission for the use of the vocal. So we'd like to say thank you very much to NBG for the clearing and permission of using the vocal, we hope everyone shares NBG's and our vision when listening to this in the new contextof ourmusic.

A lot of emotion in music gets conveyed through vocals, which you guys utilise a lot very effectively, butyou'realso masters at giving your instrumentals, either underneath vocals or on their own, a lot of emotion too. How do you convey emotion in electronic instrumentation?

Thats avery good question, emotions are something very subjective, two people can listen to one song, and one is totally touched while the other maybe doesn't feel at all what the writer felt when composing the music. And that's what we do, we try to write emotional music, music that touches us personally, something that hopefully goes a little deeper when listening. We try to create melodies and harmonies that speak to people's hearts, hopefully. Melodies that maybe make you want to fly, or dream, or make you want tell someone I love you. We want to write music that makes people feel, start to feel, as we once said and named one of our albums. This is most important to us.

When you started in 1999 stage production was obviously not nearly as big a deal as it is now. How has the dramatic increase of visuals over the years influenced your music?

This is true, back in the late 90s aDJ was playing, and for sure no individual visuals were played, this was unthinkable, as funny as it sounds now. Good visuals now are simply a great support for the music. On a big new album tour as we had with Forward Ever Backward Never or the Materiatour before, the visuals were an important extra to the music. Don't we all love it when music and visuals seem to blend into one? And that's why we like to have this support. Visuals are important, but most important still is the music. Music will always be first, so for us, the visuals do not influence the music we write, but they certainly can lift a show to another level.

I'veread you talking about how 'Exploration of Space' needed some time to really take off. These days it seems like most artists and labels are worried that if a track doesn't take off immediately it'll get lost in theever flowingrelease of new content thanks to streaming. Is this something you think about? Especially when deciding what to release as a single and when to release it?

Yes, we said this, and it is true. The first times we played EOS it went over well, but we sure did not expect it to be our biggest hit maybe ever. What we shouldn't forget here, this was about 20 years ago, is the scene was different, and music sometimes took months and months to build. A tune could be a hit somewhere and it took many months or longer until it developed in another part of the globe, simplybecausethe physical vinyl orCD release in that area had not happened yet.

On top of that, no global radio show like nowadays would reach literally every trance fan on the same day, which is another big difference to how things were. Still, we feel some tracks in 2020 do need longer than others, and the ones that do certainly are not a bad choice. So when picking a single, we certainly do not go for what's obvious, we simply choose a single bywhat we think has the most long term potential, and if it takes a bit longer for some parts of theaudienceto like or understand it, that won't stop us from releasing it.

Trance songs are often quite lengthy to allow for the song to progress and build, but radio often favours short, punchy tracks. How do you balance wanting to be true to your vision with a desire for the music to be heard?

This is actually a very good question, as it's a big problem, not only with trance music. Whoever has seen the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, there is this scene when Queen argue about what their next single should be, and this famous label A&R can't wrap his head around a song over three minutes evenbeing an option to be released as a single. And as you say, it's a big issue still nowadays. For us to get our music to make sense in three minutes is literally impossible, four minutes can even sometimes be a mission.

What we do is we go as far as we can, but if a song makes senseat 4.20 and not 3.40, to give an example, then we go for the longer version, knowing we take away the chanceofcertain stations playing the song just for these stupid reasons. But we think emotions can't be cut too short, sometimes a good story simply needs time to be told.

What is the division of labour between you two? How do you divide what aspects of the music each of you are responsible for?

Back in theday we literally did everything together. DJ, production, interviews, living on the same street, we would even start our travels togetherby pickingeach other up and heading towards the airport together. These days we do not live next door anymore, on top of that, somehow the amount of work around what we dobecamemore intense and time consuming. Producing takes way more time than back in the day, social media and media presence in general is more important, the radio shows come on top and so for all these reasons, we step by step divided certain aspects a little more. Work on music at first happens more individually on the road, not in the home studio as much anymore, the radio show or some written interviews get done individually, just some small examples how it's different now, than it used to be when we started.

Having performed all over the world several times over, do audience reactions vary from country to country or does music hit everyone similarly?

Yes, we feel music hits everyone similarly somehow. To say Australians outparty Europeans, or Americans go harder than Asians wouldn't be fair. There are amazing crowds all around the globe, and we are in the lucky position that our fans follow us to our shows, they come for our specific kind of sound, which turns most shows, no matter where we are, literally into kind of home games if we might say so. This is very special and unique and we very much appreciate our fans for being so loyal to what we do for so many years.

Obviouslymost of the world is currently stuck at home. How are you spending your unexpected free time? Following the trend of trying to learn a new skill?

It's kind of funny, but still without shows happening and flying around the globe as we were used to, therearestill so many things to do. Write and produce new music, each our own productions too, remixes, we did the WYMS004 Mix Album, the weekly radio show, interviews like here, we do liveDJ mixes from our homes, etc, etc. We are everythingbutbored while surely being at home more than we've ever been in the last 20 plus years, so this is also a time of resting up, reflecting and recharging our batteries for a bit, if this will result in some new skills, let's see!

Theresa lot of looking back these days while we're all at home. Can you choose one of your favourite festival experiences and tell us about it?

Fortunately, therehave beenso many of these experiences, one of the most recent ones was A State Of Trace 900 in Mexico City last year in September. Long story short, the crowd was simply electric, still now thinking about it, the feeling up there on stage was unreal. No DJ could ever wish to play for such an amazing crowd. We are thankful for such an experience to lift us that high after so many years on the road.

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Cosmic Gate on Emotion in Music, Evolution, and New Music - Festicket

Maryse talks the evolution of Womens wrestling in WWE – Wrestling News

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Former WWE Superstar Maryse appeared on this weeks episode of WWEs The Bump. Maryse joined her husband The Miz on the WWE Network show to discuss a number of topics from their careers, in and out of the ring. One of the points looked at was the difference between the Womens division in WWE back when Maryse was an active in-ring performer and now. When Maryse was part of the Divas division, it was relegated to shorter matches and barely any TV time for promos.

Isnt it crazy how much its changed Maryse would begin on the show. Back then just having two minutes on TV, and how much we fought and how much it was a war backstage for us to get the time to be able to connect with the crowd? To just have a microphone? To be able to just, you know, get your character out there?

Maryse would elaborate further, discussing emotionally how the Evolution all womens PPV was a dream for her and her colleagues in the WWE at the time. If you would have told us that one day Evolution was gonna be a pay per view that was just all about the Womens division? I think we wouldve all cried, because we were fighting so hard to get that spot, that time.

The former Divas Champion would then talk about the difficult times she had in WWE but also being proud of where the Womens division has go to. But seeing how it is now today? Im proud. I really enjoyed my time, even though it was the very difficult at times? I really enjoyed the years that I was there, maybe I think it really shaped the person I am today. You know were all fighters I think. We created a sisterhood, you know? These girls they will talk to each other and were allits justwe all get very emotional when we talk about that. Because it was the thing that we were fighting for every every single week for years.

The WWE Womens division has certainly had more visibility over the past couple of years, with Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair main eventing WrestleMania 35 the start of a major shift in perception for the company. Whether WWE continues to push the divisions in way they should be remains to be seen.

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please creditThe Bumpwith a h/t toWrestlingNews.cofor the transcription

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Maryse talks the evolution of Womens wrestling in WWE - Wrestling News

The Evolution of UK Public Opinion in the COVID-19 Pandemic – BFPG

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The original fieldwork for the annual BFPG Survey of Public Opinion on the UKs Role in the World report was completed in January and February 2020 in the early spectre of the Coronavirus crisis, but before it had been declared a pandemic and any restrictions on daily lift had come into force. There was no sense at this time that the disease would escalate as rapidly and dramatically as came to pass, and it therefore did not enter into our survey as an explicit nor implicit force. Some three months on, the national and global landscape has been utterly transformed.

One of the most challenging aspects of researching the social and political consequences of the crisis has been the volatile and nebulous nature of public opinion. The pandemic could provide the grist to the mill to accelerate existing trends; equally, it could diffuse the salience of certain issues. There is also every chance that much of the movement we see in public opinion during this time will re-stabilise in the aftermath of the pandemic and the age of our new normal.

At the end of April and the start of May, we re-ran a portion of the survey selected to identify areas of fluctuation in public opinion. These questions are on the frontline of issues brought to focus in the pandemic, and address how the COVID-19 crisis is being assessed against other issues, citizens instinctive preferences for the UKs role in the world, their trust in the government, and our relationships with other nations.

In this paper, we set out the evolving nature of UK public opinion on international affairs during the coronavirus pandemic, mapping the shifts taking place and emerging trends since we benchmarked citizens attitudes in January and February 2020. We conclude that it will be necessary to treat this data-set as a kind of time-series analysis, with future data points in the Summer and the Autumn of 2020, and beyond. Understanding the evolution of public opinion on these issues will continue to be critically important to formulating the strategies by which to engage the British population and build public consent around the Integrated Review and the Governments vision for a truly Global Britain.

FIELDWORK: Conducted by Opinium Research, 29 April to 1 May 2020. Sample: 2,000 UK adults aged 18+. Survey results are weighted to nationally and politically representative criteria.

The full annual report will be published later during May 2020.

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The Evolution of UK Public Opinion in the COVID-19 Pandemic - BFPG

Evolution of the New Global System – Daily Times

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It was barely over a decade ago that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) exposed the brittle, crisis-ridden, and polarising edifices of economic, political and cultural power that structure our lives. Marx was read widely again; the Occupy Wall Street and Arab Spring movements captured the imagination of a new generation of young people and the term crony capitalism was mainstreamed. And at the end of it all, we got Trump, Boris Johnson, Narendra Modi, Sisi, Imran Khan and others whose leadership or lack thereof has been exposed, once and for all, over the past few weeks. But COVID-19 can prove to be a very different shot in our collective arm. Historians use the term contingency to refer to the outcomes in social life triggered by unpredictable events, which end up shaping the future in profound ways. As we speak, people in Pakistan and the rest of the world are breaking out of their alienated shells to do whatever they can to stem the virus; offsetting ruling establishments without the ability or willingness to respond to a burgeoning human catastrophe. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases have passed the 2.9 million mark throughout the world, and the death toll stands at over 203,000.

The world after Covid-19 is heading somewhere completely different. It seems inevitable that we will see radical changes in several spheres, such as territorial nation-states, globalisation, the global economic order, diplomatic and military relations, national interests and social life. The differences between poor and rich countries, the criteria for being considered developed and under-developed, and even domestic policies and political systems will change this pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic will have a massive impact on globalisation and from now on, countries will follow a more sovereign policy where they meet their own needs through domestic production. This will change Chinas approach that they will supply everyone.

The survival of the fittest mentality that dominates the world must give way to an organised politics to transform ourselves and the planet

Chinas position as a centre of trade attraction will be open to debate. There will be large-scale changes economically and, as a result, an economic crisis will affect the whole world. There will be fundamental changes in the fields of education and healthcare. There will be a new culture of a more inward-looking social life and social distancing.

That the rich and powerful are calling this a global crisis betrays the everyday crises experienced by the poor, oppressed ethnic/racial communities, women, and religious minorities in countries like ours. They navigate unaccountable states and brazen class privilege, let alone successive imperialist wars, perpetual state/non-state terror, and ecological breakdown. Capitalism as it plays out beyond the glam and glitter of shopping malls, gated housing communities and the fetish of commodities is a crisis, a scandal, a blot on our collective conscience. Indeed, in the event that the virus spreads in the slums, markets and farms of South Asia and Africa, the wretched of the earth will again carry the heaviest burden. Second, even if this mass pandemic does not do as much damage as is feared, it is apparent that corporate agricultural and industrial practices along with a reckless financial sector will generate more existential moments whether pandemics or fallouts, caused by global warming.

The US, the UK and other governments bailing out big business confirm that the free market is a sham. Spain has nationalised private hospitals; France waived utility bills and Europe is in the throes of an unprecedented push for indiscriminate basic income schemes to get working people through an impending economic recession. The fact that public health infrastructures in rich countries like the US, the UK and Italy are buckling demolishes whatever claim to legitimacy neoliberalism had left. Nation-states will become much more isolationist while developing economic policies to meet their own needs. The survival of the fittest mentality that dominates the world must give way to an organised politics to transform ourselves and the planet. For Pakistanis, it is prime time to perform our social responsibilities, not as a party worker as a nation for the development of the socio-economic structure.

The whole world is now looking inward and isolationism which is likely to be a driver for both economic and foreign policy. The global effects of the coronavirus show that the post-coronavirus world order will not be the same. We are entering a period when the phenomenon of globalisation has, in a way, collapsed; even the most democratic countries have closed their borders, and cautious, introverted nationalism has come to the fore once again. In particular, each state will learn to stand on its own two feet on the matter of healthcare. The coronavirus has started to make a profound impact on individuals, communities, and countries. What matters the most is that leaders who reach information first, manage it transparently, and invest in people instead of maintaining narrow policies, will be the winners.

The writer is a legal practitioner and columnist. He can be reached at shahrukhmehboob4@gmail.com

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Evolution of the New Global System - Daily Times

Digital TV Europe to host webinar on network evolution Digital TV Europe – Digital TV Europe

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Digital TV Europe is partnering with Teleste to present a webinar on the topic of what operators must do to future-proof their networks in the face of growing capacity needs.

Join Stuart Thomson, editor of Digital TV Europe, as he discusses the issues surrounding distributed access networks with a number of senior figures from Teleste on May 19 at 3pm BST.

The webinar focuses on the cable industrys biggest challenge for the 2020s: the ongoing network transformation and how to answer the growing need for network capacity generated by consumers and businesses alike. The key issues highlighted will revolve around distributed access networks as well as higher data transmission frequencies enabled by the DOCSIS 4.0 specifications:

In addition, the webinar also provides latest news and product launches from Teleste, introduced by the companys leading experts:

WEBINAR SPEAKERSHanno Narjus, Senior Vice President, Network ProductsOlli Leppnen, Vice President, Distributed AccessJulius Tikkanen, Vice President, Video Service PlatformsRami Kimari, Vice President, HFC ProductsVesa Veijalainen, Vice President, Passive and Indoor Network Products

MODERATORStuart Thomson, Editor, Digital TV Europe

Register for the webinar now

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Digital TV Europe to host webinar on network evolution Digital TV Europe - Digital TV Europe

Evolution Petroleum Corporation Just Beat EPS By 154%: Here’s What Analysts Think Will Happen Next – Yahoo Finance

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Investors in Evolution Petroleum Corporation (NYSEMKT:EPM) had a good week, as its shares rose 5.8% to close at US$2.93 following the release of its third-quarter results. It looks to have been a decent result overall - while revenue fell marginally short of analyst estimates at US$7.7m, statutory earnings beat expectations by a notable 154%, coming in at US$0.11 per share. Following the result, the analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. We thought readers would find it interesting to see the analysts latest (statutory) post-earnings forecasts for next year.

Check out our latest analysis for Evolution Petroleum

AMEX:EPM Past and Future Earnings May 9th 2020

Taking into account the latest results, the current consensus, from the three analysts covering Evolution Petroleum, is for revenues of US$24.6m in 2021, which would reflect a concerning 33% reduction in Evolution Petroleum's sales over the past 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are forecast to crater 87% to US$0.047 in the same period. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$29.2m and earnings per share (EPS) of US$0.14 in 2021. It looks like sentiment has declined substantially in the aftermath of these results, with a real cut to revenue estimates and a large cut to earnings per share numbers as well.

It'll come as no surprise then, to learn thatthe analysts have cut their price target 18% to US$4.50. There's another way to think about price targets though, and that's to look at the range of price targets put forward by analysts, because a wide range of estimates could suggest a diverse view on possible outcomes for the business. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Evolution Petroleum at US$5.50 per share, while the most bearish prices it at US$3.50. These price targets show that analysts do have some differing views on the business, but the estimates do not vary enough to suggest to us that some are betting on wild success or utter failure.

Another way we can view these estimates is in the context of the bigger picture, such as how the forecasts stack up against past performance, and whether forecasts are more or less bullish relative to other companies in the industry. We would highlight that sales are expected to reverse, with the forecast 33% revenue decline a notable change from historical growth of 11% over the last five years. By contrast, our data suggests that other companies (with analyst coverage) in the same industry are forecast to see their revenue grow 9.2% annually for the foreseeable future. It's pretty clear that Evolution Petroleum's revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider industry.

The biggest concern is that the analysts reduced their earnings per share estimates, suggesting business headwinds could lay ahead for Evolution Petroleum. Unfortunately, they also downgraded their revenue estimates, and our data indicates revenues are expected to perform worse than the wider industry. Even so, earnings per share are more important to the intrinsic value of the business. The consensus price target fell measurably, with the analysts seemingly not reassured by the latest results, leading to a lower estimate of Evolution Petroleum's future valuation.

Story continues

With that in mind, we wouldn't be too quick to come to a conclusion on Evolution Petroleum. Long-term earnings power is much more important than next year's profits. We have forecasts for Evolution Petroleum going out to 2021, and you can see them free on our platform here.

And what about risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Evolution Petroleum (of which 1 is significant!) you should know about.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.

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Evolution Petroleum Corporation Just Beat EPS By 154%: Here's What Analysts Think Will Happen Next - Yahoo Finance

FOOTBALL’S EVOLUTION: WHEN WERE THE ‘GOLDEN YEARS’? – SportingFerret

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Football has changed dramatically even in my life time. I remember as a young boy attending my first ever game at Highbury, to watch David Seamans testimonial against Barcelona. Although the result didnt go the way of Arsenal, I recall feelings of excitement, anticipation and pure unrelenting passion for the game. Highbury was a cauldron of noise, and the players on show were some of the best I have ever seen live or on television. My footballing appreciation began at the end of the 1990s and through to the present day. Along this journey I was lucky enough to witness the greatest period in my teams history, and perhaps that in itself swayed my opinion on when the golden years of football began and ended. Despite my loaded opinion of the facts, I want to review the evolution of football in the last 25 years and create an informed argument for which changes were for the better, and which changes fuel the nostalgia of all football fans to this day.

Undoubtedly, the first thing all football fans recall when they reflect on their teams history is the players. This is perhaps the most perceptive topic up for debate in this discussion. This was made very clear recently by Gary Lineker, Ian Wright, and Alan Shearer on BBC Ones MOTD: Top Ten series. Although we can all agree there are certain players who will remain in premier league folklore for all eternity, many of whom played for my beloved club, the apparent lack of agreement from some of the great pundits (and ex-players) demonstrated how much of a challenge it is to definitively choose the best.

Nevertheless, one clear settlement between these footballing minds was that the majority of the greatest players in Premier League history played in the era I personally describe as the golden years (1995-2005). Upon closer examination of the lists chosen by Wright, Shearer and Lineker, it became obvious that they also favoured the titans of this period. The lists consisted of Schmeichel, Vieira, Cantona, Henry and obviously Shearer himself, all of whom helped to shape the game through their pure class and skill. I am prepared to accept however, that there may have been a hint of bias involved in the selection process. When you consider the age of the pundits broadcasting their picks, and the teams they played for, you can make a solid argument for some element of favouritism. Despite this, a number of modern players made their lists too, with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Petr Cech receiving honourable mentions and praise. Dont get me wrong, the players mentioned, along with many other incredible talents (for example Drogba said through gritted teeth after he single-handedly destroyed my dreams of seeing Arsenal win a trophy at the 2007 League Cup Final in front of my very eyes), deserve their place in the history books just as much as the old school players. The argument I am making is that, despite their undeniable talent, they dont have the same raw emotion; they dont have the same warrior like attitudes; they dont have the same chemistry with me as a football fan.

Verdict A win for the team we will refer to as the Nostalgia Generation 1995-2005.

If I was asked to name the most successful managers in Premier League history, three names immediately come to mind. Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho. Now, evidently these managers had extremely successful careers that spanned both the Nostalgia Generation and the Modern Generation. This makes a reasoned argument more challenging and perhaps individual reviews in a later blog post would help to provide clarity. However, in the spirit of making an informed choice, we can begin to consider other managers that helped to shape football both positively and negatively. The 1996 European Championships gave England fans perhaps their fondest memories of near success, until the most recent 2018 World Cup campaign. Terry Venables manufactured a team of superstars to challenge the old foes Germany, with a penalty shootout again proving to be our downfall. Perhaps, based on the players reviews of Terry as a manager in a recent ITV documentary on the tournament, we can add El Tel to the list of success stories.

It is also worth mentioning at this point that some of the greatest managers in Premier League history are still plying their trade there now. Pep Guardiola and Jrgen Klopp are dominating a league now fuelled by the super-rich, super stadiums and super television coverage. This evolution for football fans is undoubtedly a positive one, but can their success be compared to the success of former greats like Ferguson and Wenger, when you consider the differences in budgets and facilities. The argument I am trying to make is if Jrgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola managed Manchester United in 1999 would they have won the treble? If Jrgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola had managed Arsenal in 2004 would they have achieved the invincible season? My overall feeling based on the copious matches, interviews and new stories I have observed regarding these two giants of football management is yes, they may well have done.

Verdict A win for the Modern Generation when you consider the Ferguson, Wenger and Mourinho also creep into this catchment along with the Pep and Jrgen.

As an Arsenal fan I experienced the full spectrum of emotions that comes with moving from a smaller, more intimate ground, to a bigger super-stadium. The memories of Thierry Henry kissing the turf after scoring a hat-trick on the Gunners last ever game there, or my first ever visit to the magnificent home of Arsenal will always make me miss Highbury. I do however understand why we had to move. In the evolving world of football, money is king and if you want to compete you need to generate and spend currency wisely. Despite this fact, does it mean that moving stadiums was the right thing to do?

Anfield is perhaps one of the greatest and most iconic stadiums in English football. Steeped with history and success, an away game at Anfield under the lights is something a lot of teams still fear to this day. This stadium has a capacity of 54,074, significantly lower than the Emirates Stadium or Old Trafford, and yet it inflicts fear in the hearts of players and fans alike. Some of the greatest atmospheres I have experienced at football stadiums in my life have come from the lower leagues. Passionate fans, for whom their season ticket is their pride and joy, automatically renewed and never forgotten. In the 1990s and the early 2000s iconic English stadiums had that same buzz. Players-turned-pundits like Gary Neville, Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher openly admit the intimidation they felt travelling to away games at the countries big sporting venues. If I ask myself whether players feel that way now, in the super stadiums, with the vastly expansive high-tech changing facilities and platinum level service, my response would be I doubt it.

Verdict A win for the Nostalgia Generation what I wouldnt give for one more end of the season title decider at Highbury.

Everybody remembers the walk to their famous ground, the half time food and the programme stalls. Our footballing memories fuel our passion for game and create an unbreakable bond with the sport that we love. I remember attending another game as a young man, in a lower league play off, where the songs that the fans were singing were definitely more entertaining than the football on show. The songs were a connection between home and away, often taunting but usually in good spirits. The language was often colourful and not often repeated to your grandparents when you saw them for Sunday lunch. However, the character created the atmosphere, and this created the memories for me. Football has always been about the fans, and that is why it can be difficult to see the super stadiums of today often empty. Super wealthy season ticket holders who dont attend, overpriced match day tickets that dont sell, or a global audience that has grown so far that fans cannot geographically commit to match days.

Living close to Leeds, my local team is Leeds United. This is an example of a club that still retained the fan base of their glory years. They have a stadium which is definitely still intimidating, and an atmosphere still revered throughout English football. So why is this? I can tell you from the experiences of close friends who follow Leeds, it is because it is so difficult to get a ticket for a match day. Leeds United sell out their 37,890 seater stadium regularly. Admittedly, it needs some renovation and the burgers there are absolutely abysmal, but it feels like a traditional football stadium. It feels like the memories I have of football growing up. I am sure this can also be said for many grounds around the country, ones I am yet to visit and hope to see in the future. There is no substitute for live football, in a packed stadium, with noisy fans and a great atmosphere. This is definitely an area that the bigger clubs could learn a thing or two about, including my beloved Arsenal in their new super stadium. Dont get me wrong, the facilities nowadays are fantastic, the food exceptional and the views incredible, but this doesnt substitute for an atmosphere where the hairs on the back of your neck stand up for the full 90 minutes.

Verdict A win for the Nostalgia Generation bring back Final Countdown Europe sung across the North and South Terrace any day of the week.

Conclusion

Whilst I am aware this is probably still totally biased, I am unapologetically crowning the Nostalgia Generation of 1995-2005 as the winners of this review. The Golden Years for me, as an Arsenal fan, but also as a football fan, coincided with a group of players who gave everything on the pitch; when the game was not dominated by cash and mega-rich owners; when managers wore the hearts on their sleeves and often had them ripped off on the touch line; when stadiums were smaller, more intimate and packed to the rafters with true football fans who gave up every weekend in devotion to their team. Although I love football now, and I will continue to do so for the rest of my life, I will always have a special place in my heart for the Nostalgia Generation and I thank them for the joy they gave, and continue to give, to me.

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FOOTBALL'S EVOLUTION: WHEN WERE THE 'GOLDEN YEARS'? - SportingFerret

ARTSM: The evolution of traffic bollards technology – Highways Magazine

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As motor vehicles became more popular between the wars, segregation of traffic flows in towns, cities, trunk roads, and their junctions became necessary to prevent drivers of private vehicles, buses and lorries migrating from the established left lane driving. Driving on the left had originated from the leading of a horse with the right hand!

In 1935, a driving competency test was introduced to mitigate the rising incidents from drivers reverting to free spirit driving, occasionally cutting corners on either two wheels or four.

The pavements were in many cases non-existent. Kerbs and drainage were developing with carriageway design improvements. The pedestrian crossing, the roundabout and other traffic segregation systems were to come later driven by the alarming injury statistics particularly among children and cyclists who shared the carriageway with the increasingly popular motor car.

The first bollards were often boulders, rocks, wooden or cast iron posts, on the verge to prevent the vehicles from moving off the metaled surface to the soft undulating surfaces at the edges of the road.

The explosive volume of vehicles registered for road use in the post-war years has meant an almost constant review of the segregation of road users. With its densely populated geography, each decade the UK is challenged with having to adapt it's traffic separation technologies to suit the new world of developing vehicle technology.

The transition from boulder or post with the words' keep left' written on them to a fully interactive driverless vehicle interface is within reach and could only be limited by a pedestrian's or a driver's understanding of whether the third party can recognise their presence and what their likely corresponding actions might be.

Cast iron bollard frames with glass prism reflectors inset within 'keep left' wording, progressed to illuminated and legislated directional sign traffic signs within sheet steel shells.

These, in turn, gave way to base lit trans-illuminated rotationally moulded box type bollards that were initially frangible and latterly deformable in response to impact.

Illuminated panels with appropriate signage were key to visibility at night where the roads were suitably illuminated. Though curiously bollards did not have to be illuminated when the need was greatest when there was no street lighting.

The current library of bollard products available to a traffic engineer is varied and can be confusing to most. An innovation that gained in popularity around the time of the millennium was the advent of the retroreflective self-righting bollard (RSRB).

This development was being influenced by the preceding advances in retroreflective materials as found on most traffic signs. The prime requirement for traffic signs is that they should be visible and readable both from a distance and at speed, particularly when picked out by the approach of vehicle headlights.

The micro prismatic capture and bounce back of light from vehicle lights back to the eye of the driver via the sign face are fundamental to the operation of the modern signs. It is therefore not surprising that the technology should migrate from the road sign to the bollard.

The challenges of the retroreflection in relation to the position of the driver in the vehicle are relevant here.

The entrance and exit angle of light impacting the sign face material is about two degrees. Due to the integrated prismatic structure of the material, the reflection can work over a range of about + or- 15 degrees.

A number of manufacturers make materials with slightly different performance, but they are all generically similar, as the production processes and the standards typically lead manufacturers to solve the same challenges with very similar solutions.

The challenge with a two-degree entrance and exit for light transmission and return is that the drivers of many commercial vehicles can typically sit more than two metres away and above their downward optimised headlights. This means that when they approach a hazard, like for instance a roundabout or a pedestrian shielding island, they may see an intense reflection from 200 metres away as they approach, but if they are examining a complimentary sign, such as navigation or directional sign on a roundabout they may drive beyond the narrow reflective window of the RSRB.

The reading of a sign may take two seconds, during which the vehicle will have travelled 25 metres at circa 30 miles per hour and out of the illumination zone as they get closer to the navigational object. In that time they may miss an important complementary instruction or worse still a person or child who is alongside. Clearly, the faster the approach the proportionally, more distance is travelled.

Recent improvements of LED headlights with corresponding reflector improvements have reduced the amount of stray light. This may result in the reflection of the sign or bollard to the driver occurring later and so may lead to more stories to the constabulary of 'well it leapt out in front of me officer' when the intense reflection is then seen.

Modern retroreflective self-righting bollard design tends to follow one of two methodologies. The first is a deformable shaped bollard where the body is rotationally moulded using a polymer with a 'memory'.

This means that when it is impacted, the polymer shape deforms and collapses as a vehicle passes over the unit in the same way any plastic might deform when impacted. Once the vehicle has passed, then the bollard returns to its original form. These units can, if required, be illuminated from within the sign or from a conventional base lit system.

The second method, a knuckle joint bollard, has had more than one iteration. One version was developed in the United States using a pair of flexible cables tensioned against a spring mechanism to give a universal joint with limited rotational movement. A similar version was developed in Australia using a flexible polymer joint. Both systems sold very well and are still available today.

These have now been surpassed by dense polymer springback knuckle type joints attached to a more rigid lozenge blade type bollard.

The standards that retroreflective bollards are designed to are BS 8442 and BS EN 12899. These refer us to the international passive safety standard BS EN 12767 of which many readers will be familiar. In simple terms, the standard is designed to measure the deceleration of a car on impacting an installed piece of street furniture while the impacted structure deformed.

However, in the case of bollards impacted at the speeds of 50kph up to 100kph, this impact on a passenger is barely measurable. The tests take place on an open carriageway with the road clearance as per the design of the car.

Unfortunately, very few bollards are in fact set in the open carriageway. Most will be set up onto islands, which can give very different results when a vehicle impacts the installation.

One particular difficulty can be when the vehicle straddles the island so that the sump of the engine acts as a shearing surface and consequently the bollard may become detached. This can be exacerbated as the front of the car typically compresses downwards under hard braking.

The other enemy of the modern bollard is the scrubbing action of the multiple rear wheels of an articulated vehicle when turning sharply over a bollard installation. The resultant actions may obliterate a costly and highly relevant strategic road installation in seconds.

Solar-powered bollards are an additional tool in the traffic engineers armoury of products. These are not fit and forget solutions like the retroreflective models, and careful selection is needed as they may not be as robust in their capabilities as their specifications might suggest. Serviceability is an important factor for both the engineer and the suppliers in this field. Some products have the ability to be warranted for up to five years.

But is the future for bollards, as with traffic signs, in jeopardy?

Autonomous vehicle deployment is inevitably going to gain in popularity. The consequent improvement in pedestrian and animal detection is part and parcel of this technology, and so maybe the bollard has had its day. If the driving system navigates the protected obstacle, then is there really any need for a bollard?

The confidence and the experience of the adult pedestrian who wishes to navigate safely across the carriageway is second nature, but when the child who is obscured behind the lighting column base or other piece of street furniture steps out into the road in front a vehicle at literally no notice, then an autonomous system fails. Perhaps the jaywalking regulations of the USA may become necessary here on this side of the Atlantic.

The positioning of the bollard in the middle of the road may, however, be its saviour though. Much has been said, during this recent coronavirus crisis, about air quality. Where better to measure air quality than in the middle of the road? Road surface temperature can be recorded for gritting purposes.

Other possibilities for extending the use of the bollard exist; traffic counting with interactive signage could divert traffic to a secondary lane, or even close the lane while the traffic density reduces.

Modular microphones, loudspeakers and cameras could be integrated as either permanent or temporary inclusions. Radar reflection from the bollard structure by internal radar signal enhancement could be used to assist the other driving technologies.

Whatever the advances, if we knew the answers before others, we would be millionaires. The challenge with all technologies is twofold. Cost and robustness are key, but with the many advances in smart technologies all around us, the sustainability and advances of the surrounding technologies need to stabilise to allow for a considered approach.

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ARTSM: The evolution of traffic bollards technology - Highways Magazine

One last chance to binge-watch movies you’ve meant to watch – NOLA.com

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The pandemic has been a perfect opportunity to catch up with backlogs of unwatched films or binge-watch new series. Its been a tough time for local cinemas, but some arthouse film distributors helped The Broad Theater and Zeitgeist Theater & Lounge by splitting $12 ticket fees with them if viewers used links from the theaters websites.

Both The Broad Theater and Zeitgeist air a special screening of Up from the Streets, a documentary about New Orleans music, and a portion of viewing fees goes to a fund set up by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation for musicians affected by the pandemic. The film is available May 15. The films executive producer is trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who will participate in a Q&A via Zoom on Saturday, May 16.

Also recently introduced by the New Orleans Film Society is a channel to view 40 films screened at the New Orleans Film Festival. Below are details about film screenings that benefit local theaters and cultural organizations.

"Bacurau." When townspeople in a remote area of Brazil notice their village has disappeared from the internet, it sets up a modern Western as the town sits on the lawless frontier of global forces. The Broad and Zeitgeist.

Here are some cyber activities and events you can do while social distancing.

"Corpus Christi." Nominated for a Best International Feature Oscar in 2020, this thriller from Poland follows a young man from prison to the pulpit, as he is mistaken for a priest sent to help a town in need. Zeitgeist.

"Crescendo." A famous director tries to build a youth orchestra of Israeli and Palestinian children. Zeitgeist.

"Extra Ordinary." In this paranormal comedy, Will Forte plays a washed-up rock star who needs to find a virgin to make a deal with the devil for another hit. The Broad andZeitgeist.

"From NOLA with Love." The New Orleans Film Festival offers online screenings of 40 feature and short films by local filmmakers from its 2019 event via its website. Visit https://nolalove.eventive.org for details and a film guide.

"LInnocente." Director Luchino Viscontis 1976 Italian film about libertine 19th-century aristocrats was restored and rereleased in 2020.Zeitgeist.

Some help to get you through the waning days of lockdown

"The Hottest August." This person-on-the-street documentary encounters New Yorkers talking about their daily lives and hopes and fears about the future. See page 25.Zeitgeist.

"Mossville When Great Trees Fall." The documentary follows the struggle for survival of a Louisiana community created by formerly enslaved people and free people of color that found itself surrounded by petrochemical plants. The Broad.

"New York International Childrens Film Festival." There are two slates of short animated and live action films, one for children ages 3 to 7 and one for ages 8 and older. Zeitgeist.

"Once Were Brothers." The documentary follows the rise and fall of Robbie Robertson and The Band. The Broad.

"Roar." Anyone who binge-watched Tiger King may be interested in this 1981 feature starring Tippi Hedron and Melanie Griffith about people living among lions, tigers and elephants. The Broad.

"Saint Maud." A nurse who recently converted to Catholicism fears that she is possessed in this British psychological horror film. The Broad.

"Satantango." A seven-hour work in the slow cinema movement, Bela Tarrs film follows the lives of former members of an agricultural collective after the fall of communism in Hungary. Zeitgeist.

"Up from the Streets." Director Michael Murphys exploration of New Orleans musical traditions includes interviews with Terence Blanchard, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Robert Plant, Sting and others. The Broad and Zeitgeist.

"Vitalina Varela." A sort of visual poem of shadows and framing, director Pedro Costas film is about a woman from Cape Verde traveling to Portugal, where her long separated husband has just died. Zeitgeist.

"Wild Goose Lake." In this film noir-esque crime thriller, small-time mobster Zhou Zenong tries to mitigate the damage to his wife and friends after he kills a cop while battling a rival gang. Zeitgeist.

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One last chance to binge-watch movies you've meant to watch - NOLA.com

How Art Movements Tried to Make Sense of the World in the Wake of the 1918 Flu Pandemic – TIME

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On Feb. 7, 1918, the artist Egon Schiele, then 27, once again looked to his mentor, Gustav Klimt, to be his muse. But this time, Schiele had to visit the morgue of Allgemeines Krankenhaus, the Vienna General Hospital, to make his drawings of the renowned painter. The day before, Klimt had died of a stroke that many historians believe was a result of the flu. Schieles visit resulted in three haunting drawings of a deceased Klimts head, showing his face deformed from the stroke.

That same year, Schiele began working on a painting, The Family, which was meant to be a portrait of himself, his wife and their future child. But before he could finish the piece, his wife, who was six months pregnant, died of the flu. Three days later, Schieles life was also taken by the flu.

Egon Schiele's "Gustav Klimt on his death bed," 1918

Public Domain

Norwegian painter Edvard Munch also found inspiration in the disease. The artist made Self-Portrait With the Spanish Flu and Self-Portrait After the Spanish Flu, detailing his own experience contracting and surviving the illness. These paintings, characterized by Munchs obsession with existential drama, speak to feelings of trauma and despair that were widespread amid a pandemic that killed at least 50 million people. Illness, insanity, and deathkept watch over my cradle, the artist once said, and accompanied me all my life.

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It could be easy to think that these works are the only famous examples of the impact of the 1918 flu on the world of western fine art. Though the ongoing fight against COVID-19 has drawn renewed attention to the pandemic of about a century ago, the influenza pandemic has long been largely overshadowed by World War Iin public memory as well as contemporary thoughteven though the flu had a higher death toll. In light of wartime efforts, news about the initial spread of the 1918 flu was played down in many places. Do not worry too much about the disease, wrote the Times of India, in a country where 6% of the population ended up dying from the illness. In addition, many artists were sent to war during this time or died prematurely of the flu themselves.

Egon Schiele's "The Family," 1918

Belvedere Museum

But the flu did not go unnoticed by artists. Rather, the outbreak magnified the absurdity of the moment, according to art historian Corinna Kirsch. For many, World War I and the flu combined with political upheavals (such as the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of newly-formed communist governments) and social issues (such as gender and income inequality) to create a perception of the universe as chaotic and hopeless. A sense of meaninglessness spread, and people started to lose faith in their governments, existing social structures and accepted moral values. Everyday life felt ridiculous. The art movements that came out of this period explored this hopelessness, tried to fight against it and showed the ways in which everyone was trying to cope.

The Dada movement in particular seized on this absurdity as inspiration. The Dadaists wanted to create a new form of art, one that could replace previous notions altogether. Collage became a popular medium at the time; many artists were dealing with the modern era and the horrors of war through strategies of cutting, reassembling and remixing, explains Kirsch. One 1922 piece by Hannah Hch, the only woman who was part of the Berlin Dada group, parodied a traditional German guest book by collecting Dada sayings rather than the typical well-wishes from house guests. One saying included in the piece was from the poet Richard Hlsenbeck: Death is a thoroughly Dadaist affair.

Edvard Munch's "Self-Portrait with the Spanish Flu," 1919

Nasjonalmuseet

George Grosz, another Dada artist, painted The Funeral around 1918, depicting distorted human figures haphazardly overlapping one another in what appears to be a never-ending street, surrounded by nightclubs and buildings. In the middle of the crowd is a skeleton perched on top of a coffin drinking from a bottle. In a strange street by night, a hellish procession of dehumanized figures mills, their faces reflecting alcohol, syphilis, plague I painted this protest against a humanity that had gone insane, Grosz later said of his hellscape.

Though Dadaism was mostly nihilistic in its approach, there was also a utopian impulse at work with many artists who wanted to create an entirely new world and revolution, says Kirsch.

With this impulse in mind, architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus School in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. The Bauhaus aimed to bridge art and design, training students to reject frivolous ornamentation in order to create art objects that were practical and useful in everyday life. Marcel Breuer, who started at the Bauhaus in 1920 and eventually taught there, designed furnishings that historians believe were influenced by the flu. In contrast to the heavy, upholstered furniture that was popular at the time, Breuers minimalist pieces were made of hygienic wood and tubular steel, able to facilitate cleaning. Lightweight and movable, works like the designers bicycle-inspired Wassily Chair and Long Chair met modern sanitary needs by being easy to disinfect and rid of dust build-up.

The rise of modern architecture and design in the 1920s was inextricably linked to the prevailing discourse on health and social hygiene, says Monica Obniski, curator of decorative arts and design at Atlantas High Museum of Art.

Wassily Chair, B3, design By Marcel Breuer at Bauhaus School

Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

To other artists dealing with the horrors of the time, abstraction was a way to escape reality. Abstraction became a defining sense of that moment in time. There was a definite relationship [between] non-objective, non-realistic art and the horrors of what was going in the world, says Jeff Rosenheim, Curator in Charge of The Metropolitan Museum of Arts Department of Photographs. This was seen in many paintings and photographs made during the time. [View of Rooftops], a 1917 photograph of a desolate New York City scene, made by Morton Schamberg, is one example of this. The photograph, shot at an oblique angle, abstracts the cityscape in a Cubist manner and lacks any signs of human life. Schamberg died of the flu in 1918.

Further, in 1917, Fountain was unveiled under the pseudonym R. Mutt. The work consisted of a standard urinal, signed and dated, and thrust the art world into discussions of what was and wasnt to be considered art for years to come. It is widely believed that R. Mutt was Marcel Duchamp, but the subject has been up for debate. Art historian Michael Lobel argues that R. Mutt could also have been Schamberg. We arent able to know for sure because of the artists premature death from the flu. Schambergs relatively early death not only cut short his career but also means that we have little to no recorded testimony from him on these and related matters. In his case, then, the pandemic registers mostly as a telltale absence in our account of the period, Lobel has written in Art Forum.

Morton Schamberg's "[View of Rooftops]," 1917

John C. Waddell/Ford Motor Company Collection/The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Just as the 1918 flu pandemic was an inescapable part of the zeitgeist of the time, the coronavirus pandemic has already become so today. Though we might not know exactly how COVID-19 will affect art and art movements to come, the visual culture has already shifted.

Photographers discovering empty streets and how our cities look without people show a kind of sad beauty to these urban metropolises around the world, says Rosenheim. The empty cityscapes being captured and shared arent depicting the pandemic, but the effects of isolation and emptiness, psychologically. Others have argued that, as a result of the quarantine, nude selfies have become high art.

Andreas Gursky's "Prada II," 1996

Courtesy the artist/Gagosian/The Metropolitan Museum of Art

As was the case in 1918, the pandemic is just one part of a larger mood that predated the disease. Isolation, stillness and the impacts of consumerism were already themes being explored through art in recent decades. For example, Andreas Gurskys 1996 photograph Prada II shows a display case that is completely void of product and lit with sterile, fluorescent lights an image that now calls to mind news photos of store shelves left empty amid the pandemic. Gregory Crewdsons early 2000s Beneath the Roses series captures with a surreal ghostliness the desolate corners of small towns, evoking the urban loneliness of Edward Hoppers paintings, which are being disseminated widely on social media today.

These works were created before the novel coronavirus swept the world, but they speak to the current moment proving that, as was the case in the past, Rosenheim says, we dont need a pandemic to create chaotic, psychologically traumatic imagery.

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Write to Anna Purna Kambhampaty at Anna.kambhampaty@time.com.

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How Art Movements Tried to Make Sense of the World in the Wake of the 1918 Flu Pandemic - TIME

The Punk Movement Was Over Before It Began – WhatCulture

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The late 1970s was a turbulent time for Britain. Mass unemployment, a new Prime Minister with her eyes on privatising national companies for huge profit, and Glam Rock. For the youth of the era, it was hard to find something to look forward to, but after a shop owner tapped into the zeitgeist from the New York music scene, a new movement began to form.

The first Punk single to be released in the UK was the 1976 track, New Rose by The Damned. The song was fast, simple and catchy. Despite this being the first mainstream British Punk song, The Damned were influenced by and had started as a supporting act to this rising Malcolm McLaren manufactured group, the Sex Pistols.

The Pistols followed The Damned one month later with their debut Punk single, Anarchy in the UK, introducing the Sex Pistols to the mainstream. They became the poster boys for the new Punk movement, which would seemingly eschew pop music orthodoxy and promote disdain for the conventional.

But was it everything they hoped? Was it everything punks now think it was? No, is the short answer...

By the time the bands second single, God Save The Queen, was released in time for the Silver Jubilee, they had been dropped from their EMI record deal due to swearing on primetime television, signed with a young Richard Bransons Virgin Records label, and had made headline news across the country.

Appearing on the front of the Daily Mirror under the headline the FILTH and the FURY, the Sex Pistols represented a new direction for pop music and seemed to endorse the idea of personal freedom, originality, and non-conformity. These ideals were attractive to the youth, and quickly Punk became fashionable. Bands would alter their sound to capitalise on the energetic and simplistic performances of the Pistols and join in the revolution, effectively conforming with the non-conformists.

After the rejection of co-managing the Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLarens former business partner, Bernie Rhodes sought to find a bad of his own. After attending local gigs and getting musicians on board, it wasnt long before he had control of his own Punk band, The Clash.

The band were the next big thing in Punk, and, under the direction of Rhodes, released a variety of singles focused on the troubles of the time. Rather than just spewing no future, The Clash rallied against the disastrous job market, declared apathy towards American music, and detailed events from a riot at the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival.

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The Punk Movement Was Over Before It Began - WhatCulture

Joe Biden and the Moralizers – The Wall Street Journal

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So much of our national politics looks like bread and circuses that one can miss important shifts in the political zeitgeist. Joe Bidens descent to the second circle of #MeToo hell may be one of them.

Yes, we are learning again the high price of double standards and hypocrisy, which are always with us. But while the Democrats bucket brigades throw water on the Biden-Reade wildfire, look over there at something else thats in flames. It is liberal progressivisms nearly hundred-year-old strategy of using moral condescension as a crude weapon against its enemies.

A distinction is necessary. Morality is about right and wrong. Moralitys insincere cousin is moralism, which grabs virtue off the shelf as needed. About every 20 or 30 years, the progressives come up with another moralized argument to delegitimize their opponents.

The most durable political weapon the progressives ever created was the notion that capitalism is immoral. This interpretation of private economic interests was popularized as far back as the 1930s with Matthew Josephsons The Robber Barons, a tendentious history of late-19th-century American entrepreneurs, whose title stuck as shorthand for capitalism.

The progressives positioned capitalism not merely as flawed but irredeemably immoral and requiring controlby them. President Franklin Roosevelt recognized what a potent and repeatable weapon this was, coining the campaign phrase the Ishmaels and the Insulls, whose hand is against everymans.

Moralism became a progressive go-to tactic in American political life because it constantly forced conservatives to issue denials of moral failure.

By now the appeal is virtually robotic. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer this week outputted his thoughts that Republican plans to give companies wrestling with coronavirus liability protection are going to help big CEOs, but not the workers.

Next came the great moral event of the centurys second halfthe civil rights movement. Once past the landmark laws of the mid-1960s, Democratic politicians quickly transformed even that into a moralistic weapon, routinely asserting that Republican policies would roll back the moral victories of that era.

Leave it to Joe Biden, looking more than ever like an innocent abroad, to resurrect his partys legacy of protecting Jim Crow when at a fundraiser he cited his good Senate relationship with Old-South Democrats Herman Talmadge of Georgia and James Eastland of Mississippi.

During Barack Obamas first high-minded presidential term, he gave speech after mocking speech about the wealthiest and the 1%. They came in like moralistic mortar rounds. In 2011, a liberal group ran a TV ad against Paul Ryan, then House Budget Committee chairman, depicting him throwing Grandma off the cliff with his proposed Medicare reforms.

Then, no longer content with isolating its opposition as its moral inferiors, the American left began to overreach. It targeted basic beliefs that had bipartisan support, such as the consensus about First Amendment free-speech protections. The campus speech codes arrived first but then came the mobs that shut down talks by conservative speakers, claiming they had moral justification for suppressing these speakers views on race, women and ... pretty much anything.

This was an important turning point. Previously progressive condescension at least operated inside traditional moral categories. In recent years, it has decided it could get away with displacing even agreed-on norms of right and wrong with entirely novel claims, such as demoting centuries of due process for the accused with believe the woman.

Standard measures of credibility devolved into credulousnessbut again, primarily in the interests of deploying the new rules as a political weapon. The ideas, or sentiments, were secondary.

The weaponizing of sexual-abuse accusations for the Brett Kavanaugh nomination was so over the top and evidence-free that many people eventually went numb on the subject.

Has the time finally come to agree the American system has waded into deep water by using cheap moralism as a political weapon? It wont change, not unless people in positions of leadership speak up.

Just because Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is reinstating due process in campus sexual misconduct proceedings doesnt mean liberals have to remain passive and silent. Former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman used to talk in clear terms about defending moral traditions, but the Democratic left drove him out of the party.

The Biden episode suggests that political moralism is losing its punch. Progressives will keep trying to intimidate their opponents this way because thats what they do. But nonstop media eventually sucks the energy out of everything these days, even its allies.

Other than the Democrats downloading pro forma support for Mr. Biden in hope of getting the vice presidential nomination, hardly anyone cares one way or the other about his guilt or innocence, or his accuser. The publics normal instincts of concern have been worn down into a cynical callousness. Can anyone count how many times Bernie Sanders called some part of American life a moral outrage?

What lies on the other side of the Biden double standard is no standard at all. We are getting close.

Write henninger@wsj.com.

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Joe Biden and the Moralizers - The Wall Street Journal