Daily Archives: August 26, 2020

Start Your Natural Makeup Journey with These 19 Long-Lasting Brands – Greatist

Posted: August 26, 2020 at 4:36 pm

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There should be a word for that overwhelming feeling one gets when attempting to read the ingredient list on a beauty product the sheer number of syllables in some of those ingredients is enough to have us tongue-tied.

It takes a lot of science (not to mention naming conventions) to create the modern products we adoringly apply to our bodies. And for some of us, the seemingly foreign nature of these ingredients can feel scary and unsafe.

So if the idea of your makeup being natural, organic, and nontoxic simply makes you feel more secure, we totally get it.

Unfortunately, defining natural in beauty products is a bit like trying to nail jello to the wall. In fact, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has never defined the term, nor has it established a regulatory definition for it in cosmetic labeling.

Unfortunately, terms like natural and organic are often marketing speak so many brands falsely claim to be natural and organic so it takes away from the meaning, says Angelina Umansky, owner of San Franciscos Spa Radiance.

Thats why its important to do your research and be extra discerning when you go out shopping for natural makeup. A great place to start is the clean beauty store Credo, which created specific standards for the products it carries because of the absence of overarching industry regulations.

Here are three things to consider when deciding if a product or brand is right for you:

Natural doesnt equal safe

Every person reacts differently to ingredients and you can still very much be allergic to an ingredient in a natural product. The safest way to start using a new product is with a patch test. Dab it on your wrist and give it 24 hours to see if a reaction occurs.

With all that information in mind, here are 19 natural makeup products that meet either the strict standards set forth by Credo or the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

For the purposes of this roundup, we included brands that use natural packaging methods when possible and applicable (think: recyclable and eco-friendly) and we specifically looked for products that use non-synthetic ingredients, including non-synthetic fragrances.

Price guide:

What is leaping bunny certified?

Leaping Bunny is a third-party certification process overseen by a coalition of eight animal protection agencies. When something is Leaping Bunny certified it guarantees a product was produced without harming animals.

100% Pure has a boatload of beauty and skin care products, including a wide range of makeup products. Boasting toxin-free ingredients, many of their shades are tinted with fruit, instead of harsh dyes.

They also run a philanthropy program where they donate a dog food meal to a shelter dog every time an order is made.

Founder Tata Harper launched the line after her stepfather was diagnosed with skin cancer and felt dissatisfied with the natural products available on the market.

The line is mostly made up of serums, moisturizers, and other skin care goods makeup options do not include foundations, but their tinted lip balms and lip/cheek tints are seriously amazing.

The founders of Vapour set out to offer eco-friendly beauty products that stood up against the durability and quality of conventional products. They use minerals and carmine (which is, interestingly, derived from the body and eggs of a scale insect) to tint their products instead of synthetics.

If youre the type who Googles every ingredient in a product before you click buy, youll love Clove + Hallow. Every product made by the brand uses a combination of no more than 15 gentle ingredients.

The brand is also big on advocacy, donating $3,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and donating $1 for every order shipped out of our warehouse including e-commerce, Amazon, retailers, and distributors to the Loveland Foundation.

Founded by three artist sisters who are heavily involved in the development of each pigment, this brand also prides itself on using as few ingredients as possible for each formula. They also have a handy ingredient encyclopedia so that you can easily read about what a product contains.

Kosas has a huge collection of makeup, with a range of luxuriously-named (hello Rosewater lipstick, you sound lovely) tints and pigments. Theyve also banned over 2,700 harsh ingredients and adhere to the Sephora and Credo clean standards.

This brand has donated over $1,000,000 to charities like Look Good Feel Better which teaches beauty techniques to people with cancer and i-tri, a community-based program that fosters self-respect, personal empowerment, self-confidence, positive body image and healthy lifestyle choices for adolescent girls.

Bite products come in a variety of bold, pigmented colors that stand up remarkably against conventional products. Theyre big on innovation and have all their products tested by a third party to ensure theyre clean and safe.

In addition to using high quality, pure ingredients, Alima is focused on being environmentally conscious.

Theyre a carbon-neutral company, offsetting 100 percent of their carbon emissions, and theyre enrolled in a Green Source Renewable Power Program, which derives power from 100 percent renewable sources.

Started by two beauty loving BFFs, Kari Gran makes makeup thats clean and eco-conscious. Their products are all hand-poured. This means everything is created in a small-scale environment, not outsourced to a larger factory like many conventional products are.

Theyve also partner with the Plastic Bank to become what they call one hundred percent plastic neutral. This means that every time they send you an item in plastic, they collect and recycle the same amount of ocean-bound plastic.

This plant-based beauty company is all about the power of antioxidants.

According to their site, the reason their formulas stand out in the beauty industry is because theyre made with an antioxidant and vitamin-rich organic botanical juice base, rather than PEGS/petroleum derivatives or water commonly found in conventional products.

Ilia takes a skin care angle to its makeup, working to incorporate skin-protective ingredients (like SPF) into its for formulas.

They offer a variety of options and markets itself as clean beauty, stating, not every natural ingredient is good for the skin, nor is every synthetic bad. Clean beauty is where those two collide with conscious, carefully-selected ingredients, and no compromises.

This OG natural product line has been around since the early 90s (and has quite the backstory). While the products have become considerably more complicated than the beeswax lip balm the brand was founded with, the company strives to preserve the nature-forward reputation of its products.

RMS Creator and celebrity makeup artist, Rose Marie Swift launched the line after 35 years in the fashion and makeup industry. All products are created using minimal heat in the manufacturing process, which the brand claims helps maintain the beneficial properties of the nutrients.

Exa is Credos new line, which is mainly made up of natural and naturally-derived ingredients, and priced to be more accessible at $38.

Exa also donates a percentage of proceeds to Womens Voices for the Earth, an organization that amplifies womens voices to eliminate the chemicals that harm our health and our communities.

HAN pigments are derived from plants and vegetables, including rose, argan, carrot, and beetroot. Refreshingly, the brand is clear that they are not an organic brand, citing the fact that the FDA doesnt define or regulate the term organic in cosmetics.

HAN has partnered with local Bay Area organization Compass Family Services, which works to address the growing family homelessness crisis in San Francisco, as well as Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP), a policy and advocacy nonprofit that works to prevent breast cancer by reducing exposure to toxic chemicals.

Founder Alicia Scott says she was inspired to create the line when she noticed the lack of diverse shades available on the market.

So she created this nontoxic line of makeup that caters to all skin tones and genders. And they have a pretty great catch phrase: We are clean beauty for the forgotten shades.

Hi Wildflower is a pretty niche beauty company, carrying only botanical lipsticks, eye shadow, and perfumes. That being said, the have a bunch of fresh, whimsical tints that are worth giving a look through.

The brand also focuses on being socially conscious, supporting organizations Like Girls Write Now, Arte and Resistance Education, Black Lives Matter.

Founder Kim Roxie set out to create a natural, safe beauty brand for women of color after working as a makeup artist and being appalled by the ingredients used in mainstream products. The result is an inclusive set of products that welcomes all skin tones.

Michelle Konstantinovsky is a San Francisco-based journalist, marketing specialist, ghostwriter, and UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism alumna. Shes written extensively on health, body image, entertainment, lifestyle, design, and tech.

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WHY SHILLONG NO LONGER PANICS AT THE WORD CALLED ATHEISM – The Shillong Times

Posted: at 4:34 pm

By Tarun Bhartiya

I quaked with fear when I read Wandashisha Laloo and Darity Wahlangs letter (ST 20/08/20) No Nation for Atheists and their burning fear of Terrorists called Atheists. As an ageing atheist (I prefer Secular Humanist), who counts deeply religious people as friends and family, I was worried. I started looking for any terrorist weapon I may have accidently forgotten in my closet. I found a slightly dog eared Christopher Hitchens, a turmeric stained Carvaka, heavily underlined text of Jaspers/Bultmann debate and my favourite, Why I am an Atheist by Bhagat Singh, a book he wrote while waiting to be hanged by the British. I was reassured. I even started looking for my passport fearing the imminent exile they were advocating for the Godless like me. Then I realised that Laloo & Wahlangs letter is a panicked expression of a group who see their world and ideas moving into the dusty corner of historical irrelevance and their frustration at not being able to pray their insignificance away. I felt sorry for them because their letter acknowledged that Shillong is no longer the religion/god obsessed place it used to be. There are growing groups of Atheists, Agnostics, Secular Humanists, for whom churches, temples, mosques, Jesus etc. no longer make sense and they have the confidence to publicly raise questions about the theistic view of the world. So confident in fact that, one or two of them even build crazy educational castles in the air!

I talk to the terroristic godless/sceptical bunch (some of them just out of Sunday school) and theypoint me to almost hilariously deluded view of history and civilisation the authors of the letter seem to hold. If organised religiosity was the driving force of civilisational change, then we would be stuck believing the Geocentric notion of the solar system, immutability of caste hierarchies, second class status of women, and mass killings of LGBTQ people. If theists continued to run the world, we would have no democracy, judiciary, medicine and yes even Seat Belts. There would have been just sovereignty of the divine and beautifully sung hymns, qawwali and bhajans.

But we have cars, string theory, democracy, understanding of evolutionary processes, Korean pop, televangelism, online prayer requests etc. And all these came about not because god obsessed religious bhakts ran the affairs of the world but because people, both theists and atheists, questioned religious orthodoxy. These believing and non-believing heretics shared a healthy dose of scepticism towards the closed-minded fanaticism of orthodox theism. Many of these terroristic people faced the wrath of the theists, Giordano Bruno was burnt, Galileo silenced, Kabir beaten up. If the Nation was without Atheists (or blasphemers and heretics) as Laloo & Wahlang earnestly wish, the civilisation would have been static and unchanging. You need blasphemers and heretics to drag the Civilisation forward.

Human history is not just a history of godly belief but a struggle between those who would have humanity constrained by godly fear and those who would rock the boat. Non-belief and scepticism is not a modern vice but an ancient human pursuit. Like Lokayata thinkers in India who questioned the divine origins of Vedas or the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus who said:

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

But Laloo & Wahlangs panic is not just about the reality of the Creator or her actions in the world, the worldview of panic-stricken theist is also underpinned by the idea of the correct path to that creator. The exclusivist view that sectarian religion inculcates in their followers, Jesus good, Muhammed bad, Vishnu powerful, Satan bad, has led to wars and genocide. Closer home the frothing Hindutva fanatics fantasising about the abolition of mlecchas or some Christians in Mylliem stopping the cremation of the people of indigenous faith, the liturgical litany of the faithful is littered with the judgementalism of the faithful. The faithful will have you saved, have eternal life, or escape the eternal cycle of Karma only if you believe in their preferred idea of god. For them, their god is true God and all other gods are the false ones. Atheists just take the notion of false god, one god ahead. For the atheists, all Gods are false.

I wouldnt trouble Laloo & Wahlang with deep theological questioning of the mythological divine that Christian theologians like Bultmann have subjected the faith to or lead them onto to the debates on the existentialist invention of God but point them towhat Pope Francis said about the meaning of an honest life. He said that it is better to be an Atheist who intervenes in the course of history to question consensus, alleviate pain and achieve justice rather than a religious person who leads a double life.

Growing up an atheist or a secular humanist in Shillong for us is no longer a lonely affair. So many young people are choosing secular reason and scepticism. Religion with its deadening rituals is becoming less and less important. As a member of a decade old Shillong Humanists (facebook.com/groups/shillonghumanists), it has been heartening to see that COVID19 has brought in more members per day than what we have ever had in the past. It is moving to see that there are people not jumping at irrationalism or prayers in this global crisis. Shillong Humanists are an eclectic group theists and atheists, sceptics and contrarians but all committed to rational discussion, civil discourse and sometimes blasphemous humour. We welcome atheists, agnostics and religious people from Shillong who make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values. We take responsibility for our actions and base our ethics on the goals of human welfare, happiness and fulfilment. We seek to make the best of the one life we have by creating meaning and purpose for ourselves, individually and together. We defend a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.

Unlike Wandashisha Laloo and Darity Wahlang, we would never say that there should be NO NATION FOR THEISTS. We would defend their right to irrelevant belief and their right to express it freely. And anyway my personal enjoyment of religious music and art would be thwarted if the Theists did not exist.

(Tarun Bhartiya makes films and photographs and writes Hindi poetry. He is a member of Shillong Humanists and enjoys Bach and Bulle Shah.The author would like to thank the members of Shillong Humanists on the first draft of this essay. Email:[emailprotected])

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The Lord Muruga controversy blows up in the face of the Karuppar Koottam. Another conversion mafia attempt falls flat? – PGurus

Posted: at 4:34 pm

The main agenda of conversion mafia is to destroy Hinduism

The controversies about Hindusim was started from the late 1950s, while E V Ramasamy broke lord Ganapathis Idol and late DMK C M Annadurais hate speech about Madurai Meenakshi Amman. Atheism is not a wrong thing, but targeted atheism is!

E V Ramasamy mostly opposed Hinduism, and to avoid getting anti-Hindu name, just added some controversial words about other religions, and there is evidence for Annadurai meeting with the Pope (Image below), so this makes the doubt whether these leaders are paid by the Vatican?

Because Hinduism is the strongest religion than all the other, where the people wont get convert easily, and research says that Sanatana Dharma Hinduism is the worlds first religion. This is the main reason for the conversion mafia to act against Hinduism.

So in order to destroy it and convert Hindus to other religions, the conversion mafia paid a lot to Annadurai, E V Ramasamy and a team for them called Dravidar Kazhagam. And the people wont accept atheism so easily, so they gave first priority to Tamil, they gave the language fury!

And these kinds of teams get bigger and more day by day, and now there are many Dravidian parties, organizations, etc. Their main agenda is to destroy Hinduism. Mocking Hinduism, where thousands of Hindus gathered in a stage is an ordinary thing for them.

And now on this modern digital generation, those Dravidian Parties and organizations started their anti-Hindu canvas online also, all the social media were their field. They started meme pages and uploaded troll memes and videos about Hindu sentiments, and now there are many anti-Hindu Youtube channels, one among them is Karuppar Kootam. This channel is funded by DMK, the proofs of DMK IT Wing Head P Thiyaga Rajan with the workers of Karuppar Kootam is there (Image below).

And now DMK has one more motive in it, if a Hindu turning as atheist or to another religion, then his vote will directly come to DMK. For increasing the minority & atheist vote bank, these kinds of works are being done by DMK.

Kandha Shashti Kavasam was written by Bala Devaraya Swamigal, He wrote this because when he had health problems, he tried to commit suicide, but Lord Murugan came in his dream and asked him to reach his temple, while he went there many people with all kinds of health problems were staying in the temple, so he wrote that in order to pray Lord Murugan to cure diseases of all the parts.

There is a controversy going on for the past few days, and they claim that Kandha Shashti Kavasam consists of erotics. Lets see whats wrong in Kandha Shashti Kavasam.

(To protect Cherila Mulaimar Thiruvel)

This line is about praying to Lord Murugan in order to save the Breast of the woman if this is wrong? Then why should the government itself advertise about breast cancer awareness?

This line is about praying to Lord Murugan in order to save the male and female parts if this is wrong? Then why should the government allow to advertise the channels regarding lack of masculinity and Vaginal cancer?

This line is about praying to Lord Murugan in order to save the Buttocks if this is wrong? Then why should the government allow to advertise about Piles in every nook and corner of the streets?

God is more than anything, so praying to God in order to save the private part is not a crime! And this being made as a crime by the conversion mafia and their related organizations.

An atheist speaking about this is not a big deal, but in previous days, they divided the Hindu gods as Aryan gods and Tamil gods. Where Lord Ramar is an Aryan god, and Lord Murugan is a Tamil god. And the shocking thing was, some Hindus agreed that.

But now they made controversy with a one which they called as a Tamil god. Lord Murugan is equal for Hindus from all the castes, there is no priority. So the people woke up.

But this video came about 6 months ago, but everyone opposing it now, and thats being a question, why now? This is because of a famous Youtuber, Maridhas used this Karuppar Kootams video as a reference, and so that reached everything nook and corner.

This made a huge impact in Tamilnadu, where most of the Hindus united against Karuppar Kootam! Even the secular people from the other religions are showing their support to Lord Muruga. The proofs of Karuppar Kootam in connection with Dravidian leaders are being spread, this issue back-fired DMK. And it is expected that this will impact in 2021 Tamilnadu elections.

Famous actor Rajinikanth who is supposed to contest 2021 elections, took this issue as his favour, so it is being expected that most of the Hindus from DMK, will move to Rajinikanth.

People have to read and clarify the whole thing, whenever this kind of problem occurs.

! (Vetrivel Veeravel! Murugan Devotional Song)

Note:1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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Communist revolution – The Herald-News

Posted: at 4:34 pm

To the Editor:

Riots, charges of racism, tearing down statues, burning down buildings, taking over parts of cities, attackers killing innocent people, attacks on or defunding police are part of a communist revolution.

We militarily triumphed over communism in the past, but now we have Marxist professors indoctrinating students, Democrat politicians largely are communist/socialist, and the Chinese Communist Party financially influences politicians, sports and the media.

Many people are unwittingly helping because they have been indoctrinated and are unaware of the problems and horrible history of socialism. Socialism never worked anywhere, forbids private property, stifles liberty, destroys free enterprise, depends on dictatorship to obtain and hold power and killed 100 million victims. Socialism is based on atheism. It preaches class warfare, including racism, oppression and victimization. It demands equal outcomes, regardless of efforts or ability.

Democrats and Black Lives Matter are following the communist approach: take away the peoples guns, remove the police and substitute their own security force like the Muslim Sharia patrols in parts of New York. Democratic mayors ordering police and firefighters to stand down while criminals loot and burn are failing to do their job and are aiding and abetting criminals. They should be recalled and prosecuted. The common denominator with all cities with the violence and riots is that they are run by Democrats.

Many of the violent riots are more about revolution than race. The leaders of BLM are trained Marxists. They have no concern about thousands of Blacks murdered by other Blacks in Chicago, by Planned Parenthood or of murdered Black police officers. The gateway pundit said funding to blacklivesmatter.com goes directly to the DNC.

A vote for a Democrat is a vote for communism.

Robert Lemke

Joliet

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SpaceX hopes to ‘hop’ another Starship prototype this weekend – CNET

Posted: at 4:33 pm

SN5 blasts off earlier in August.

If you missed it the first time around, there may be another opportunity, in the coming days, to see an early version of Elon Musk's Mars rocket take a very short flight.

SpaceX has been working at its Boca Chica, Texas, site to develop Starship, its next-generation spacecraft designed to eventually take people to the moon, Mars and even farther.

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Earlier this month a single-engine Starship prototype labeled SN5 successfully made its first "hop," which was a short flight of nearly 500 feet in altitude, followed by a controlled landing not far from the launch pad.

Now playing: Watch this: SpaceX Starship prototype takes first 'hop'

1:01

We saw the same feat performed by a smaller prototype dubbed Starhopperin 2019, but the far larger SN series is designed to be capable of orbital flight. It's not clear when we might see that, but Musk has said the plan is to do a series of hops in order to work up to higher altitude flights.

Cameron County, Texas, where the development site is located, has issued an all-day road closure for this Friday, with backup dates on Saturday and Sunday, suggesting that SpaceX hopes to hop SN6, its next prototype, this weekend.

Of course, we've seen these closures issued and then canceled before, and there's some nasty weather nearby. Still, fingers crossed. Anything that looks like progress is a welcome diversion these days.

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Texas tries nation’s first virtual criminal trial – Sealy News

Posted: at 4:33 pm

By Chris Cobler Capital Highlights

A Texans speeding ticket put her in the legal history books last week.To combat the backlog in criminal cases created by the pandemic, a Travis County justice of the peace conducted the nations first virtual criminal trial. The case was livestreamed on YouTube, and the jurors deliberated in a private Zoom room.Legal experts debated whether trial by Zoom properly balanced constitutional concerns such as the right to a speedy trial and the right to confront witnesses.The test case? A nurses misdemeanor ticket for speeding in a construction zone. The jury found the nurse, Calli Kornblau, guilty of speeding but acquitted her of the construction zone violation. She received a deferred sentence and was ordered to pay a $50 fine, plus court costs.The jury is still out on whether Zoom is the courthouse of the future. The Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association had some fun on Twitter with the practice: A JP is having a virtual jury trial this morning on a speeding ticket. Does that mean the JP will have to have virtual coffee with the police officer before the trial starts, too?

Texas docs: Get your shotsTexas doctors are taking their best shot at encouraging people to get immunized.August is National Immunization Month, and the Texas Medical Association is distributing a series of columns by physicians in support of vaccinations.Vaccines are among the safest and most effective tools available to and used by physicians. Yet vaccine hesitancy and even refusal are increasing, Dr. Sue Bornstein, a Texas Medical Association board member, wrote in her column.Doctors should make recommending vaccinations a part of routine patient visits, she said. The pandemic makes this even more important as researchers race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, she added.

This job will take you placesSpaceX aims to put people on Mars from its launch site near Brownsville. First, though, the spaceport needs an out-of-this-world resort.The company placed an unusual help-wanted ad last week: for a resort manager in the tiny unincorporated Boca Chica Village near Brownsville on the mouth of the Rio Grande River. The right candidate will develop the resort from inception to completion, according to the ad.The job requires a bachelors degree and five-plus years of experience in construction management. One additional requirement: Must be able to travel for short and extended trips as needed.SpaceX, which made history recently as the first private company to send astronauts safely to space and back, also released footage of a successful 150-meter hop Aug. 4 by its Starship SN5 prototype.

Ports-to-Plains planThe Ports-to-Plains corridor study of Interstate 27 will be navigated during a virtual public hearing at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, and Wednesday, Aug. 26.Texas Department of Transportation officials will make the presentation and allow time for public comment. People also may mail or email comments about the study until Sept. 10.The Legislature approved last session a study of expanding I-27. The interstate runs from Amarillo to Lubbock. The plan calls for extending the road north of Amarillo and south about 500 miles from Lubbock to Laredo.To join the WebEx public hearing, go to TxDOT.gov. For questions, call 512-486-5106.

How many hats can a Texas deputy wear?People who live in Texas small towns are used to wearing a multitude of hats.But the Culberson County attorney isnt sure a chief deputy also can serve as an elected alderman, or city council member. County Attorney Stephen Mitchell filed a request last week for an opinion from the Texas attorney generals office. He attached a 1975 AG opinion that such wearing of multiple hats was not legal.The deputy ran for and was elected as an alderman in Van Horn, the Culberson County seat in West Texas. He has since been promoted to chief deputy.Issues have been raised about dual-office holding, inasmuch as both offices pay sums of money to the deputy on a monthly basis, the county attorney wrote. Additionally, there appear to be issues regarding common law or constitutional conflicts of interest.

The yin and yang of ranchingThe Future of the Wildlife Enterprise will be at your fingertips through a free Zoom symposium offered by two departments at Texas A&M-Kingsville.The Oct. 29-30 sessions will highlight the challenges and opportunities of balancing ranching and wildlife resources. Registration is required and free. Visit krirm.tamuk.edu/symposium to register and download the complete agenda.

CorrectionThe Texas Primary Care Consortium sent an open letter to Gov. Greg Abbott to ask him to take a variety of steps to increase residents access to health care. Last weeks column incorrectly reported the organizations name.Chris Cobler is a board member and past president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. He welcomes email at ccobler@texaspress.com.

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Tesla’s Elon Musk Leads the Top 10 Billionaires in Weekly Gains Alongside Dan Gilber and Jeff Bezos – Tech Times

Posted: at 4:33 pm

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - MAY 30: Spacex founder Elon Musk celebrates after the successful launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the manned Crew Dragon spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Earlier in the day NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley lifted off an inaugural flight and will be the first people since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011 to be launched into space from the United States. ( (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) )

Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, lead the charts for the most gained profits for this week, securing his spot in the fifth all-time richest men in the world, and amassing an additional $15 billion to add to his net worth. Musk is accompanied by Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos and Quicken Loans' Dan Gilbert.

Elon Musk owes his rise in the stock market and fortunes to China's surge and demand for electric vehicles with Tesla providing for the market.

Musk's earnings total to $91.7 billion from hisprevious milestoneof reaching Forbes' fifth place in the Richest Men in the World list and top four in Bloomberg's Billionaire index.Forbesreport that this new feat by Musk made Tesla the world's most valuable and sought after car manufacturer in the world.

Another American billionaire who became a top owner for this week isDan Gilbert, a businessman best known for his mortgage and lending company, Quicken Loans, which he started back when he was only 22 years old. Dan Giilbert also owns the NBA Team, Cleveland Cavaliers. Gilbert's earnings totaled to a whopping sum of $14 billion that almost levels him with Elon Musk.

Amazon.com CEO, Jeff Bezos, is the third biggest gainer on this list that bumps the world's richest man another $7.6 billion in earnings and makes him hit a new all-time high. Amazon's shares rose by four percent and leveled off since then.

The rise in the fortunes and earnings of these three billionaires contributed to a massive spike in the S&P 500 index. This surge reported an all-time high. Musk, Gilbert, and Bezos's increase in profits reversed the stock market's losses since its crash in March of this year.

ALSO READ: Elon Musk Admits Not 'Biggest Fan' of Nikola Tesla-- the Man Behind His Car Brand

The massive earnings of the three record-breaking billionaires marked a significant milestone in reversing a crash in the stock market despite the S&P 500, maintaining a leveled graph while monitoring the changes. The world's top ten billionaires gained a massive $53.4 billion in earnings just this week.

(Photo : (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images))BOCA CHICA, TX - SEPTEMBER 28: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gives an update on the next-generation Starship spacecraft at the company's Texas launch facility on September 28, 2019 in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas. The Starship spacecraft is a massive vehicle meant to take people to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Elon Musk's Tesla grew by 24 percent and gave him a $15 billion earnings for this week that added to his sum of $91.7 billion. Tesla's stocks rose and surpassed Walmart's market cap. Musk is now gaining a massive demand for electric vehicles from China, which has its production there.

(Photo : (Photo by Scott Legato/Getty Images for AOL Autoblog))DETROIT, MI - OCTOBER 06: Founder and Chairman, Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures Majority Owner, 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers Dan Gilbert speaks during Autoblog UPSHIFT 2016 on October 6, 2016 in Detroit, Michigan.

Dan Gilbert's rise in earnings put him ahead of Mexican telecoms CEO Carlos Slim Helu, the former richest person on the planet up until Bill Gates take over in 2013. Quicken Loans' parent company, Rocket Companies, gained a 37 percent increase that tops the most substantial soar for this week.

Gilbert's fortune increased six-fold, totaling $53.5 billion in his net worth. Quicken Loans' founder gained $13 billion this week and a hefty $4 billion only for Friday. Currently, Gilbert is the 20th wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes.

(Photo : (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Amazon))WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 19: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announces the co-founding of The Climate Pledge at the National Press Club on September 19, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com gained another increase in his fortunes that makes him untouchable from his current designation as the richest man in the world. Bezos's four percent increase totals to $7.6 billion added to his record-breaking 70% increase in 2020 alone.

Currently, Bezos has a total of $196.3 billion of earnings alone. On the other hand, MacKenzie Scott, Bezos' ex-wife, also made an increase of $2.6 billion in earnings.

ALSO READ: Apple Only Wants One Thing From Epic's Fortnite: 'Get us Paid!'

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Tesla's Elon Musk Leads the Top 10 Billionaires in Weekly Gains Alongside Dan Gilber and Jeff Bezos - Tech Times

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SpaceX Texas launch site Discussion and Updates – Thread 10 – NASASpaceflight.com

Posted: at 4:33 pm

This is why the water is sprayed into the air as it needs to be in the air to be able to move from the sound traveling through the air. Once it's on the ground it's not really doing anything.

Water deluge is needed near the ground because the sound reflects off surfaces and back on to the rocket effectively creating a variety of different length resonance paths for standing waves to form (different length means different frequency). So you spray water between the rocket exhaust and any non-rocket surfaces to absorb the energy. Edit: This paragraph has a bit of speculation on the idea that standing waves are formed, and it seems to me this is a good hypothesis, but I couldn't find any sources talking about it.

One talks about the Shuttle systems, and it's not so much about resonance and standing waves (which I thought was plausible too), but sheer reflection of energy onto the craft and the structures holding it up. Plus dealing with some hot exhaust, if anybody cared. Apparently it's largely about the compression of bubbles within droplets, as associated with sonar detection management:

https://interestingengineering.com/nasa-sound-suppression-system-prevents-rocket-from-exploding

It's a bit clumsy in referencing both bubbles and molecules at the end. Another neat source of info is from a provider of software for modelling fluid flows:

https://www.aft.com/blog/entry/2017/12/10/shhhh-suppressing-sound-waves

with two neat case-studies referenced therein, albeit more about water-delivery to strict flow-rate requirements, less about the physics of sound suppression, but hey, enjoy . One is a 'hypothetical launch scenario', with a phenomenal number of rainbirds and complex valve timing, the other is a variation on a real KSC pad design. Reflecting others in this thread, the second study there also notes the potential use of an additional N2-pressurised water supply system, running at 200psi (~13.8 bar) to augment a pump/gravity-fed deluge. So, quite possible.

A(nother) surprise to me - permanently mounted enclosed water bags as sound baffles... https://www.vinyltechnology.com/Portfolio/NASA-sound-suppression-system.aspx

For those wanting a bit more physics:

A much geekier paper is "Sixty years of launch vehicle acoustics" https://asa.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1121/2.0000704 - that's the Acoustical Society of America. And turns out these guys at NASA did some work on it too 🙂 https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/ams/2014/AMS_20140408_Panda.pdf

And for a bit of additional academic gravitas, the NASA slides referenced some papers by Dr Fukuda et al at JAXA, and this one looks like a great read: "Examination of Sound Suppression by Water Injection at Lift-off of Launch Vehicles"https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2011-2814

Turns out, there are multiple effects between noise and water, with different efficiencies at different frequencies. Absorption by droplets for the (main) win, in this situation. I can't access the full paper right now, but will see if I can get to it later.

There'll be a quiz for you on all this in the morning

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Not Enough Atoms in the Universe to Model Your Brain – Patheos

Posted: at 4:32 pm

Elon Musk, our real-life Tony Stark, plans to announce this week the progress of his company Neuralink, which is dedicated to developing a Body Machine Interface (BMI); specifically, implanting a computer connection into the human brain.

Musk has described how robotic surgery will sew ultra-fine filaments into the cerebral cortex, which will be able tostream full broadband electrophysiology data into a computer, whereupon asingle USB-C cable provides full-bandwidth data streaming from the device.

So reports Claudia Glover, in Computer Business Review, in her article Your Brain, With a USB Port in It: Elon Musks Neuralink Vision Divides Experts.

The ambitions of those working closely on BMI include, for some, the hope that technology could eventually to be used to connect the human race via a bona fide neural network; allowing people to communicate using thoughts and images rather than words, and even give over their motor function to others, with their consent*. The ideas behind this have their roots in a dizzying transhumanism. . . .

Ideally in the next 50 years some BMI advocates hope to equip those who can afford it with tech that will ostensibly enable them to communicate without speaking, access a hive mind for any information they need and sense their houses and the appliances in them as easily as if they were on their bodies: no more Alexa, do this, or Hey Google You just think it and it happens: an Internet of Things in which you are at one with the things.

Glover interviews those who have high hopes for this technology, but also those who throw cold water on those hopes, explaining why it is dangerous (e.g., the brain doesnt heal like the rest of the body, so sticking things into it can have dire consequences), premature (we arent close to understanding how the brain works), or impossible (even if we did understand how the brain works, plugging it into a computer would do nothing).

Glover comes around to this, more fundamental difficulty. She quotes Oliver Armitage, who himself is working on BMI technologies (my bolds):

Armitage summed up the complexity of the human brain with what he called a theoretically intractable problem: Famously, there arent enough atoms in the universe to build a full model of what every cell is doing [in the brain]. Its a theoretically intractable problem, you cant even conceive of a computer large enough because there isnt enough material in the universe to make it.

We sometimes feel overwhelmed at how small we are in the vastness of the universe. But it appears that as vast as the universe is, your brain is vaster still.That is to say, you are vaster still.

Image byGerd AltmannfromPixabay

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Not Enough Atoms in the Universe to Model Your Brain - Patheos

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Free speech is not free of consequence. Never has been. Never will be. – Virginia Mercury

Posted: at 4:30 pm

For all the hand-wringing over the supposed demise of free speech in this most savage season of politics and social upheaval, expression has never been more uninhibited or robust. I just checked the vitals of the First Amendment and, while its getting a good workout, its just fine.

Turns out, nobody is stopping anybody from saying anything, no matter how brilliant and thought-provoking, or how dirt-stupid and inflammatory. Quite to the contrary, were expressing ourselves abundantly, and in most every medium imaginable.

Its there in the chants and placards and banners of protesters and counter-protesters who have taken to the streets after the police killing of George Floyd. Its pervasive across the cable-news world. Its spray-painted onto monuments and buildings and carefully stenciled in bold, bright, yellow-orange paint on prominent streets in major U.S. cities. It dominates Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and any other social media platform that may have emerged in the past 72 hours. Its present in blogs and op-ed pages, virtual and print.

Were definitely having our say. Flash floods of facts real and alternative as well as ideas and opinions wash into the marketplace of public thought every day, inundating gatekeepers and fact-checkers. In an untamed frontier environment for free expression, the only law seems to be the survival of the loudest and angriest.

Also on the rise is a mistaken belief that free speech is somehow speech free of consequence. Its not: never has been, never will be.

The First Amendment protects us from prior restraint against our right to speak freely. It doesnt confer immunity against adverse reactions and being challenged over the content of that expression. In 2020, the wrong words can destroy businesses, reputations, jobs, family finances and more with breathtaking speed that was once unimaginable.

In the early generations of the Republic, say or publish something false or defamatory or even unfriendly and it might provoke lengthy rebuttals in the form of treatises or pamphlets, lengthy oratorical condemnations, perhaps a fistfight or even a duel with pistols. The 20th century ushered in a more civilized (and litigious) society increasingly inclined to treat hostile speech as torts and resolve them in court.

The speed, breadth, access and portability of todays instantaneous digital forums has hopelessly outrun those legacy forms of redress. Modern retribution for slights, real or perceived, is increasingly taking the form of going after an offenders home or livelihood. Businesses or employers are affected. Phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses are published in a punitive new tactic known as doxing. Occasionally, protests form outside places where targets live and work.

Each days headlines bring fresh examples. Longtime Cincinnati Reds play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman was suspended last week for an anti-gay slur made unwittingly on a hot mic. Stuart Baker, who uses the stage name Unknown Hinson, was fired a week ago as a voice actor on the raunchy cartoon series Squidbillies and sponsors dropped him after a racist and misogynistic social media rant against Dolly Parton for supporting Black Lives Matter. Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. is on an indefinite leave as chancellor and president of the Lynchburg-based Christian school at the request of its governing board over his since-deleted social media post of a photo himself arm-in-arm with a young woman during a yacht party, both with midriffs bared and trouser zippers partially lowered.

After Adult Swim, the cable channel that airs Squidbillies, terminated Baker, he was anything but contrite, returning to social media to profanely excoriate those who had called him out, concluding with Ill remember you bastards.

Losing a title or livelihood is harsh and increasingly commonplace the rules of engagement for the zero-sum game that American social interaction has become. Those trapped by their words or images bitterly complain that their free speech rights are being vioalted, knowing full well that speaking freely is what put them in the predicament. Their hurt and anger is really over the fact that those injured or aggrieved are fighting back with free speech, reaching the eyes and ears of decisionmakers with institutional and business reputations to protect and the power to sever anyone who is a threat.

Some argue that such a dog-eat-dog construct is an appropriate application of a self-correcting marketplace, laissez faire taken to its ultimate conclusion. There is sometimes a satisfying sort of instant justice to it. But when done outside a thorough deliberative process, it gives rise to a corrosive vigilantism more suited to a dystopic, neo-noir future world.

The dangers of such an environment are considerable. It overwhelmingly favors the prevailing national mood and punishes those holding dissenting views more harshly with little or no due process. Nor does it apply equally: Donald Trump cruelly mocked a handicapped journalist, exhorted a hostile foreign power to undermine his election opponent and lewdly boasted of his unwanted advances against women. Any of those would have destroyed most careers, yet Trump was elected president.

What has atrophied and teeters at the brink of death isnt free speech, its responsibility and civility. America is well along the path of deteriorating from one nation under God, indivisible into a collection of insular tribes which hold rigid, unquestioning ideologies and allegiances; which are sustained by an unceasing, self-selected flow of propaganda, and; which are bereft of empathy, understanding or the benefit of the doubt. They are silos where conformity prevails and conflict supplants conversation with those on the outside.

It is a dangerous and unsustainable direction. Free speech cant long survive untethered from responsibility and civility.

Without responsibility, a cynicism takes hold that erodes all trust. Institutions with high standards and proven records of veracity in reporting on vital public issues are delegitimized in the public mind as fake news until their standing is, to many, comparable to that of the vile conspiracy fictions of QAnon or foreign troll shops.

Without civility, weve lost even the motivation to view fellow Americans as allies worthy of partnership in this continuing experiment in informed self-government. When we see opponents as not just holding different ideals but as malevolent, the motivation is to conquer and prevail rather than to listen to one another, to consider fact and evidence, to find consensus on truths we still hold to be self-evident and, from that, prudently chart an agreeable best future for our country.

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Free speech is not free of consequence. Never has been. Never will be. - Virginia Mercury

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