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Nano Healthcare Technology For Medical Equipment Market Business Opportunities, 2020 Trends, Challenges and Standardization, Research, Key Players and…

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Global Nano Healthcare Technology For Medical Equipment MarketThis research report provides detailed study accumulated to offer Latest insights about acute features of the Nano Healthcare Technology For Medical Equipment Market. The report contains different market predictions related to market size, revenue, production, CAGR, Consumption, gross margin, price, and other substantial factors. While emphasizing the key driving and restraining forces for this market, the report also offers a complete study of the future trends and developments of the market. It also examines the role of the leading market players involved in the industry including their corporate overview, financial summary and SWOT analysis.It presents the 360-degree overview of the competitive landscape of the industries. Nano Healthcare Technology For Medical Equipment Market is showing steady growthand CAGR is expected to improve during the forecast period.

Manufacturer DetailSmith & NephewStrykerThermo Fisher Scientific3MGEMerckAbbottAstraZenecaFerroPerkinElmer

Product Type SegmentationBiochipsImplantable MaterialsMedical Textile and Wound DressingActive Implantable Devices

Industry SegmentationTherapeutic ApplicationsDiagnostics ApplicationsResearch Applications

Global Nano Healthcare Technology For Medical Equipment Market report provides you with detailed insights, industry knowledge, market forecasts and analytics. The report on the global Nano Healthcare Technology For Medical Equipment industry also clarifies economic risks and environmental compliance. Global Nano Healthcare Technology For Medical Equipment market report assists industry enthusiasts including investors and decision makers to make confident capital investments, develop strategies, optimize their business portfolio, innovate successfully and perform safely and sustainably.

Nano Healthcare Technology For Medical Equipment Market: Regional Analysis Includes:

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Nano Healthcare Technology For Medical Equipment Market Business Opportunities, 2020 Trends, Challenges and Standardization, Research, Key Players and...

Global Healthcare Nanotechnology Market 2019 Present Status and Future Opportunities by Major Companies Typs and Applications 2024 – The Fuel Fox

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

The report on the Global Healthcare Nanotechnology Market has been prepared after conducting a comprehensive research through a systematized methodology. These skills are useful for scrutinizing the market on the terms of outlined research guidelines. Mainly, global Healthcare Nanotechnology market research report covers all the information about the target audience, manufactures, vendors, research papers, products and many more.

Request a sample of this report @ https://www.orbispharmareports.com/sample-request/13705

Keeping a focus on the overall market aspects, and perceptions, this report vastly covers profiles of the companies who have made it big in this particular field along with their sales data and other data. It also suggests the business models, innovations, growth and every information about the big manufacturers that will be present the future market estimates. Every market consists of set of manufacturers, vendors and consumers that gives a definition to the market, its each and every move, achievements. All these are the important subjects required to study the analysis of the global Healthcare Nanotechnology market. It also includes the major market conditions across the globe such as the product profit, price, production, capacity, demand, supply, as well as market growth structure. In addition, this report offers significant data through the SWOT analysis, investment return data, and investment feasibility analysis.

Top Companies Analysis:

AmgenTeva PharmaceuticalsAbbottUCBRocheCelgeneSanofiMerck & CoBiogenStrykerGilead SciencesPfizer3M CompanyJohnson & JohnsonSmith & NephewLeadiant BiosciencesKyowa Hakko KirinShireIpsenEndo International

Browse the complete report @ https://www.orbispharmareports.com/global-healthcare-nanotechnology-market-2019-present-status-and-future-opportunities-by-major-companies-typs-and-applications-2024/

The global Healthcare Nanotechnology market report also features a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative evaluation by analysing information collected from market experts and industry participants in the major points of the market value chain. The data offered in global Healthcare Nanotechnology market report is gathered based on the latest industry news, trends, as well as opportunities. This study offers a separate analysis of the major trends in the existing market, mandates and regulations, micro & macroeconomic indicators is also comprised in this report. By doing so, the study estimated the attractiveness of every major segment during the prediction period.

Segmentation by Type:

NanomedicineNano Medical DevicesOther

Segmentation by Application:

AnticancerCNS ProductAnti-infectiveOther

Moreover, the report comprises the analysis of opportunities available in the Healthcare Nanotechnology market on the global level. It also includes the major market conditions across the globe such as the product profit, price, production, capacity, demand, supply, as well as market growth structure.The annual progression for the global Healthcare Nanotechnology market in different regions cannot always be listed down as it will keep changing, thus studying and reviewing markets occasionally becomes vital. In addition, the Healthcare Nanotechnology market report provides a detailed information about the key market players along with the strategies they implemented to gain market existence and develop themselves. The report includes precise market estimations depending on current market status and future market forecasts.

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Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients.

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Global Healthcare Nanotechnology Market 2019 Present Status and Future Opportunities by Major Companies Typs and Applications 2024 - The Fuel Fox

How automation is speeding delivery of COVID-19 results to hospitals – TechRepublic

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Kryon, a robotics process automation provider, helped upload COVID-19 test results from the Israeli Ministry of Health to Maccabi, one of Israel's biggest healthcare providers, in 48 hours.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is flooding hospitals with new caseshere's a useful map of when hospitals will hit their limitsmany healthcare providers are struggling to ensure that they have up-to-date information on patients who must be treated for the virus. One of the obstacles is the lag time between getting information on those who are infected with COVID-19 into the computer systems.

Automation is coming to the rescue. On Friday, Kryon, a robotics process automation (RPA) provider, helped one of Israel's largest healthcare providers, Maccabi, install a system in place to automate downloads of COVID-19 test resultsstraight from the Israeli Ministry of Health into the healthcare system. The previous system, in which dense, data-heavy Excel files were sent to Maccabi two times a day and manually uploaded, took weeksespecially as the inputs started piling up.

"With this new RPA implementation, we're able to process updates to patient records in just minutes that used to take weeks of manual work," Harel Tayeb, CEO of Kryon, told TechRepublic. "The result is a much more streamlined process for doctors, healthcare administrators, and governments."

SEE:Coronavirus: Critical IT policies and tools every business needs(TechRepublic Premium)

Kryon had been recruited by Maccabi to help speed up the upload process. And within 48 hours, its team of developers had remotely implemented an automated solution. Not only is each file from the Israeli Ministry of Health uploaded quickly, the system has also eliminated the human error variablepreviously, it required line by line human entriesassisting in the treatment of hundreds of people with COVID-19 in Maccabi's healthcare network of over two million patients.

Kryon's automated system highlights how tech can be used not only to help companies become more efficient and productive to boost business, but also how it can help save lives.

"The health and well-being of communities around the world is more important than a bottom line," Tayeb said.

Tech like AI and telehealth have been revolutionizing the way healthcare services are delivered, with half of hospitals committing to adopt AI by 2021, and the global pandemic has highlighted the ways that systems that have not become digitized are presenting unique challenges in this unprecedented time.

SEE: AI in healthcare: An insider's guide (TechRepublic)

With already overburdened healthcare systems being strained, putting both patients, families, and healthcare workers at risk, automating the COVID-19 test delivery to ensure that every case is quickly treated will help everyone, in the long run.

"The healthcare industry is overworked, short on resources, and highly regulated," Tayeb said. "RPA will be a beacon of hope for healthcare organizations around the world as we all tackle COVID-19 together."

Enterprises can benefit from Kryon's integrated automation system. The RPA provider is now offering to provide this same service to any healthcare organization, across the globefor free.

"No company can afford to operate for free long-term," Tayeb said, "but right now, we do feel a duty to help in any way we can."

Image: Peter Zelei Images / Getty Images

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How automation is speeding delivery of COVID-19 results to hospitals - TechRepublic

Reevaluating the Conversation on Automation and the Future of Work – Georgetown Public Policy Review – Georgetown Public Policy Review

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Introduction

As the world continues to advance technologically, more and more jobs become susceptible to automation, with machines completing tasks formerly undertaken by people on an increasing scale. Automation is widely hailed as a cost-effective, efficiency-oriented solution for businesses, which can use technology to greatly reduce instances of human error in their work, speed up production, and cut long-term costs. As automation has grown, a debate about its implications for the future of work has emerged too.

The debate on automation

The automation debate generally centers around the extent to which automation will affect workers in the future. Among economists, there is a general consensus that automation is a key contributing factor to societal inequality, with associated job loss outweighing any negative externalities to workers from trade or immigration. These economists argue automation will lead to mass job losses in the coming decades and, while new jobs will certainly be created, the rate at which they are created will not be sufficient to offset the losses caused by automation.

The more repetitive the tasks associated with a particular job, the easier those tasks are to map and replicate with technology.

This statement rings true for a wide range of jobs, whether traditionally blue collar or white collar, including factory, assistant or secretarial, and even legal and financial work. The jobs safest from automation are managerial or executive positions. Hence, economists claim, the jobs most susceptible to automation are those predominantly held by members of the lower and middle classes, whereas the wealthiest members of society hold the safest jobs. Research from the Economic Policy Institute supports these claims; though worker productivity is on the rise due to automation, wages have stagnated.

Echoing economists assertions, those working in the technology or tech-adjacent industries are well aware of the power automation wields. A recent report by the research firm Forrester estimates that over 1 million knowledge-work jobs jobs that require working with information rather than performing manual labor will be lost in 2020. However, the report also estimates that 331,500 net human-touch jobs requiring intuition, empathy and physical and mental agility will be added to the US workforce this year. Thus, industry experts claim jobs requiring creative thinking, adaptability and human emotion will be more highly valued. While there will always be a sufficient volume of jobs available to the public, the jobs of the future will look different from those available today. As such, a significant portion of workers will require training in new skills.

Within academia, scholars appear split on the implications of automation for workers. Existing scholarly literature on the topic generally falls into one of three camps: optimistic, pessimistic, and somewhere in between. Optimists envision a future in which existing work will either be abolished at no cost to workers due to (universal) basic income programs or supported by new technologies which will allow humans to work even more productively.

Pessimists, on the other hand argue that, while society is headed toward a post-work future, with large swaths of existing human jobs becoming obsolete, there is no indication that workers will be protected. They point to a rise in offshoring and the existence of large, exploitative organizations that provide poor wages, working conditions, and benefits to many of their workers.

Scholars between the optimists and pessimists argue that their peers analyses are gross oversimplifications of the issue at hand. They acknowledge automation is an important issue for society, researchers should continue to study its projected impact, and policy leaders should take action to ensure future job security for workers. However, they reject that automation will have a completely transformative effect on the economy.

Finally, politicians appear divided on the issue of automation and its impacts, and not just along party lines. Due to Andrew Yangs 2020 presidential campaign, the issue has garnered some additional attention this election cycle. Yang has made the issue a cornerstone of his campaign, arguing that the United States must stop denying the effects of automation and implement 21st-century solutions such as universal basic income to address these effects.

In contrast, Senator Elizabeth Warren, argues the idea of automation causing job insecurity is a good story, except its not really true. Warren, instead, points to harmful trade policy as the main culprit behind American job insecurity. Other 2020 Democratic candidates fall on a spectrum between Yang and Warren with regard to their stances on automation and the future of work, with Pete Buttigieg emphasizing the importance of education programs in the face of increased automation and Senator Bernie Sanders proposing guaranteeing federal jobs for workers displaced at the hands of automation.

Takeaways from the debate on automation

The sheer variety of voices in the loud and lively debate regarding the impact of automation on the future of work makes identifying the problem, developing a robust understanding of the problem and formulating an appropriate response difficult. Furthermore, there is a lack of forward-looking data, meaning predictive models are built using past trends. Since researchers cannot predict the future, they must rely on existing political theories, models, and anecdotal evidence to formulate their arguments. Many studies thus end up either overly broad or narrow in focus, often lacking evidence-based approaches. For instance, much of the existing literary works on automation and the future of work display inherent political bias on the part of their authors, as evidenced by their overt optimistic, pessimistic or neutral undertones.

On the other hand, economists assertions, while evidence-based, rely on general productivity and growth models, failing to zero in on the effects of technology in the workplace specifically. Proving causation between technological advancement and job security using these models is difficult due to the number of potential confounding variables, such as trade, that could exist. Industry specialists have the opposite problem: while it is easier to demonstrate the impact of technology through industry practices by working directly with organizations to conduct studies, the conclusions drawn from these studies often lack external validity due to their relatively narrow approach, which is heavily reliant on the particular clients with which they work, and therefore cannot be easily generalized.

Finally, most politicians lack of academic or industry experience relating to automation precludes them from convincingly articulating what it means for the future of work. Nevertheless, politicians have campaigns to run and in the absence of a general consensus on the impact of automation on job security can point to various studies and assertions to spin existing information in their favor. Until a new, evidence-based method for evaluating the relationship between automation and the future of work is introduced to the automation-job security debate, existing stakeholders will continue to talk in circles. The problem is in the event that automation does progress enough to the point where tangible, associated job loss occurs, it may be too late to take key preventative policy actions in the future, due to the exponential nature of technological development.

Where do we go from here?

The effect of automation on the future of work is notoriously difficult to study, due to the various angles taken by those examining this relationship and the lack of data regarding the ever-evolving prevalence of technology in the workplace. The best way to remedy the extant information gap, which, if filled, would allow for more robust analysis of the relationship between automation and workforce development, is to examine the relationship by designing real-time experiments. One researcher, Benjamin Shestakofsky, designed such an experiment: a 19-month long study at a software firm to test how relations between workers and technology evolved over three phases of the companys development. The results of the study showed that despite increasingly automating its own processes, the firm opted not to perfect its software algorithms to continuously push people out of the production process and instead continually reorganized to allow humans to work with the software. The study suggests that automation is not necessarily detrimental to workers.In order to better understand the aggregate effects of automation on the workforce, studies like Shestakofskys need to be replicated on a larger scale and a longer-term basis, controlling for factors such as regional differences, company culture, and so forth. Doing so will allow researchers to reach causal inferences/conclusions and translate them into meaningful conclusions about what automation means for the future of work.

Cover picture source: Mixabest | Wikimedia Commons

Reevaluating the Conversation on Automation and the Future of Work - Georgetown Public Policy Review - Georgetown Public Policy Review

What will drive the future of automation? – Essential Install

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Cliff Stammers, of Clever Rooms, automation and programming veteran, Crestron master programmer and EI regular commentator, sums up his views on the future of automation.

There can be little doubt that the concept of automation is here to stay. To my mind, this is a solid fact. Automation has now become embedded in architectural and electronic system designs on a regular basis. More and more I am seeing the demand for solutions that our industry provides increase with each project for which I write control software.

Whats more is that it is not limited to just one or two sectors anymore. Automation systems, so commonly the domain of the corporate market, have in the last decade become more prevalent in residential and marine projects right across the board.

But much more recently weve all seen a huge proliferation of the concept in many building and renovation projects in areas like education, medicine and broadcast, to name just a few examples. This is largely because of the acceptance of our work by 240v Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) companies, who have finally come to recognise that what we do is not just insignificant Low Voltage fluff and nonsense, but actually might be quite useful after all.

Or to be more accurate: that what we do might actually be a revenue stream that M&E design consultants have so far left untapped.

Developments?

But what are the more significant actual developments in terms of the infrastructure of what we do? Well, Id suggest that more than anything else over the last few years the development of HD and 4K video distribution over an IT network has been among the significant game changers to affect our work.

Together with DANTE, pretty much the audio equivalent of this, to be able to distribute non-latency high resolution, multiple channels of audio and video across a fairly standard single gigabyte IT network is a powerful advancement.

To consolidate this into a package that we can deliver as a service to our clients is something that will help us each drive our businesses into this coming new decade, and it goes to underline the binding of AV to IT that has also so fundamentally affected our work in recent years.

The other thing that is really gathering pace right now, isremote access to systems. Software such as TeamViewer, or AnyDesk are making iteasy to diagnose, and to a very large degree, go ahead and fix issues withtechnology from afar. Conferencing software such as Zoom and Microsoft Teamsare also enabling the proliferation of these concepts as well.

Im noticing that clients have very specific ideas about what they want from their systems. Which is, in my opinion, a really useful thing as it goes some way to eradicate a lot of the grey areas that used to exist. So long as the brief is well documented, and well designed to which managing the clients expectations is a fundamental part then a clear goal is always a much easier target than one shrouded in mist. Most clients will have visited premises where an automation system is installed.

They will subsequently have formed ideas about what they want from theirs. Comparatively, a decade ago this may not have been the case, as our work was less common then that it is now.

Which meant that often, a lot of what we were trying to deliver was more enigmatic and, therefore, subject to less definition and overall certainty than exists today.

Finally, areas in which our work could conceivably develop would include the proper implementation of voice recognition. Lets be honest; it hasnt quite worked has it.

How many times have you caught yourself shouting at your smart speaker of choice? Turn the ****ing lights ON, Alexa! This is not the recommended behaviour for a grown person to adopt and not the way we want people to think of smart technology.

Another concept that I think will certainly be big news in the year ahead is virtual reality. Coupled with augmented reality, these are going to be very influential tenets of our business as users seek out interesting and intuitive angles to set their systems apart from others.

And there shall also be unique and compelling marketing points for any company looking to establish itself outside of the norm. Although Id suggest doing that is at your peril!

If I can be of assistance in any way, contact me at cliff@cleverrooms.co.uk

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What will drive the future of automation? - Essential Install

Home Working Causes Bosses to Increase Automation – DIGIT.FYI

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Business owners around the world are increasingly looking to automation to keep their businesses running as staff work at home during the coronavirus outbreak.

According to data collected by EY, 41% of survey respondents say that they are preparing for a post-crisis world by investing in automation for their businesses.

In a nine day period, 477,000 people across the UK applied for universal credit due to job losses from COVID-19. The loss of staff has left many businesses low on the necessary manpower required for them to run.

Steve Krouskos from EY said: The human cost is the most tragic aspect of this crisis, not only in terms of the lives lost, but also the number of livelihoods at risk.

As business leaders respond with urgency to the unprecedented impact that Covid-19 is having globally, workforce welfare and job preservation will be at the top of their minds.

43% of the 2,900 executives surveyed said they expected business to return to normal by the third quarter of 2020. But, until then, 73% said Covid-19 would have a severe impact on the global economy.

The survey also found that most companies were already planning major transformation before COVID-19. Once the county returns to normal, they would focus on new investment in digital and technology.

Krouskos continued: Business leaders are seeing their transformation plans paused or slowed currently. With these plans set to restart, possibly with added energy, once the situation stabilises, executives will have to make faster moves to reimagine, reshape and reinvent their business and create long-term value.

Recommended

As business processes begin to change across the world due to the advancement of technology and more people begin working from home, many employers and employees are unprepared for the challenges brought on by coronavirus.

A recent poll of 14,500 working professionals by recruiting company Hays showed that, in 2019, two in five employees did not have the correct qualifications for their roles, and businesses were unprepared for staff having to potentially work from home or rely on automation to continue working.

The data also revealed that that more than half of employers across all sectors have a workforce that lacks digital skills. Despite more than a third of Generation Z, 32% of men and 21% of women, believing that they are technology experts, 41% of employees and 30% of employers say providing support with training and upskilling is the most important way for a business to prepare for automation.

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Home Working Causes Bosses to Increase Automation - DIGIT.FYI

Load.ng commits to leveraging Tech for Bitcoin to Naira Exchange Automation. – Techpoint Africa

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Load.NG, an e-Commerce platform that allows users to convert bitcoin (BTC) to cash in nigeria naira (NGN) says it is committed to providing solutions with regards to BTC to NGN Software Automation in the country.

Tunde Aderemi Ibrahim, the founder of LoadNG Automated Systems http://www.load.ng says the fully automated Bitcoin Exchange e-commerce platform ensures customers are paid the same second their sell bitcoin transaction completes with its sophisticated paxful, blockchain and other wallet bitcoin buying system, adding that such feat has seen the recently launched company process more than 3000 successful transactions since launch.

Tunde Buremo maintains that the focal point of the LoadNG innovation is trust as he recounts the companys favorite pitch: Trust is Gold as a watchword for Nigerias first fully automated bitcoin buying system, LoadNG. When a customer sells Bitcoin, all he wants at that moment is Naira, the automation of LoadNG ensures a zero wait time he says.

The innovative system allows Nigerian Bitcoin traders who trade mostly on the Paxful and Blockchain platforms to solve the issue of having to stand the numerous risks associated with converting bitcoin to Naira as it stands as an answer to the frequent question of how to convert bitcoin to cash in Nigeria?. The fully automated system also includes a bills payment platform for Nigerians to buy data, buy airtime and pay other bills using cryptocurrency.

LoadNG is one of the solutions of IBCdesign Digital Services Limited, an ICT company which also recently launched its branding brainchild LogoNG and has been described by industry watchers as one of the most innovative ICT firms in Nigeria and Africa.

Speaking at the launch of the new service at the Wennovation hub in Ibadan, Tunde said the companys solutions are tailored towards solving local problems with technology and LoadNG is just a perfect description of salvaging the bitcoin to naira exchange need of Nigerian ecurrency trading enthusiasts with a platform where btc to naira conversions are made swiftly, securely and automatically.

The team at LoadNG believes that it is high time we started creating local solutions to solve local problems with technology, when that is done, wed be said to have utilized the internet technology the right way, said Adepoju Segun Oluwaseyi at the launch of the mobile app on google playstore in January 2020, the head of service delivery who further noted that one of the major challenges facing the countrys eCommerce sphere is lack of trust in indigenous companies and reiterates how LoadNG have employed a responsive round the clock customer support system to change that narrative for good.

The eCommerce Cryptocurrency Exchange Company anticipates to have incorporated various other related solutions in five years.

Nigerian startups raised $377m in 2019, more than twice what they did in 2018. Find out more when you download the full report.

news digest: Automation Anywhere’s Bot Security, Linux 5.6, and the IntelliSense Code Linter for C++ – SD Times – SDTimes.com

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Automation Anywhere has launched the Bot Security program . The Bot Security program introduces a flexible, multi-tiered framework to certify that bots built by customers, partners, and publishers of bots on Bot Store are pre-certified and trusted to scale RPA more rapidly and securely.

Bot Security includes four levels of protection: malware scan; self-attestation and developer training; threat model and static analysis; and penetration testing to address the most stringent security concerns.

Providing secure deployment of RPA across our platform gives assurances to developers, partners, and organizations who want to implement automation technology to mitigate business risk during this pandemic while ensuring business continuity, said Prince Kohli, the chief technology officer of Automation Anywhere.

Linux 5.6The Linux 5.6 kernel was released with WireGuard, USB4, New AMD, and Intel hardware support.

Linux 5.7 is now open for the landing of new feature work for the next two weeks, and the developers behind the project said that they are currently assuming a fairly normal 5.7 release.

Additional details are available here.

The IntelliSense Code Linter for C++Microsofts new IntelliSense Code Linter for C++ is a preview feature that aims to help C++ developers identify and fix code defects as they write code.

The IntelliSense Code Linter for C++ checks your code as-you-type, underlines problems in the editor, and Lightbulb actions offer suggested fixes, according to Microsoft.

The new linter is still a work in progress, but Microsoft plans to add new configuration, suppression, and integration features to it.

Additional details are available here.

DevOps Institute announces Open Testing programThe Open Testing program removes formal prerequisites to allow those who already possess the skills, knowledge, ideas and learning experience to gain direct access to DevOps Institutes portfolio of certifications.

We still strongly believe that participation in structured and instructor-led courses through one of our accredited Global Education Partners is the best path to gaining the knowledge necessary to pass the examination and provide real-world value to your organization, said Jayne Groll, the CEO of the DevOps Institute. However, we also recognize that todays Humans of DevOps may learn in many ways, from many sources, particularly under the daily constraints of the current health crisis.

Examinations that are now open for the program include DevOps Foundation, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Foundation, DevSecOps Engineering, DevOps Leader, DevOps Test Engineering, and Continuous Delivery Architecture. Additional details on the certifications are available here.

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news digest: Automation Anywhere's Bot Security, Linux 5.6, and the IntelliSense Code Linter for C++ - SD Times - SDTimes.com

COVID-19 Pandemic Pushes Logistic Automation up the Agenda – Sea News

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Mobile Robots and Autonomous Vehicles:

Last week Amazon announced that it planned on hiring 100,000extra workers to meet the rise in demand for online shopping created byCoronavirus-caused shutdowns and social distancing. On 19 March 2020, unionssaid workers were demanding that Amazon takes their lives seriously. The nightbefore a facility in Queens, NY, had been closed for deep cleaning after anemployee tested positive for the virus.

There are reports that some Amazon warehouse workers inItaly and Spain have tested positive. In France, several hundred Amazon workersprotested to demand better measures to protect their safety. In Italy, therehave been calls for a strike. This and similar developments once again bringinto focus the motivation, and at times the imperative, to increase automationin the logistics and delivery chain.

IDTechEx have been examining the technological and commercial trends in this field for several years. Their report Mobile Robots, Autonomous Vehicles, and Drones in Logistics, Warehousing, and Delivery 2020-2040 focuses on automation of movement in every step of the logistics and delivery chain ranging from a warehouse or a factory to the delivery of goods to the final customer destination.

This landscape and therefore, the scope of the report includes the following:

The emerging technology research firm finds that this market in total will reach $81 and $290 billion in 2030 and 2040, respectively.This is a colossal transfer of value from wage expenses to a combination ofcapital investments and service subscription to autonomous robots of varioustypes. This staggering headline is, of course, very large, and hides the keyindividual trends characterizing each technology and use case. In the remainderof this article, IDTechEx analysts seek to highlight the key trends.

Goods-to-personautomated carts/robots

Large fleets of robots are already deployed to help automatethe goods-to-person step in many fulfilment centres. These robots move rackswithin robot-only zones, bringing them to manned picking stations.

This is a fast-growing market space. The landscape was seton fire when Amazon acquired Kiva Systems for $775M in 2012, thereby leaving agap on the market. Today, significant well-funded alternatives such as GeekPlus(389$M), GreyOrange (170$M), and HIK Vision ($6Bn revenue) have emerged,achieving promising and growing deployment figures. The number of start-ups hasalso increased, especially within the 2015-2017 period.

IDTechEx forecasts the annual unit sales to double within six years. Despite the large deployments already, they assess the real global inflection point to arrive around 2024 beyond at which point the pace of deployment will dramatically accelerate. Indeed, the research firm forecasts that between 2020 and 2030, more than 1 million such robots will be sold accumulatively. It is, therefore, an exciting time.

Collaborativeautonomous mobile robots

Another major trend is the use of autonomous mobile robotsand vehicles. Autonomous mobile robots are emerging, which offerinfrastructure-independent navigation in defined indoor environments. Theserobots boost productivity and enable many hybrid human-robot interaction modes.They can also bring automation to warehouses and fulfilment centres which werenot specifically designed and built to support robotic goods-to-person.

The technology is enabled by better SLAM algorithms. Thealgorithms based on different sensors, including stereo camera and 2D lidars are evolved enough to handle safe autonomous navigation within manystructured indoor environments with a high degree of control andpredictability.

The technology options however are still many, and choiceshave long-lasting strategic consequences. The business models are also variousand evolving. Some are offering their technology as RaaS (robot as a service).

There have also been some notable recent acquisitions.Amazon acquired a company focused on camera-based navigation, which wouldenable object detection and classification, and thus more intelligentnavigation. Shopify acquired a firm with a full solution, including the entiresoftware stack. Overall, the IDTechEx report Mobile Robots, AutonomousVehicles, and Drones in Logistics, Warehousing, and Delivery 2020-2040forecasts that more than 200k robots could be sold within the 2020-2030 period(this figure includes those that can perform picking of regularly orirregularly shaped items).

The report Mobile Robots, Autonomous Vehicles, and Drones in Logistics, Warehousing, and Delivery 2020-2040 provides a comprehensive analysis of all the key players, technologies, and markets. It includes technology roadmaps and twenty-year market forecasts, in unit numbers and revenue, for all the technologies outlined at the beginning of the article (13 forecast lines). It offers a twenty-year model because IDTechExs technology roadmap suggests that these changes will take place over long timescales. In their detailed forecasts, the report clearly explains the different stages of market growth.

Mobile Picking Robots

Picking or grasping technology is an essential component ofwarehouse automation. Today, many firms and research groups are deploying deeplearning to enable robots to pick novel and irregularly shaped items rapidlyand with high success rates.

A limited number of firms have integrated picking arms onmobile platforms. Today, these mainly pick box-shaped items in knownenvironments. However, progress will bring these technologies to more varieditems. It will also allow better integration of the robotic arm with the mobileplatform.

In the short term, more learning is required. However,recent advances on the algorithm side suggest that progress will be rapidalthough the algorithms will need to achieve not just high rates but alsohigh-speed to drive down the ROI on these tools. In the very long term though, IDTechExforecast that 36% and 38% of AMRs in warehouses sold in 2040 will be able topick regular as well as irregular-shaped items, respectively. This pointstowards a major long-term technology transformation, requiring automationbeyond just autonomy of movement. IDTechEx Analysts consider this a majortechnology development opportunity.

Autonomous forkliftsand other industrial vehicles

Autonomous forklifts and tugs are emerging onto the market.The navigation technology has progressed significantly. Naturally, the cost ofautonomous forklifts is higher, but the claimed ROI by many suppliers is within12-18 months. The cost includes the installation and maintenance as well as thecost of the autonomous sensor suite, traction control and drivers, and thesoftware, which can be amortized over a growing deployed fleet. Overall, priceparity on an annual operational cost basis is nearly at hand in some high wageterritories.

The unit sales here can reach 1.8k in 2020, which seems ahigh number but still small relative to the addressable market. Over the past1.5 years, however, this market has also entered the early stages of its growthphase. Analysis and interviews conducted by IDTechEx suggest that inflectionpoint is likely to be reached around 2025-2027. After this point, they projectthe sales to grow, already exceeding 100k units by 2030. Note that IDTechExgenerally develops 20-year forecasts for autonomous mobility as the technologywill inevitably take time to be rolled out.

Long-haul truck delivery

Long-haul trucks are a prime target for autonomous mobility.This is because autonomous mobility can address many industry pain-points andbecause there is a clear commercial case, unlike passenger vehicles. The firstpain point is that there is a shortage of drivers, which could increase to 160kper 2028 in the USA. The second pain point is the operating cost, this isbecause wages are high, and likely to go up given that demand outstrips supply.Safety requirements limit the number of uninterrupted hours a driver can spendon the road, limiting the productivity of the asset. Finally, the longstretches of highway lend themselves well to autonomous mobility, unlike thechaotic conditions in dense urban driving.

IDTechEx has carefully analyzed the companies and technologies behind autonomous trucking. Their report Mobile Robots, Autonomous Vehicles, and Drones in Logistics, Warehousing, and Delivery 2020-2040 offers deep technology analysis and granular market forecasts. It is plausible that the deployed trucks could exceed 1300 units by the end of 2020; this is still a small number but shows the direction of travel. The report finds that the deployment of level-4 autonomous trucks will grow slowly until 2025, after which point the growth has the potential to rise rapidly. IDTechExs estimate suggests that the market could reach 550k level-4 units/year by 2030. Their roadmap suggests that level-5 will remain virtually non-existent for another decade and will only grow beyond 2030. The full 2020-2040 forecasts, segmented by autonomy level is available on http://www.IDTechEx.com/Mobile.

Last-mile deliveryvans and side-walk robots

This is an interesting technological frontier. The cost oflast-mile delivery is often 50% of the total cost. As such, there is a strongcommercial incentive to automate this step to boost productivity. There are twoapproaches: on-road last-mile delivery vans or pods and side-walk robotic.

The on-road vans and pods share many technologicalchallenges with other on-road autonomous vehicles. The difference however, isthat they can operate in limited well-mapped and known-environments and thatthey can potentially travel at low-speeds. They also will not have passengerson-board, simplifying some of the safety challenges.

IDTechExs report identifies and profiles the key companiesactive in this field. They analyze the technological progress, challenges, andinnovation opportunity. The report develops short-, medium-, and long-termmarket forecasts segmented by level of autonomous. It finds that package (orsimilar) delivery vans and pods will be deployed in small number until 2026.Indeed, the annual deployments will remain below 3k units/year until 2026. Themarket growth for level-4 vans/pods will then accelerate, especially from 2027onwards. Level-5 mobility will onlyarrive from 2032 onwards and even then, only in small numbers.

The side-walk robots have their own unique design andtechnology challenges. The economics underpinning their business cases are alsodifferent. The key for them is extending the autonomy level of the side-walkrobots to a point where very large fleets with a very small number of remotehuman teleoperators can be deployed.

Here too, despite the progress, the deployment will remainsmall in the short term. IDTechEx forecast that annual deployment will remainaround or below 3k unit/annually until 2024, their model however projects ahump in 2025. This is likely because the technology will have reached enoughmaturity to prove its business case and also to address many of the edge pointsin its autonomous navigation. The market has the potential to then rapidlyaccelerate to 30k units/year by 2030. The costs will, of course, be lowespecially as the camera and lidar costs (if lidar is deployed) will bedramatically reduced and the fleet-to-operator ratio driven up. The money asforecast in the report will be in the services which scale with theaccumulated fleet size and utilization rate thereof.

This report Mobile Robots, Autonomous Vehicles, and Dronesin Logistics, Warehousing, and Delivery 2020-2040 provides a comprehensiveanalysis of all the key players, technologies, and markets. It offerstechnology roadmaps and twenty-year market forecasts, in unit numbers andrevenue, for all the technologies outlined above (13 forecast lines). It buildsa twenty-year model because IDTechExs technology roadmap suggests that these changeswill take place over long timescales. In the detailed forecasts, the researchfirm clearly explains the different stages of market growth and outline the keyassumptions/conditions as well as data points that underpin the model.

Sea News Feature, March 30

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COVID-19 Pandemic Pushes Logistic Automation up the Agenda - Sea News

The Tarot Card Collection by Sofia Zakia for Inner Enlightenment – JCK

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

I had a friend read my tarot cards in college once, and its something Ill never forget. Performing some ritual Ill probably never understand, she told a tale of love and lossone that ultimately came to be: Within a month, I had met my future husband and lost my father.

I remember being in awe and fearful of the cards after that, like my relatively unremarkable, pretty much standard life stuff was happening. I knew better than to think something can predict the future, but, still, the thought of how it all unfolded could send a shiver up my spine.

Spiritually, theres credibility to why people love visiting their psychics for weekly readings, whether or not tarot cards are the medium of choice. These meetings can give someone guidance, give them hope, something to hold onto. But as I read more about the practice of tarot card reading, its actually pretty cool, and theres nothing paranormal about it at all.

The cards arent meant for predicting the future, I am learning, rather, theyre a toolwith which we can navigate our lives, all 78 in a deck showing the lessons we must learn to be our ultimate bests. Its like holding up a mirror to yourself so that you can access your subconscious mind, says a statement on biddytarot.com, a website I never once envisioned myself visiting (dont put me down for psychic abilities).

Its from this website that I am learning what each card represents, and Im finding that theyre an excellent representation of our hopes and dreams, and yet another talisman for when times are toughlike now. Its almost as if they should be preserved in gold, our dearest to be worn close to our hearts.

Good thing someone did that.

Designer Sofia Ajram, who notably creates pieces with an air of mysticism under her brand Sofia Zakia, brings us the Tarot Cards collection, a line of 19 individual cards in 14k yellow gold (the paper cards are available on the jewelers websitetoo).

My personal favoriteand one that many can likely relate to at the momentis the Nine of Cups, said to encourage wish fulfillment and comfort, signifying contentment, satisfaction, and gratitude when in its upright position. (If the card were to be drawn in reversed position, it signifies inner happiness, materialism, dissatisfaction, and indulgence, in case you were wondering.)

But there are plenty of others to suit your innermost necessities. Theres the Moon, representing fear, anxiety, subconscious, and intuition, encouraging celestial dreams and a the trust of ones instincts. The Magician, a key to awakening a spiritual determination, to inspire action. Fulfillment encourages success and harmony, the Lovers, a conquest of pure love and fortune. Um, I think I might genuinely be interested in learning a lot more about tarot cards now.

As we spend more time at home, probably stressing, definitely yearning for new things to do, some might find that getting in touch with themselves provides a comfort through the unknown. I love that this collection is an unexpected (at least to me) catalyst for that. It probably helps that its beautifully made, engraved, and hand-oxidized, lending an old-world look to a remarkably old concept (the oldest surviving tarot cards are reportedly from the mid-15th century). The designs from this collection combine original drawings from the jeweler with classical tarot decks by Jean Francois Alliette and Brian Williams.

Its important to note that while Sofia Zakia is still accepting orders through its website and via its stockists, all pending and future orders are at the mercy of the current lockdown in its home city of Montreal (as is the case with many jewelers around the world). For more information, visit sofiazakia.com.

Top: Moon tarot card pendant in 14k yellow gold, $520

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The Tarot Card Collection by Sofia Zakia for Inner Enlightenment - JCK

Color Therapy: Yellow – vmagazine.com

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

How colors exhibit moods within fashion.

Colors can illustrate an array of meanings within our lives. From vermillion to indigo, every hue radiates a complex energy source that can influence our personality traits.

Alyson Charles, officially known as Rock-Star Shaman, spoke with V about the correlation between colors and moods. As a shaman practitioner, Charles utilizes colors as a healing tactic, incorporating the seven chakras and their affiliated tones into her teachings.

Changing [the] color of what were wearing can absolutely exude a whole different energetic imprint out into the world and to ourselves, Charles told V. There are a lot of different spiritual practices and healing methods that you can go to to try and get back into alignment, and working with the power of colors is one of them.

Here, V explores the symbolism of yellow within fashion.

Yellow exudes happiness and freedom. This beaming color is related to sunshine and rays of light, projecting a feeling of enlightenment onto other and to ourselves. Golden shades of yellow often possess particular healing properties, including a boost in our metabolism and mentality.Yellow is obviously a very joyful color, Charles said. It connects to our personal will and our personal willpower.

View the color yellow from various Fall/Winter 2020 collections below:

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Color Therapy: Yellow - vmagazine.com

Apocalypse Now and Not Yet: N. T. Wright’s Recovery of the Apocalyptic Imagination – Patheos

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

When we speak of the turmoil of our present moment as apocalyptic, we are thinking of the cataclysmic or end-of-the-world meaning of this word. The word has a much deeper and broader meaning, though, which can help us reflect on this and every moment we face. Understood historically, the apocalyptic imagination is not about the destruction of the world but about the transformation of the world. And this perspective is not only about the future, but about how the future is present now.

In History and Eschatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Theology(SPCK, 2019), the book based on his 2018 Gifford Lectures, N. T. Wright helps us recover the historical meaning of the apocalyptic imagination and its theological relevance for us today.

Wright begins with a philosophical argument. He argues that modern philosophythe Enlightenment, broadly understoodis an updated version of Epicureanism. This philosophical system separates divine from human knowledge, heaven from earth, and eternity from time. Human knowledge, the earth, and the present are so radically separate from divine knowledge, heaven, and the future that these supernatural things can be dismissed as irrelevant or escapist. This separation results in a dualistic approach to discussions about human identity, agency, and futures. The perceived gulf between God and the world results in secular optimism in some autonomous agency (natural selection or technological progress) or in spiritual escapism (souls escaping to heaven).

Wrights next argument is historical. When studying the life of Jesus, the modern worldview fails to understand the Jewish worldview that shaped Jesus and his world. This worldview included a non-dualistic view of eschatology, which saw heaven meeting earth in the Temple, the future present in the Sabbath, and humans as divine agents. Even in its apocalyptic expressionwith heightened contrasts between human and divine knowledge, space, time, and agencythe goal was to uncover and reveal the integrated and interlocking nature of these seemingly disparate dimensions of reality. In Jewish apocalyptic literature, the transformation of the present world came with the end of the present state of affairs. The expectation was for a great transformation, not for the end of the world (57). Apocalyptic, Wright claims, is about a major upheaval withinthe space-time world. We have no evidence of people thinking the world itself would end (58).

Wrights final argument is theological, recovering a biblical theology of new creation. In history we have the cross: the negation of truth, beauty, and justice. Then there is the empty cross, an affirmation of and a call to lovewhich, when received, believes the resurrection. According to Wright, the resurrection reinterprets the old world, interprets the present, and opens up the realworld in its new mode (190). Not only were the dualisms never truly there, in Jewish and Christian eschatology and the apocalyptic imagination, but for the early Christians the residual apparent dualisms were fading away. In Jesus, the early church claimed, we see revealed the true Image of God revealing the new way of being human (197, 201).

So, given the focus of this site, what does all of this have to do with technology? Our technological eschatologiesour ultimate hopes for some of our most complex artificial creationsare often informed by a limited apocalyptic imagination. First, our narratives are largely negative, more characterized by fears than hopes. Second, they are Epicurean: they assume a dualism that separates the secular from the sacred, leaving the latter to be ignored or left over as a place of escape. Third, even if our AI eschatologies are open to a spiritual dimension, they typically preserve a dualism that was unknown in the Jewish and Christian apocalyptic imagination. The recovery of a deeper and broader apocalyptic imagination provides us with a richer perspective on and vocation for technology.

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Apocalypse Now and Not Yet: N. T. Wright's Recovery of the Apocalyptic Imagination - Patheos

Illness as imagination – Times of India

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Sickness reveals the limits of language. Even great writers are forced to look beyond the commonplace to express the spiritual change that illness brings in the individual. Thus, illness becomes a metaphor for many things: Moral decay, political turmoil, the insignificance of human beings or a moment of enlightenment.

Among the drawbacks of illness as a matter for literature is that there is the poverty of language. English, which can express the thoughts of Hamlet and the tragedy of Lear, has no words for the shiver and the headache, wrote Virginia Woof in her treatise On Being Ill.

Diseases, especially epidemics and lifethreatening ones, have informed a variety of literature. But there is no uniformity in dealing with the critical human situation. Illness has meant different experiences for Thomas Mann, Albert Camus, Susan Sontag, Changampuzha Krishna Pillai or O V Vijayan.

Malayalam critics V Rajakrishnan and K P Appan have ventured to study the relationship between morbidity and creative imagination. In his book Rogavum Sahithya Bhavanayum (Illness and Creative Imagination) Appan relates a particular disease with each literary era.

In Appans view, leprosy dominates the classical imagination. Leprosy was the tool to create an outcast in ancient literature and puranas. Here the disease is the punishment from God, Appan wrote. He says that tuberculosis is the disease of the romantic era, syphilis of the realistic era and cancer of the modern age. AIDS in the disease of the postmodern age, he wrote in the study. AIDS is a disease that leaves no hope for survival, he added.

Appan also analyses the language M T Vasudevan Nair, Kakkanadan and O V Vijayan used in dealing with epidemics in their novels. The fear ignited by the outbreak of cholera in Koodallur is vividly captured by MT in the novel Asuravithu by making the language as neutral as that of a pathological study.

A writing style in the novel is such that the short sentences resemble and evoke the comma bacillus that causes cholera, says Appan. The angst the epidemic created in society, where dead bodies are piled up, is vividly recaptured through an evocative language in Asuravithu and Kakkandans Vasoori.

In Khasakkinte Ithihasam, the outbreak of smallpox becomes an aesthetic experience. Vijayan sees the fluid-filled bumps of the disease as the blooming of marigold flowers and goes on to describe Khasak as a huge garden, Appan says.

Not all writers saw diseases from a metaphorical angle and there are many who presented it in a realistic way. The first one that comes to my memory is the play Mariyamma by Polachirackkal Kocheeppan Tharakan that was published in 1903. It has graphic details of how smallpox spreads in society, says critic P K Rajasekharan.

In the writing of Thakazhi and Kesava Dev, diseases like tuberculosis and leprosy are social evils and the victims are always the marginalised in society who are deprived of proper sanitation or health care, Rajasekharan explains.

Epidemics also assume the level of a political allegory where the decay of human body denotes the degeneration of ideology. The political and ideological implication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyns Cancer Ward are too pronounced to be ignored. Satchidanandans poem Pani (fever) is a creative reaction to the oppressive days of Emergency in the country.

There is yet another group of writers for whom disease is not exactly a horrifying experience. For Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon illness is not a doomed experience because it also leaves the possibility of recovery, which is expressed in a number of poems like Kaviyum Kushtarogiyum, Asupatriyil andVellilavalli, says Sajay K V, a prominent NewGen critic.

As in many of Vyloppillis works, these poems have their own dose of pessimism and cynicism, but the poet overcomes the negativity with hope. The poem Vellilavalli narrates how a near-decayed plant is regenerated and restored to normalcy, Sajay points out.

In Kaviyum Kushtarogiyum, the poet destroys a letter written by a leprosy patient for fear of spreading the disease but in the end, sends a copy of his book to the patient. These poems can be juxtaposed with Balachandran Chullikkads works where morbidity itself is celebrated. Chullikkads imagery draws its strength from morbid imagination. The poet himself had confessed that there is an element of Changampuzha in him who revelled in masochism. On the contrary, Vyloppillis stress is on recovery and regeneration, Sajay explains.

They are writers who converted the trauma they passed through during the days of intense pain to an edifying and enlightening experience. N N Kakkad, who suffered from cancer, was one among such writers who narrated the dark days of his isolation in poems such as Saphalamee Yathra, Intensive Care and Maranathe Kurichu Oru Amoortha Padanam.

The experience of illness lifts the poet to a higher spiritual level from where he can look upon the world with compassion and love and confront impending death with a smile.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Illness as imagination - Times of India

Model Angela Martini: Here Is How To Survive And Thrive As A Highly Sensitive Person – Thrive Global

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

The most important thing is to try to understand that person even its difficult or sometimes seems impossible. For the sensitive person, the most important thing is to feel that the partner believes him/her. As a partner of a highly sensitive person, you will often hear strange ideas, you will face weird moods, or you will feel unfamiliar emotions. The good news is that you will never bebored.

As a part of our series about How To Survive And Thrive As A Highly Sensitive Person, I had the pleasure of interviewing Angela Martini.Born in Shkodr, Albania, during a time of economic unrest, Angela Martini moved to Switzerland at the age of ten. She began her professional modeling career at the age of eighteen, and at the age of twenty-one, against the advice of the people around her, she booked a one-way ticket to Miami to pursue a modeling career in the United States. Within a few months, she was signed by Elite Model Management, one of the worlds premier modeling agencies in New York City. In 2010 Angela was crowned Miss Universe Albania. Two weeks later, she placed sixth in the Miss Universe pageant, still the highest finish for any Miss Albania. Incredibly, she achieved this without any training or preparationor even a hair and makeup team! In 2017, Angela found a new passion for helping others and became a certified life coach. She recently published her first book, Love. Hope. Light as a guiding light to those who may only see darkness. She hopes her story will inspire others to overcome their own personal trials.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself and what you do professionally?

My name is Angela Martini, Im a certified life coach and the author of Love. Hope. Light. For several years, I was an international model and also competed in the Miss Universe pageant representing my native country of Albania. In 2017, I became a life coach and today, Im focused on helping others overcome personal issues and strive to be the best version of themselves through my coaching.

Can you help define for our readers what is meant by a Highly Sensitive Person? Does it simply mean that feelings are easily hurt or offended?

A highly sensitive person is someone who is pretty much on the way to enlightenment because he or she feels everything more powerfully. They can easily understand the spiritual world, which is the base of our reality. They also can see past the material walls of our society. Being a highly sensitive person can be challenging to understand for people who are not highly sensitive. In todays society, it can even appear to be a negative characteristic or a handicap. The reality, though, is entirely different. If managed the right way, being highly sensitive can be a huge advantage.

Does a Highly Sensitive Person have a higher degree of empathy towards others? Is a Highly Sensitive Person offended by hurtful remarks made about other people?

A highly sensitive person may feel or express too much toward others, and that can, in turn, make you feel like you dont fit in or something is wrong with you. However, this is not the case. As an HSP, your brain is more sensitive, and you feel every feeling way more amplified.

Does a Highly Sensitive Person have greater difficulty with certain parts of popular culture, entertainment or news, that depict emotional or physical pain? Can you explain or give a story?

As an HSP, you see shades of emotions that no one else sees. You understand and feel the world differently. This being said, a highly sensitive person might not be able to handle watching or learning about upsetting or sad things on the news. They will likely feel the pain of the people involved or directly affected, unlike others who can watch the same thing and move on with their lives.

When does the average persons level of sensitivity rise above the societal norm? When is one seen as too sensitive?

I think being highly sensitive is all about perception. If the majority of people dont feel or react the way a highly sensitive person reacts or feels, then theyre automatically seen as too sensitive only because they are not the majority. However, this is not true. That person is just unique, and the others dont have the tools to understand or feel what they feel.

Im sure that being Highly Sensitive also gives one certain advantages. Can you tell us a few advantages that Highly Sensitive people have?

As an HSP, you see shades of emotions that no one else sees. You have a fantastic intuition, and you can be a great leader offering cooperative and compassionate leadership. You help the ones around you to process their feelings and discover ways to meet their needs.

There seems to be no harm in being overly empathetic. Whats the line drawn between being empathetic and being Highly Sensitive?

Empathetic people share a lot of the same characteristics as highly sensitive people. They both absorb other peoples emotions, and both require alone time and have an aversion to large groups. Although they are both introverts, empaths can sometimes also be extroverts too. They both share a love for quiet environments and feel a strong sense to help others.

Social Media can often be casually callous. How does Social Media affect a Highly Sensitive Person? How can a Highly Sensitive Person utilize the benefits of social media without being pulled down by it?

The essence of social media is to share. People share their daily lives, their thoughts, their favorite things, etc. A highly sensitive person can tend to express too much at times, and that can, in turn, make them feel as if they dont fit in or something is wrong with them. You need to be aware of the fact that others may not understand you because they dont have the tools you have. Although challenging, once you understand and accept that, you need to use this gift in your favor. You have ideas, intuitions, strong emotions, and profound thoughts, and they should be shared.

How would you advise your patient to respond if something they hear or see bothers or affects them, but others comment that that are being petty or that it is minor?

You must remove yourself from that person or situation. Removing yourself is a way of protecting yourself, and although it sounds harsh, it is necessary. You need to create your own rules for everything because you live just one life and you should live it the way you want it! This is not only for a highly sensitive person but for everyone.

What strategies do you recommend to your patients to overcome the challenges that come with being overly sensitive without changing their caring and empathetic nature?

You need to follow a particular way of living and create individual rules for yourself to protect yourself and to really thrive. The more you speak and seek the truth daily, the more you will be connected to your skills and your powers. Using your sensitivity to share and help others only grows your unique gifts, and you will feel every day more that you are on the right path.

What are the myths that you would like to dispel about being a Highly Sensitive Person? Can you explain what you mean?

Being highly sensitive is not a negative characteristic, and being a highly sensitive person is not a handicap. Being highly sensitive can benefit society because they can see and feel things others cannot. The secret is to learn to use this ability because once they do, they can become great leaders offering cooperative and compassionate leadership.

As you know, one of the challenges of being a Highly Sensitive Person is the harmful, and dismissive sentiment of why cant you just stop being so sensitive? What do you think needs to be done to make it apparent that it just doesnt work that way?

I think society as a whole needs to be more empathetic and understand that everyone feels things at different levels and different intensities. It doesnt make you stronger or weaker. Everyone has a unique way of being, and thats okay. If we as a society openly discuss our thoughts and feelings and use tools to listen to others, it can be the first step in helping others understand the challenges.

Ok, here is the main questions for our discussion. Can you share with us your 5 Things You Need To Know To Survive And Thrive As A Highly Sensitive Person? Please give a story or an example for each.

Can you share with us your 5 Things You Need To Know To Survive And Thrive If You Love Or Are In A Relationship With A Highly Sensitive Person. Please give a story or an example for each.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow me on Instagram & Twitter at @angela_martini, Facebook at @officialangelamartini. You can also stay up to date with news of my latest book at angelamartinibook.com.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Model Angela Martini: Here Is How To Survive And Thrive As A Highly Sensitive Person - Thrive Global

Chant these Shanti Mantras for universal peace and wellness – Times Now

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Chant these Shanti Mantras for universal peace and wellness

At a time when the world is facing a crisis of unimaginable proportions owing to the spread of the deadly COVID-19, people can do little but exercise restraint and act responsibly. And as far as India is concerned, citizens are expected to follow the government advisory and cooperate with the authorities to cut the chain of coronavirus.

India has implemented a nationwide lockdown to ensure that the country flattens the curve of the growth of the virus. The Prime Minister has appealed to people to stay at home, and not venture out for the next 21 days.

Now every individual must introspect because they have time aplenty. Probably, it is time to unwind, and detox not only to boost the immune system but also be in a better frame of mind to put things into perspective before beginning anew.

The battle against coronavirus is not only about India's future but humanity as a whole. Hence, the least we can do while sitting at home is to pray for universal peace and well-being.

In this web-post, we shall share a couple of Mantras that when chanted with utmost faith and devotion, can restore peace within and the outside world. Mantras, when recited, generate sound, and since it is a form of energy, it can emit positive vibrations around.

Shanti Path

Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinaha

Sarve Santu Niramayah

Sarve Bhadrani Pashyantu

Ma Kashchida Dukha Bhagbhavet

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih

Meaning:

May every person on the planet may be happy

May no one ever suffers from an illness

May people only see auspiciousness

May no one ever experience sufferings

Om peace peace peace

Here's an excerpt from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:

Pavamana Mantra

Om Asato Maa Sad-Gamaya

Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya |

Mrtyor Maa Amrtam Gamaya |

Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

Meaning

Lead me from:

Falsehood to the truth

Ignorance to enlightenment

Death to immortality

Om peace peace peace

By chanting these mantras, you can calm your mind, and also pray that humanity triumphs over this deadly virus, that has claimed lives across the globe.

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Chant these Shanti Mantras for universal peace and wellness - Times Now

Feast of the Passover – THISDAY Newspapers

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

In my present state of lockdown and shutdown in metropolitan Europe, Im reminded of the days of our childhood in Ekiti. In the near term, society lockdown has been the stock response to the uncontrollable outbreak of epidemic disease since classical antiquity. According to Prophet Mohammed When you hear that (a plague) is in a land, do not go to it and if it occurs in a land that you are already in, then do not leave it, fleeing from it. I distinctly remember two precedents the outbreaks of smallpox and cholera in the early 70s, I think, (in Okemesi) where similar response was deployed.

The shutdown was for the purpose of communal cleansing and purification rites. After due consultation with the superintendent deities and the consequent prescription of atonement sacrifices; the senior masquerades from each clan were summoned and mandated to bear the ritual sacrifices to portentous spots and locations in and around the town- road intersections, gateways to the town, shrines etc. Mass vaccination and inoculation were not quite forthcoming at the time and it took the personal intervention of my uncle to make arrangements for the vaccination of as many members of the clan as possible.This was double insurance for the lucky clan. To the best of my knowledge-subject to the limitation to which the boundless curiosity of this adventurous little child of the big man (omo minister) can be gratified, I can attest to the efficacy of the larger community spiritual fortification. News travels fast in the close knit community but seldom would you hear of any casualty thereafter.

On their return from the rarefied battlefield of the spirit world and the determination that the votive offerings have been accepted, the masquerades were accorded a heroic welcome and an adhoc Egungun carnival then ensued. For me, there is an outstanding puzzle to this sacred exercise. The ingredients comprising the sacrifice potions were usually inclusive of coins, food items like eggs, meat and the rest. And I recall that the notorious rascally urchins in the community used to sneak in to retrieve and pocket the coins, and make a feast of the food items! And they seemingly committed this sacrilege with impunity- they just go on with their lives unaffected by any noticeable repercussions, be they bodily harm, ailment or misfortune.This weird misdemeanor was also prevalent among primary and secondary school students. I wouldnt know how these guys fared in latter life though. In the circumstance, I guess the important and relevant point was that those ritual appeasements and atonement appeared effective. Where, before the intervention, there was an outbreak- such trends were, to all appearances, halted in quick order. Anthropological speculators have adduced a measure of overlap between Yoruba indigenous religious sacraments and Judaism. It was while I was ruminating on this wavelength that my mind was arrested by an old testament exemplar- the pseudo historical account of the feast of the passover. On account of those who are not familiar with the narrative of the biblical exemplar, I will quote, at length, the scriptures from the book of Deuteronomy

The Passover Feast commemorates Israels deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Today, the Jewish people not only celebrate Passover as a historical event but in a broader sense, celebrate their freedom as Jews.

One day, through a man named Moses, God came to rescue his people. At the time Moses was born, Pharaoh had ordered the death of all Hebrew males, but God spared Moses when his mother hid him in a basket along the banks of the Nile. Pharaohs daughter found the baby and raised him as her own. Later, Moses fled to Midian after killing an Egyptian for cruelly beating one of his own people. God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and said, I have seen the misery of my people. I have heard their cries, I care about their suffering, and I have come to rescue them. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt. (Exodus 3:7-10) After making excuses, Moses finally obeyed God. But Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go. God sent ten plagues to persuade him. With the final plague, God promised to strike dead every first-born son in Egypt at midnight on the fifteenth day of Nissan. The Lord provided instructions to Moses so his people would be spared. Each Hebrew family was to take a Passover lamb, slaughter it, and place some of the blood on the door frames of their homes. When the destroyer passed over Egypt, he would not enter the homes covered by the blood of the Passover lamb.

As it was with the Passover so it was with the momentary shutdown of society in Ekiti of yore-so the scourge of the plague may be engaged and subdued. As the placement of the ritual identification (or anointing to put it in Pentecostal parlance) passover blood of the lamb on the lintel of the Jewish household was directed by the Jewish God, so was the ritual sacrifice prescription mandated by the Yoruba superintending deity or divinity speaking through the adept diviner. Now, sitting down at home, in part, in voluntary detention in Cardiff- and in part, in collective communal obedience to the directive of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, I was reminded of the Yoruba parallel of sde (forbidden from wandering out of your residence) to enable a wholesome grappling with the essence of what plagues the community. Emboldened with inherent confidence in the supersonic, almost godlike technological sufficiency of the contemporary global superpower (Putin would not like this but I think there is only one left) my initial reaction to the coronavirus pandemic and attendant global panic was lighthearted trivialisation. This attitude was further encouraged by the initial medical briefing that it was no more lethal than the common cold with similar symptoms and pathology. And the logical conclusion that only geriatrics and those compromised by immune deficiency are the vulnerable population. Now I know better but the most critical lesson I have learnt from the raging pandemic is just how vulnerable humanity is at the hands of mother nature. And that maybe there is a potent spiritual dimension to all this.

Yet, even in my initial dismissive attitude, a fortnight ago, I acted in a manner contrary to my outward disposition of belittling the crisis-as all smoke without fire. Seizing upon the lull in social activities, light human traffic and creeping highway desolation in Oxford, my minder encouraged me to acquire a six months deferred enlightenment excursion to the historic tourist spots in the city-especially the museum. And among the places we visited was a six hundred years old church where I encountered the non visible antiquated apparitions who had been dwelling therein in as many years. On our way out I chanced upon a book of prayer requests and without hesitation I made the sole request that God should cure and rid the land of COVID-19.

As the scourge gathered tempo, worldwide attention became riveted by the going ons in America, the lone worldwide hegemon- a veritable case of when Washington sneezes (never mind it was actually China that did the sneezing this time around), the rest of humanity catches COVID-19. Never mind the theatre of the absurd that has become Trumps America-. And of course, Trump being Trump, the American President has gone through his routine motions of blundering buffoonery, bearing false witness on about every topic reinforced with arrogant display of pre pubescent distemper in the glare of daily media briefing sessions. In his typical huff and bluster, he had declared himself a war time President squaring up to a worthy adversary called COVID-19. Yet we all remember how brave he proved himself when he was confronted with the prospect of being drafted for a real war at the prime of his manhood. And I now regret forgetting to include him in my shopping prayer basket at the antique house of God the other day. Next to the pandemic, the Trump Presidency would be my priority prayer point worthy of being extirpated from the company of decent humanity. Need we iterate that many world and African leaders today are plagues in human form?. And the opportunity of getting rid of the most virulent looms larger everyday in the run down to the November showdown. Insha Allah,Trump would go the same sneaky way (like a thief in the night) he alighted on all of us, his ruinous tenure to wrought. Im appalled at his poll numbers- that a President this defective can command the unwavering support of at least 40 per cent of the voting age population of Americans beats hollow the imagination- an unpopular president who still has a lot of Americans who like him. While erroneously disavowing the possibility of Trump getting elected as President four years ago, Fareed Zakaria did not know how prophetic he would prove when he characterised Trump as a cancer on American democracy.Transiting from the enormous idealism signposted by the election of Barack Obamas to the dangerously profane and perverse incumbent is a tough call. I have no doubt in my mind that the dark coronavirus patch the world is trending through is pregnant with providential meanings for mankind. In the inspired lyrics of my all time favourite musician, Bob Marley- there is a natural mystic blowing through the air and if you listen carefully now you will hear, many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die, dont ask me why

Unlike Bob Marley, you can ask me why and I will respond as follows: Remember the prophetic Zakaria branding of Trump as a cancer? Another befitting characterisation is sharing the profile of a bacchanalian Pharaoh of the orgiastic Cleopatra-ptolemy order. Trump, of course, cannot be the only Pharaoh in the universe. There is one in Russia, there is another in Syria, North Korea, Turkey, and some would add Nigeria. And remember, for every Pharaoh, there is the red sea. A spiritual cleansing is coursing through the world, the avenging angel of God is wielding the spear to hack down the workers of of iniquity (country by country) and perceiving the blood of the lamb identification mark on those who have not partaken of the iniquities- will pass them over.

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Feast of the Passover - THISDAY Newspapers

A big bookmark in our lives: York County Libraries are here for you with eBooks – York Daily Record

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

A $10 million capital campaign is underway for renovations and/or expansion at three York County libraries. York Daily Record

In accordance with Governor Wolfs decision to close all schools and nonessential establishments in Pennsylvania, and in compliance with a directive from the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, York County Libraries have been closed since March 15 to flatten the spread of coronavirus, which causes the COVID-19 illness.

Your 13 York County libraries will reopen as soon as circumstances permit. All library events scheduled during this closure also are cancelled. This includes our locations in Brogue, Dillsburg, Dover, Etters, Glen Rock, Hanover, Hellam, Jacobus, Red Lion, Shrewsbury, Spring Grove, Stewartstown and York City.

We will continue to closely monitor the situation and reassess our eventual opening date. In the meantime, as Governor Wolf and PA Physician General Rachel Levine might say, stay calm, stay safe, stay home, and stay engaged.

All library materials currently checked out are automatically renewed until at least April 15. No fines will be assessed during this closure. Please retain your library materials until we reopen, and dont stress about fines or penalties. They are waived during this time.

More: Social distancing driving you crazy? Here are some ideas of things to do as a family

More: Martin Library, a living vision for York County

Bookmarks mark the place where reading is suspended to let us know where to start again. For most of us, if we are careful and fortunate, this crisis will be a catalyst for placemaking in our lives.

This shift may seem scary. It may be cumbersome. It may be annoying. But it, too, shall pass.

We shall resume. We dont know when, but, when we emerge from this challenge, we will be back stronger than ever.

And before we get back to normal, York County will show her true colors of neighborliness, common sense, prudence, decency, compassion, healing, empathy, and mercy. Let our true character light the way during this crisis and be our legacy after the closures cease.

York County Libraries will continue to closely monitor the situation and reassess our opening date as deemed necessary. Further updates will be shared on our website and through social media.

In the meantime, we encourage you to make use of our eBooks and online services at yorklibraries.org. Thousands of titles in many genres and for all ages are at the tip of your fingers. After going to the homepage, scroll down to click on the blue EBOOKS! and more icon. Then click on the Axis 360 icon.

Scroll through our Features or your favorite genre or subject and click on your pick and select checkout. Enter your library card number (its on the back of the card) and PIN (last four digits of your card number). Select read now and presto, your electronic publication will appear on your computer, laptop, I-phone, or Kindle Fire. There are no late fees.

Online resources cannot replace the sharing, fellowship, classes and sense of community that our 13 libraries provide virtually every day. And our numbers of visitors bear this out. Even during this digital revolution, libraries are more popular than ever.

Perhaps because of the digital revolution, people crave community more than ever. Thats part of the reason why, in 2019, your York County Libraries attracted over 1.5 million customers like you.

But now, with our libraries, restaurants (for dine-in), bars and theaters temporarily closed, reading at home is a great way to stay safe while stimulating our minds, expanding our knowledge, and connecting to humanity.

Responsible physical distancing does not have to mean loneliness or anxiety. It can mean reflection, rewiring, and recommitting. It can mean reading.

These days can be an opportunity to take a deep dive into your favorite reads, to dig into those books on your shelves that you havent cracked open or finished, and to download titles that you once thought you didnt have time to explore.

Also, heres a fun activity: Read a book and then compare it to its movie. Here are just a few suggestions of authors whose works have been made into captivating movies: William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Victor Hugo, the Grimm Brothers, Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ernest Hemingway, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, L. Frank Baum, Alex Haley, August Wilson, Harper Lee, Mario Puzo, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Golden, William Goldman, Markus Zusak, Margaret Mitchell, Jeff Shaara, Yang Martel, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Terry McMillan, Stephen King, Michael Creighton, J. K. Rowling, Thomas Harris, Nicholas Sparks, Suzanne Collins, James Dashner, Veronica Roth, and John Green. Movie adaptations of their stories provide great opportunities for discussion, fun debate, and humor.

For the next few weeks, thank you for your patience and understanding. We pray for your safety, nourishment (physical and spiritual) and peace of mind. We pray for prudence, forbearance, and good decision-making. We pray for good health for all. We pray for peace and enlightenment.

Because we treat each other as we want to be treated, because we gracefully endure, York County and York County Libraries will be stronger and more united than ever on the other side.

In the meantime, keep learning and keep loving (from a distance). Keep calm and read on. We will see you soon.

Robert F. Lambert is president of York County Libraries.

The York Daily Record's coverage of coronavirus is being provided for free to our readers. Pleaseconsider supporting local journalism by subscribingatydr.com/subscribe.

Robert F. Lambert(Photo: Submitted)

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A big bookmark in our lives: York County Libraries are here for you with eBooks - York Daily Record

Frank Oceans Monks & the Fantasy of Worship – DJBooth

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

I spend a lot of time listening to poet Tommy Pico speak on love. In the Valentines Day-themed episode of his podcast gabfest, Pico and his three co-hosts bring up a very salient point on love: Worship and idolization arent necessarily love. How many of us, though, put our loves on pedestals so high we have no idea how we built them in the first place?

Pico and co. posit this is not love at all, but unhealthy obsession; this is not love and cannot possibly last. Eventually, people reveal who they really are. Pedestals crack and crumble. Idols tumble down into human territory. Were left with a choice: Do we accept the person we love, not solely their image? Can we, even? These are the questions percolating as I listen to Frank Oceans Monks, a sleeper hit off channel ORANGE.

Monks is, among other things, about Franks relationship with a series of women attending his concerts. He positions each concert as a religious experience. Worship is baked into the text of Monks. Frank is on a literal pedestal: the stage. The women of the track are inclined to see him as holier than, simply because he is an artist. And as Frank alludes (African girl speaks in English accent / Likes to fuck boys in bands), the women of the track are no strangers to this exchange of energy. Power imbalances aside, Monks rests on the power of lust. Frank is forthright about the sex: Likes to watch Westerns / And ride me without the hands. But it is within the subtext of Monks that we find our meaning. That is, we discover Monks is a warning on the perils of worship through the lens of lust.

For one, the mention of Westerns sets us up to understand the dynamic of groupie and artist and as an indictment of American ideals. Our society is responsible for propping Frank up on his pedestal simply because we see him on the stage. Capitalism has manufactured the cult of celebrity to sell us the narrative the talented are inherently better than us. True, Frank is using sex instead of sales, but in a nation where sex and money are linked in more ways than one, were not exactly stretching our reading.

Secondly, during the sex scene of the first verse, we struggle to see if Frank is commanding his partner or if hes speaking to the crowd: Waveem high, girl, to the sky / But youre beautiful to me / Life in the clouds / Keep em high, yall. The switch from girl to yall tips us off about the sex of the song being performance. There is no difference between the fictitious Frank guiding the crowd and fictitious Frank fucking a woman. In both instancesof worship through the lens of lustFrank is positioned as this greater being, and either the audience or the woman is inherently lesser. In this light, of course, we stand to disagree with the narrative of the verse. Such is the point: Frank is trying to dissuade us from worshiping our partners.

One verse down, and weve established Frank is playing as an unreliable narrator to teach us a lesson. In the second verse, Frank advances the notion of worship and performance. Monks in the mosh pit / Stage diving Dalai Lama / Feet covered in cut flowers / They mosh for enlightenment, he sings. We get the sense of stage and performance as spiritual. However, knowing what we know from the first verse, we have to understand Franks portrayal is not pure. The mention enlightenment can be read as sarcastic. At the least, it can be read as sarcastic. The great turn of this verse, though, comes with Frank removing himself from the narrative. The Indian girl of the second verse finds herself a man and wishes to run away. On the bridge, Frank assumes the voice of the boyfriend, but we know its not him.

Franks narrative turn is meant to showcase a difference in urgencies. The rambunctious sex of the first verse has an urgency by virtue of the worship of the situation. That is, fan worshiping artist. The urgency of the Indian girl hoping to escape with her lover feels purer by contrast. Here, Frank attempts to show us the power of love when worship is excluded, when two people meet on equal and human footing. Frank borrows lines from the first verse (Youre beautiful to me) on the bridge, but instead of us reading the lines as the lip service they were, we genuinely believe the character of the boyfriend. We read his urgency as excitement, not a manipulation. The fantasy of worship is no moreall that is left is acceptance and love.

This brings us to the thesis of the third verse: escape. Were still following the girl and her boyfriend. Were witnessing their escape from her fathers army. Literally, we can assume Frank is painting a picture of disapproving parents and dated social norms. Figuratively, when paired with the first verse, we can take the imagery in another direction. We can take the imagery to be an escape from the perils of worship replacing love. We see love as something to be earned, fought for, and something that must develop throughout hardship. We see love as dynamic, and not something that blooms because we idolize our partner.

To this point, Frank concludes the third verse with, Were lost in a jungle underneath these clouds / Theres a monsoon that never ends / A coke white tiger woke us from our slumber / To guide and protect us til the end. These gorgeous lines give us the impression the couples love will last, if only because theyve lived through so much together. To close the song, once again, Frank borrows earlier lines from his performer-self: Were in the clouds / Wave em high now, to the sky. As with the bridge, we believe the words of the boyfriend much more than we do the words of the fictitious Frank Ocean.

Monks concludes with love beating out worship, with a celebration. The journey of Monks presents a valuable lesson: Love is not implied, it is worked at. Love can be glorious and sudden, but it does not exist naturally. Frank warns us against using worship to supplant true love, and by employing multiple narratives and an unreliable narrator, we get the sense Frank takes this lesson very seriously. Bringing it back to Tommy Pico, he and his podcast cohorts land on love as being something you can only feel once you reveal yourself to a person, and they reveal themselves back. The work of vulnerability is privileged. Risking lives and running from archers, Monks personifies that work. Groupies be damned, there is more to love than the rush of standing upon a pedestal.

Originally posted here:

Frank Oceans Monks & the Fantasy of Worship - DJBooth

Opinion: Coronavirus is the greatest challenge we’ve faced in generations. Altruism is how to overcome it – The Globe and Mail

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

A volunteer for a community-owned grocery store speaks with a self-isolating person in Marsden, England, on March 23, 2020.

OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images

Charles Montgomery is the author of Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design.

Auckland Island, a craggy expanse of sub-polar tundra nearly 500 kilometres south of New Zealand, was once a magnet for shipwrecks.

In January, 1864, the schooner Grafton foundered on a rocky beach on the south end of the island. The ships mate, Franois douard Raynal, was deeply ill at the time of the wreck. His crewmates managed to rig up a rope system and get him to shore.

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Raynal and the ships captain, Thomas Musgrave, used seal blood to record their ordeal. Despite their diverse backgrounds (American, French, English, Norwegian and Portuguese), the crew took care of each other and worked co-operatively. Once hed recovered, Raynal led the crew to build a forge using seal skin for bellows. He forged nails from salvaged materials. He baked and crushed seashells, then mixed them with sand to make concrete. The crew built a cabin and taught each other their respective languages.

After a year and a half, the men repaired the ships dinghy, in which Musgrave, Raynal and another man made the desperate crossing to Stewart Island in New Zealand. Musgrave then led a successful expedition to rescue the remaining two men.

Unbeknownst to the Grafton crew, another ship struck and broke up on the north shore of the same island five months after their wreck. Nineteen of the Invercaulds 25 crewmen made it to shore. They left one injured member of their party to die on the beach. As the castaways trekked across the island searching for food, they abandoned other weak members of the crew. They ate one fallen companion. Only three men remained alive when they were rescued a year later.

The fate of these two crews couldnt have been more different, but they reflect a pattern seen in other nautical disasters. The sociologist Nicholas Christakis studied shipwrecks between the years 1500 and 1900. He found a consistent theme: Crews who were co-operative, egalitarian and caring, those who shared food and cared for sick members, almost always fared better than those where the ethos was every man for himself.

Whats true for shipwrecks is true for communities and entire societies. In his book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, Dr. Christakis offers evidence from societies throughout history that the secret to any groups success is its ability to embody several social traits. Shining among these traits are altruism and co-operation.

This is the lesson from mountains of research on human social groups. Altruism is the superpower that keeps us strong. We must activate this power as we face the greatest collective challenge in generations. The way we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic will determine not just our success as a society; it will define who we really are and how we will be remembered.

Are we a society of people who co-operate and take care of each other especially our most vulnerable members when we hit the rocks?

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COVID-19 sure doesnt make this easy. The pandemic is inherently disorienting: In times of crisis, our natural response is to come together literally. But this crisis demands that we maintain physical distance from one another. We cannot necessarily huddle together, warming our sick and weary, on this storm-battered shore.

Altruism, in this case, demands that we ignore messages from what the psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls our fast brain, in favour of our slow brain. This means actively cooling our fear-driven passions and impulses, and paying attention instead to evidence and sober analysis. It means ignoring social-media clickbait and conspiracy theories, and instead trusting in scientists and health authorities.

I feel this fast-brain/slow-brain tension acutely. I became a father last week, just as Canada was ascending the pandemic curve. My heart aches with the desire to embrace my son, but the evidence demands that I give space to him and his moms (his two primary parents) until the time for physical distancing has passed. Social solidarity, in this case, demands FaceTime rather than face time.

The pandemic exacerbates another social tension: Our species has evolved the remarkable ability to trust and co-operate with millions of people who are not our direct kin. Its essential for the success of cities and countries. But this ability competes with the tendency to favour people who seem more like us. In times of threat, much like the crew of the Invercauld, we are tempted to divide the world into those who should be protected and those who should be excluded from care because theyre weak or different.

This impulse has manifested in ugly ways already. U.S. President Donald Trump, against the advice of the World Health Organization, has dubbed COVID-19 the Chinese virus. Americans and Canadians of Chinese descent are reporting a surge in verbal and physical assaults. The South African government is building a virus fence along its border with Zimbabwe. One Kenyan parliamentarian insisted his constituents had the right to stone and chase away foreigners; one man has already been killed.

The virus is a convenient tool for any who believe their own social groups strength comes from excluding others. Its a weapon for those who double down on selfishness by shrinking the in group. When pundits talk about herd immunity essentially letting the virus run its course so we can ramp up economic activity again theyre really talking about culling the old, the sick and the poor.

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The falseness of this path is woven into our spiritual traditions. The Christian Bible advises us to "value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Islamic texts celebrate the people of Medina, who welcomed the war refugee Mohammed and his followers into their homes. The Buddha reached enlightenment when he understood the interconnectedness of all suffering and the primacy of compassion.

Altruism is also woven into our DNA. We are rewarded by feel-good hormones such as oxytocin every time we engage in trusting and trust-building actions. Evolutionary biologists invented a term to describe the phenomenon by which altruistic groups fare better than selfish ones. They call it inclusive fitness.

The pandemic is forcing us to reckon with our interconnectedness. Take the neighbourhood outside my office. Vancouvers Downtown Eastside is home to thousands of Canadas most vulnerable people, many of whom live with mental illness and addiction. Some are homeless. Thousands more live in cramped and filthy single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels, sharing bathrooms.

For years, many Vancouverites have been content to leave these people to their fate, tucked away in a grubby corner of the city. But activists have sounded the alarm that this concentration of poverty is a powder keg of contagion. The science is clear: Viruses spread when poor people dont have the resources to stay clean and healthy.

The virus could sweep through the SROs with astonishing speed, killing many immunocompromised people, but also compounding the spread of the novel coronavirus through the city. Our fates are now bonded even more closely than the crews of those South Pacific shipwrecks.

Common care has burst forth this spring. Community members and allies from all walks of life have rallied to raise funds to keep people in the Downtown Eastside healthy. (Yes, you can donate, right now at dtesresponse.ca.) Elsewhere, people across the country are offering support for homebound neighbours and strangers.

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But society-wide threats demand a higher level of collective action. When governments invest in inclusive fitness, they boost our collective well-being. It was concern for poor families that led the Saskatchewan government to introduce universal health care in 1961. Publicly funded health care has now put Canada in a stronger position to fight COVID-19 than the United States.

The past few decades have seen a deepening of inequity in many countries. (In Canada, its worsening in our big cities.) Neoliberal policies have left many people alone on the rocky edges of society. But governments are now rediscovering the value of reinvesting in common well-being.

In their pandemic response, city governments in San Jose and San Francisco have announced a temporary moratorium on evictions. The Danish government has promised to cover up to 90 per cent of salaries if businesses keep their employees. Hospitals and medical systems are being rapidly expanded. Social welfare nets are being mended. Universal basic income was once considered a radical idea, but leaders across the political spectrum are now advocating for cash payouts not just for laid-off workers, but for everyone.

The COVID-19 pandemic is just a taste of the economic and environmental shocks well weather in the age of rapid climate change. The decisions governments make today may shape society for decades to come. Countries with supportive foundations such as accessible health care and stable, affordable housing will be stronger as those storms approach.

A century and a half ago, the crew of the Grafton decided that a sick man was worth saving from their foundering schooner. Once healthy, Raynal used his smarts to help the group survive. Now we need to decide as a society: Will our decisions be driven by the impulse to exclude, or the knowledge that we really are all in the same boat?

Rome lay empty on Monday as a government-ordered shutdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, under which all non-essential movements are banned and shops and parks are closed, continues. The Associated Press

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Opinion: Coronavirus is the greatest challenge we've faced in generations. Altruism is how to overcome it - The Globe and Mail

Liberty AV Solutions – Your Best Source for Pro AV …

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Liberty offers many different types of technology for a wide variety of applications. Easily find just the products you need using our handy Product Selectors.

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From Training manuals and videos to comprehensive installation guides and info graphics, Liberty's Tech Tank will help you get the job done right.

Here you'll find all the stuff especially for you. You can check on your orders, view your favorite items (order history), download a price list or view and pay your invoices.

Wow, all that in one place. You might never have to call us again (but we'd still love to hear from you).

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Here you'll find the latest Press Releases from Liberty, Intelix and our Partner Brands. Great for staying abreast of what's happening.

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Need help figuring out the products you need? No problem! Try these handy tools and product selectors and find what you need today.

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