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Daily Archives: June 1, 2020
An Indian Origin Physicist Created the Fifth State of Matter from Her Living Room – News18
Posted: June 1, 2020 at 3:34 am
Dr Amruta Gadge setting up the lasers prior to lockdown. Credit: University of Sussex.
Issac Newton worked from home during a pandemic in his times, and discovered the theory of gravity.
This may not be the bubonic plague, but the new novel coronavirus has forced everyone inside, and an Indian-origin scientist has found a way to best utilize her time - by discovering the fifth state of matter.
Dr. Amruta Gadge from the Quantum Systems and Devices Laboratory successfully created a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) at the University of Sussex facilities, not at a lab, but in her living room.
This may be the first time that BEC has been created remotely in a lab that did not have one before.
The research team believe the achievement could provide a blueprint for operating quantum technology in inaccessible environments such as space, finds a Phys.org release.
Peter Krger, Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Sussex, in an interview to Lab News, said "We believe this may be the first time that someone has established a BEC remotely in a lab that didn't have one before. We are all extremely excited that we can continue to conduct our experiments remotely during lockdown, and any possible future lockdowns."
Dr. Gadge, Research Fellow In Quantum Physics And Technologies at the University of Sussex, was able to make the complex calculations then optimising and running the sequence, by accessing the lab computers remotely from her home.
"The process has been a lot slower than if I had been in the lab as the experiment is unstable and I've had to give 10-15 minutes of cooling time between each run. This is obviously not as efficient and way more laborious to do manually because I've not been able to do systematic scans or fix the instability like I could working in the lab," she said.
This may just be the model other scientists and in fact, everyone else around the world will have to slowly apply as the cure to the Covid-19 virus may still be far away.
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Science and the humanities in the time of pandemic: better together – The Irish Times
Posted: at 3:34 am
In most of the world, expertise is making a comeback. We are placing our faith in healthcare professionals such as Dr Tony Holohan and Prof Philip Nolan to lead us through the current pandemic. In the US, where the ascent of experts is on shakier ground, Dr Anthony Fauci is the target of both immoderate adulation and inexplicable death threats.
As the period of isolation begins to wind down across Europe, however, some countries are looking beyond doctors and scientists to other forms of expertise. In Germany, for instance, philosophers, historians and theologians are being pressed into service to help map out the origins and future course of the crisis.
In Ireland, Prof Daniel Carey of NUI Galway has called for a significant investment across the fields of the humanities and the social sciences in order to address the effects of a crisis that threatens not only our physical health but also our social, political and economic wellbeing.
Part of the challenge we face is learning to ask the right questions, which, when answered, will help prevent another pandemic. We dont just need a vaccine for the disease. We need an interdisciplinary approach to diagnosing and treating the conditions that enabled it to proliferate in the first place.
Such a holistic approach will mean broadening our understanding of the kinds of expertise needed at a moment like this. Pathogens and people together make a pandemic, and we cannot eradicate the pathogen without understanding, respecting and working with people. Doing so takes the co-ordinated efforts of historians, anthropologists, artists, sociolinguists and writers, all of whom are experts in narrative and representation in short, scholars and practitioners of the humanities.
In our present crisis, however, it can seem like the sciences are tasked with finding a cure while the arts and humanities provide consolation and entertainment. It is true that many of us are turning now to literature and the arts for a portal to the most profound human connection, but the humanities offer even more when understood as a set of approaches that enrich scientific inquiry as well.
This crisis should, for instance, bring increased attention to the field known as the medical humanities. Ida Milnes recent bookon the Spanish flu in Ireland has unexpectedly and tragically become a handbook for our times, offering insights into the demographics and progression of the disease, as well as the impact of political decisions on the pandemic. The Spanish flu made its way into the literature written in its wake including WB Yeatss The Second Coming and we can anticipate that much of our understanding of the human experience of Covid-19 will be revealed to us through the world of the arts in the coming months and years.
As we explore in a collection of essays we have recently edited, this cross-fertilisation of the sciences and the humanities is far from new in Ireland. In fact, the period that produced some of Irelands most famous and most experimental writers was also, and not coincidentally, a time of the greatest cross-disciplinary flowering of innovative ways to understand our physical world and our place in it.
What made the practitioners of modernism in Irish literature so famous (think Yeats, James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett) was their active participation in a broad range of ways of thinking about what makes our world modern. The history of these imaginative collaborations to find complex answers (and questions) for a complex world is one that we would do well to remember today.
Among the well-known Irish writers at the turn of the last century were established scientists such as novelist Emily Lawless. Her novel Grania (1892) was a model of precise, detailed descriptions of the natural world, shaped by her own scientific inquiries, which were praised by Darwin. Meanwhile, the naturalist Maude Delap was busy crossing and recrossing the boundaries of natural history, life-writing, and ethnography.
Medical doctors too were part of the revolution in Irish writing and ideas, with Oliver St John Gogarty perhaps equally famous for his wit and his poetry as he was for his skill as an otorhinolaryngologist. While St John Gogarty was a household name in his time, many of us now know him better from his appearance as Buck Mulligan, the medical student in James Joyces Ulysses.
Joyce himself was a sometime student of medicine, and his lost first play featured a doctor living and working through an outbreak of the plague. This alternative career path is written all over Ulysses. As critic Enda Duffy has argued, Joyce was inspired by world-famous 19th-century Irish cardiologists in his clinical rather than metaphorical treatment of the heart. With its painstaking attention to the rhythms of the heart, Ulysses is a psychosomatic treatise as much as it is an extended diagnosis of Irish life and culture.
The extraordinary cross-fertilisations of literature and science at the time were not just the domain of those with specialist scientific training. Indeed, some of the greatest insights into the contemporary world of science came from those who kept their distance from it.
Samuel Beckett, for example, had no formal scientific training, but he was obsessed with conditions of the mind and body, and read widely in scientific scholarship. His reading shaped the endless parade of diseased, afflicted, and impotent characters in his work. But as Chris Ackerley writes, Beckett also cast a critical eye on popular advances in biological sciences.
Beckett was writing when the pseudoscience of eugenics, a key inspiration for the racial theories of Hitler, was on the rise, and Becketts skeptical glance at the science of the body sounded a note of warning. His was an early voice in the field of what we know today as bioethics; his work drew on scientific innovations, but he was also willing to resist and even oppose those innovations when they lost sight of our common humanity.
It is not the case, as we might suspect, that the arts simply represent or communicate scientific knowledge. Though it is true that many modernist writers were enamoured of engines or entranced by quantum mechanics, a closer look reveals there has long been two-way traffic (as Gillian Beer puts it in her study of Darwin) between science and the creative arts.
We can find a concrete example of this in the work of Erwin Schrdinger, director of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Study in the 1940s. A believer in the inextricability of science, philosophy and literature, Schrdinger admitted in his 1944 book What Is Life? that the mysteries of how life is made and sustained eluded the explanatory powers of the science of physics.
Flann OBrien (Brian ONolan/Myles na gCopaleen), an avid reader of popular science, wrote in one of his Cruiskeen Lawn columns in The Irish Times that Schrdingers admission was a clear acknowledgment of his and others indebtedness to the imaginative work of writers and artists for his comprehension of the life-cell.
Many of Schrdingers contemporaries in the scientific disciplines saw themselves as taking part in the discovery and invention of a more complex world, right alongside Pablo Picasso and Mainie Jellett, Yeats and Joyce. As literary critic Mark Morrison has argued, the early years of the 20th century saw not only an artistic and literary modernism but also a scientific and technological modernism.
Einstein, Heisenber and Hubble understood their work as being driven by imagination, artistic experimentation and the avant-garde, not separate from them. But this history of the disciplines working together to forge a new and a better world has been obscured in the intervening decades.
Right now is the moment for us to take a page from this forgotten history. What a thorough historical and critical examination of modernist literature tells us is that science, technology and the arts and humanities are richer together: not simply parallel, but intertwined. And what is needed now is a recognition that our field of knowledge about the pandemic is shaped by science, certainly, but also by stories, by assumptions, by politics, by history, by rhetoric by the very things that humanists study. If these go unexamined, our solutions to the crisis will only go so far.
In responding to the Covid-19 crisis, Ireland has an opportunity to learn from its pioneering past and to understand again the vital place of the arts and humanities in discovering how humans fall ill and how they heal.
Kathryn Conrad (University of Kansas), Ciln Parsons (Georgetown University), and Julie McCormick Weng (Texas State University) have recently edited Science, Technology, and Irish Modernism (Syracuse University Press, 2019), from which many of the ideas in this article are drawn.
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Science and the humanities in the time of pandemic: better together - The Irish Times
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It’s Way Past Time to Honor the Golden Rule – OB Rag
Posted: at 3:33 am
by Ernie McCray
Ive been getting a few memes on my Facebook feed kind of around the theme that God doesnt give you more than you can handle.
Such a sentiment makes me shudder as people right now, who are way overburdened with a situation brought on by a deadly virus, are dying left and right all around us and all around the world.
Im not religious but I was raised in a home with people who were religious to the bone, two of the truest Christians Ive ever known: my mother, a soulful gospel piano playing woman who played for our churchs choir, and her father, my grandfather, a man who had sailed several seas and honored his Lord as easily as he breathed.
But their faith was reflected, less on cutesy Bible verses and the like, and more on just being respectful of their fellow human beings and giving way more than they received.
My point being they would never have made any struggling overwhelmed person feel at ease spouting claims that God wont allow you to be burdened too much and they, the both of them, endured and overcame a plethora of lifes daunting challenges and they gave thanks for their blessings. But they knew that didnt apply to everybody as they, as well as I over my lifetime, have seen many folks go under because they couldnt handle their lifes conditions.
They modeled, for me, how Christians should be although Ive shed much of the pure sacredness aspects of my upbringing as religion has simply, to myliking, been too full of hallelujahs and you cant do this and you cant do that and talk about the devil and the enemy and stuff like that.
However, what I took from that was a Do unto others what you would have them do unto you philosophy that has guided my behavior throughout my life.
Like in sports I was in an opponents face like Sherlock Holmes on a murder case but I never tried to hurt anybody intentionally because I didnt want anybody trying to injure me.
On the playground I stood on the sidelines of the Yo Mama putdowns and other such trash talking traditions of renown because I didnt want to hurt anybodys feeling and didnt want anybody to hurt mine.
The Golden Rule has suited me just fine.
And that brings me back to this day and time, to my Facebook timeline that expresses a few of my friends religious beliefs, their need to praise their God, something I fully understand, but I wish theyd be considerate of others when they post sentiments like:
Gas in the Car!Still got a job!Somebody needs to tell GodThank you!!!
Their feelings inspired a range of true dats and amens and I, too, felt thankful that so far, at least, Im not having any trouble making ends meet but Icouldnt help but wonder how such a message resonated with someone who:
cant pay their bills,keep food on the table,gas up their carand has no job.What should theytell God?
I wouldnt, if I were one of them, want to be greeted online with rejoicing that treated me as if I and my misfortunes didnt exist.
So, it seems to me, and Im sure my mom and granddad, if they were still around, would agree that if were to get through our ordeal as a world of people, we will simply have to treat each other the way wed like to be treated.
A world honoring the Golden Rule is an idea way past its time as such behavior might be the answer to what our collective duty should be all about during these times: saving humankind.
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Henry Cejudo Breaks the Golden Rule of Pro Wrestling After His AEW Debut – Essentially Sports
Posted: at 3:33 am
All Elite Wrestling has been on a roll in the past few weeks. After a blockbuster night at Double or Nothing, the promotion has presented some spectacular episodes of Dynamite with the recent brawl between Mike Tyson and Chris Jericho getting unprecedented attention for the company. Another man who has been in the spotlight is former Olympic gold medalist and UFC legend Henry Cejudo.
The American mixed martial artist has been acting as an ally of Iron Mike in his beef with Y2J. Needless to say, fans are dying to see Cejudo mix it up with Jericho and his Inner Circle. However, recent actions by Cejudo have left a sour taste in their mouths.
A video has been doing the rounds on social media where Cejudo can clearly be seen breaking kayfabe. Triple C can be seen making a video where he is enjoying a laugh with Chris Jericho backstage.
Now, many of you might think that this is just overreaction as kayfabe is a myth in modern pro wrestling. WWE has acknowledged that fact and it repeatedly telecasts programs like 24 on the WWE Network where on-screen rivals are seen chilling with each other behind the scenes.
However, for the core fanbase of Professional Wrestling, this is what has pushed them away from the company. Even if fans know that the action is scripted, they want the realism associated with the product to sustain.
If you recall, the most popular days of wrestling in the Attitude era saw superstars like Steve Austin and The Rock maintain kayfabe even when they are not in action. Recently, Broken Matt Hardy became popular because of this strict adherence to his character even during interviews.
AEW has been developed by Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks on the premise of being a different product. They had pledged to save professional wrestling by taking it away from cheap theatrics to some real cold-blooded action.
It can be argued that Henry Cajudo being seen with Jericho backstage takes a lot of steam away from this angle. These are the avoidable mistakes which the company needs to do away with.
Do you think kayfabe is still an integral part of the business?
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Nitrogen An Exception in the Periodic Table? – Technology Networks
Posted: at 3:33 am
In the periodic table of elements there is one golden rule for carbon, oxygen, and other light elements. Under high pressures they have similar structures to heavier elements in the same group of elements. Only nitrogen always seemed unwilling to toe the line that is, until now. Recently, high-pressure researchers of the University of Bayreuth have actually disproved this special status. Out of nitrogen, they have created a crystalline structure which under normal conditions occurs in black phosphorus and arsenic. The structure contains two-dimensional atomic layers, and is therefore of great interest for high-tech electronics. The scientists have presented their discovery of "black nitrogen" in "Physical Review Letters".
When you arrange the chemical elements in ascending order according to their number of protons, and look at their properties, it soon becomes obvious that certain properties recur at large intervals ("periods"). The periodic table of elements brings these repetitions into focus. Elements with similar properties are placed one below the other in the same column, and thus form a group of elements. At the top of a column is the element that has the fewest protons and the lowest weight compared to the other group members. Nitrogen heads element group 15, but was previously considered the "black sheep" of the group. The reason: in earlier high-pressure experiments, nitrogen showed no structures similar to those the heavier elements of this group especially phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony exhibit under normal conditions. Instead, exactly this kind of similarities could be observed at high pressures in the neighbouring groups headed by carbon and oxygen.
In fact, nitrogen is no exception after all. Researchers at the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry & Geophysics (BGI) and the Laboratory for Crystallography at the University of Bayreuth have now been able to prove this with the help of a measuring method they recently developed. Under the leadership of Dr. Dominique Laniel, they have made an unusual discovery. At very high pressures and temperatures, nitrogen atoms form a crystalline structure that is characteristic of black phosphorus, which is a particular variant of phosphorus. It also occurs in arsenic and antimony. This structure is composed of two-dimensional layers in which nitrogen atoms are cross-linked in a uniform zigzag pattern. In terms of their conductive properties, these 2D layers are similar to graphene, which shows great promise as a material for high-tech applications. Therefore, black phosphorus is currently being studied for its potential as a material for highly efficient transistors, semiconductors, and other electronic components in the future.
The Bayreuth researchers are proposing an analogous name for the allotrope of nitrogen they have discovered: black nitrogen. Some technologically attractive properties, in particular its directional dependence (anisotropy), are even more pronounced than in black phosphorus. However, black nitrogen can only exist thanks to the exceptional pressure and temperature conditions under which it is produced in the laboratory. Under normal conditions it dissolves immediately. "Because of this instability, industrial applications are currently not feasible. Nevertheless, nitrogen remains a highly interesting element in materials research. Our study shows by way of example that high pressures and temperatures can produce material structures and properties that researchers previously did not know existed," says Laniel.
It took truly extreme conditions to produce black nitrogen. The compression pressure was 1.4 million times the pressure of the Earth's atmosphere, and the temperature exceeded 4,000 degrees Celsius. To find out how atoms arrange themselves under these conditions, the Bayreuth scientists cooperated with the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg and the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at the Argonne National Laboratory in the USA. Here, X-rays generated by particle acceleration were fired at the compressed samples. "We were surprised and intrigued by the measurement data suddenly providing us with a structure characteristic of black phosphorus. Further experiments and calculations have since confirmed this finding. This means there is no doubt about it: nitrogen is, in fact, not an exceptional element, but follows the same golden rule of the periodic table as carbon and oxygen do," says Laniel, who came to the University of Bayreuth in 2019 as an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation research fellow.
ReferenceHigh-Pressure Polymeric Nitrogen Allotrope with the Black Phosphorus Structure. Dominique Laniel, Bjoern Winkler, Timofey Fedotenko, Anna Pakhomova, Stella Chariton, Victor Milman, Vitali Prakapenka, Leonid Dubrovinsky, and Natalia Dubrovinskaia. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 216001, 28 May 2020,DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.216001.
This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
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It shouldn’t be hard to treat people with love and respect – Brunswick News
Posted: at 3:33 am
It has been an ugly few days across America. The murder of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands, or knees in this case, of a white Minneapolis police officer has led to nationwide protests. While most of those protests have been peaceful, some have turned violent.
The anger that is being expressed right now comes from a long history of how black people have been treated in America. It started hundreds of years ago when they were brought to the New World as slaves and were considered nothing more than property. A war had to be fought just to convince half of this nation this so-called Land of the Free that it was wrong to own other people.
Even after the Civil War, laws were instituted to make sure that the rights of black people were legally suppressed. These Jim Crow laws continued to proliferate the idiotic ideal that whites were not only superior to blacks, but that the sides shouldnt intermingle. It would take 100 years after the Civil War ended for reason and righteousness to reign supreme and do away with that backwards way of thinking.
We have come a long way since the 1960s.
Subsequent generations have come to realize, as they spend more time around each other, that we are all Gods children that He created all of us in His image.
Even with as much progress as we have made as a society, the ghosts of our past still linger. When you see tragedies that shouldnt have happened like the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville and the death of Ahmaud Arbery right here in our backyard it brings hundreds of years of injustice back to the forefront.
That anger has led some down a path of violence and destruction as a way to express their dissatisfaction with the system. Even if the anger is justified, this method of protest will not help in the long run.
Overzealous police arent helping calm down the situation either, especially when they deliberately fire at journalists who are just doing their jobs by reporting on what is happening. As much as this weekend has been about the historical mistreatment of black people, it is also shined a light that we need better police practices across the board.
The only way we will all be truly equal is for all of us to treat each other like we would like to be treated. The Bible verses that make up the Golden Rule dont mention any exceptions like race, political affiliation or sexual orientation. It simply commands that we treat others the way we would want to be treated.
If we treat each other with the love and compassion that we have been commanded to do so, this world will be a better place. Until then, this vicious cycle will just continue to repeat.
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CFD cancellation brings loss of sales tax revenue to the city, county – Wyoming Tribune
Posted: at 3:33 am
CHEYENNE Every summer for the last 123 years, Cheyenne Frontier Days has brought a western sense of wonder to the city of Cheyenne, allowing residents and visitors to indulge in the citys rich rodeo history.
But along with the experience, CFD also brings in about $600,000 in sales tax revenue to Laramie County. With the events historic cancellation that was announced Wednesday, the city and county are preparing to see declines in both sales tax and lodging tax revenue.
This is part of the decrease in sales and use tax revenue that we budgeted for. We anticipated a definite loss, Mayor Marian Orr said.
In the budgeting process for fiscal year 2021, the city took a conservative approach for sales tax revenue projections and prepared for a 25% drop worth about $6 million. The revenue losses from CFDs cancellation wont worsen the problem any more than the city has already accounted for, according to Orr.
Normally, the city of Cheyenne receives 65% of those CFD sales tax funds, which wouldve been about $390,000.
During a series of budget work sessions, City Treasurer Robin Lockman said, The golden rule of revenue forecasting is to be conservative. This will lessen the danger of spending money that we do not have based unattainable revenue projections.
While the county will see a slightly smaller impact than the city, Laramie County Board of Commissioners Chairman Gunnar Malm said the commissioners will still try to prevent increases to the countys bottom line in fiscal year 2021 given the current financial situation.
For us looking forward, were taking this into account and trying to prevent any long-term increases in the budget, Malm said.
For both the city and county, CFDs cancellation, paired with the slow in sales tax collection as a result of COVID-19, will likely cause sixth-penny sales tax collections to stretch into the fall or winter of next year.
Initially, the county commissioners expected to finish collections for their voter-approved sixth-penny projects by June 2021, but now that could stretch into October of next year. That means the next round of sixth-penny projects will likely go before the voters later than initially planned.
What thats going to do is allow us even more time to really take a look at what projects are really necessary to put forward to the voters, Orr said.
While the city and county will see trickle-down effects from CFDs cancellation, local retail, restaurant and hotel owners will see the effects on the front end without the influx of paying customers CFD brings to the county.
For local business owners, Malm said CFD is like a second Christmas.
Hopefully, therell be some community efforts to try and prop up and support local businesses, as they go through this summer without Frontier Days for the first time in 124 years, Malm said.
I think that if theres any community in the state and the nation that is prepared and is capable of ingenuitive thinking and community support, its ours. Im hopeful and optimistic that well be able to do something to at least help offset a little bit of the tremendous loss that our community is going to see.
Last year, the total attendance at CFD events was 559,930. With so much foot traffic and so many out-of-town visitors, many local businesses rely on the boost from CFD and the summer tourism season. Having occurred for the last 123 years, CFD served as a reliable source of revenue for businesses and the city and county until this summer.
Its so incredibly critical that people shop local as much as they can. Everybody might have cabin fever and might want to head south, but really, now more than ever, to shop and eat locally is so critical, Orr said.
Margaret Austin is the Wyoming Tribune Eagles local government reporter. She can be reached at maustin@wyomingnews.com or 307-633-3152. Follow her on Twitter at @MargaretMAustin.
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The Class of 2020 | Class of 2020 | tetonvalleynews.net – Teton Valley News
Posted: at 3:33 am
I take my cowboy hat off to the graduating class. This year has been peculiar. Doubt that any will surpass.
But one thing is for certain. Its a gamble worth the bet. The year of 2020 you will dang sure not forget.
Some have given up and sure to cause them certain strife, but you have reached your first achievement in your many days of life.
Youre young and full of spirit, like a filly shakes her tail. Never give up dreaming cuz youre afraid that you might fail.
A cowboys life aint cheap and with equipment comes expense. A healthy education brings you more than just horse sense.
So be diligent when studying. Youve got no time to shirk. And if you plan on making bank, for sure its worth the work.
Theres more to life than money, but it takes a lot to live. So, choose an occupation where youll have some left to give
To someone wholl be starting out, the way you are right now. Youll soon find out that everyone can use a break somehow.
Remember, in this life theres not a single thing for free. Somebodys got to pay it and its usually you and me.
Exhibit deeds of kindness. Cowboys have a Golden Rule. Youll treat each other with respect. If not, then youre a fool.
Some days will be discouraging. You wont know what to do. But this cowboys telling you therell be a light come shining through.
Your best years are ahead of you. Be ready for each task. Your God is there to help you. All you gotta do is ask.
So, congratulations seniors. You are gonna love the world. Take a step and cowboy up. Youre about to be unfurled.
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Cepeda: The War on Masks is yet another battle dividing our country – Roanoke Times
Posted: at 3:33 am
LAKE GENEVA, Wis.- This quaint downtown looked unremarkable on a quiet, rainy Monday morning: Businesses were starting to open, traffic was light. Clusters of teens, elders with dogs, and people carrying bundles of mail for the post office strolled down the street almost none wearing protective masks over their nose and mouth.
I broke quarantine to bear witness to Wisconsins mixed status. Many of the states larger metropolitan areas such as Madison and Milwaukee are retaining most of the governors safer-at-home measures to combat the spread of coronavirus. Meanwhile, the rest of the state is taking advantage of the Wisconsin Supreme Courts decision to strike down the order to stay closed giving them the option to roam free.
Tiny towns bordering Illinois took a turn in the Chicago media spotlight as refugees from the windy citys far off exurbs crossed the border to sit at bars with others who just wanted a cold beer and a cheeseburger amid all this COVID-19 craziness.
Over the weekend, the resort town of Lake Geneva was reportedly hoppin with visitors from both sides of the border, and many of them were promenading down the main drag, hitting the beach and taking cruises on the lake.
All for it, Dave Gragnani of close-by McHenry, Illinois, told the Wisconsin State Journal. He added that he planned to visit a coffee shop and a skatepark without a mask or hand sanitizer. People should have a choice. Im having a wonderful time.
Truth be told, I, too, had a wonderful time Monday, as the rain fell softly outside of Jonis Diner, a local favorite that bills itself the Best Breakfast in Lake Geneva. Walking into the 1950s-themed replica railcar after months of eating at home or while driving in the family minivan was, well, a relief.
The experience was a little weird, though there was no counter seating, and each set of visitors sat with an empty booth between them and the next diners. There was also only a limited number of items on the table (no creamer, ketchup or mustard sitting out, for instance).
The small, mom and pop business relies almost entirely on seasonal tourists to get through the year financially, but the waitress said they were wading back into sit-down service slowly and carefully.
The staff seemed just as relieved to be back to work as I was to have delicious diner coffee and a fresh, crisp golden Belgian waffle with full-sugar syrup.
None of the staff wore masks, and though my husband and I wore masks in, we kept them off during the meal. We also kept our distance, if thats even a sufficient manner of avoiding infection.
Condemn me if you will, but I had an opportunity to venture out of my hiding hole and took it. I relished it, thanking the universe for keeping me from political confrontation.
In some places, like the grocery store, you get the glare or side-eye if youre not wearing a mask over your face. In others, like Walmart, the hardware store or the gas station, you might get a weird look if you are wearing a mask.
Some assume that those who wear a mask are weak willed, easily brainwashed and possess socialist leanings. Instead, the person wearing the mask might instead just be covering their mouth and nose as a courtesy to others, including the elderly and immunocompromised.
Those who do wear masks might look at those without a face covering and think that he or she doesnt believe in science and is a selfish supporter of President Trump. And those who dont wear masks might rebut this with sincere beliefs about individual liberties and choice.
The war on masks is a way of taking a public health crisis a situation that demands political unity and best practices in governance and reshaping it into a culture war competition, wrote Zack Beauchamp on Vox.com. The question is not are we doing a good job handling this so much as whose team do you want to be on, the namby-pamby liberals or the strong fearless conservatives?
Masks and restaurant and bar visits have become a point of contention all over the country, fueling violence against innocent frontline food and restaurant employees who are just doing their best to stay healthy while working a high-touch, minimum wage essential job.
Its a tough time all around. Just remember, as we start venturing out of quarantine, to be nice and follow the golden rule. It stands up well through times of trauma: Treat others the way youd want to be treated.
Cepeda is a columnist for the Tribune Content Agency.
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2020 MBAs To Watch: Jazmine Carter, University of Rochester (Simon) – Poets&Quants
Posted: at 3:33 am
Curious learner that challenges the status quo with a fun-loving attitude.
Hometown: High Point, North Carolina
Fun fact about yourself: With an adventurous spirit, I flew ~4,000 miles from upstate New York to live in Dusseldorf, Germany for 40 days as an MBA exchange student at WHU University, Otto Beisheim School of Management to experience European culture for the first-time.
Undergraduate School and Degree: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BA Communication Studies
Where was the last place you worked before enrolling in business school? Southwest Airlines, Business Consultant- Customer Experience, Dallas, Texas
Where did you intern during the summer of 2018? CVS Health, Enterprise Strategy, Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Where will you be working after graduation? Johnson & Johnson, Human Resource Leadership Development Program
Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:
Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? As the VP of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) on the Graduate Business Council and leader of the D&I Center of Excellence, I am proud to say that I have impacted my community. As a businesswoman of color, its paramount for me to help educate and influence my generation of world leaders. In this capacity, I support 8 D&I clubs, lead a diversity-focused student council and leadership board. I promote partnership and collaboration through dedicated leadership forums and reoccurring communications. I established the first Women of Color Group as a sisterhood for first and second-year MBAs. I led Simons annual D&I week themed to celebrate how inclusion drives diversity at Simon. I worked in partnership with admissions to hold D&I week for the first time in tandem with the annual Diversity Conference to magnify impact. A special thanks to my board members and advisors Nate Kadar and Janet Mejias for their support and mentorship along the way that made the aforementioned possible.
What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? The achievement I am proudest of in my professional career is my contribution to Southwest Airlines, both its customers and the Southwest employee family. I had the privilege of working cross-functionally at Southwest, partnering with the operations, supply chain, marketing, and technology departments among others. I contributed to major strategic initiatives like optimizing the inflight food and beverage program, launching the 2017 uniform refresh impacting 40,000+ frontline employees, and supporting the five-year strategic investment planning process for the Commercial organization. In addition to business acumen, I learned what it means to truly live the Southwest way. Following the golden rule and putting people first is not just a mantra but the way of life at Southwest. These values will always and forever be a part of who I am and how I live both professionally and personally because of this rich experience.
Who was your favorite MBA professor? The professor I have enjoyed learning from the most is Thomas Shaw. He is truly a passionate communications leader. His Elements of Leadership course is my favorite offering at Simon. He has a unique way of making this course personally challenging and forward-looking as you prepare for management post-MBA. He fosters an open environment packed with meaningful dialogue in the classroom, allowing students to openly reflect, challenge, and support each other. I really appreciate his intentionality around the design of his courses and his time offered to students interested in further discussing the field.
What was your favorite MBA event or tradition at your business school? My favorite MBA tradition at Simon is our weekly Keeping Simon Social event held at local Rochester establishments as a school-wide networking night. All students are invited to come together for fellowship, celebration, and to foster the strong bonds of friendship that make our community unique. It is a great way to connect with the incoming class and stay connected with your classmates. This student-led initiative (shout out to Josh West) truly reflects how close we are as a school community and how much we prioritize maintaining our strong culture.
Why did you choose this business school? Undoubtedly, I choose Simon Business School because of the strong, diverse culture and community. I can genuinely say from the moment I stepped foot on campus that I felt at home. My interactions with alumni, admissions, and current students were authentic, welcoming, and inspiring. I felt surrounded by life-long learners also striving to better themselves and those around them. The opportunity to make an impact while also being impacted left a strong impression.
What is your best advice to an applicant hoping to get into your schools MBA program? Be your authentic self and allow your personality to shine in every interaction and touchpoint with Simon. At Simon, we genuinely want to know who you are and want makes you tick just as much as we want you to get to know us. Invite us into your journey and we welcome the opportunity to impact your story.
What is the biggest myth about your school? The biggest myth is that Rochester is a small town, missing the big city allure. Rochester and the surrounding area is packed with unique cuisines, artsy offerings, and outdoor adventures. With Niagara Falls and outlets a short drive away and great local breweries, and the Finger Lakes in close proximity your bucket-list will fill up fast. I found Rochester to be a hidden gem that is uniquely positioned for jet setting to the city in one hour or simply tucking away for a quiet outdoor skiing excursion.
Looking back over your MBA experience, what is the one thing youd do differently and why? Having the mindset to think of every setback as a setup supporting your growth both personally and professionally. Inherent to business school are challenges but having a growth mindset believing you arent failing but you are merely learning is critical to success.
Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Wallace Gundy. Her friendly spirit is infectious, her altruistic nature manifests in every interaction she has with current or prospective students, and her relentless dedication to impacting our community makes her an incredible student leader. Her reach spans wide at the University of Rochester as the Graduate Business School (GBC) President. She truly goes the extra mile to ensure every student at Simon has an opportunity to share their voice and be heard. I am thankful to have worked under her tutelage on GBC, am forever grateful for the impact she has made on my life and in our community.
Hobbies? Learning (trying) to cook, working out, and enjoying the movies with friends and popcorn (if considered a hobby)
What made Jazmine such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2020?
Jazmine and I clicked from early on in her program during the Pre-Fall term of her 1st year. She and I began meeting regularly to strategize on her transition back to higher education and to business school, creating action plans early on for her success. I recognized how self-aware, passionate, and driven she was and knew very early on she was not someone to back down from any challenge. I have always admired her work ethic and ability to balance school and student life, recruiting, extra-curricular activities, while also taking wellness breaks and time away from business school life.
During the Winter and Spring term of 2019, Jazmine was elected by her peers to serve as the Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion for the Graduate Business Council (GBC) of the Simon Business School. This student-led organization works closely with administration and students in order to create programming that builds community, offers support, promotes professional development and builds up students beyond what our curriculum offers. In this position, she was also named President of the Simon Diversity & Inclusion Ambassadors, which she helped rebrand and recreate the structure of the organization by introducing the Simon Diversity & Inclusion Center of Excellence.
Through these roles, she brought our community together with events such as the Diversity & Inclusions Talent Show, 2nd Annual Diversity & Inclusion Week leading up to the Simon Business School Diversity Conference, and Simon Global Showcase in collaboration with International Education Week. She also created and led a student-focused Diversity Advisory Council of ten full-time students who meet monthly for community-based diversity discussions and climate within our community.
Jazmine has helped build a culture of accountability that encouraged our various Diversity-based clubs to collaborate more frequently. She takes her responsibilities seriously and manages to balance them with the pursuit of her MBA while supporting those with whom she works. Summarizing her achievements in a couple of sentences should in no way simplify all that she has accomplished, as it has gone far in strengthening and educating our community in the space of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
The Simon Business School is a better place having Jazmine as part of our student community, and soon to be alumni community. I look forward to watching her grow professionally and personally and I know she will find success in anything and everything she does.
Nathan KadarDirector of Student LifeSimon Business School, University of Rochester
DONT MISS: THE ENTIRE 2020 MBAS TO WATCH or THE BEST & BRIGHTEST MBAS OF 2020
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2020 MBAs To Watch: Jazmine Carter, University of Rochester (Simon) - Poets&Quants
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