Daily Archives: May 22, 2020

CORRECTING and REPLACING Jeff Robinson, CEO of Wuhan, Provides Key Updates and Outlook in a New Audio Interview with SmallCapVoice.com -…

Posted: May 22, 2020 at 11:49 am

AUSTIN, Texas, May 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a release issued under the same headline earlier today bySmallCapVoice.com, Inc. and Wuhan General Group, Inc. (OTC PINK: WUHN),please note that additional content and quotations have become available.The corrected release follows:

SmallCapVoice.com, Inc. (SCV) and Wuhan General Group, Inc. (OTC PINK: WUHN) (the "Company" and "Wuhan"), announced today that a new audio interview with the Company is now available.

The interview featuring an overview of WUHNs current news and moves can be heard at https://www.smallcapvoice.com/tag/wuhn/.

Jeff Robinson, CEO of Wuhan, called in toSmallCapVoice.com to go over the business model and markets that his Company operates in. Wuhan is currently positioning itself to become a major player in the estimated 146.4 billion dollars medical cannabidiol (CBD) space, as well as the promising psilocybin medical health sector.

The Companys subsidiary MJ MedTech is a cosmetics and food for special medical purposes (FSMP) company with leading alternative plant-based cannabinoids and psilocybin medical research, formulation and delivery system divisions. Cannabinoids and mushroom-based formulations are under the Dr. AnnaRxand Medspressobrands.

The Companys cannabinoids research and development division is focused on new treatments to help patients who suffer from chronic and inflammatory diseases: inflammatory bowel syndrome, arthritis, chronic respiratory diseases, migraine, sleeping disorders, cancer and diabetes.

In addition, its division M2Bio is researching and developing indications for psilocybin new therapies that will help patients diagnosed with mental health disorders, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, major depressive disorder, drug and alcohol addiction, and cardiovascular diseases.

As well, Wuhan has been researching multiple medicinal mushroom types in order to formulate its upcoming range of mushroom-infused cosmetics, coffee, and teas for commercialization in late 2020 within its Dr. AnnaRxand Medspressobrands.

In the interview Robinson stated, We are one of only a handful of companies in the world working with psilocybin and conducting clinical trials. On the CBD side, once the lockdown ends in South Africa, our products will be on store shelves. That would be the products in the Dr. AnnaRxand Medspressobrands. These are really exciting times for our company. We are thankful for the opportunity to share our story with our shareholders and the SmallCapVoice.com listening audience.

The company name change, updated financials and fully reporting status, key employee new hires, strategic new partnerships, research findings and new clinical initiatives - just a few items soon to be shared. We are extremely excited!

Wuhan General Group, Inc. is a client of StockVest. StockVest's team of top Influencers introduces publicly traded companies to a wide audience of investors from around the globe helping public companies attain maximum market awareness resulting in increased trading volume, a broadened shareholder base and increased share valuations.

About Wuhan General Group, Inc.

Wuhan General Group, Inc. through its wholly owned subsidiary MJ MedTech is a cosmetics and food for special medical purposes (FSMP) company with leading alternative plant-based cannabinoids and psilocybin medical research, formulation and delivery system divisions. Cannabinoids and mushroom-based formulations are under the Dr. AnnaRxand Medspressobrands. In addition, its established division, M2Bio is researching and developing indications for psilocybin new therapies that will help patients diagnosed with mental health disorders, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, major depressive disorder, drug and alcohol addiction, cardiovascular diseases and PTSD. Our mission is to advance botanical-based medicine to the forefront by deploying best- practice science and medicine, clinical research and emerging technologies. Wuhan is listed and traded on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board of NASDAQ under the trading symbol WUHN.

Wuhan General Group, Inc.

Publicly traded company (OTC Pink:WUHN)

Website:www.wuhn.org

About SmallCapVoice.com

SmallCapVoice.com, Inc. is a recognized corporate investor relations firm, with clients nationwide, known for its ability to help emerging growth companies, small cap and micro-cap stocks build a following among retail and institutional investors. SmallCapVoice.com utilizes its stock newsletter to feature its daily stock picks, podcasts, as well as its clients' financial news releases. SmallCapVoice.com also offers individual investors all the tools they need to make informed decisions about the stocks in which they are interested. Tools like stock charts, stock alerts, and Company Information Sheets can assist with investing in stocks that are traded on the OTCMarkets. To learn more about SmallCapVoice.com and its services, please visit https://www.smallcapvoice.com/small-cap-stock-otc-investor-relations-financial-public-relations/.

Socialize with SmallCapVoice and their clients at;

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmallCapVoice/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/smallcapvoice

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smallcapvoice/

Forward-Looking Statements

Safe Harbour Statement - In addition to historical information, this press release may contain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include the intent, belief, or expectations of the Company and members of its management team with respect to the Company's future business operations and the assumptions upon which such statements are based. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to, failure to complete anticipated sales under negotiations, lack of revenue growth, client discontinuances, failure to realize improvements in performance, efficiency and profitability, and adverse developments with respect to litigation or increased litigation costs, the operation or performance of the Company's business units or the market price of its common stock. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated within this press release can also be found on the Company's website. The Company disclaims any responsibility to update any forward-looking statements. For further information contact:

Public Relations

E-mail: info@wuhn.org

For SmallCapVoice.com:

Stuart T. Smith

512-267-2430

info@smallcapvoice.com

Source: SmallCapVoice.com

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CORRECTING and REPLACING Jeff Robinson, CEO of Wuhan, Provides Key Updates and Outlook in a New Audio Interview with SmallCapVoice.com -...

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Army Of Contact-Tracing Workers Being Recruited To Help Combat Coronavirus Pandemic – CBS San Francisco

Posted: at 11:47 am

by Maria Medina and Abigail Sterling

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) Experts say contact tracing is going to play a critical role in fighting the coronavirus. Its been practiced for decades, used to fight SARS, Ebola and AIDS, but never on as big a scale.

Technology is sure to play an ever-growing role in contact tracing. But for COVID-19, its starting off the old fashioned way, person to person and boots on the ground.

When the pandemic made Robin Fletchers sales job grind to a halt, she jumped at an opportunity to use her people skills for something more meaningful.

We really need to think about on a deeper level what I am capable to do, its going to call us to adapt, said Fletcher. A friend mentioned contact tracing, I had never heard of it, even though its been around for a bit.

Contact tracing starts with basic detective work. The average person who has the coronavirus transmits it to two or three other people, who each then potentially could transmit it to three others.

So one contact leads to another, and everyone along the way has to be notified, isolated, and treated, if necessary, to try to contain the viruss spread.

Fletchers first step: a free, five-hour online course offered through Johns Hopkins University where she learned the types of questions to ask, skills for effective communication, and how to balance public good with privacy.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates at least 100,000 contact tracers will be needed to combat the coronavirus. But they are just one piece of a complex process.

Our team is very multi-disciplinary, said Dr. Darpun Sachdev, lead physician for contact tracing at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. We have case investigators who are the first line of calling people after they get a new diagnosis with COVID. We also then are working very closely with clinical leads and with a team of social workers to help us to identify resources for people who need to isolate and quarantine.

San Francisco is working with the University of California, San Francisco on the project, using a customized data-gathering program. Thats just a way of really making sure that once weve interviewed someone, that all the different touchpoints can be notified at the same time, said Satchdev. So our goal is really to ensure that people get tested on that day that were notifying them or the next day.

In San Francisco for now, contact tracing involves just health department staff, with some new help from furloughed employees in other city departments.

But outsourcing will soon become necessary. Third-party companies are already poised to provide the service, like Applied Memetics, an IT sourcing company for businesses that are now targeting the contact tracing market.

Most health authorities are already doing some form of contact tracing. Theyre using their existing staff to pull lab results for infected patients. But theyve all reached capacity, said Erin Thames of Applied Memetics. What theyre looking for is not only those contact tracer roles but coordinator, investigator and navigator roles, so they can manage those tracer teams, really just taking that burden away from the already overloaded public health system.

Thames says her company is already getting requests for help from health departments across the country.

Fletcher has already applied. She hopes her sales experience will help her get a job. Youve got to have some courage, to put it politely, to pick up the phone and call someone and establish immediate rapport and do it well, said Fletcher. There is an aspect of educating, there is an aspect of social work, theres an aspect of just being a good listener. There are a lot of skills that people I think can really bring to this.

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Murder rocks Cape resort community in Hightown – Boston Herald

Posted: at 11:46 am

A life of hedonism is about to catch up to Jackie Quinones.

As played by Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire, Lie to Me) in the Starz drama Hightown, premiering Sunday, shes a National Marine Fisheries Service agent in the raucous LGBTQ resort town of Provincetown who drinks too much, snorts too much and has too many casual hook-ups with other women. But that changes when shes involved in a DUI crash that forces her into rehab to avoid a jail sentence.

Her life becomes even more complicated when she finds a young womans body washed up on the beach, presumably another casualty of Cape Cods opioid epidemic. Joining the investigation, she must contend with Sergeant Ray Abruzzo (James Badge Dale, 24), an abrasive member of the Capes Interagency Narcotics Unit, who isnt afraid to cross lines. He believes the murder is somehow connected to incarcerated drug lord Frankie Cuevas (Amaury Nolasco, Prison Break), so he gets close with Frankies baby mama Renee (Riley Voelkel, The Originals), a stripper.

As the lives of these and other characters involved in the murder run together, the toll that addictions can exact become apparent. Its a story series creator/executive producer Rebecca Cutter drew from many of her own experiences.

At Cape Cod, I grew up going to Provincetown in the summers, she said. My husbands from there. His father is a Fisheries Service agent. So certainly a lot of the background elements. I have been touched by opioid use around me. Im sober myself. So theres many elements from my life.

But the character of Jackie really did sort of come to me in a vision, she added. And I say that sincerely, like really it hit me. And thats not me. And thats the creative process, is creating that person and using the elements of myself that work and then letting a brilliant actress take it from there and inhabit it and make her real.

And Raymund was all too willing to oblige. In Jackie, she embraced the chance to play someone who is fighting her way back from rock bottom, an acting challenge and a role that she regards as a gift.

This role is really about battling my inner demons, she said, trying to find redemption, trying to fill something within me that I cant fill. I dont have a whole person yet. Im exploring that as the character of Jackie. And all of the characters, even though its centering around murder, were with these characters all throughout and see how they intersect. So, this story is the real deal.

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Zombies, Blaxploitation and Heavy Metal, Now Available to Stream – Nashville Scene

Posted: at 11:46 am

Heavy Metal Parking Lot

I hope youve found a way to figure out how to manage and express your emotions during this global crisis. This weeks offerings share a common theme of outrageousness. Nothing is sacred, and all emotional responses can be useful in figuring out the absolute moral truth of yourself (or as I call it, Mulholland Drive Syndrome). Check out this week's recommendations, along with links to trailers, below. Stay safe if you can, and visit past issues for more recommendations of what to stream:March 26, April 2, April 9, April 16, April 23, April 30, May 7, May 14.

One of the most essential and beloved documents of suburban 80s culture, Heavy Metal Parking Lot is a slice of life in the Landover, Md., Capital Centre parking lot before a 1986 Judas Priest concert. Its a portrait of humanity that never fails to entertain, to endear and to induce cringe. This is the joy of metal, and hedonism, and the power of power chords, and it has rightfully become immortal. Its also a trenchant illumination of Reagan-era white America that provokes necessary questions for the viewer watching with a critical eye. Its the sound of addled youth communing with their pleasure centers underneath the yoke of the daily fear of nuclear annihilation. Its also a testament to Rob Halfords power as a (then-closeted) icon who moved hearts and bodies in the midst of the AIDS pandemic, during which the emotionally lazy ignored an entire community to death with homophobia. Heavy Metal Parking Lot is all of that, but its also a great deal of fun, and if you havent found some kind of fashion inspiration whether a do or a dont by the time it winds up, then as your film-critic abstract friend, Im concerned.

Blood Quantum

Theres a worldwide outbreak of degenerative zombiism, and the only place where civilization is entrenched and resistance against the shredding, flesh-eating menace is holding is in a Mikmaq reservation in Canada. Something about the genetic markers in this plague have left First Nations peoples immune to this bite-borne pathogen, and so hordes of rampaging white zombies are out to destroy and consume everything. Director Jeff Barnaby made the singular Rhymes for Young Ghouls back in 2013, and he has a gift for artfully visceral mayhem as well as expressing the social history of indigenous people in a way that feels like an expos and an exorcism at the same time. If at times Blood Quantum slips into nihilistic Walking Dead-adjacent territory, it remains an essential horror film that gives the viewer unexplored angles on a scenario we think has been done to death. The first half-hour of this film is close to perfect, and it serves up gore and bleak atmosphere with style and verve. This was one of the secret surprises at the Belcourts 12 Hours of Terror overnight horror marathon in October, and it knocked the theater on its emotional ass.

Darktown Strutters is a legendary blaxploitation sci-fi musical allegory that deserves all the trigger warnings and content warnings despite having a playful and sweet spirit at its depraved core (and a 1975 PG rating, which can mean absolutely anything). The fact that this movie is even available to stream is staggering. Syreena (Trina Parks), leader of a Frazetta-ish motorcycle gang, is out to rescue her mother Cinderella (Frances E. Nealy) from a deranged and racist fast-food entrepreneur and his plantation fantasies. Along the way, there are pie fights with the police, car chases with the KKK, funk throwdowns, imprisoned R&B groups, a science-fiction conspiracy and amazing outfits that will inspire your deepest sartorial dreams. Darktown is for anyone who saw Blazing Saddles and thought, Are there any other movies that do this? With Frankie Crocker, The Dramatics and Dick Miller!

Petey Wheatstraw, the Devils Son-in-Law

The cinematic legacy of Rudy Ray Moore is thankfully within reach for pandemic-era streaming culture. The original Dolemite endures as a testament to persistence and recognizing an unfulfilled audience, but sometimes its OK to want a little more from the films you enjoy when it comes to narrative intricacy. The end result can often be something like Petey Wheatstraw, the Devils Son-in-Law. A riff on the story of Faust that also at times feels like a takedown of The Devil Went Down to Georgia, this film finds our murdered protagonist Petey pledging to wed the devils daughter in order to avenge himself (and the massacre of his funeral party) with the power of Satans pimp cane. Theres an army of kung fu demons, children in crisis, a punishing audition sequence and surrealist exercises of supernatural power. Its pretty awesome. And if you havent seen Dolemite Is My Name on Netflix, then you really should.

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Alpina’s 2021 XB7 is the large ‘M’ performance SUV BMW won’t build itself – Driving

Posted: at 11:46 am

Say youre BMW, and youre unwilling to produce a true M-badged large SUV that would be one with the M in front of its alphanumeric designation rather than with the vaunted letter at the end, as with, say, the X7M 50i what do you do to satisfy the demand from you clientele for an even faster, more luxurious sport-brute?

Well, you turn to Alpina, your brother-from-another-mother while Alpina is recognized as a completely separate automaker, BMW does assemble certain of the companys cars with parts sent to its factories from Alpina and get them to upgrade your uber-SUV offerings. Hence, the new 2021 Alpina XB7, a, well, more luxurious and powerful version of BMWs flagship SUV.

So, starting with BMWs top-flight engine, the 523-horsepower 553-foot-pounds 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged V8, Alpina massages both turbochargers (using 53-millimetre turbochargers) and the cooling system larger intercoolers and then two extra coolers to handle all the extra horsepower to pump out a thoroughly stellar 612 hp and 590 lb.-ft. of torque.

That makes the XB7 one ginormous SUV capable of accelerating to 100 kilometres an hour from zero in 4.2 seconds, and scamper a full quarter-mile in just 12.6 seconds. A contextual note here: one of the biggest, baddest muscle cars of yore, 1969s Chevy Camaro ZL1, needed a little over 13 seconds to trip the lights fantastic. Indeed, so endowed is BMWs beastly SUV it needs to be limited to a 290 km/h top speed, lest it melt its tires.

Alpina doesnt stop there. The X7s eight-speed automatic transmission gets beefed up and the driver gains Alpinas Switch-Tronic wheel-mounted shift buttons. It also gains a larger oil sump so it can survive all that extra power. The XB7 also gains a beefier limited-slip rear axle Alpina claims 1,475 foot-pounds of locking torque to better handle the engines greater twist.

The 7s suspension also gets beefed-up rejigged dampers and springing. More importantly, said air suspension can be dramatically lowered for greater stability at speed. So, for instance, at speeds above 160 km/h, the XB7 hunkers down some 20 millimetres. Stretch its legs past 250 klicks and it squats down another 20 mils (40 mm in all, or about as much as a McLaren Senna does in Race mode) for seriously ground-hugging aerodynamics.

I was just testing my Sport+ modes air suspension, however, will not be a legal defense if you get caught exercising Alpinas new dimension in driving dynamics. And making sure that everyone understands how fast you could be going if you so chose, the XB7 runs on gargantuan 23-inch dubs, the rear Pirellis measuring an incredible 325/30ZR23.

And because it would not be an Alpina without some truly outrageous hedonism inside, the XB7s Merino leather seats, Alcantara headliner and leather instrument panel are joined by a Panorama Sky Lounge LED Roof, which according to BMW Canada, has LED lighting spread across the roofs glass surfaces to illuminate more than 15,000 graphic patterns and generate a display reminiscent of a starlit sky.

Lastly, though Alpina is technically a separate company, it will be sold through select BMW dealers in Canada and serviced by the same network. No price has been set, but considering that the B7 is a $53,300 jump from the basic 7 Series sedan, dont expect much change from $150,000.

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Royal snub: Why Wiliam felt ‘claustrophobic’ in relationship with Kate – Express

Posted: at 11:46 am

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have now been happily married for nine years, since their 2011 royal wedding. Now the proud parents of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, the hardworking couple are steadily increasing their royal workloads in support of the Queen as well as home-schooling George and Charlotte during lockdown.However, although they have a content family life together now, the royal couple had a few bugs along the way in their royal romance.

Veteran royal editor Robert Jobson, in his 2006 book Williams Princess, writes how by 2004, the strain of William and Kates final year at university was also putting pressure on their relationship.

Mr Jobson said: [Kate] had the same stresses and workload ahead of her as William. If anything, she always seemed the more studious of the two.

What apparently troubled her far more were Williams plans to travel overseas when his studies were over.

Instead of staying with her in Scotland during the month between the end of final examinations and graduation in June, he wanted to head off on his own.

Worse still for Kate was Williams claim that he felt claustrophobic and hemmed in by the relationship.

At a time when all around him students were playing the field, he had fallen into a comfortable coupling in his early years of university.

William would not be the first person to wonder if he were missing out on the rather innocent hedonism of university days by settling for somebody too soon.

Might he have met the right girl at the wrong time?

READ MORE:How Prince William's name for Michael Middleton 'prickles' Charles

Royal author Katie Nicholl, in her 2010 book William and Harry, also writes how Kate had doubts of her own about the relationship at this point.

Ms Nicholl writes how William wanted a break, and organised a boys-only yachting holiday in Greece from which Kate was excluded.

Meanwhile, she wrote: Kate was beginning to question Williams commitment to their relationship, and she also had her own creeping doubts about their future after St Andrews.

Ms Nicholl continued: A number of things had caused her to question Williams commitment, although she had not raised them with him yet.

One was Williams friendship with an American heiress called Anna Sloan.

She added: Anna had lost her father, businessman George Sloan, in a tragic shooting accident on the familys 360-acre estate in Nashville, and she and William had bonded over the loss of their parents.

When Anna invited William and a group of friends to Texas for a holiday before he went to Greece, it hurt Kate deeply.

She suspected William might have feelings for the 22-year-old heiress.

However, a romance between the prince and the Tennessee-born interior designer did not happen.

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Album Review: Moby All Visible Objects – Live4ever

Posted: at 11:46 am

Richard Melville Hall has bought the t-shirt made for people whove bought the t-shirt; punk, vegan, Christian, seller of tens of millions of albums, enthusiastic drug guzzler (all of these things were not at the same time obviously), the man they call Moby has turned indulging virtue and vice into a fine art.

More recently, attention has switched away from music and towards his hugely candid pair of autobiographies in which hes talked about the vacuum in his soul that attaining fame and fortune largely via his 1999 album Play created, and how he filled it with anything he could lay his hands on. In them, he laid bare the impossible process of following it up and the damaging psychological effect of the mediocre (by comparison) sales of subsequent records since has had.

The first thing to say about All Visible Objects is that it isnt going to fix that. There are some clear reasons for this which well cover later, firstly though its worth reminding ourselves that the project is a philanthropic exercise, with all the profits going to a range of charitable organisations, as did the proceeds of his recent equipment auction. Its also true that many of the things which you might expect from a Moby album are present as expected: opener Morningside seems to have come straight from a rave without having gone to bed, wailing diva sample circa 91 and tipping hi-hat, while those who havent stopped by since the Play era will definitely be satisfied with the dinner party background vibes of Forever and Roxy Music cover My Only Love.

Business as usual then? Well, sort of. Moby has spent his entire career as both a musician and an activist, and whilst sometimes thats taken a back seat theres an anti-establishment streak of sorts here in Rise Up In Love (theme: Hug a stranger) and Power Is Taken (theme: Techno terrorist takeover), the latter featuring street ready vocals from the Dead Kennedys D H Pelligro. That has a real wash of angry energy to it, but on the seemingly never ending Too Much Change the anti-futurist sentiment just turns mawkish and dull.

This over earnestness is buttressed with an anthology approach to track selection: the producer has recently been making lengthy ambient collections, and for every dancefloor orientated tune like Refuge there are Quinoa friendly pieces such as Tecie and the piano led title-track, a nine-minute opus which brings things to a sombre close.

All Visible Objects cuts an ambitious slice through much of its creators fascinations old and new, be it riotous anarchy, delirious hedonism or entropic comedowns. This mightve worked too, but theres simply not enough conviction in these songs; no real rage, joy or paranoia to compel the listener into feeling empathy.

A man who bears the scars of a life lived, Richard Melville Hall has done many things. Its surely too late for him to be caught treading water now.

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The unexpected stress of Cambridge-ing from home – Varsity Online

Posted: at 11:45 am

Photo courtesy of the author

For me, stress at Cambridge has always been quantifiable, rising and falling in rough correlation with the number of words I have due within the week. Sometimes the formula is complicated by social plans or extracurricular commitments, but how I feel is always understandable, straight-forward. According to this logic I should be much less stressed during this strange, housebound Easter term. But despite the lack of social pressures, the loosening of deadlines, and the generous adaptation of exam rhetoric, I am more stressed than I ever was at Cambridge.

The stress has been sneaky and unplaceable. Until my body physically demonstrated it to me, I didnt realise it was there. I caught myself staring into space for huge swathes of study time whilst my foot-tapping reached new speeds, I burst out crying at a soppy Virgin Media advert (despite knowing that Richard Branson sued the NHS), I lost patience with my family too easily, I struggled to sleep. In parallel with monitoring this development of my own inner landscape, I watched news anchors report the mental health crisis which was unfolding nationwide. Lengthy think-pieces were published which attempted to diagnose the population and, whilst many of their explanations and suggestions applied to me, I also wanted to figure out the specifics of our context: why exactly can doing the Cambridge Tripos at home be so disorienting?

Time-management is another aspect of home-working liable to cause bewilderment

One of the reasons that Tripos can be just as, if not more, stressful outside of the pressure-cooker of Cambridge is the absence of understanding peers. Grumbling together is part and parcel of university life: it is perfectly acceptable to describe your relatively minor problems as crises and you can be certain that even your most trivial worries will be received with sympathy. This catharsis isnt available in the outside world. For example, Im never sure that my complaints about my huge reading list are received in the same way at home. After all, I choose to read for pleasure whenever Im taking a break from trying to pin down the meaning of an elusive philosophical manifesto. One minute my favourite past-time, the next the bane of my existence. It isnt a completely coherent attitude.

Time-management is another aspect of home-working liable to cause bewilderment. At university, working late into the night was a social activity imbued with a powerful sense of solidarity and mutual comprehension. But working unsociable hours at home is just that: unsociable. However much support my family gives me, I will always be aware of how conspicuous and sometimes inconvenient my efforts are.

For me personally, the safety net has caused additional overthinking. I think its an absolutely essential and comforting measure: its reassuring to know that I could do much less work than usual and achieve a grade I would be proud of in a normal exam term. Nonetheless, given the slight chance that my grade could improve, I intend to work as hard as I can. I know I would regret it if I didnt. Its been a strange thing to get my head around; the formerly black-and-white connection between how hard I work and what I achieve has disintegrated. My mark will only change if I perform extremely well, and I have much less of an idea exactly what extremely well entails given that the exams are now openbook and the quality of our responses will be, presumably, much higher.

On top of that, the lack of the fun aspects of Cambridge has lessened the appeal of hard work. Generally speaking, I always managed to strike an effective (albeit precarious) balance between work and play, and in the month before exams, I would see stress as something I could manipulate and exploit. I envied but ignored the few friends I had who worked neat 9-5s in the University Library, instead choosing to fetishize overworking and romanticise my own stress as a badge of honour. I would refuse to schedule regular breaks, listen to podcasts relevant to my papers during grocery runs, and fall asleep with vocabulary lists. This lifestyle was unsustainable: I slept too little, spent too much on take-out, and probably did years worth of damage to my posture in the month I spent bent over library desks. The motivation to briefly live this way found its source in my strange logic that (a) the dangling carrot of post-exam hedonism would taste sweeter if my pre-exam life was more exhausting and therefore the contrast was greater, and (b) the idea that I had to earn the Netflix binges and day-drinking that I looked forward to after exams.

Testing my limits doesnt have the same appeal when all Im earning is a job search in the midst of a global pandemic

That system doesnt work anymore testing my limits doesnt have the same appeal when all Im earning is a job search in the midst of a global pandemic. Instead, Ive been prematurely forced to learn how to self-motivate when there isnt a white-tie ball to daydream about during concentration lapses. I've had to learn how to balance toil with small rewards on a daily, rather than termly, basis. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it took a period of total inconsistency for me to develop truly sustainable working habits.

Of course, these factors are outside of the Universitys control. Im incredibly impressed by the preparation which has ensured that this term is as normal as possible. I am also incredibly grateful for the support of my family. Nonetheless, I think talking about the unexpected aspects of our experience as much as possible can bring comfort. Additionally, debunking the expectation that less work necessarily means less stress could bring us to the point at which we healthily and curiously acknowledge our real reactions to our strange situation.

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding, and during this unprecedented global crisis, we have a tough few weeks and months ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content for the time being.

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as 1, to help with our running cost at least until we hopefully return to print on 2nd October 2020.

Many thanks, all of us here at Varsity would like to wish you, your friends, families and all of your loved ones a safe and healthy few months ahead.

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Lindores Abbey: On to the quarter-finals – Chessbase News

Posted: at 11:44 am

The Lindores Abbey Chess Challenge started this Tuesday. Twelve players are takingpart. After a three-day preliminary, the best eight players will advance to the decidingknockout section.The time control is 15 minutes for the game, with a 10-second increment permove.

The three remaining rounds of the all-play-all section took place on day three of the Lindores Abbey online tournament. Hikaru Nakamura was the one player that finished the preliminariesundefeated and thus became the first seed in the quarter-finals. Eighth-placed Levon Aronian will be his rival in the first stage of the knockout.

Aronian scored 5 (fifty percent) to finish eighth, the same amount of points obtained by Daniil Dubov and Alexander Grischuk. The latter, who recently won the strong Play for Russia charity event, was eliminated on tiebreak criteria.

While Sergey Karjakin finished second after collecting7 points, four players including Magnus Carlsen tied on 6 out of 11. The world champion lost for a third time in the event on Thursday, against Dubov. His rival in the quarter-finals will be Wesley So.

Friday will be a rest day, and the matches of the quarter-finals will be played in pairs: Nakamura v Aronian and Yu Yangyi v Ding Liren will starton Saturday, while Carlsen v So and Dubov v Karjakin will kick offon Sunday.

The format of the tournament, with eight players qualifying to the knockout, makes the last rounds of the all-play-all section more about those stuck at the bottom of the table than about those fighting atop the standings. After two days of action, eight players had four points or less and were in real danger of being eliminated.

One of those in danger was Jan-Krzysztof Duda,who started the dayplaying white against Ding. The Polish starentered a strange variation and,apparently expecting to get winning chances later in the game,chose not toexchange knights when that was the most natural way to move forward:

Fundamentals of Chess Openings

Starting out in chess is difficult, and this DVD aims to reduce that stress. Designed for beginner levels in openings, a brief introduction to the reasons we play some of the most common moves in popular openings like the Spanish and Sicilian is given.

Instead of 13.e3, White could have gone for 13.Nxc6 bxc6 and only then 14.e3. Given how the game progressed after this point, this was a particularly fateful decision when Duda resigned on move 27, Black's knight (the one not exchanged on c6) was a thorn stuck deep inside White's position:

Duda understandably threw in the towel.

The rest of the games finished drawn, with Dubov v Firouzja an important match-up in the fight to reach the knockout. Firouzja was the one putting pressure in the middlegame, but the youngster could not break his rival's defences in a complex endgame with a bishop pair against a rook and an extra pawn.

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

Four games finished decisively in the second round of the day. Yu was the fifth player to defeat Wei Yi in the event;Nakamura inflicted Duda's second consecutive loss;while Dubov and Firouzja obtained crucial victories, both with the black pieces.

Facing Grischuk with black, afearless Firouzja played the King's Indian Defence. His Russian opponent employed a classical strategy, playing on the queenside and allowing Black to advance against his short-castled king. In the midst of a sharp struggle, Grischuk was imprecise, and Firouzja immediately moved forward:

Play the King's Indian Defence with g3

The King's Indian is an extreme counterattacking weapon for Black, so White's best way is to conduct an effective central strategy and to keep the king in safety. Maybe the only and best way to fulfill this strategy is the variation with the fianchetto of the white bishop to g3. It is the most unpleasant variation for King's Indian Defence players, easy to handle and it prevents Black from performing his typical attacking plans.

White played 29.Ra1, allowing Black to attack his light-squared bishop a key defensive piece in this case with 29...Nxd5 30.cxd5 Ng5. Firouzja would later capture the bishop, putting White against the ropes once the g-file was open. In the diagrammed position, Grischuk could have played 29.gxh5 in order to avoid what happened in the game. With his win, Firouzja caught up with the Russian in the standings on 4 out of 10.

Another complex struggle was taking place in Carlsen v Dubov. The world championhadalso weakened his king, which meant he had to deal with Black's threats since the middlegame. After having defendedfor a while though,Carlsen blundered the game away in one move:

41.Bf2 Nxe2 and White resigned.

Round ten did not lack excitement, as Nakamura's win over Duda was also highly tactical. Coming from a painful loss, Duda knew he had to fight for a full point, but facing the leader of the event with black was no easy task. The Polish grandmaster allowed White to gain space in the centre with 32.d5 and then made the decisive mistake of the game:

Duda's 32...Rb2 placed the rook away from any potential defensive task and gave way to 33.Qh4 exd5 34.Nf6+, when White has a massive attack with his rook ready to infiltrate on the e-file. 'Naka' scored his fourth victory of the tournament after 40 moves.

Wei and Duda were already eliminated, while Grischuk and Firouzja were tied on 4 points, with Dubov, Aronian and Carlsen only a half point ahead. Grischuk had black against Wei while Firouzja was playing white against Carlsen the world champion had a good chance to show who is boss after the wunderkind had beaten him in a blitz match a little over a month ago.

Dubov and Aronian drew in their direct match-up, while Grischuk got the better of the hapless Wei in the end, that was not enough to go through. Firouzja knew he needed a win, so he entered complications against the strongest player in the world. Carlsen got a better position in the middlegameand later found an impressive move to consolidate his edge:

Master Class Vol.8: Magnus Carlsen

Scarcely any world champion has managed to captivate chess lovers to the extent Carlsen has. The enormously talented Norwegian hasn't been systematically trained within the structures of a major chess-playing nation such as Russia, the Ukraine or China.

33...Rb3 is the nicest and most effective way to defend the c4-pawn. The world champion went on to get a 50-move win, leaving Firouzja out of the quarter-finals.

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Lindores Abbey: On to the quarter-finals - Chessbase News

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Your chess tutor with a double major in Economics and Statistics! – Chessbase News

Posted: at 11:44 am

ChessBase has had several interesting authors in the last few years who have recorded DVDs. They include top players like Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Erwin l'Ami among many others. While all of them are well-known personalities in the world of chess, the most recent author who recorded two DVDs at the ChessBase studio is in a class of her own! She is a WGM, a former World Youth champion, she is doing a double major inEconomics and Statistics with a minor in Mathematics, she is involved in several philanthropic causes,writer for ChessBase and a chess streamer! Meet Qiyu Zhou, a multi-skilled personality, who has a Midas touch! She excels at just about everything she does! Recently she visited the ChessBase studio in Hamburg and recorded two DVDs on Fundamentals of Chess- Tactics and Openings. In this interview Qiyu Zhou tells us more about these products,what inspired herto do this project and also reveals the secret of how she is able to manage so many things at the same time!

Sagar Shah (SS): Qiyu, how was your experience of visiting Hamburg and recording DVDs for ChessBase?

Qiyu Zhou (QZ):I really enjoyed visiting Hamburg and recording the DVDs for ChessBase. It was my first time in Hamburg, and I spent about two weeks recording and exploring the city. I had a lot of fun being a tourist, canoeing in the canals and visiting the beautiful downtown area. I even caught up with an old classmate and visited the carnival!Recording the DVDs itself was an amazing experience, and I found it extremely satisfying to go back to my place after each day of recording because I felt like I had done great work.

Qiyu Zhou at the recording studio in Hamburg with Pascal Simon and Frederic Friedel

SS:How did you decide to record two DVDs?

QZ:I believe that openings and tactics are the two most important things for beginners to learn, which is why I wanted to make sure I covered them. To get a successful start in a chess game, one needs to be able to get out of the opening and know when and how to take ones opponents pieces. Im definitely hoping to also record DVDs on all the other important basic chess skills.

Qiyu Zhou's DVDsaim at the basics of chess - strengthening you fundamentals

SS: What level of players would your lectures cater to?

QZ:My DVDs are catered for the beginner level. These DVDs cover the basic skills necessary for winning in chess, and I believe theyre a very good introduction for the more advanced ChessBase DVDs because they cover general material which is applicable to practically every game.

SS: The topics that you chose are so extensive and vast. Like covering almost all the openings and all the common tactical themes. Wasn't it too ambitious?

QZ:I think to make a good introduction for viewers to chess, it was necessary to cover as much material as I could in the two-week time frame I had while in Hamburg. The Fundamentals of Tactics DVD was mostly fully planned out by the time I was recording it, but I definitely kept adding material as I went along because there is always that one more theme of tactic that can happen in our games. I am extremely happy and proud with the final outcome and hope that everyone who uses the DVDs are able to improve their chess skill.

Qiyu Zhou after winning the World under-14 title

SS: What can the people expect to learn if they bought both the products?

QZ:I formatted the DVDs so that users can expect to learn the most important skills one needs for starting out in chess. Making the opening moves correctly and getting a decent middlegame is important since its very easy to get caught out in the opening. The most common mistake that many who start out is losing material. I always like to say that the person with the extra piece will win the game, which means therefore, learning tactics, and most importantly to be able to identify hanging pieces and how to protect your own hanging pieces as well as how to capture your opponents will win you the game.

(Editor: Qiyu shares with us one of her favourite opening lines in the DVD below with some analysis. It arises from the Chigorin variation inthe Ruy Lopez)

SS: Seeing some of your articles on ChessBase we notice that you are interested in statistics as well and you harbour a scientific approach towards things. Tell us a bit about your education and what are you studying right now?

QZ:I am doing a double major in economics and statistics, with a minor in mathematics. Writing the articles for ChessBase definitely opened a new world for me, as it introduced me to statistics.

Qiyu backs her claimsin the articles on ChessBase with thorough investigation and statistics!

SS: You are brilliant in your education. You are a WGM and Under-14 World Champion, you also are interested in social service and philanthropy. Tell us how do you manage to balance all of these?

QZ:After winning the U-14 World Championships, I prioritised high school over everything else. Of course, it was quite a challenge because I was still aiming for WGM at that time. But I believe now that I have accomplished everything Ive set out to do in chess (keeping in mind I set the goal of becoming a World Champion when I was five) Ive mostly put aside competitive play for now as I focus on completing my undergraduate degree. Its very difficult to balance everything, while also having extra-curriculars, which is why I focus on a few things at a time and make clear what my priorities are. While I havent played competitive tournaments much in the last few years, I have started teaching and streaming chess.

Extreme focus ateverything she does is the way in which Qiyu hasachieved so much at this young age!

SS: What is your future aim? Will you pursue chess actively or some other career?

QZ:Currently, I want to become an investment banker and work in mergers and acquisition or take on a role of a quantitative analyst in finance. However, choosing a career is less simple than stating what I wish to do, and I am very open to everything.

SS: In these troubled times of Corona virus, what is your advice to all the budding chess players out there?

QZ:I believe that it is very difficult to stay focused during these times, but if youre able to study, study with all your heart because these might be one of those rarer periods in which you may have some extra time to study. However, I want to say that if one doesnt recognize immediate progress there is no need to be disappointed. Living during these troubled times is difficult, and chess is also a difficult game.

Fundamentals of Chess Openings

Starting out in chess is difficult, and this DVD aims to reduce that stress. Designed for beginner levels in openings, a brief introduction to the reasons we play some of the most common moves in popular openings like the Spanish and Sicilian is given.

"Living during these troubled times is difficult, and chess is also a difficult game."

Get both of her latest DVDs here

Fundamentals of Chess Tactics

Whats the easiest way to win a chess game? We all know finding a good tactic in a game can let you win a point immediately. Therefore, Fundamentals of Tactics is an excellent choice for you if you wish to learn how to start finding tactics in your games!

Fundamentals of Chess Openings

Starting out in chess is difficult, and this DVD aims to reduce that stress. Designed for beginner levels in openings, a brief introduction to the reasons we play some of the most common moves in popular openings like the Spanish and Sicilian is given.

Excerpt from:

Your chess tutor with a double major in Economics and Statistics! - Chessbase News

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