Monthly Archives: July 2021

Review: Reporting on religion can be dark. But we need people on the God Beat more than ever. – America Magazine

Posted: July 10, 2021 at 3:26 am

When people asked me why I chose to be a religion reporter, they usually got one of two answers. One was my official response; the other was the truth.

The official response ran something like this: Religion is a force that moves billions of people, for better or worse. You cant really understand our world without understanding religion.

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Thats true, but it is not why I became a religion reporter. The real answer was more personal. I was on a quest for the truth and saw journalism as the means to a free or at least modestly subsidized education. I think this idea was stolen from Pete Hamill, who advised young writers in New York to apprentice in one of two story-rich fields: driving a taxi or journalism.

My plan worked at first. During my nearly 16 years as a religion reporter, including the last eight at CNN, I learned more than I could have hoped. But over time, the stories other religion reporters and I tackled grew darker: religious violence, racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism; the lies, crimes and casual cruelties of the Trump administration; the rise of QAnon and demise of truth; the Catholic sexual abuse crisis; and, of course, the pandemic. Peoples pain and anger and confusion seemed fathomless, institutions hopelessly self-involved and religious leaders wilfully blind and enthralled by politics or fame. In any other era, such a beat would be challenging. For me, in our relentlessly online culture, it was deflating. By the end of my time at CNN, I was a beat reporter.

I thought about all of this while reading The God Beat: What Journalism Says About Faith and Why It Matters. The anthology of 26 essays is edited by Costica Bradatan, a religion editor for The Los Angeles Review of Books and a professor of humanities at Texas Tech University, and Ed Simon, a staff writer for the literary site The Millions and author of several books about religion and morality.

In their introduction, Bradatan and Simon say they are most interested in what Simon dubs New Religion Journalism, a literary movement that they argue was given life by Killing the Buddha, an online journal of religion writing for people made uncomfortable by church.

Like New Journalism, the movement heralded by wizard-suited Tom Wolfe in the 1970s (and before him, by Matthew Arnold in the 1880s), New Religion Journalism prioritizes the personal, including the reporters subjective experience in the story. More importantly, argues Simon, New ReligionJournalism questions the theism/atheism binary and displays the full ambiguity and ambivalence of belief.

That ambiguity is explored in Leigh Eric Schmidts deeply researched essay, Monuments to Unbelief, which guides readers on a short jaunt through 19th-century atheism and introduces characters like the miraculously named Octavius Frothingham.

In Ammas Cosmic Squeeze, Erik Davis muses on the title characters trademark gesturea hugas a quietly subversive transformation of traditional South Asian worship as he stands in a Disneyland-worthy line awaiting his sacred embrace. But Amma, who has hugged more than 26 million people, is not only about silent subversion, Davis reports: During her massive fiftieth birthday celebration in 2003, which was inaugurated by Indian president Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Amma cranked through a stadium full of devotees for twenty-one hours straight while a scoreboard racked up numbers well into the five figures.

Cool scene. But, as I said, these are dark times, and many writers in The God Beat address topics like death, hatred, abuse and decay.

In Will Anyone Remember Eleven Dead Jews? Emma Green ponders the paradoxical satisfactions of an archivist in Pittsburgh charged with collecting artifacts from the worst anti-Semitic attack in American history. Likewise, Shira Telushkins essay, Their Bloods Cry Out from the Ground, is a powerful meditation on the murders in 2018 of those 11 people while they were worshiping and the task of those left behind. Telushkin explores the work of the chevra kadisha, the Jewish burial society charged with collecting different kinds of remains. They slipped quietly into the crime scene, scraping blood from walls and floors, burying their martyrs just as Jews have done for millennia.

The best essays in The God Beat are like thisquietly reflective, deeply informed, subjective but not solipsistic. They combine an insiders knowledge with an outsiders practiced observation, transcending the limitations of both third- and first-person writing.

As a one-time Catholic, Patrick Blanchfield brings an insider-outsider perspective to his essay on the Catholic Churchs sexual abuse scandal, written in 2018, a few weeks after a grand jury report in Pennsylvania described in detail decades of soul-crushing sexual abuse committed by priests against children. Blanchfield raises a question that perhaps only an ex-Catholic would voice. Namely, is there something inherently Catholic about the Catholic abuse scandal?

Whatever the problems of society more broadly, it is impossible not to see in these horrors a very particular Catholic feature: tropes, however twisted, of penance, mortification, and punishment, concepts and ritual items wielded as tools of abuse, Blanchfield writes. These priests, in other words, did not just rape children using their hands, mouths and genitals. They also raped them using their faith.

Behind this rhetoric lies the force of truth. I have heard many victims of sexual abuse by clergymen recount how their abuse and lost innocence amounted to soul murder, as Blanchfield titles his powerful piece.

The essay reminded me of another, coincidentally published on the same day in America. Kerry Weber, an executive editor at America, wrote of the questions she pondered as she read the Pennsylvania grand jury report while her children napped. I have found myself truly afraid of what it means to ask and to allow my children to be part of the church, Weber wrote.

Reporting for CNN, I had been chasing the hard newscounting the victims, tracking down perpetrator priests, trying (and mostly failing) to hold bishops accountable. Webers voicesingular, plaintive, coming from within the foldwhipped my head around. Behind all the hard news, this is what the scandal has wrought, I realized: a mother afraid to raise her children in the church she loves. And that is a story that needs to be told.

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The evolution of the POS system – TechRadar

Posted: at 3:26 am

POS systemshave been around for quite a while. The first one was invented in 1879 by an American shopkeeper James Ritty. When he noticed that his employees were pocketing money his business was making.

He called the system Rittys Incorruptible Cashier, which is perhaps a more catchy name unlike, todays IT tool which would commonly become known as a cash register.

The first computer-driven cash register, which resembles what we have today, was developed by IBM in 1973 and it marked the first commercial use of a computer-based system used by the restaurant industry.

Then in the 1980s, the first credit cards were introduced into society, and the evolution of POS terminals accelerated when they had to be updated accordingly to suit the business industry.

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McDonalds started rolling out POS terminals in its restaurants in 1984, Invented by William Brobeck. The model they used was one of the first microprocessor-controlled cash registers.

The POS terminal system increasingly sped up the food ordering process by including a physical button for every item on the menu. It was also the first time a POS could be connected to a multitude of other devices, allowing the fast-food chain to easily manage reports and receipts for the first time.

In more fine-dining establishments, the bulky POS systems would be hidden so that they were out of view of customers.

POS systems changed drastically two years later, when touch screen technology and colorgraphic monitors became more affordable.

ViewTouch, the first POS system solution on the Atari ST, was launched in 1986 by a New York-based restaurateur - Gene Mosher at Comdex in Las Vegas.whilst the inventor was on his honeymoonwith his wife. Nowadays it is offered for free under the GNU license and can be run on the simplest computer hardware such a Raspberry Pi.

As computers became more sophisticated in the 1990s, so did POS systems, with the first e-POS (Electronic Point Of Sale) system, Nisyst, launched in 1992.

That year saw Martin Goodwin and Bob Hendry together develop and release the IT Retail POS software system onWindows, leading to a variety of POS applications being developed for Microsofts increasingly popular OS, in addition to Unix-based operating systems.

In 1993, Europay, MasterCard and Visa unveiled the EMV standard for the credit card industry in Europe, which is still used in integrated circuit cards, POS terminals and automated ATMs.

Powerful computers and more advanced networks led to an evolution of the POS, which began to develop capabilities beyond sales transaction processing in the early 2000s.

As internet connections became faster, ePOS systems took tothe cloudand found popularity among businesses due to increased convenience and lowered cost.

Cloud-based POS systems transformed the landscape as any device capable of connecting to the internet could suddenly be used as a potential POS terminal.

That includedsmartphonesequipped with barcode scanners and NFC tech that effectively turned them into payment terminals andmobile credit card readers.

Shifting to the cloud, this also brought new security capabilities to the POS systems. The introduction of theSaaS (or software-as-a-service)model removed the need for businesses to manually update software and licenses, with it instead being automatically taken care of by POS software vendors.

Since 2010, modern POS systems have become increasingly sophisticated, allowing business owners to manage both front-end and back-end operations with ease. Integrated systems enable everything from inventory management tomarketing; stafftime management;accountingprocess; and customer information to be accessed, analysed, and controlled through a single (often touchscreen) interface.

Adoption of cloud-based POS systems accelerated during the decade. Through the utilization of technologies to store sales and customer data usingcloud storage, companies found it quicker and easier to access (and act upon) their sales and customer data than ever before. This made cloud-based POS systems particularly attractive for companies that ran a franchise model with multiple stores.

The rise of cloud-based POS has naturally coincided with new trends around mobile POS. Like the many business owners and workers began the POS systems on mobile devices from 2010, which became easier thanks totabletsand smart mobile phones with increasingly larger displays and better processing power.

Many vendors offer theirbusiness applicationsfor free and take a cut of each sale throughpayment processingfees. By using a mobile POS system, companies allow their employees to easily look up product information, search for answers to customers questions, and take payments whilst walking around the shop floor. Consumers are also able to benefit from the mobile, by buying goods and services on devices like their own smart phones with a tap, using technologies such as NFC and Bluetooth.

The POS System has come a long way, with great leaps made particularly in the past two decades.

Our current decade is likely to continue seeing a convergence in technologies, with POS systems becoming smarter and able to help businesses get even more value out of their data than they can today.

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Column: Jeff Long: Marie Curie, her scientific fellows and God (7/10/21) – Southeast Missourian

Posted: at 3:26 am

Last weekend, amid the sound of nearby fireworks, I talked to a friend in a Cape Girardeau coffee shop who began discussing Marie Curie, the renowned Polish-French scientist, who died on America's Independence Day, July 4, 1934.

I suppose Curie's death date is the reason the discoverer of two elements in the periodic table came to mind in our conversation.

My friend told me Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person in history to win the Nobel twice and managed it in two scientific fields: physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911.

Even the most knowledgeable people can't know everything -- and Madame Curie did not know it all.

She used to carry bottles of radium, atomic number 88, and polonium, atomic number 84, in the pocket of her lab coat, my friend told me -- a fact biographies of her life verify -- and continuous exposure to those radioactive elements shortened her life.

Curie passed at 66 of aplastic anemia after spurning the danger such materials posed.

Even today, most of Curie's papers and books remain radioactive and are stored in lead-lined boxes, which the curious may only view after donning a protective suit and signing a liability waiver.

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Even the brilliant among us have limits and do not possess all knowledge.

In an illuminating 2018 article in Forbes magazine -- "Did History's Most Famous Scientists Believe in God?" -- we read Curie's own theological perspective was akin to one of her scientific contemporaries, German-born Albert Einstein.

Curie, the daughter of an atheist father and a Catholic mother, did not reject belief in God but admitted to agnosticism -- a position mirrored somewhat by Einstein, who himself rejected the notion of a personal deity and thought intercessory prayer foolish. Yet the man best known for the equation, e=mc squared, did not claim the mantle of atheism. Einstein wrote that he embraced "Spinoza's God."

Baruch Spinoza, a 17th-century Dutch philosopher, wrote that God is "a substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence," adding, "whatever is, is in God, and nothing can exist or be conceived without God," a notion usually interpreted to mean God is identical with the universe.

If you invited most church people to examine Spinoza's statements, they might not cause alarm, but orthodox theologians of the Judeo-Christian tradition would no doubt disagree. God, the theologians would probably argue, stands apart from the created universe -- which the book of Genesis attests.

England's Charles Darwin, writer of "Origin of the Species" in 1859, held more conventional religious views.

A believer in what he called the "Abrahamic God," Darwin, whose grave my wife and I once visited in London's Westminster Abbey, penned the following in 1879: "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God."

Sir Isaac Newton, the Englishman who gave the world the three laws of motion, the bedrock principle of modern physics, was a firm believer in the idea of God who self-identified as a theist yet did not accept the concept of the Christian Trinity -- Father, Son, Holy Spirit -- as divine. Newton, who died in 1727, is buried near Darwin inside the Abbey.

Galileo, the 16th century Italian astronomer and physicist whose life predated all the men identified so far, was tried by the Inquisition, found guilty of heresy and forced to recant.

Despite a Church-enforced house arrest, which lasted the remainder of his life, Galileo's writing demonstrated his theist tendencies.

To wit: "I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

The insightful Forbes article, after examining the views of Curie, Einstein, Darwin, Newton and Galileo, includes a summary statement which makes sense to this writer and forms the conclusion of this essay.

"The most famous [scientific] figures all have nuanced religious views that tend toward a belief in a higher power. Some of those views faltered over time [e.g., Curie] and the others are unconventional but are theist beliefs nonetheless. So, yes, it is possible to be a religious individual and be a scientist. The two are not mutually exclusive."

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‘Its a constant mental war in there’: The evolution of Dustin Poirier – Yahoo Sports

Posted: at 3:26 am

LAS VEGAS Conor McGregor landed a two-punch combination in the first round of his rematch with Dustin Poirier in January and the crowd at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi roared as Poirier backed to the cage.

What the fans in attendance, those watching on the pay-per-view broadcast around the world and most significantly McGregor did not know was how badly buzzed Poirier had been by that combination.

McGregor is one of the sports premier finishers and has the kind of ability sharks have to smell blood in the water. When an opponent is hurt and in danger, McGregor usually knows it, and fast.

This time, though, he did not, and the fact that Poirier was able to play possum significantly altered the course of UFC history.

Poirier went on to win that bout by second-round stoppage, and the lightweight stars will complete the trilogy on Saturday at sold-out T-Mobile Arena in the five-round main event of UFC 264.

This fight, which UFC president Dana White said has the most pre-buys this far out in the companys history, would not be happening if McGregor recognized he had Poirier hurt. Michael Chandler wouldnt have gotten the unexpected call to face Charles Oliveira for the lightweight championship.

It probably would have been McGregor against Oliveira for the title, and Poirier would have been trying one more time to rebuild from a crushing defeat.

But hell go into Saturdays bout as a -125 favorite at BetMGM to defeat McGregor and win the rubber match. And there is an argument to be made that with former champion Khabib Nurmagomedovs retirement, nobody has been more dominant over the last five years than Poirier.

Im a veteran and Ive had a lot of fights, Poirier said, explaining how he was able to survive. "Ive been hurt in fights. Ive had fights where everything went smoothly. But when something like that happens he hit me with two good shots in that last fight that hurt me you have to stay composed. Its important to be calculated. You have to weather the storms here and there.

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Fighting isnt a fight until there is something to overcome, so I expect adversity every time my feet hit that canvas. I dont think its going to be a smooth night any night. Its a fight.

Dustin Poirier reacts after his knockout victory over Conor McGregor at UFC 257 inside Etihad Arena on Jan. 23, 2021 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

Poirier said that as a younger fighter, when he was hit and buzzed, he felt a need to hit back, become even more aggressive and land something big. The wisdom hes gained from all those fights was the realization that its not always the best move to fire back.

Sometimes, it requires patience and time to let ones head clear.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt, Poirier said. Its a coin toss. But self-preservation is something Ive learned over the years, to step on the gas when I need to and to pull back when I need to. When someone hurts me, I want to hurt them back, so its a constant mental war in there dealing with those things.

What Poirier has done better than just about anyone active in the UFC over the last four-plus years is to win fights. And hes winning them against the best of the best, which makes the streak he is on even more impressive.

In his last nine fights, hes 7-1 with a no-contest. The loss was a submission in a title fight with Nurmagomedov, who retired last year with a 29-0 record.

Of those seven wins five were over current or former champions Anthony Pettis, Max Holloway, Justin Gaethje, Eddie Alvarez and McGregor as well as Jim Miller, one of the UFCs all-time winningest fighters, and Dan Hooker, who was top five at the time.

But its his humility that allows him to continue to be successful. Hes facing the best of the best and knows the fine line at the top level between winning and losing. He knows the danger in front of him and never enters the cage feeling invincible or untouchable.

Not at all [do I feel invincible]; I wish I did, he said, cracking a grin. I have a healthy understanding of the dangers that these guys, especially the guys Im fighting in the last 10 fights, that one mistake could be detrimental. I just know that Im a human being and I could make a mistake and get hit with a good shot or put in a bad position submission-wise. And if that happens I could be finished. I know that. I have a healthy fear for those things.

That fear has led to growth and development and has pushed Poirier to the brink of greatness, if hes not already there. If he beats McGregor, hell earn a shot at Oliveiras title.

And its all come because he appreciates all the dangers he faces every time he walks into the cage.

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Charen: What we lost when we won the Cold War – The Winchester Star

Posted: at 3:26 am

Almost exactly 60 years ago, the newly appointed Chadian ambassador to the United States, Adam Malick Sow, was heading south on Marylands Route 40 toward Washington, D.C. He stopped at the Bonnie Brae diner and asked for a menu. The owner, Mrs. Leroy Merritt, sneered and threw him out because he was Black.

The same thing happened to other African diplomats at other Maryland establishments, and it became an international embarrassment. President John F. Kennedy worried that this treatment of diplomats from Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Congo and other newly independent African nations would harm U.S. efforts to limit Soviet influence in Africa.

The story, recounted in Ted Johnsons exploration of race and history, When the Stars Begin to Fall, illustrates something thats worth pondering: How much did Cold War competition spur us toward fulfilling our national ideals?

Johnson notes that the steps toward integration following the Route 40 Incident did not go entirely smoothly. Several restaurants demanded to see credentials before proffering meal service ... loudly apologizing to white customers who had to endure eating alongside black diplomats. And, of course, it would be several more years before African Americans could expect the same service as African ambassadors.

The Cold War was the reason that Americans could be embarrassed by what had been routine for centuries. We were engaged in a contest with the communist world that was about everything. It was a great power rivalry for influence and resources. It was a military competition for supremacy. It was a religious war about belief in God versus atheism. And it was an ideological conflict about how to organize society and how to live. As such, everything we did, everything we were, was viewed through the lens of how our enemies and allies would see it. The Cold War shaped our sense of national identity and purpose.

When arrayed against an ideological foe that rejected individual rights, trampled on religious liberty, murdered millions and enslaved even more all in the name of a supposedly morally superior system we had a clear sense of who we were. We were for freedom, both economic and political. We were for religious rights. We were for an independent judiciary and a nonpolitical military. We were for individuality, not coerced collectivism. And we were for strivers and dreamers who wanted to share the blessings of liberty.

The Soviets couldnt build a car that functioned or stock their markets with food, but, prodigious liars, they were skilled at propaganda. No, the CIA did not invent HIV as part of a biological warfare program. No, the U.S. did not start the Korean War. No, the CIA did not kill John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr.

Perhaps even more maddening than the lies they told about us were the truths they concealed about themselves: the Gulag, the terror famine in Ukraine, the mass deportations, the mass executions, the antisemitism, the censorship, the Hitler/Stalin pact, the war on peasants, the empty shelves, the psychiatric hospitals full of dissidents, the crushing of liberty in other nations and too many other crimes to list. Not to mention the luxuries enjoyed by the communist elite.

But the Soviets didnt always have to invent lies to discredit us. The case of the Scottsboro boys became a fixture in Soviet textbooks, and Communist Party members in the U.S. did play a prominent role in campaigning for civil rights (if only in this country). When American cities went up in flames after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Soviet outlets made sure the world saw this as proving our hypocrisy on human rights. That they were insincere in their concern for Blacks (as some African Americans who emigrated to the USSR discovered) did not invalidate their criticism of us. We were hypocrites, and many Americans were ashamed of it.

Concern about how our treatment of African Americans made us look abroad was one rationale for the Truman administrations decision to file an amicus brief in Brown v. Board of Education. The argument was explicit:

The United States is trying to prove to the people of the world of every nationality, race and color, that a free democracy is the most civilized and most secure form of government yet devised by man. ... The existence of discrimination against minority groups in the United States has an adverse effect upon our relations with other countries. Racial discrimination furnishes grist for the Communist propaganda mills.

In that sense, our enemies did us a favor by pointing to our flaws, because it played a role in spurring us to be better.

Today, we still have enemies, but we no longer have the morally organizing idea of liberty versus tyranny that shaped our self-concept during the Cold War. We no longer see the need to sell our way of life to others around the globe. Many Americans shrug at the prospect of the Chinese government crushing freedom in Hong Kong, or Eastern European countries closing universities and independent media. We dont see ourselves as leading Team Liberty. And even though in most respects we won the Cold War, that is a real loss.

Mona Charens column is syndicated by Creators.

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Ayton Evolution: How DA Has Placed a Lasting Impact on the Suns’ Postseason – Sports360AZ

Posted: at 3:26 am

While many across the nation might view the Suns third-year center, Deandre Ayton, as a third fiddle of the scorching hot Phoenix roster, the Bahama native has placed a monument impact on the 2021 NBA Playoffs.

Even before Ayton officially became the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2018, it was predetermined by the masses that his name would forever be tied to fellow 2018 draft picks, Luka Doni of the Dallas Mavericks and Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks. Even those in the valley would quickly declare Ayton a draft bust through his first two seasons, only averaging 17 points per game on 56% shooting, while Doni and Young were boasting near-herculean performances every other night.

While Young and Doni averaged more than 25 points, nearly nine assists, and a strong chunk of rebounds per game, Ayton seemed to struggle to find his place in the professional game. The youngster was sometimes visibly tired in the fourth quarter, lacked finesse and aggression in the post, and was manhandled by the veteran centers of the league across the floor.

This postseason, Ayton has gone toe-to-toe with some of the most aggressive and talented big men in the league over the past decade such as Anthony Davis, Marc Gasol, Andre Drummond, Demarcus Cousins, and the last two NBA MVPs, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic. Even if not all the names listed are elite talent, not only could Ayton keep up with every player he faced but he oftentimes outperformed them game-by-game.

Ayton has scored a double-double in 12 of his 17 playoff games. In games where he doesnt pick up a double-double, the Suns are still 4-1.

To see his growth, man, I get goosebumps seriously, Suns guard Chris Paul said after Game 4 against the Clippers. We had some heated conversations this season, especially earlier in the season but I genuinely love him. The person that he is and to see everything thats coming to him, national audience getting to see who he is and why hes the No. 1 pick, I couldnt be happier for him.

Throughout the year, Ayton has made it clear that future Hall of Famer, Chris Paul, has made an insurmountable improvement to the centers game this season. It is impossible to dismiss Aytons growth from game one of the 2020-2021 season up to the playoffs.

While Ayton plays with a new demeanor and talent level, those who only look at the stat sheet wont understand this seasons road to success. Statistically, 2020-2021 has marked the centers lowest career scoring average and he failed to improve his rebound, block, and assist averages from last year.

Regardless of what the stats say, Ayton has added a new set of post moves to his game, keeps the ball high and protected in the post, and has developed the ability to receive nearly any lobbed pass. No. 22 looks like an entirely new player compared to just one year ago both physically and mentally.

I love CP, man. Like I said, thats really the only teammate that really push me. Like big bro-type push. Knowing what I got and that I aint never thought that I had, Ayton said after Game 4 against the Clippers. I think he was the best thing that happened to my career. I can say that every day.

The 6-11 starter was a literal bully during his time at Hillcrest Prep in Phoenix as a seven-foot, 235-pound monster. Ayton received offers from San Diego State, Maryland, Kentucky, Kansas, and his eventual one-year home, UArizona.

In his lone year at the University of Arizona, Ayton maintained the ability to be a walking double-double. Ayton played in 35 games his freshman season and averaged 20 points alongside 12 rebounds and 2 blocks per game.

A 27-8 season gave the Wildcats the fourth seed in the NCAA Tournament South bracket but was annihilated by the 13-seed, Buffalo. Ayton only scored 14 points but pulled down 13 rebounds in the massive upset loss.

While the addition of Paul has made a colossal difference for Ayton, another major piece of his development has been his growth alongside fellow Phoenix star, Devin Booker. The duos chemistry has reached new heights as their talent levels rise as well.

Another part of Pauls game he brought to this Suns team is his experience as a leader and as a winner. While Paul still needed to get over the hump to become a champion, the 36-year-old was able to bring a new sense of communication and confidence to this young Phoenix roster.

Earlier in the year, there was some gray areas as to how to help those guys play together. I think those three deserve a lot of credit for the time that they spent after practice talking about certain environments, Head coach, Monty Williams, said. I would love to tell you that I orchestrated it all, but we have given them a system and then those guys talk about the angles of the screens and different ways to run plays that we have so that they can be effective. I just think its a lot of intentional conversations between those three and all of our guys.

Ayton has become an offensive rebounding machine for Phoenix, a category that the Suns fell short on, in early rounds. On five different occasions this postseason, Ayton has collected four or more offensive rebounds. Even when he is not the guy collecting off the glass, he has improved in tipping the ball to his fellow teammate as well.

They got to tell me something every day to click, Ayton said. Book always has something to say in a good way, just to get me going. I can just say they keep a consistent thing where they are always giving constructive criticism, and I take the best of it.

The only player with former Finals experience is a newcomer from the Miami Heat last offseason, Jae Crowder. The nine-year NBA veteran has brought the extra intensity and grit on the floor while Ayton, Booker, and Paul tally up the stat sheet. Through this playoff run, Crowder credits the willingness of those three stars to adapt en route to success.

They have done a great job of just being who they are, but at the same time, trying to mold themselves into whatever that series or that team is forcing us to be as a team, as individuals, Suns forward, Crowder, said. I think its not a surprise to me that theyve come out and performed the way theyve performed the first few rounds.

In a world of stretch-fives and three-point shooting centers, the 250-pounder is proving that it is still possible for centers to thrive in the paint. While Ayton doesnt admire the term big-man and has a versatile set of shooting skills, his domination inside the arc has been a substantial part of the Suns success. Even when the Clippers attempted to shut down his efficiency in the post with double teams, sneaky rotations, and great coverage, Ayton still managed to leave his footprint on the series averaging 18 points with 14 rebounds.

[Ayton has] just locked into the role, Williams said. Sometimes when you tell a player he has a role, they tend to think that youre limiting their ability. I dont think DA thinks that. I think he understands his role and how he can affect winning on both sides of the ball. It certainly helps to have Chris and Book creating opportunities for him, but hes done a really good job of understanding the angles and screens and where to be in the pocket to finish around the basket. Hes just a presence down there.

Only Ayton and Atlanta Hawks center, Clint Capela, have not shot a three-pointer in the postseason, with a minimum of 60 shot attempts. From an advanced analytics perspective, Ayton has the highest amount of win shares of any player in the postseason. Add that alongside being tied for the most rebounds in the playoffs, the Bahamian very well could be looked back on as the most important player on the floor throughout the Suns first postseason appearance in 11 seasons.

I think Deandre Ayton, the way hes worked all season long, he took it to a whole nother level during the playoffs, Paul said.

Regardless of the NBA Finals outcome, expectations for the third-year youngster continue to rise as Aytons stats continue to draw comparisons to all-time greats. No longer can the naysayers heckle the center or deem him a bust. Ayton has become a face of the Suns franchise and is on his way to becoming a staple of their history.

Hes just learned how to embrace the grind, Williams said. The day-in, day-out work and then hes starting to see it pay off on this level. Its one thing to see it pay off in the regular season; its totally different to see a guy dominate series after series after series and see all the work thats put in and all the things that they do every single day.

I think thats what Ive seen from him. Hes embraced the work. Hes embraced being a part of the scouting report. Hes embraced coaching. He understands that were trying to call him up, not out, and how much we care about him. Hes embraced it all. At first it wasnt as easy, because he didnt know me and I really didnt know him and there was a lot of new stuff coming at him, and then he had the pressure of being No. 1 pick. Once he got all of that out of his mind, I think he just embraced his role and embraced the grind of trying to be a really good NBA player.

The Suns look to take a 2-0 lead over the Milwaukee Bucks Thursday night in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. Coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. Arizona time on ABC.

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What if the Nones Really Do Herald the Decline of Religion? – Patheos

Posted: at 3:26 am

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the number of Americans who identify with Christianity is declining steadily, while the number of Nones those who refuse identification with any denomination or faith is growing sharply. Probably within five years or so, the nations largest religious group will be the Nones, as they move steadily ahead of evangelicals and Catholics. Assuming we care about the fate of religion, how worried should we be? Some argue that the churches are just undertaking a shakeout of their nominal adherents, to leave a solid and more active core, so maybe there is nothing to be all that worried about. Maybe. But we should at least consider the possibility that we really are seeing a precipitous decline in religion as such in religious practice and faith however broadly we define it. Things really might be as bad as they seem.

There are plenty of reasons why people would abandon their formal identification with churches. They might be appalled by religious activism in politics, or shocked by scandals involving clergy. However, those former adherents dont necessarily reject religion as such. As repeated surveys show, many of those Nones in fact seem to be quite religious-oriented, in terms of belief in God, and even of religious practice in some cases, a surprising amount. (Ryan Burge has a thoughtful survey of the whole issue in his notable recent book The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going). So perhaps what we are looking at just a restructuring, a reboot, not an actual decline. And we have to be very careful indeed about how we frame the survey questions that produce such high numbers of Nones.

But here is the problem. If a person rejects that church affiliation, and abandons the religious community, how long can they maintain that solitary or non-affiliated religious practice before it dies altogether? Ten years? Thirty? And can that attenuated practice be passed on to the next generation? When does no religious affiliation transform into a simple No religion at all, seriously, and I mean it?

European evidence suggest that countries do indeed reach this point. A striking 2016 study showed only a third of Dutch people claiming any faith at all, with Christianity still the largest component, at 25 percent. That number was exactly paralleled by the quarter of the population who were outright atheists. Even the number who reported belief in any higher power, rather than a specific concept of God, is falling steadily. By 2017, 52 percent of British people reported having no religion, and the rate for people under 24 was 70 percent. The most significant growth was among those who accepted the label of confident atheists.

Those figures were rather worse than the larger European norm, but the picture of European detachment from religion is common. Across the region the proportion of the religiously unaffiliated is an impressive 24 percent, outnumbering churchgoing Christians. Besides the Netherlands, the unaffiliated figure is highest in Belgium, Norway, and Sweden, at over 35 percent. The lowest figures were for Ireland, Portugal, and Austria, at 15 percent. Throughout the region the great majority of these unaffiliatedthe Noneshad been baptized and raised Christian. Overwhelmingly those unaffiliated agreed with the statement that science made religion unnecessary for them.

Straightforward atheism has become a common creed, markedly so in some societies. In a recent survey, the proportion flatly asserting no belief in God was at its height in the Czech Republic (66 percent) and Sweden (60 percent), with high levels of disbelief in Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Estonia. This trend is particularly pronounced in large cities. Berlin vaunts its role as the atheist capital of Europe, and 60 percent of residents claim no religion. In France, 11 percent of respondents accept Gods existence absolutely while 45 percent are less certain and 37 percent are atheists.

Just to take two examples, if you go back to 1960, then both Belgium and the Netherlands were high on the list of the worlds very religious societies, and Belgium was very Catholic indeed. Now look where they stand in the atheism stakes. They are also among the worlds most systematically liberal societies in terms of legislation and policies that have been passed in the teeth of bitter opposition form the respective churches.

The drift away from religion is so advanced, and progressing so swiftly, that some scientific surveys project the extinction of faith of all kinds from several nations by the end of the present century. A study presented to the American Physical Society in 2011 predicted that by the end of the present century, nine nations would be entirely free of religion. Six of these were European, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Very striking here was the inclusion of nations like Austria and Ireland, where levels of faith are presently holding up relatively well. Actually the study suggested that other nations might well be following a like trajectory, but their official statistics did not permit the kind of analysis that would permit such conclusions. Not included in the list, therefore, was Great Britain, which commonly appears alongside the Netherlands in listings of the worlds most secular societies. (The other three nations on the APS listing were all Anglophone members of the former British Empire, namely Australia, New Zealand, and Canada). Of course, any such long-term projections are tenuous, but the listing of countries is suggestive.

The decline of supernatural belief undoubtedly has occurred in much of the West, and faith continues to recede. As a character in one of Tom Stoppards plays aptly remarked, There is presumably a calendar datea momentwhen the onus of proof passed from the atheist to the believer, when, quite suddenly, secretly, the noes had it. We are now well past that point. But how much further will the process continue? Some very credible social scientists believe that recent trends herald the destruction of religion in any form we have known, if not the actual abolition of religious faith as such. In the short term, such analyses are chiefly based on European experience, but the long-term implications have global relevance.

One of the leading scholars on the religious implications of demographic change is David Voas, who declares unequivocally that

Religion is in decline across the Western world. Whether measured by belonging, believing, participation in services, or how important it is felt to be, religion is losing ground. Older generations die out and are replaced by less religious younger generations. Modernization has predictable and permanent effects, one of which I call the secular transition. . . . Certain major transformationssuch as the industrial revolution or the demographic transition (the decline first in mortality and then in fertility)occur exactly once in each society. These transitions are very difficult to undo. Back-tracking is exceptional and temporary: slavery isnt restored after its been abolished, nor do women lose the vote once granted. A transition is permanent, not cyclical or recurring; once out, the toothpaste wont go back into the tube. Secularization is such a transition.

Voas is speaking broadly of a decline in actual belief, rather than just institutional structures. Callum Brown is still more explicit. As he writes, The Western World is becoming atheist. In the space of three generations churchgoing and religious belief have become alien to millions. We are in the midst of one of humankinds great cultural changes.

Although these scholars are discussing the West, there is no intrinsic reason why the changes that have overtaken Western religion should not have their impact on a global scale and, ultimately, even in Africa. If such views are correct, then Christianity has a specific expiration date, to be followed after some delay by the other great faiths. At some not-too-distant point, perhaps in the mid-twenty-second century, God would become an extinct species.

In my recent book Fertility and Faith; The Demographic Revolution and the Transformation of World Religions, I suggested why we should take such views very seriously indeed, although my own conclusions were nothing like so pessimistic. But to return to a core question. At least for right now, we absolutely must not take Nones as synonymous with atheists, fine. But once they abandon religious affiliation, how long can those Nones retain any religious identity whatever? European examples suggest that it might not be more than a generation.

Id worry.

Just to end with a quote I have always liked. In seventeenth century England, there was a then-famous playwright called Sir William Davenant (1605/6-1668), who was suspected of being an illegitimate son to Shakespeare. Davenant strongly encouraged the tale, and the possible connection, however badly that reflected on his mother. Looking at the desperate religious wars around him in that era, all the fanaticism and violence, one of his friends tells us that His private opinion was that Religion at last, e.g. a hundred years hence, would come to settlement, and that in a kind of ingeniose Quakerisme. No more Catholics or Protestants (or Jews or Muslims), just a kind of peaceful ethical creed, devoid of sacraments or hierarchies, just waiting on the Inner Spirit. Love it or hate it, it was a fascinating prediction. And maybe an ideal creed for Nones.

My new Church of Ingenious Quakerism will go live shortly.

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From Beater To Hi-Tech: The Technological Evolution Of Supercars – Motor1

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Creativity and ingenuity are not enough: nowadays, to produce a supercar you need a real team of experts. The days when only skilled craftsmen were involved seem long gone. But cars are getting faster and faster and, above all, safer. Here's how production methods have changed and how the supercars of the Motor Valley are born.

There was a time when making supercars was much simpler. There were no extreme technologies, complex regulations, or even marketing. Production was mainly entrusted to craftsmen and good old "elbow grease." One of the most important figures in this process was the "battilastra," whose name explains exactly what they did: beat steel. They created the shapes of the car by literally beating the steel plates until the final result was achieved.

Today, getting a car out of the factory is much more complex. It always starts with a sketch, but not so much on paper as on a personal computer. Designers, however, have limits on their creativity.

In the course of their work, they have to interface with many other experts. The shapes of the car, in fact, must comply with precise rules on safety and also be studied to accommodate all the components and electrical connections in the car.

Once past the embryonic stage of the project, the car literally starts to come to life. From a file on a PC, we move on to a clay prototype and wind tunnel testing.

Pininfarina Battista

An aerodynamically efficient car is faster and uses less fuel. This last aspect will be increasingly relevant in the future, when the goal will be to increase the performance and range of electric cars. Ferrari and Lamborghini, in fact, have already announced that in the coming years we will see their first full electric models.

Once the "static" tests have been completed, we move on to the "marriage" between the bodywork and the powertrain. Following this, there are thousands of miles of road tests, rigorously camouflaged to "disorientate" fans and the media.

Lamborghini Urus refresh spy photos

After the official presentation, it's time for the production of the first examples and the delivery to the lucky owners. In short, Italy's famous Via Emilia is not only the "fastest road in the world," but also a real laboratory of innovations and technologies.

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Throwback Thursday – The Evolution of WKU Student News Media – wnky.com

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This week Throwback Thursday visits the Student Publications media offices at Western Kentucky University, remembering the printed weekly editions of the College Heights Herald and the annual Talisman yearbook. Home of these two media outlets, plus the Cherry Creative Agency and Student Publications Advertising, the Student Pubs office functions similarly to a modern news hub.

Producing the Herald and Talisman gave students real life newsroom experience to sharpen their journalism skills with reporting, editing, meeting deadlines, and even finding advertising revenue streams to keep the paper or yearbook in print.

The first Herald was printed in 1925, and the student-led newspaper became the campus trusted news. Winner of 18 Pacemakers, the Herald is nationally-celebrated for its excellence, especially in these last dying days of daily and weekly print media as readers choose digital news over the tangible ink-smeared bylines. The Herald ceased printing its weekly paper last year, and has transformed into a daily e-newsletter sent to more than 25,000 emails with a busy social media presence. The only edition of the Herald being printed this year is a monthly newsmagazine with more in-depth investigative stories.

The same fate has been sealed for the Talisman. First published in 1924 as an annual feature of student life and campus activities, Talisman has won 21 Pacemakers to date. In 2016, the annual yearbook print ceased, and morphed into a semi-annual magazine with a sharp eclectic online presence.

Director of Student Publications Chuck Clark says the College Media Association has applauded these changes, featuring WKU Student Publications in educational sessions highlighting student media departments around the country for leading the way during this evolution of journalism and the way news is consumed.

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The Evolution of the Judiciary in the Age of Technology | Artificial Intelligence and the Delivery of Justice – Lexology

Posted: at 3:26 am

Judges are human. It is only natural that, like others in society, judges may have and are indeed entitled to their own personal views and beliefs. However, a judge must decide cases objectively and professionally, independent of his own personal views or beliefs, political or otherwise

- The Honourable Chief Justice Andrew Cheung

Introduction

The use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) in Courts to render justice has been theorized in science fiction since the dawn of the digital age. In an age where impartiality of judges is often challenged, it is easy to understand why humanity might opt to surrender difficult decisions over to A.I. which are devoid of emotion.

As with any application of technology to a specific task, there are of course advantages and disadvantages.

What is A.I.?

According to John McCarthy, the famed computer and cognitive scientist whom had been credited with coining the term artificial intelligence, A.I. is defined as:

allowing a machine to behave in such a way that it would be called intelligent if a human being behaved in such a way

- John McCarthy

Integral to operation of A.I. is therefore the availability of big data (e.g. collated judgments, etc.) and the ability to process such raw big data into actionable knowledge. In short, A.I. is:

Collection of Big Data Processed into Knowledge-Action through Logic Engine

As we enter into the new decade, access to big data is very much a reality. Quantum computing that will enable actionability of knowledge gleaned from such collected big data is also very much a reality.

Application of A.I., Big Data & Knowledge in Computer-Assisted Courts

It is trite that the administration of justice means the delivery of justice on a case by case basis. Each matter brought before a Judge must be decided on its individual facts and merits. Regardless of the subject matter in question, the work of a presiding justice is to process the information that the parties bring before a Court.

It is noteworthy that not all decisions which require the exercise of judicial powers are complex. Default judgments requiring the declaration of the Court (e.g. Order 19 rule 7 applications) and summary judgment and summary judgments are all matters which can be dealt with without the need of an actual hearing. Where the matter is overly complex, such applications will have deemed inappropriate and dismissed in any event (a process which can of course be undertaken by logic engine).

Conversely, A.I.s application in simple criminal cases (e.g. traffic violation, etc.) where fixed penalty are the norm can similarly be handled by A.I. (subject to human review if the situation so warrants).

It cannot be stressed enough that technology have much potential to ease the backlog of cases in our judiciary as well as achieving judicial economy with cases.

Existing Technology

It should be noted that the application of A.I. in judicial practice has already taken shape in various parts of the world. For example, in a recent research done in the European Union, A.I. prediction of verdicts of cases heard at the European Court of Human Rights had been able to achieve an accuracy range of 79%. The technology therefore already exists!

Hong Kongs Lag in Legal Technology Adaptation

As mentioned above, in order for A.I. to work properly, big data is a condition precedent. One of the hurdles that Hong Kong will undoubtedly encounter is the fact that much of our legal professional are still paper based. The digitization of our judicial process is therefore essential if we are to have an environment that will be accommodating to A.I. adaptation.

The Need of a Human Heart

Worlds governed by artificial intelligence often learned a hard lesson: Logic Doesnt care. Yin-Man Wi

- Quote from the Sic-Fi Series Andromeda

Whilst an A.I. assisted judiciary will undoubtedly have much value to assist in the way justice is rendered, it should be noted that the beauty of Common Law lies in the emphasis on equity and conscionability.

Whilst the outsourcing of justice to A.I. may have its attractiveness on hind sight, overly stringent application of the law is also known to have caused injustice. The acquittal of O.J. Simpsons for example have often times been criticized that whilst procedural justice was achieved, the same cannot be so certain in respect to moral justice. The fact remains, the human heart will always remain as the last bulwark for justice. Many judges will often agree:

sentencing is the most difficult part of the job

Further, given the fact that A.I. is still, as of this moment of writing at least, a novel technology which remains to be proven, caution dictates that it is better to have an A.I. assisted judiciary (which we should be encouraged to do everything to strive for) rather than a A.I. presided judiciary.

Conclusion

To take things to the next step, we must therefore be mindful of what A.I. can do for us in the decade of 2021:

Thisarticleisco-authoredbyJoshua ChufromONC Lawyers

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