Monthly Archives: June 2021

Small terrestrial planets, where we might find life outside of our solar system, are profoundly impacted by atmosphere loss. We have no idea how common atmospheric restoration is, but it is going to be important in the long-term study of potential habitable worlds.Researchers have long been curious about how atmospheres on rocky exoplanets might evolve. The evolution of our own atmosphere is one model: Earths primordial atmosphere was rich in hydrogen and helium, but our planets gravitational grip was too weak to prevent these lightest of elements from escaping into space. Researchers want to know whether the atmospheres on Earth-like exoplanets experience a similar evolution.

By analyzing spectroscopic data taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, Mark Swain and his team were able to describe one scenario for atmospheric evolution on Gliese 1132 b (GJ 1132 b), a rocky exoplanet similar in size and density to Earth. In a new study published in the Astronomical Journal, Swain and his colleagues suggest that GJ 1132 b has restored its hydrogen-rich atmosphere after having lost it early in the exoplanets history.

Small terrestrial planets, where we might find life outside of our solar system, are profoundly impacted by atmosphere loss, said Swain, a research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. We have no idea how common atmospheric restoration is, but it is going to be important in the long-term study of potential habitable worlds.

GJ 1132 b closely orbits the red dwarf Gliese 1132, about 40 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Vela. Using Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3, Swain and his team gathered transmission spectrum data as the planet transited in front of the star four times. They checked for the presence of an atmosphere with a tool called Exoplanet Calibration Bayesian Unified Retrieval Pipeline (EXCALIBUR). To their surprise, they detected an atmosphere on GJ 1132 bone with a remarkable composition.

Atmosphere can come back, but we were not expecting to find the second atmosphere rich in hydrogen, said Raissa Estrela, a postdoctoral fellow at JPL and a contributing author on the paper. We expected a heavier atmosphere, like the nitrogen-rich one on Earth.

To explain the presence of hydrogen in the atmosphere, researchers considered the evolution of the exoplanets surface, including possible volcanic activity. Like early Earth, GJ 1132 b was likely initially covered by magma. As such planets age and cool, denser substances sink down to the core and mantle and lighter substances solidify as crust and create a rocky surface.

Swain and his team proposed that a portion of GJ 1132 bs primordial atmosphere, rather than being lost to space, was absorbed by its magmatic sea before the exoplanets interior differentiated. As the planet aged, its thin crust would have acted as a cap on the hydrogen-infused mantle below. If tidal heating prevented the mantle from crystallizing, the trapped hydrogen would escape slowly through the crust and continually resupply the emerging atmosphere.

This may be the first paper that explores an observational connection between the atmosphere of a rocky exoplanet and some of the [contributing] geologic processes, said Swain. We were able to make a statement that there is outgassing [that has been] more or less ongoing because the atmosphere is not sustainable. It requires replenishment.

I find the idea of a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere to be a really implausible story.Not everyone agrees.

I find the idea of a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere to be a really implausible story, said Raymond Pierrehumbert, Halley Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, who did not contribute to the study.

Pierrehumbert pointed to a preprint article from a team of scientists led by Lorenzo V. Mugnai, a Ph.D. student in astrophysics at Sapienza University of Rome. Mugnais team examined the same data from GJ 1132 b as Swains did, but did not identify a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

According to Pierrehumbert, the devil is in the details of how the data were analyzed. Most notably, Mugnais team used different software (Iraclis) to analyze the Hubble transit data. Later, Mugnai and his group repeated their analysis using another set of tools (Calibration of Transit Spectroscopy Using Causal Data, or CASCADe) when they saw how profoundly different their findings were.

We used two different software programs to analyze the space telescope data, said Mugnai. Both of them lead us to the same answer; its different from the one found in [Swains] work.

Another preprint article, by a team led by University of Colorado graduate student Jessica Libby-Roberts, supported Mugnais findings. That study, which also used the Iraclis pipeline, ruled out the presence of a cloud-free, hydrogen- or helium-dominated atmosphere on GJ 1132 b. The analysis did not negate an atmosphere on the planet, just one detectable by Hubble (i.e., hydrogen-rich). This group proposed a secondary atmosphere with a high metallicity (similar to Venus), an oxygen-dominated atmosphere, or perhaps no atmosphere at all.

The research groups led by Swain and Mugnai have engaged in constructive conversations to identify the reason for the differences, specifically why the EXCALIBUR, Iraclis, and CASCADe software pipelines are producing such different results.

We are very proud and happy of this collaboration, said Mugnai. Its proof of how different results can be used to learn more from each other and help the growth of [the entire] scientific community.

I think both [of our] teams are really motivated by a desire to understand whats going on, said Swain.

Every rocky exoplanet is a world of possibilities. JWST is expected to provide the first opportunity to search for signs of habitability and biosignatures in the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets. We are on the brink of beginning to answer [many of] these questions.According to Pierrehumbert, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may offer a solution to this quandary. JWST will allow for the detection of atmospheres with higher molecular weights, like the nitrogen-dominated atmosphere on Earth. If GJ 1132 b lacks an atmosphere, JWSTs infrared capabilities may even allow scientists to observe the planets surface. If there are magma pools or volcanism going on, those areas will be hotter, Swain explained in a statement. That will generate more emission, and so theyll be looking potentially at the actual geologic activitywhich is exciting!

GJ 1132 b is slated for two observational passes when JWST comes online. Kevin Stevenson, a staff astronomer at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, a postdoctoral fellow there, will lead the teams.

Every rocky exoplanet is a world of possibilities, said Lustig-Yaeger. JWST is expected to provide the first opportunity to search for signs of habitability and biosignatures in the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets. We are on the brink of beginning to answer [many of] these questions.

Stacy Kish (@StacyWKish), Science Writer

Excerpt from:

The Possible Evolution of an Exoplanet's Atmosphere - Eos

By Oleksandr Kostikov

Could it be that all AI (artificial intelligence) developers are wrong?

Imagine you have a radio. You use it with ease, and sometimes, you make simple repairs. But what if you want to create a new radio receiver? To do this, you would have to fully understand the design details. You would need to understand not only how the volume control and power supply work, but also where the music comes from.

Likewise, creators of artificial intelligence need to first try to understand how natural intelligence works. Otherwise, instead of a radio, they may end up with a boring and monotonous player.

Everyone thinks that the human brain is a kind of biological computing machine that works according to certain algorithms, and if so, it means that intelligence can be compiled using two simple tools: high computing power and a set of complex algorithms.

In fact, everything is not at all that simple

Neurophysiologists have thoroughly studied the reflex, a stereotypical reaction of a living organism to any external influence. The reflex is not just a scheme of functional activity. It is the basic principle of the organization of any nervous system of a biological type. By itself, it really resembles the principle of the algorithm.

But all this is true only if we are talking about a relatively simple nervous system. With human intelligence, everything is much more complicated.

What is the difference?

Reflex is the standard in neurophysiology. Its basis is the reflex arc, which can be schematically depicted as the response of motor neurons to a stimulus received from sensory neurons. As soon as a stimulus appears, the living organism acts. It is important to understand that the number of neurons participating in the reflex arc and the complexity of the motor reaction do not change the essence of the reflex in any way.

A reflex is always a clear and predetermined sequence: stimulus (neural network) reaction. With the help of a reflex, the nervous system acts according to a pre-selected pattern designed to respond to a specific situation. In other words, a reflex is a kind of stereotype or a tactic of actions within the paradigm of occurring events.

The human brain, like the brain of any other living organism, often operates according to the traditional pattern of reflex responses, except in situations where consciousness or intellect is used to make decisions.

At this moment, everything changes!

If our brain uses an intelligent (intellectual) reaction scheme to respond to an external stimulus, the first thing that becomes necessary is to form an abstract image with which we identify the surrounding reality.

Simply put, we must first understand what is going on.

This is how we interpret what we feel. The created abstract scheme and the subsequent dynamic modeling of the development of the situation form a solution in the form of a sequence of actions that the brain transmits as commands to motor neurons.

Intellect always and in any situation creates its own reality and virtually stands above the process itself invented by itself. So, the mind can identify itself and realize that it really exists. The resulting effect of this model is the ability of our brain to create images and situations that are completely divorced from objective reality and even contradict sensory information entering the brain.

Simply put, the reflex is always inside the situation and is looking for the simplest and most effective way out, and the mind (intellect), on the contrary, is always outside and itself models its vision of the problem and the ways to solve it.

It turns out that intellect (stream of consciousness) and reflex are fundamentally different reaction schemes.

This means that the human brain is a binary system consisting of two functional circuits for responding to arousal. Formally, the reflex system is a subordinate part, but in practice, reflexes are responsible for most of our nervous activity. The stream of consciousness can control only some actions. At the same time, the division of response schemes is so clear that most of the functions of the reflex system, such as controlling the work of the digestive system, cardiovascular, endocrine, and respiratory systems, remained completely inaccessible for conscious or intellectual control.

Mind and reflex are not just different functional schemes for organizing neural activitythey are, in fact, opposite models that cannot be mixed even when we force the brain to sequentially switch the reaction scheme from reflex to consciousness and back in the simplest situations.

You can check this with a simple experiment.

You need to sit near the monitor or just in front of the lamp and ask your assistant to turn on the light unexpectedly for you. In response to the flash, you need to press the button as quickly as possible, which will fix the time between the flash of light and your mechanical reaction in pressing the button. After short training repetitions, you will bring your reaction to automaticity and will be able to react at a speed of 200-220 milliseconds. This is a simple example of a reflex. Your brain uses the standard neural organization scheme for any living organism.

If after that, you try to apply your intellect and intentionally delay the keypress by a little, something amazing will happen. With all the efforts of your brain and no matter how hard you try, you cannot press a button in, say, 250 or 350 milliseconds. Even 400 and 450 (twice the interval) will remain completely inaccessible to you. The closest value you can intellectually give is at least 550 milliseconds.

The task, conditions of the external environment, and the brain remain the same. But a different functional system will cause a drop in the maximum reaction rate by almost three times. The huge, 0.3-second delay shows what it means to realize and turn on the intellect.

In fact, this time difference, which almost no researcher pays attention to, is of great importance.

The speed of movement of a nerve impulse along large fibers of the human nervous system is approximately 100120 meters per second. Therefore, during a delay of almost a third of a second, the signal will have time to travel 3040 meters.

Such a delay is a death sentence in a competitive environment. Human consciousness or intellectual schema is hopelessly lagging the reflex. From the point of view of evolution, this is an unacceptable and extremely harmful change that can in no way appear in the conditions of a real struggle for survival.

The evolutionary process involves sequential change, when new organs or functions provide an immediate competitive advantage, which increases the chance of survival and procreation. Otherwise, new traits have no chance of gaining a foothold in the population.

But we do exist and think. How did it happen?

A reflex is a simple and extremely fast way of reacting, a kind of ideal tactician. On the contrary, the mind is a slow and, in fact, a mechanism for abstract problem solving, divorced from reality, a kind of strategist.

Schematically, we can represent the mind as a rider on a horse. The horse in this example will symbolize the reflex activity of the brain. Not being able to control the movement of the horses legs, the intellect controls only the direction of movement. While the horse (reflex system), in principle, is not able to understand the motivation and purpose of the rider (intellect).

Such a binary system very clearly corresponds to the biological scheme of symbiosis when we are dealing with a binary organism. In this case, intelligence is not the result of gradual evolutionary changes, but an additional functional system that appeared suddenly and did not go through the standard process of evolutionary consolidation. The second or intellectual part of the human central nervous system behaves like a classical symbiont, which, in a limited volume, has received the ability to control the first (reflex) evolutionary formed part of the nervous system.

This has already happened in biological history.

In evolutionary theory, there are three proven cases of symbiotic interactions between two organisms, which eventually created biological constructs of a new type.

This happened when the cell nucleus, mitochondria, and chloroplasts appeared. Each time, evolution did not follow the path of gradual changes, but the method of combining ancient cells into one new biological system with completely new capabilities.

It turns out that intelligence is not at all a happy coincidence, but the result of a rather originalbut at the same time standardevolutionary technique.

This is a very important conclusion that will allow us to get an answer to the main question: how to create realistic artificial intelligence.

In a future article, I will analyze the energy and functional features of the intellectual system of our brain and try to understand the details of unification: symbiosis.

As a result, it will become clear to us how the technology will be created that can build strong AI of a completely new type.

About the author

Dr. Oleksandr Kostikov is a medical doctor by education. He previously worked in a research group dealing with molecular systems in human neocortex synapses at the Department of Physiology of the State Medical University and the Department of Physics of the Ivan Franko University in Lviv, Ukraine. He is now in Canada, where he is working on a new theoretical concept about the nature of intelligence but also allows that aims to to create a completely new unusual type of artificial intelligence.

See more here:

Symbiosis instead of evolution: A new idea about the nature of human intelligence - TechTalks

It is important to preface this piece by stating that Barbados has always been a jurisdiction of substance and high standards when it comes to facilitating Global Business. Notwithstanding this, the way in which adopted global policy has dictated the means of doing business has transformed or better worded, enhanced Barbados position as a Global Services Centre (herein GSC).

Traditionally, Barbados has been known as an offshore jurisdiction or an International Financial Center (herein IFC). It among other developed and developing jurisdictions, has competed to be the best at providing a favorable Investment climate by offering a flexible, dynamic and nimble approach to regulating business within its jurisdiction. This has effectively enabled a wide array of professionals to conceptualize advanced structuring options which maximize the profits and wealth of their clients and businesses.

However, Barbados enhanced its approach to facilitating global business by not only being an advantageous jurisdiction to hold wealth, but to also repatriate wealth from. At current, Barbados has forty plus double tax treaties (herein DTT) and other bilateral agreements which enhance the benefit of various tax structures. These agreements further strengthened not only the image of Barbados as a place to do business, but that doing business in Barbados is acceptable to contracting states of the various treaties.

Unfortunately, a number of global organizations and superpowers, most notably the European Union and the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (herein OECD), took concerned notice of the estimated two third of the worlds wealth being parked offshore within the Caribbean. As a result, Caribbean IFCs such as Barbados, quickly garnered the unfair reputation of being tax havens and thereafter in the global business community became cumbersome to associate with corporate structure strategies. This sentiment was further compounded by means of blacklisting jurisdictions, as doing business from or with parties from blacklisted jurisdictions became increasingly difficult.

The prescribed medicine has come in many forms over the years and most recently through the OECDs Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action Plan (herein BEPS Action Plan). Here, the OECD posited that fundamental changes are actively required to prevent double non-taxation, as well as cases of no or low taxation associated with practices that artificially segregate taxable income from the activities that generate this income. This rhetoric was clearly targeted towards IFCs and in order for them to be taken off of these negative lists, they would have to expressly agree to and implement policy intended to carry out BEPS Action Plan objectives. Specifically, the removal of preferential tax regimes which were deemed to be contributors to harmful tax practices and the implementation of legislation which would force corporate entities to illustrate management and control from within Barbados which was intrinsically linked with the income generated.

Following the dismantling of all preferential regimes and tactically converging its corporation tax regime to an across the board low tax regime, the next step for Barbados was to implement an Economic Substance Regime (herein ES Regime). In brief, this regime was introduced by way of The Companies (Economic Substance) Act, 2019-43. It focuses on Barbados resident companies which conducted specific relevant activities, and it requires these entities to illustrate that the core income generating activity is being managed and controlled from within Barbados.

Arguably, this approach is not one which is revolutionary to Barbados, but rather an enhancement of the approach already practiced. For example, entities which had to illustrate tax residency to benefit from the previously mentioned DTTs and other foreign tax administrator requirements have over the years put similar measures in place to ensure that their entities for all intents and purposes were considered as resident in Barbados. The new approach however, forces Barbados into the role of GSC, as the ES Regime standards requires a variety of services to be provided to these entities to meet the necessary substance. Consequently, Barbados must be a one-stop shop for the companies that it hosts as resident companies and the jurisdiction must position itself to be able to provide a multiplicity of services to meet this demand.

In sum, Barbados has had to move away from the passive nature of being an IFC to the more active and all-encompassing position of a GSC. Fortunately as prefaced, Barbados has illustrated that it is capable of meeting global business demands and though this approach is of a foreign derivative, Barbados is fine-tuned to remain an attractive jurisdiction for the global business community.

Go here to see the original:

The Evolution of the Global Business: Barbados as a Global Services Centre - JD Supra

Citizen experience has been a focus of federal agencies since being named a cross-agency priority in 2011, when agencies were asked to develop customer service plans. It remained part of the Presidents Management Agenda in 2018. Then, as with so many other modernization initiatives, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic kicked the digitization of citizen service into an accelerated gear. Yet work on ensuring that the government by the people, for the people is being responsive to modern customer service needs is by no means complete.

As with any new administration, there are an array of new programs on the horizon. With the societal challenges we face today, we can expect an even more rapid deployment of such programs to help spur economic recovery, respond to inequality, and improve public health management. These programs will need support from agencies across the government. How can organizations begin preparing to meet not just the citizen service needs of today but also those of the future? The answer is a healthy combination of people, processes and technology.

In March 2020, the Small Business Administration needed to staff up quickly to meet the incoming demand for services as they related to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan, put in place to help stabilize the economy. The SBA needed thousands of new customer service agents to meet demand. Knowing they could not hire this workforce internally, SBA sought contractor support.

The reach of this virtual, scalable team allowed demand to be met, so business owners in need could quickly connect with someone for assistance. As time went on, the volume fluctuated greatly. The team was able to handle these peaks with metrics consistent with those on slower days in terms of speed to answer, call time, and satisfaction. This was due to the flexibility afforded by a virtual model. The SBA could reach into a pool of qualified and call-ready representatives when they needed to meet high volumes, and similarly, quickly scale back when call volume slowed.

The fluidity in staffing levels was matched by the flexibility where people were sourced. The use of virtual support enables quick ramp-ups because it opens up the recruiting pool across the U.S. Organizations are not bound to recruiting within a geographic area, accessing the right talent for the job, regardless of location.

Getting the sheer number of people needed to meet contact center needs is only part of the solution: Those people then need to be trained. The key to onboarding thousands of agents quickly is having an effective learning strategy in place. Ideally, this is a mix of instructor-led and on-demand training to meet the learning needs and preferences of the agents. In the case of SBA, the short ramp-up period required rapid development of an e-learning curriculum and on-the-job reference materials from scratch that allowed agents to be call-ready within days.

This kind of online learning can also be created from existing training, taking traditional classroom curriculum and turning it into a self-paced learning environment that agents could do at any time. A self-paced curriculum should include gamification elements to keep learners motivated and processing at the pace needed to meet staffing goals. Additionally, it is critical that comprehension of the materials is measured for proficiency and reported before allowing customer interactions. After onboarding, on-demand resources also allow for ongoing learning, with agents being able to go back and refresh their knowledge at any time.

Beyond these self-driven materials, building a community among agents is also critical. Organizations should find ways to help people reach out to colleagues to answer questions, discuss current challenges, and learn from more experienced agents for ongoing learning and support. A successful virtual community cultivates engagement, allowing agents to build and nurture relationships in a remote setting.

Better citizen experience starts with a better employee experience. Whether agents are working in a brick-and- mortar center or virtually, they need to have systems that make their job easier. Organizations need to ensure they have the right tools in place to empower agents to carry out the mission. Some key technology investments include:

Improving citizen service is more than just meeting a mandate, it is what our government was designed to do serve the people. Thinking about the people, processes, and technology that need to be in place to efficiently meet this overarching mission of service to the citizen is critical in every agency. While the SBA showed that citizen service can ramp up in an emergency, maintaining continuity of operations is something that should be happening across government.

Jon Brown is vice president of client results at Liveops.

Read the original here:

The next evolution of citizen experience - Federal News Network

Call them what you want flying reptiles, marine reptiles, dinosaurs the prehistoric scaly beasts have always been the focus of Frontier Development's dinosaur theme park sim, as you'd hope for a game called Jurassic World Evolution. Okay, technically flying reptiles and marine reptiles aren't dinosaurs, but all breeds are being put under the spotlight in Jurassic World Evolution 2. The sequel to 2018's breakout success is putting a focus on enhancements across all areas of keeping your park residents safe, happy, and importantly, contained within their enclosures.

Speaking to game director, Rich Newbold, and executive producer, Adam Woods, they say the team has four core areas where the sequel will make significant improvements, ranging from enhanced creativity for park building, deeper management for both dinosaurs and guests, a rich narrative, and more dinosaurs (and reptiles) than ever over 75 species in total. The full game will feature four unique game modes at launch, including a campaign that will offer an original story set after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and the new Chaos Theory mode which will let you play through key events from the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World films for exciting 'What If' scenarios. There will also be the Challenge and Sandbox modes returning from the original game too.

While an improved campaign is certainly a focus for Frontier, there will be consistent improvements applied across all four of those modes. Woods and Newbold walk me through a park built in Sandbox mode in the new Tiger Environment seen in the Jurassic World Evolution 2 trailers released so far, which comes complete with a dramatic mountainous backdrop and gloriously terrifying snowstorm events. The most impressive immediate impact is the changes being made to the dinosaurs themselves - aka the game's scaled stars.

The dinosaurs themselves are getting enhanced behaviors, allowing them to more closely mimic what we assume they did in the wild, including resting and preening, interacting with each other more, or having the option to hunt in a pack if that's in a species' nature. You'll be able to unlock more body color and pattern variations too, which will allow you to create more unique dinosaurs, or even make their markings tie in with the environment more.

Beyond this though, the way your dinosaurs interact with their enclosures is getting far more involved too. When you first release an incubated dinosaur from the Hammond Creation Lab (now hatched from a batch of eggs and able to be released in batches rather than singularly), they will start scoping out their environment, looking for the elements they know they need such as food, water, forest areas, or a new feature called Ground Fibre. From these initial wanderings, your dinosaurs will then start digitally carving out a dynamic territory an area of their enclosure that they'll see as their area, which will develop over time. Territories of different species within a single enclosure will overlap and complement each other, allowing you to blend together these creatures for a spectacular showcase for your guests.

For herbivores, paleobotany is a driving force for these dynamic territories, and it's a feature that's being incorporated into the base game for Jurassic World Evolution 2, following its introduction in the Claire's Sanctuary DLC. Paleobotany is really just about the nutritional elements your dinosaur needs to stay healthy, and Jurassic World Evolution 2 removes the generic herbivore feeders, and instead encourages you to plant trees and shrubs that provide the correct food substances for each of your dinosaur species whether it be Ground Fibre, Tall Fibre, Ground Nut, or something else entirely. The development team has even taken these new environment reactive terrain brushes straight from extinct plants from back in prehistoric times, reimaging them for how the terrain paint tools work in the game.

The result is that the enclosures look and feel a lot more organic, with players able to build up several smaller biomes within a single enclosure to satisfy those territorial needs. The original game could feel a little repetitive in the way you built up the forest and water areas, but now it seems like there's much more creativity in how you cater for creature happiness. That includes various scenery objects for your enclosures too, so it finally goes beyond just the terrain paints and feeders.

That customization extends to the way you improve the experience for your guests too, and not just in that you can place decorations in your park to improve how it looks. Along with requirements for essentials like food, water, restrooms, and gift shops, guests will now fall into one of four interest groups. There are those that just fall under the "standard" interests group, but there are also those looking for adventure, nature, and luxury. Different areas of your park can be tailored to satisfy those interests. For example, nature-focused guests will gravitate towards the herbivore enclosures, while those seeking adventure are going to make a beeline for your T-Rex. Now, you'll be able to choose and tailor your amenities to better complement the guests heading to different sections of your park.

Amenities in particular are a building type that can be customized both inside and out. An amenity can be configured to add interior modules, such as an aquarium, display cabinets, infotainment, skeleton displays, and more all of which have values that align with these guest interests. Externally, the modules that you add won't, sadly, be reflected, but there are ways to change the appearance and theme of your buildings. You can change the roof decorations, signage, where the entrance is, add theme decoration to the ground area, or change the paintwork. It'll be much easier to make themed areas of your park that do feel unique, again moving away from the singular designed facilities of the original game.

New attraction buildings complement the more shell-like amenities though, and offer specific building types like a fully-fledged aquarium that should add more variation to your park. It'll be interesting to be able to spend just as much time making your guests happy as you will your dinosaurs. It was definitely something that felt a little more neglected in the original game, so it's pleasing to see that the park building experience as a whole is being taken into consideration. And of course, happy guests means happy pockets, which in turn means you'll have happier dinosaurs. It's a win, win.

Management improvements don't stop there either, with Jurassic World Evolution 2 adding more tools and an additional ground team type. That'll mean you have to work a little harder to understand your residents. For the existing rangers, you can now place Ranger Posts within the enclosures and assign a ranger team to that post. This will allow you to build up a ranger patrol route, and rangers passing through will scan the dinosaurs in that area. Rather than being instantly accessible, the information on the dinos now has a fog of war effect on it, and your rangers will need to go out on a status check run to check why a dino might be unhappy. But, to actually heal your dinos or cure them of illness, you'll need to send in your new mobile vet units from the Paleo Medical Facility, which is a fresh addition for this sequel. Vets can be sent in after a problem has been flagged by the rangers, and either help out in the field, or bring the dinosaurs back to the Paleo Medical Facility for treatment.

Although you'll need to enlist the help of your rangers, what I particularly love about what I've seen so far of Jurassic World Evolution 2 is the life improvements. Information is clustered together in a much better way, meaning you're not clicking between menus to paint a terrain with more trees, and then back to your dinosaur to see if you've added enough to make them happy. It's all in one place now, so adding trees increases your dino's contentment in a single menu they're small tweaks in this bigger whole, but necessary ones. So far, this is everything the original strived to be, but with just more of everything. More dinosaurs and reptiles, more management options with deeper tools, enhanced customization, and, most importantly, more opportunities to connect with the dinosaurs themselves. If you fell in love with the first game, we're all no doubt about to lose many more hours to this dino park sim sequel when it launches sometime this year.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 is launching on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS5, and PS4. Check out more of the new games arriving in 2021 and beyond.

Here is the original post:

Jurassic World Evolution 2 preview: Deeper management, better dinosaurs, and a whole load of customization options - Gamesradar

I happened upon Wellesley High Schools Evolutions program team finishing its electrical box painting at the intersection of Kingsbury and Linden Streets on Wednesday. They started it on Monday and were expecting to have it finished this week.

Student Ellie Ostler says the box features a frog, spotted salamander, and fairy shrimp, reflecting the inhabitants of vernal pools in Wellesley like the ones studied by Evolutions students this year. Ostler and Luke Graves came up with the design, and visual arts teacher Brian Corey from the Evolutions Program provided support throughout the process.

This is 1 of 4 new electrical box designs emerging in town this spring and summer, adding to the existing ones previously approved and completed through the program coordinated by the Wellesley Police Department and the Towns Public Art Committee.

More artists will have their shot in the fall at giving additional electrical boxes in town a new look.

A new Traffic Box Art interactive map with photos, locations, and artist information will be available later this summer, according to the town.

The rest is here:

Evolution of a Wellesley electrical box - The Swellesley Report