Daily Archives: September 29, 2019

How Cities Reshape the Evolutionary Path of Urban Wildlife – WIRED

Posted: September 29, 2019 at 9:44 am

This urban sameness is allowing researchers to determine whether isolated populations of the same species develop similar adaptations when placed in parallel environments. What cities offer us is this amazingly large-scale, worldwide experiment in evolution, where you've got thousands of life-forms that are experiencing the same factors, says Marc Johnson, who heads an evolutionary ecology lab at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Laypeople can be forgiven for not instinctively sharing that enthusiasm, however: At first glance, settling the decades-long debate over evolution's replicability doesn't appear likely to make our post-climate-change lives any less hellish.

But in the quest to satisfy their intellectual curiosity, urban evolution researchers are also revealing the fundamental genetic attributes that make some species adept at adjusting to urban lifeintelligence that could give us the power to forecast evolution's winners and losers in a world that's increasingly hot and crammed with people. When he concluded that killifish in four US cities had developed the same form of toxin resistance, for example, Andrew Whitehead ascribed the species' evolutionary success to its high degree of genetic diversitythat is, the killifish genome naturally contains an abundance of genetic information that isn't usually expressed. So the key to desensitizing the aryl hydrocarbon receptor was probably already present inside killifish DNA, and natural selection simply brought it to the fore.

When the environment changes very rapidly, and changes in a way that poses fitness challenges, then species that are going to be able to adaptively respond to that are ones that already have the necessary genetic diversity in hand, Whitehead says. The environment is changing right now. You can't wait for migrants. You can't wait for new mutations.

Urban evolution researchers are grappling with the question of how their work can help make the reality of a ravaged environment less grim.

Perhaps the greatest asset any creature can have hidden in its genome, of course, is the capacity to withstand heat. With global temperatures set to rise by as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the turn of the century, the species likeliest to survive will be those that develop traits to guard against the broil. Today's cities, which are typically 2 to 5 degrees warmer than their surroundings, offer a sneak preview of how evolution will reshape wildlife on a sweltering planet.

The humble acorn ant is among the city-loving harbingers of the genetic churn that lies ahead. Two researchers at Case Western Reserve University, Sarah Diamond and Ryan Martin, have found that acorn ants they collected in both Cleveland and Knoxville, Tennessee, are able to thrive and reproduce in much warmer conditions than those from rural habitats. They hypothesize that natural selection may have favored urban ants whose genes manufacture more robust heat-shock proteins. If they can sort out the genetic markers linked to that suddenly useful trait, we may be able to tell which other species have the potential to adapt when the mercury rises and which are in danger of roasting into extinction.

Diamond hopes that evolutionary prediction will lead to smarter conservation choices. If we know which taxa are most vulnerable to urbanization, she says, then we can do something about it before biodiversity might be adversely impacted. That could involve simple things, such as building strategically situated green spaces within cities. In extreme cases, though, our only option for preserving some species may be to uproot and transport entire populations to distant lands.

There is an intriguing flip side to the idea that urban evolution research can be used to rescue species that lack the capacity to flourish in megacities: If we can identify which animals are genetically primed to adapt well to living amid glass and steel, we might be able to use that knowledge to engineer a more hospitable world for ourselves. That's because certain species, once tweaked in clever ways, have the potential to help heal the environment.

Take oysters, whose feeding process involves filtering harmful bacteria and contaminants out of up to 50 gallons of water per day. The gelatinous mollusks were once abundant in America's urban rivers and bays, but they were largely gobbled up by shellfish lovers decades ago. By the time anyone realized it might be environmentally wise to have massive oyster beds in places like New York, it was too late for the populations to be easily revived: Underwater landscapes had been ruined by decades of dredging and dumping, as well as saturated in anthropogenic pollutants that cause fatal oyster diseases.

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‘Hustlers’ And The Evolution Of Asian Sex Workers On-Screen – HuffPost

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On the rooftop of a Manhattan strip club in one of the opening scenes of box office hit Hustlers, Jennifer Lopezs character Ramona says to fellow stripper Destiny, portrayed by Constance Wu, Youre new, youre gorgeous, youre Asian youre a triple threat. Before this scene, we get a glimpse into the life of Asian American protagonist Destiny: She is struggling to take home enough money after exploitative managers and security at the strip club whittle down her wages, and audiences see her at home in Queens trying to provide for her aging grandmother.

Already, within the first few moments of the film, Destiny embodies the most nuanced portrayal of an Asian sex worker in Hollywoods long history of reducing them to age-old stereotypes about Asian women.In the West, representations of Asian women in popular culture are often relegated to the same limiting roles: the ultra-feminine, innocent and sexually submissive lotus blossom, the model minorityand the sexually aggressive, domineering dragon lady, to name a few. One trope used time and time again is the Asiatic prostitute, where Asian women are often depicted in Western narratives as sex workers or sex slaves.

Perhaps one of the most memorable scenes featuring an Asian sex worker in a contemporary Hollywood film is from Stanley Kubricks Full Metal Jacket (1987), in which a Vietnamese prostitute solicits two American GIs by telling them, Me so horny ... me love you long time. The films depictions of the Vietnamese sex workers offer nothing of their personalities, histories or inner lives, only that they are women with degenerate values and bodies to be exploited by the men.

The idea that all Asian women are prostitutes hasnt come solely from stereotypes in Western media; it was also perpetuated by U.S. immigration law. The Page Act of 1875, the first law to restrict immigration into the country, effectively halted the immigration of East Asian women (namely Chinese women) to the U.S., under the assumption that they were all prostitutes and undesirable immigrants.

Such legalized exclusion of Chinese women popularized American representations of them as degrading figures that could potentially debase white manhood and, as such, threaten the health of the United States social body as a modern nation and imperial power, Lily Wong, an associate professor at American University, wrote in Transpacific Attachments, which studies the shifting depiction of Chinese and Chinese American sex workers in transpacific popular media. The legalized policing of Chinese female bodies justified both anti-Chinese yellow peril discourse and U.S. civilizing rescue narratives of imperial expansion into Asia.

It is unsurprising, then, that a lions share of the most popular on-screen and onstage productions starring Asian actresses fed into this exact discourse of the Western white savior going to the East and being seduced by an Asian woman. Both The World of Suzie Wong (1960) and Claude-Michel Schnberg and Alain Boublils hit musical Miss Saigon feature Asian sex workers as female leads, both of whom play the role of a hooker with a heart of gold while simultaneously embodying the lotus blossom stereotype.

The World of Suzie Wong stars Cantonese-European actress Nancy Kwan in the title role. In the film, Suzie Wong, a Hong Kong prostitute, becomes the love interest to American architect Robert Lomax. Film scholar Celine Parreas Shimizu wrote about Suzie in her book The Hypersexuality of Race: Despite incredible hardship as an illiterate prostitute with an illegitimate son, she maintains her goodness, beauty, and innocence.

She embodies immoral practices while projecting an innate innocence, Shimizu wrote, so it is only ever Suzie, the lotus blossom, who was exploited by men. In Hustlers, while Destiny maintains some of her innocence by labeling Ramona as the ringleader, she and the rest of her stripper posse flip the script by exploiting their white male clients (by drugging them and stealing their money). Meanwhile, Suzie is the picture of subservience, promising her dedication to Robert by saying, I will follow you until you say, Suzie, go away, and asking him in another scene, Robert, why you not let me be your permanent girlfriend?

Suzie was forced into the sex trade after being abandoned at 10 years old. Her character is a mirror to Kim, the female lead in Miss Saigon, a 17-year-old Vietnamese bargirl who also exemplifies the prostitute with a heart of gold archetype. Kim falls in love with and marries a U.S. Marine who leaves once the war is over, and she waits for his return for three years with their love child. When they reunite, the man is with his new American wife, whom Kim meets, triggering her to ultimately kill herself. The musical has long been protested by Asian American activists for its racist, sexist and Orientalist depictions, as well as for yellowface controversies.

These more contemporary stories are spawned from earlier texts, which all replicated the same repeated tropes. Miss Saigon is actually based on Giacomo Puccinis 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, which instead followed the doomed romance between an American lieutenant and a Japanese geisha. Before that, Madama Butterfly was inspired by Madame Chrysanthme, an 1887 semi-autobiographical novel about naval officer Pierre Lotis temporary marriage to a Japanese woman named Kiku. These recurrent storylines perpetuate the image of the Asian woman as war brides, geishas and prostitutes, all of whom lack agency and live to serve the white male lead. Meanwhile, Destinys purpose in life seems much more layered: to find a sense of belonging, to take care of her family, to chase thrills, to succeed in life. And we can tell that aspects of her job excite her, exhaust her and bore her at the same time.

However, in Miss Saigon, when the non-lead prostitute characters were allowed to display their inner lives on stage, audiences view them as desperate and suffering.

The production of Miss Saigon may actually represent other particular women in the sex industry beyond those enmeshed within conditions of sexual slavery, Shimizu wrote. While sexual slavery indeed exists for Asian female prostitutes, other situations coexist simultaneously in ways that should not be removed.

However, thanks to persistent stereotypes like those deployed in Suzie and Kims characters, Asian sex workers, especially those who are migrants, are often assumed to be trafficking victims.

The perpetuation of this stereotype has expressed itself in real-life police practices, which play out Western savior narratives. For example, Asian massage parlors were recently targeted in anti-trafficking stings in Florida, though no one has been charged with human trafficking. (These spa raids were made infamous for leading to Patriots owner Robert Krafts arrest.) In New York, similar crackdowns have led to the shuttering of parlors in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, Manhattan, and Long Island in the past couple years, often leading to arrests. And typically, the people harmed most by these anti-trafficking raids are the women themselves.

Hollywoods insistence on stereotyping Asian women as helpless, innocent lotus blossoms has been met with inevitable consequences, like the fetishization of Asian women, and even some unintended ones, like a hammer-wielding man who killed Chinese men to protect Chinese women from them after watching an unspecified movie.

While Wus character in Hustlers is leaps and bounds better than the characters that came before, presenting a more nuanced and dimensional portrayal of an Asian sex worker on screen, there are still ways in which she fits into the same lineage as Suzie, Kim and Madame Butterfly.

Destiny still maintains a bit of the Asian American ingenue innocence as Ramonas protege, Kate Zen, co-founder of Red Canary Song, an organization that advocates for the rights of migrant sex workers, said in an interview. She ultimately caved in interrogation and sold out the group to the police, in a way that might arguably be retaining the model minority myth.

Sex workers had many other criticisms of the film, from maintaining the whorearchy by portraying the Russian dancers who were willing to give blow jobs as lesser than to ignoring the fact that strippers are often the victims of crimes rather than the perpetrators.

The dimensionality is positive, Zen said, though the focus on drugging and robbing customers also perpetuates stigma against sex workers and is a bit of an aberration from the reality of stripping, where strippers are more likely to get drugged by customers than the other way around.

Brooke, a 20-year-old former stripper from the Chicago area, pointed out that while Hustlers does some work to destigmatize the sex trade, she wishes it wouldve shed more of a light on the abuses and racialized harassment endured by Asian sex workers.

I was told on my first night that being Asian equals money, but they fail to tell you how many times youll hear, Ive never fucked an Oriental girl, Brooke, who requested to not use her last name in regard for her privacy, told HuffPost in an interview. I had many people excited just to see an Asian dancing, thought I was naturally into certain things like being dominated and bossed around, and also treated like a disgrace by Asian men who came into the club.

Still, in Hustlers, audiences are treated to a more well-rounded portrayal of an Asian stripper, whose complex inner life is revealed to us on-screen one that we nearly missed out on, given Dakota Johnson was initially considered for the lead role. (Though perhaps a Southeast Asian actress wouldve been even better casting, considering the real life stripper Destiny was based off of is Rosalyn Keo, who is Cambodian.)

Ultimately, the portrayal of Asian sex workers on screen has come a long way since the me so horny streetwalker, which is especially important given the inextricable ties between the treatment of Asian women in real life and our on-screen depictions.

Its so positive for us to see ourselves portrayed at all, Zen said. What a breath of fresh air!

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Artificial Intelligence and The Evolution Of Learning – Science Times

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Lysette Maurice N. SandovalSep 28, 2019 10:33 AM EDT

Is it possible for a machine to think like that of a human? Since the "A Space Odyssey" release in 2001, people have been wondering if this were ever possible. With the advent of technology, machines that come with artificial intelligence have become possible and who knows what else technology can give birth to.

A team of researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) believes that is it possible for a machine to have human-like intelligence, but they think the idea is still far fetched from reality. However, the team published their new paper in the American Naturalist exploring how it is possible for computers to undergo an evolution in their learning patterns just like how natural organisms. Their study involves the implications for many fields which covers artificial intelligence too.

"Every living organism is somehow equipped with intelligence that allows them to undergo some kind of learning. Perhaps the only downside is that people are yet to discover how their learning patterns have evolved over time. Now, we now have the capacity to witness the unfolding of such learning through virtual space," Anselmo Pontes said, lead researcher and researcher on Computer Science from MSU.

"An understanding of how the evolution of intelligence works means learning how the other fields such as education, psychology, and neuroscience work. It also supplies us with clues on how the brain processes information to help us build robots that could mimic the human experience perfecting how humans do what they do and why they do it."

"The findings of this study have a huge potential," said Fred Dyer, co-author and integrative biology professor at the MSU. "What we are trying to do is to untangle the very process of how human cognition came to be, because we want to use it to shape the future."

The goal is to understand the origins of how people think to be able to develop robots that can eventually learn how a task is done instead of bing programmed to do a task. The initial results of the study show an evolution of associative learning in an artificial organism that didn't come with a brain.

"Our inspiration was how animals learned to navigate the environments by learning landmarks," Pontes said. "During laboratory experiments, the bees were able to associate colors and shapes with directions, that allowed them to navigate through the environment as a complex space.

"The evolution that happens naturally may take a long time to study," Pontes said. "However, a revolution is similar to that of an algorithm, so it can easily be replicated by a computer. All that we have to do is to figure out how that's done."

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Artificial Intelligence is at the Cutting-Edge of Evolution – Analytics Insight

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As the discussion about AI ensures an extreme change of the company, leaders are particularly inquisitive to know whether it will make it simpler for them. While a lot of them are energized, some of them dont need decision-making made simpler. Their capability to settle on cool-headed decisions without complex innovation is the very foundation of their notoriety for being great leaders.

New research from Forbes Insights affirms that by far most of the organizations are as of now well on their way with AI and that these organizations outflank their companions. In view of a survey of 305 executives, Forbes Insights finds that practically all (92%) perceive and proselytize the value of an extensive AI system. The vast majority of these organizations are building the muscle to shape effective AI projects and culture, particularly around data and analytics.

Like it or not, AI has arrived, and its as of now influencing how your organization works. Indeed, even in its earliest stages, AI is far better than people in perceiving patterns, automating performance, and removing mistakes. Whats more, its acing the job. Half of the C-level executives report that improving operational productivity is the most critical way AI impacts their business. While drivers, bookkeepers, paralegals, and many more may keep on losing their positions, the leaders of things to come need to concentrate on what people are better at: analyzing. Its in replying why that people surpass their opposition. Fruitful leaders must form nonstop training, learning, and critical analysis into their way of life to stay with their employees and company competitive.

Fairly unexpectedly, AI is currently training people. 46% of the officials put resources into AI for employee training, while just 33% put resources into AI for building new solutions dependent on data. This pattern is a carefully reassuring sign that AI is being utilized to enable employees to be better at their jobs, instead of supplanting them through and through.

The primary critical fact about AI is that you dont know early what the data will uncover. By its very nature, AI is an act of pure trust, similarly as embracing your numbness and radical reframing may be. Also, such learning to give up, tuning in to AI can enable you to discover really novel, disruptive experiences in amazing and surprising spots.

A second fact about AI is that it makes reality to think by separating the sign from the noise. You let the algorithms free on a tremendous scene of data, and they report back just what you have to know and when you have to know it.

When settling on complex decisions, executives commonly need to take a look at a lot of various factors. Where theres an excessive amount of data to be considered, the leader may get overpowered, prompting bad decisions.

Despite what might be expected, a machine can undoubtedly deal with various contributions without fatigue or disarray. All that is required is a lot of guidelines or programs that control the machine to utilize probability and propose or execute the most logical decision.

Loads of exciting changes are not too far off. While AI may not really make the procedure simpler, its going to altogether contribute towards streamlining decisions for better procedures and an agile future enterprise.

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The evolution of police interrogations on screen – The Economist

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POLICE INTERROGATIONS are by their very nature dramatic. The stakes are high. There is an imbalance of power. Those involved are under pressure. Narrative is essential to the proceedings: both the police and the suspect have their own version of events, and seek to convince the other that theirs is correct. Interrogations are also an exercise in characterdetectives might play good cop, bad cop in an attempt to winkle out a confession. Important clues can be found in what a suspect says, and what they omit.

Little surprise, then, that interrogations have long featured in police procedurals and buddy-cop shows. Television dramas often saw interrogations as a set piece from which the police would emerge as brave, smart and victorious. In Prime Suspect (1991), the wily and quick-witted DCI Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) would come alive in front of the one-way glass; DCI John Luther (Idris Elba, pictured below) knew how to push a perpetrators buttons. The audience was encouraged to trust the judgment of law enforcement.

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But in recent years, as police brutality and misconduct have made headlines, confessionsand the means by which they are elicitedhave been examined more closely on television. Making a Murderer (2015), a true-crime documentary, shows Brendan Dassey, a 16-year-old with learning difficulties, confessing to the murder of Teresa Halbach, a photographer, in 2005. Using footage from the interrogation room, the film-makers argue that the police in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, unconstitutionally coerced him in order to bolster their version of events, which until then had little substantial evidence. The Confession Tapes (2017) likewise takes contentious real-life confessions and inspects them with a rigour that (according to the show) the justice system has failed to.

When They See Us (2019), a four-part series directed by Ava DuVernay, looks at how interrogations, institutional racism and injustice interact. It dramatises the true story of the Central Park Five, a group of minority-ethnic boys wrongly convicted in 1990 of rape and assault. During questioning, the accusedall aged between 14 and 16 at the timewere denied food and drink and access to legal counsel. In the show, they are portrayed as sleep-deprived and desperate, subjected to intense off-the-record questioning in cleaning closets and filing rooms. The police threaten the boys with violence if they do not cooperate; detectives are depicted as more interested in finding someone they can pin the crime on than in nailing the actual perpetrator. In that they were successful: their bullying resulted in taped false confessions, and time in prison for the five boys. (In 2002 a court vacated the convictions.)

In A Confession, a new British drama also based on true events, the failure of Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher (Martin Freeman) to act above board has severe repercussions for the prosecution of a case. In his eagerness to interrogate a taxi driver suspected of murdering a young woman, he ignores the procedures in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. The man does confess both to the murder in question and to another, but his statement is inadmissible as evidence in court. Here, once again, law enforcement is shown to be prone to making rash, emotional decisions.

Criminal (pictured top), released on Netflix on September 20th, pursues that idea and sets up a fictional game of cat-and-mouse between detectives and suspects. The drama in each of the 12 episodesset in either Britain, France, Germany or Spainis confined to an interrogation room in an anonymous police station. On one side of the mirror, bright lights illuminate police officers, the accused and, sometimes, a lawyer; on the other, a red-lit backroom hosts office politics, a running commentary on the cases progress and a ticking digital clock which informs the officers how long they have left until they have to charge the suspects or release them. Lies are exposed, but often not the ones the detectives had intended to uncover. Investigators are manipulated, led down wrong paths and frustrated in their quest. The suspects guiltor innocenceis not always clear.

Where interrogations once allowed TVs protagonists a chance to outsmart their opponents and heroically solve cases, now they show them to be fallible: think of the interview in Bodyguard in which David Budds reading of the situation is dangerously wrong. These characters bring their own foibles to bear on cases, and are willing to do whatever is necessary, morally permissible or not, to reinforce their version of events. They can make for difficult viewing, but these new shows offer a satisfying combination of suspense, friction and the search for truth.

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Bochy shares evolution of his mustache through Topps cards – NBCSports.com

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Editor's note:The Giants sorted through stacks of their own Topps baseball cards as part of the "In the Cards" series with NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic. The fifth and final edition is with Giants manager Bruce Bochy.

In a few days, Bruce Bochy no longer will be a major league manager.

But before Bochy retires as the skipper of the Giants, he sat down with NBC Sports Bay Area'sAlex Pavlovic to go through some of his old Topps trading cards.

In 1979, Bochy's second season in the big leagues, he was clean-shaven. There was no facial hair for the 24-year-old Astros catcher.

"Oh man, how young I was," Bochy said when asked what comes to mind when he sees that image of himself. "I don't recognize the guy. He's too young."

But the baby-face look didn't last long. A few years later, Bochy had a solid mustache.

"It's hard to believe it's the same guy," Bochy said. "I don't know if it's a good [mustache], but I've had some comments about it."

Right now, Bochy has a bit of a distinctive stubble. But he told Pavlovic he'snot ruling out bringing back the classic mustache.

[RELATED: Longoria confirms fun facts on Topps cards]

Mustache or no mustache, Bochy is a legend. He guided the Giants to three World Series titles and likely will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in a few years.

The Giants' final series against the Dodgers will be one long tribute to Bochy. He's earned it.

He should celebrate by purchasing a few packs of cards.

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Torontos rapid growth can be measured by Highway 401s evolution at Bathurst St. – Toronto Star

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Highway 401 is so big and formidable, it feels like it has always been there, as if its a land formation left over from the glacial retreat.

We built it, of course, and kept expanding it to the incredible, never-ending river of steel and rubber it is today. Where it crosses Bathurst St. is a particularly interesting place to see how this beast of a freeway and the city have grown up with each other.

Bathurst here is relatively dense, not much different than, say, the Danforth, with mixed retail and apartments on the main street, and detached residential homes on side streets. When approaching from the south the highway seems almost tucked into the neighbourhood as the buildings hug it closer than most parts of the 401. Theres just one eastbound on-ramp too, without the usual long approach lane. It wasnt always like this.

When the Toronto portion of the 401 opened in 1956, then called the Toronto Bypass as it was an alternative to Highway 2 which ran through the centre of the city, farmland around here was just beginning to be urbanized. Originally just two lanes in each direction, the 401 passed just south of the Bathurst St. and Wilson Ave. intersection.

The Toronto Archives online aerial photograph collection reveals the story of how quickly Toronto expanded. In 1947, Bathurst and Wilson was rural, with just a scattering of residential houses and faint traces in the landscape of the subdivisions that were being prepared, some that would eventually be home to part of Torontos Jewish community.

Three years later, as 401 planning was well underway, the area was a patchwork of brand-new housing tracts and streets waiting for houses, some where the 401 would be built just a few years later.

Pull out your phone and type Carhartt St. into a map app. This tiny, dead-end street was once an on- and off-ramp for the eastbound 401, in addition to the on-ramp on Bathurst that still exists today. Highway 401 traffic was funnelled along adjacent Marquette Ave., a residential street.

Similarly, on the north side, wee Brightwood St. was the on- and off-ramp for the westbound 401, funneling people up to Wilson. People actually lived on both 401 approaches, unbelievable today, but its telling how tranquil the highway was originally imagined.

However tame it was when first opened, it congested quickly and by 1964 construction was underway for the collector lanes. The aerial photos show wide swaths cleared out, as if a giant eraser was dragged alongside the highway, destroying roads and houses. The ramps at Carhartt were closed on the south side, and a massive off ramp that leads directly to Wilson today was created where Brightwood was, clearing away some houses in the process. Brightwood still exists as a small loop of a street next to the ramp.

Two blocks east of here, Richelieu Rd. is another loop running south of Wilson that was altered by the 401 expansion, and just two houses remain of the original five that were on its east side. All along the 401 sound barrier are streets that were truncated as it expanded.

Again, this is easier to follow with a map app open, but the speed of city growth is apparent in how quickly new houses and streets were completely torn down and removed to make way for the expansion of a highway that now seems as if its been there forever. If there is one constant here its that the city has always changed, but time has a funny way of covering up the traces of change.

Underneath the highway on Bathurst the growth rings of the 401 are visible in the gentle arc of the original central overpass that looks like some of the early overpasses that still exist on rural sections of the 400 series highways. The more angular collector lane overpasses that came later are next to it, heavier on the engineering and less on the architecture.

A westbound on-ramp on the north side of the 401 at Bathurst and Wilson was also removed, and the triangle of leftover land that was created eventually became what is now the Bathurst-Wilson Parkette. In 2016, it got an update with a Mabuhay (Welcome) Garden to recognize the presence of the Filipino community that has made this area home, and includes more seating, a pergola and new landscaping.

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A massive mural designed by artist Ian Leventhal was installed on the 401s retaining wall here in 2005, a project under former mayor David Millers Clean and Beautiful City program. It has tranquil scenes that, at times, resembles Georges Seurats famous 1884 painting of Parisian swimmers, Bathers at Asnires.

From farmers fields to Little Manila in 70 years, the change here is remarkable, even if the 401s vehicular river isnt exactly Pariss Seine.

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The key element in Utah’s win over Washington State? Evolution – The Athletic

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SALT LAKE CITY These last eight days had dragged on. It showed when Tareke Lewis grabbed hold extra tight of his position coach, Sharrieff Shah, and embraced. For eight days, they had to wait for their turn to suit up again. To find a way to flush all the highlight-reel grabs theyd conceded the week prior.

To truly appreciate what transpired Saturday night inside Rice-Eccles Stadium, they first had to feel the sharp pain of so many self-inflicted mistakes, the exact kind they felt again and again last week inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Once Shah let loose of Lewis, the senior defensive back flashed his massive smile, his gold grill suddenly glistening with the reflection of the lights inside his home stadium. Then he overheard the P.A. announcer proclaim what happens after every Utah home win.

The players were to press down on the lever and light up the U on the hill far above campus.

Lewis couldnt contain himself.

Light that...

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The Long Evolution of Uber Eats App – Observer

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Uber Eats will get the chance to shine within the official Uber app. Uber

Uber Eats has had quite an evolution since launching five years ago. The food delivery platform was created by parent company Uber in 2014, during a pivotal time for the ride hailing apps popularity, as a venture to become an all-in-one convenience platform.

However, since its debut Uber Eats has had quite a journey competing with takeout-ordering veterans, such as Grubhub-owned Seamless, Yelps Eat24 and rival Postmates. Over the years, Uber attempted to grow the apps popularity by consistently tweaking and rearranging its interface, climbing to become the third most popular food ordering app.

SEE ALSO: Ready to Have Your Dinner Delivered by Drones? Think Again.

Now, its finally settling on incorporating the service within the main Uber app, which brings us to Thursdays announcement of the full integration. The push to feature Uber Eats on the official Uber homepage may become a nuisance for customers attempting to hail rides, but it could be the services best chance at getting in front of new eyeballs.

Most people today know Uber as a ridesharing app: they open the app when they want to go from A to B, Joost van der Ree, the designer who worked on the Uber apps new home screen, told Fast Company. How do we help widen that intent from just ridesharing to other modes of transport and daily needs?

The latest facelift was also previewed by Emilie Boman, head of global policy for Uber Eats, in a company blog post titled Making Food Delivery More Accessible & Sustainable. New features will include utensil opt-in and dietary allergies and restriction requests.

For power users, the move to combine the transit and food delivery services could seem like a long time coming. After all, the company has been experimenting with displaying the food-ordering button above its famous map for the past year, which takes customers to the official Uber Eats app or prompts them to download it.

In 2019, Uber Eats offerings have also extended to include a monthly subscription pass similar to Postmates program, as well as a new option to eat in after placing a restaurant order.

Its unclear whether the sprawling Uber Eats menu will overwhelm the official Uber app and turn customers off. But if the companys evolving Eats strategy is any indication, they probably wont give up on finding it a place.

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The Long Evolution of Uber Eats App - Observer

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Measuring up: Examining Georgias offensive evolution, comparing past to current UGA teams – DawgNation

Posted: at 9:44 am

ATHENS Kirby Smart is in the business of winning games, and the Georgia football coach isnt concerned about aesthetics or posting gaudy statistics.

But there are certain characteristics Smart insists be a part of his Bulldogs identity on offense. The ability to run the football effectively and avoid turnovers are at the top of the list .

A heightened sense of awareness for protecting quarterback Jake Fromm is also on the list. Fromm is the most valuable and irreplaceable piece on a team aiming to win an SEC and national championship.

Four games in, theres room and arguably a need for Smart to modify his offensive framework. Like any other coach, Smart is using his bye week to closely examine his team and find ways to improve.

Giving Fromm and offensive coordinator James Coley more rope could be a start. Theres more to to opening up the Georgia offense than just throwing more on first down and attempting more deep strikes down the field.

The three areas Smart indicated he wants to improvement after the 23-17 Notre Dame win are:

Getting the plays in quicker

Getting the ball to playmakers in space

Making teams pay for stacking the box.

Getting the play in quicker enables Fromm to do more at the line of scrimmage, in terms of reading defenses and changing to more favorable plays.

Getting the ball to playmakers is easier said than done. The pro style offense is built to take what the defense gives and defenses arent willing to give DAndre Swift, James Cook or George Pickens much space.

And Fromm, based on his recent history, isnt inclined to force the ball as much as he is to find a more available option going through his progressions.

Thats where its important for big targets Pickens and Lawrence Cager to continue to earn Fromms trust on fade and vertical routes. The quarterback has to have faith in them to make plays on the ball.

Personnel decisions are another key. Putting the fastest and most explosive players on the field pays off, as theyre the most inclined to turn check downs into big plays.

The other change up Coley could consider with the approval of Smart is to go more uptempo.

Defensive-minded coaches like Smart arent always big fans of that it puts their defense on the field more quickly and for more snaps. Smart spends most of his time with the defense and often speaks from the defensive perspective after scrimmages.

Georgias current pace of play 62 plays per game ranks 120th out of 130 teams. Its the lowest rank since Mark Richts final team (2015) ranked 126th with 64 plays per game.

Defensively, Smarts 2019 team could prove to be his best if current trends hold.

The Bulldogs focus to increase havoc has paid off thus far, as reflected in the statistics comparing this seasons team to last seasons and the 2017 UGA SEC Championship team.

The biggest issue facing the defense appears to be the players durability. Injuries have hampered players on all three levels of the defense, even with Smart protecting them by limiting the number of plays and substituting liberally.

Heres a look at how Smarts past three Georgia teams measure up:

Current Georgia 42.8

2018 Bulldogs 37.9

2017 UGA 35.4

Current Georgia 508.8

2018 Bulldogs 464.9

2017 UGA 435.3

2017 UGA 258.4

Current Georgia 253.0

2018 Bulldogs 238.8

Current Georgia 255.8

2018 Bulldogs 226.1

2017 UGA 176.9

Current Georgia 178.81

2018 Bulldogs 170.52

2017 UGA 154.12

2018 Bulldogs 47.5

2017 UGA 45.6

Current Georgia 44.7

Current Georgia 10 ppg

2017 UGA 16.4

2018 Bulldogs 19.2

Current Georgia 262.5

2017 UGA 294.9

2018 Bulldogs 314.3

Current Georgia 57.0

2017 UGA 126.0

2018 Bulldogs 134.0

2017 UGA 168.9

Current Georgia 205.5

2018 Bulldogs 180.3

Current Georgia 107.20

2017 UGA 113.40

2018 Bulldogs 117.47

Current Georgia 30.0

2017 UGA 32.9

2018 Bulldogs 34.0

Current Georgia +0.50

2017 UGA +0.27

2018 Bulldogs +0.21

Current Georgia 3.00 per game

2017 2.27

2018 Bulldogs 1.71

Current Georgia 0.25 per game

2018 Georgia 1.43

2017 UGA 1.47

2017 UGA 23.54

2018 Bulldogs 22.85

Current Georgia 16.3

Current Georgia 12.60

2017 UGA 19.52

2018 Bulldogs 31.30 (128 of 129)

2018 Bulldogs 16.64

Current Georgia 15.10

2017 UGA 10.11

2017 UGA 5.94

Current Georgia 8.50

2018 Bulldogs 12.80 (119th)

2017 UGA 41.65

Current Georgia 39.45

2018 Bulldogs 37.35 (70th)

Current Georgia 32:22

2017 UGA 32:07

2018 Georgia 31:29

Grad-transfer Lawrence Cager rises to the occasion

Bye week heat: DC Dan Lanning brings the intensity

Georgia looks to tweak offense, more downfield

DAndre Swift shows he can be thunder and lightning vs. Irish

Georgia football freshman report from Notre Dame game

Fake injuries? Kirby Smart addresses issue

Recap: Georgia football holds on to beat Notre Dame, 23-17

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Measuring up: Examining Georgias offensive evolution, comparing past to current UGA teams - DawgNation

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