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Android 9 was installed on less than a quarter of the ecosystem as Android 10 launched – The Verge

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

Google is announcing that last years version of Android, Android 9, accounted for 22.6 percent of the ecosystem as of this past August. Thats more than twice as good as the update rate from Android 7 to 8 was the year before, but its still abysmally low compared to the update rates on the iPhone less than a month after launch, iOS 13 now accounts for half of all iPhones.

By comparison, fewer than a quarter of Android users had even made it to the previous version of the operating system when Android 10 launched on September 3rd.

But credit where due: Google has made significant progress in getting manufacturers and carriers to push out Android updates more quickly. Its just that Google has so much further to go with Android updates that even significant progress doesnt look like its enough when compared to iOS.

Google is marking that progress today as a way to show that its Project Treble technology is having a meaningful impact on updates. Treble modularizes Android in order to make it easier to update. Its a technical solution that is just one of several ways Google is trying to solve the update problem for Android.

Google has also put out a chart showing these adoption rates in raw numbers of users, which makes things look quite a bit rosier than they would if it were a percentage-based chart. Then again, 600 million active users is nothing to sneeze at:

The other promising sign is the improved cadence of phones launching beta versions of Android 10. Samsung launched its Android 10 Beta for Galaxy phones just over a week ago, which was a month or so earlier than it managed last year. Betas arent shipping software, of course, but its a move in the right direction.

Again, its important to keep this all in context: Google may have doubled the number of phones updating to its most recent software, but its measuring itself a year or so after that software was released. Google has made significant progress on getting critical security patches out to many more phones more quickly, however, and the new Project Mainline should improve those numbers, too.

Given the way the Android ecosystem is structured, Google will likely never be able to match Apples upgrade numbers for iOS but that doesnt mean it shouldnt aim to double itself again next year. Or better yet: aim for those Android upgrades to happen after just a few months, rather than waiting a year.

Android 9 was installed on less than a quarter of the ecosystem as Android 10 launched - The Verge

Leave those fall leaves for a nicer lawn and a healthier ecosystem – Greater Greater Washington

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

Autumn in DC by Vladimer Shioshvili licensed under Creative Commons.

This region loves its trees.

Where there are trees, there are leaves.

Leaves are beautiful, but leaves fall.

And when they fall, leaves are raked or worse blown by noisy leaf blowers (except in the District, which has banned those infernal contraptions).

Meanwhile, the Washington region loves other things, like fireflies and butterflies. And here we have a great chance to save ourselves work, reduce noise, save money (if you hire others to do the work for you), and help the things we love.

Leave those leaves on the ground. Yes, get them off the sidewalk and steps, where they are slippery when wet. Get them away from the door so you wont track them into the house. Get them off the storm drains. Otherwise, let them be.

Some of our butterflies overwinter right here in our yards, some hibernating as adults, some as cocoons, and some as caterpillars. They may burrow into the soil or tuck into crevices, under or in between logs or underneath loose bark on trees. Leaf litter provides them with much-needed protection from the elements. Give them a nice warm blanket for the winter and enjoy the results next summer.

If you'd like to help the butterflies, leave the leaves. Image by Jessica licensed under Creative Commons.

Other invertebrates love the leaf cover, too. Spiders, snails, worms, beetles, millipedes, and other insects all benefit from the winter protection. Those insects then feed the birds and bats that are in steep decline and can use every bit of help we can give them.

But wont leaves kill the lawn, you may ask? Thats an old myth. Research done at Michigan State University from 2003 to 2009 used mulched leaf litter on the campus lawns. The researchers found that that leaving the leaves on your yard in such a manner not only does your lawn no harm, but it can actually impede weed growth.

So long as you are mowing the lawn, the leaves get mulched in the bargain. Both the grass clippings which help the chopped-up leaves to decay and the leaves will actually benefit the lawn. Of course, your lawn guy disputes that. Leaving the leaves cuts into his revenue. Thank the lawn guy for his advice. Leave the leaves.

To mulch or not to mulch

A light layer of whole leaves (under two inches in depth) wont hurt the lawn, but if you want to remove them, rake them under the shrubs. Thats actually better than mulching the leaves because mulching can destroy butterfly eggs, caterpillars, and larvae that have taken shelter.

If you do mulch the leaves, however, try using leaf mulch instead of bark mulch for weed suppression in your garden beds. The native ground-nesting bees cant get through bark mulch to enter and exit their underground burrows but do just fine with leaf mulch.

Whole leaves will not hurt perennials. A thick layer of leaves provides insulation against bitter cold weather and can protect newly planted perennials when frost-heave may expose tender roots. Walk through Rock Creek or any nearby park in the spring, where leaves have piled up year after year, and look at the wildflowers sending stems and flowers above those piles of leaves.

If you are lucky enough to have lots of lots of big trees and a massive number of leaves, another option is to put up a simple wire compost basket using wire fencing or just buy one. Pile the leaves inside and walk away. In the late spring, the leaves will have transformed into leaf compost, also known as leaf mold. Although it adds few nutrients to the soil, it is great for amending compacted soil or soil with a high clay content.

Need more reasons? Its trendy, requires less yard work, and allows more football-watching time. Plus there will be fewer leafblowers! A win for all!

Ellen Paul lives to bird and birds to live, but, along the way, she also notices the insects, mammals, and plants that surround us. She works to protect the habitat for all our native flora and fauna. Shes also on a mission to eradicate all the vinca, English ivy, lesser celandine, and other non-natives within a five-mile radius of her home.

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Leave those fall leaves for a nicer lawn and a healthier ecosystem - Greater Greater Washington

Innovation and safety: creating a safer road transport ecosystem – Intelligent Transport

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

Matthias Maedge, IRUs General Delegate to the EU, explores how innovation is shaping the safety of current and future road systems, and the challenges that must be overcome in order for the industry to progress.

Over the past decade alone, technology has revolutionised the way we live our lives. Today, cloud computing, big data analytics and digital-first consumer experiences are part of our everyday routines. Road transport has been no exception to the innovation revolution. Whilst autonomous vehicles and flying taxis have been catching the attention of global media, many of the areas where innovation has had the biggest impact in road transport have been in relation to safety.

Safety is the number one priority for the road transport industry but there remain a number of challenges we must overcome. Every year, between 1.25 and 1.5 million people die on the roads around the world. In 2017, 88 per cent of American truckers had their safety threatened and IRU research shows that, in Europe, one out of every four drivers has been a victim of violence or an attack.

One of the biggest opportunities for improving operations in the road transport industry comes from innovation, with the aid of new technologies.Technology is disrupting industries worldwide, providing solutions to make processes more time and cost efficient, and offering new ways of solving problems.

Transport companies and operators alike recognise that embracing and investing in technology will bring significant improvements and benefits. In fact, IRU global research carried out last year revealed that one in three (33 per cent)transportcompaniesworldwide believe that improving safety will be the biggest opportunity brought about by innovation.

There are already a number of examples of innovations within our grasp, which can help us make the sector safer and more attractive:

By investing in upgrading in-vehicle technology such as anti-collision braking, route planners, smart tachographs and increased use of automated systems, we can ensure vehicles become much safer. This is an area where many operators throughout Europe are already investing.

As well as enhancing vehicles, technology can also be used to help improve driver lifestyle and drive efficiencies indirectly. In logistics, Lithuanian company Girteka Logistics is investing in tablets for truck drivers to allow them to store importantinformation(such as licenses and tachograph details) for journeys. This reduces the time they have to spend at border checks and controls, therefore reducing driver stress and tiredness.

We can invest in certification, embracing the very latest driver training technologies to improve skillsdevelopment. This will make the industry not only safer but more professional, helping to encourage more potential entrants into the profession. IRU has been working in this area since May 2019, partnering with leading Spanish operator ALSA, to implement a computer-based assessment programme for use with its drivers.

Of course, when discussing innovation in the road transport industry, we cannot overlook the opportunities offered by automation. As the reality of driverless vehicles comes ever closer, we are already seeing pieces of the automation puzzle fall into place. This includes technologies such as anti-collision breaking, which are being rolled out and improving road safety today.

There are nonetheless significant barriers that the industry will have to overcome, before autonomous vehicles can become widespread. One main challenge lies in user acceptance: ensuring we have the trust, support and understanding of other road users and the general public. As well as regulatory and infrastructure developments, public education campaigns will be a necessity for the roll out of driver-less vehicles.

To help ensure automated technologies are deployed in a coordinated and harmonised manner, the European Commission has set up ARCADE, a three-year EU-funded project. IRUs role in this project is to identify challenges and potential future societal scenarios for connected and automated vehicles. By bringing stakeholders together in this way, we can ensure that all feel the benefits of automation, including improvements to safety.

Embracing technological innovation in the short term will naturally modernise the industry and make it safer. Roadtransportmust develop as demand grows. Yet again, technology will have an important role to play in the longer term, with emerging innovations such as platooning systems.

In order to harness the opportunities offered by innovation, we need every stakeholder in the sector to work together, but it will take time and buy-in from everyone, including governments and regulators who must ensure the industry has the legislative and regulatory environment to make the required changes. Technology and innovation have proven to bring widespread benefits to road transport, but these benefits will only be achievable when the opportunities are accessible to all players within the industry, however big or small.

Matthias Maedge is General Delegate of the IRU Permanent Delegation to the EU. His vision is to further increase IRUs voice for commercial road transport in Europe and ensure the industry is ready for the challenges and opportunities ahead. Prior to joining IRU, Matthias spent 10 years in the vehicle and energy industry, including as Secretary General of the Natural Gas Vehicle Association (NCGVA). Matthias previously worked in the German parliament and started his professional career as an Officer in the German army.

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Innovation and safety: creating a safer road transport ecosystem - Intelligent Transport

Inmar Expands Innovator Ecosystem with Acquisition of Digitus Solutions – Yahoo Finance

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

As Inmars Second Platform Accelerator, Digitus Solutions Will Expand Inmars Digital Platform by Transforming the Way Adult Beverage Brands Communicate

Winston-Salem, NC, Oct. 24, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inmar, a data-driven technology-enabled services company, today announced that it has acquired Digitus Solutions, a patent-pending compliance platform that is transforming the way adult beverage and other controlled substance brands communicate with consumers. Digitus Solutions joins Owner IQ as the first Platform Accelerators to join Inmar's recently launched Innovator Ecosystem. Together, Inmar and Digitus will provide tools to help ensure brands in the adult beverage and other controlled substance industries comply with applicable national, state and local laws, local advertising regulations and the industry self-regulatory codes of practice.

As our second Platform Accelerator, Digitus Solutions is another perfect complement to our growing technology stack and were confident that integrating it into the Inmar platform will offer tremendous value to existing and future clients, said David Mounts, Chairman and CEO of Inmar. Until now, brands havent been able to tie their digital campaign spending to actual sales. Digitus Solutions changes that by enabling adult beverage and other controlled substance brands to deploy nationwide digital promotions that will convert, engage, and retain consumers while measuring true ROI.

The controlled substance market is a growing multi-billion dollar industry, and it is imperative that brands within this market are able to reach consumers through the right channels while adhering to all relevant laws and regulations. Digitus Solutions platform helps controlled substance brands manage the complexity of regional regulations and reduce handling cost while rendering fraud virtually impossible. Additionally, the platform is used to increase redemption rates and help suppliers close the loop on ROI with real-time reporting.

We are excited to join the Inmar family, said Chrissy Gee, Director of Operations at Digitus Solutions. Inmars acquisition of Digitus Solutions provides an amazing opportunity to accelerate our reach into the controlled substance industry together.

For more information about Inmars Innovator Ecosystem please click here.

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Holly PavlikaInmar, Inc.(336) 770-3596holly.pavlika@inmar.com

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Inmar Expands Innovator Ecosystem with Acquisition of Digitus Solutions - Yahoo Finance

Plasan Introduces the StreetDrone Open Autonomy Platform to Israel – Army Technology

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

StreetDrones software and hardware solutions are now available in Israel through an exclusive partnership with Plasan. Plasans local distribution and support will provide deployments of StreetDrones autonomous vehicles and testing eco-system to Israels mobility hubs, cities, universities and autonomous vehicle testing facilities.

StreetDrone offers a unique range of autonomous-ready vehicles and open source software systems providing a fast track to autonomy for a variety of customers such as start-ups, innovation labs and academic/research institutions. During the past few years, customers have successfully integrated their own self-driving systems on StreetDrones Twizy, ZOE and Nissan e-NV200 vehicles, allowing immediate and extensive deployment of self-driving technologies.

Supported by Plasans capability and presence, StreetDrone is now able to offer its solutions to Israels vibrant smart mobility ecosystem in various ways; via the deployment of autonomous fleets made up entirely of StreetDrones vehicles; or by integrating StreetDrones open-source self-driving system into any vehicle. This flexibility and modular approach serves the varied needs of the many companies and institutions working in the autonomous vehicle space.

StreetDrones have the worlds safest autonomous focused, open-access drive-by-wire system having built their driving robot into the Twizy, ZOE and e-NV 200 vehicles. Unlike most autonomous vehicles which are enabled by hacking into driving systems not intended to enable self-driving, StreetDrones solutions provide a definitive means to test, analyse and deploy self-driving technology on public roads.

With local support from Plasan and access to Plasans cutting edge capabilities in vehicle design & engineering, modeling, simulation and composite materials, as well as local Integrated Logistics Support, customers in Israel can concentrate on the pieces of the puzzle that are within their own teams core expertize and leave the rest to the Plasan StreetDrone team.

Dani Ziv, Plasan CEO said we are very excited to be able to introduce StreetDrones exceptional autonomous platforms to the Israeli market. This expands Plasans offering into a new and rapidly expanding segment that will define the next generation of vehicles and we are very happy to be a part of Israels leading position in this field.

StreetDrone founder, Mark Preston added Plasan, as the leading vehicular platform manufacturer in Israel, is a natural partner for us in this region. They allow us to offer close and intimate support to the large number of companies and institutions in this cutting edge ecosystem, who can benefit greatly from the products that StreetDrone has developed specifically for the purpose of accelerating R&D in autonomous vehicles and related systems.

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Plasan Introduces the StreetDrone Open Autonomy Platform to Israel - Army Technology

Investing In The Nonprofit Ecosystem – Forbes

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

Recently, our organization hosted our annual Founders Day event. What started as a small gathering with a few of our local grantees to honor our benefactor has grown over the years into a full-blown block party where we welcome nonprofits from around the region, provide an update on our work and recognize their tireless dedication to serve the common good.

But as much as the day provides an opportunity to celebrate the work thats been done, it also serves as an important moment for reflection on how we are living up to our mission and where we can continue to grow in our future work and service.

As part of this process, we have a tradition of highlighting a small handful of nonprofits that represent one of the sectors we fund in order to bring attention to best practices and innovative strategies they are employing to support their work. At this years event, we honored a collection of arts and culture groups that have been participating in a two-year training and development program to help build their organizational capacity. In my remarks, I noted that while arts and culture organizations present important works of entertainment, they also serve several other critical roles in the overall health of a community. Arts organizations help educate, preserve history and drive economic growth through performance and exhibitions that attract customers to restaurants, parking garages and hotels.

Similar statements could be made about public and private schools that educate but also create jobs, support scientific research and incubate entrepreneurial ideas, healthcare facilities, scientific laboratories or houses of faith.

Communities flourish with the help of thriving ecosystems of interconnected, supportive organizations, businesses, nonprofits and government agencies. It can be very easy to live in a heads-down world where we focus only on the immediate tasks in front of us to move our own organization forward. However, it is important that we continue to lift our gaze from our own work to see how our efforts intersect with and impact other groups, organizations and businesses in our community.

The more we each invest in the ecosystem of our own communities, the stronger our own organizations can and will be. And there are a few easy steps we can all take today to invest in the ecosystems of our own communities:

Understand your 'impact map.' Whether we work at nonprofits, businesses, in government or for foundations, it can be easy to zero in on the target audiences we seek to serve. But our organizations impact several other secondary and tertiary groups, even if we dont do business directly. Event venues provide opportunities for transportation providers. Community spaces drive a need for food and beverage vendors. Think about what local entities impact your organization and vice versa, and reach out. Start dialogues. See if there are ways you can help each other grow.

Be open to partners of all backgrounds. Ive previously shared the research that shows communities thrive based on the formation of unconventional coalitions partnerships between groups that otherwise would not cross paths. Valuable partnerships may exist with organizations you would not currently consider working alongside for any number of reasons. By opening yourself and your organization to the possibility of collaborating with groups that may not currently feel like natural fits, you have the potential to increase the strength and impact of your organization and the broader community.

Make space for connection. While social media can be a wonderful tool to make contacts, nothing quite replaces sitting down and talking with someone in person. Make time to attend in-person networking events, or host get-togethers of your own. While there may be no formal agenda or tangible outcomes, by meeting face to face with partners in your community, you increase the likelihood of forming impactful relationships that can help lift your organization and community.

By identifying the myriad ways we can connect with and support other organizations, the more we can help build strong, vibrant communities that serve the needs of every individual and family in our region.

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Investing In The Nonprofit Ecosystem - Forbes

35 New Integration Partners Join Thriving Clio App Ecosystem – Yahoo Finance

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

The recent additions bring the total number of integration partners to almost 200, further establishing Clios App Directory as the largest ecosystem for legal technology.

San Diego, CA, Oct. 22, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Clio, the leader in cloud-based legal technology, announced 35 new app integrations designed to help lawyers succeed by helping them be more productive, deliver better client experiences, and grow their firms. This brings Clios App Directory to include almost 200 unique integrations, further establishing its ability to serve the legal community as the largest legal technology ecosystem on the market.

We see ourselves as building the operating system for the legal industry, said Jack Newton, CEO and Co-founder of Clio. Much like you can customize your smartphone with a number of products and services that work together, Clio provides a platform to integrate all of the legal technologies that help law firms improve their client services and firm productivity.

The new integrations include:

Discover all of Clios integrations today in Clios App Directory.

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About Clio:

Clio, the leader in cloud-based legal technology, empowers lawyers to be both client-centered and firm focused through a suite of cloud-based solutions, including legal practice management, client intake and legal CRM software. Clio has been transforming the industry for over a decade with 150,000 customers spanning 90 countries, and the approval of over 65 bar associations and law societies globally. Clio continues to lead the industry with initiatives like the Legal Trends Report, the Clio Cloud Conference, and the Clio Academic Access Program. Clio has been recognized as one of Canadas Best Managed Companies, a Deloitte Fast 50 and Fast 500 company. Learn more at clio.com.

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Sasha PerrinSenior Manager, Brand and Communications, Clio1-800-347-8314sasha.perrin@clio.com

35 New Integration Partners Join Thriving Clio App Ecosystem - Yahoo Finance

Trump Wants Loggers to Tear Through This Pristine Forest. If It Happens, the Ecosystem Will Be in Chaos. – Mother Jones

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

This story was originally published byWiredand appears here as part of theClimate Desk collaboration.

The Trump administration this weekproposed endingthe so-calledRoadless Rule, which banned logging, development, and road construction in Alaskas Tongass, the biggest national forest in the US. If the USDA Forest Servicehas its way, it would remove all 9.2 million acres of inventoried roadless acres and would convert 165,000 old-growth acres and 20,000 young-growth acres previously identified as unsuitable timber lands to suitable timber lands.

If youre thinking that opening up the Tongass for road-building and logging might have some environmental consequences, its actually far worse than you can imagine. Clear-cutting the Tongass, or even just laying down roads, will have hidden yet dire knock-on effects that ripple through this dynamic ecosystem and even spread to rivers and the sea.

When logging removes trees, it doesnt just assault the biodiversity of the local vegetation. For one, opening up a gash in the forest changes the dynamics of what you leave intact. In this part of the world, its usually too wet for the forests to refresh with wildfires, which in places like California clear out brush to make way for new growth. Instead, the Tongass relies on heavy winds to blow over trees, dispensing with the old and making room for the new to grow.

That natural process is supercharged if humans modify the environment. Once you have a clear cut, then the remaining trees or the edge of the forest becomes much more susceptible to what we think of as windthrow, or wind disturbance, says Northern Arizona University ecologist Michelle Mack, who studies forests. This exposure also imperils species like moss, which rely on a moist, dark environment to thrive, but are now left to dry out in the wind and sun. You see the same thing happeningwith deforestation in the Amazon: Leaving islands of rainforest surrounded by farmland doesnt just trap the animals thereit transforms the dynamics of vegetation at the edges.

Gouging a road through the Tongass will have the same effect, as vegetation on either side struggles to cope with the exposure. And add to that stress the potential to introduce invasive species as the area develops. One nice thing about most Alaskan forests and tundra is theyre relatively resistant to invasion, says Mack. Roads and clear-cuts, she says, remove some of that protection. Equipment brought in from afar might carry seeds that can take root and out-compete native species, as well as winged insects that can spread even faster in the stressed-out forest.

In a healthy forest like the Tongass, the tree canopy captures rain and snow, a process known as interception. This actually controls the amount of water runoff in the ecosystem, as whats caught in the canopy evaporates back into the atmosphere. So when we remove the forest canopy, we remove this protective layer, says John Pomeroy, a hydrologist at the University of Saskatchewan. We have much more snow and rain hitting the forest flooror whatwasthe forest floor.

With fewer trees the soil can come loose, which all that extra water picks up and washes into rivers, where it either directly kills fish by choking the water with muck or indirectly by cutting off the light for aquatic vegetation like eelgrass, in which fish species breed. From the rivers the sediment flows into lakes and the sea, altering those environments too. The erosion sometimes can be spectacular, says Pomeroy. It can be massive landslides, saturated hill slopes collapsing downstream.

As these habitats falter, processes hidden underground descend into chaos. Networks of fungi known as mycorrhizae, which form symbiotic relationships with tree roots to move nutrients and water, begin to fragment. They can even move water uphill, says Pomeroy. Once the trees are dead, you lose the whole microbial ecosystem that relies on being under the forest canopy. Soil chemistry can also change dramatically, as the dynamics between water and trees shift.

In the Tongass, all these complex interactions have developed over centuries. So if you clear-cut a forest, its not just going to bounce back in a couple years, fully stocked with all the original organisms acting out their original relationships. Sure, you can cut a tree and get another tree to grow and it will start to look big after three decades, but it wont begin to function like those old-growth trees for many, many centuries, says Pomeroy.

Not only are mature forests managing water supplies, theyre managing their local climate as well: A northern forests surface temperature on a summer day hovers around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, while a clear-cut area is more like 100 degrees. And old-growth forests affect the global climate, too, by capturing CO2and helping save us from this mess weve made.

The challenge, says Rick Steinerwho runs the conservation group Oasis Earth, in Anchorageis that the threat is coming both on a federal level from the Trump administration and on the state level from the governorship of Mike Dunleavy. Dunleavy,according toThe Washington Post, has asked Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to exempt Tongass from logging limits. They see dollar signs in the forest, they dont see trees in the habitat, says Steiner. And its about as bad as it has ever been here in Alaska right now. Its unbelievable.

Now more than ever, we have to see the forest for the trees, or face ecological doom.

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Trump Wants Loggers to Tear Through This Pristine Forest. If It Happens, the Ecosystem Will Be in Chaos. - Mother Jones

Treating the IT Ecosystem as an Actual Ecosystem – MarketScale Industries

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

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The process of integrating new systems into existing ecosystems is detailed, by its very nature. On todays installment of Service Logics Conversations from The EDGE, host Sean Heath spoke with Greg Crumpton and StrategITcoms Carrie Goetz to discuss the nature of an IT ecosystem and the challenges that present themselves during these implementations.

I think ecosystems is really sort of an oxymoron, right? We know that its an ecosystem, but people dont treat it that way. Budgets are still very much siloed. Theres still kind of a component where Facilities does their thing and IT does their thing, but nobody really treats it as a cohesive ecosystem, Goetz said.

One of the biggest keys to success, according to Crumpton, is getting everyone on the same page as early as possible.

You want to be there for that first conversation, so that you start setting expectations early, and youre also, while youre explaining those expectations, setting requirements. Youre finding out more and more detail, he said. Youre getting all that detail as you go to help build that formula right out of the gate that first time.

Outages are always preventable, but throwing additional redundancy at an outage is not always the best way to go, she said. If IT has done their job and they fail over to other sites, then you can minimize the impact of that outage. But, if you put all of your eggs in one basket and the handle breaks: youre going to be scrambling, right?

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Treating the IT Ecosystem as an Actual Ecosystem - MarketScale Industries

Identity and Access Management for Healthcare getting it right to support clinical workflows Part Two – HealthLeaders Media

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

(Part II in a multi-part post examining IAM in healthcare)

Healthcares rapid transition to a fully digital environment has benefitted from the introduction of sophisticated IT tools to the hospital ecosystem and bedside workflows, which have greatly helped improve the delivery of care. In the course of improving care delivery, however, healthcare also experienced something else: greater complexity.

(Gus Malezis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Imprivata)

Todays modern healthcare delivery ecosystem consists of a much more extensive and expansive population of providers and users, all of whom are operating from multiple locations. Often times, these locations are outside the four walls of the hospital, and furthermore the users access systems through an exploding number of devices and an ever-increasing complement of applications that reside on-prem and progressively in the cloud.

In this post, we will look at the four planes of the modern healthcare ecosystem to get an appreciation for the ways that improving care delivery is creating more complexity across the industry and the pivotal role that digital identity and IAM will play in this environment.

The Four Planes

Healthcare delivery now happens around the clock, with a diverse set of healthcare professionals, each of whom is regularly using all kinds of connected and different devices. By taking the IT tools we have and adjusting them to the dimensions of these rapidly evolving planes, we can continue supporting them and enabling improved care in the healthcare continuum.

Plane I Who are the users?

Now and into the future, the professionals accessing healthcare systems are multiplying exponentially. Instead of just doctors and nurses as was the case in the recent past we now have affiliates, administrative staff, and other external users. This easily doubles, and even triples, the number of people we consider to be users or, more importantly, healthcare providers; its now anybody who is in association with your healthcare ecosystem.

Plane II Where are they operating?

The physical locus of healthcare delivery is no longer only a hospital. It can be a clinic, a doctors office, or a home-care situation. Todays healthcare providers are no longer just operating in a single location at the hospital or acute-care environment theyre everywhere.

Plane III What devices are they using to access the digital networks?

It used to be that providers would access a system through a computer, usually a Windows system, located at a nursing station but thats no longer the case. Now, machines are in a patients room, or are portable and in the hands of the providers as they make their patient rounds. These machines may be corporate devices, or they could be personal. Some can be also be virtual machines, Android or iOS Smartphones and tablets, or medical devices. Healthcare is experiencing an explosion of connected digital devices, taking us from 1X to numbers that are 4X or even 10X (especially if you include medical devices) in terms of access points.

Plane IV What are the apps and services they use to deliver healthcare?

Providers are no longer limited to a constrained complement of apps, to the EHR, imaging, scheduling and communications. Now we are seeing many more apps become available to the providers and that includes HR, payroll and office automation apps. These apps run the spectrum of classical fat-client apps, virtual apps, SaaS and cloud apps, along with mobile apps. Here again the population of offerings continue to explode in volume.

IAM considerations in healthcare

This proliferation ofEVERYTHINGhas eroded the once well-defined network perimeter and the systems and services delivered within that environment. In this new ecosystem, organizations must architect and build for this scale and establish trusted identities across a complex network of people, technology, and information.

With a focus on trusted digital identity, organizations can optimize processes and technologies to solve the equally critical aspects of (a) workflow, (b) security, and (c) compliance challenges. They can give users secure access to the applications, devices, and information they need, anywhere and anytime they need it.

Healthcare has unique considerations and challenges that directly impact IAM purchasing, deployment, and management decisions. And theyre not limited to the entities (users, devices, applications) that must be addressed by an effective IAM program. Clinical workflows are also complicated by the industrys complex ecosystem.

Regulatory concerns pose another unique challenge for the industry. Healthcare is a heavily regulated industry, and the information thats shared is highly sensitive. This requires compliance with unique and specific regulatory requirements, from HIPAA to DEA requirements for electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS).

Addressing the challenges

So, how do we overcome these challenges to give users secure access to the applications, devices, and information they need, anywhere and anytime they need it? This is where a solid identity and access management (IAM) strategy comes into place.

First, IT teams need to grant the right users the right level of access into the right systems. With the right identity management technology in place, healthcare organizations can automate the process of quickly provisioning, updating, and deactivating user access. This has to be accomplished with automation and fast repeatable and consistent process.

Next, give users the anytime, anywhere access they need from any device by eliminating the overreliance on usernames and passwords. Single sign-on (SSO), for example, allows users to access their devices, any devices. This is the case whether its the shared nursing station desktop, the VDI/thin/zero end-point, their dedicated windows desktop/laptop, or the shared smartphone or tablet. Moreover, its all with the simple, well understood and ubiquitous badge tap, and in that same process, they can automatically and appropriately access their applications, be it on-prem, or cloud apps.

To get the security and compliance part right, especially when elevated levels of trust are required or mandated, the next step is layering on an effective and efficient multifactor authentication system. Pick the combination of authentication methods thats right for your organization. The combination of two or more factors including a push token, fingerprint biometrics, or hands-free authentication, amongst others, makes security transparent so it doesnt interrupt clinical workflow. Hands-free authentication with invisible/transparent 2nd factor is a particularly usable innovation, as the technology fades to the background, becoming invisible, enabling the provider to focus on whats important the patient and enhancing productivity.

As an industry, healthcare has traditionally focused on locking down everything within our networks. In the new digital world, its time to take the same precautions with the new non-perimeter and the broader set of variables all of which should support the well trusted clinical workflow and enhance care delivery. Protecting against new cyber security risks requires having the right technology in place, starting with an integrated IAM solution. This is the first step for healthcare organizations to strike the necessary, but often elusive, balance between security and clinical workflow efficiency across the evolving healthcare technology landscape.

Digital identity and IAM now play even a more pivotal role. We need trusted identities. We also need the right infrastructure to support and manage those identities something we will examine in our next post in this series.

Check back in November for the final installment of this series, and for more information, browse the infographic.

Gus Malezis is President and Chief Executive Officer of Imprivata.

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Identity and Access Management for Healthcare getting it right to support clinical workflows Part Two - HealthLeaders Media

Understanding Startup Investment Dynamics Within The Logistics Ecosystem – Benzinga

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

Though the logistics industry is one of the largest contributors to the U.S. economy alongside sectors like software, oil & gas, and telecommunications, the former witnesses an extremely fragmented market that makes visibility hard and technology penetration much more arduous. Sensing a bottomless pool of opportunities, startups mushroomed in the market with an intent to infuse technology into an industry that has historically remained sluggish to change.

However, the landscape is now primed for further disruption. A constant stream of investment pouring in from eager venture capital (VC) firms and angel investors has propelled businesses to break through the industry's veneer of indifference and help technology percolate to its roots.

FreightWaves spoke with Matthew Cowan, partner at Next47, the VC investment arm of Siemens, to discuss the type of logistics startups that will potentially be on its radar and the general technology trends that loom over the industry.

"There are two key kinds of companies that we look at in the investment landscape one, that are trying to create a whole new approach from the ground up with a digital perspective in mind. And the second kind are the companies that are looking to digitally enable existing infrastructure," said Cowan. "If you were to use Uber as an analogy, they could have either sold their technology to taxi companies and remained a technology provider, or they could have become a transportation company. And they became the latter."

Cowan explained that the industry would see a steady stream of startups over the next decade, because the market is massive enough to accommodate new business models and a variety of approaches that ultimately aim to improve the overall efficiency of logistics processes.

"This is not going to be a winner-take-all market but is going to be much broader than that. We look at companies that work to digitalize existing infrastructure," said Cowan. "For instance, sennder is a European company we invested in, and it is looking to digitally enable existing shipping services. Turvo is a U.S. company we invested in, primarily for fast and informed shipping."

Many of the incumbent logistics companies operate in silos, which makes it hard to precisely locate freight as it makes its way through the supply chain. Shippers that employ several stakeholders to push their freight to the end consumer have to contend with supply chain blind spots a situation that can be phased out if processes are digitalized and data flows are centralized.

"Having a digital services layer that is seeking to connect all these disparate silos into one cohesive experience is key," said Cowan. "If you are anybody other than Amazon today, you probably don't have a solution to get a product in the hands of your customer the same day. Amazon has conditioned consumers in many geographies around the world to expect same-day and next-day delivery. To deliver on that promise, companies will need a whole new digital infrastructure layer."

Cowan argued that consolidation within the industry across specific niches is a scenario that is way in the future and that when it happens, it will be between companies with similar capabilities and also when it strategically helps to maximize geographic impact.

"There are several compelling opportunities for companies in terms of how they can drive efficiencies into their operations. For instance, digital transparency will allow people to see all the different possibilities to fill up trucks that were otherwise running empty before," said Cowan. "Such situations create the need for a whole category of companies that can come in and fill that need."

In the context of raising capital in the logistics space, Cowan pointed out that it was vital for startups to identify investors who can give their business an unfair advantage in the market. Working with investors who have established relationships with key shippers, warehousing companies, and major shipping lines will provide startups with easy access to customers and help them scale faster.

"It is important to reflect on the scale of this market segment. This is not, for the most part, a segment where small companies are going to win. In order to achieve scale, you need to invest in relationships," said Cowan. "Startups should look for investors that have deep pockets and access to those kinds of relationships."

Image Sourced from Pixabay

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Understanding Startup Investment Dynamics Within The Logistics Ecosystem - Benzinga

Understanding the Decentralized Finance Ecosystem: Part 2 Top DeFi Projects – Bitcoin & Crypto Guide – Altcoin Buzz

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

In Part 1 of this series, we explained the basics of Decentralized Finance (DeFi). We also evaluated its difference from the traditional financial systems and discussed how they will change the future. In this Part, we will review the top DeFi projects across segments.

A quick recap of the different DeFi segments:

0x is an open protocol that enables the peer-to-peer exchange of assets on the Ethereum blockchain. Anyone in the world can use 0x to service a wide variety of markets ranging from gaming items to financial instruments to assets that could have never existed before.

0x boasts of the following numbers: Total Transactions: 713K, Total Volume: $750M, Total Projects: 30+

Popular projects which are already using 0x Protocol include dYdX, Gods Unchained, etc.

Paxos Standard (PAX) considers itself a digital dollar. Just like other crypto assets, it can move instantaneously, anywhere in the world, any time of any day, and its programmable. It is USD-pegged (1:1). The funds are carefully protected, audited and regulated.

PAX boasts of the following numbers: Total PAX transacted ~ $ 60.7 Bn, Total PAX minted ~ $ 1.2 Bn

PAX is a programmable token that can participate in the larger global community of tokens, helping create a global platform for programmable money with stability.

Maker comprises a decentralized stable coin, collateral loans, and community governance. Its product, Dai (DAI) is a stable and decentralized currency. It allows businesses and individuals to realize the advantages of digital money without experiencing volatility. Maker (MKR) is the governance token for the Dai Credit System. MKR holders have the important responsibility of making decisions around the risk that will impact the future of the system.

Anyone who has collateral assets can leverage them to generate DAI on the Maker Platform. This can be done through Makers unique smart contracts known as Collateralized Debt Positions (CDP). These CDPs hold collateral assets deposited by a user and permit this user to generate DAI. But, generating DAI also accrues debt. This debt effectively locks the deposited collateral assets inside the CDP until it is later covered by paying back an equivalent amount of DAI. At this point, the owner can again withdraw their collateral.

When the user wants to retrieve their collateral, they have to pay off the debt in the CDP. They will also have to pay a stability fee, which they have continuously accrued on the debt over time. It is paid in MKR (or DAI if using the CDP Portal UI).

Lending through Collateralized Debt Position is MakerDaos game-changer. It is still a work in progress and will be made more effective in the coming days.

Bob needs a loan, so he decides to generate 100 DAI. He locks an amount of ETH worth significantly more than 100 DAI into a CDP and uses it to generate 100 DAI. The 100 DAI is instantly sent directly to his Ethereum account. Assuming that the stability fee is 1% per year, Bob will need 101 DAI to cover the CDP if he decides to retrieve his ETH one year later.

From MakerDao s website.

Read more here: Top 5 Working Cryptocurrency Projects With Great Token Utility

Augur is a trustless, decentralized oracle and peer to peer protocol for prediction markets. It is deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. Augur forecasts the results of different events basing on the Wisdom of the Crowd Principle (large groups aggregated answers are often superior to the answer given by any of the individuals in the group).

Augurs decentralized oracle system has the ability to identify the truth of an incident. This is Augurs ultimate innovation. So Augur produces honest predictions about the future and reports of what has already occurred and the present state of the world.

Augur markets follow a four-stage progression:

A user can ask a specific question about a real-world event in the future. Trading begins immediately after the market creation, and all users are free to trade on any market. Market creators will receive an Augur coin (REP) encouragement from the fees for buying shares. After the event, on which the market is based, has occurred, its outcome is determined by Augurs oracle. Then, traders can close out their positions and collect their payouts.

In a Decentralized Prediction Market (DPM) theres no operator! A market actor or a group of actors stand to gain millions or even billions by manipulating an outcome and claiming that Y occurred when in fact X was the true outcome. This is The Oracle Problem.

Augur uses an incentivized communal resolution system. Market outcomes undergo a resolution process whereby participants can dispute outcomes by placing a financial stake. Those who stake on the accurate outcome, or more precisely, on the outcome that the market ultimately resolves to, win an additional stake. Those who report inaccurate outcomes lose their stakes. This incentivizes honest reporting.

Reporters use Reputation (REP) during market dispute phases of Augur. REP holders must perform work, in the form of staking their REP on correct outcomes, to receive a portion of the market settlement fees. If s/he does not report correctly, s/he does not get the fees and loses REP. Also, if s/he does not participate in a fork (when the network has a very large dispute over an outcome), s/he loses 5% of his REP. Passive holders of REP who dont use the coinwithin the Augur protocol to stake on disputes and forks are penalized.

Launched in 2018, Harbors mission is to power the future of crypto-securities. For this, it wants to build a decentralized compliance protocol that standardizes the way securities are issued and traded on blockchains. The platform streamlines the alternative investment experience for investors, issuers and their placement agents. It unlocks liquidity options for traditionally illiquid assets.

Do read our detailed articles on Security Tokens:

Understanding Security Tokens Part 1

Understanding Security Tokens Part 2

SelfKey is an identity system built on an open platform consisting of several key components including

Selfkey introduces a concept called Self-Sovereign IDentity (SSID). This concept of Self Sovereign Digital Identity is similar to the way we store and manage our non-digital identities today. Currently, most of us keep identity documents such as passports and birth certificates or utility bills at our homes safely, securely, under our own control. Self-sovereign identity in SelfKey is the digital equivalent of what most of us already do with our physical identity documents.

References: We have heavily referred to the official websites of individual projects.

Indian startups have raised a record $11.3B this year – TechCrunch

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

With two months of 2019 still to go, Indian tech startups are already having their best year as a record amount of capital flows into the local ecosystem in a major rebound since the darkened funding environment of 2016.

The unlisted tech startups in India have raised $11.3 billion this year, a substantial jump from last years $10.5 billion fundraise, research firm Tracxn told TechCrunch.

This years fundraise, the largest sum for the local ecosystem in any year, further moves the nations burgeoning startup space on a path of steady growth. Since 2016, when tech startups accumulated just $4.3 billion down from $7.9 billion the year before flow of capital has increased significantly in the ecosystem. In 2017, Indian startups raised $10.4 billion, according to Tracxn.

Startups with consumer-facing offerings including financial services have attracted most of the venture capital this year about $8.2 billion, Tracxn said. Following that is retail startups that have bagged about $2.3 billion and those that offer enterprise services, with $1.5 billion. (There is some overlap of startups whose offerings fall under more than one category.)

Investors growing appetite for equity in Indias startups shows that the local ecosystem is maturing, said Dev Khare, a partner at VC fund Lightspeed Venture Partners . In an interview with TechCrunch, Khare noted that in 2014 and 2015, startups were largely focused on building e-commerce solutions and replicating ideas that worked in Western markets.

But today, they are tackling a wide-range of categories and opportunities and building some solutions that have not been attempted in any other market, he said. He attributes much of this change to the arrival of telecom operator Reliance Jio and some government efforts, such as introduction of GST taxation system for businesses and introduction of UPI payments infrastructure.

Jio, a three-year-old telecom operator run by Indias richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has disrupted the market with incredibly low-cost mobile data. The low-cost data meant that overnight, tens of millions of Indians were able to come online for the first time.

This, alongside a cash crunch created by New Delhi in late 2016, led to a sudden explosion in demand for content and services, including mobile wallets that created a massive opportunity for local startups to innovate, Khare said.

Financial services firm Paytm, which has raised more than $2 billion to date, has more than 200 million registered users in India, while Google Pay has amassed over 67 million active customers in less than two years of its existence.

Additionally, Khare said more people than ever in India today are willing to work at a startup. Citing Lightspeeds internal research, he said in 2010, only 10% of founders of startups that had reached a Series A financing round had worked at a startup before. That figure went up to 36% in 2014 and ballooned to 70% last year.

There are some other promising signals as well: Of the top 150 Indian startups that raised capital in the first half of this year, 17.3% of them were either led or co-led by women, Indian news outlet The Morning Context reported on Wednesday, citing data from research firm Venture Intelligence. This is a massive jump from last year, when just 10% of startups counted women as their founder or co-founder.

A trend that appears to continue from the last several years is concentration of funds in a smaller number of startups. So far, tech startups in India have participated in 872 financing rounds, compared to 924 last year, and 1,141 in 2017.

But that number, as well as total fundraise amount, could change substantially by the end of the year as many more startups prep to close new financing rounds. Zomato, Swiggy and Paytm alone are expected to close rounds worth as much as $3 billion in the coming months.

Its fascinating turnaround for the nation, which just 10 years ago had a very small startup ecosystem. In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma recounted the early days of One97, the parent firm of Paytm, and how difficult it was for him to raise a few hundred thousand dollars.

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Indian startups have raised a record $11.3B this year - TechCrunch

Global Access Control Ecosystem, 2019 | 5 Year Forecasts of Unit Sales & Revenues for Smart Door Locks, Video Doorbells, and Smart Garage Door…

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Battle for the Front Door: The Access Control Ecosystem" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report assesses the access control ecosystem, profiles key players, and evaluates the strategies toward home services. It includes five-year forecasts of unit sales and revenues for smart door locks, video doorbells, and smart garage door openers.

The smart home starts at the front door - smart door locks, video doorbells, and garage doors are access-control devices that are foundational to smart home growth. The front door also represents the access point for a future world of services. Companies are vying for ecosystem control of access points into the home that leverage home service opportunities.

Key Questions Answered

Key Topics Covered

1. Report Summary

1.1 Purpose of Report

1.2 Key Questions Addressed by this Research

1.3 Research Approach/Sources

2. The Access Control Ecosystem

2.1 Channel Distribution

2.2 Smart Home Platforms

2.3 Key Barriers

3. Smart Door Locks

3.1 Consumer Demand and Adoption

3.2 Trends and Use Cases

3.2.1 Advancements in Entry Methods

3.2.2 Enabling Home Automation

3.3 Barriers to Adoption

3.4 Key Market Players

4. Video Doorbells

4.1 Consumer Demand and Adoption

4.2 Trends and Use Cases

4.3 Barriers to Adoption

4.4 Key Market Players

5. Smart Garage Door Openers

5.1 Consumer Demand and Adoption

5.2 Trends and Use Cases

5.3 Barriers to Adoption

5.4 Key Market Players

6. Home Service Opportunities

6.1 In-home and In-garage Delivery Services

6.2 The Home Rental Market

6.3 Health and Wellness

7. MDU and Home Builder Opportunities

8. Market Forecasts

8.1 Forecast Methodology and Assumptions

8.2 Forecast of Smart Door Lock Ownership, 2019-2024

8.3 Forecast of Video Doorbell Ownership, 2019-2024

8.4 Forecast of Smart Garage Door Opener Ownership, 2019-2024

9. Implications and Recommendations

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qb67ma

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Global Access Control Ecosystem, 2019 | 5 Year Forecasts of Unit Sales & Revenues for Smart Door Locks, Video Doorbells, and Smart Garage Door...

Restoration Agriculture: A New Approach to Growing Food – WCAI

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

Mark Shepard sits outside Nauset High School, where a new food and research garden abuts the sports fields. Theres a soccer game going on and Mark has just given a community talk in the garden. He thinks the way we grow food is crazy.

He points to a recently tilled patch of bare dirt.

The Local Food Report with Elspeth Hay

This bare black dirt gardenwhenever you destroy a living perennial ecosystem to expose the soil youre just off-gassing tons, literally tons of carbon dioxide right into the atmosphere. So this kind of agriculture, plow-land agriculture is one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere that we can measure and know of.

And it isnt even producing food.

Most of our farms work like this garden, Mark says. We clear forests or fill in wetlandsdestroying complex ecosystemsand we plow them up to plant annual crops. We have to seed and weed these continually, and we use tons of inputs like fertilizer and pesticides to keep them functioning. He thinks growing food should work more like a forest.

The Beeman oak for a while held the record in Massachusetts for the largest diameter oak trunk, it was in Lancaster, Massachusetts this was like 40 foot across you know 100s of years old. That thing took carbon out of atmosphere, pumped carbon into soilandas a bonus, free of charge it would throw out nuts for whoever to eat, whoever would bother to eat them.

Mark first started thinking about this as a kid in the 1970s. His family was in the lower economic rungs in a rural area of Western Massachusetts hit hard by declining industry and the oil embargo. To make ends meet he had to help out:

So what Id have to do after working the garden in the sun getting sweaty and dirty Id now have to go off in the woods and cut firewood where Id pick blueberries and strawberries and theres flowers all over the places and really cool animals and grapes and hickory nuts and hazel nuts and the big quest was to find a chestnut that was still bearing chestnuts. I experimented with eating acorns.

Mark noticed the productivity of the forests and started wondering: What if he combined the intentionality of a garden with the permanence of a perennial ecosystem? He moved to Wisconsin, bought 100 acres of spent cornfields, and started experimenting.

He planted tall food-producing trees like chestnuts that would become the canopy, and then shorter trees like apples, cherries, and plums underneath, and beneath those shrubs like hazelnuts and raspberries. Then he planted sun-loving vines like grapes to climb up the trees and seeded spores of edible fungi onto the ground. Finally he introduced grazing animals onto the grassy areas between tree rows. He not only restored the land he also produced a lot of food.

So were mimicking natural plant community types. And instead of going for a walk in the woods and looking for a berry here or a nut there we know where it is because we planted it, this is our farm, but were going to manage it more like a natural ecosystem. Meaning that were not going to control every single weed and pest and disease that comes through it, were gonna kinda going to let it run a little wild. You dont realize all the food thats out there.

In Marks system, which he calls restoration agriculture, the nut producing trees and the animals provide the staple foods. Some argue animals dont have a place in sustainable agriculture and climate solutions, but Mark disagrees. He says we need to stop working against nature, and start working with it.

I asked him if these methods could feed the current human population of the world.

Currently right now our agricultural system is NOT feeding the world. And if you look at the Midwest there were way more bison on the hoof in a perennial grassland ecosystem than there are cattle in feedlots now. So we go out there and we destroy millions of acres of prairie to grow corn and soybeans and then we put these cows in confinement operations in manure up to their neck and the corn and bean farmers arent making any money so we subsidize them with taxpayer money and then the beef producers are barely getting by and theyre in debt up to here.

Mark says that system isnt working. "That's a pointless question.We can transform the world.We can re-vegetate the planet in 15 years at a profit for everybody involved and produce more food than is currently being produced if we just get off our *sses and do it.

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Restoration Agriculture: A New Approach to Growing Food - WCAI

Yurok Tribes Connection to Klamath River Weakens as Ecosystem Declines – The LumberJack

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

Last Thursday Yurok Tribe member Keith Parker, a Humboldt State alumnus and fisheries and molecular biologist, gave a presentation on campus about the Klamath River, his work on Lamprey eels and the local ecosystem.

As a tribal scientist, Parker gets to use his traditional knowledge from his Yurok heritage combined with his masters degree from HSU to conduct field and lab work. The Klamath River is significant to the Yurok Tribe, as Yurok translates to downriver people.

I have a spiritual and innate connection to the land, Parker said. Its not just a study subject for me, its not just empirical data. I have skin in the game, literally.

I have a cultural connection. I live off that river, my kids eat off that river, we eat the salmon, the sturgeon, the lamprey, the elk, the deer and we harvest the roots.

Parker feels that his upbringing along with his academics makes him a better and more effective scientist. It is more than just conducting research for him, as he continues to learn and then teach others about a topic he feels passion for.

I have a cultural connection, Parker said. I live off that river, my kids eat off that river, we eat the salmon, the sturgeon, the lamprey, the elk, the deer and we harvest the roots.

The river has a rich history in native lore, being home to other tribes including the Karok and Modoc long before the earliest settlers came west. But in more recent years, the river has taken a decline in health.

Some of the causes can be attributed to the damming of the river, preventing the water from flowing properly and allowing harmful algae to grow. Specifically cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae.

The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services send out broadcast warnings, cautioning people to avoid swimming in areas that contain the algae.

In July 2018, the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services issued a news release stating, The presence of cyanobacteria has been previously confirmed in some water bodies within Humboldt, Mendocino and Lake counties including the South Fork Eel River, Van Duzen River, Trinity River, Clear Lake and Lake Pillsbury. It is difficult to test and monitor the many lakes and miles of our local rivers. Most blooms in California contain harmless green algae, but it is important to stay safe and avoid contact. It isnt just a loss of biodiversity when you see a river system like that slowly dying, its a loss of cultural heritage as well.

Another effect of the damming is that the salmon find it much harder to swim to and from the ocean, which slowly harms the surrounding wildlife.

It isnt just a loss of biodiversity when you see a river system like that slowly dying, its a loss of cultural heritage as well.

Those fish leave as juveniles and they go out to the ocean and they come back later on in life much larger in size, Parker said. They then spawn and die, all those marine-derived nutrients that are in their flesh are absorbed into those forests.

Yurok culture is linked to the river in many ways, including using it for transportation and trade. The Yurok tribe would trade items downstream, from the ocean, as they looked to collect larger deer and elk from deeper in the mountains.

A lot of our people, even now, theyre breaking out in rashes from putting their hands in the water and taking the fish out, Parker said. The females of the tribe often weave baskets from roots they harvest from the waters edge as well, and part of the method is sucking on the roots to soften them up so they can weave baskets and more. They are being affected as well.

The Lamprey eels used to thrive, and were something that the natives could smoke and preserve as their food throughout the winter. They used handmade eel hooks, which the men make by hand and include carvings that are personal to each individual.

When the women harvest those roots from this nasty river edge, when theyre making them they keep them in their mouth and they soften them up with their saliva while theyre making their basket, and theyre getting poisoned, Parker said. It isnt just a loss of biodiversity when you see a river system like that slowly dying, its a loss of cultural heritage as well.

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Yurok Tribes Connection to Klamath River Weakens as Ecosystem Declines - The LumberJack

For the love of learning: Moglix boss is a fan of NYC’s startup ecosystem, LA’s diversity – Economic Times

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

The CEO and Founder of Moglix shares his favourite places to travel to and what he has learnt from the journeys far and near.

Rahul Garg, Moglix CEO and Founder, loves to travel. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berlin and Japan are some of the places he found travelling to interesting. He told ET Panache, "I am always on-the-move, thanks to my work commitments. As an entrepreneur, I look to imbibe life lessons from roads leading to destinations that breathe the same values that I do."

A common theme that these places share is the appetite to do new things, embrace failures and move-on. These places inspire Garg to reach out to the world, identify challenges that exist and question yourself why things cant be reimagined. He looks for inspiration from environments that support innovation, enterprise, risk-taking, perseverance, and compliance.

"New York with its second-largest ecosystem for startup firms has taught me about the audacity to chase my dreams. The city is home to some growing companies like Airehlp and Abacus. Los Angeles again is a great place to network with diverse communities of technocrats, entrepreneurs and change agents. San Francisco breaths technology. The city is home to the present-day tech giant Google. The sheer scale of enterprises that San Francisco houses is overwhelming. Just look at the way these cities and their businesses are shaping the future of mankind," he explained.

While these cities in the United States have taught the Moglix founder to do new things, Japan with the selective integration of its own traditions, customs, and culture with technology has taught him other lessons. "It tells you where to draw the line, how to identify the core that should be left untouched and the container the delivery that need to be transformed to stretch the boundaries of whats possible," he said.

There have been new lessons that Garg has learnt. "In many ways, travel helps an entrepreneur to think and live like an ascetic, to practice detachment and appreciate facts for what they suggest. Travel allows me to let go of what has failed as well as to leave behind milestones of success that I have crossed with my people. The road does not end and the journey does not stop. As Tagore had said one journey begins, where one culminates. That is how I have defined growth," he said.

Nothing else exposes you to risks and opportunities like travelling is what Garg believes. "Some of the worlds greatest discoveries and explorations have come from travelers who have transcended boundaries, gone the distance and challenged the status quo. The key to innovating lies in learning about roadblocks that come in your way and then exploring solutions to find a way around those," he ended.

10 Oct, 2019

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For the love of learning: Moglix boss is a fan of NYC's startup ecosystem, LA's diversity - Economic Times

These are the food trends youll see taking over Whole Foods in 2020 – Well+Good

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

As far as healthy trend-spotting goes, Whole Foods is pretty up on it. Even with grocery stores getting healthier across the board (a major positive), the organic market is still a leader in the wellness industry. Its aisles continue to be places consumers discover emerging brands that later turn into full-blown popular faves. (A few they started stocking early: Siete Foods, Caulipower, and Siggis.)

As part of their scouting, Whole Foods has trend spotters (what they call foragers) all over the world, all on the hunt to discover small brands (often with just a small table at the local farmers market) with big dreams of landing on their shelves. Every year, the retailer uses this intelas well as market data and statsto create their carefully curated wellness trends calling the ingredients and foods that will dominate the health world (and their store shelves) in the coming year. Ready for a peek inside Whole Foods crystal ball? Check out the ones were most excited about below and head to their site to see the full list.

Check out this video to see a registered dietitians favorite foods to buy at Whole Foods:

Whole Foods recognizes that consumers not only want to support healthy brands, they want to make sure theyre supporting sustainable ones tooa topic Well+Good devoted a recent event to. Regenerative agriculture essentially describes farming practices that restore soil quality, improve local biodiversity, and increase carbon capture to benefit the environment. Whole Foods acknowledges that more brands are shifting to regenerative agriculture, including White Oaks Pastures and Cowgirl Creamery.

The rise in gluten-free eaters (and people cutting carbs) has led to an uptick in the number of alternative flours on the market, and Whole Foods is pledging to be the place to find quite the variety. Besides the ones youve likely already heard of, like almond flour and oat flour, Whole Foods trend spotters predict more interesting ones to come out next year, like banana flour and tigernut flour.

Whole Foods consistently has their eye on international trends in their annual predictions, and West Africa is their standout region for 2020. Besides moringa (one of Well+Goods Wellness Trends in 2018), expect to see more foods made with other West African staples, such as cereal grains like sorgum, teff, and millet.

Well+Good reported earlier this year on the healthy makeover the frozen food section has gotten. Not only do Whole Foods foragers see it too, they expect this section of the grocery store to become even more populated with healthy snacks in 2020. Looks like youll need a bigger fridge.

As Well+Good previously reported, theres a whole slew of products coming out that combine meat with vegetables to give flexitarian consumers the best of both worlds. Whole Foods has taken notice, too. While youre still going to see many all-out vegan alternatives coming out, you can expect to see more of these blended products right beside them, too.

As the sober-curious scene continues to gain momentum, more alcohol alternatives are coming outand they go way beyond just seltzer and kombucha. At Well+Good, weve seen alt-alcohol products made with adaptogens, nootropics, and botanicals. Now, it looks like youll be able to get many of these type of products at your local Whole Foods. Healthier, better options are definitely worth raising a glass to.

Check out Whole Foods trends from last year to see how they played out. Well+Good will be announcing its wellness trends soon too. Heres what we predicted for 2019.

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These are the food trends youll see taking over Whole Foods in 2020 - Well+Good

Global Nootropics Market Will Grow Over USD 5959 Million By 2024 – Market News Network

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

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Global Nootropics Market Will Grow Over USD 5959 Million By 2024 - Market News Network

X-Men #1 is Already Better Than All of HoXPoX [X-ual Healing 10-16-19] – Bleeding Cool News

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Danzig

HoXPoX is over and the Dawn of X is upon us which means its time for the X-books to deliver on the promise of a bright new future. Did that happen in X-Men #1? Read on to find out.

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities, but thanks to a corporate merger and a line-wide relaunch, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in all of comics.

X-MEN #1 DXAUG190845(W) Jonathan Hickman (A/CA) Leinil Francis YuDAWN OF X!The X-Men find themselves in a whole new world of possibility and things have never been better! Jonathan Hickman (HOUSE OF X, POWERS OF X, SECRET WARS) and superstar artist Leinil Yu (NEW AVENGERS, CAPTAIN AMERICA) reveal the saga of Cyclops and his hand-picked squad of mutant powerhouses!Rated T+In Shops: Oct 16, 2019SRP: $4.99

X-Men #1 opens with s scene of Professor Xavier first giving Scott Summers his ruby quartz glasses before jumping right into the post-HoXPoX action, as Cyclops and Storm invade an O.R.C.H.I.S. facility to put a stop to their mutant-murdering ways. As the forces retreat into the compound, Magneto and Polaris arrive for backup. Base leader Dr. Mars declares that their research not go to waste, so they inject themselves with a serum that turns them into apes. Magneto takes care of them as the other three X-Men descend further into the compound and find a bunch of mutants held in stasis tubes, along with one posthuman subject. She teleports away though, and the X-Men bring the freed mutants back to Krakoa, delivering them to Dr. Cecelia Reyes.

Storm stays with Dr. Reyes to help keep an eye on the mutants in case anything goes wrong, while Magneto basks in the adulation of the local crowds, which Polaris finds embarrassing. After a conversation about what Krakoa means to him with Polaris, Cyclops heads back to his house on the moon, where the whole Summers clan lives, to meet his dad and the Starjammers for dinner.

We get an interlude at the ORCHIS Forge, where Director Devo and Omega Sentinal Karima Shapandar discuss the previous disaster when the X-Men invaded the Forge and tossed the Mother Mold into the sun. Devo takes responsibility for the failure.

At the Summer House, Scott chills with Corsair while Wolverine watches Vulcan grill some steaks, with Vulcan waxing poetic about the inferno inside himself as he cooks. Kid Cable asks his mom, Jean Grey, if he can trade guns with Raza of the Starjammers, while Rachel Grey bonds with Hepzibah over being badass women. Before dinner, Alex Summers gifts his dad with a Krokoa flower to plant on the Starjammer and form a portal to Krakoa. An infographic shows us the living quarters, including connecting doors between Wolverine, Jean, and Scotts rooms, which has been the subject of much salacious internet gossip. Scott and Corsair share another conversation after dinner where Corsair worries about how dangerous what Scott is doing is, though Scott assures him that he understands the danger but is focusing on enjoying the people he loves.

In a final scene at the ORCHIS Forge, Dr. Gregor tells Director Devo that she has a way to bring back her husband, who died in the X-Men attack during HoXPoX.

As HoXPoX ended last week, I weighed the pros and cons of the story and whether it justified relaunching the X-Men. Ultimately, while I found a lot of issues with the story itself, I felt that the interest the series sparked in the X-Men with existing comic fans was at least a good start in reinvigorating the franchise, though wed be relying on the Dawn of X books to capitalize on that momentum.

Interesting to learn, however, in an interview last week at AiPT with Cullen Bunn, that Marvel had been planning this relaunch since at least 2015, and even more interestingly, that the X-Books seemed to be in a purposeful holding pattern because of it, with Bunn saying the creative teams were very limited with where we could go with the story because the plans for House of Xthose were already in play. Hickman descended on the X-books like the savior that would lead them out of a dark time of mediocrity but was his coming the source of that alleged mediocrity in the first place?

All of that said, while HoXPoX offered big ideas, it suffered from a lack of personality, with hardly any insight into what was making the characters in the story tick beyond Moira and maybe Xavier, and many of the X-Men acting completely out of character. For the most part, X-Men #1 is the opposite of that, with a focus on families, mainly the Summers family, though some nice interactions between Polaris and Magneto as well. There was warmth here that was missing throughout the twelve issues of HoXPoX, and its a relief to see, because its the found family aspect of the X-Men that makes it special as much as stories about time travel and mutations and the epic war with humanity.

That being said, theres still some stuff to be explained. The Wolverine/Jean/Scott room thing is cheeky, but will it be explored, or serve as just an inside joke that distracts from the story rather than adding to it, like Vulcans cooking? Theres a lot to be explained about the motivations of various characters for going along with the Krakoa plan as well, though this issue did a lot for explaining it when it comes to Scott Summers, even if he was probably the mutant least in need of an explanation.

Either way, its nice to see a moment of personal downtime for the X-Men after HoXPoX, and Im looking forward to the launch of the rest of the books breaking up the monotony of Hickmanism, even though it looks like we can expect the damn infographics to remain pervasive throughout the line.

Now that HoXPoX is over and well be getting more X-books, its time to bring back the Wolverines Weiner X-Pick of the week, awarded to the comic that provides the most satisfying X-Men experience, like grilled meat on a hot summer day. It seems we may still get single-X-book weeks for the foreseeable future, and on those weeks, if the one X-book sucked, then no one will get the Wolverines Weiner X-Pick of the Week. This week, however, X-Men #1 was satisfying enough to earn the award.

Congratulations to the creative team.

Ill also be keeping track of Wolverines Weiner Winners, so

Next week, weve got Marauders #1. See you then!