COVID-19 impact: Aerospace Composites Market Forecasted To Surpass The Value Of US$ XX Mn/Bn By 2055 2015 2021 – Cole of Duty

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Given the debilitating impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) on the Aerospace Composites market, companies are vying opportunities to stay afloat in the market landscape. Gain access to our latest research analysis on COVID-19 associated with the Aerospace Composites market and understand how market players are adopting new strategies to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

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the key manufacturers in the aerospace composites market are Hexcel Corporation, Gurit Holding Co., Cytec Industries, Royal Tencate, Toray Industries Inc. and GKN Plc among others.

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COVID-19 impact: Aerospace Composites Market Forecasted To Surpass The Value Of US$ XX Mn/Bn By 2055 2015 2021 - Cole of Duty

The elderly can still be heroes in the Covid-19 crisis – BioEdge

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It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. Thats Sydney Carton awaiting the guillotine, laying down his life for a friend. An example of extreme altruism if ever there was one.

The Covid-19 pandemic offers employment opportunities for many more Sidney Cartons, even, or especially, elderly patients infected with the virus, write Julian Savulescu and Dominic Wilkinson, both from Oxford University, in the blog of the Journal of Medical Ethics.

there is a constant national emergency: we are all aging and slowly dying. There is a war against aging and death: we are fighting it with medicine. And people should be able sacrifice their interests or lives in this war.

They give several startling examples of what they mean.

Volunteering for risky trials in COVID patients with severe illness. People should be able to consent to take part in trials, or even compassionate use, of risky interventions on COVID-19 provided these generate usable knowledge of benefit to others.

Voluntary research euthanasia. When a patient will certainly die, they should be able to consent while competent to experimentation being performed on them for others, even if the experimentation may itself likely or possibly end their life sooner.

Organ donation euthanasia. A person could consent in advance to donation of their organs if it were decided that they would have medical treatment withdrawn on usual grounds, and they would certainly die of respiratory failure over a period of hours or days provided, of course, that the organs were not infected with Covid-19.

Military research service. Early or risky vaccine trials of a COVID-19 vaccine could be conducted on soldiers in exchange for avoiding active service, which involves risk of death.

Nursing home volunteers for risky research. The elderly could perhaps take place in risky challenge studies for coronavirus or early trials of vaccines or treatments. Perhaps many nursing and care home residents wouldnt want to take part in risky research. But they ought to be given the opportunity, if they are competent.

Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge

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The elderly can still be heroes in the Covid-19 crisis - BioEdge

Terminally ill Hobart woman wants to choose when she dies, but coronavirus delays assisted dying legislation – ABC News

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Updated April 21, 2020 06:30:20

Sue McCuaig fell sick "out of nowhere" when a visit to the GP around Christmas time and a subsequent brain biopsy revealed grade four cancer.

Ms McCuaig, 66, was diagnosed with glioblastoma - an almost always fatal brain cancer with an average life expectancy of just over a year.

She has had radiation and chemotherapy, but the coronavirus pandemic has meant plans to travel with her family, other than a brief trip to Uluru in March, had to be cancelled.

The first question Ms McCuaig asked her doctor following her diagnosis was whether she would have the chance to stop treatment and life if she chose to.

"I am very conscious of wanting to say when it's time for me to go," she said.

"I don't want to die when I'm the sickest I could possibly be because that's the only way we're allowed to do it."

Ms McCuaig and her family are concerned that debate on a Bill to introduce voluntary assisted dying in Tasmania will be delayed due to coronavirus.

Before the pandemic, Tasmania's Parliament had been expected to debate legislation to introduce voluntary assisted dying in August.

With changes to the sitting schedule, the Bill is now likely to be tabled in late September by independent Upper House MP Michael Gaffney, and debate will need to work around a Budget session of Parliament expected in October.

Ms McCuaig's daughter Shelley said any delay could have an impact on her mother's choices.

"Knowing she would have a choice down the track would make now a less anxious time," she said.

"We'd just be a bit more reassured if we knew we could carry out mum's wishes.

"For us it absolutely is a matter of urgency and we would just ask that the politicians do prioritise this piece of legislation and do address it now."

Mr Gaffney's End of Life Choices Bill would be the fourth Bill of its kind to be debated in Tasmania's Parliament, but the first to be debated in the Upper House.

The numbers are expected to be tight in both chambers.

Under the draft Bill, to be eligible for voluntary assisted dying a person would need to be 18 or over, a Tasmanian resident, capable of making decisions, and be suffering intolerably in relation to a relevant medical condition.

It would involve two medical practitioners, and the person would need to make first, second and final requests.

Mr Gaffney said he was optimistic the Bill could pass both Houses by the end of this year, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

"The primary purpose for me for this Bill is to give people a choice. That sounds really nice, but I do believe people should have the right to choose how they exit this world, especially if they're in intolerable suffering," he said.

"Nobody wants their parent or friend or loved one to suffer needlessly. Therefore I think the time is right for this debate.

"We've got to think that if this doesn't succeed at this hearing, it will be some years before Tasmania takes on the debate again."

The Australian Medical Association's Tasmanian branch is opposed to the draft Bill as it stands.

President John Burgess labelled the proposed legislation a form of physician-assisted suicide, "to which the AMA is strongly opposed."

He has called for the Bill to be changed to remove any need for doctors to be involved, other than by providing certificates of diagnosis and prognosis.

"The legislation as a fundamental starting point should not require the doctor to be involved in the administration of the medication or whatever process is used for euthanasia," Professor Burgess said.

"That's not a doctor's role.

"A doctor's role is to care for patients, to treat them, provide comfort and support, and to relieve suffering, but not to intentionally end a patient's life."

Separately, Professor Burgess said it was "inappropriate" to progress the Bill during current circumstances due to the difficulty of running an effective consultation process.

Mr Gaffney said no doctor or nurse would be required to participate unless they wished to be involved, and they would need to undertake training similar to what was required in Victoria and Western Australia, where voluntary assisted dying has been legalised.

The now-Health Minister Sarah Courtney told Parliament during debate on the last Bill in 2017 that she wanted it to be legal for an individual to choose to end their life when their circumstances were filled with intolerable and unrelievable suffering, but ultimately voted against that Bill.

Ms Courtney said she would give the new legislation careful consideration and scrutiny.

Mr Gaffney is seeking feedback on the draft Bill.

Topics:community-and-society,death,euthanasia,health,diseases-and-disorders,covid-19,tas,hobart-7000,launceston-7250

First posted April 21, 2020 05:41:44

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Terminally ill Hobart woman wants to choose when she dies, but coronavirus delays assisted dying legislation - ABC News

Euthanasia allowed by Dutch court in cases of advanced dementia – CNN

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In the landmark decision, the court said that a physician may respond to a written request for euthanasia made before someone develops advanced dementia, provided certain legal requirements are met -- even if the patient's condition means they become unable to confirm that request.

Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands if the relevant criteria are met, which include a voluntary and well-considered request from the patient, "unbearable suffering without any prospect of improvement," and the lack of a "reasonable alternative," according to the Royal Dutch Medical Association.

If those conditions are not met, the practice is still a punishable offense.

In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia.

The woman had written a directive asking for euthanasia in the event she was admitted to a nursing home with dementia and she thought the time was right.

Prosecutors had argued that the doctor did not do enough to confirm consent in ending the woman's life, saying that once she was admitted to the home, she gave "mixed signals."

At the time, the court concluded that the unidentified doctor, who has since retired, carried out euthanasia in accordance with the law and had not been negligent.

"A doctor may respond to a written request for granting euthanasia to people with advanced dementia. In such a situation, all legal requirements for euthanasia must be met, including the requirement that there is hopeless and unbearable suffering. The doctor is then not punishable," the Supreme Court said in a statement Tuesday.

The ruling also noted that doctors can legally follow through with the procedure if the patient can no longer agree to it, due to their illness.

"Even if it is clear that the request is intended for the situation of advanced dementia, and that situation is reached so that the patient is no longer is able to form and express a will, there can be circumstances where no follow-up on the request is possible," it said.

Ren Hman, president of the Royal Dutch Medical Association welcomed the ruling, but warned that the situation remained complicated for doctors.

"It is good that there is now a ruling from the Supreme Court. But even with more legal clarity, not all complicated dilemmas around euthanasia in the case of dementia are gone. With every request to end a life, a doctor must still make an individual assessment if euthanasia is appropriate and if all due care criteria are met," Hman said in a statement.

"Doctors act according to professional standards and also on their moral compass. The doctor's own consideration is and remains very important," he added.

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Zoo insists that its animals will not be put to sleep – Devon Live

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Paignton Zoo has insisted that it the current coronavirus pandemic and lockdown would have to become "much worse" before it would even contemplate the drastic measure of euthanising any of its animals.

The zoo posted a strongly worded retort to an article on DevonLive which primarily highlighted the financial difficulties it was facing due to the COVID-19 lockdown and promoted it's Help Our Zoo appeal which aimed to raise funds towards the 414,000 a month it costs to run the zoo.

A spokesman for the zoo told DevonLive that staff were having "some difficult conversation and making decisions in the next six or seven weeks".

DevonLive's article, which is accurate and, contrary to the zoo's Facebook post, never stated euthanasia was being discussed, was published after speaking at length with one of the venue's directors who confirmed what plans were being drawn up for the future of its animal collections.

The zoo spokesman added: "The bigger animals are the biggest attractions and bring people in - it would be a false economy to get rid of the lions and tigers or any of the apes."

While not specifically stating what the precise meaning of the words "get rid of" meant, the zoo admitted that no animals had been euthanised.

The discussion regarding what action may need to be taken over the coming months drew concerns from the public, many of whom regularly attend the zoo and consider it a favourite attraction.

It also led to a number of claims that DevonLive had misreported the entire issue.

Paignton Zoo took to it's Facebook page to criticise the article claiming that the story had suggested the zoo was "considering euthanasing some of its animal collection".

The post said: "Nobody from the zoo has said this. The current crisis would have to be much worse before such a move would even be contemplated."

However, while insisting that no such move had been contemplated, the zoo added: "Having said that, nobody should underestimate the financial challenge facing us.

"Like all zoos we currently have no income at all but our costs are still extremely high, running to hundreds of thousands of pounds per month.

"This is clearly an unsustainable situation so it would be remiss of the zoo's owner, the Wild Planet Trust, were it not to be looking very hard at what it can do to mitigate the loss and protect itself, and its zoos, for the future.

"We suspect that every single charity, business and enterprise in the country is doing exactly the same.

"We are very grateful for the support that has been offered to us and for the donations that we have received in the last few weeks."

In 2014, Paignton Zoo's Simon Tonge spoke with the BBC over the issue of euthanising healthy animals held in captivity as part of a Radio 4 programme about the international issue.

It came after a number of zoos were criticised for putting down animals including giraffes, hippos, leopards, tigers, lions, bears and antelopes.

He warned that attaching numbers to culls was problematic, saying that any headline with claimed zoo's euthanise thousands of animals per year would be misleading.

He told the BBC: "Well OK, but you know most of those animals were rats or mice or something like that.

"If we ever got to the point of having to consider euthanasia for a gorilla I would argue that that one gorilla would generate more interest and more column inches than 10,000 rats. So the numbers game for me is kind of irrelevant."

He said further problems came from how such a incident was categorised.

He said: "Suppose we have two animals of a species. Both are ill, but we know that with a year or more's intensive veterinary effort, we can make them well again.

"One of them is never going to breed because it's genetically not important enough, but the other one is more important.

"Because we just don't have that time and the money to invest in both of those animals we euthanise the least [genetically] related one.

"Is that a veterinary euthanasia or is that management euthanasia? I genuinely don't know.

"I wouldn't know which column to put it in in the inventory we just don't count them really."

DevonLive has contacted Paignton Zoo's communication's manager this morning (April 25) via phone and email for comment to clarify the matter.

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Zoo insists that its animals will not be put to sleep - Devon Live

There’s a way for everyone to uphold sanctity of human life – denvercatholic.org

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By Father Luis Granados, dcjm

As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Evangelium Vitae, an old question reappears in our conversations: Can we still talk about preeminent life issues? Are abortion and euthanasia significantly different from other sins? As we will see, St. John Paul II considered them particularly serious and deplorable. By striking the fundamental relationships of the family the sanctuary of life these acts break the basic trust of our society and become the highest expression of the strong oppressing the weak.

In Evangelium Vitae St. John Paul II invites us to love, respect and promote life. The encyclical focuses on two offenses against life: abortion and euthanasia. Two solemn declarations condemn them as intrinsically evil, as the deliberate and direct killing of an innocent human being (EV, 62 and 65). But some argue today that it would be better to focus on other ethical issues like immigration, social injustice or environmental sins, which they claim are just as wrong.

By drawing particular attention to the seriousness of abortion and euthanasia, St. John Paul II doesnt intend to neglect other aspects of life which deserve careful consideration. However, among the many sins against life, some are graver than others. What makes these two offenses graver than sins against the environment or immigrants, for example?

First of all, in the case of abortion and euthanasia, we are dealing with the direct and intentional killing of the innocent. As such, we are dealing with the irreversible end of the life of the victim and, for that reason, also with the destruction of the heart of the murderer. Other sins against life may involve the injustice of not receiving proper means or protection for living (food, housing, legal documents), but here we are dealing with life itself.

The second reason is the consideration of the victim: an innocent and fragile human being. In abortion, we have the baby in the womb, the most vulnerable and innocent among the vulnerable, while in euthanasia, we have the elderly and the disabled. In other sins against life, we may have guilty or innocent people, but never someone as vulnerable and as in need as the embryo and the elderly.

Thirdly, the greater gravity of abortion and euthanasia is manifested when we consider the murderer. The physician, the father and the mother, those appointed by God as its keepers, are those who destroy the baby, and are subsequently morally destroyed. Children are called to honor their elderly parents, but in euthanasia, it is sometimes the children who decide to kill them. In both cases, the relationship between generations, the basic bond that builds our society, is destroyed.

Abortion and euthanasia are graver sins because they corrupt the human heart in a deeper way. They extinguish the most basic relationships within the family and therefore in our society. Thats why St. Teresa of Calcutta said that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, and we could add, euthanasia. Both are a war waged against children and the elderly. What they damage is not only the good of individuals but also the common good.

Finally, abortion and euthanasia are the type of sins that can never be justified. They are intrinsically evil. No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by reason itself, and proclaimed by the Church (EV, 62). In other sins against life, like immigration, we enter into the realm of prudential decisions: How many immigrants should our country welcome? Under which conditions? But in the case of abortion or euthanasia there is no such deliberation. We are dealing with an action that is always evil: always and in every circumstance (Veritatis Splendor, 52).

What about sins against the environment? In these cases, we are usually talking about indirect actions. Whereby we choose good actions (like flying frequently in order to visit a sick relative or to provide for my family) that may indirectly cause damage to our planet in the long term. We are, of course, responsible of the effects of the actions, sometimes also indirect, but our responsibility is limited to the consequences we can reasonably foresee (and in the measure of our action, not in the measure of the whole effect). The gravity of these sins is significantly smaller than in the case of abortion and euthanasia.

The coronavirus epidemic is helping us be more aware of the preciousness and weakness of human life, especially of the elderly. As Pope Benedict XVI wrote, the true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer (Spe Salvi, 38). The coronavirus teaches us about the fragility of our life and our relationships. In moments of sickness we renew our fundamental faith in the One who heals all our diseases. There is, however, something even worse than the coronavirus. That is the afflictions that come not from outside, from the calamities of the world, but from our own evil, free actions. On this 25th anniversary of Evangelium Vitae, St. John Paul II passes the baton of the building of a culture of life to us.

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There's a way for everyone to uphold sanctity of human life - denvercatholic.org

When buying time runs out – National Hog Farmer

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Smithfield, Sioux Falls, S.D.; JBS, Worthington, Minn.; Tyson Fresh Meats, first in Columbus Junction, Iowa, then Waterloo, Iowa, and Logansport, Ind. the list of pork processing facilities that have had to pause production at some point due to COVID-19 continues to increase each day. Each time a packing plant shuts down, the impact ripples through the pork supply chain from farrow to finish. For those producers who rely on those plants to market their hogs, buying time has never been more critical as they make every effort to avoid euthanasia.

"I think pork producers have done a really good job about doing everything they can to avoid having to do that," says Bob Thaler. "I mean they're double-stocking, they're holding the heavier weights, they're doing about everything they can. Packing plants have stepped up and helped move through some of that kill, but we're going to get to a point where that's not enough."

When that time comes to make difficult decisions, the South Dakota State University professor and Extension swine specialist says producers will need to work with two different entities. In South Dakota, the first call will need to be to Dustin Oedekoven, South Dakota state veterinarian.

"Before you dig a hole you need to contact Dr. Oedekoven's office at the Animal Industry Board so those plans can be approved because there are parameters about where they can be buried if you decide you want to go with the burial route," Thaler says. "Any plan for carcass disposal must first be approved by the South Dakota Animal Industry Board."

Thaler, who has been conducting an above-ground burial research project at SDSU, says that could be an efficient option for producers. Thaler's research team began the project last June to address how to effectively dispose of carcasses infected with a foreign animal disease from a commercial swine production unit without contaminating the environment and further spreading the disease. The process involves digging a two-foot deep trench, laying down 20 to 24 inches of organic matter, such as corn stalks, and then placing the animal mortality on top of that and filling the trench with dirt.

However, he says there are a lot of different ways to do composting. In Minnesota, research has been done with grinding the carcasses with a mixture of either cornstalks or wood chips and that has also been effective. While rendering may be an option now, Thaler cautions that industry may soon be overwhelmed, and incineration is most likely not going to be an option.

The second entity SDSU Extension urges producers to contact is their county National Resources Conservation Service. Thaler says there could be some funds available, such as Environmental Quality Incentives Program dollars, for carcass disposal, but the rates will differ depending on if the producer goes with burial, composting, incineration or landfill.

Regardless which burial method producers choose, Thaler says before producers take any of these actions, they need to work with their veterinarian.

"When you have a large number of animals that have to be euthanized, other things come into consideration, so obviously your herd health professional, your veterinarian should be the first one you would reach out to," Thaler says. "I would also suggest reaching out to the National Pork Board. They're a great resource when it comes to a lot of things like that in every one of those decisions animal wellbeing has to be at the forefront."

Thaler, who started his career in 1988 and has seen his share of downturns in the pork industry, says this experience is much worse, as it impacts producers both financially and emotionally. He has already fielded several calls from producers about those difficult decisions that may lie ahead.

"You can tell that's in the back of their mind, and they want someone to talk to, and so I think the emotional and mental strain of having to euthanize animals that you've cared for their entire lives is going to be much worse than the financial burden," Thaler says. "Again, mass euthanasia is certainly going to be the very, very last resort. Producers are going to do everything they can to prevent that, but when that finally happens, it will be the very last option they have available to them. We need to keep those people in our thoughts and prayers, and to reach out to our friends and neighbors who are going through this situation. It's going to be very difficult for a lot of people."

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When buying time runs out - National Hog Farmer

Peterson Urges the Federal Government to Take Steps to Assist the Nation’s Pork Producers – KFGO News

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House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson called on the Federal government to address the building stress and challenges facing the nations pork producers in a letter.

Processing plants have had to close due to COVID-19 outbreaks and that leaves pork producers with no place to take hogs which need to be slaughtered and processed, and finding room on their operation is tricky.

Peterson is urging Vice President Mike Pence to direct the Task Force to:

Coordinate between all involved Federal, state, and local governments to provide urgent assistance to impacted farmers;

Develop standards for humane euthanasia and disposal of impacted animals as well as outreach on existing financial and technical assistance resources available to producers;

Provide flexibility to use all available state and Federal processing capacity to the maximum extent possible to minimize supply chain disruption;

Issue Federal guidance on best practices to prevent COVID-19 transmission in plants;

Provide access to adequate COVID-19 testing for plant workers and communities;

Provide sufficient personal protective equipment for all plant workers and federal meat inspectors;

Develop resources and conduct outreach to help farmers deal with added stress during this difficult time; and

Utilize any other means at the Task Forces disposal to support farmers, processing plant workers, and plant communities.

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Peterson Urges the Federal Government to Take Steps to Assist the Nation's Pork Producers - KFGO News

What Will Life Be Like After the Pandemic? – INSEAD Knowledge

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Having exposed societys dysfunction, the COVID-19 crisis invites us to rethink our future.

Albert Camus novel The Plague starts with rats dying, followed by a tsunami of human deaths. The towns leaders are reluctant to acknowledge the epidemic at first but are soon forced to take the situation seriously. With martial law imposed, no one is allowed to enter or leave the city. Being unable to communicate with or see loved ones weighs heavily on everyone for some, more than the threat of death itself. Law and order quickly break down. As the plague continues to ravage the town, funerals turn into rush jobs, with no ceremony or emotion. The first serum, a kind of vaccine, turns out to be a failure. Eventually, a better version allows the quarantine to be lifted.

Doesnt this story sound familiar? A very similar scenario is playing itself out right now. Camus was trying to describe how human beings respond to and live with a completely absurd death sentence death being part of the cycle of life. Perhaps was he also trying to show how little it takes for a society to fall apart?

In 1947 (the publication date of Camus novel), we got a strong reminder of the unpredictability of life, as well as concern for how humanity was evolving. But attention wasnt paid. The 2011 movie Contagion, directed by Steven Soderberg, provided a more modern warning about the precariousness of the human condition. Many of its scenes hit very close to home. The movie tracks the arrival of a fictional virus that ends up killing millions of people worldwide. The outbreak sends officials from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organisation scrambling to figure out the origins of the virus, how it spreads and how to find a cure. And just like our current crisis, it takes much teetering before anyone realises the gravity of the situation. The film includes the economic struggles of ordinary people.

Will we learn from COVID-19?

The interesting question now is what the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic is going to look like. When the crisis subsides, will we go back to normal? Will we even want to? Or does COVID-19 provide us with an important learning experience?

Hopefully, a cure to coronavirus will be found. But whatever happens, we should keep in mind that the threat of infectious disease is not going away. Pandemics are not the mere imaginary product of a few artistic types. Frankly speaking, we are at a dramatic inflection point.

Our response to this pandemic will have an enormous effect on the future of humankind. More than anything, the coronavirus has highlighted existing political, economic and social dysfunctionalities. It has also shown the crisis of leadership. It is an invitation to make radical changes to the economy, our social behaviour and the role of government in our lives.

I would like to suggest two scenarios for our future: a rather pessimistic one and a more optimistic one. We could see parts of these scenarios overlap.

A pessimistic scenario

In crisis situations, most people tend to regress to a state of greater dependency. It usually results in a cry for the kind of leadership that can soothe collective fears and anxieties. It may explain a paradoxical phenomenon: Even highly incompetent leaders may rise in popularity at such times. Indeed, is the leadership of the most powerful countries in the world up to the present challenge? Can they be trusted? Unfortunately, too many of our leaders have proven to be quite ineffective. And with populations in a state of psychological regression, they may get away with it.

When the going gets tough, societies tend to withdraw instead of reaching out. Our sense of helplessness increases the appeal of national identity politics, with a move back to the nation-state. We can expect identity politics to become even stronger. In fact, this scenario is already happening, if we consider the way various countries are trying to acquire badly needed items to conquer the pandemic.

Sadly, this pessimistic scenario plays neatly into an agenda of totalitarian control a fact that isnt lost on autocratic leaders. For them, the pandemic is a convenient excuse to channel peoples growing sense of helplessness into autocracy. Populations may become more willing to hand over control to governments. As a rule, when we are frightened, we are more willing to cut down on civil liberties. Even when leaders pretend to be democratic, under the right conditions, the inner autocrat may emerge. There is also the potential for a search for scapegoats. After all, nothing unites a population better than an outside threat. Thus, apart from regressive processes, paranoid reactions can also come to the fore.

The infrastructure, technology and legislative framework for types of martial law have long existed. We must consider how these exceptional measures could easily become permanent. I am referring to such things as the abdication of personal liberty (even extrajudicial, indefinite detentions), censorship of the press and the internet (supposedly to combat disinformation), the denial of freedom of assembly, the tracking of everyones movements at any time and restrictions on travel. It may even include giving the state greater control over our bodies (as reflected in compulsory vaccination and other medical treatments).

Furthermore, this pessimistic scenario may involve reducing peoples sense of community through various social changes: pre-eminence of e-commerce (no more shopping in brick-and-mortar shops), the fading out of office space, a focus on online learning and play, as well as the remote viewing of sports and entertainment. The idea of Gemeinschaft a society based on close social ties may become a relic of the past.

Many of these developments were already underway, but the arrival of COVID-19 has greatly accelerated their acceptance and could render them permanent. We need to ask ourselves: How much of our lives and civil liberties do we want to sacrifice at the altar of a sense of greater security? Do we want to live in a world where human beings can rarely congregate? If social distancing becomes the norm, can we put up with the likely increase in isolation-induced depression, paranoid reactions, drug abuse and suicides?

An optimistic scenario

Crises do not necessarily only bring the forces of regression and paranoia to the fore; they can also create greater solidarity. As we have seen many times over, when people unite, miracles can happen.

We are now on the cusp of many critical decisions. The pandemic should encourage us to reflect on the power of our collective will.

Despite the enormous number of jobs lost, could the pandemic be an opportunity to direct our energies to other kinds of activities? What parts of the economy would we like to restore, and what parts could we do without? Given the increasing concern about our planet and the disastrous effects of global warming, do we really need all this commuting, all this air travel?

From an evolutionary point of view, health comes from community. Human life doesnt thrive in isolation. Being part of a community is important for our mental health. As it is, we are already living in much more distant ways than has ever been the case. Should we continue on this path? The pandemic could give us an opportunity to restore lost connections and create more interrelated, cooperative societies. The coordinated efforts of scientists all over the globe to find a cure for the coronavirus suggest such cooperation is possible.

The present pandemic could spur us to tackle issues that we have always been quite aware of but have preferred to ignore. It could be our chance to do something about the rise of dysfunctional leaders; to decrease socio-economic inequities; to really fight addictions; and to take measures to avert ecological collapse. First, we need to accept the reality of living in an interconnected world. We must develop a more glocal outlook, one in which we think globally and act locally.

Above all, the coronavirus crisis opens the door for us to create more compassionate societies the kinds of societies that acknowledge how we are all connected and that our planet should be managed for the generations to come. Chief Seattle once said, Humankind has not woven the web of life.We are but one thread within it.Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.All things are bound together.All things connect.

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vriesis the Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development & Organisational Change at INSEAD and the Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chaired Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus. He isthe Programme Director ofThe Challenge of Leadership, one of INSEADs top Executive Education programmes.

Professor Kets de Vries'smost recent books are:Down the Rabbit Hole of Leadership: Leadership Pathology of Everyday Life;You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger: Executive Coaching Challenges;Telling Fairy Tales in the Boardroom: How to Make Sure Your Organisation Lives Happily Ever After; andRiding the Leadership Rollercoaster: An Observers Guide.

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What Will Life Be Like After the Pandemic? - INSEAD Knowledge

How the West lost – The Sunday Guardian

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The price of this mega-crisis is bound to be paid in massive long-term unemployment and poverty all over the world.

Numerologists like to spot symbolic meanings in the dates of momentous events. The September 11 attacks took place on 911: the emergency police phone number in the United States, the Pentagon (seen by some occultists as a projection of the Luciferian pentacle) was struck on the same day, which was the 60th anniversary of its inauguration and the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded outside China in 2020, which amounts to 40: the number that gave its name to quarantine. Many such historical coincidences may be found and attributed to the mysterious forces that move the world, whether we call them the gods, chance, fate and some other human or superhuman agency.Since the year 1981 at least, when Dean Koontz published his novel, The Eyes of Darkness about a pandemic originating in Wuhan, China, many predictions about a devastating virus from Asia have come out in films (e.g. 2011s Contagion), articles and books. US Colonel Tom Bearden on his website Cheniere.org had spelt out emergency plans for martial law, mass confinement, triage and other extreme responses to a biological agent or weapon. Bill Gates, a few years ago, warned about a danger which he held to be equal to the nuclear threat and recommended preventive measures. Yet, public preparedness was clearly insufficient and most states were caught napping and found wanting.

The current, unprecedented and nearly global lockdown, a bitter illustration of globalizations generally unexpected effects is generating an endless stream of analyses, theories, assessments and speculation shaped by the belief systems of their authors. Those who embraced the eco-apocalyptic call of Greta Thunberg and were distraught by the predictable failure of the Paris accord on global warming mitigation rejoice in the unexpected fulfilment of their wishes to bring CO2 emission and other polluting activities to a brutal decline; those who were worried about Chinas meteoric rise towards a hegemonic status felt schadenfreude when the red dragon was seen falling into the deadly embrace of the new corona epidemic. They now, however, watch with dismay the increasingly lamentable plight of the western world and bristle at the prospect of a newly functional China resuming her rapid climb to the top of the power pyramid. The western pundits, who made a living by warning the public against Putinist Russias evil intentions, now watch with consternation the support provided by Moscow to certain EU and other countries seemingly left to their fate by everyone else.

Naturally, the current all-encompassing crisis has not disarmed the propaganda snipers in various camps and they continue to take pot-shots at their enemies of choice amidst the pandemonium. After accusing Beijing of revealing the weakness of its institutions through its vulnerability to yet another Asian virus, western cold warriors now suspect China of carrying out a dark plot to undermine and bring down western supremacy by using Covid-19 as a black swan to overwhelm the governance systems of the self-styled free world, just as they charge Russia with countless subversive machinations against the self-same good guys. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and neither Chinese nor the Russian sources have shied away from pointing accusatory fingers at the United States which are also well known for their expertise in biological weapon development and testing. Indeed at the outset of the corona contagion suspicions against the American government came to many minds on the backdrop of the multifaceted and very public campaign to force China to bend to US pressure on trade and geostrategic matters the appearance of the virus in Wuhan was too serendipitous, so to speak, not to be suspect, except for those who would give the US a pass in principle but the claim that a democracy would never resort to black ops of this kind has so often been disproven by facts in the case of the American state that it cannot be taken at face value.The yawning gap in American society sets apart the Left Wing Liberals calling for a de facto nationalization of the economy in the guise of providing universal free healthcare and saving all jobs and the Conservatives bent on preserving the capitalist oligopolies and individual economic freedom. This split, amplified by the presidential campaign in which Covid is now the major weapon used on both sides is what makes it so hard for the US to adopt a coherent and effective policy to tackle both the Covid threat and the ongoing economic meltdown, which is likely to leave at least 40 million Americans jobless, a much truncated GDP and a skyrocketing national debt.

We are in a situation unprecedented in the last hundred years at least, perhaps in all history. Governments all over the world have imposed a shutdown of social, political and economic life and a drastic curtailment of individual rights and civil liberties in the name of protecting people from a contagion which has so far killed over two hundred thousand (most of them older than 70 and suffered from other major ailments), out of a global population of eight billion people, in which every months larger tolls are exacted by various other evils, including hunger, heat attacks, cancer, diabetes, accidents and the common flu.

There are various factors behind this draconian operation which could well last for several months or even extend into next year: first the famous principle of abundant caution institutionalized in the European Union perhaps over-reliant on computer modelling projections of worst case scenarios and often inaccurate virological tests; then the increasing American obsession with national security and the associated propensity to impose lockdowns in reaction to any alert or suspicion, and finally the growing official fear of civil unrest, which inspires more and more sophisticated tactics to force people to stay home and not assemble.

Without discounting the gravity of the Covid-19 pandemic, if we review the state of the world economy in recent years (see my article in the Sunday Guardian of March 1, 2020) we cannot but conclude that a gigantic economic crisis was on the horizon, building up since the first shoe fell in 2008. A few years ago, some Russian economists had predicted the end of the US dollar-centric monetary and financial system between 2020 and 2025. I had echoed that projection in another article published in this newspaper on May 14, 2017 and we appear now to have been on the money. The process of reorganization is expected to take at least three or four chaotic years and it is to be hoped that a new global system will come into place through some international agreement, a new Bretton Woods, absent another major war such as those that usually erupt in times of great dislocation.

The Covid-19 pandemic is a trigger and accelerator of the socio-economic and political crisis, not its main cause. The crash of stock markets and the industrial and financial meltdown were predictable for this year and announced by the seizure of most major economies since 2018 in spite of the incessant quantitative easing carried out by the governments and international financial institutions such as the European Central Bank. In the last months, the situation on Wall Street became ominous as the Fed had to keep injecting huge amounts of fiat currency overnight into the RePo market to prevent major banks from going bust. In a situation of economic panic, a health emergency is also a tool of last resort to discipline the population and raise a public menace above the less existential threat of financial collapse. It is at least probable that leading governments and international agencies organised, with the support of corporate mass media, the systematic freeze of social activity in order to minimize civic disruptions and challenges to authorities.

Conspiratorial theories, more or less credible or fanciful, are being promoted to identify the prime movers and operational levers of this operation, but they only try to interpret in various partisan ways the fundamental process for controlling the crash of irrationally overvalued stock markets fed by fast rising Himalayan pyramids of bad debt and irrigated by shoreless oceans of derivative instruments whose value is often impossible to establish and can be reduced by a hiccup of the inter-banking transactional cycle to mere junk.

The effect of the economy caving in was seen in the gradual collapse of consumption in most parts of the world and in the decision of Great Britain to exit the European Union, seen by many in London as a doomed quasi-confederacy although which of the two, the United Kingdom and the EU will fare worse is far from clear.

The price of this mega-crisis is bound to be paid in massive long-term unemployment and poverty all over the world, concentration of capital and wealth in even fewer hands, state or oligopolistic control of many strategic corporations resulting in a hybrid composite of monopolistic capitalism and socialism. Below that general tableau there will be many different regional and national pictures as states will try diverse ways to deal with the disaster domestically, often insulating themselves from the financial Corona virus and circling the wagons in a patriotic reaction to the unhinged supra-national experiment. Regional associations such as the EU, UNASUR and the African Union are under extreme fissiparous strain and will have to change in many ways if they manage to survive.

In a sentence, 2020 has brought us to the point where we can have a 20/20 vision and hindsight of all that is wrong with the global liberal gospel and its corollaries including all-out privatization and decimation of public services, unlimited amounts of virtual money chasing inflated virtual values, wars for regime change in weaker, resource-rich states and mass migrations that contribute to the slow motion collapse of hitherto prosperous and orderly nations.

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How the West lost - The Sunday Guardian

Are redheads more emotionally sensitive? – The Ginger Philes – ChicagoNow

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We already know that redheads are more sensitive to hot and cold, and need more anesthesia, and have a higher pain tolerance.

But could redheads also be more emotionally sensitive? At some point, I realized that I noticed a lot of autistic people happen to be redheads. And as we know, people with autism tend to be very sensitive! I've even heard that it's often a misconception they that don't have empathy; instead they are profoundly empathetic and feel way more than us normies do -- they actually can't handle how much they're feeling on many, many different sensory and emotional levels.

Anyway, several months ago, I was listening to one of the How to be a Redhead sisters' podcasts, and they happened to mention that they had noticed that along with having sensitive skin, redheads also tend to be more emotionally sensitive.

I felt like it was a breakthrough moment for me. I'm a redhead, and I've also always been told I'm too sensitive. I've found ways to explain it -- I identify as an HSP, or highly sensitive person, an actual biological trait that is meant to be a genetic advantage for the tribe (and is also found in animals). And if you're into astrology, I just happen to have a Pisces moon (and the majority of my chart is water).

I've spent years trying to work on "not being so sensitive" until finally I realized that's just who I am, and that it's actually a gift. Even if nearly everyone in America and the rest of the Western world tells me differently. Cue Jewel's 1996 hit, "I'm sensitive, and I'd like to stay that way..."

But the thing is, we live in this world, in America at least, where sensitivity isn't valued. So I often carried this shame and what felt like a burden alone, trying to hide it and pretend I was tougher, until I met my friend Rita. Rita's a psychology PhD, and one day mentioned that she loved this one woman's research on love and sensitivity.

And that's when I discovered that I now knew another HSP, for certain! But...

The most interesting thing about all this is that...

Rita also happens to have red hair! So I started noticed this, and then other redheads started to notice this and...

I'm thinking that we're onto something! But the question is...why!?!? What, praytell, was the genetic advantage, when homo sapiens started moving north out of Africa, to evolving to have tons of allergies, super sensitive skin and even more sensitive emotions???

I know that the HSP research says that in the tribal sense, those blessed with sensitivity are the ones meant to spot the predators, to see them before they are coming, while the other 80 percent of the population are meant to be the warriors who go into battle with the lions.

But why would redheads need to evolve to be like this? If most redheads are in Scotland, where we know we evolved to need less melanin for obvious reasons (less sun), then, why did we need more sensitivity? Emotionally and physically?

And...on another, more NSFW note...I've had many a men tell me that one of the main reasons they "had a thing" for redheads was because it felt like redheads had more of a spiritual type of experience during sex and were more reactive to what was happening in the moment.

So what do you think? Are redheads more emotionally sensitive? Why do you think that might be? Why did we evolve to be this way? Also...could this partially be why redheads get bullied more often? Besides obviously having something different about us, the those perceived as "weak" get picked on the most...

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Are redheads more emotionally sensitive? - The Ginger Philes - ChicagoNow

Why Covid-19 Isolation Is Great For Redheads – The Ginger Philes – ChicagoNow

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I know everyone is going crazy with lockdowns and social distancing and quarantining and other buzzwords.

Except for one group that shouldn't be: redheads. Hear me out! Shelter-in-place and mask-wearing mandates are great for redheads because:

1. It means we aren't forced to expose ourselves to the sun for social events with the daywalkers.

2. Wearing masks means we can cover up our easily sunburnt faces & no one will think weirdly of us for it. We could go outside wearing a mask, hat, and sunglasses, with almost our full faces covered (a ginger's dream!) and no one would think we're weird! Well, we're ginger, so they already think we're weird, but if we cover up our hair then they won't even know we're ginger! (Or can they smell it on us?...)

3. We can save our money and our skin from black mascara and other makeup, such as bronzer and spray tanner that covers up our true vampire nature.

In sum, one of the silver linings of the coronavirus pandemic's social distancing measures is that it has allowed our people to live as we are meant to -- inside, away from the sun -- unlike these daywalkers who force us outside all the time.

So let your invisible eyelashes and eyebrows take a rest from all those chemicals you put on them just to try to fit in with the gintiles (my term for non-gingers). Also yay! Your beautiful red hair won't fade in the sunlight.

As an added bonus, even if you're healthy, when people see your pale face sans makeup, they'll probably assume you're sick and stay at least 6 ft away from you!

Stay safe my ginger brethren. Remember, we stemmed from the Vikings, so we're a strong bunch! Hope you're all channeling Ygritte from Game of Thrones and her strength these days.

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Why Covid-19 Isolation Is Great For Redheads - The Ginger Philes - ChicagoNow

Oil heads for another weekly slide on coronavirus turmoil – WHBL News

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Thursday, April 23, 2020 8:44 p.m. CDT by Thomson Reuters

By Scott DiSavino

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday, bringing an end to another week of losses that featured the U.S. contract plunging to minus $40 a barrel, as global production cuts could not keep pace with the collapse in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Oil trading was extremely volatile all week, in an extension of the selling that has dominated trading since early March as demand collapsed 30% due to the pandemic.

While certain fundamental factors, such as a sharp fall in active drilling rigs in the United States, were nominally bullish for oil prices, the positive effects of those moves are months down the road.

"It was a totally brutal week," said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association trade group. "The volatility we saw with negative pricing was to the extremes."

Brent futures rose 11 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $21.44 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 44 cents, or 2.7%, to close at $16.94.

Oil futures marked their third straight week of losses, with Brent ending down 24% and WTI off around 7%.

Traders expect demand to fall short of supply for months due to the economic disruption caused by the pandemic. Producers may not be slashing output quickly or deeply enough to buoy prices, especially when global economic output is expected to contract by 2% this year, worse than the financial crisis.

"The efforts to curtail supply just struggle to even come close to matching coronavirus demand destruction," John Kilduff, partner at hedge fund Again Capital LLC in New York, said.

After trading near unchanged for most of the day, the benchmarks rebounded in the afternoon after energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said producers in April cut the number of active U.S. oil rigs by the most in a month since 2015. In Canada, drillers slashed the number of oil and natural gas rigs to a record low.

"The rig count was another stunner. These are meaningful cuts and they have come at a rapid pace," Kilduff said.

Storage is quickly filling worldwide, which could necessitate more production cuts, even after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia agreed this month to cut output by 9.7 million barrels per day.

"Despite the measures taken by OPEC, oil producers in various countries should be aware that they may be called to take more drastic measures," Diamantino Azevedo, Angola's resources and petroleum minister, told state news agency ANGOP on Friday. Angola is a member of OPEC.

Russia plans to halve oil exports from its Baltic and Black Sea ports in May, according to the first loading schedule for crude shipments since it agreed to cut output.

Still, onshore oil storage is currently filled to nearly 85% capacity, according to energy research firm Kpler.

(Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Richard Chang)

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Oil heads for another weekly slide on coronavirus turmoil - WHBL News

NFL Draft proves sports are ‘different’ right now, but that doesn’t have to mean worse | Giannotto – Commercial Appeal

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What I'm Hearing: Everyone was worried and waiting for the NFL's first ever virtual draft to have a tech hiccup. It never happened and night was was a resounding success. USA TODAY

The first virtual NFL Draft was nearly four hours old Thursday night when the images from Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabels home began to go viral nationwide.

There Vrabel was on the television screen, removing what appeared to be a piece of chewing tobacco from his mouth with a bizarre backdrop that seemed more bizarre than this moment in history.

Over Vrabels right shoulder was a family frienddressed in a bodysuit like The Freeze, who races fans at Braves games. Over his shoulder, in the reflection in the mirror, was what the internet decided was someone sitting on a toilet looking at his cell phone with the door open. To Vrabels left was a red-headed son sporting a mullet and a Vrabel Pro Bowl jersey.

By the time NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the Titans had selected Georgia offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson with the No. 29overall pick of the first round, this experiment in virtual connectivity had gone from unprecedented to unforgettable. It had somehow become more entertaining than whatever the NFL had planned before the coronavirus pandemic altered life as we know it.

It's been a long quarantine over here, Vrabel explained after the first round was complete Thursday night, and clarified that his son was actually sitting on a stool, not a toilet like much of the country initially assumed.

Most of the American sports fans who came together en massefor the first time in more than six weeks for a sporting event that carried real implications can probably relate.

Not about the bowel movement misunderstanding, of course. That was just strange.

But about the temporary escape that came from watching the annual ritual of college football players being selected to play in the NFL unfold live on television.

This is different for us, and its different for you because it has to be, Goodell said from the basement of his Mount Laurel, N.J.,home to begin Thursday night'sbroadcast.

But over the next four-plus hours, the NFL showed us that different doesnt necessarily have to mean worse. It proved that even though there likely wont be 40,000 fans inside Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium or 18,000 fans filling up FedExForum any time soon, whatever alternatives the NCAA or the NBA or the NFL come up with can still be a whole lot of fun.

Because the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft didnt feature a red carpet event, or fancy suits, or bear hugs with Goodell. Draft picks werent shuttled to Goodell on boats, which was the plan if the NFL Draft had taken place in Las Vegas as scheduled.

But it had trades, and surprises, and very few technical glitches given the extraordinary circumstances surrounding this years event. And getting to see the homes of the draft picks, the coaches and the general managers was so much betterthan seeing those generic camera shots of war rooms or players makingthe same walkacross the stage ad nauseum.

NFL fans got a glimpse inside the palatial desert home of Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury and the $250 million mega-yacht of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. They got totease No. 1 pick Joe Burrow (Cincinnati Bengals) on social media about his familys not-so-pretty drapes, and they got to admire the immaculate interior design jobs inside the family homes of No. 5 pick Tua Tagovailova (Miami Dolphins)and No. 8 pick Isaiah Simmons (Arizona Cardinals). They got to see No. 12pick Henry Ruggs slip on a bathrobe when he was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders.

Tua Tagovailoa shows off the lining of his jacket during the NFL Draft after being selected number five overall to the Miami Dolphins.(Photo: NFL Handout Photo, Handout Photo-USA TODAY Sports)

They got to see what appeared to be far more than 10 family members of No. 12 pick Javon Kinlaw try to hide out of view from the cameraframe. They also got to see the raw emotions of Michigan offensive lineman Cesar Ruiz when he was chosen with the No. 24 pick by the New Orleans Saints.

There were buck heads on the walls of Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmers ranch home and there was a life-size cutout of LSU coach Ed Orgeron standing behind No. 28pick Patrick Queen (Baltimore Ravens).

There were three players (Burrow, Chase Young and Jeff Okudah)from the same team (2017 Ohio State) chosen with the first three picks of the draft for the first time, and a record 15 SEC players chosen in the first round.

There was also a massive new storyline to dissect when the Green Bay Packers traded up in the first round to choose Utah State quarterback Jordan Love as the apparent heir to Aaron Rodgers.

So the NFL deserves a lot of credit for pushing through with this draft, in spite of some initial backlash. It not only worked, but the manner in which it was executed could serve as a template for how other large-scale sports broadcasts are conductedin an era ofsocial distancing.

But the biggest impact was felt in the living rooms of sports fansbecause for a few hours and few days it felt like sports were back.

For a few hours and a few days, everybody got to dissect draft picks and consider a future when NFL football is being played again.

For a few hours and a few days, everybody got a taste of what the new normal might be like, and it doesn't seem nearly as bad as it seemed a few weeks ago.

Without this pandemic, without this experiment in virtual drafting, we would have never seen inside that stir-crazy Vrabel household.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter:@mgiannotto

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NFL Draft proves sports are 'different' right now, but that doesn't have to mean worse | Giannotto - Commercial Appeal

Dynamic Women of Early Jazz and Classic Blues, Pt 2 | The Syncopated Times – The Syncopated Times

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Concealed in the shadows of early Jazz, Blues and Popular music history are dynamic and accomplished women who nurtured, guided and developed the music. Several of the most talented and accomplished are profiled below: Lil Hardin who was midwife to the birth of Jazz on record; Ma Rainey, the tough and independent Mother of the Blues; and supremely talented trumpet player and singer, Valaida Snow. Composer, arranger, bandleader and radical modernist Mary Lou Williams is featured.

Lil (Lillian Hardin) Armstrong (1898-1971) was a brilliant, arranger, composer, bandleader and singer with a flair for promotion. She forged her own path through the male-dominated world of Jazz but has yet to receive full credit for her seminal role.

Hot Miss Lil, as she was known around 1920, played piano for bandleader and cornet player Joe Oliver in Chicago. In 1923 she had a key role organizing Olivers landmark Creole Jazz Band records. Unlike the men of the band, Hardin had a formal musical education and played a substantial role behind the scenes crafting those Oliver sessions. They were the earliest discs made by a genuine African American Jazz band (with sole exception of Kid Orys obscure Sunshine Records made a couple years earlier).

The second wife of Louis Armstrong, Lil tirelessly arranged his early recordings, writing down his ideas, nurturing Louis confidence and launching his independent career. She also played a key role in the pivotal Armstrong Hot Five and Hot Seven records of 1925-27 four dozen historic discs that altered the course of Jazz and introduced its biggest star. Lil supplied the arrangements, rhythmic piano foundation and many of the tunes for those sessions, a handful of which were issued as Lils Hot Shots.

Clip A Lil King Oliver and married to Louis, Got No Blues, Droppin ShucksClip B Lil First job, Born to Swing, Knock Kneed Sal

Earning a secondary post-graduate degree in music, Lil Hardin established her own career by the mid-1930s, becoming a successful singer, pianist, songwriter, bandleader and impresario. She even led some of the first all-female jazz bands in Harlem (1931) and Chicago (1934).

In the late-1930s Hardin (aka Hardin-Armstrong) was very productive, recording two dozen discs under her own name at Decca Records. There she also functioned as house pianist (1939-40) accompanying blues singers Rosetta Howard, Peetie Wheatstraw, Blue Lu Barker, Alberta Hunter, trumpeter Henry Red Allen and others.

Her hot little bands included such celebrated cats as Buster Bailey (clarinet), Jonah Jones (trumpet), J.C. Higginbotham (trombone), Chu Berry and Prince Robinson (tenor saxes). She hired fine trumpet players, including Jonah Jones and the excellent but little-known Joe Thomas, heard on the majority of her sessions.

Her first Decca session yielded several effervescent titles and a solid-seller entitled Brown Gal. The company subsequently promoted her as Lil Brown Gal Armstrong on about 25 sides. Lil and Louis were married in 1924 and separated in 1931. But they were not officially divorced until 1938. Despite a lengthy estrangement their professional dealings continued for decades even as his rapid elevation to superstar left her behind.

Clip C Lil Split with Louis, When I Went Back Home, You Shall Reap What You Sow, Harlem on Saturday Night, Brown Gal

A dedicated music professional, Hardin was a woman of substance and style. She tried her hand at running a restaurant, attempted a career in tailoring and fashion and lived occasionally in Paris during her later years.

Lils death was eerie, coming shortly after Satchmos in August 1971. She still owned the Chicago home they bought in the 1920s and in many respects had never ceased considering herself Mrs. Armstrong. Performing at a memorial for Louis she collapsed on stage from a heart attack and could not be revived.

In a 1968 interview Hardin reminisced about her early days with Satchmo, I could hear Louis coming home whistling for much more than a block away. He had the most beautiful shrill whistle. And all those riffs that he later made in his music he used to whistle . . . such beautiful riffs and runs and trills and things. And I said, Maybe someday that guy will play like that. Just crazy thoughts yknow. But it turned out all right; never know when youre crazy the right way, huh?

Clip D Lil Perdido Street Blues, conclusion and East Town Boogie, 1961

Formally trained, and a stunning beauty, Jazz violinist Emma Ginger Smock (1920-1995) played hot jazz violin in the style of Stuff Smith. Versatile and gifted, she has not received due recognition. Smock appeared on television in Los Angeles where she had her own TV show and performed with the Los Angeles Symphony. During the 1960s and 70s she recorded with Rhythm and Blues groups and was the concertmaster at several hotels in Las Vegas backing the likes of Sammy Davis, Jr.

The web page of accomplished jazz violinist Laura Risk sums up her doctoral research into Smocks raucous, hard-swinging intensity. Her composition Strange Blues . . . evidences a mature musical voice: her solo is rhythmically complex, technically demanding, alternately sassy and delicate, with long melodic lines spun out across the changes.

Until recently, the only music available of Smock was her 1947 session with the Vivien Garry Quintet. A collection of her recordings was issued for the first time in 2005 by a small British label called AB Fable. Among its contents are Exactly Like You from KTLA television, tracks from the 1946 Girls in Jazz RCA sessions and Strange Blues with the obscure septet of Cecil Count Carter.

Clip E Ginger Smock Exactly Like You (1953), Strange Blues (1953), Im in the Mood for Love (1946)

The fine string bass player Vivien Garry (c. 1920-2008) had a moderately successful career for about a decade. She worked for small labels, had high-profile exposure on V-Disc during World War Two and then recorded for RCA Victor. Garry worked with vocalist Leo Watson and various independent labels until 1952.

Clip F Vivien Garry A Womans Place is in the Groove (aka Sycamore Blues), Operation Mop (Ednas Stomp), 1946

Billed as The Original Red Hot Mama, Sophie Tucker (Sonya Kalish 1884-1966) was known for suggestive songs and novelties. Big, bold and brassy, her frank and risqu lyrics shocked and titillated Americans and Europeans alike. She toured the European continent, performing in London and for the King and Queen of England respectively in 1926 and 1963.

He Hadnt Up Till Yesterday, 1928

As early as 1910 her voice was heard on an Edison cylinder recording. Though not a purely jazz singer, Sophie was one of the first to introduce jazz songs and syncopation into her Vaudeville act for white audiences.

My Yiddishe Momme, 1928

Ukrainian-born and Jewish, Tucker was also at the forefront of Yiddish popular music. Her biggest hit was a 1928 bi-lingual recording of My Yiddishe Momme with Yiddish lyrics on one side and English on the other.

In her maturity Tucker was rotund and not considered pretty, which she made part of her act in the song, Nobody Loves a Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love. She did not do well in motion pictures but succeeded grandly on radio working her way up to hosting a 15-minute program on the CBS network three times a week in the late-1930s.

Sophies star rose again in the 1950s and 60s when she became popular on television, particularly The Ed Sullivan Show and continued performing until shortly before her passing. She is currently the subject of a combined book, music and documentary film project, The Outrageous Sophie Tucker.

Nobody Loves a Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love

The Classic Blues of Gertrude Pridgett Ma Rainey (1886-1939) could be bawdy or sad, bold or profoundly heartbreaking. A tough, independent show business pioneer, her powerful voice and forceful personality forged a path for womens Classic Blues. Her records sold best in the deep South where rural listeners were familiar with her traveling tent shows.

A commanding presence with an endearing smile full of gold teeth, Rainey was a sight to behold on or off stage. She dressed in gowns covered with beads, bangles and frills, sporting a glittering tiara or headband with a plume of feathers. In performance, she flourished a fan of colored ostrich feathers to stress the beat and emphasized her lines with sweeping gestures. For a hot number shed lift her skirts and dance with surprising agility.

Clip G Rainey Ma Raineys Black Bottom, Oh, Papa (1927)

Rainey successfully managed her own business a caravan of musicians, dancers, entertainers and roustabouts. Her one-time protg Bessie Smith modeled much of her style on Rainey. But unlike Bessie, she didnt drink, saved her money and was happily married (in her early years). To her countrified audience, she was a source of pride, even a spokesperson of sorts who often quietly helped needy musicians or other folk down on their luck.

Sticking close to her roots, Ma recorded earthy blues with down-home musicians like popular blues guitarist Tampa Red or the versatile piano player and composer Georgia Tom Dorsey. Her country blues records were rustic with funky guitars, kazoos, jugs and gutty horns. Raineys successful recording career during the mid-1920s gradually declined due to hundreds of imitators, changing public tastes and the falling economic status of her mainly African American, largely rural audience.

Rainey sang with her whole body her rich, deep contralto voice could rise to a roar without amplification. On her best Jazz records, Ma was backed by Chicago bandleader and pianist Lovie Austin, the outstanding New Orleans-born trumpeter Tommy Ladnier and Chicago clarinet player Jimmy OBryant.

Unfortunately, most of her discs were made with the early so-called acoustical recording system predating the introduction of electrical recordings using microphones. But the crude acoustic technology failed to capture the majesty of Raineys emotive moaning performance style in her prime.

Clip G Rainey Lucky Rock Blues, Black Eye Blues, Lord Im Down with the Blues (1924)

Valaida Snow (1904-1956) had limitless talent. stage charisma, beauty and showbiz savvy. A hot trumpet player in the Louis Armstrong mode, she was billed as Queen of the Trumpet or Little Louis. An all-around theatrical performer, dancer, singer and multi-instrumentalist, Snow was a Vaudeville trouper before age ten; by age twenty-seven she had performed from the Deep South to Shanghai, China.

Valaida had some noteworthy success in black musical theater, appearing in the road show version of Sissle and Blakes Shuffle Along. In Lew Leslies Rhapsody in Black on Broadway in 1931 her phenomenal arranging, horn playing, singing, dancing and choreography nearly stole the show from its big star, Ethel Waters.

In Chicago, Snow was briefly mentored by Louis Armstrong and performed at the Grand Terrace Ballroom with pianist and bandleader Earl Hines, who was a paramour. The African American press and gossip columnists found Snow fascinating for her beauty, talent and scandalous lifestyle. But her nearly unlimited gifts went largely unrewarded in America.

You Bring Out the Savage in Me, 1935Some of These Days, 1937I Got Rhythm, 1937High Hat Trumpet and Rhythm, 1937My Heart Belongs to Daddy, 1939

Moving to Europe in the mid-1930s she made Paris her base of operations and was quickly embraced. The publication Jazz Hot declared in 1936, We had the pleasure of finding in Valaida the temperament of the great black trumpeters . . . One is obliged to admire the fullness of her tone and the power that no European musician can even approach.

Traveling the Continent, she lived an expatriate life to the hilt, flaunting an opulent, even decadent lifestyle, cutting records in London, Stockholm and Copenhagen. Her flamboyant affectations included a pet monkey, orchid colored limousine and chauffeur dressed in maroon livery. Valaidas European touring peaked in Summer 1937 with appearances on the French Rivera and in Holland, Zurich and The Hague.

Minnie the Moocher, 1939

St. Louis Blues, 1940

Snow was among the handful of African American performers who stayed too long in Europe before the Second World War commenced. Detained by wartime authorities, she later falsely claimed that the Nazis had arrested, interned and mistreated her. But she actually spent months in protective Dutch custody pursuant to drug possession charges.

Barely escaping alive, Valaida returned home in June 1942. Quickly regaining her composure, she resumed performing but in increasing obscurity until her little-noted passing in 1956.

Mary Lou Williams (Mary Elfrieda Scruggs, 1910-1981) was some kind of musical genius. One of the most potent talents of Jazz, she was a gifted bandleader, arranger, composer and piano player. Her music developed in parallel with Jazz itself through Ragtime, Stride and Swing to Boogie, Bop, Modern and beyond.

Performing professionally from the age of fifteen, Mary Lou joined the band of saxophonist John Bearcat Williams whom she married in 1926. Their group was the nucleus for what became the popular Andy Kirk orchestra broadcasting out of Kansas City and touring the broad Midwestern dance band territory.

Her skilled direction, dazzling keyboard artistry and distinctive arranging were key factors in the successful dozen-year run of Andy Kirk and the Twelve Clouds of Joy. In the 1930s and 40s she wrote arrangements for the stellar Swing orchestras of Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington.

Williams first piano solo on record in 1930 was a striking and original stride masterpiece. Her Earl Hines-inspired Night Life announced the debut of a major jazz talent in 1930. Leonard Feather produced her Girl Stars session of 1946 and sketched Blues at Mary Lous for a quartet of vibraphonist Margie Hyams, amplified guitar player Mary Osborne and drummer Bridget OFlynn.

Night Life solo, 1930

Blues at Mary Lous Girl Stars, 1946

An emerging cadre of Be-Bop revolutionaries like Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Charlie Parker gathered at her New York City apartment. Starting in the mid-1940s, Williams progressed decisively into Modern jazz, becoming a bold avant-garde innovator.

Visionary music poured forth as she wrote tunes and arrangements for the orchestras of budding modernists, her own ensembles, and Dizzy Gillespie. Taurus Mood is from her inventive Zodiac Suite, first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1946 by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. She wrote and directed Lonely Moments for 10-piece orchestra.

Taurus Mood trio, 1944

Lonely Moments orchestra, 1947

Converting to Catholicism, Mary Lou retired from music for a few years in the mid-1950s. Resuming composing, arranging and performing, she wrote large-scale sacred works: three masses, a cantata and Music for Peace (aka Mary Lous Mass) choreographed and performed by the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. Her forward-leaning Black Christ of the Andes (Smithsonian Folkways CD 40816) was groundbreaking but controversial.

Anima Christi, 1964Praise the Lord, 1964

In the 1970s, Williams performed at colleges, taught master classes at Duke University and received numerous honorary degrees. She started her own music publishing company and record label, founded the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival and did some radio and television work. In 1978 Mary Lou performed in Benny Goodmans 40th anniversary concert at Carnegie Hall and President Jimmy Carters White House.

Her final recordings summed up and recapitulated a career progressing through Ragtime, Blues, Stride, Boogie, Swing, Bop and Modern. Few master musicians of any epoch matched Mary Lou Williams breadth of skills, dogged persistence, sheer brilliance or aptitude for innovation.

Clip H Conclusion_and_Roll-em

The stories of women who shaped early Jazz, Classic Blues and Popular music reveal that the creative muses granted drive, talent and enterprise to both genders. This is merely an introduction and not a comprehensive survey of the many talented, wonderful women who expressed and supported themselves through music.

Early in the 20th Century, a select vanguard of determined, gifted and charismatic female musicians succeeded artistically and financially despite resistance, skepticism, hostility and ridicule from their male peers and critics. These dynamic women proved themselves equal to men in all aspects of music while looking fabulous and doing it all (as was said of Ginger Rogers dancing with Fred Astaire) backwards and in high heels.

Thanks to Mark Miller for consultation regarding Valaida Snow and Hal Smith for assistance.

Read:Dynamic Women of Early Jazz and Classic Blues, Pt 1

Sources and further exploration:Lil Hardins out-of-print 1968 interview by Chris Albertson was issued on Riverside Records. A transcript is found at the Stomp Off website of the late Mr. Albertson.

Black Beauty, White Heat: A Pictorial History of Classic Jazz 1920-50, Frank Driggs and Harris Lewine (Da Capo Press 1995)

High Hat, Trumpet and Rhythm: The Life and Music of Valaida Snow by Mark Miller (The Mercury Press, 2007)

Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams, Linda Dahl (University of California Press, 1999)

Swing Shift: All Girl Bands of the 1940s, Sherrie Tucker (Duke University, 2000)

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd edition, Kernfeld, Barry ed. (Macmillan, 2002)

Links:Five radio programs on Women of Jazz on JAZZ RHTYHM

Lil Hardin Armstrong on JAZZ RHYTHM

Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey on JAZZ RHYTHM

Valaida Snow

Ginger Smock by Laura Risk

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Dynamic Women of Early Jazz and Classic Blues, Pt 2 | The Syncopated Times - The Syncopated Times

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put on a loved-up display in L.A. – New Idea

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have put on a loved-up display while briefly stepping out from quarantine to volunteer for a West Hollywood food charity service.

MEGA

Many residents have compromised immune systems, which places them at greater risk during the coronavirus pandemic, which makes the service even more necessary.

Seemingly flying under the radar, Harry was dressed down in a grey polo shirt, jeans and baseball cap, while Meghan wore a long-sleeved black shirt, khaki trousers and blue cap.

One resident who found himself taken aback to receive meals from the Duke and Duchess was West Hollywood resident Dan Tyrell, who recalled the experience to WEHOville.

They were both nice and very down-to earth people They had masks on, and they were dressed down with jeans, but very nice jeans, Dan told the American publication.

Sporting jeans and facemasks, Harry and Meghan were last week spotted walking hand in hand as they delivered food to critically ill people for the food charity Project Angel Food.

MEGA

I thought that tall red-headed guy looked pretty familiar, and that girl was very pretty. Then I saw the large black SUVs with the security guards behind them.

If they had given me the heads up, I would have worn my tiara! he quipped.

Speaking to People, Project Angel Food executive director Richard Ayoub said Harry and Meghan kept their good deed on the downlow and actually volunteered twice.

They actually did two deliveries for us one on Easter Sunday and one on Wednesday and theyve done it quietly Were completely honored, Richard said.

Project Angel Food executive director Richard Ayoub said Harry and Meghan kept their good deed on the downlow and actually volunteered twice.

MEGA

He went on to say the royal couple were extremely down to earth and appeared to be genuinely interested in the lives of those who they came into contact with.

They engaged with our chefs, they engaged with clients they just wanted to make sure that people felt the love and appreciation, he added.

Richard then recalled how obvious the love and selflessness was between the couple, before saying Meghan told him she wanted to introduce Harry to L.A. through philanthropy.

Our clients are clients who are often forgotten. They really wanted to go visit these people. They wanted to see them and talk to them and hopefully put a smile on their faces, he added.

West Hollywood residents were shocked to to receive meals from the Duke and Duchess.

Getty

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put on a loved-up display in L.A. - New Idea

Interview with the greatest living fighter ace: F-14 pilot Col. (rtd) Fereydoun A. Mazandarani (he scored … – The Aviation Geek Club

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The following interview, which appears on Hush-Kit and that was brought to my attention by the owner of the Facebook group Where have all the Tomcats gone Marc Wolff, is an abridged extract from the forthcoming Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes. Support their book and pre-orderhere.

The F-14 was the king of the air in the extreme combat of the Iran-Iraq War. Around 180 Iraqi aircraft fell to Grummans deadly Tomcat, of these kills, sixteen can be attributed to Col. Mazandarani. Hush-Kit spoke to the worlds greatest living ace to learn more.

Which three words best describes the F-14?

Deadly, unpredictable by the enemy, hell of a ride!

What was the best thing about the F-14?

I would have to say its powerful radar and variable sweep wings, but lets not forget the manoeuvrability and great visibility.

What was the worst thing about the F-14?

I guess I would have to stick with the TF30-414 engine clich, but if you knew how to handle it, it wasnt that bad. The fact is, in almost 40 plus years of service and about tens of thousands of flight hours in the Iranian air force, the losses due to engine problems were fewer than a handful of Tomcats.

How do you rate the F-14 in the following categories:

Instantaneous turn

I would give it a 100 because of its variable sweep wings.

Sustained turn

Another 100 Again because of its variable sweep wings and great aerodynamics.

High alpha

It is a 95 for this one. But it offered great control when flying with high AOA.

Acceleration

This was 95 out of 100, mostly due to the minimal lag of turbo fan engines compared to turbo jets or newer turbofan engines.

Climb rate

A+. It will receive a 100 when in zone 5 afterburner.

SensorsThe sensors especially the electronic countermeasures and electronic counter countermeasures at the time of delivery were top of the line. These performed quite well against AAMs and SAMs during the Iran-Iraq war. Unfortunately, the post revolution Iranian air force did not receive the IRST, and Data Link systems due to the hostage crisis and the ensuing arm embargoes. We could have made great use of them.

Man machine interface/cockpit

The cockpit layout and easy access to switches and gauges were fantastic compared to the F-5 aircraft I had flown. Moreover the F-14 offered unprecedented and greatly improved cockpit visibility.

Situational awareness

As mentioned above, the exceptional layout of the instruments and switches were quite useful in knowing the crafts position. This along with the pilots awareness of his surroundings and position as well as foreseeing possible scenarios during engagements is of utmost importance. Of course, physiological conditions such as fatigue drastically reduces situational awareness as we witnessed during the war. In one instance, during a CAP mission on a moonless night around 0330 local time, I was returning to 8th tactical fighter base near Isfahan when I noticed another F-14 less than 200 metres away flying inverted with its gears extended upwards. I wasnt sure about what was transpiring before my eyes since it was our standard operating procedure to turn off all aircraft navigational lights in combat conditions. I contacted the tower and they confirmed that my colleague J.Z. was on final approach. I gently radiod him and said,Hey, I think you are vertigoed! Just roll right and level off.Thankfully, he listened and levelled off moments before landing. But this story will always be with me as a good example of what fatigue and combat can do to a pilot.

Tell me something we dont know about the F-14:

It might be news to your readers that the Iranian Air Force used the F-14A as Bombcats on several missions during the war against Iraqi forces in mid 1980s, way before the US Navy did. The wing box of the F-14 is a masterpiece and so we never had any asymmetrical issues with the wings during all these years.

How good was the Phoenix and what was your experience with the weapon systems?

It was flawless. As far as I can recall, out of some 167 launched AIM-54A missiles, only in one instance did the missile malfunction. Our investigation and pilot record showed that the missiles own engine didnt ignite on time, and when it did, the missile actually followed the Tomcat. This missile was a successful weapon. And quite frankly since the AIM-54A Phoenix was the only standard missile received by the Iranian air force for use on the F-14, it was standard operating procedure to launch it from 20-25 miles out to ensure higher hit rate and also to keep our own F-14 jets safe from enemy air-to-air weapons.

As for my personal experience with it, I must say that I fired eight rounds of Phoenix missiles in total, from different positions and angles, which all hit their targets. My first experience firing the missile, was chasing a MiG-21 with enough speed to overtake it at 11 miles towards its aft hemisphere. This was September 1980.

What was your toughest opponent and why?

My own toughest engagement was with five Iraqi Mirage F1 fighter jets during my annual Stan/Eval check while on an S.M. (special mission) flight with Major J. Shokraee-Fard as instructor pilot. It took place near Nowruz Oil Field which had been attacked the day before by the Iraqi air force. I had actually briefed the pilots that same morning on how the Iraqis would probably attack: i.e. in two groups, one group flying at high altitude distracting the CAP fighter(s) while the other group snuck in low to strike the oil rigs.

As had been predicted, we encountered two groups heading our way from two directions. A flight of two, and a flight of three. As soon as we prepared to engage the enemy at 690 Knots and slightly over 50 feet above the water, I noticed that our Master Arm switch had failed leaving us defenceless. The hunter had become the hunted. The attacking Mirages fired six air-to-air Matra missiles or as we called them, Red Heads, at us. Making hard turns and pulling high Gs, we defeated the missiles and re-engaged them in a canopy to canopy dogfight. We were so close that in a couple of passes I could see the pilots white notepads strapped to their legs.

Maj. Shokraee-Fard kept checking our six, advising me of enemy position while I kept manoeuvring hard keeping myself out of their gun or IR missiles lock. During one of these manoeuvres we saw one Mirage crash into the water while the others returned to base. Once we were clear, I noticed that my G-suit had ruptured from the pressure and my helmet had cracked hitting the canopy. On our way back to base, we were advised by ELINT and the local ground radar that only three of the five Mirages had returned. After the flight, Maj. Shokraee-Fard had to wear a neck brace for six months while I suffered injuries to my knees which resulted in two surgeries after my retirement. The G meter was locked at 11.5Gs on the gauge which required the Tomcat to go through Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI). The analysis showed 19 cracks and fractures along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft which put it out of service for almost two years. We were really lucky that day.

What was life like in your unit during the war? What were the biggest highs and lows?

In the early days and weeks, the high losses of our pilots in the F-4 and F-5 squadrons were especially hard and painful, affecting the overall morale. It was quite bleak. As the days went by, we realised that the only available force that could slow down the rapid advance of the Iraqi ground forces was the air force and so they came to terms with the fact and accepted it. After a few weeks, despite the repeated loss of our colleagues, the missions continued without any problems and the bitter realities of war became routine. We had no choice. Irans ground forces were in disarray after the revolution, as a result of widespread purges and in many cases they were no match for the Iraqi onslaught. Therefore the air force took it upon itself to act as speed bump against Iraqi ground units until our own soldiers could be organized into an effective fighting force. We performed CAS (close air support), while providing BARCAP to our own cities and infrastructure.

My biggest high was to be the first person in Iranian AF pilot to have done a night refuelling in an F-14. We were not trained to do this by our former US Navy instructors so I was quite proud of myself for doing something like that. The biggest low would be losing three F-14s within a short few days to the French built Mirage F1 used by Iraqi AF. That hurt our pride badly.

With special thanks to Michael in Tehran for facilitating the interview

Interview byKash Ryan

Kash Ryan a native of Iran, hails from a military family. Both his father and grandfather were professional service members. His father served in the Iranian Air Force retiring as a Lt colonel. Kash served mandatory service in Iranian Air Force in the late 1990s.Growing up on an air base planted the seeds of curiosity about aviation and aircraft in him. He is a qualified private pilot currently splitting his time between Canada and the United States. As a military history enthusiast he was compelled to bring several fascinating combat memoirs of the Iranian Air Force pilots to a wider audience in the English speaking world for the first time.

Note

It may be thatBud Andersonhas 0.25 more kills than Col. Mazandarani, but the latter remains the greatest living jet ace. Another candidate for the title is Giora Epstein with 17 kills (one was a helicopter).

Photo credit: Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force

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Interview with the greatest living fighter ace: F-14 pilot Col. (rtd) Fereydoun A. Mazandarani (he scored ... - The Aviation Geek Club

Forget tabs the new war is commas versus spaces: Web heads urged by browser devs to embrace modern CSS – The Register

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The web is being reworked to display a rainbow of previously unavailable colors, but part of the transition demands abandoning commas for spaces when coding CSS color-space parameters.

Word of the new cruelty went out via Twitter on Thursday when Mathias Bynens, who works on Google's Chrome team, advised web developers to adopt "the modern comma-free CSS color syntax."

The reason, he explained, is that modern CSS color display functions, specifically lab(), lch(), and color(), don't work with commas. These functions provide different ways to express color values.

CSS, short for Cascading Style Sheets, is a domain-specific declarative programming language for laying out web pages, usually in conjunction with HTML and JavaScript. It has used commas since its first appearance in the mid-1990s, and it continues to do so.

But CSS is evolving, and since 2016 there's been an effort spearheaded by Tab Atkins Jr, a developer on the Google Chrome team, and Elika Etamad (@fantasai), a member of W3C CSS Working Group and a Mozilla contributor, to get rid of unnecessary commas in CSS code related to color.

The rationale for doing so is consistency, though not everyone endorses the idea. Commas have a specific role in CSS.

"In CSS, functions are a just a way to group/name a syntax chunk, so they should work by the same rules that CSS grammar does in general: values are optional and re-orderable when possible, space-separated, and commas are used to separate *repetitions* only," Atkins wrote in a Twitter post.

The syntax for rgb() and rgba() violates this rule, he said. And in the color() function, there are different color spaces that can take a different number of values, making it difficult to know whether the final number refers to color or alpha (opacity).

Support for the comma-less syntax made its way into CSS Color Module Level 4, which became an official part of the CSS specification last year, and it's now being baked into various web browsers.

"Some parts of it have been implemented earlier than others: the comma-less syntaxes are widely supported now, limited forms of the color() function are supported in [WebKit], and the more advanced color functions (lab(), lch(), the rest of color() + @color-profile) will be coming to all browsers as they continue to improve their handling of wider and deeper color gamuts," explained Atkins via Twitter DM.

The color gamut refers to the range of available colors in a particular color space. One such color space is sRGB, used on the web to define colors in terms of red, green, and blue values ranging from 0 to 255.

There are other color spaces like Display-P3 that define a wider range of colors, about a third more than sRGB. Modern monitors can display these colors but web developers can't specify them in CSS using the traditional comma-separated syntax.

In a post earlier this month, Lea Verou, a doctoral student in computer science at MIT and member of the W3C CSS Working Group, described the situation thus:

"CSS right now cannot access these colors at all. Let me repeat: We have no access to one third of the colors in most modern monitors. And these are not just any colors, but the most vivid colors the screen can display. Our websites are washed out because monitor hardware evolved faster than CSS specs and browser implementations."

The CSS functions for displaying these more vivid colors are making their way from specification to browser. Apple's WebKit browser engine introduced support for Display-P3 in 2016, and was still the only browser engine to support it as of January 2020. But Safari, Chrome, and Firefox are working on their respective implementations.

Once the capability to display wide gamut color spaces arrives in browsers, space-separated, comma-less CSS will be required. Hence, the call to drop commas in CSS color code.

Sponsored: Practical tips for Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration

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A new ode to Spring, from gambolling lambs to pale wood anemones and the rabbity-nosed velvet of ash buds – Country Life

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Once believed to be summoned from slumber by birdsong, spring is a season of timeless joy for John Lewis-Stempel.

Very old are the woods;And the buds that breakOut of the briers boughsWhen March winds wake,So old with their beauty are Oh, no man knowsThrough what wild centuriesRoves back the rose. Walter de la Mare

Spring is a timeless joy, whether you are girl or boy. It is a pleasure democratically available to all, dweller of city flat, country hall. Spring! Gaudy yellow cowslips trumpet the news. Spring! A word enough to make the heart sing. Spring! When trees unfurl their leaves, butterflies their wings. Spring! When the birds again sing.

Some of my favoured things of spring are commonplace, which is part of their delight to know that, since the Stone Agers penetrated these isles wildwood, we have delighted in them. I adore with the commitment of a disciple the thrush singing matins against Aprils celestial blue mornings as pure as the first day of Creation and the rabbity-nosed velvet of ash buds.

A Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) flying towards a cowslip. Credit: Stephen Dalton / naturepl.com

In spring the sap rises, as surely as increasing sun rises the spirits. The fancy of animals turns to fecundity, the thoughts of farmers to spring wheat, but it is all the planting of seed. The birds do it, the bees do it, humans too. According to the Bard in As You Like It:

It was a lover and his lass,With a hey, and a ho, and a hey noninoThat oer the green cornfield did passIn spring time, the only pretty ring timeWhen birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding,Sweet lovers love the spring.

How keenly we look for them, the signs of spring, which come all in a rush, like a list, read rapidly: gambolling lambs in meads, fat trout in brooks, slow-worms sunning on stones, titlarks bleating zee zee in Evesham pear orchards, curlews soaring over high Yorkshire moors crying curlee, blackbirds laying their bluey-green eggs (real Easter eggs!) in Sussex hedges still bare and ruined by winter.

Dandelions grow amongst pear trees in an orchard in Worcestershire.

Sometimes, through the March woods, a cold blast comes, a last clutch of winters leonine clees, what we in the country call a blackthorn winter, because it stimulates the sloe tree into white blossom, a lampooning of winters snowy mane. Then, suddenly, copses boom with the clarinet cu-cu of the cuckoo, favoured announcer of spring of every poet, ever. For Spenser he is merry Cuckow, messenger of Spring, for Wordsworth a welcome darling the bird seen, but never heard. Traditionally, he arrives on St Tiburtiuss Day, April 14, yet may not reach bonnie Scotland until April 24. He carries spring up Britain on his back.

The cuckoo and the nightingale, mellifluous and melancholic the latter, get the poets chatter, but springs truest herald is the chiffchaff, that tiny bundle of feathers that battles the weathers to return to his particular tree. Chiffchaffs rusty squeak would grate the nerves if he were not so brave-hearted, so bell-clear in his good tidings above Marchs rude wind It is spring! The chiffchaff is the guarantee that spring will come.

By May, the chiffchaff will be joined by warblers many 12 million songbirds come here in the great arrival steering magically by the stars to join the crescendo in the dawn chorus. The avian aubade in May is Natures musick that poor musicians seek to imitate, were they but birds themselves.

A Grasshopper Warbler in Cley, Norfolk.

Deep in the wood, now going on green, the woodpecker drums on the stag-headed oak and the trees echo with his bass percussions, to the bemusement of the blue-eyed fox cubs playing at the scrappy entrance to their earth. As for flowers, who isnt happy to see the frail, pale wood anemones illuminating the forest floor, which the rains of winter made mire?

And then every bowery corner reverberates with birdsong, is blurred by lines of darting birds making eggy nests. Winter is slow monochrome film; spring is fast colourised cinema. Spring is always beautiful, always the victory of the jeunesse dore (fashionable and wealthy youngsters). As snaily-paced aging takes us over, so we value our springs the more. They are our well-spent youth, our prayer, our hope, our rebirth, our resurrection, our life to come.

The pace of spring quickens more! Of the butterflies the brimstone is first afloat, hesitant yet carefree, testing the temperature, reassured flies all about, a travelling spot of sunshine wherever she goes. The buzzy bee in her heavy stripy fur coat is better wrapped against late frost as she house-hunts in the hedge bottom (where she disturbs the slumbering spiny hoglet). Above the suburban back lawn, just mown first time this year gnats dance in faerie fountains.

Spring! A world in motion.

Over the growing grass of the meadow I could revel in it, roll in it! blow sweet primrose breezes. Cuckoo flowers nod their pale-pink heads in approval. The lambs born, my shepherds main duty done, in the soft arms of evening, I watch the child-sheep play king of the castle on the long-dead, fallen-over trunk of elm, as weather-whitened as bone. In warmer air, lengthening days, they, too (the farm animals), know the happiness of spring. Of sun on the back.

Up in the sky, larks mount the celestial blue to remind us of our lexicography: spring is from the Old German spryng, to ascend. In meads rioting with floral colour (red clover, the white version, too, and speedwells blue) hares box, the girl fighting off the suitors, fur flies under the neighbourly chatter of swooping swallows, here for the springtime eruption of insecty things. The elevating drone of a billion gauzy wings is as much the sound of spring as the turtle doves cooing.

We, the creatures on two legs, have our own salad days in spring. My mother, a Herefordshire farmers daughter, picked hawthorn leaves (bread and cheese) from the lane hedge on the way to school. Is anything lovelier than a country lane in spring? The way the verge-side flowers tone, both with each other and with the bright green grass. Yellow dandelions, red campion and delicate white stitchwort under doily cow parsley, already beginning to reach out over the tarmac.

Mind, I think it is at the pond that spring is to be seen at its most elemental. The verdancy of the willows wands is perhaps its earliest proof. Ramsons, in the lee of alder, are potent as smelling salts. Wake up, tis spring!

An Orange Tip male and female butterfly pair perch on a cuckoo flower.

Under water dotted in rings of beauty by Aprils rainbow showers, the male stickleback in full fig red belly and blue eyes stakes a fiefdom, just as the birds of the air do, just as humans of the Earth do. (March, named for Mars, God of War, was the beginning of the Roman military calendar.) The desperation to breed is most acute in the toad, which emerges from winter hibernation, that living death, to mate with indiscriminate, mewing frenzy in the ancestral pond.

What is the prompt that wakes the toads, bluebells, the Daubentons bats in their hollow ash tree on the cote of the pool? Scientists aver it is 6C-plus on a mercury gauge and the photoperiodic (light-time) switch. Longer, lighter days in plainer words. Personally, I like the medieval idea, that spring is summoned from its sleep by the singing of the birds.

John Lewis-Stempel's dispatches from lambing season focus on the early March snows which made a tough job into an battle.

Read three of the beautiful, evocative articles which made Country Life's John Lewis-Stempel the Columnist of the Year.

John Lewis-Stempel appreciates the calm tranquillity of woodland as he wanders through his own treasured Cockshutt Wood.

Its 200 years since Keats penned Ode to a Nightningale, but this otherwise drab birds rich, sorrowful song is worth

A chance reading of George Orwell brought John Lewis-Stempel to the realisation that he'd neglected his own ponds. He explains

Excerpt from:

A new ode to Spring, from gambolling lambs to pale wood anemones and the rabbity-nosed velvet of ash buds - Country Life

Thoughts on the Red Sox punishment, Gronks un-retirement, and other picked-up pieces – The Boston Globe

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The Sox baseball boss and manager also were absolved even though theyd been instructed that the team would be punished for future infractions after the Apple Watch incident in 2017. Nope. It was all J.T. Watkins. This 30-year-old guy had the power to move the video room at Fenway Park to a spot next to the dugout. All by himself.

Not a proud day for the Boston franchise.

Its incredible to discover that it was J.T. Watkins who made the decision to leave Bill Buckner in the game at Shea Stadium in 1986. And upon further review, I have learned that it was J.T. Watkins who procured the chicken and beer for the Red Sox clubhouse during the collapse in 2011. Im also hearing that Ed Davis has identified J.T. Watkins as a person of interest in his ongoing investigation in the Dominican Republic.

Manny Ramirez left the Red Sox in a blaze of glory compared with Rob Gronkowskis messy departure from New England.

We all love Gronk. Greatest tight end of all time. Played hurt and played hard. Good to all charities and never got in trouble. But he put the screws to the Patriots on his way out the door. He strung everybody along, then retired, just in time to ruin planning for the 2019 season.

Now after all the sales pitches in which he sounded like a young man who needed to be done with football (Gronk said hed suffered like 20 concussions), hes coming back to party and play with QB/GM Tom Brady in the Tampa funhouse. (Looking like a boy-band member these days, Gronk will have go to back into training to regain his football body.)

Its nauseating. These guys have turned into NBA-type divas, social media mavens demonstrating amazing tone deafness while the country endures a pandemic. So now Gronk and TB12 are united in Tampa, away from bully Bill Belichick. Maybe they can get Jules to join them. Why not AB?

Swell. Ill be hate-watching every one of their games. Put me down as honorary captain of Team Bill.

When Football Games Saved Lives: A Wall Street Journal story promoted a theory that the Chiefs victory over the 49ers in this years Super Bowl might have had hidden blessings.

There were only a few known COVID-19 patients in the US on Super Bowl Sunday, but two were in Santa Clara County and a small group of local doctors was dealing with those cases when the Chiefs beat the Niners in Miami Feb. 2. A 49ers victory would have resulted in a San Francisco parade, a massive gathering, and tremendous risk for transmission of the virus.

"It may go down in the annals as being a brutal sports loss, but one that saved lives,'' Dr. Bob Wachter (chair of UCSFs department of medicine) told the Journal.

The Bay areas inadvertent good fortune reminded me of the lives saved when Holy Crosss gridders stunned No. 1-ranked and Orange Bowl-bound Boston College at Fenway Park, 55-12, on Nov. 28, 1942.

BC-HC was a big deal in those days, and a BC victory party at Bostons Cocoanut Grove nightclub was canceled as a result of the upset. Four hundred and 92 souls died, and hundreds more were injured in a fire at the Cocoanut Grove just a few hours after the football game.

One of my wiseguy readers suggests that sports returning to empty ballparks and stadiums can compensate for the silence by pumping in artificial crowd noise like the Colts in Indianapolis and the Falcons in Atlanta.

QUIZ: 1. Name the major leaguer with the most career homers who never hit 30 in a season; 2. Name the only high school hockey player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. Hint: hes local. (Answers below.)

Watching the epic Celtics-Sixers 1981 Game 7 conference final, I saw Cedric Maxwell miss four straight free throws late in the game. I texted Max to ask him about this, and while the game was still airing, Max fired back with, "Im sure I made up for it.''

He did. Max went on to become MVP of the 81 NBA Finals.

When the 2020 Celtics were in Los Angeles in February, Max participated in an old-timers panel of former Celtics and Lakers. Proof that the Celtics forever take up space in those Lakers heads, Michael Cooper insisted that Lisa Leslie in her prime could have scored at will against Max.

Texted Terry Francona to ask if we are going to see him in future episodes of ESPNs excellent The Last Dance documentary. Francona was Michael Jordans manager with the Birmingham Barons in 1994. Tito replied, "I heard I got 15 seconds of fame. And not a second more. LOL.''

Back in 2012, heres what Francona told me about the Jordan experience: "The first question he asked me was, Do we fly? No. We had major bus trips everywhere. The shortest ride was 3 hours. It was 16 or 17 hours from Memphis to Orlando and we did that.

"He said, What if I can get us a better bus? The next day, there were four buses in the parking lot. It was a bus audition. One of the buses was for a touring rock band. We ended up riding in a new bus. Michael signed the door, so they called it the Jordan cruiser.' '

Francona was still athletic in those days and played pickup hoop with Jordan a couple of times. When Tito took the last shot in a best-to-11 game, Jordan told him, "I always take the last shot.'' The manager replied, "Now you know how I feel when I watch you try to hit a curveball.''

Jordan hit .202 with 51 RBIs and 30 stolen bases for Franconas Double A Barons.

Cant believe the Sox allowed J.T. Watkins to persuade them to sign Chris Sale and Nate Eovaldi to giant contract extensions after the 2018 World Series.

Baseball lifer Jim Frey died at the age of 88 April 12. A Cincinnati high school teammate of Don Zimmers, Frey was first base coach of Earl Weavers Orioles when I covered the team daily in 1977-79.

During the Red Sox collapse of 1978, it was Frey who relayed this exchange with Boston first baseman George Scott while Boomer was rolling out grounders to Sox infielders before the start of an inning:

I said, 'Boomer, you guys had this big lead and now its down to four or five games. What the hell is going on with you guys? And Boomer said to me, Some of these guys are choking, man. (Scott soon went into an 0-for-34 slump.)

When Cy Young winner Mike Flanagan reached first base in a game, Frey told him, "Keep your left foot on the bag and get as big a lead as you can with your right foot.''

Frey left the Orioles to manage the Kansas City Royals and wound up in the 1980 World Series. For a young reporter, it was a big deal to know the manager of the AL champs, so I asked Frey if he would acknowledge me by name when I asked a question at the massive pre-World Series press conference. I figured it would make me look good. Frey laughed and agreed.

When I asked my question, Frey leaned into the microphone, looked out at the hundreds of reporters, and said, "Well, DAN . . . thats a stupid question!''

RIP Jim Frey.

NESN needs to do a better job vetting old content. A 1987 Forever Fenway: 75 Years of Red Sox Baseball documentary re-aired April 10, still featuring an interview with the late Don Fitzpatrick. Fitzy was the infamous clubhouse attendant who sexually assaulted young clubhouse workers for more than a decade while employed by the Red Sox.

Why didnt Larry Lucchino and Dr. Charles Steinberg go with The Polar Grounds instead of "Polar Park,'' for the Worcester Red Sox new stadium name?

Quarantine reading: Check out Fenway 1946: Red Sox, Peace, and a Year of Hope by Michael Connelly.

It turns out that J.T. Watkins is the one who lowballed Jon Lester in the spring of 2014.

Quiz answers: 1. Al Kaline, 399 homers. 2. Bobby Carpenter of St. Johns Prep in 1981.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.

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Thoughts on the Red Sox punishment, Gronks un-retirement, and other picked-up pieces - The Boston Globe