Beat cyberpunk gangs to free turfs in Neon City Riders, now on Kickstarter – IND13

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Mexican developer Mecha Studios has launched a crowdfunding campaign for Neon City Riders, a futuristic game full of punks, superpowers and warring gangs.

Its a rough world out there, but Neon City is particularly rough. Theres a vicious street gang in every direction, and gang warfare is a daily reality. All of thats about to change when the protagonist of Neon City Riders enters the scene.

The mask-wearing Rick might look more like a baddie or a serial killer (and well, the latter might not be entirely untrue), but he has ambitious plans: hes going to free the people trapped in gangland turfs and unite them under one banner. So like a cyberpunk Nobunaga, of sorts?

Now up on Kickstarter, Neon City Riders throws you into an open world and lets you explore it freely, kind of like the 2D Zelda games, but with Metroidvania exploration. In your quest to break down the gangs, youll hunt for items and superpowers while building up your own gang. You can even chat with your fellow gang members, an ability that reminds me of the Saints Row games.

Combat is fast-paced, and involves using your abilities and the environment in tandem. Theres a wide range of enemies, and each gang has its own superhuman powers. They look kind of cool, actually? A cyberpunk gangland overrun by Vanilla Ice impersonators, BDSM fetishists, actual walking crocodiles and Native American robots is one I want a look at.

Neon City Riders is in development for PC, Mac and Linux. Depending on whether or not the campaign reaches the stretch goal, it will also release on PS4.

Want to unite people in a Zelda-inspired game but by less violent means? Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles lets you do this. If the idea of running around violently in a cyberpunk city does enthuse you though, have a look at Tokyo 42.

Independent DevelopmentIndie GamesIndiesKickstarterMecha StudiosNeon City Riders

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Beat cyberpunk gangs to free turfs in Neon City Riders, now on Kickstarter - IND13

Gene Cloning Just Became A Thousand Times Easier – Wall Street Pit

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Presently, the process of DNA sequencing to discover a genes function is a bit time-consuming because it has to be done one gene at a time. But with the invention of a team of researchers from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School, that process can now be considerably shortened as they have found a way to simultaneously clone thousands of genes.

The new technique is called LASSO cloning LASSO is an acronym for long-adapter single-strand oligonucleotide and through it, isolating thousands of DNA sequences can now be done at the same time. As a result, the new technology can supposedly expedite the creation of proteins the end product of genes which can in turn lead to faster discovery of new medicines and biomarkers for scores of diseases.

The technique is considered as quite an improvement over an existing method known as molecular inversion probes (MIPs), which can only capture about 200 bases of DNA. Raising this number to a thousand is especially significant because the typical size of a genes protein-coding sequence can reach up to thousands of DNA base pairs.

The technology works through a tool the team refers to as a LASSO probe. Using a number of these probes enables grabbing of target DNA sequences, similar with how a lasso (a rope) is used to round up cattle. What makes this special is the fact that with a single effort, the technique can grab thousands of DNA sequences at the same time.

In their proof-of-concept study, the team used their LASSO probes to simultaneously capture over 3,000 E. coli bacteria DNA fragments. They were successful in capturing around 95% of their gene targets. More importantly, the sequences were captured in such a way that allowed the researchers to observe and evaluate what the expressed proteins do.

As an added bonus, the team also helped solved a perennial problem in the genome sequencing field. As it is, genetic sequencing currently involves sequencing small fragments of DNA one at a time, then overlaying them in order to map out the entire genome. This doesnt just take time; its also harder to interpret and kind of prone to errors. With the LASSO probes, sequencing long fragments has now been made possible, which also translates to a faster and more accurate gene sequencing process.

As one of the researchers, Biju Parekkadan of the Rutgers University-New Brunswick, said: We think that the rapid, affordable, and high-throughput cloning of proteins and other genetic elements will greatly accelerate biological research to discover functions of molecules encoded by genomes and match the pace at which new genome sequencing data is coming out.

Going forward, the team is now working on improving the cloning process, building libraries and discovering the therapeutic proteins found in our genes.

The research was recently published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

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Gene Cloning Just Became A Thousand Times Easier - Wall Street Pit

Delhi gets 15 card cloning cases each month – Times of India

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An ex-employee of a CP cafe was recently booked for allegedly cloning credit and debit cards of customers and using them for transactions worth over Rs6lakh. After this incident, we found out it wasn't a rare case and card cloning has become a major headache for the Delhi Police.

The police tells us that they receive around 15 cases of card cloning every month on an average. Earlier this year, similar cases of card skimming were reported in restaurants in Mumbai. The chances of card cloning is higher in fancy restaurants and malls since people don't pay attention to who they are handing the card to, the police says.

15 cases of card cloning every month in Delhi Bhishm Singh, DCP, Cyber Crime, says, "The Cyber Crime Branch of Delhi Police receives at least 15 card cloning cases every month. Your card can be cloned only when you hand it to someone. People tend to give their cards to the waiters or attendants for payment in restaurants. Ab woh aapke card ke saath kya karta hai, aapko kya pata. And there are more chances of these things at high-end places because people trust these venues."

In case of card frauds, immediate police report crucial Madhur Verma, DCP, Crime, says, "Besides card skimming, people also get duped when shopping online or sharing their bank details with someone." With an increase in cases of cyber crime, police stations are also learning to deal it. Verma adds, "Now, most police stations have a cyber cell. People need to be alert, especially if their card is being swiped twice or thrice while making payment. Any discrepancy should be immediately reported."

Hotels, restaurants and malls easy target: Shop owners Most shop owners in the city have the option of card payments, but say that they have to keep a check on who is sitting at the payment counter. "At our shops, we do not take the risk of making the staff sit at the payment counter. The card reader is a small machine, which is easily available in the market. Anyone with little technical knowledge can learn to create a copy of cards. There are high chances of such cases at hotels, restaurants or petrol pumps, where many people walk in and hand over their cards to the staff. In shops, we can monitor every transaction closely," says Sanjeev Mehra, who has a shop in Khan Market. But Sanjay Chawla, who is handling operations at a mall in Janakpuri, says otherwise. He says, "The accountability for a transaction at a store in any mall lies on the store manager. In malls, there have been lesser cases of card cloning as there are CCTV cameras."

A shop owner in Bengali Market adds, "We have staff working with us for years, but no one is authorised to accept cards from customers and make transactions. In case the customer offers to pay by card, they direct him to the counter where only the owners sit."

Rise in card cloning after demonetisation: Lawyers Lawyers who have dealt with cases related to card cloning say that there has been a significant rise in the numbers of cases after demonetisation. Sandeep Kapur, a lawyer, explains, "As the government moves towards a cashless economy, the importance of credit and debit cards is increasing. Card cloning involves illegally transferring details from an original to a duplicate or a cloned card, resulting in misappropriation of funds. Although the government claimed that cases of card and net banking fraud were reduced by 6% in 2016, technological developments and lack of awareness among cardholders has led to an increase in such scams in the recent months." Kapur adds, "Victims can get FIRs registered with the local police under the IPC and IT Act, thereby initiating criminal proceedings to apprehend, recover money and punish the culprits. While cyber laws are exhaustive and the police's cyber cells are well-equipped to follow white money trail, greater cooperation by banks and sensitization of this topic among cardholders is needed."

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Aesthetic Evolution In The Animal World : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture … – NPR

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At the heart of Richard O. Prum's new book The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World and Us is a bold idea:

"... that animals are not merely subject to the extrinsic forces of ecological competition, predation, climate, geography, and so on that create natural selection. Rather, animals can play a distinct and vital role in their own evolution through their sexual and social choices."

Actually, this is Charles Darwin's idea his other idea. It's an idea so revolutionary that, unlike natural selection itself, it has been systematically misunderstood, or outright repressed, since Darwin first developed it in his other book The Descent of Man first published in 1871, 12 years after The Origin of Species.

What's so dangerous about what Prum calls "aesthetic evolution by mate choice?" Precisely the idea that it acknowledges, supposedly, real agency in the nonhuman world and that it is an agency that doesn't bottom out in facts about fitness and adaptation. It does so, Prum argues, because it's good science.

Now, it isn't exactly news to be informed that Darwin grappled with the problem of the diversity, indeed the gorgeous magnificence, of ornament in the biological world. It is well-known that he once wrote in a letter to a friend: "the sight of the feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!" For the peacock's tail is, manifestly, of no adaptive value whatsoever. It is no aid to flight, no benefit in combat with another, no enhancement of the ability to secure food or provide concealment from predators. In short, it would seem to be one (of countless many) direct counterexamples to the proposition that biological traits are adaptations, that is, that they are selected to enhance survival value or the ability to bring offspring into the world.

The thing about the peacock's tail is that the peahen likes it. It's sexy. It's beautiful to her. It is attractive. And that's why peacocks who've got it, and are able to flaunt it, are in fact more likely to have offspring. So the trait is selected. Not for its adaptive value, but by the female of the species.

And that, Prum suggests, is a very radical idea, especially in Darwin's Victorian England, but even now in a world where patriarchy is still the order of the day.

This is why, Prum argues, evolutionists have tended either to downplay sexual selection or ground it in the logic of adaptation. Perhaps the best known strategy for doing this is to hold that the reason the peahen likes the peacock's tail is that the tail is actually a signal of the peacock's fitness: Only a peacock from a good family with disposable income is going to live long enough to afford the luxury of maladaptive ornamentation. Ornament is conspicuous consumption, on this view, and females like it, so the inevitable logic runs, because they are can't resist male power.

Oy vey! That is an ugly idea and not one that casts the men who are its proponents in a particularly nice light.

It also, according to Prum, completely misses Darwin's revolutionary idea: that the aesthetic delight animals take in each other in this case, that the female takes in the male of the species is arbitrary; it is grounded in nothing more than desire and its fulfillment. It is the conscious sensory experience of animals especially female animals and it is the choices they make as a result of these experiences that are one of the governing forces of natural evolution.

Now Prum is an ornithologist, not a polemicist, and this book is a delight to read also because of the knowledge and the love of learning and teaching that it puts on display. On one point, though, I am quite certain he goes too far. In the final pages of the book he proposes to take his account of aesthetic evolution and use it to show that what the animals are doing, and have been doing, and what Mozart, Manet, van Gogh and Czanne were doing, are all of a piece: art.

The basic problem with other attempts to biologize art by grounding it in natural selection is that they end up treating art, like the peacock's tail, as just another form of conspicuous consumption. And whatever else is true, Mozart, Manet and the rest are not bling, and even if part of why we like them is that there is social prestige attached to them, it's just wildly implausible that that is the basic source of their value.

But Prum's view, as we've already seen, is very different. As I have argued in a brief discussion of Prum in my book Strange Tools, according to Prum's view, beauty is the result of a co-evolutionary process: "Changes in mating preferences have transformed the tail and changes in the tail have transformed mating preferences." Prom extends this account to human art. According to Prum, the pleasures we take in art are directly and specifically bound up with art. Not because art generates a special sort of aesthetic feeling or sensation. But because our responses to art the pleasures we take in it are are bound up with art itself by processes of co-evolution. What we like shapes art and art, in turn, shapes and reshapes what we like. Art, like attractive ornament in the biological world, is the result of a co-evolutionary processes spanning evolutionary and cultural time scales. Art, as Prum puts it, is "a form of communication that co-evolves with its own evolution."

One of the strengths of this view is that it can do justice to radical change in aesthetic evaluation. The works of an artist think Andy Warhol, for example can become beautiful; for these works can contribute to the changing of the very criteria of evaluation by which we aesthetically assess this work itself. And Prum's account also does justice to fact that it is one thing to like something, and another to find it beautiful. Beauty finding something aesthetically pleasing isn't just a matter of liking it. For Prum can allow that our pleasures and preferences get refined through evolutionary recursion. Some pleasures like the pleasures we might take in an elegant mathematical proof, for example, or in the work of the late Beethoven are only available to those who stand on the scaffolding of past communication and agreements.

This is a very powerful proposal. It brings out the distinctively cognitive, that is to say, evaluative, character of the pleasures that art affords. We don't just respond to art, we judge it.

Now, I don't doubt for a minute that peahens take pleasure in what they see, when they see a handsome peacock. Indeed, the seeing itself gives them pleasure. And I have no objection to calling that pleasure aesthetic.

But is it really true that when we look at a work of art we enjoy pleasures of that kind? Not all art is "aesthetic" in this sense. And I don't just mean Warhol and Marcel Duchamp, or even Beethoven's late quartets. The experience of art is seldom tied, in the way the peahen's gaze is tied, to lust or desire for what you are looking at. I make take pleasure when I gaze upon a Poussin landscape, but it is a pleasure that depends, pretty obviously, on the fact that neither the painting, nor anyone or anything in it, is really there. Its importance to me only shows up through my detachment from it. And when Mozart's audiences delighted in the ways he foiled their expectations of how a piece of music was supposed to be organized, they were getting his joke, understand his thought, not just, as it were, languishing in pleasurable sounds.

But I also fear that Prum's theory, as a theory of art, ends up casting the net too wide: Every artifact or social activity or technology is constrained by what we like (evaluative response) even as it offers the opportunity for us to change and update those responses (co-evolution). But art is not merely a social activity or technology even if it masquerades as such. For art always disrupts business as normal and puts the fact that we find ourselves carrying out business as normal on display. Put bluntly: The value of art does not consist in a co-evolving fit or dialog between what we make and what like, but rather in the practice of investigating and questioning and challenging such processes.

I met Prum once, a few years before his book's publication. He heard me give a lecture and we sat next to each other discussing these questions at dinner afterwards. It was a delightful encounter. I fear, however, that he might have had me, or at least those like me, in mind when he writes:

"Some aesthetic philosophers, art historians, and artists may find the recognition of myriad new biotic art forms to be more of an annoyance, or even an outrage, than a contribution to their fields."

Maybe so. But, speaking for myself anyway, it would not be because I doubt the aesthetic richness of the natural world. Or because I see reason to deny the importance of the experience of pleasure and, indeed, of something like beauty, on the part of animals. Animals are truly, in Prum's sense, aesthetic agents.

The problem is not with Prum's insistence that we say "yes" to the aesthetic lives of animals I applaud that. The problem is that, as I read him, Prum ends up saying "no" to art.

Alva No is a philosopher at the University of California, Berkeley, where he writes and teaches about perception, consciousness and art. He is the author of several books, including his latest, Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015). You can keep up with more of what Alva is thinking on Facebook and on Twitter: @alvanoe

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Aesthetic Evolution In The Animal World : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture ... - NPR

IoT Evolution World Week in Review: Inmarsat, Mouser, Telit – IoT Evolution World (blog)

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Welcome to the IoT Evolution Week in Review, my friends. This week, weve been talking about Smart City deals, IoT development deals, the Big Deal IoT Evolution Expo and more. Lets get into it, shall we?

In our lead story, I wrote about a new Internet of Things (IoT) research study from Inmarsat, a major provider of global mobile satellite communications, in which the company reportedly has found that agritech businesses are helping many food producers to meet increasingly stringent import requirements by monitoring production, food hygiene, and sustainability through the use of IoT technology. This will accelerate the globalization of food production by enabling developing country food producers to export to developed economies, where these regulations originate from.

We are continuing our special series of Q&A interviews with the speaking faculty at the IoT Evolution Expo, coming up in Las Vegas July 17 to 20. This week, we spoke to James Turino, Phil Attfield, and Hiep Pham.

In a great guest post this week, our Special Correspondent Cynthia Artin gave us a look at the Future of IoT and how the industry will move into true real-time and data harnessing thanks to fine tuning of every element in the architecture, from the devices at the edge to gateways and networks, clouds and applications, all which must be programmed and secured, and made economically feasible, relative to the value "real time" delivers.

And now, the news: Cyient has announced that it has signed a business alliance agreement with Kii Corporation to invest in Smart City deployments.

Mouser Electronics is teaming up with celebrity engineer and former Mythbuster Grant Imahara for the Shaping Smarter Cities project, the newest series in the successful Empowering Innovation Together program.

Observables Inc. has created a connected service platform that connects, manages, monitors and controls new and legacy infrastructure devices on the network. These devices include alarm systems, computer networks, access control, smart home, and phone and video surveillance into a singular cloud and mobile dashboard for dealers, OEMs, makers, and end-users alike.

Telit, a global enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT), and OT-Morpho, a digital security & identification technology developer, will join forces and partner up to solve the challenges facing the mass adoption of IoT via todays traditional deployment methodology.

Over the last few years, I have seen some major trends forming across nearly every vertical in the consumer and industrial spaces, and these trends looked like they were pointing toward a future where the IoT would indeed be improving the lives and living conditions of people all over the world, and so I decided to begin writing a book in order to look for patterns in those trends. That book, published recently, is called IoT Time: Evolving Trends in the Internet of Things. In a new weekly series, well be previewing chapters for you to read in the hopes that youll like enough to read the whole thing.

On the IoT Time Podcast, I sat down with Christian Legare, Chairman, IPSO Alliance to talk about interoperability standards for IoT, defining network identity and the IoT Evolution Expo.

Theres plenty more to read, listen to and watch, so visit us on IoT Evolution World for all the IoT news, my friends. Now is the time to put into your calendar the next IoT Evolution Expo, to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Also, please get in touch with us when you have stories. As always, if you have questions, comments, complaints or compliments, please send them to me, editorial director Ken Briodagh at kbriodagh@tmcnet.com or on Twitter @KenBriodagh.

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IoT Evolution World Week in Review: Inmarsat, Mouser, Telit - IoT Evolution World (blog)

Turkey To Remove Evolution from Biology Textbooks – The Merkle

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The Turkish Education Ministry has decided to remove evolution from biology textbooks and the curriculum of 9th graders. This backwards move has been received very poorly by many, and it is an example of a world that seems increasingly hostile to science and facts.

The Head of the Ministrys curriculum board, Alpaslan Durmu, announced last Wednesday that Evolution will be removed from the biology books of 14 and 15 year old student in Turkey. He claimed that these students were too young to understand controversial topics.

Labeling the foundation for the development of more complex life on Earth over time as a controversial topic is an example of science deniers latest strategy to ignore facts and spread ignorance. Claiming that it is controversial makes facts vulnerable to opinion. We see this same move with climate skeptics, who can overlook overwhelming factual evidence disproving their opinion. They then have the gall to saythat facts are subjective and are even given podiums to speak from to infect otherwise sane minds.

I want to be perfectly clear, facts are not subjective or relative to anyones opinions. This is why I, and many others, are outraged by the Turkish governments decision to pull one of the most enlightening theories -Evolution- from biology books. To call it controversial is just salt in the wound, but also fuel to the fire.

This comes as Turkey is working on embedding more religious rhetoric and policy in their government. Most classes will see an overhaul to reflect more religious undertones. The President of Turkey is also consolidating much of his power. Both of these things are out of the norm for Turkey, which has been a historically secular and modern state.

Denial of facts and science are the quickest way send a nation back in time, for the worst. However, many are not taking this without a fight. They are just as upset with this as I am, and have even more reason to be since it is their nation. Many of the points I have already made are echoed in the comments sections of news reports and on the forums of popular websites.

While the deed appears to already have been done, it is important that critics of this move remain vocal and outspoken. Democracy, science, and knowledge only die when we allow them to do so. It is the duty of every human to resist when governments, businesses, and anyone else tells you that facts are opinions or that science is controversial.

I am pleased to see so many standing up against this and making their voices heard. Science and facts will always be more important to humanity as a whole than the opinions of misinformed and powerful people. Never let anyone make you question scientific Truth. There are many things that are relative and culturally constructed, but the only place where Truth -with a capital T- lives is in sciences and math. Known Truth should never be considered an opinion and learning it should never be seen as controversial.

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Turkey To Remove Evolution from Biology Textbooks - The Merkle

Carnegie Museum of Natural History gets grant to study mammal evolution – Tribune-Review

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Carnegie Museum of Natural History gets grant to study mammal evolution - Tribune-Review

Evolution, not revolution at McLaren – Arab News

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The restructuring of McLaren into McLaren Group combining the technology group and automotive arm is a good example of long-term strategic thinking. Furthermore, it reasserts Arab leadership and management of their sovereign assets abroad. The McLaren Group is part-owned by sovereign wealth fund Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Co. and TAG Group, which are set to remain majority shareholders. Sheikh Mohammed bin Essa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain will become executive chairman of the new group, valued at $3.1 billion, and pledged to follow a policy of evolution, not revolution. He succeeds Ron Dennis, the veteran chairman of 37 years who sold his holdings to the group and resigned. This move ensures stability and managed growth for McLaren after a period of uncertainty and speculation. Until recently, it was rumored that McLaren was heading to float on the stock exchange, following in the footsteps of Ferrari. This was followed by news of a possible takeover by Apple or Chinese companies. Dennis, 70, said after losing the CEO role at McLaren Technology that the grounds for his removal were entirely spurious and came after clashes with Mumtalakat and TAG over his views on outside investment and the future of the business. It seems that Dennis wanted revolution through a public offering of McLaren stock, of which he had about $350 million worth of shares (which he sold to Mumtalakat). However, the conservative sovereign fund and the TAG Group prefer caution and evolution. As majority holders in the new McLaren Group, they have asserted their authority and forged their calm way forward. McLaren has been successful with its car production arm and has achieved profits in the past few years. They have ambitious plans for the future and they have the talent, tools and technology to further their success. Adel Murad is a senior motoring and business journalist based in London.

The restructuring of McLaren into McLaren Group combining the technology group and automotive arm is a good example of long-term strategic thinking. Furthermore, it reasserts Arab leadership and management of their sovereign assets abroad. The McLaren Group is part-owned by sovereign wealth fund Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Co. and TAG Group, which are set to remain majority shareholders. Sheikh Mohammed bin Essa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain will become executive chairman of the new group, valued at $3.1 billion, and pledged to follow a policy of evolution, not revolution. He succeeds Ron Dennis, the veteran chairman of 37 years who sold his holdings to the group and resigned. This move ensures stability and managed growth for McLaren after a period of uncertainty and speculation. Until recently, it was rumored that McLaren was heading to float on the stock exchange, following in the footsteps of Ferrari. This was followed by news of a possible takeover by Apple or Chinese companies. Dennis, 70, said after losing the CEO role at McLaren Technology that the grounds for his removal were entirely spurious and came after clashes with Mumtalakat and TAG over his views on outside investment and the future of the business. It seems that Dennis wanted revolution through a public offering of McLaren stock, of which he had about $350 million worth of shares (which he sold to Mumtalakat). However, the conservative sovereign fund and the TAG Group prefer caution and evolution. As majority holders in the new McLaren Group, they have asserted their authority and forged their calm way forward. McLaren has been successful with its car production arm and has achieved profits in the past few years. They have ambitious plans for the future and they have the talent, tools and technology to further their success. Adel Murad is a senior motoring and business journalist based in London.

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Evolution, not revolution at McLaren - Arab News

For Afghan girls’ robotics team, US visa denial was last of many hurdles – Chicago Tribune

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When six Afghan teenage girls were denied U.S. visas to enter an international robotics contest in Washington set for later this month, the unexplained decision seemed to be punishing the very ambitions U.S. agencies have long advocated for girls in Afghanistan, where many are denied educational opportunities.

But the story is more complicated than that.

Afghanistan, beset by insurgent violence and economic uncertainty, is suffering from a massive brain drain, according to Afghan and U.S. officials. Scholarship students, academic fellows and teachers who receive temporary visas to visit the United States often vanish into immigrant communities instead of returning home.

The growing phenomenon has made U.S. officials especially wary of approving visa requests - even for applicants like the robotics students who may otherwise deserve them - if they decide there is a risk the person will fail to return home.

"It is sad to say, but some of them do not come back," said Elham Shaheen, a senior official at the Ministry of Higher Education who manages foreign-study policies. He said 10 percent of all Afghans who are awarded temporary visas for academic purposes in the United States or Europe defy immigration rules to remain there permanently.

Female students and faculty members, facing extra frustrations at home, are no exception. Several years ago, Shaheen said, 12 female university lecturers won scholarships to obtain MA degrees in economics in Germany. Of the 12, he said, "11 of them escaped."

American officials here and in Washington have refused to discuss the case of the robotics team, but several pointed out that U.S. law "presumes" all temporary visa seekers intend to remain in the United States unless they are able to prove they have compellingly strong ties to their country.

Two members of the team, interviewed Thursday from their home city of Herat, said U.S. consular officers had asked about their ties to Afghanistan, whether they had relatives in the United States and whether they intended to return home after the competition.

Youth teams from about 150 countries will face off next week in the FIRST Global Challenge contest, created to promote international student interest in science, technology and math. Only one other team, from Gambia, was turned down.

"Each of us gave them written guarantees from two government employees vouching for our return," said Rodaba Noori, 16, a member of the Afghan team that built a ball-sorting robot. "This is our country. We have our life and family here," she said. "How could we abandon them and not return after the competition?"

Obtaining a visa, though, is just the last of many daunting hurdles the female students face in their efforts to advance academically - long before they can even dream of traveling abroad.

Afghan families often oppose their daughters attending universities in Kabul or other cities, fearing for their safety and exposure to young men. Agencies that offer domestic scholarships, such as the nonprofit Asia Foundation, often have to negotiate with families or agree to support a male relative who can accompany the girl each semester.

Girls are also at a disadvantage in English and math, because Afghan families are more willing to pay for boys to take private classes. As a result, more girls fail college-entrance exams. To help even the balance, USAID sponsors exam-prep classes for girls, and education officials have established a 30 percent female quota for all in-country scholarships.

"There is a chain of barriers for Afghan girls that requires a network of support to overcome," said Razia Stanikzai of the Asia Foundation in Kabul, whose job is to promote Afghan female students' participation in science and technology.

Many Afghans, however, view these as "male" fields, and families may try to steer daughters into nursing or teaching instead. To overcome such stereotypes, Stanikzai's program sponsors science fairs at provincial schools, where girls demonstrate projects to fathers and male community elders. "We don't want girls sitting at home and being told that science and technology are for boys," she said.

Even students at such elite institutions as the American University in Afghanistan, where the U.S. Embassy has funded more than 400 scholarships for women, face prejudice. Two female information technology students said that in most of their classes, all of the other students were male and that some of their friends and relatives had no idea what they were studying - or why.

"Some of them tell us to change majors, to do something more acceptable like nursing or arts," said Shamim Ali, 26, whose dream is to start her own IT company. "This is a traditional society, and even the concept of IT is strange. People think we are going to become mechanics or electricians and climb up on ladders."

When it comes to studying abroad, there are many opportunities, such as the Fulbright program, which has sent 535 Afghan students - among them, 102 women - to the United States since 2002. There are also closer international universities in countries such as India, Iran and Bangladesh, which Afghan officials are promoting as cheaper, more comfortable places to study at a time of growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the West.

Yet even accomplished female students can be thwarted by family resistance and competing cultural priorities. Education officials described cases in which applicants for foreign scholarships turned out to be married, pregnant and unable to accept by the time their tickets and visas came through.

One woman in Kabul named Raihana, 27, who obtained a scholarship to study economics in Bangladesh, said her older brother, the senior male in the family, at first refused to let her to go, but her younger and more liberal brother finally persuaded him.

"Since my father was dead, he felt he had to take responsibility for me and my safety," the woman said, "but the real reason was that he was married and he did not want his wife to study or travel. If I went, she would be jealous and complain."

The members of the robotics team said they, too, encountered initial resistance from their parents - not only to travel to the United States for the robotics contest, but also to fly cross-country to Kabul, with its constant news of insurgent bombings, to apply for their visas.

"We finally convinced them, and in the end they were very happy, but it was a difficult path," said Yasamin Yasinzada, 16, who said her dream is to "be a pioneer in robotics and set an example for other girls." She said it was "much easier for boys, because they are allowed to travel, but it helped that our coach was going with us."

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For Afghan girls' robotics team, US visa denial was last of many hurdles - Chicago Tribune

How to Work on Your Laptop at a Coffee Shop Without Being a Jerk – Lifehacker

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From across the coffee shop, I noticed a gentleman walking in with a computer. Not a laptop, mind you. With both hands, he carried a full-on desktop, monitor and console included. Surely hes not ... I thought to myselfbut I was wrong. He plopped the machinery down on a table, plugged in, and ordered his coffee while the rest of us looked on in horror.

I understand there are no etched-in-stone rules for using coffee shops as your remote office, but there are some unwritten guidelines we should all follow if we dont want to be jerks.

More workers than ever are getting their stuff done remotely, and many coffee shops accommodate this work-from-wherever lifestyle, with fast and free Wi-Fi and large, communal tables complete with outlets. Other coffee shops buck the trend entirely by not offering Wi-Fi at all. Instead of clacking away at a keyboard, youre encouraged to relax with a book or (groan) socialize with other people.

Weve all heard the bad news that sitting will kill you. That might be a slight exaggeration, and

Therefore, the first order of business is finding a coffee shop where its appropriate to work in the first place. Sure, you can get your stuff done wherever you want; its not like theres a law forbidding you to use your laptop at a quiet cafe that doesnt have Wi-Fi. However, if you care about politeness, youll want to find a coffee shop that doesnt mind being your part-time office (we offer up some tips here). Once you do, follow a few simple rules of etiquette.

Its not like businesses dont want you there, but if the place is packed and youre taking up space, theoretically, theyre losing money from customers who could be sitting in your spot. If you need to stay, at least order something extra to make up for this. As a general rule, most insiders say you should order a drink every 2-3 hours.

I actually like to think about it in terms of total dollars spent rather than buying frequency, said Claire Murdough, a writer and former barista. For example, say you plan to be at a coffee shop for four hours. That doesnt mean you have to order $2 coffees every hour. Just plan to spend $10 (or whatever fee seems reasonable). This can be over a couple hours or all at once.

I like this option more because sometimes you just dont want to drink coffee every two hours. This way, the coffee shop still makes a profit and you still get to sit and work.

Consider it as the price to admission. And if you think there shouldnt be a price to admission, keep in mind that coffee shops especially independently run cafs need to meet a bottom line in order to stay in business, said Murdough, whose mother owned a coffee shop for 20+ years. Help them do that.

If you work at the same caf day after day, it probably starts to feel like your office away from home. But its not; its a caf. For most of us, it goes without saying that you probably shouldnt bring your desktop computer (Ive also heard of someone bringing a printer to a caf!), but there are a few other habits many baristas, patrons, and coffee shop owners would prefer you avoid:

While I wouldnt necessarily care [about meetings] as a baristait usually means more business, after allit sometimes frustrates me when Im a patron, Murdough said. Large meetings can easily add a lot of noise and distraction.

Its hard to find a place to meet clients, give presentations, host meetups, or conduct job interviews if you work from home. Ive seen a few coffee shops with separate meeting areas reserved for activities like this, and you can book them in advance. This will take some searching, but you can look for meeting spaces in your city on Yelp, for instance.

A coworking space is another option. Some of them will allow you to rent meeting rooms for the day, even if you dont regularly rent an office from them. Similarly, most libraries have meeting rooms that patrons can book for free.

If all else fails, set a limit on how long the meeting will last and how many people will join.

Remember, the Wi-Fi is for everyone, so dont hog the bandwidth. That means you should probably skip watching movies in the background or uploading or downloading a bunch of stuff. This is a good time to remind you to keep your data safe on public Wi-Fi networks, too. Make sure your sharing settings are turned off, your firewall is enabled, and youre only using Wi-Fi when you need it (you might even consider switching to a Virtual Private Network while you work).

Its not just Wi-Fi, though. You also dont want to hog the electricity. Plan to charge your laptop, phone, and any other device you bring with you before you leave the house. Once you get there, the only thing that should require fuel is you, and thats what the caffeine is for.

For the most part I think its generally fine to stay plugged in as long as you need to when the caf is empty, or if youre the only one working, Murdough said. It changes when others might need to charge or the caf is crowded.

If you do find yourself in need of a battery boost, charge enough to get you through your time there and then unplugsomeone has to pay for that electricity, so dont be a jerk about it.

My advice would be to gauge the environment and react accordingly, Murdough added. Self-awareness goes a long way. That said, a pretty universal rule is dont bring your own power strip or stretch cords across aisles. Its dangerous!

If you have the ability to work from anywhere, you probably work from home. That means you probably

It depends on the coffee shopsome are really loud and bustlingbut as a general rule, you should respect your fellow customers and keep it quiet. That means using headphones to listen to music or watch videos. It also means taking your phone and Skype conversations outside, though some are okay with short conversations. Heres the general consensus of some baristas and owners that American Express interviewed:

If youre going to take calls indoors, though, the rest of our interviewees stress: dont shout. Dunning elaborates:

Youre looking for that sweet spot, of being in a caf thats busy enough where most people wont notice, but not too busy that everyone around you can hear your conversation. My general rule as a manager was phone calls of any type were good to go until they were disturbing the other customers. But use headphones. Those conversations are twice as disturbing to other people with another voice coming through your tiny computer/phone speakers.

Speaking of using libraries as meeting spaces, dont forget: you can use them to work, too! Most of them come with free Wi-Fi, have plenty of places to sit, and are quiet so you can concentrate (sound helps you focus on certain tasks, but silence might be better for tasks that require a lot of cognitive demand). Whats more, libraries are awesome and patronizing them is an easy way to offer your support.

Finally, as reasonable as these rules are to most of us, theres always someone who equates being polite with infringement. As one remote worker put it:

If I spend $10 or more on a sandwich and a coffee, I should be able to stay as long as I want to.

In most cases, you totally can. But youre kind of being a jerk.

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How to Work on Your Laptop at a Coffee Shop Without Being a Jerk - Lifehacker

Alejandro Irritu’s Carne y Arena proves that great virtual reality means going beyond the headset – The Verge

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Welcome to Being There, a column on the emerging world of immersive entertainment from virtual reality and theme parks, to haunted houses and interactive theater. Written by The Verge senior reporter Bryan Bishop.

When Birdman director Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu premiered his new virtual reality installation piece Carne y Arena at the Cannes Film Festival this year, it was celebrated as a new high-water mark for the medium. Created in collaboration with Industrial Light & Magic xLab, the project drops participants inside a harrowing run across the US-Mexico border highlighting both the horrifying steps those seeking a better life for their families are willing to take, as well as the terror and inhumane treatment that can follow if theyre caught.

Its a mesmerizing, heartbreaking piece, and while the experience of Carne y Arena undeniably delivers on VRs endlessly-discussed potential as an empathy machine, its actually the physical, real-world bookends that set-up and conclude the piece that lend it context and emotional depth. Its triumph isnt one of virtual reality, expertly executed though it is that but rather of the tremendous power that different types of immersive experiences can have when theyre woven together, creating bracing new ways to make audiences think and feel.

I recently had the opportunity to experience Carne y Arena at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it recently opened (its also currently showing at Fondazione Prada in Milan). Visitors go in alone, and after reading some text from Irritu about why he created the piece in the first place his intention was to allow the visitor to go through a direct experience walking in the immigrants feet, under their skin, and into their hearts my first stop was a holding room nicknamed a freezer.

A physical experience as much as a virtual one

It was a cold, sterile space, with a series of uncomfortable metal benches lined up against the walls. Scattered across the floor were battered shoes and a dusty backpack. As some text on the wall explained, the pieces of clothing had been recovered from the desert near the border between Mexico and Arizona; left behind by people that had tried to make their way to US soil, only to be snatched up by the US Border Patrol, or disappeared by the very individuals theyd paid to help them cross in the first place.

As instructed, I sat down to remove my socks and shoes, and placed them in a nearby locker. And then I waited. The room was unnervingly cold, even with the sweatshirt I was wearing, and that was precisely the point. Freezers are where Border Patrol tosses those rounded up in sweeps, leaving refugees and immigrants to shiver in the holding rooms for days at a time. As the minutes stretched on, I realized I had no idea how long I was going to be in the room, or even when the overall experience would end. I was just stuck there, cold and isolated the first time I realized Irritu had creating a physical experience as much as he had a virtual one.

Abruptly, an alarm bell sounded, red lights flashing: my cue to leave the room. And like the piece of cattle Id been made to feel like, I headed dutifully through the next door. Beyond it was a massive room, dimly lit by a glowing orange light that ran horizontally along one wall. As my eyes adjusted, I made out two people silhouetted in the darkness. I stepped towards them my feet crunching in the sand that was suddenly underfoot.

The two attendants helped me slip on a backpack and Oculus Rift headset, but it was perhaps the least technology-focused VR experience Ive ever taken part in. There were no controllers to fiddle with or visible sensors in the room, and no one asked me if Id tried other headsets before. It was simply a matter of slipping the Rift on, and being informed that Id be gently guided by a human hand if I started getting too close to a wall. Then, without fanfare, I was simply in the middle of the desert.

While the characters in Carne y Arena are computer-generated, the landscape itself was captured traditionally, and its clear almost immediately that both a world-class filmmaker and cinematographer (Irritus long-time collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki) are at work. The desert at dawn is breathtaking, even with the gritty resolution of a modern headset, and the feel of sand beneath my feet grounded me almost instantly. I watched as a group of immigrants approached, exhausted from their travels. I walked around to each of them, noting that they varied in age ranging from a young man to a grandmother. Getting too close to their faces revealed the plastic, uncanny valley issues that still afflict most CG characters in this kind of environment, but their body movements were nuanced and subtle, a step up from what Id come to expect.

My instinct was to run but Border Patrol agents had already blocked my escape

Behind me, I detected the distant beat of helicopter blades. I craned my neck and spotted the vehicle approaching in the slowly brightening sky. Before I knew it, the helicopter was upon us, wind blasting down on me (an incredibly effective bit of sensory tie-in). My instinct was to run, so I turned back around only to see a Border Patrol vehicle and officers swoop in to block my escape, guns drawn.

As a VR experience unto itself, Carne y Arena can be considered a cousin to the kind of journalistic work pioneered by Nonny de la Pea. Irritu talked to many immigrants that had made the journey across the border, and its both their individual stories and their motion-captured avatars that populate the piece. But hes clearly not just interested in a literal representation of their experiences. Over its nearly seven minute running time, Carne y Arena also delves into the dreamlike at one point, a wooden table appears in the middle of the fray, with children on either side watching a tiny boat filled with refugees overturn and sink into its surface and the abstract. Abrupt cuts and context shifts, traditionally problematic in VR, are used to great effect, putting the viewer in the same mindset of disorientation and fear that the immigrants themselves are facing as theyre zip-tied in the desert sand. And then, just as the chaos of the round-up seems to be reaching its peak, everyone is just suddenly gone.

Thats when I found myself walking alone in the desert once more. And as I crossed the terrain, I saw them: discarded shoes and a backpack, left behind by the people Id just seen swept away. Perhaps the same shoes and backpack Id encountered in the freezer minutes before.

The final part of Carne y Arenas triptych is a video installation, and it brought the entire experience home. Facing an unbroken stretch of border fence was a black wall with nine windows set at eye level. Within each a video clip was playing: a single close-up of one of the people portrayed in the VR experience, with text explaining their struggles and travails in their own words. A woman who had worked relentlessly so she could afford to bring her family over one by one, a Border Patrol officer with no respect for those who cant find empathy for people eager to start a better life; their faces simply stared at me as I read their stories. In virtual reality, Id observed their ordeals, unable to intervene. But here, their direct gaze became an emotional call to action: these were real people, and simply observing them wasnt an acceptable option.

Its tempting to discuss Carne y Arena just as a virtual reality experience. A filmmaker on the level of Alejandro Irritu getting involved in the medium is what many hope will elevate it to the point where mainstream adoption is truly within reach. But the greatest takeaway from the piece is that VR alone isnt enough not to deliver the kind of rich emotional experience Irritu was interested in delivering, at least. Carne y Arenas physical bookends arent bells and whistles; theyre part of the core conceit of the piece itself. The reveal of the discarded shoes in the VR short directly pays off the time audiences spend in the freezer; the last segment with the wall of videos takes the terror of the virtual segment, and makes it heartbreakingly personal. None of the three sections fully work without the other two, resulting in a multi-tiered experience that does more than just toy with the idea of replicating someone elses life experiences. It actually tries to convey the emotional horror of them, using a mix of physicality and artistic interpretation.

Irritu is focused on delivering the best emotional experience, not simply the best virtual one

Obviously, augmenting virtual reality with real-world, physical elements isnt new. Full-blown hybrid arcades like The Void mix the two extraordinarily well, and even smaller solutions like Nomadics modular system are incredible in the way they enhance the sense of presence while in VR. While Carne y Arenas use of sand and wind machines do give its headset portion a wonderful sense of tactile immediacy, its a very different kind of impact than actually sitting in a physical recreation of a freezer, not knowing how long youll be there, or what will happen next.

Ultimately, Irritu has built something focused on delivering the best emotional experience, not simply the best virtual one, and thats where Carne y Arenas power lies. In the rush to experiment in a burgeoning medium, VR is being used to try to replicate every environment possible, and that kind of experimentation is vital. But all too often, little thought is given to presentation, or whether a particular experience is even well-suited to VR in the first place. The entirety of Carne y Arena could have been delivered through a headset things similar to the freezer portion already exist in projects like 6x9 but that wouldnt have been the most impactful way to deliver this experience, or the most engaging one.

Recognizing that immersive entertainment can be more than just VR that it can include physical locations, art installations, and mixed reality elements is going to be vital, particularly as the industry focuses on location-based entertainment. For creators, that may very well be the meta-lesson from Irritus evocative and heartbreaking piece: expand your toolbox when possible, and use the best medium for the story you want to tell. The filmmaker himself seemed to understand that by deciding to move away from traditional cinema for this project in the first place. Given how incredibly effective Carne y Arenas mix of physical and virtual is, perhaps other creators will too.

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Alejandro Irritu's Carne y Arena proves that great virtual reality means going beyond the headset - The Verge

By Land, By Sea, By Air: Go Inside the World of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk in This Virtual-Reality Exclusive – PEOPLE.com

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The turbulent world of Dunkirk is a click away.

Christopher Nolans latest epic tells the tale of the battle of Dunkirk that took place between Nazi Germany and the Allied forces during the Second World War. The nine-day battle saw the evacuation of British and Allied forces from the beaches of the namesake French town as the Nazis continued their advance on the opposing forces. In the end,338,226 men escaped.

As the film gears up to hit theaters this summer, PEOPLE brings you a virtual-reality experience connected to the movie which takes place in three settings: land, sea and air.

Watch the 360Save Every Breath: The Dunkirk VR Experience in the video above, explorable by clicking and dragging your mouse across the screen. The more you move, the more youll discover the dramatic scenes.For a fully immersive virtual-reality experience using VR goggles, download the LIFE VR app for iOS and Android or visit time.com/lifevr.

Save Every Breath: The Dunkirk VR Experience will be on display next week at the all-new VR in the Sky event taking place at the Time Inc. headquarters in New York. The first-of-its-kind 2-day event will feature presentations, experiences and more spotlighting the cutting edge of the VR industry with Dunkirk VR even making an appearance as a special installation at the top of One World Trade Center.

You can also watch the full trailer for the experience below.

The movie stars a list of heavy hitters and newcomers alike, including Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Fionn Whitehead and Harry Styles in his acting debut.

To watch the full experience and explore more exclusive virtual reality content, download the LIFE VR app foriOSandAndroidor visittime.com/lifevr.

Dunkirk hits theaters July 21.

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By Land, By Sea, By Air: Go Inside the World of Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk in This Virtual-Reality Exclusive - PEOPLE.com

Brooklyn’s role as tech powerhouse surges with coming of virtual reality lab – Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Another step in Brooklyns evolution as a tech powerhouse comes with the announcement that the borough will soon be home to the countrys first ever publicly funded virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) facility.

The city recently announced the selection of New York University Tandon School of Engineering (formerly Polytechnic University) to develop and operate a hub for VR/AR at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with a workforce development center at CUNY Lehman College in the Bronx. It is expected to open late in 2017.

VR and AR are hot and getting hotter. The city says the new lab will directly create more than 500 jobs over the next 10 years, and further position New York City as a global leader in the VR/AR industry.

Virtual reality is a computer-generated, three-dimensional environment that can be entered into by a person using technology such as special goggles or headsets and gloves. For example, a person might learn to skydive with a few stomach-lurching virtual jumps before attempting the real thing, or play a superhero battling aliens while immersed in a VR universe.

Augmented reality superimposes computer-generated images viewed with special headsets, smart glasses or a cellphone on top of the real world. For example, Facebook recently previewed an augmented reality social world where you can interact with your friends as if they are in the same room as you, no matter where they actually are. Or, a shopper might use AR to preview how a piece of furniture will look in their living room before they buy it. Soldiers can wear AR headsets showing data such as enemy location.

During a demonstration of the technology on June 27, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen tried out NYU Tandons virtual reality app to take a virtual trip to Mars.

Augmented and virtual reality represents a huge new industry, and we want New York City to be second to none, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a release. De Blasio said the plan was part of his strategy, called New York Works, to spur 100,000 good-paying city jobs in 10 years.

The lab received an initial $6 million investment by the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the Mayors Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME). It will boost research, talent development and workforce development initiatives, the city says.

The lab will also help to fuel the citys emerging VR/AR sector with early-stage capital, and allow investors, researchers and organizations to collaborate.

The world of VR/AR is growing at breakneck speed and the implications for businesses across New York City are incredibly exciting, Media and Entertainment Commissioner Julie Menin said in a statement. This new facility will ensure that were doing our part to spur innovation, create talent pipelines, and make New York City the home of these emerging industries.

The lab will further strengthen the Brooklyn Navy Yard's thriving media sector, anchored by Steiner Studios, and create high-quality, middle-class job opportunities for New Yorkers," said David Ehrenberg, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.

According to a 2016 report by Citigroup, the global VR/AR market could grow to $2.16 trillion by 2035 as different industries and applications make use of the technology.

Hundreds of startups and tech companies have set up shop in Brooklyn. The Tech Triangle made up of Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard is now home to more than 1,350 innovation companies 22 percent more than three years ago, according to the Tech Triangle consortium.

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Brooklyn's role as tech powerhouse surges with coming of virtual reality lab - Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Reliving Edhi’s journey to immortality | Pakistan | thenews.com.pk – The News International

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As it were this time last year, grey clouds are hovering over Merewether Tower as the clock strikes 12 in the afternoon. Buses, cars and motorbikes halt for a group of pedestrians trying to cross the busy thoroughfare, II Chundrigar Road, to reach the decades-old Edhi Centre in Mithadar.

With the passing of Pakistans greatest philanthropist, Abdul Sattar Edhi, on July 8 last year, the centre like all others is now looked after by his son Faisal Edhi, while one of the foundations longest serving representatives, Anwar Kazmi, sits in the office managing the day-to-day activities.

Clad in a grey shalwar kameez, he sits behind a desk teeming with stacks of files and two telephone sets that ring almost incessantly. Kazmi, 72, had known Edhi since 1962 when he took a friend to the Mithadar dispensary.

Edhi called for a compounder to tend to my friend, while he sat down on a bench and spoke to the rest of us for a long time. We discussed local and world politics; I was quite politically charged at the time and was associated with the left. Over the course of that conversation, it turned out that we shared similar thoughts and he asked me to come by more often. That was the start of a bond that lasts to this day, he reminisced.

Referring to the famous strike by students in 1964 near DJ Science College in which many were injured, he said Edhi had stepped in personally at the time to tend to the victims. We had to strategise because had we taken those students to the civil hospital they would have been booked by the police. So we took them straight to Edhi sahab who tended to the injured.

Our friendship grew stronger because of our like-mindedness and finally in 1970, I started working with the Edhi Foundation; at the time, though, the foundation was much smaller in scale as compared to what we see today.

Speaking about the late humanitarian, Kazmi said that Edhis four core principles simplicity, truthfulness, hard work and punctuality were what catapulted him to greatness. His thoughts always translated into actions. Also, I dont remember him ever mincing his words; he couldnt care less about repercussions.

Against the tide

When Edhi pursued his mission, he was going against the norms of his community, said Kazmi.

He told the Memon community that he only wanted to work for humanity and wasnt interested in the dynamics of any particular community system, solely because they were controlled by men seeking profits. He said he didnt want to pave the way for those who would always be needy.

Known for his journey from an 8x8 dispensary to one of the worlds largest humanitarian organisations, Edhi had told the world that he would not seek donations because he was sure that common people would come forward to help him when they saw his efforts.

The people did help him. When they saw his tireless work ethic, they came forward in droves to donate. It was with their assistance that after a few years Edhi acquired a second-hand vehicle that he transformed into an ambulance. At the time that was our only ambulance and it went all over the city to help people in distress, Kazmi narrated.

Faith and fury

Though he was considered a man of few words who had an impassive expression, Kazmi recalled a time when he saw Edhi immensely angry.

One of the worst tragedies to have occurred in Karachi was the 1987 bombing in Bohri Bazaar, the first of its kind in the city. I was sitting with Edhi when the news started filtering in; within minutes calls were made to all units of the city and all ambulances were told to rush to the scene.

Kazmi recalled that all vehicles were soon out in the field, except for one that remained parked at the centre. We found out that the ambulance driver had gone to say his prayers. I seldom saw Edhi sahab as upset as he was when we told him the reason; he was incensed that the driver had chosen to go for prayers instead of helping those battling for their lives. His words at the time were, Any man who cant understand the essence of humanity cannot work with us.

A motorcyclist (R) pays his respects to Abdul Sattar Edhi (2nd L), as he travels to his office in Karachi.

He had also once called out the military dictator, General Zia-ul-Haq, for giving room to religious fanaticism, urging him to instead provide basic necessities for the people.

At the time, Edhi sahab spoke at a well-attended event and told all those present that neither did Pakistan need enforcement of religious laws nor did the people want it. He said the villages needed more schools and hospitals, not mosques and madrasas. The criticism against him after this speech was instantaneous but Edhi never did back down from voicing his opinion, said Kazmi.

Ignoring naysayers

It is hardly a secret that there was a widespread propaganda campaign against Edhi owing to his secular notions.

He was called chanda khor, dehriya, and other such names but he never responded to anyone. We were young and always itching to give a rebuttal but he said apna rasta khota na karo (dont add obstacles in your own path), Kazmi laughed.

Instead, he added, Edhi would always refer to an example of a beggar entering a village. He would say that a beggar carries a stick with himself to ward off stray dogs. If a dog comes too close, he just waves the stick to make it step back. Similarly if they would come near me I will signal them with the stick because I cant let them impede my path. If the beggar would waste his efforts in fighting all the dogs, he wouldnt be able to survive.

Passing the mantle

Over the course of the year that has passed since Edhis demise, many questioned the capability of his son, Faisal Edhi, to pick up where his esteemed father left off.

He raised Faisal to one day fill his shoes. Ever since his childhood, Faisal accompanied his father on relief work. He knew he would depart one day and while Edhi sahab is undoubtedly irreplaceable, he moulded Faisal in way that I am sure he would prove his mettle in a few years.

Yaar it only takes a minute, get more of them

Recalling the time when the charity foundations communications system was being transformed into a wireless one, a visibly amused Kazmi said Edhi had stopped talking to him owing to their disagreement over the new system.

Faisal Edhi

Edhi sahab was reluctant because he feared it would be costly and useless. We would be sitting right next to each other but he grew silent on me and refused to come near the vehicles after the system was installed. Finally, a Sri Lankan engineer took him to test the system and from the Tower centre Edhi was able to connect with the volunteers in different areas of the city. When he found himself speaking to Haji Iqbal from Moosa Lines or Raju in Korangi, Edhi sahab started laughing and turned to me and said, Yaar, it only takes a minute, get more of them.

He said Edhis chief concern was that public money would be wasted on what he thought would be a huge investment. To our luck, the person who took up the task felt he was indebted to Edhi sahab because he had found his intellectually disabled daughter through an Edhi home.

I cant dodge a bullet with my name on it

Going back to the time when the army patrolled the streets of Karachi, Kazmi said an incident in Aligarh Colony made them take the risk of venturing out during curfew time.

Nobody was stepping out because of the volatile situation in the city during the 90s. When we received the news about shootout and that causalities were feared, Edhi sahab and I headed to Aligarh Colony.

Soon, security personnel intercepted us and told us we could not proceed further. We tried to reason with them and, finally, a senior officer who recognised Edhi sahab told the men to let us through. It was a fierce clash between Mohajirs and Pakhtuns but both sides stopped as soon as we entered the area.

That was the kind of risk Edhi sahab was always willing to take. There were times when even we would advise him against a certain plan. However, his reply was always the same; if a bullet is fired with my name on it, no force on earth can divert it elsewhere.

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Reliving Edhi's journey to immortality | Pakistan | thenews.com.pk - The News International

Conditional immortality – Sunbury Daily Item

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As he neared the end of his life, American patriot and deist Thomas Paine turned his attention to the possibility of postmortem survival.

In a posthumously published essay, he conjectured that humans who had been exceptionally righteous would likely experience bliss and those who had been exceptionally wicked would suffer. But the rest of us, having done nothing in our lives to merit either eternal reward or punishment, would simply cease to be.

By his own admission, Paine wasnt much of a reader. So I suspect he didnt know that his defense of conditional immortality bears some resemblance to a position defended by the 2nd-century Christian theologian Theophilus of Antioch.

Before his conversion to Christianity, Theophilus had been a pagan philosopher steeped in the writings of Plato, who lived 6 centuries earlier. Plato taught that humans are born with immortal souls, a doctrine which gained widespread currency in the Greek-speaking ancient world before Christ. These souls, trapped in physical bodies, yearn to return to the blissfully immaterial realm whence they originated.

Theophilus embraced Platos belief in inherent or unconditional immortality before he became a Christian. But after converting, his study of Hebrew scripture and early Christian writings convinced him that the doctrine was incompatible with both. Instead, Theophilus argued, soul-immortality isnt a given. The soul has the potential for immortality if certain conditions are met, but also for utter dissolution. Immortality, in other words, isnt an essential or inherent characteristic of human nature.

His argument is ingenious. Everyone, Theophilus asserted, acknowledges death to be an evil. God, therefore, couldnt have created humans as mere mortals doomed to die, because doing so makes God the author of deathwhich means that God, the supreme source of all goodness, is responsible for evil. This is logically impossible and morally repugnant.

On the other hand, if God had endowed humans with inherently immortal souls, freedom and self-direction, essential conditions for moral behavior, would be jeopardized. Theophilus reasoning is a bit murky here. But his point seems to be that a carte blanche bestowal of immortality on humans would somehow weaken our moral fiber, perhaps because we would take the gift for granted. If Im confident I can never die, why bother to do much of anything? Its our awareness of the fragile brevity of life that motivates us to make the most of the time we have.

In order to avoid both of these undesirable possibilities, concluded Theophilus, God created humans in neutral mode, as it were, when it comes to mortality and immortality.

If a person freely and conscientiously chooses to keep the commandments of God, those efforts will be rewarded with the emergence of soul immortality.

If, however, a person should incline towards those things which relate to death by disobeying God, then the consequence of this free choice is, literally, ceasing to be. No eternity in heaven or hell, no possibility of redemption, and no resurrection on Judgment Day, because no soul has emerged.

Today, Theophilus is largely forgotten except by church historians. But his better remembered contemporary, St. Irenaeus, was so impressed by the doctrine of conditional immortality that he defended a similar theory. He argued that humans are created as imperfect (mortal) creatures, but that we can grow souls and acquire immortality by how we deal with lifes adversities.

When faced with suffering, said Irenaeus, we can allow it to crush us spiritually, diminishing our capacity for soul-growth, or we can respond by cultivating soul-growing virtues such as patience, trust, humility, and fortitude. Irenaeus intuition is a religious version of the contemporary slogan, No pain, no gain.

Although conditional immortality remains a minority opinion in the Christian worldit was, in fact, condemned as heretical in 1513 by the Lateran Councilit has been defended by learned theologians such as Origen in the 3rd century, Anselm of Canterbury in the 11th, and John Hick in our own day.

But perhaps the best-known defense of conditional immortality is found in an 1819 letter by the poet John Keats, written when he was already suffering from the tuberculosis that killed him 2 years later. Life, he declared, with all its joys and vicissitudes, is a vale of soul-making capable of igniting the divine spark within each of us into a full-fledged soul.

Kerry Walters pastors Holy Spirit American National Catholic Church in Montandon. http://www.ancclewisburgpa.org. His video-essays may be found on the YouTube channel Holy Spirit Moments with Fr. Kerry Walters.

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Conditional immortality - Sunbury Daily Item

‘Biggest game ever’ for Lions as immortality beckons – Irish Times

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New Zealand v British & Irish Lions

Venue: Eden Park.

Kick-off: 7.35pm NZ time/8.35am Irish/UK time.

On TV: Live on Sky Sports

The Lions embarked upon a tour described as suicidal by Graham Henry and both they and their head coach were derided after a scratchy opening win over the Barbarians and a loss to the Blues, and at various points along the way. Come the final Saturday, they stand on the cusp of immortality.

Its been quite the journey; a rollercoaster ride up and down the Land of the Long White Cloud which scaled epic heights in Wellington last Saturday when they became the first side to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand in eight years.

For the momentous climax came the hardest part of all, ending the All Blacks 37-match winning run at Eden Park since France won 23-20 in 1994.

Sen OBrien has played 49 Tests for Ireland and four for the Lions. Hes been part of a Lions Test series win, been in an Irish Six Nations-winning team and three European Cup-winning squads with Leinster. So how does this rate?

The biggest, he says with a steely-eyed intent. This is the biggest game Ive ever been involved in, I think, this weekend.

The former All Blacks winger and Italian and Blues head coach, John Kirwan, said earlier this week that regardless of the third Test result, Warren Gatlands legacy is secure, and theres even been grudging respect from the New Zealand Herald.

Yet the portrayal of him as a clown amid an almost daily demonisation of him will not be easily forgotten. One of his assistants with Wales and here, Rob Howley, said: The way Warren Gatlands been treated, its been a disgrace, hasnt it? Its an absolute disgrace. We all love sport and rugby and you can be critical of technical or tactical elements of the Lions or New Zealand, but when that becomes personal criticism I think we all step over the mark and thats happened over the last four weeks of the tour.

Hes a Kiwi. You have to applaud what Warren Gatlands achieved as a Kiwi in the northern hemisphere and Ive no doubt what hell achieve when he comes back to New Zealand as well. Hes probably one of the best coaches in world rugby at this moment in time.

Asked if he envisaged Gatland being All Blacks coach one day, Howley said: Yeah, I got no doubt he will be. Citing Gatlands success with Connacht, Ireland and Wales, not to mention Wasps, where Howley played, he added: I learned more as a player when I was coached by Warren Gatland at the age of 31 than I had by any other coaches. And Ive been very fortunate to be coached by a lot of coaches.

He understands the games, he understands players, and I think thats the biggest asset that hes got, said Howley, which was perhaps a legacy of his time as understudy to Sean Fitzpatrick.

All the while, Howley said, Gatland remained calm and relaxed in steering the Lions through a relentless schedule. At the start of the tour you were going at 25mph and now were going at 18mph, said Howley.

Having their key decision-makers, Owen Farrell, Johnny Sexton and Dan Biggar all available for the pre-tour camp in the Carton House was key.

The emergence of the Sexton-Farrell axis may have contributed to the All Blacks recalling Julian Savea, and an indication that they would defend pretty flat.

I think they will revert to the kicking game, he added, and theyll come off 9. Its about making sure that our systems in place that were good last week are better than they were the week before.

If we can do that, its making sure that when weve got the ball, we take our opportunities. Its one game, as a coach and a player that you are going to be so excited because it is the ultimate challenge of creating history. Thats what weve got to look forward to.

New Zealand: Jordan Barrett (Hurricanes); Israel Dagg (Crusaders), Anton Lienert-Brown (Chiefs), Ngane Laumape (Hurricanes), Julien Savea (Hurricanes); Beauden Barrett (Hurricanes), Aaron Smith (Highlanders); Joe Moody (Crusaders), Codie Taylor (Crusaders), Owen Franks (Crusaders), Brodie Retallick (Chiefs) Samuel Whitelock (Crusaders), Jerome Kaino (Blues), Sam Cane (Chiefs), Kieran Read (Crusaders, captain).

Replacements: Nathan Harris (Chiefs), Wyatt Crockett (Crusaders),

Charlie Faumuina (Blues), Scott Barrett (Crusaders), Ardie Savea (Hurricanes), TJ Perenara (Hurricanes), Aaron Cruden (Chiefs) or Lima Sopoaga (Highalnders), Malakai Fekitoa (Highlanders).

British & Irish Lions: Liam Williams (Scarlets, Wales); Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, England), Jonathan Davies (Scarlets, Wales), Owen Farrell (Saracens, England), Elliot Daly (Wasps, England); Johnny Sexton (Leinster, Ireland), Conor Murray (Munster, Ireland); Mako Vunipola (Saracens, England,) Jamie George (Saracens, England), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster, Ireland), Maro Itoje (Saracens, England), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys, Wales), Sam Warburton (Cardiff Blues, Wales, capt), Sean OBrien (Leinster, Ireland), Taulupe Faletau (Bath Rugby, Wales).

Replacements: Ken Owens (Scarlets, Wales), Jack McGrath (Leinster, Ireland), Kyle Sinckler (Harlequins, England), Courtney Lawes (Northampton, England), CJ Stander (Munster, Ireland), Rhys Webb (Ospreys, Wales), Ben Teo (Worcester Warriors, England), Jack Nowell (Exeter, England).

Referee: Romain Poite (France).

Previous meetings: Played 40, New Zealand 30 wins, 3 draws, Lions 7 wins.

Betting (Paddy Powers): 2/7 New Zealand, 22/1 Draw, 7/2 Lions. Handicap betting (Lions +11 pts) Evens New Zealand, 19/1 Draw, Evens Lions.

Forecast: The Lions to win.

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'Biggest game ever' for Lions as immortality beckons - Irish Times

Nutritional supplements: Friends or Foes? – Meridian Star

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Did you know that only 13 percent of Americans get enough fruits each day? How about that only 8 percent of us get enough vegetables on a daily basis? This is scary to me.

If were not eating at least 1.5-2 cups of fruits and 2-3 cups of vegetables daily, then what are we eating? Usually highly processed (i.e., it doesnt look like it grew somewhere) foods that are high in calories and low in nutrients. There are four main reasons for our now predisposed eating habits: processed foods are convenient/fast, well marketed, perceived to be cheaper, and engineered to taste good. Ever wonder if a chip company researches the optimal crunch factor for their chips? Absolutely they do.

When I was a kid, I remember two things about going to the grocery store. The first is that my brother and I had a tendency to misbehave (Me?! Never!), so my mom would get us a small bag of donut holes IF we behaved to her appropriately high standards in the store. And, second, that I spent most of the store trip picking out a breakfast cereal. It was not the taste, quality, etc. of the cereal, though, that was the determining factor for me but rather what toy was inside! This food marketing to me at an early age even led me to spend my hard-earned moolah on a box of Cookie Crisp one time on vacation because I didnt think I could go 3-4 days without it! And I never spent my money! Its little, influential, habits like this that add up over time to replace the good stuff in our daily food intake.

The way the food industry is set up, its very challenging, even if theres an awareness, to achieve daily appropriate food intake goals. So what are we to do if we want to hit that nutrient goal for the day? We need to cut out (or drastically reduce) processed foods as well as possibly supplement. I think theres a place for supplements in our daily routine, because, like I said, the vast majority of us dont get what we need nutritionally. Where do we start, though? If you just look up supplements on Google, youll be inundated with search results and ads. The supplement industry is a multi-BILLION dollar industry and growing quickly. Be aware that, just like the processed food industry, theres a significant arm of the supplement industry that is out there simply to make money, independent of your overall health.

Appropriate supplementation is different for every individual, and folks should talk to a healthcare provider about recommendations. Its not enough to simply trust whats on the label! Why do we want to supplement anyway and why is it such a growing industry? Because it is in our human nature to want a quick fix. Most of us would rather take a pill that claims it lower heart disease risk than exercise. Most of us would rather take a pill that claims to increase our energy than going to bed an hour earlier. Were just wired that way.

There are good reasons for appropriate supplementation though they include poor food quality, poor food choices, lack of exercise, stress, not enough sleep, drinking too much alcohol, hormone imbalances and even genetics. If I had to pick three supplements that most everyone could benefit from and have good science behind them, Id say probiotics, omega-3s and vitamin D. Any of these can be found over the counter or online. Well talk about these individually in a later column but here are some tidbits to get you started:

Probiotics are what I call good bacteria. They are very important for your immune system, digestive system, vitamin production and detoxification. Did you know 60 percent of your immune system resides in your gut?! Thats part of why its important to keep your gut healthy. Not to mention probiotics usually make bowel movements more regular and lower risk for urinary tract infections.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids are endorsed by the American Heart Association for heart disease prevention. They are beneficial in a range of disorders mainly due to anti-inflammatory effects and cellular membrane fluidity. They tend to lower triglycerides. I tell my lady patients that Omega-3s help their skin and hair look healthier! I can usually spot who takes Omega-3s just by looking at their skin.

Vitamin D is low in just about everyone. My vitamin D is low. I take a vitamin D supplement. When its in a good range, it really helps lower risk for heart disease and cancer. It also helps regulate insulin and blood sugar levels which are key to long-term health.

So, do we need to supplement our daily food intake? In most cases, probably so. As much as Id love for Cookie Crisp to grow on trees and have good nutritional value, it just doesnt stack up to what good ol' Mother Nature can whip up!

Dr. Thomas is a board-certified physician who operates Complete Health Integrative Wellness Clinic and Thomas Urology Clinic in Starkville, Mississippi.

This newspaper column is for informational purposes only and is, under no circumstances, intended to constitute medical advice or to create or continue a physician-patient relationship. If you have a medical emergency, you should immediately seek care from your nearest emergency room, and if you have specific health questions, you should consult your own physician.

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Nutritional supplements: Friends or Foes? - Meridian Star

Dramatic extension breathes new life into century-old cottage – The West Australian

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Commissioned to breathe new life into a century-old cottage, Janik Dalecki devised a design that would make a statement while still respecting the character of the original building.

Mr Dalecki, of Dalecki Design, says the brief for the renovation was to turn the tired, run-down home into a modern abode perfect for entertaining and raising a family.

The existing home with three bedrooms, one bathroom and no storage had a dark, impractical layout with no breeze paths or natural light, he says.

The alteration and addition was to be sympathetic to the existing 100-year-old heritage-listed home, whilst still creating a bold design statement.

The extension of the home, which is on a 385sqm block in Mt Lawley, was to centre around an open-plan main living area, which would offer city views as well as a seamless indoor/outdoor connection.

Whilst the home was to be child-friendly, the owners also wanted to create a luxurious master retreat, where the adults of the house could escape to the privacy of their own space, Mr Dalecki adds.

The new main living area is the centrepiece of the renovation. North-facing windows edged with black powder-coated frames help flood the living zones with natural light, while sliding doors link the interiors to the garden.

The large sliding doors also frame the homes city views, allowing them to be seen from all entertaining zones, both indoors and outdoors, Mr Dalecki says.

The sleeping areas have been divided into two zones.

The existing two front bedrooms were retained, with a second bathroom added, while the main suite was positioned to the rear to create a private parents retreat.

A highlight of the main bedroom is a built-in window seat, which also conceals storage beneath its hinged base.

The idea was to create a cosy sitting space where you could retreat with a book and take in the backyard and city views, Mr Dalecki says.

It also serves to tie the bedroom in with the existing home, with the jarrah boards selected to match the existing internal flooring also used for the window-seat lining.

Such references to the original building were a key aspect of Mr Daleckis design.

Many of the heritage details were restored, such as a leadlight window and entry door and the external brickwork, which was re-tuckpointed.

Mr Dalecki says the contemporary, minimalist design of the Weathertex-clad addition helps highlight the heritage details.

In order to let the intricate heritage details shine, the addition incorporates contrasting materials and sharp, minimalist lines, creating a strikingly modern form, he says.

Whilst this creates a clear definition between the old and the new, a neutral colour scheme and the use of existing floorboards throughout provide a seamless transition between the two eras.

Tips for renovating a heritage property

- Find a local heritage advisor or designer who is familiar with the period of architecture and has previously worked both with this period or architecture along with the local council and various heritage bodies, Mr Dalecki says.

- If purchasing a heritage property check with council the type of heritage listing as this will dictate the extent of works that can be carried out on the home. You should also check whether the local council has any existing plans and photographs of the house. This will give you an idea of what the original building looked like and assist in any reconstruction work, he says.

- If adding on to the exiting heritage home add on in a style that provides a clear definition between what is new and what is old. Adding on a contrasting addition can highlight the existing heritage features both internally and externally.

- Replace like for like or where need be, remove non-original features and replace with what would have originally been there, Mr Dalecki says. Use original drawings or photos if you have these and if not use the local surrounding architecture to find a similar match to your house and replicate their details.

- Finally, do some research into any government or council grants that are available. Quite often there can be significant grants provided for restoration works.

Dalecki Design, 0410 100 096, daleckidesign.com.au.

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Dramatic extension breathes new life into century-old cottage - The West Australian

To Do This Weekend: Rico Nasty, Art Garfunkel, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live! – Washington City Paper

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Hear an orchestra accompany a mysterious movie, listen to some local rock, or see a legend sing his greatest hits.

Success in pop music is more the result of timing than talent, and in the ever-changing world of hip-hop, you have to read the zeitgeist before you can, to paraphrase Kanye, pop a wheelie on it. Perhaps no one in the DMV is better at reading the rap zeitgeist than Rico Nasty, a young woman from Largo who calls her music sugar trap, as in trap-rap with a sweet edge. Her mixtape cover of the same name finds her smiling like Mona Lisa with an assault rifle in hand, flanked by unicorns and teddy bears. Shes bound to be as divisive as Lil Yachty and Lil Uzi Vert, but the Great Rap Hope baton might end up in her hands anyway. Rico Nasty performs with Dae World and O Slice at 8 p.m. at Songbyrd Music House, 2477 17th St. NW. $10$12. (202) 450-2917. songbyrddc.com. (Chris Kelly)

EAT THIS

With its new chef settled in, The Riggsbyhas a new brunch menu worth splurging on this weekend. Try a "New Crab Benedict" with miso-crab hollandaise sauce and Duroc pork ($19), short rib hash with a 60-minute egg, crisp potato, red pepper, and horseradish hollandaise sauce ($22), or for something sweet, Anson Mills cornmeal griddle cakes with homemade berry compote, strawberry Chantilly, and lavender honey ($14). Brunch is offered Saturdays and Sundaysfrom 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Riggsby, 1731 New Hampshire Ave. NW. (202) 787-1500.theriggsby.com. (Laura Hayes)

OH AND ALSO

Friday: Early aughts college rock comes to Merriweather Post Pavilion when Dispatch and Guster play a double bill with Marco Benevento. 7 p.m. at 10475 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. $46$56.

Friday: Help raise money for the DC Abortion Fund while drinking and dancing to tunes by The Perfectionists and DJ Tezrah at the Black Cat's IndepenDANCE: A Pro-Choice Prom. 8 p.m. at 1811 14th St. NW. $25$30.

Friday: Enjoy the music of John Williams and the mysteries buried in Hogwarts when the National Symphony Orchestra performs the score of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stonewhile the movie screens live at Wolf Trap. 8:30 p.m. at 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. $35$58.

Saturday:Art Garfunkels ethereal voice was forged in the fires of the 1960s, during the burgeoning civil rights movement and the televised atrocities of the Vietnam War. If he sounds weathered now, it is only because his clear voice, seemingly delicate yet resiliently sturdy, has suffered a few chips and cracks from bearing a good portion of the worlds pain and relief. Garfunkel still gets on stage to deliver Simon & Garfunkels longstanding hymns of hope like The Boxer or Bridge Over Troubled Water, but now mixes in some of his own favorites by artists like the Everly Brothers, Randy Newman, the Gershwins, and other masters of American song. Read more >>>Art Garfunkel performs at 8 p.m. at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, 2700 F St. NW. $39$99. (202) 467-4600. kennedy-center.org.(Jackson Sinnenberg)

Saturday: See the story of a boy who never grows up when you travel to Sidney Harman Hall for a screening of the National Theatre's Peter Pan. 2 p.m. at 610 F St. NW. $10$20.

Saturday: D.C.-based folk soul duo Oh He Dead takes the stage at DC9 with opening act Caz Gardiner, the local reggae rock singer. 9:30 p.m. at 1940 9th St. NW. $13$15.

Sunday:If there is a God, he/she/they/it sure must love the 90s. How else can you explain the 90s revival pop culture is currently in the midst of? This year also gave us the quiet return of one of the most quintessential 90s shows (even if it technically premiered in 1988):Mystery Science Theater 3000. Creator Joel Hodgson portrays a janitor named Joel who is trapped on a spacecraft by mad scientists and forced to watch shitty B-movies with his three robot friends, Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, and Gypsy. Seeing Hodgson and his bots live will feel like youre watching terrible movies with your funniest friends.Read more >>>The shows begin at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. at The Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. NW. $39.50$299. (202) 888-0050. thelincolndc.com.(Matt Cohen)

Sunday: Beloved author Neil Gaiman discusses his work, reads stories, and answers questions when he speaks at Wolf Trap. 8 p.m. at 1551 Trap Road, Vienna. $25$65.

Sunday: Close out the weekend at U Street Music Hall, where Kap G and J.R. Donato take the stage with Paper Paulk. 7 p.m. at 1115 U St. NW. $20.

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To Do This Weekend: Rico Nasty, Art Garfunkel, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live! - Washington City Paper

The True Cost Of Our Avocado Obsession – Vogue.co.uk

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Erwan Frotin

Later this year, somewhere in central London, a daily extravaganza called Avolution will celebrate the avocado as a curious quirk of our time. Here, adults will be given the opportunity to frolic in a plastic-avocado ball pit, to sew avocado-shaped cushions and even button themselves into avocado sumo suits and smash into each other in a game of human guacamole. For those watching from the sidelines there will be chips and you guessed it avocado dips. Avolution evolved (of course it did) from last years grossly successful avocado appreciation brunch, Avopopup, also the brainchild of event organiser Meredith OShaughnessy. From quinoa-dipped to ice cream to macarons, Avopopup dished up six courses of avocado, and there are plans in the works to take the concept to America and Dubai. According to OShaughnessy, The avocado has captured peoples imagination because it is a fruit which doesnt take itself too seriously.

Which could just be the crowning of hipster absurdity, although Miley Cyrus did get an avocado tattooed on to her left tricep. And yet the fruit, whose name derives from the Aztec ahuacatl (meaning testicle, because it grows in pairs and hangs heavy from its tree), has become absurdly, ubiquitously popular. Every day, 3 million new pictures of it whole, halved, slathered on wholemeal gluten-free toast are posted on Instagram. (And thats not counting the many, many avocado memes todays ultimate measure of cultural influence that regram across social media bearing cute messages of the lets avocuddle variety.) Last year, 5 million avocados passed through Pret A Mangers kitchens, more than double the number that did in 2013, and today 12 of its products contain avocado, which is savvy because avocado sells. In 2015 British shoppers spent 142 million on their avocados, while in the same year, in America, the largest global avocado consumer, 4 billion were eaten (an estimated 300,000 of them in Los Angeles). Over in China, 33 shipping containers of avocados are delivered weekly on to its shores; three years ago the country didnt import a single avocado.

The avocados meteoric rise owes much, in recent years, to celebrity endorsement. Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan, Kim Kardashian too, and after Nigella Lawson showed the television-watching public how to cook avocado on toast, Waitrose reported a 30 per cent rise in sales. But before the avocado got among this heady company, there were PR firms pushing it. In the Nineties, New Yorks Hill & Knowlton etched the fruit into the public consciousness by turning them into a cheerful cartoon, while Londons Richmond Towers distributed pamphlets with recipes and explanations. The avocado might have been first tasted on British shores in the 17th century, brought back from South America by explorers, but it only became widely available more recently. (Sainsburys and Marks & Spencer had a public squabble over which was first to put an avocado on its shelves. It was Sainsburys, in 1962.) It was marketed then as the avocado pear, because of its shape, but the suffix was soon lost as uninitiated shoppers were eating it like one. Nonetheless, the avocado gained traction in a postwar, post-ration era that was hungry for new experiences. Cue the Seventies and avocado vinaigrette, prawn cocktail dolloped in halved avocados, avocado bathroom suites. The avocado had arrived.

Its pleasingly tasteless, versatile flesh is not, however, the summation of the fruits appeal. The avocado is now outselling satsumas in December, because it is good for you. Really very good for you. It is an excellent source of monounsaturated fatty acids, otherwise known as healthy fats, which can reduce bad cholesterol and heart disease. It is high in fibre (which promotes healthy digestion and reduces the blood-sugar spikes that make you feel hungry); it is a source of protein, potassium (which keeps blood pressure low and maintains the electrical gradient in the bodys cells) and folate (which plays a role in DNA synthesis and repair). Then there is the fruits beguiling, bankable mix of vitamin E (fights free radicals, repairs damaged skin), vitamin K (used by the body in blood clotting) and vitamin C (which keeps cells healthy). It is good for you even when you dont eat it. Applied to the skin, its oils omega 9 and oleic acid, which is the closest naturally occurring chemical to the skins own oils are highly moisturising. Skin beneath an avocado mask becomes soft and supple, says facialist Abigail Jones.

For a growing global spending community beguiled by wellness that annoyingly ubiquitous, zeitgeist-fuelled noun that denotes anything remotely connected to the pursuit of health the avocado is manna. It can be used to thicken green juices, as a vegan substitute for dairy and meat, and it requires little preparation before eating. The act of simply smashing an avocado into a palatable pure and adding lemon juice, salt, pepper and chilli flakes suddenly gives you access to a wider movement in which people feel more connected to their food because they have prepared it (even if that preparation took less than two minutes), and more connected to their bodies because they have chosen an avocado to put into them. As a symbol, then, the avocado is democratic; it says anyone can be healthy, and inhering in its chipper green flesh are all the smiling, sunny connotations of those ridiculously good-looking health bloggers Deliciously Ella, the Hemsley sisters, Madeleine Shaw who promote it.

Little wonder, then, that there is now an avocado deficit near-on a luxury food crisis in which demand for the avocado is exceeding supply. Prices have risen: at the time of writing, a single avocado on Ocado is 29p more expensive than it was in March last year. They are big business, too so much so that in Latin America, where avocado trees have been growing since 7000BC, the fruit has earned the nickname green gold because it yields more profit per acre than most other crops, including marijuana. Problem is, asis often the way with big business, growing green gold in increasing quantities can inflict unpalatable social and ecological costs.

The Mexican state of Michoacan sits in the southwest of the country. Its wide, white beaches border the Pacific Ocean, and from there the verdant hills climb towards a volcanic field the last eruption was in 1952 that has left a fertile legacy of ash in the soil. As a result, many crops grow very well in Michoacan (better, in fact, than anywhere else in Mexico), and that includes the avocado, which likes altitude 1,500 metres or more above sea level and rain. Ninety-two per cent of Mexicos avocado production comes from this state, which becomes all the more impressive when you consider that between 2015 and 2016 Mexico exported one million tonnes of avocados 800,000 more than its closest competitor, Indonesia.

It is Mexicos widely publicised tragedy that where there is money made, drug cartels circle, savvy to the opportunities of business diversification. By 2012, Michoacans avocado production, like its lemon and timber industries, was crippled by extortion, kidnapping and many, many murders, all at the bloody hands of Los Caballeros Templarios a cartel that swears allegiance to a bastardised version of a medieval chivalric code. Under its deadly influence, illegal plantations had sprung up all over the state, felling ancient pine species to make room, resulting in soil erosion and a diminished winter home for the monarch butterfly. In February 2013, the avocado growers who were still in business (and many smaller farmers unable to pay the extortionists were not) clubbed together to hire heavily armed private militias to protect their crops. The Mexican government didnt just allow this; many journalists, including Camilo Olarte an investigative reporter who spoke to Vogue from Mexico City believe it helped to fund them.

The armed militias succeeded where even the army had failed. Olarte tells me that from 2013 to 2015, all was relatively calm. There were no more extortions. The avocado producers were paying only $100 per month to the drug cartels. They were happy, he says. But Michoacan is a complicated place, and Olarte has been observing new volatilities in recent months. There are more than 20,000 avocado producers in Michoacan, but the foreign export of their avocados is almost entirely controlled by the APEAM trade association. When the association lowered the price it set for the fruit, there was nearly an armed rebellion. The growers went on strike. That was October last year. Whether it is now under control is not very clear. What was clear was the effect this strike had on Americas market supply. Guacamole was dropped from New York restaurant menus, while grocers in the city doubled their prices for the fruit. Circumstances that could become entrenched if Donald Trump really does build that wall and inflict its gargantuan cost on Mexico, via a 20 per cent tax on imports, as was briefly mooted by a White House press secretary. Today the atmosphere in Michoacan remains tense. Some roads are now controlled by an armed militia that has set up roadblocks to limit movement into municipalities. In Tierra Caliente Spanish for hot land an area that sprawls across a corner of Michoacan and is fecund with opium and ephedra plants (which are later turned into methamphetamine), there may be a worrying foreshadowing of what is to come elsewhere in the state. There is a new cartel at work there, known as H3, says Olarte. It is using extraordinary violence. Homicides are as high now as they were in 2012. H3 is a breakaway militia: it once defended agriculture in the region and is now criminalised.

Erwan Frotin

All of which seems a quantum leap from the city clich of brunch served on a distressed wooden table by a waiter in a plaid shirt, featuring bread that accommodates food intolerances, and, of course, avocado. But the chances are, that trendy avocado was Mexican after all, the country supplies 45 per cent of the international market and in particular it grows the Hass variety, heralded as the most delicious avocado cultivar thanks to its high fat content. When I ask Avolutions OShaughnessy if it is important to her where she sources the many avocados her customers will eat, she is quick to respond. We dont buy avocados from Mexico. But is this the right approach? Olarte tells me of a group of radical farmers who are trying to bypass the control of the avocado associations and export directly to foreign countries. The logic here is clear: fewer people involved in the production chain, so fewer weak links for exploitation. It would be a gross generalisation to suggest that every Mexican avocado lines the pockets of drug cartels, even if Olarte says that all of Michoacans economy is, in an indirect sense, linked to them. Boycotting Mexican avocados could punish small farmers who depend on their sales. Although the clear issue for the conscious consumer is that there is no way to be sure you are buying the right Mexican avocado.

Mexico is not the avocados only troubled home. Chiles avocado groves are located in a range of latitudes similar to those in California, but in the southern hemisphere. So when California has its winter, Chile can fill the gap in the market. It is the eighth-largest producer of avocados in the world, but many of its valleys dont have nearly enough water to cater for this scale of export: before an avocado is picked, it will have drunk a whole bathtub of water. Jessica Budd, a senior lecturer in geography at the University of East Anglia, last visited La Ligua in Chile in 2014, where she witnessed what happens when a valley is drained to feed the fruits considerable thirst. The whole landscape was dry, bare and dusty, she says. Fields were abandoned, some no longer viable for any agricultural purpose. Many of the smaller farmers were forced to abandon their farms and seek paid labour elsewhere.

In the end, the availability of water is a question of money. During a drought the big avocado farms, owned either by multinational companies or rich Chilean landowners, can afford to bring water in on trucks or, more typically, to use expensive machinery to make their wells deeper, meaning the water table for the whole region drops, and those who can afford only shallow wells are left without water either for their crops, or to drink. Groundwater in Chile is very prone to theft because there is hardly any government regulation, says Budd. In fact, small farmers who diversify into green gold are given grants to do so by the government, masking the risk involved in their new business. Unlike traditional crops maize or beans avocado saplings take three years to grow into a fruit-bearing tree. Thats three years without income. When the fruits come in if the fruits come in they are highly labour-intensive to pick by hand. Avocados are susceptible to drought and disease, which can knock out the whole crop not just for that year but for good. Few small farmers would have the finances to restart the process; instead they would be (and have been) ruined.

Later, Budd says something surprising. No one in La Ligua views the avocado plantations as sustainable farming. They are perceived as a 10-year cash crop. After that the trees will be old, the soil eroded and worthless, unable to support any crop without significant amounts of fertiliser. The long-term plan is just to move on and find a new patch.

There is some good news. In Peru, the World Bank identified areas in which the Hass avocado would grow well, and embarked on a long-term project to educate communities on sustainable avocado farming, while also offering them financial support to set up their farms. The Dominican Republic has a huge potential for increased avocado production, and the avocado (although not always the Hass variety) grows very easily in its high tropical fields. Spains avocado production is small, but the government is beginning to see the value of investing in it; while Israeli avocados are grown with exemplary practice (when the fruit isnt destroyed by frost). Anyone who really cares about the environment should never buy an avocado from New Zealand in a British grocer, as each fruit generates 1.36 tonnes of carbon emissions but it is worth noting for markets near the country that the avocado grows well there (so well, in fact, that in the past year there has been a spate of large-scale thefts from farms). And in California, which until last winters storms had been experiencing its sixth year of drought, agricultural scientists are working with producers to create an avocado that needs less water. For the organic purist, the pro-s-pect of the ultimate health food being genetically modified will be unappealing. But for areas where Wholefoods doesnt have a store, it may save livelihoods, even lives.

The simplest course of action would, of course, be to eat fewer avocados, to reclassify them in the cultural cognisance as a weekly treat instead of a daily necessity. But, as avocado advocate and wellness tastemaker Madeleine Shaw tells Vogue, When they are so good, its hard not eating one after another. To experience avocado health benefits, Shaw recommends half an avocado a day. And she is not totally unaware of the problems besetting the avocado market. When you eat too much of anything, she muses, it puts a strain on resources. And avocado trees take a long time to grow. They arent like berries although, technically, the avocado is a berry. She just hopes that pressure on the market will mean that new farms will emerge closer to Britain. I suspect Shaw doesnt know very much about avocado farming, despite her uncle owning a plantation in New Zealand.

There are actually alternatives to avocados. You could always get your hit of mono-saturated fatty acids, fibre, potassium, vitamin E and folate by frying kale in olive oil, and washing that down with a satsuma for some vitamin C. And when you do buy avocados, you can shop responsibly. A Soil Association organic sticker will mean that this independent body has verified the practices of the farm that grew the avocado. Try to resist buying ready-ripened avocados because supermarkets ripen fruit by pumping hot air through them, a further pollutant. Avocados can ripen easily at home: that old trick of putting the fruit in a paper bag with a banana for a day or two really does work. If you need an avocado to be soft instantly, wrap the fruit in foil, bake it in the oven at 200C for 10 minutes to release its own ripening agent, ethylene gas, and then leave it to cool. On the flipside, every year thousands of avocados go to waste because they spoil in peoples cupboards. So eat that avocado, because wherever it came from, a considerable cost went into producing it.

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The True Cost Of Our Avocado Obsession - Vogue.co.uk