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Seven Lions unveils kaleidoscopic new EP, ‘Find Another Way’ [Stream] – Dancing Astronaut

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

by: Rachel NarozniakMar 27, 2020

Quite some time has passed since Seven Lions re-entered the electronic release ring with a new EP in hand, but with Find Another Way, the producer closes a more than one-and-a-half-year gap in this format. Sonically kaleidoscopic in its engagement of sub-genres such as psytrance, dubstep, and house, the melodically threaded follow up to 2018s Start Again is evidence that Seven Lions uniquely emotive touch remains golden.

The assertive trance character of opening number, Remember sets a fervid tone for the tracks that ensue, each of which commands its own potency. Although the five songs that make up Find Another Way stylistically differ, with the mid-tempo, vocal-centric body of Senseless standing apart from the upbeat, psy-trance orientation of Only Now, for example, the hallmarks of a Seven Lions production, from rushing melodies to heavy-handed bass, are audible on all of the EPs inclusions. Features include Au5, Crystal Skies, April Bender, HALIENE, and Tyler Graves.

Photo credit: Rukes

Tags: april bender, au5, crystal skies, Find Another Way, Hailene, Seven Lions, tyler graves

Categories: Music

Seven Lions unveils kaleidoscopic new EP, 'Find Another Way' [Stream] - Dancing Astronaut

Classic Trance Legends with Lange and Binary Finary at Unit Nine – Skiddle.com

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Classic Trance Legends with Lange and Binary Finary Tickets | Unit Nine Milton Keynes | Fri 23rd October 2020 Lineup

Coronavirus update: View cancelled events here

Unit Nine in Milton Keynes

Friday 23rd October 2020

9:00pm til 3:00am

Minimum Age: 18

Bringing to you another Trance Club Classics night to Milton Keynes

We are back with another Trance Club Classics night.

This time Binary Finary and Lange grace the Unit Nine stage...

We are very excited to confirm that our legendary Trance resident, DJ Scottie, will be spinning some vinyl classics once again!

Super Earlybirds - 10 ++ SOLD OUT ++

Please note: The event information above has been added by the organiser. Whilst we try to ensure all details are up-to-date we do not make any warranty or representation as to the accuracy or completeness of the information shown.

Need a place to stay? Compare every available hotel deal and Airbnb near Unit Nine, so book today to secure the best price!.

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Classic Trance Legends with Lange and Binary Finary at Unit Nine - Skiddle.com

History of Polish techno to be explored in new book – DJ Mag

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

A crowdfunder has been launched to publish a book about Poland's techno scene.

Launched byRadosaw Tereszczuk, Artur Wojtczak and ukasz Krajewski, three key members ofPoland's techno scene, a crowdfunder has been set up to raise money to publish '30 Years Of The Polish Techno Scene' -the very first anthology of techno and the electronic music scene in Poland.

Not just limited to techno, the book containsmore than 700 pages, and is filled with photos and stories from those involved in the techno, house, and drum & bass scenes in Poland, past and present.

"Although the political climate prevailing in Poland was sometimes bleak, we could learn in clubs what the community and ideals of equality mean in practice," the team behind the project shared, "And not to overdo it with drugs.The anthology combines the historical perspective - dates, places, names and biographies - with the individual experience of the authors invited to write the texts. It covers a wide spectrum of genres of less and more danceable electronic music - techno, trance, rave, dubstep, hardtek, house, drum'nbass and so on.

It comprehensively presents the birth and development of the stage in Poland from 1989 until today. It includes music and clubbing in Warsaw, Gdask and d, and seemingly smaller centers, such as Pock or Szczecin, and talks about events on beaches and in the forest."

You can read more about the crowdfunder, and donate to the project,here.

From more inclusive dancefloors to world-confronting techno festivals, Anna Cafollaspoke to the collectives, crews, and scene stalwarts pushing Poland as a radical clubbers paradise for both local and international ravers.

Paavo Siljamki of Above & Beyond has been Diagnosed with COVID-19 – EDM.com

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

A personality near and dear to the EDM community has shared that he has come down withCOVID-19. Paavo Siljamki of trance trioAbove & Beyondhas shared that hes fought the disease for 11 days and taken the opportunity to give thanks for healthcare professionals on the frontlines.

Im on day 11 of fighting the coronavirus here, said Siljamki in a video shared via his Instagram Story. I wonder if anybody else is ill at the moment and knows what its like. He speculated that he may have contracted the novel coronavirus from a massage therapist in Bali two weeks ago.

He went on to encourage those listening to be mindful of healthcare workers putting their own health at risk for the treatment of others.I have such gratitude for the people who risk their lives to help us during difficult spots, he said.

Siljamki closed out by reminding fans not to be fearful even in the face of uncertainty. A big part of being ill is being afraid, he said.

H/T:Global Dance Electronic

Facebook: facebook.com/aboveandbeyondInstagram: instagram.com/aboveandbeyondTwitter: twitter.com/aboveandbeyondSoundCloud: soundcloud.com/aboveandbeyond

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Paavo Siljamki of Above & Beyond has been Diagnosed with COVID-19 - EDM.com

FIRE and the implausible millennial movement to save, invest, and quit the American workplace – Vox.com

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Part of Issue #12 of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.

Rebecca, 33, grew up in a single-parent household and graduated from college with a music degree in 2008, at the pit of the recession. She lived paycheck-to-paycheck until she took a job at a Fortune 500 company while putting herself through business school, at which point she paid off about $15,000 of student loan debt she accumulated during undergrad.

Rebecca felt the pressure to earn. Since she was 23, she has financially supported her mom, who was laid off in 2008; its one of the reasons she left music. It was really all about money in the beginning, she says.

But she quickly discovered, as she wrote on her blog, I dont like to go to work.

It wasnt the work that Rebecca hated; it was the work environment, the Sisyphean cycle requiring deft navigation of office politics and frustrating management, early mornings, and the surrender of nights and weekends in order to climb. On her blog, she would describe the relief that washed over her at the end of a workday, writing: I get home, plop in front of the TV to block out the miserable thought that this [is] my life until birthday #65.

So, for seven years, Rebecca who blogs under a pseudonym and asked that her real name be withheld to keep her financial information confidential and her husband, a freelance musician, saved and saved, and invested and saved. They made a combined low-six-figure income, though his was sporadic and hers steady. They also received two inheritances from her grandfather and father, money they put directly into their investment portfolio.

The less they spent on lattes, clothes, new iPhones, and the like, the sooner she could leave fluorescent-lit 9-to-5 life behind. Rebeccas goal: to amass a net worth of $1 million by the end of 2019.

Rebeccas extreme retirement plan wasnt necessarily of her own design. She was inspired by FIRE a movement that takes its name from the acronym Financial Independence Retire Early. FIRE is buzzy and blog-friendly, attracting followers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who reject the notions that income earning must steer the bulk of adult life, and that the reward of retirement must wait for their golden years. What if, they propose, a better plan is to live frugally, save intensely, and retire in the prime of life?

Guesses at how big FIRE has become are vague at best, but there are some clues: There are currently more than 700,000 members in an active Financial Independence subreddit founded in 2011, and popular blog and podcast network Choose FI has registered more than 1.6 million downloads to date. Another FIRE-related blog, Mr. Money Mustache, reported last year that it had been accessed by more than 30 million unique viewers since 2011.

In November 2019, Rebecca hit her target and retired. But as her FIRE date drew near, anxiety crept in; she feared walking away from a high-paying job. Rebeccas mom totally freaked out when Rebecca shared her plans. So did her in-laws. Who could blame them? Theres a not-insignificant amount of risk involved in FIRE, as the stock market roller coaster and economic ripple effect in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic have recently made worryingly clear. Not knowing whats next is really scary, and I didnt think it would be as scary, Rebecca told Vox before leaving her job. I think about it all the time.

Her fears are well-founded, particularly for her generation. Many millennials were laid off in the Great Recession (8.7 million total lost their jobs across all generations), or struggled to find paid work after graduating, and many are still playing a losing game of financial catch-up as a result. Today, millennials remain strapped with an unprecedented student loan debt crisis and ballooning housing, health care, and child care expenses. As a result, they overwhelmingly put off homeownership, medical and dental visits, and having kids because they cant afford it. All the while, but especially now, evidence has grown that another economic crisis may be imminent.

The rise of FIRE runs strikingly counter to that financial picture. How can anyone dream of quitting their job when they can barely stay afloat?

Yet the existential dread Rebecca felt about work is far from uncommon. Gallup has reported that more than half of millennials describe themselves as not engaged at work, or not emotionally and behaviorally connected to their job and company. That dread, and a growing sense of burnout, may in fact be feeding millennial interest in FIRE. The Harris Poll found in 2018 that Google searches for Financial Independence Retire Early rose 96 percent in five years.

If you have a conversation long enough about FIRE, you end up getting into this existential crisis of, like, What are we doing here? says Scott Rieckens, 36, a filmmaker who chronicled his familys entry into FIRE in the documentary Playing With Fire, released on iTunes late last year. Because it is about your time, this nonrenewable resource. ... So what are you going to do with the life that you have left, right?

Financial freedom, as FIRE proponents call the salvation bequeathed by quitting their day jobs, comes with a cost, however. Saving intensely some FIRE leaders recommend saving 50 to 70 percent of your paycheck is an expense in and of itself. To get there, FIRE requires life optimization to the extreme, optimization that can edge out folks without a 401(k) or more than $400 in the bank at any given time, those who dont make six figures by 30, those who dont have partners with whom to split the mortgage, and those who have $40,000 in student debt. And in the end, no one, not even a millennial with a million in the bank can say for sure that the hustle to save will result in the thing that eludes them: happiness.

FIRE is more complicated than telling your boss to get bent, hightailing it to the beach, and never answering another high priority email again.

The first and most crucial part is the FI: Financial Independence. Achieving FI is what the movement, and all of its corresponding blogs, podcasts, forums, and subreddits, hinge on.

Adherents to the FIRE model reach FI by obeying an austere financial diet: Cut spending, eliminate bad habits, pay down debt, and come up with target numbers for how much net worth to accumulate and when to accumulate it by. To come up with their FI number, FIREs followers multiply the total amount of their yearly living expenses by 25. This formula uses whats known as the 4 percent rule, derived from a 1998 academic paper referred to colloquially as the Trinity study that recommended withdrawing no more than 4 percent of your portfolio (savings, retirement funds, stock market investments, etc.) every year post-retirement. According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, the average American saves a little more than 8 percent of their annual income after taxes. FIREs followers aim to save half, if not more.

Financial independence and its pursuit predates the term FIRE by a few decades, going back at least as far as the landmark personal finance book Your Money or Your Life, which became a bestseller in 1992 after its co-author, Vicki Robin, appeared on Oprah and shared with the audience some simple math: If it takes X time to make Y money, and you need Y money to buy Z stuff, then stuff equals time. When Oprah waved her hand over a rack of jewel-toned clothes and asked Robin to impart her algebraic wisdom, Robin who retired at 24, in part thanks to an inheritance from her grandmother responded, This is six weeks of your life.

But Robin and her co-author Joe Dominguez proffered a solution: Become financially independent, i.e., accumulate enough net worth to quit your job, and you will be freed from the binds of stuff because of the plain fact that you will no longer have a seemingly endless supply of money with which to buy it. The book didnt lead legions to embrace extreme frugality en masse (though Your Money or Your Life sold 600,000 copies in the first five years, and more than 1 million to date). It did, however, attach a personal price tag to capital-W Work, and would become a foundational text for other folks desperate to find a way off the hamster wheel of capitalist life.

Your Money Or Your Life didnt lead directly to FIRE either, exactly. Tracing FIREs history is tricky, in part because its tenets were developed on disconnected personal blogs, largely helmed by people who either believed that theyd discovered some secret sauce, or who discovered one another (and Your Money or Your Life, whose co-author was eventually considered FIREs godmother).

Its even unclear when the FIRE-specific brand took off. The movements reluctant and beloved de facto leader, Pete Adeney, doesnt even know. Your guess is as good as mine in this department, he says via email.

Adeney, 45, doesnt love the name FIRE. He prefers retired to fired or FIREd, which is how some prefer to describe their voluntary unemployment status. More specifically, he prefers Mustachianism.

Youd be forgiven if youre not familiar with Mustachianism, a philosophy of financial freedom through badassity that Adeney spun out of his popular blog, Mr. Money Mustache. But within the FIRE community, Mr. Money Mustache is required reading, a colorful compendium for anyone serious about achieving FI, and Adeneys word is near-gospel. A former software engineer, he retired at 30 and started the blog in 2011 to proselytize his idiosyncratic version of personal finance. (It was his blog that inspired Rebecca.) More a Gen X-er than a millennial, and having long settled into retirement, Adeney serves as a model within the FIRE community of what is possible.

Once you are off the [tread]mill, youll feel like Neo did when he unplugged the suction cups from his pale naked body in The Matrix and looked around at the other imprisoned humans, Adeney blogged in his very first post. Holy Shit!, you will say. Ive been living in this ridiculous slave world and never noticed...and everyone else still is! WAKE UP DRONE PEOPLE!!!

Its supposed to be a bit of a cult, Adeney told the New Yorker back in 2016. The rest of society oppresses us. We have our own symbols. The bicycle, the hatchback. Adeneys language is evocative, to say the least. Americas Car Clown culture and Exploding Volcano of Wastefulness aside, Adeney is after a revolution. [A]s we lift up the poorest among us, we also need to cut back the environmental destruction that we rich people are causing, Adeney who says his annual expenses in Longmont, Colorado, are under $25,000 tells Vox via email. Culture, he says, must change from the top down.

In many ways, it already is. Were in a moment in which giving up stuff, not acquiring it, is an aspiration. Look to the declutter craze inspired by Marie Kondo; the zero-waste movement that celebrates reducing ones garbage output to one mason jar a year; and the trend away from consumerism with the Buy Nothing Project. Millennials prefer experiences to stuff, we hear again and again.

If the popularity of these concepts is any indicator, the idea of freedom from capitalistic tendencies isnt so abhorrent for plenty of people. Striving is a millennial way of life, and in that way, were a generation primed for FIRE. As Robin told the Wall Street Journal last year, millennials understand that the system their parents built is coming apart.

Adeneys ascetic lifestyle is clearly inspirational to those who have followed his blog over the years. The message is also transfixing, channeling our worst fears about capitalism and our powerlessness over stuff. Most of our spending is a sign of weakness, Adeney told The Tim Ferriss Show in 2017, and its a bunch of stuff that we do to compensate for our weaknesses, because we couldnt solve the problem in a smarter way. For Adeney, its not really about luring the American workforce into early retirement, but instead about breaking moneys grip on the masses, about the end of Work to Buy and Buy to Maintain. Abstaining from consumerism is evidence of piety, restraint, and dedication to the cause.

But the flip side of this message is that those who still participate in that cycle are weak and dont have Adeneys problem-solving skills. FIREs bootstraps outlook, however, isnt necessarily accessible to the vast majority of Americans who work not to buy, but to survive. Nearly 17 million households live in poverty, including 5.3 million households headed by a millennial; and credit card debt is a major hurdle for millions of US households, too, with more than half of credit card holders owing debt. A quarter of US adults have no retirement savings, and 28 percent dont have a rainy day fund for emergencies. Any single one of these factors could make it impossible to retire early, let alone a combination.

Adeney acknowledges that hes not talking about the working poor or to them when he makes these sweeping statements. As he puts it to Vox, Getting rich people excited about consuming less is by far the most effective way to [protect the environment], which is why I mainly write articles targeted at my fellow wealthy Americans.

Elizabeth Willard Thames, who blogs about her young familys frugal lifestyle, has been candid about how privilege allowed them to retire early to the woods of Vermont. On her blog, Frugalwoods, she catalogs a number of factors that made her and her husband, in her phrasing, advantaged from birth: They were raised by parents with college degrees, they didnt grow up in poverty, their families are loving, intact, and they are white. She also cites a number of smart decisions weve made thanks to our privilege, namely that they went to college, have never been in debt (apart from their mortgage), worked in high-paying jobs, are healthy, and delayed having children.

I wish I could say that if everyone would just save a little more, and live a bit farther below their means, and avoid buying an SUV, theyd be able to quit their jobs and live the life they crave, writes Thames. But thats not the reality. Theres structural privilege inherent in our ability to pursue financial independence at a young age.

Personal finance expert Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial, is a self-described cynic when it comes to FIRE, though she understands its appeal. Its aspirational in a lot of senses, she says, to have that level of autonomy over your life at such a young age, to feel like you can opt out of the traditional workforce and have a lot of control. However, there are certainly some pieces of the puzzle that do not fit together quite as neatly as it sometimes gets presented.

Sometimes (not always), an inheritance eases the road to FIRE, as it did for Rebecca and Robin. Sometimes (not always), a successful career in a lucrative industry helps, as it did for Adeney. Sometimes (not always), one-half of the household continues to earn income. And often, early retirement means leaving the grind, only to change careers.

Much digital ink has been spilled on FIRE blogs and forums about the definitions of work and retirement, definitions that dont necessarily align with how critics, average Americans, and the dictionary define both. Many FIRE-ers continue to work. Operating real estate rentals and picking up side gigs are two common FIRE recommendations, not to mention pursuing passion projects.

This is where FIRE draws some flak from its critics. While FIREs seductive premise is that followers can retire early and quit work wholesale, some of the most public-facing FIRE-ers arent living solely off their savings and investments. Their work, often FIRE-related, translates into money podcasts monetized through ads, blogs that earn money through ads and affiliates, speaking engagements, book deals, etc.

Our Next Life blogger Tanja Hester, who declared herself retired at 38, does not monetize her blog, and calls for income transparency among other FIRE bloggers. She has noted she did receive a small advance for her book published last February, appropriately titled Work Optional.

Thames monetizes her blog through affiliate links, earning a commission each time a reader buys something through that link; she also made money off her book deal, and her husband continues to work remotely. [W]e work because we enjoy what we do not because we need the money, Thames writes on her blog. This is the extraordinary privilege of financial independence.

True dictionary-definition retirement, FIREs followers argue, isnt the goal, anyway. Its being able to do what they want. And sometimes they want to make money albeit in a different way.

I quit my job, which was very comfy, and made a lot of money in terms of what I was doing, but I wasnt happy, says Jamila Souffrant, 37, of her former life as a commercial real estate executive. Souffrant and her husband, who live in Brooklyn with their three young kids, paid off debt, saved and invested $169,000 in two years, and left corporate America behind. (Her husband continues to work as a teacher.) She started her blog, Journey to Launch, to chronicle her path to financial independence by 40; now the blog, along with a corresponding podcast and her personal finance business, are Souffrants full-time work. This is a freedom that everyone looks for and wants, she adds.

Theres freedom, too, many in the community argue, to decide how intensely to FIRE. For that reason, the FIRE community uses certain tags Fat FIRE for less stringent savings and a longer road to upper-middle-class retirement; Lean FIRE for minimalist lifestyles and retirement ASAP at whatever cost. Barista FIRE for those picking up part-time work in retirement (such as becoming a barista).

Fat and Lean and all the rest are largely irrelevant labels for Kiersten and Julien Saunders, though they dont abide by frugality dogma on the one hand, and are well on their way to financial independence on the other. FIRE, for them, is a little bit of art and science, says Kiersten, 35.

Kiersten adds that despite the current lack of diversity, the community is one of the more welcoming ones shes participated in, and the space is changing for the better. But the disparity, they say, comes down to cultural differences. There are expenses they prioritize that are specific to their lives as people of color that might otherwise be considered expendable by FIRE die-hards.

Kiersten cites self-care as critical in helping people of color heal from microaggressions and trauma endured in daily life, and high-quality day care as essential in giving black children, and black boys in particular, the best chance at lifelong success. Their budget, as a result, doesnt resemble some of the more spartan budgets elsewhere in the FIRE world. We give ourselves the freedom to let life happen, and then stay on the path to the best of our abilities, adds Julien.

Souffrant is after work flexibility. I think thats more realistic for a lot of people, versus, theyll never work again and retire in five years, she says. I dont think that necessarily can be possible depending on peoples lifestyle and goals. Souffrant adds that shes not particularly frugal herself. Im not like, Oh, I want to only spend $20,000 a year. Living in Brooklyn is expensive. Kids are expensive. Souffrant made FIRE fit her lifestyle, not the other way around.

Lisa Harrison thought that her future was FIRE. In 2015, the now 44-year-old corporate scientist Googled phrases like extreme savings, budgeting, and how to become rich, and stumbled on the Frugalwoods and Budgets are Sexy. Even in 2015, I didnt know what a blog was, she laughs. She read personal story after personal story, and just like that, she had a new life plan.

Im working in corporate America, and Im sitting under those fluorescent lights in a cubicle, so it really spoke to me, says Harrison, who lives with her husband and 10-year-old daughter in suburban Pennsylvania. They paid off their debt, and took a hatchet to their budget, line item by line item; anything inessential, from their Pizza Fridays to Coffee Date Sundays, was out. Soon, Harrison and her husband had achieved a savings rate of 70 percent. Shed even started a blog to document her journey to FIRE, too. And they were miserable.

Harrison grew up in a trailer, the youngest of four. Money was always tight, and shed put herself through night school while working in a factory, soldering electrical components together. She never expected the frugality she adopted for FIRE to dig up memories of the deprivation she used to feel. But it did. I feel like sometimes thats what happens with the FIRE movement. Youre so entrenched in, Do it cheaper, do it better, dont do this, dont do that. And you dont allow yourself to enjoy the journey. We want to enjoy our lives both now and later.

Mental health is a big concern for FIRE critic Lowry. The movement almost gets presented as this cure-all for angst and anxiety that youre feeling in your day-to-day life, says Lowry. A lot of money and quitting your job is really not going to be the solution to anxiety and depression that some people think it might be.

Suze Orman has heard of FIRE, and has her own critiques. I hate it, Orman, the Matriarch of Money told Paula Pant on her Afford Anything podcast last year. Ormans issue isnt with FI, but with the RE, as it is for many FIRE critics. To Orman, FIREs followers are unprepared for the cost of unforeseen illness and health emergencies such as accidents, living expenses rising after 60, paying for kids educations, paying for aging parents care, inflation, stock market crashes, missing out on the compounding years of a retirement plan by drawing down early (even if you dont plan to), and on and on. You want to retire early? You can do it if you want to, Orman concluded; it would just be the biggest mistake, financially speaking, you will ever, ever make in your lifetime.

The FIRE communitys response was swift. Robin called Orman a wet blanket on FIRE on her blog. Adeney dubbed Ormans appearance a crazy interview on his blog. [M]oney will not cure your fear, as mega millionaire Suze proves so clearly, wrote Adeney. If you are afraid of what might happen in the future, you have a mental problem rather than a financial problem.

Some FIRE recommendations make sense. Achieving any savings rate, much less a high one, is a step in the right direction, especially considering that a quarter of Americans have no savings at all. And the advice to invest in low-fee index funds, says Yale University professor of finance James Choi, is a good idea, in part because it allows for diversification of your portfolio at a relatively low cost. FIRE-ers, by and large, do not advocate drawing down on traditional retirement accounts early, and Choi agrees.

But is FIRE based on good advice? Or even tenable advice? Its not crazy advice, says Choi, but it is complicated. Dividends paid from investments may not provide a sustainable stream of income, as Choi puts it, to your net worth, particularly as worries about an imminent recession have returned. And this months dramatic spiraling of the stock market amid Covid-19 fears revealed how quickly the value of an investment portfolio a key element of FIREs financial model could simply disappear. On the Frugalwoods blog, Thames responded to the corona virus-related instability by acknowledging those fears, but doubled down on her faith in the market: I can tell you what my husband and I are doing with our money: were not touching it. Were not tinkering with our retirement investments, were not selling our taxable investments, were not buying tons of stock, were doing nothing.

The 4 percent rule raises concerns for Choi, too. That rate only makes sense if the stock market and personal investments are humming along well and if your individual spending needs dont go up. And for retirees who will eventually tap into Social Security, the fewer years they work and the less they earn, the fewer Social Security benefits they collect. Theres a lot more risk if youre trying to finance 50 years of retirement and not run out of money, says Choi.

But most important is the hard truth: For most people, all of this will sound like meaningless steps toward a fantasy. As life expectancy goes up, the US faces a retirement crisis, because much of the aging baby boomer population will not have enough money saved to retire.

Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist and retirement security expert at the New School, says that about half of middle-class people will be poor or near-poor retirees.

Rebecca is quick to point out that the family inheritances she received were critical to her achieving FIRE; she didnt need to start out on her path to a million-dollar net worth from zero. Robin, too, started her journey to Financial Independence in 1969 with an inheritance of $20,000.

But thats one of the little secret sources of wealth that most people dont have, says Ghilarducci, adding that FIREs irrelevance to the great majority of Americans lives renders it somewhat elitist. Thats an argument that FIRE-ers rebut, arguing that you dont need to start out with a lot of money to spend less and save more, and that FI simply emphasizes personal responsibility.

This criticism arises from the mistaken all-or-nothing assumption that you need to reach full financial independence before you get the benefits, Adeney tells Vox. In reality, the principles I am teaching are the opposite of elitist they make a bigger improvement in your life the lower you are on the income scale.

Still, says Ghilarducci, Its very, very, very expensive not to work.

When Rebecca quit her job in mid-November, it was ahead of the deadline shed set for herself. Since then, shes been traveling. Her physical health has improved, she tells Vox via email from Australia. She wakes up earlier, watches less TV, exercises regularly, and eats less junk food. Still, she worries about money. She has to remind herself to stay positive, that she did the math right, that she has the cash reserves to do this. Ive always struggled with being too self-critical, to the point where it has been detrimental to my mental and emotional health, she writes. Hitting my FIRE number hasnt helped me with that. What it has done, however, is to give me the time and space that I need to look more inward and let me begin healing.

She opted to not tell her bosses about FI, or that what shed done was not actually quit this particular job but leave the grind altogether. Instead, she said that shed be taking time off to travel. She worried that there were misconceptions that being financially independent meant being a megamillionaire.

She was surprised at how calm she remained during the short exchange. Her bosses were taken aback, but asked no follow-up questions.

I wish I could say that it was like on TV, where I poured my heart out and then danced a jig as I left the building, Rebecca blogged later in a celebratory post. But she didnt. I didnt want to burn any bridges.

She might need them later as a reference.

Stephie Grob Plante is an Austin-based features writer and essayist. Her work has appeared at The Goods by Vox, the Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, The Verge, Curbed, Southwest: The Magazine, Playboy, and elsewhere.

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FIRE and the implausible millennial movement to save, invest, and quit the American workplace - Vox.com

Six messages to reassure kids when COVID-19 hits your family financially – CNBC

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

The pandemic affects everyone even cats and dogs that are clearly surprised at the change in routine.

Younger children might not understand everything that's going on, and older ones might realize life has changed but not know how to get clarity from their parents.

The current situation is different from anything anyone's experienced in our lifetime, says Wendy Mays, 49, who has a podcast on financial independence for families.

And kids know it.

More from Invest in You:Nail your financial goals the way an Olympic medalist doesPanic shopping and fleeing to cash seem to go hand in handHow to prepare for a family member with COVID-19

The clues are everywhere. Most parents are home. They might realize that grocery stores are barer than usual.

Informing kids in a positive way can be difficult and challenging, says Lionel Hush, principal of Roosevelt Middle School in West Orange, New Jersey. Everyone's home situation is different, and while some people are financially sound, hourly workers may not have the money rolling in. "For some parents, children knowing about their finances is the last thing some parents want," Hush said.

"I think the big thing is to have age-appropriate conversations and be reassuring," said Mays, who lives in San Diego.

Mays needed to chat with her kids, who range in age from 5 to 23, about the need to think more carefully about food. "You can't just go into the pantry and have whatever you want," Mays said. "We can't just go to the store whenever we want."

Wendy Mays, 48, says kids may find the advantages of a quarantine may eclipse some of the financial hardship.

Source: Wendy Mays

When every facet of life has changed, have open conversations.

"At the same time, I address the concerns," Mays said. "I don't want them to feel afraid."

Going to the store used to be a family event. Now Mays goes alone because of the need to keep as isolated as possible.

"The fact we're having the conversation and we're here to talk to is the key," Mays said.

If money needs to be limited, Mays says it's best to explain that you have the family's long-term security in mind. You could say something like, 'If we spend too much now, we won't be in the best possible situation later on.'

Some families may want to help others, and current spending could cut into that ability. "We just want to make sure we're not spending on things that aren't necessary right now," Mays said.

Helping kids feel confident is a challenge, Hush said. Remind them the country can handle this, based on our ability to recover from tough times in the past.

"Just having faith in the economy being able to bounce back is a conversation that has to happen," Hush said.

Tell your kids about programs offered through local and state governments, as well as the federal stimulus package that was passed on Friday. "As a community and as a family we're here to take care of each other," Hush said. "If things get very bad, there is a safety net."

Parents should tell kids about the available options, whether family or friends, or a possible job opportunity. "We, the adults, are taking care," he said.

When it comes to money conflicts, hold a family meeting.

Thomas Henske, a certified financial planner with Lenox Advisors in New York, recommends doing this at a table though not over dinner or in the living room, where family members can face one another. He suggests making comments like, "We are going to have to temporarily change. The good news is, it gives us a chance to think creatively as a family and work as a team."

It's time to bring out your best rah-rah game face. That teamwork message is your general theme, Henske says. "If you don't set the stage that way, you wind up being on the defensive with every [money] question that comes in," he said.

Kids may not always have the right language to explain their fears.

"For example, if they were afraid of dogs, you'd say, 'What makes dogs scary?' " said Henske.

Another good tactic: Ask how their friends are reacting as a wayto ease into the conversation. "Hey, do you think any of this might be scaring some of your friends?" What should they be talking about with their parents?"

You'll have a better idea of how to help kids work through their fears when you have a better grasp of what's upsetting them.

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Six messages to reassure kids when COVID-19 hits your family financially - CNBC

A Brand You Can Believe In (sponsored) – ThisisReno

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

How Three Generations of Bernards Have Survived The Markets Worst Crashes

No client is too big or too small. Choose The Bernard Wealth Management Group, because we think youll like it here.

Donald A. Bernard Jr.

Age: 56Hometown: Reno, NVEducation: University of Nevada, RenoTitle: Senior Vice President/InvestmentsDesignation: Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF)Career: 1988-1990: Bateman Eichler, Hill Richards1990-2010: Wells Fargo Advisors 2010-present: StifelFamily: Wife Sallie; Daughter Brooke; Sons Donald III and CollinPast President: Saint Marys Hospital, Truckee Meadows Boys and Girls Club, YMCA of Reno, Prospectors Club of Reno Community Involvement: University of Nevada, Reno and Our Lady of the Snows Church

Donald A. Bernard III

Age: 26Hometown: Reno, NVEducation: California State University, Fullerton (Mens Cross Country/Track and Field)Title: Financial AdvisorDesignation: Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF)Career: 2015-2017: Newcastle Financial Advisors 2017-2019: Franklin Templeton Investments 2019-present: StifelBoard member: Truckee Meadows Boys and Girls Club (Young Leaders Committee)Community Involvement: Our Lady of the Snows Church

50 W. Liberty, Suite 100Reno, NV 89501www.bernardwealthmanagement.com

Over 50 years ago, a family investment brand began. An investment brand built on one word: reputation.

The Bernard Wealth Management Group at Stifel story began in 1964, when Donald A. Bernard Sr. (retired) established a brand and a reputation, which answered that question.

Since the beginning, Don Sr. consistently communicated the importance of being prepared financially, if something happened to you, which was out of your control.

Whether it be a worldwide crisis, market crash, lost job, freak accident or no source of income to rely on, Don Sr. preached the importance of saving money and accumulating assets, as doing so would provide you a source of income should the well run dry.

You must take care of your own needs first, Don Sr. said. In fact, doing so is a moral necessity. Taking care of yourself makes you stronger for everyone else in your life. During times like now, the world needs you at your best.

The Bernard Wealth Management Group at Stifel manages hundreds of millions of dollars, across the country and within all regions of Northern Nevada. For over 50 years, three generations of Bernards have been recognized as leaders by guiding their clients through various crises and market crashes.

The most notable market crash for Don Sr. came during the year of 1987.

During the Black Monday stock market crash, we saw U.S. markets fall more than 20% in a single day, Don Sr. stated. It is thought that the cause of the crash was triggered by computer trading models using risky derivatives and options for portfolio insurance.

I will never forget the panic calls from clients and I recognized the significance of having saved money and accumulated assets. My clients and I had spent years working towards this. We made it a priority. Yes, the crash hurt us in the short-term, but we never had to rely on someone else to maintain our financial independence and financial security in the long-term.

During that time, Don Sr. realized his purpose for getting into the investment business.

The bottom line was, I wanted to help others financially, but if I was going to advise them on financial matters I had to be credible myself. I had to prove that I had everything and more that I was telling my clients to do. This credibility didnt come over night. It took years to build.

Donald A. Bernard Jr. pins his personal and clients success on being in a position to seize opportunities, even at unlikely moments.

Like his father, when these moments come, Don Jr. stresses the importance of financial independence and financial security because being prepared for any crisis or crash, allows you to manage your situation and increase your odds of success and survival.

If you can take care of yourself first, then your focus can turn outward Don Jr. insists. You can allow yourself to be in a good place at a bad time. My focus in life is to help others experience that feeling financially.

Don Jr.s unlikely moment came in 2008. The Financial Crisis.

The decline in stock prices reflected real economic problems Don Jr. said. It was a perfect storm made of a mortgage crisis, a credit crisis, a bank collapse and a government bailout. Once major financial markets lost more than 30% of their value, a steep recession began.

In the midst of any crisis or market crash, The Bernard Wealth Management Group at Stifel has had a rule: to continue to build their family investment brand on their reputation. Don Jr.s reputation as an established, trustworthy and clear-headed financial advisor, has allowed him to help others, who are serious about building and preserving their wealth.

The most basic advice I can give to people, looking to prepare themselves for the next crisis or market crash is: First, pay off your credit cards in full. Second, put six months worth of expenses in a money market account. Third, have the drive to take what is left over and invest it in the financial markets, real estate or both. Finally, have the discipline to never touch those investments and continue to add to them until you retire.

Many people have asked me, Don what is the secret to financial success? Its as simple as that. Its a constant battle to achieve these things. It requires endless sacrifice, time, focus and energy but the reward is so much greater than the sacrifice. I promise you that.

Like every other crisis and crash that preceded him, the means in which Don Jr. prepared has never changed.

Youve got to be a bit selfish to be a successful person Don Jr. stated. When you are, you dont cause worry and stress for those who care about you. You can be a role model and people will see the fire in your eyes. I am proud to be able to look my clients in their eyes and know that I am one of the most credible advisors out there.

Often times, issues are beyond our control but if you have saved money and accumulated assets, you give yourself freedom and options to succeed, no matter what circumstances are thrown your way.

I live for moments like these Don Jr. declared. Because this is when our family investment brand and our story is everything. This is an opportunity for me to be a leader for the people of our community.

My father built our family investment brand and it was my job to take it to another level. Now my son must ride for the brand and do whatever he can to help others better their lives financially. He couldnt be doing a better job.

Along the way, Don Jr. has groomed his son to ultimately take control of the family investment business.

As a child, Donald A. Bernard III would crawl on the ground of his fathers office while he was working. 26 years later, he is building his own book of business and helping his clients work towards financial independence and financial security, during a time of war with an invisible enemy.

Just like his grandfather and father, Don III is experiencing a crisis and crash of his own. This one is much different than the two that came before him.

COVID-19 has rattled everyone inside and out of the financial markets Don III stated. Even the best and the brightest didnt see this virus coming. Not only have we have seen markets plummet, we are seeing many in our community out of work with no income to rely on.

The decline in stock prices has reflected concern and uncertainty over the global spread of Coronavirus. Stock prices have fallen over 35% due to awareness towards disruption of supply chains, free movement of goods, social distancing and a shock to demand, as consumers and businesses cut back on consumption and investment.

The market is broken but it will fix itself in time Don III insists. No one knows how long it will take to make a recovery, but believe me this isnt the end of the market. This pandemic will eventually end. Stimulus will kick in. The market will rebound and there will be many opportunities out there. My optimism believes we are in a good place that looks like a bad place.

Mandatory and temporary closures to essential and non-essential businesses, have wreaked havoc on the local economy and governments ability to maintain services in the coming months. Moreover, we are seeing thousands and thousands of individuals and families with no source of income to rely on.

When you have no source of income or savings outside of your employer, you lose all of your freedom Don III said. This crisis and market crash should serve as a wakeup call to build financial independence and financial security. If you dont get your personal financial engine running right, you place a burden on everyone from your family to the country.

If you can do that, you are able to invite uncertainty into your life. Then you can survive it, appreciate it and take advantage of it.

Once the fog of war clears, opportunities to own high quality investments will present themselves. These will be opportunities, which we havent seen since the Financial Crisis over a decade ago.

At the end of the day, The Bernard Wealth Management Group at Stifel will be there to help you. Why? Because their reputation says so.

And as his grandfather and father consistently asked those around them, Don III asks you:

When the next crisis or market crash comeswill you be prepared?

This post is paid content and does not represent the views of ThisisReno. Want to promote your business, event, or issue? Consider a sponsored post.

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A Brand You Can Believe In (sponsored) - ThisisReno

The Duke and Duchess sign off from royal life with final message on their Instagram account – Tatler

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

On the eve of their final day as senior royals the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have shared a message of thanks on their Sussex Royal Instagram account.

Alongside an image that thanked their followers for their support, inspiration and commitment to good in the world, they wrote a lengthy caption that both addressed the current coronavirus pandemic and also their work in the future.

'As we can all feel, the world at this moment seems extraordinarily fragile,' it begins. 'Yet we are confident that every human being has the potential and opportunity to make a differenceas seen now across the globe, in our families, our communities and those on the front linetogether we can lift each other up to realise the fullness of that promise.

'Whats most important right now is the health and wellbeing of everyone across the globe and finding solutions for the many issues that have presented themselves as a result of this pandemic.

'As we all find the part we are to play in this global shift and changing of habits, we are focusing this new chapter to understand how we can best contribute.

'While you may not see us here, the work continues.

'Thank you to this community - for the support, the inspiration and the shared commitment to the good in the world. We look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Youve been great!

'Until then, please take good care of yourselves, and of one another.

Harry and Meghan'

The message promises that they will continue working on their charitable endeavours behind the scenes, spotlighting worthy causes, and that they will be back soon to 'reconnect'.

The couple announced their decision to stand down as senior working royals in January, and have recently moved from Canada to California with their 10-month-old son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. They are now pursuing financial independence away from the Royal Family, which has so far seen Meghan doing the voice over for a Disney documentary and Harry speaking at a JP Morgan summit.

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The Duke and Duchess sign off from royal life with final message on their Instagram account - Tatler

Respect for the natural world – Opinion – The Hutchinson News

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

To paraphrase the Olivia Newton John popular hit of the 80s, Lets get Meta-Physical.

Roughly speaking, metaphysics refers to ideas outside material reality; existing in the realm of the mind rather than the physical world. While not necessarily referring to religious doctrine, ancient civilizations around the world adopted a female deity to explain the nature of the world; from the Aztec Coatlicue, the Roman Terra Mater, Chinese Nu Gua, to the Greek Gaia, almost every culture adopted this archetypal female figure. In the Middle Ages, Natura became the personification of the natural world that evolved into the contemporary model of Mother Nature.

What is the relevance of these philosophical concepts to our current condition?

In the 70s, respected scientist and inventor James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis suggesting the Earth functions as a self-regulating system. An environmentalist and futurist he theorized that as Earth worked to maintain optimal conditions to sustain life, it could include mechanisms to address external events that threaten natures balance including harm done by civilization. Reminiscent of a decades old commercial featuring an actress who warned Its not nice to fool Mother Nature," followed by her summoning lightning, thunder, and other disasters.

In truth Lovelocks view deserves more serious consideration than a Madison Avenue ad campaign or the wild-eyed ravings of a deranged tree-hugger.

The view of a model for infectious diseases is that epidemics such as AIDS, Ebola, SARS and possibly the current pandemic of COVID-19 are a result of civilization interacting with nature. Simply put disease is often an environmental issue.

In the 1920s it was the consumption of game butchered by African hunters that first resulted in AIDS crossing over from chimpanzees into humans.

The heavy smoke from burning Indonesian rain forests in 1997 prevented the normal development of fruits. Bats native to the affected area flew to Malaysian orchards to feed, carrying with them a deadly disease. Pigs feeding on fallen fruits containing fluids transmitted from the bats, fell ill and an epidemic followed.

Scientific evidence suggests with these series of events, diseases normally confined to wildlife are spilling over to human populations. Increasing human encroachment into disease hot spots emerging diseases have increased four-fold in the last 50 years.

In 2016 the accelerated melting of permafrost in polar areas of Siberia released pathogens from carcasses of long dead animals resulting in an outbreak of anthrax. Scientific teams determined 30,000-year-old viruses trapped in the permafrost could be revived.

The key to forecasting and preventing the next pandemic, experts say, is understanding what they call the protective effects of nature and knowing where to be vigilant as humanity encroaches on previously undisturbed natural habitats.

The progress of civilization neednt come to a standstill but it must be tempered by understanding of both the protections and potential threats that follow by disregarding the importance of a healthy respect for nature.

Kathie Moore, rural Hutchinson, is a freelance artist, retired from the U.S. Postal Service. Email her at klmnews45@gmail.com.

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Respect for the natural world - Opinion - The Hutchinson News

Its tough to imagine, but what will life after coronavirus look like? – BizTimes – Milwaukee Business News

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

In the first weeks after the coronavirus really hit the United States as the number of cases, closings and cancellations piled up it may have seemed hard to think of what a return to normal would look like.

A pessimist might say there is no returning to normal, everything has changed and social distancing will be the new norm. An optimist, on the other hand, might expect things to snap back to where they were before everything changed.

The reality is likely somewhere in between and the ultimate outcome will depend on how long the outbreak lasts. If it lasts a few weeks, returning to normal might not be difficult. Six months? A year? Longer? The way business gets done could be permanently changed.

While businesses are confronting the challenges of today, leaders also need to give some thought to what life will look like after the coronavirus.

David Zach, a futurist and author of the forthcoming book The Fog of Progress: Finding Clarity and Connection in Uncertain Times, said the easiest way for anyone to be a futurist is to consider the implications of decisions or choices multiplied by three.

Were really good at going if this, then that but where we fall down is and then what? Zach said.

Online education and remote work are two obvious areas the coronavirus could influence. Thousands of students and employees were thrust into online learning and working environments and, while neither is a new phenomenon, it seems possible the coronavirus could make those practices standard practice.

Zach, however, emphasized the importance of classroom learning and human interaction.

We are social creatures and we learn socially to a great extent, he said. Yes, you can learn an awful lot online, but it is the interaction and the physical shared space that is essential not only to learning, but to us as humans.

Todd McLees, founder of Hartland-based management consulting firm Pendio Group, said the sudden influx of online students creates an opportunity for distance learning companies to improve.

Theyre going to learn a lot because the customer base is bigger right now, theyre getting a lot more data in terms of what went right, what went wrong, he said.

Tracy Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the Commercial Association of Realtors Wisconsin, said it is tough to know how the spike in remote work will influence demand for office space, noting the long-term nature of leases insulates the sector from sudden changes.

Who knows if this whole open office concept is going to be a thing of the past, she said. People need their private spaces are they smaller spaces? Are people even going to want to come to the office anymore? Are we even going to need the number of workers?

The way the virus has spread, starting in China before branching out around the world, has also put a spotlight on the problems of relying on one area for goods. Both Zach and McLees pointed to the potential for the virus to bring more manufacturing back to the U.S.

Dont mess with nature, it will always win, Zach said. It provides lots of role models and examples in terms of diversification and not concentration. You have monoculture species; a single thing can wipe them out.

McLees said the push to bring production to the U.S., spurred by disruptions in the Chinese supply chain, could boost the idea of manufacturing-as-a-service, where a contract manufacturer sells its expertise in setting up operations to customers struggling to localize their supply chain. He said cheap capital and the ability to start up operations faster would allow a manufacturer to run the operation for a customer, turn the factory over once its built or transition it over a couple years.

Thats a definite possibility, but Im not exactly sure how it happens yet or how soon it happens, he said.

McLees said the coronavirus could also spur faster adoption of 3D printing and automation. If the virus leaves companies working with a skeleton crew, it could essentially act like a sped-up version of the demographic trends manufacturers have faced in recent years.

He also said the potential slowdown in business created by the virus creates an opportunity to invest in employees. If companies arent running at full capacity, employees could spend 20% of their time learning a new skill or experimenting with new ideas.

It could actually create a culture of innovation so that when we come back together in 90 to 180 days, my company is way better at that than yours is because you were focused on productivity monitoring and costs, McLees said.

He also noted that remote work could create a challenge for companies that either have a wild west with no connectivity or police state-like monitoring.

Im not sure I want to be a part of that culture six months from now when everybody is hiring up, McLees said.

Of course, focusing on training and culture isnt an option for all industries. The hospitality and retail sectors are focused more on survival.

The longer this goes on, the worse off the retail sector will be, Johnson said. People are worried about cash flow. The good, strong companies that would survive anything will survive this, but the ones who are kind of in this weird place, you might never see them open again.

She noted that there is also uncertainty about how willing people will be to go to public spaces, which could hurt a retail sector that has shifted toward entertainment options.

In hospitality, Johnson recalled watching prices for event spaces climb year-after-year following the Great Recession.

It will be interesting to see what they do to get people back, Johnson said, floating fewer seats per table as one possibility.

McLees suggested the future of densely populated places could depend on how long the outbreak lasts.

Its just a function, I think, of how long it lasts, how many people suffer loss. I think that will help establish these norms just like the Depression and the wars did those generations, he said.

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Its tough to imagine, but what will life after coronavirus look like? - BizTimes - Milwaukee Business News

Congress Must Pass the Living Artists Act – The New York Times

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Editors note: This is part of the Op-Eds From the Future series, in which science fiction authors, futurists, philosophers and scientists write Op-Eds that they imagine we might read five, 10, 50 or even 200 years from now. The challenges they predict are imaginary for now but their arguments illuminate the urgent questions of today and prepare us for tomorrow. The Opinion piece below is a work of fiction.

Last week, The Times broke the news that Alyssa Nicos booking at the Tokyo Dome was canceled, and with it, her world tour. The band that bumped her? The Beatles, whose last living member, Ringo Starr, died in 2029. In response, the pop megastar (who is also known as Neko) said, How am I supposed to compete with dead people?

The use of simulations in the music industry has made it difficult for living artists to make music and nearly impossible for new musicians to break onto the scene. To ensure the future of music, Congress must pass the Living Artists Act, which will guarantee a 25 percent set-aside in performance venues and online subscription service play for artists who still draw breath.

The A.I.-generated 3-D projections of deceased performers also known as Estates now have an edge over living artists. Musicians like Neko are forced to compete with realistic simulations of their heroes for appearances in stadiums, music venues and private parties thrown by wealthy patrons.

Given the nostalgia that an Estate like The Beatles can bring to a performance, newer artists simply cant compete: Today, live performers who are still building careers are up against simulations with a catalog of hits that are already beloved favorites in every household around the world.

It is one thing for musicians like Neko to compete with DynGro or DJ Lifer or even Sunil Megakles. It is another for her to compete with Janis Joplin or the entire lineup of Public Enemy or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart conducting a symphony orchestra of the greatest classical musicians in history.

Technology is now sufficiently advanced to imitate life to a degree where it is, to a venue audience, indistinguishable from the real thing. The litmus test for me came when I saw the Estate of Michael Jackson performing live at Madison Square Garden; the Estate's animation was flawless, including missed dance steps and occasionally fumbled lyrics. How can we call this a level playing field?

In a worrying statement about the role of Estates in the music industry, Matt Peritz of the Recording Industry Association of America said: This represents a golden age for music fans. Audiences around the world will finally have the chance to share the experience of seeing their favorite performers live not just with their children, but with their parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents.

As the evidence suggests, this is incredibly shortsighted. Last years streaming data from Spotify showed that the number of new recording artists decreased by 30 percent. Apple Music reported a drop in streams by artists making new records in the past three years of 14 percent to 28 percent year over year. Spotifys No. 1 artist in the coveted age-14-to-28 demographic for last year was Jimi Hendrix, more than 75 years in his grave.

But even aside from what it all means for the future of the music industry, I fear we will lose some of the magic of music if this trend which Billboard is calling the Estate Craze continues. Live performances are, at their heart, a moment of intimacy between fans and their musical heroes. They are a shared connection between people, a deeply moving experience that studio recordings cant reproduce.

The rise of the Estates isnt just driving living artists from the stage its driving them from the industry. With the race to the bottom in subscription pricing, live performances are the last place living artists can make money. Without that, musicians are rightly asking, Why bother? Without any financial incentive to create, the pool of new talent is drastically shrinking.

The Living Artists Act is a chance to turn that around. The domination of the Estates over the entire music industry is setting us on a dangerous path. We will soon have a closed pool of music, and without an influx of new artistry, it will grow stale over the years. By setting aside a portion of the market to incentivize artists to create new material, we will ensure that there is fuel for future Estates. Most important, we will also give audiences the chance to experience the authenticity of live performance and the powerful human connection that comes with it. And that is something worth preserving.

Myke Cole (@MykeCole) is an author and television personality whose most recent novel is Sixteenth Watch and most recent television show is Contact on Discovery Channel.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Congress Must Pass the Living Artists Act - The New York Times

The Book List: Science Fiction – The Bagpipe

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Available in Kresge: Yes

In One Sentence: The book that might have developed if J.R.R. Tolkein decided to write a commentary on authoritarianism, economics, and environmentalism, with a generous helping of magical space-people.

Frank Herberts Dune is one of the giants of science fiction literature, both in influence and actual lengthmy mass-market paperback edition clocks in at nearly 900 pages. I only recently worked up the courage to try it, and I was not disappointedDune is an epic synthesis of high fantasy and far-future science fiction, simultaneously resembling the best of Tolkien and Asimov.

In Dune, the young Paul Atreides is the heir of a feudal house mired in political intrigue, in a universe rife with magic, visions, and prophecies of which he seems to be the primary focus. Paul must flee for his life into the deserts of an arid planet called Dune, where he becomes something of a messiah figure to the planets nomadic people. He must fight for his birthright to rule this planet, even as his sense of supernatural ability, prophetic vision, and terrible purpose begins to intensify.

If you made it through the previous paragraph, youre doing wellDune is a book that doesnt waste a lot of time on a universe that makes intuitive sense. Herbert was a remarkably effective world-builderthe universe of Dune is rich with history, politics, language, prophecy, and intrigue. One prominent theme of the book deals with the oppression of the desert people whom Paul comes to rulethey are the sole harvesters of a mysterious spice that everyone in the universe consumes, and powerful governments oppress them to try to take control of spice production. The parallels with modern Middle Eastern history are hard to ignore, especially since Herbert based large portions of Dunes mythology on Islam and the Arabic language.

Another, more disturbing theme centers on autocracy and freedom: Herbert believed that both human and natural systems were mired in ecological webs of relationships, from which no individual is ever free. Unlike Tolkein (Tolkien strongly disliked Dune, though his reasons for thinking this are unknown), Herbert takes the view that a small spark of hope in the darkness is insufficient to change the course of historyindeed, the course of history may be far more deterministic than we think. Herberts world tumbles toward fascism, autocracy, and jihad, even despite the attempts of powerful people to prevent it. It raises sobering questions about the meaning of freedom, all enmeshed in an enthrallingly detailed universe.

***

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams

Available in Kresge: Yes (in a compendium)

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The Book List: Science Fiction - The Bagpipe

Now’s the time for organizations to show their humanity – Tech Wire Asia

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba, believes that oneness is the only way to beat the COVID-19 pandemic. Source: Shutterstock.

With cities under lockdown and people forced to stay home, businesses are shifting online but not all are able to do so. Heres where bigger, more established firms come in they can pool resources together and give smaller businesses a helping hand.

In just one example of businesses supporting both customers and counterparts in the global crisis, of many that have emerged, food and beverage (F&B) firms in Singapore can now use DBS banks digital platforms to migrate their business to the digital space.

The Singapore-based bank has rolled out a new F&B digital package that will enable businesses to set up online food service sites in less than a week.

Working with two technology start-ups, Oddle and FirstCom, DBS will help clients through the entire process of setting up a digital storefront, which includes digital marketing services, establishing e-menus, order management systems and payment gateways.

DBS announced these initiatives a day after the Singaporean government tightened social distancing rules to contain the current pandemic.

These are unprecedented times, and it has brought about a shift in the way business is being conducted.

From leading perfume makers producing hand sanitizer to F1 teams creating ventilators, some of the most successful companies from various industries are showing what industry leadership should look like.

Technology futurist, Daniel Burrus, said given the circumstances, businesses must shift their focus from being successful to being significant. Significant is all about what you do for others [] be significant, and success will follow after.

Indeed, now is the time for businesses to live for something more than themselves. a people-first approach, supported by innovative technology, is needed to solve the real-world problems we face today.

Following the launch of knowledge-sharing platform for coronavirus research, businessman and former Alibaba founderJack Ma said the way to beat the pandemic and return to the economy to something like its former nature is to share resources, know-how, and hard-earned lessons.

Not only is this the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense.

Consumers today are purpose-driven, and will be loyal to brands with values they resonate with. They want empathy, and companies that are willing to understand what they need, the challenges theyre trying to solve and the change they are looking for, will win in the long run.

In these moments of (apparent) altruism, businesses may also strike up partnerships that go on to become commercially fruitful in the years to come, thanks to support they gave at their lowest ebb.

Alicia Tillman, CMO at SAP, sums this up nicely: the future of business has feelings.

What it means is that people, including those running businesses, feel with those impacted by the pandemic; they empathize with them. Customers will recognize and remember those businesses that acted with compassion, and those that forgoed it for short-term profits.

The COVID-19 outbreak is a double-edged sword. Yes, it has caused massive damage, and is a global healthcare nightmare but, objectively, it also presents the unique opportunity for business to prove their worth to customers and to demonstrate their humanity.

Now, more than ever, the world needs people to put their differences aside, and use whatever they have to ride this tide out together. Whether it improves their business prospects in the long run, or not, helping is helping.

Emily Wong

Emily is a tech writer constantly on the lookout for cool technology and writes about how small and medium enterprises can leverage it. She also reads, runs, and dreams of writing in a mountain cabin.

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Now's the time for organizations to show their humanity - Tech Wire Asia

Jordan Keeps Coronavirus In Check With One Of The World’s Strictest Lockdowns – NPR

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

The streets of Jordan's capital of Amman are seen empty after the start of a nationwide curfew on Saturday amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. Raad Adayleh/AP hide caption

The streets of Jordan's capital of Amman are seen empty after the start of a nationwide curfew on Saturday amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

The country of Jordan has implemented one of the strictest lockdowns in the world to stop the spread of the coronavirus, forcing most people to stay indoors and temporarily shutting down even grocery stores and pharmacies.

The Middle Eastern country with its 10 million residents has so far arrested more than 1,600 people for breaking the five-day-old curfew, which bans even going for walks or allowing pets outdoors.

After three days of complete lockdown, the government has commandeered city buses to deliver bread and other essentials directly to neighborhoods. It had considered ensuring distribution of cigarettes to smokers in a country with one of the highest smoking rates in the world.

On Tuesday, Jordan began allowing a limited reopening of small grocery stores for those between ages 16 and 60. It kept a ban on driving. Security forces say they have impounded more than 600 cars for breaching the ban.

The strict measures were taken after a less-severe curfew imposed the previous week was widely flouted, with some Jordanians continuing to hold weddings and other large gatherings.

"Especially in countries without very much intervention, the infection rate can rise really very fast," says Dr. Najwa Khuri-Bulos, an infectious disease specialist and adviser to Jordan's Ministry of Health. "There is a window period where you can interfere effectively. Hopefully doing these kinds of very strict measures will make it manageable."

As of Wednesday, the kingdom has 153 current confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, and the number has been rising steadily but slowly.

Jordan also hosts more than 600,000 Syrian refugees, and the global pandemic had sparked fears that the country's medical care system would be very quickly overloaded.

Last week, the country started placing arriving travelers, including Jordanians, in mandatory 14-day quarantine. About 5,000 people have been quarantined in hotels in the capital of Amman and the Dead Sea. Shortly after, it stopped all incoming and outgoing commercial flights.

The shutdown has had severe economic repercussions in the already poor country.

"Nobody is in denial about the potential economic cost of the shutdown, but authorities perhaps believe that this cost is to be paid 10 times down the line if the virus spreads further. So the main goal is to reduce the human toll," says Nasser bin Nasser, director of the Amman-based Middle East Scientific Institute for Security.

Bin Nasser says most Jordanians seem to be accepting the restrictions. "Maybe in the U.S. or other libertarian societies where freedom of movement is so ingrained in the national psyche this would be harder," he says.

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Jordan Keeps Coronavirus In Check With One Of The World's Strictest Lockdowns - NPR

Bob Knight to the Blazers: Draft Jordan and play him at center – Basketball Network

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Do you draft the best player available, or according to your team needs? The Portland Trail Blazers went with the second approach and made the greatest mistake in NBA draft history. After the Rockets picked Olajuwon with the no.1 pick in the 1984 draft, the Blazers were choosing between Sam Bowie and Michael Jordan. They went for Bowie, as they already had Clyde Drexler and Jim Paxson taking care of the perimeter. Chicago is eternally grateful.

Sometimes that approach makes sense. One of the mistakes the 76ers made in the process was drafting Nerlens Noel in 2013, Joel Embiid in 2014, and Jahlil Okafor in 2015. Theres no way to develop all three, give them playing time, and get appropriate value in a later trade. Especially if youre Portland and already have your guy in Clyde Drexler. Youre not thinking about getting the best guy; you think you already have him. Portland was looking for someone to support Drexlers team.

Well, you dont think about positional fit when a perennial All-Star is available, and even at the time of the Draft, a lot of people knew that Jordan would be more than that. Back in those days, there was no one-and-done. MJ spent three years playing for Dean Smith and made his mark on the college level. During his three seasons with the Tar Heels, Jordan averaged 17.7 ppg on 54.0% shooting. MJ did more than collect stats he made the game-winning jump shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship game against Georgetown, which was led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing. All that was enough for coach Knight to make a bold statement before MJ ever set foot on an NBA court.

If I were going to pick three or four best athletes Ive ever seen play basketball, hed be one of them. I think hes the best athlete Ive ever seen play basketball, bar none. If I were going to pick people with the best ability Ive ever seen play the game, hed be one of them. If I wanted to pick one of the best competitors, hed be one of them. Hes the best athlete, hes one of the best competitors, hes one of the most skilled players, and that to me makes him the best basketball player Ive ever seen play.

When Bobby Knight says something like that about a player, and hes on the board, you select that player in a heartbeat. The Blazers werent convinced, so they reached out to Knight and shared their positional concern with him. They needed a center, and Bob Knight made his position very clear.

Play him [Jordan] at center, and he will be the best center in the league.

One more thing we need to address. Portland gets all the criticism for missing out on Jordan, but theres another team that should get at least equal grief for it that would be the Pacers of Indiana. They traded the no.2 to Portland. Who did they want so much that hey gave away the chance to get MJ? Tom Owens, yet another center.Owens was so dominant in Indiana, averaging 10.5 points and 5 rebounds, that the Pacers traded him the very next summer for a secondround pick.

We could say wing players are treated the same way these days. Every wing player has 3-and-D potential these days, and significantly more talented big men are dropping in demand because of the modern era trend. Thats how you get Nikola Jokic at 41.

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Jordan reports first caesarean delivery for woman infected with coronavirus – Gulf News

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

. Image Credit: Reuters

Dubai: Jordan has registered the first caesarean delivery for a woman infected with coronavirus, Jordans News Agency Petra reported.

King Abdullah II called female doctor Laila Al Zoghoul who conducted the caesarean surgery and congratulated her on the success of the operation.

The Jordanian monarch and Queen Rania Al Abdullah also called the woman and congratulated her. The woman and her new-born baby girl are in good health condition.

Laboratory coronavirus tests proved negative for the baby girl, who has been isolated from the mother.

The surgery was conducted at the King Abdullah University Hospital in Irbid, northern Jordan, which has been placed under complete lockdown since Thursday due to the high number of COVID-19 infections.

A video clip showing the doctor while talking over the phone to Jordans king and Queen Rania has gone viral on social media platforms.

King Abdullah extended his thanks to medical staff for their relentless efforts to deal with COVID-19 infections.

laboratory tests for the infant confirmed that she is free of the COVID-19 infection, explaining that studies show that the virus is not transmitted through breastfeeding but through touch and breathing, Dr. Laila said.

She said that the surgery was conducted after taking the necessary precautions in the presence of all specialised medical teams in the hospital, including anesthesiologists, pediatricians and specialists in internal medicine and infectious diseases as well as anesthesia technicians and nursing staff.

According to a recent study published in The Lancet, a weekly British medical journal, coronavirus does not transmit from a COVID-19-infected mother to her fetus through the placenta during the last trimester of pregnancy.

Two days ago, Jordan registered the first death from Coronavirus. The 83-year-old woman suffered from blood poisoning and other health problems before contracting the virus. She had been transferred from a private hospital to Prince Hamzah Hospital, where she died from the coronavirus, Petra said.

Jordan recorded 11 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases in the Kingdom to 246, Health Minister Saad Jaber said during a press briefing. No updated yet on Sunday.

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Jordan reports first caesarean delivery for woman infected with coronavirus - Gulf News

Jordan eases nationwide curfew and allows shops to open – Reuters

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said on Tuesday the government would allow people to go on foot to buy groceries in neighbourhood shops to ease daily life for the nearly 10 million inhabitants under a tight curfew to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The curfew was imposed on Saturday after King Abdullah enacted an emergency decree giving the government sweeping powers to enforce an army-imposed curfew and other measures that restrict civil and political liberties. The government justified the severe restrictions by saying that many people had flouted calls to stay at home, risking the fast spread of the virus.

Shops, bakeries and even pharmacies have since closed in a complete lockdown of businesses and commercial activity, and the army, which was deployed on streets across the country, warned that anyone leaving their homes would face up to a year in jail.

Razzaz said that as of Wednesday people would be allowed to leave their homes from 10 a.m. to 18:00 p.m. to walk to corner shops, groceries, bakeries and pharmacies.

I understand the worry and anxiety. ... The curfew is not a natural state that we have ever experienced before and reflects negatively and psychologically on us, Razazz said.

Large supermarkets will reopen on Thursday to sell goods online and to be home-delivered, also to avoid crowding in public places, Razzaz said in a briefing.

Razzaz warned any stampede or rush in any shops would prompt immediate closure. He said the ban on private vehicles would be maintained.

Either there is discipline or we will close shops that we see congestion, he said.

Jordan a week ago closed land and sea border crossings with Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Israel, and suspended all incoming and outgoing flights.

The government brought in public transport buses on Tuesday to help bakeries sell bread in residential neighbourhoods across the country. But panic buying in some inner city areas erupted as people rushed from their homes for bread, which many Jordanians consume as a daily staple food item, witnesses said.

Health Minister Saad Jaber said on Tuesday that confirmed cases of the virus jumped to 153, with 26 new cases in the biggest daily rise since numbers began to steadily grow last week. There have been no deaths.

Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Leslie Adler

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Jordan eases nationwide curfew and allows shops to open - Reuters

Utah State QB Jordan Love being connected to Raiders in NFL draft – Silver And Black Pride

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

Well, we made it through free agency and all the speculation about the Raiders signing a veteran starting quarterback.

Now, after adding Marcus Mariota as a high-paid backup to Derek Carr, the quarterback speculation is turning to the top of the draft.

Our Kenny Arthur just detailed the Raiders pre-draft FaceTime meeting with Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert.

While we digest the meaning of that, talk is heating up about the Raiders having interest in Utah State quarterback Jordan Love.

ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. said he is starting to think the Raiders may take Love at No. 12 if hes available. Jordan is generally considered the fourth best quarterback available behind LSUs Joe Burrow, Alabamas Tua Tagovailoa and Herbert. Still, there is no certainty Love would be available for the Raiders at No. 12 if they wanted to take him.

Kiper isnt the only national draft expert making the Love-Raiders connection. So, is Bleacher Reports Matt Miller.

He quoted a scout who knows Jon Gruden as saying this:

What should we make of all this quarterback draft talk?

I think it just goes with the Gruden territory. People are going to say and write that Gruden wants to find a Carr replacement until it finally happens, whenever that may be

Do I think the Raiders will take a quarterback in the first round? No, I dont, but I never say never. Anything is possible.

The fact that the Raiders are talking to Herbert may simply be due diligence or it may mean the Raiders are interested. Remember, the Raiders spent time with Kyler Murray and Dwayne Haskins last year before the draft.

Gruden and Raiders general manager Mike Mayock love quarterbacks. They are going to study them closely.

So, thats why all of these rumors are persisting. It doesnt mean they are actually going to draft Love or Herbert, though.

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Utah State QB Jordan Love being connected to Raiders in NFL draft - Silver And Black Pride

BAVO, campus ministry host ‘Trauma and Spirituality’ discussion virtually – Observer Online

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

As April sexual assault awareness month approaches, the Belles Against Violence Office (BAVO), campus ministry and the wellness program teamed up to present Trauma and Spirituality, a conversation on the effects of trauma on overall health, spirituality and belief systems.

The discussion addressed questions of how one can overcome negative or stressful thoughts about the current pandemic, as well as how to use prayer for meditation and stress relief.

This event is particularly valuable during this time in our society where coronavirus has affected our daily lives and may have altered the way we think about faith, BAVO coordinator Liz Coulston said in an email to students.

Sophomore Emily Karalus, a BAVO Student Advisory Committee (SAC) member, said Trauma and Spirituality served the purpose of including all of the different faiths and spiritualities on campus in the healing process.

It allowed the panelists to explore different coping mechanisms and self-care practices after traumatic events, Karalus said in an email. It was an event that all of our students could participate in despite their differences in faith. Our main focus was on showing students that there is a way to overcome trauma despite what your beliefs may be, before and after the traumatic event.

Though the College is not allowing anyone on campus currently and classes will be completed remotely until the end of the semester, Karalus said BAVO still wanted to continue to hold this event as it is an important topic for many, even when students find themselves stuck at home.

We also chose to continue with this event because it is extremely beneficial during this time of chaos and disarray, Karalus said. We knew that this event could help ground our students and to ensure that they are taking care of themselves. It also provided us an opportunity to let the students, who have experienced trauma, know that there are still resources and supports available for them on and off-campus. We described that during a time like this, it may be harder or easier to heal from the trauma that they have experienced.

Karalus said the event did not change much since it was moved online.

We incorporated all the same questions and panelists, and we sent the goodie bags to the students home address instead of them having them pick them up if the event was in person, Karalus said. It was not hard to make the transition to a virtual event since we had great panelists and many of our ideas already laid out.

The event panelists included assistant director of Campus Ministry Liz Palmer, BAVO coordinator Liz Coulston and senior ministry assistant Annie Maguire.

Maguire said cross-campus events such as those between BAVO and Campus Ministry are important since she believes her community can accomplish more when working together.

When we utilize and harness the assets, wisdom and resources we have in our community, we broaden our reach to students, cultivate our capacity for change-making and deepen our prosperity as an institution, she said.

Maguire said the events partnership between Campus Ministry and BAVO promotes a holistic approach to healing, especially in the midst of a global health emergency.

I found myself [beginning] the process of healing when I reflected upon the questions on the panel, Maguire said in an email. Everyone is affected by this pandemic differently, and this panel helped me open my heart and my mind to the ways I could touch others with my words and reflections to inspire collective healing as well.

Maguire believes her experience ministry assistant on campus at Saint Marys can uplift others right now.

I think its important that students know that despite the distance that separates our community, the community of Saint Marys never leaves them, Maguire said. Saint Marys is here for them no matter what. Its time to extend our love to each other across the miles in creative and meaningful ways.

More than 70 students registered for the event via Google Forms, with more than 50 people appearing on Google Meet during the event time.

We are glad that we could provide support and insight into these topics to so many students today, Karalus said. This is one of the greatest turnouts we have ever had for BAVO events, and we are so happy that we could stay connected as a community today.

BAVO will continue to post tips regarding self-care activities, quotes, recommendations and academic study tips, as well as host more virtual events for students, including GreenDot training overviews and stress-management sessions.

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BAVO, campus ministry host 'Trauma and Spirituality' discussion virtually - Observer Online

There’s A Spirit In My Spirituality – Thrive Global

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Danzig

But the manifestation of the Spirit isgiven to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdomthrough the Spirit the word of knowledge through the same Spirit to anotherfaith by the same Spirit to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit toanother the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning ofspirits, to another different kind of tongues, to another the interpretation oftongues. But the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individuallyas He wills. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)

We have entered a time of increased power and abilitiesin our God-given gifts. More individuals are knowing the future ofcatching a glimpse of the unseen world. Along with this, is the increase ofquestioning; Is this real, is this of God, am I crazy?

To begin, lets try to unravel this bible quote.Someone who defines themselves as religious may also describe themselves asbeing spiritual, while to be sure, someone who is spiritual does not have to bereligious. In the United States, those who identify themselves as religious arethe least likely to hold paranormal beliefs. In contrast, a person operatingfrom the identity of Spiritual is very open to the idea.

Most major religious faiths in the world scope, do havea belief in the existence of ghosts of some definition. The doctrinal teachingsmay not say the word ghost, but spirits that behave like ghosts arewithin the theologies of most other world cultures.

I understand this questioning and yearning to makesense of a paranormal event of prophecy and seeing spirits and other entities.I have struggled with it since my earliest memories can recall. I haveknown things that come to pass. I have seen what I believe wereAngels. One was of light the other darkness. I have seen ghosts. I have beengiven messages from the dead that I could not have known myself, and many werefor strangers. But all the words were not only accurate but detailed, and somewere family secrets. Who was I seeing? Who was I getting these prophecies andall this knowledge from? I dont know is the real answer. I still do not know.

I pray to God and ask mostly not to know or see, but itpersists. I ask only to interact with God or his good Angels or messengers. Butcan I tell you who, no? So when I say I understand it can be confusing andfrightening to experience, and that is compounded by not feeling able to sharefor fear of judgment, I am telling you my truth.

So why all the judgment? Well, as a society we aretaught if not by our families, certainly in the earlier decades in school thatthere is good and evil and things are black and white, and there is noin-between. If you experience knowing something that comes to pass, you must bea witch. If you see a ghost, it must be a demon.

So even those seeking answers in the Bible are confusedby the different versions and terminology. They are referred to as spirits,ghosts, familiar spirits, which are not the same. For example, lets examineLuke 24:37-39.

In Luke 24:37, 39 King James Version, the Lord appearsto his disciples after his resurrection. Its recorded that they were terrifiedand supposed that they had seen a spirit. Jesus said, Handle me andsee; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. The NewInternational Version and Holman said: thinking they saw a ghost, andJesus then says, a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see Ihave. In other bible versions, they vary in the usage of ghost orSpirit

Another passage concerning ghosts is when Christ waswalking on water. His disciples thought he was a ghost stated in Matthew 14:26.It was suggesting even Christs disciples experiences and teachings allowedfor spirits. Christ never corrected this in any following passages. In Matthew14:26, it says: When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they wereterrified, and said, It is a ghost! And they cried out in fear.Commentary from Adam Clarke states it is a spirit That the souls of thedead might and did appear, was a doctrine held by the greatest and holiest ofmen that ever existed; and a principle which the cavaliers, free-thinkers, andbound-thinkers, of different ages, have never been able to disprove. AlbertBarnes Notes on the Whole Bible that they were troubled They were afraid.The sight was remarkable. It was sufficient to awe them. In the night, amid thetumultuous billows appeared the form of a man. They thought it was a spirit anapparition. It was a common belief among the ancients that the souls of peopleafter death frequently appeared to the living.

Now that being said, the term familiar spiritscompletely different in perceived origin. The word familiar is from the Latinfamiliaris, meaning a household servant, and is intended to expressthe idea that sorcerers had spirits as their servants ready to obey theircommands. Those attempting to contact the dead, even to this day, usually havesome spirit guide who communicates with them.

Use discernment in every instance of prophecy andvisions of the dead or other entities. First Thessalonians 5:21-22 tells us ofour responsibility to be discerning: But sift through everything; holdfast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. The apostleJohn issues a similar warning when he says, Do not believe everyspirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because manyfalse prophets have gone out into the world, and in 1 John 4:1 fromthe New Testament, discernment is not optional for the believer it isrequired.

I have known very credible Christian people that haveexperienced what is referred to as paranormal encounters with spirits inperson, on film, and through hearing voices or receiving messages. Each hasmade their conclusion about the experience. Some believe the message was directlyfrom God to them. Some believe the Spirit they saw was not a demon or lostsoul, but their beloved family member or loved one. Others think a spiritcaptured on film was a glimpse into a parallel universe, just a thin veilbetween us. I believe, for my part, that is has been a mixture of divineinteraction with the messengers of God. Other experienced I firmly believe werelow-level energies. Interestingly enough, I have never seen the Spirit of anyof my family members that have crossed over. None.

Several ghosts that I have seen appeared to be goingabout their business without even knowing I was there. The Angels Iencountered, I believe, came from different sources since one passing wasnatural and happened the morning of the appearance; the other foretold a murderthat came to pass three days later.

It is a vast subject, and we only lightly touched onseveral possibilities here. I wish you peace, and I hope this has helped youmake sense of what you have possibly encountered.

Blessings, Teal L. Gray

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