Daily Archives: October 24, 2021

Denver Broncos: Its all about improving the simple things – Predominantly Orange

Posted: October 24, 2021 at 11:38 am

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Oct 17, 2021; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio challenges a call in the third quarter against the Las Vegas Raiders at Empower Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

After the Denver Broncos loss to the Las Vegas Raiders 34-24 Sunday, its apparent that this team needs to revert back to fundamental football.

It was too often that the Broncos were caught looking for a late-quarter comeback or last-minute first down just to stay afloat with the Raiders. Bridgewater threw three interceptions in a performance that has a lot of Broncos fans questioning his ability to lead the team.

Meanwhile, on the sidelines, the Broncos coaching staff struggled to keep Derek Carr and the Raiders contained all afternoon. Lots of fingers have been pointed to Head Coach Vic Fangio for the teams performance, as well as Offensive Coordinator Pat Shurmur for his lackluster play calling.

If theres one big takeaway that Broncos fans should be taking away from this game, its this: The Broncos cannot play simple football.

The golden rule for any team is to stick to fundamental football. The offense calls the shots as scheduled, and if that doesnt work, run it down their throats.

For the defense, its simple. Pick up your man in the backfield and stick like glue. The defensive line is focused on getting to the quarterback, and if needed, pick up your guy on the outside. Simple and effective football.

With Denver, it seems as though these simple things have gone out of the window. Vegas exposed them on all aspects of the ball, and as a result, Denver loses their third game in a row.

Lets take a closer look at the two biggest simple things that Denver couldnt execute on and what to improve on for Thursdays game versus the Cleveland Browns.

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Denver Broncos: Its all about improving the simple things - Predominantly Orange

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Meigs Health Matters: The impacts of bullying – Daily Sentinel

Posted: at 11:38 am

The Golden Rule: treat others as you want to be treated. A simple statement, biblical reference and rule to guide our moral compass as we live our lives. Unfortunately, we commonly hear, see and feel the negative impacts of a bully. Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior that includes a repetitive action to achieve an imbalance of power. Bullying occurs at all ages and in many different forms.

Verbal bullying is speaking or writing harmful comments. This includes teasing, name-calling, inappropriate comments, taunting or threatening to cause harm. Social bullying involves hurting ones reputation or relationships by purposely excluding them, telling others not to befriend them, spreading rumors about them or publically embarrassing them. Physical bullying involves hurting a persons body or possessions. Physical bullying includes forceful contact, stealing belongings, making mean or rude gestures. Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital media. Cyberbullying can occur via SMS, text, apps or online in social media, forums or gaming where people can view, participate or share information.

There are a multitude of factors as to why some individuals bully others. The first are peer factors, this leads one to be a bully to impress their peers. This is an attempt to attain or maintain social power or to elevate their status among their peer group. Family factors also play a large role in bullying. Those who live in a home where bullying, aggression and violence are common are more likely to be a bully themselves. There is also evidence that the parents of a bully are not providing emotional support and have low involvement in the childs life. Emotional factors can contribute as the bully doesnt know how to properly manage their feelings. Research suggests that insecurity, low self-esteem and not possessing skills to handle tough social situations positively are all common traits of a bully.

The signs of being a bully are often evident and necessitate immediate action. Signs include becoming increasingly aggressive, blaming others for their problems, not accepting responsibility for their actions and consistently worrying about their reputation or popularity.

Being on the receiving end of a bully can have a negative impact. Being bullied is linked to outcomes such as declined mental health, substance abuse, extremely violent retaliation and suicide. With such negative outcomes, it is important to identify if someone is being bullied. Signs of an individual being bullied include depression, anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness. They might exhibit changes in sleep and eating patterns or a loss of interest in the activities they used to enjoy. Sudden loss of friends or avoidance of social situations and self-destructive behaviors such as running away from home, inflicting self-harm or talking about suicide are all red flags that require immediate attention.

We have the capability to stop bullying. Being conscious of our in-person and online words, actions and their impact on others is the first step in the right direction. We are all role-models. Some of us are role-models to our children, friends, co-workers, congregation, ect Our actions and words can either make a positive or negative impact on someone else. Lets make certain we are all creating a positive impact on others as we move forward. Be the reason a friend smiles, be the reason your children had great day, be the reason that Meigs County is such a great place to live.

For more information, visit stopbullying.gov

Barr

Marc Barr is Meigs County Health Commissioner.

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Meigs Health Matters: The impacts of bullying - Daily Sentinel

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A Kitten Hit By A Car Thursday Turned Out To Be A Bobcat Kit – Patch.com

Posted: at 11:38 am

GUILFORD, CT A kitten was hit by a car in Guilford early Thursday morning. Good Samaritans stopped to help when the mother showed up with her other kittens. Bobcat kittens.

A heartbreaking story, and a cautionary tale as police remind folks that animals are still out and about and some, like this female bobcat, with their young, many often trying to navigate crossing roads.

Here's the full story from the Guilford Police Animal Shelter.

"Earlier this morning, officers responded to a kitten struck on Boston Post Rd. Several amazing women had stopped to save the kitten from the roadway.

After a short period of time, Mama kitty returned to the area with her other babies and it was clear this was no ordinary kit. She was a Bobcat kit

Mama stayed close by but knew her little one was too badly injured and took her remaining kittens back into the marsh to safety.

Unfortunately, this beautiful creature had severe injuries and was not able to be saved, but with the assistance of the Guilford Veterinarian Hospital, humanely euthanized.

Even though it is Fall, baby animals are still out and about with their parents and unfortunately can't always keep up as they dart across the road.

In addition, the roadways of Guilford will soon be filled with Deer during the rutting season and pose a significant hazard to motorists. Please continually scan the roadways, and edges of the road, while driving. Remember the golden rule of, "where there is one, there are more," as it relates to animals crossing the road. Leave your high beams on when driving at night when safe to do so. Attach deer alert whistles to the front of your vehicle to deter deer encounters."

A Kitten Hit By A Car Thursday Turned Out To Be A Bobcat Kit - Patch.com

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36% of Americans will spend more on Halloween this year. Don’t go into debt over it. – USA TODAY

Posted: at 11:38 am

Maurie Backman| The Motley Fool

Credit card debt: 6 steps to help get you through paying them off

If you're ready to start tackling your credit card debt, here are 6 steps to help you out along the way.

USA TODAY

There's a reason supermarkets have had Halloween candy on display since Labor Day. Americans love Halloween. From spooky decorations to creative costumes to treats galore, Halloween is one of those holidays that's easy to embrace.

But Americans' love of Halloween could also end up hurting their bank accounts. A good 36% of consumers plan to spend more money this year on the holiday than they did last year, according to a recent survey by CIT Bank. And if you're planning to go a similar route, that's a mistake that could haunt you for years.

Taking on even a small amount of debt for Halloween spending could end up hurting you more than you'd think. Say you rack up a $200 credit card balance during spooky season, thinking you'll pay it off in a few months' time.

Even if your credit card charges more interest than the average card, if you manage to pay off a $200 balance by the end of the year, the damage should be minimal. But if you had to charge that $200 in Halloween expenses and carry the balance forward, you might be likely to also rack up a balance for Thanksgiving and the year-end winter holidays. The result? A pile of debt going into 2022.

Not only can credit card debt cost you money in the form of interest, but too much of it can hurt your credit score. And that could kick off a cycle where borrowing in the first place becomes more expensive. So you're better off avoiding that horror if at all possible.

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If you have a tendency to go all out on Halloween and have money to pull from savings, then go for it. It's been a tough year, and there's nothing wrong with littering your lawn with giant pumpkins and buying 12 varieties of fun-sized treats at the grocery store.

But if you're living paycheck to paycheck and don't have much wiggle room to spend on Halloween, set a spending limit. Figure out what your priorities are for the holiday and then put together a budget you can stick to.

Say you can afford to spend an extra $50 on Halloween this year. That may mean skipping the decorations so you can buy your kids new costumes and have money left over to give out candy to trick-or-treaters.

Check your bank account:The October child tax credit payment was deposited last week

Remember, too, that there may be options for adjusting your plans so you're not forced to spend as much. If you can't swing a big Halloween display, enlist the help of your kids to create a spooky vibe at home. Have them draw pictures of monsters and goblins, and if you have a few old sheets lying around, converting them to hanging ghosts should be a pretty easy feat.

It's great to be excited about Halloween, but do your best to not land in credit card debt because of it. Otherwise, you could end up with a real nightmare on your hands.

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We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.CIT Group is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Maurie Backman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

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36% of Americans will spend more on Halloween this year. Don't go into debt over it. - USA TODAY

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Deadmau5’s ‘Oberhasli’ is what it looks like when the metaverse comes for music fans – Mashable

Posted: at 11:37 am

Oberhasli immediately feels like an early vision of how music fandom could evolve in a post-metaverse world.

You may not immediately be familiar with the platform it calls home, Manticore Games' Core. But you really don't need much background to appreciate the visually dazzling surreality of this new virtual creative space, which was built for and will now be curated by the popular EDM producer and DJ, Deadmau5.

"Ever since the big old pandemic clamped down on live events, we saw everyone doing the mad dash to get their virtual presence out in one form or another," Deadmau5, whose given name is Joel Zimmerman, said in an interview with Mashable ahead of Oberhasli's October launch.

So yes, that includes things like Fortnite's blockbuster in-game concerts, which recently featured pop superstar Ariana Grande. But it's also stuff like Phish's "Dinner and a Movie" archival streaming series on YouTube, which culminated in 2020 with the band challenging fans to a game of chess as a 1995 New Year's performance "aired" on their channel.

For Deadmau5, who has a background in animation and programming that predates his music career, giving fans a way to directly interact with an online music event is key. Early examples like Fortnite's Marshmello sets in 2019 were largely passive, with crowds of avatars gathering in front of a digital performance stage. Deadmau5 took note, but envisioned more of a "Passive Experience+, [and] one that was explorable."

Anyone can install "Core" and step into the dazzling Oberhasli, but this is a playground designed with Deadmau5 fans in mind specifically.Credit: manticore games / deadmau5

Oberhasli, then, is "our first baby step of me being set down a certain path." The sprawling and visually chaotic virtual landscape is a starting point. It's filled with Easter eggs for fans, and it includes both a Fall Guys-inspired mini-game and a virtual concert experience that feels more like a theme park ride. But for Deadmau5, who has taken possession of and responsibility for Oberhasli's ongoing updates now that the world is built, it's only a starting point.

"Probably within the year, I would say, we're gonna start unlocking a lot more cool interactivity," he said. Picking up on a comment I had made about part of the concert resembling a Destiny boss fight, he noted: "Adding a gunfight to that concert is really like five clicks away with Core."

Core is a piece of software that you can download for free from the Epic Games Store. It's not really a game, though there are plenty of games to play once you install it. Core is more of a creative space where anyone with an idea or even just a willingness to experiment can dive in and intuitively piece together their own digital creation. It's essentially a sandbox filled with easy-to-use game development tools.

Fortnite maker Epic Games may be best known in the mainstream for its mega-popular battle royale, but the company's most important claim to fame inside the video game business is its Unreal Engine. Games are built using software development tools (often referred to as a "game engine"). Unreal is the Gucci of game engines. It's the machine powering everything from recent gems like The Artful Escape and Returnal to classics like the BioShock and Borderlands games.

Core, then, is like a simplified version of Unreal. It was built with Epic's game engine, and the creation tools it offers are simplified versions of the ones that professional game developers use. As an overall experience Core is meant to be pick-up-and-play, and anything you build there lives exclusively inside the platform.

If you have it installed, a plain old link is all it takes to jump into someone's creation. That's how I got to check out Oberhasli before it was released. Manticore sent me a link, clicking it whisked me off to the right destination in Core. This new home for Deadmau5 fandom is one more destination in a crowd that includes homemade survival games, battle royales, farming simulators, and basically anything you can imagine. Where a concert in Fortnite is a standalone affair, a customized space inside Core is a fixture.

That's where the appeal lies for Deadmau5. He knows that Manticore, just like Epic with its Fortnite concerts, would love for Oberhasli to be a gateway into the platform for new users. But if world-renowned DJ Deadmau5 was just Joel Zimmerman, programmer and digital artist, he'd still be welcome there, with all the tools he'd need to build something on the scale of Oberhasli.

"Things that have absolutely nothing to do with me are inherently in Core as well," he said. "I have no problem with that because I'm not being locked into a style guide."

That creative freedom is what makes Oberhasli, and really every other Core creation, stand out. While there's some uniformity in the way certain things look such as basic character avatars and outfits there's no guiding philosophy for creators to adhere to. Oberhasli is a celebration of Deadmau5, full stop. It's not his personality filtered through someone else's vision, beyond the basic building blocks that give Core a somewhat cartoonish look that isn't so far off from Fortnite.

Stepping into Oberhasli's concert space, which replays the headlining feature of the new virtual space on a schedule, is like hitting play on a music video, except you're walking around inside it and poking at anything that seems interesting. As the 10-minute set plays, you cycle through environments that fit the musical mood of the moment. They're all filled with different ways to directly engage.

These aren't just static scenes where your avatar stands around and watches. What starts as a neon-drenched dance hall transforms in an instant as the floor melts away and concertgoers or is it players? drop into a circular pit lined by rainbow-colored pulsing beats that are reminiscent of the lights on an equalizer. In the distance, a giant, chomping Deadmau5 head is waiting at the pit's terminus. After players are gobbled up the scene shifts once again to an undersea setting as the music dials back to a slower and more chill tempo.

There are several such scene shifts throughout the event. At one point, you're set loose in an industrial space that's all conveyor belts and pulsing hydraulic rods (that double as jump pads), while an enormous robot, which looks like the love child of Voltron and a Deadmau5's DJ rig, fires emerald-colored eye lasers into the crowd. This leads directly into the gripping finale, a pseudo-chase where the Deadmau5 Voltron, now flying, pursues the players through a lava-scorched landscape while a giant, Deadmau5 head-shaped mushroom cloud hangs in the sky.

None of it is genuinely live. That's a hurdle of our current technical reality, where performing in real-time before a crowd of player-controlled avatars is limited by the number of people who can be crammed into a virtual lobby. (In Core, that number is 32). But the audiovisual intensity of the event coupled with the many small ways you can interact with each space creates a kind of energy that feels like the distant cousin of being in a dance hall, moving to the beat as it's created on the spot.

"That's the fun part," Deadmau5 said. "There's a billion ways to think of that [energy exchange]." He's already imagining scenarios where visits to Oberhasli can be further gamified with the dangling carrot of virtual rewards or an Achievements-style point system for players to chase. Perhaps even team-based exercises that split the gathered crowd, giving them proverbial levers to pull that could influence the way things play out.

"[Imagine] they get to vote on the next sequence of events," he offered. "Or events that have taken place in previous performances that they really liked, that I could re-inject back in [when the vote goes a certain way]." While the march of technology could eventually allow for more of a truly live performance, that's not really the goal with Oberhasli as Deadmau5 sees it.

"For me, the experience is more leaning toward the gamification of the event, because [Core] is inherently a game platform," he said, "I would say not all Deadmau5 fans are video game fans, but at least the ones that are video game fans, and that are in this little section of the metaverse, are music fans. So it's a good crossover."

"I know I'm hitting a narrow margin of everybody that I have to hit as my Deadmau5 schtick goes," he added. "But I'd like to see that widen up once you can successfully illustrate or demonstrate that this type of interaction is available. Thus bringing more people into just the whole idea of game engines being the new interactive music video."

That's where Manticore's ongoing efforts to develop Core play a key role. For now, the platform is only available for Windows through Epic Games Store. But an iOS version is coming in 2022 "for sure," according to studio co-founder Jordan Maynard. It's also in development for unspecified consoles, and a planned cloud gaming release should open access up to pretty much any internet-connected hardware that sports a full-featured web browser.

It's hard to fully capture the visual variety at play in Oberhasli. It's a space that's built for exploration and discovery.Credit: manticore games / deadmau5

For Deadmau5, the now-launched Oberhasli is meant to live on (and on and on) as a space for his creative pursuits to live. Primarily his game and game development ideas, but bigger projects as well. "I'm not hanging up the mouse head and...saying I'm just gonna throw all my shit in here," he explained, "But the things I want to do in terms of interacting with my online community, I would prefer to do there."

If that means tweaking Oberhasli or working with Manticore on finding ways to, in Deadmau5's words, "synergize a couple of different platforms" he cited Twitch as an example then that's on the table too. "Some people are just happy to watch, and don't necessarily [want to] go out and...rip two [or] three grand on a gaming PC they don't play games on just to come in and enjoy the fun."

For someone like me who treats music and live performance as something adjacent to a religious experience, it's a compelling pitch. One of the more positive lessons of the pandemic, if there's any positivity to draw from our miserable shared trauma, is that certain fundamentally in-person experiences translate surprisingly well into virtual settings.

Oberhasli follows along from the Fornite concerts and band vs. fan remote chess matches, evolving the notion of what's possible when a tech-literate performer turns their creative energies toward a new kind of canvas. However we end up defining "metaverse" in the end, you can be sure our cultural faves in music and nearly any other medium are coming along for the ride.

For all its flaws as a movie and a book, Ready Player One got that concept perfectly right. So with Core and Oberhasli together, we're seeing a Deadmau5 experiment that presses hard against the limits we've seen so far. It's abundantly clear after even a few minutes spent inside his virtual play space that those boundaries are already ripe for expansion.

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Deadmau5's 'Oberhasli' is what it looks like when the metaverse comes for music fans - Mashable

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Truth or Fake – No, the Covid-19 vaccine did not make this baby transhuman – The France 24 Observers

Posted: at 11:36 am

Issued on: 22/10/2021 - 15:15

Has the Covid-19 vaccine led to a new breed of "pandemic babies"being born across the world? Thats what some anti-vaxxers would have you believe. A viral TikTok video shows what some people claim is one of these genetically mutated babies. The Truth or Fake team got to the bottom of a popular online theory worthy of science fiction.

In a video that went viral on TikTok, a newborn baby sits on a bed in what looks like a hospital, with someone next to her supporting her upright. Her big black eyes look around, blinking slowly. Overlaid on the video is a womans commentary, telling us, These pandemic babies are built differently.

Images of this baby have spread on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, with captions describing her as having hybrid genetics or claiming that an American court has categorised her and babies like her as transhuman. And the cause of the babys genetic mutation? The Covid-19 vaccine.

Anti-vaxxers are claiming that women who received the Covid-19 vaccine when pregnant unintentionally damaged the genetics of their unborn babies, creating a new breed of pandemic babies.

The Truth or Fake team contacted the mother of the child to ask her about the viral video and some of the online claims people have madeabout her daughter. She told us that her daughter has perfectly normal genetics and eyes, and that she was born prematurely, which could explain her slightly underdeveloped appearance. Whats more, her mother hadnt even received the Covid-19 jab when she was pregnant and only receivedit months after giving birth.

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Truth or Fake - No, the Covid-19 vaccine did not make this baby transhuman - The France 24 Observers

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WISeKey to introduce The Code to the Metaverse – Programming – GlobeNewswire

Posted: at 11:36 am

WISeKey to introduce The Code to the Metaverse - Programming Our Future For Good at the forthcoming Vatican Collegio Teutonico meeting

Programming Our Future For Good

Saturday, October 23, 2021 | Collegio Teutonico, Vatican City2:00 :00 pm CET / 8:00 11:00pm CST / 8:00 11:00am EST

Authors of The transHuman Code and Artificial Humanity to host the introduction of The Code to the Metaverse - Programming Our Future For Good at The Vatican, Rome

Geneva, Zug, Switzerland October 20, 2021 - WISeKey International Holding Ltd ("WISeKey", SIX: WIHN), a leading cybersecurity, IoT and AI company, today announced that David Fergusson, Executive MD of Generational Equity and Carlos Moreira, CEO and Founder of WISeKey, authors of The transHuman Code and Artificial Humanity will host the introduction of The Code to the Metaverse - Programming Our Future For Good at a meeting scheduled to be held on October 23, 2021 at Collegio Teutonico, Vatican City.

In the best-selling 2019 book, The transHuman Code, business leaders David Fergusson and Carlos Moreira offered the world a carefully curated outlook on the essential conversations that will determine whether we use technology to upgrade or undermine our humanity. Addressing critical topics like water, finance, government, jobs, and health, the book ignited a global dialogue about how to ensure that humanity and technology exist in harmony during this digital revolution.

In collaboration with the Pontifical Lateran University at the Vatican and Humanity 2.0, the authors were invited to bring the conversation to the Vaticans Collegio Teutonico shortly after the books launch. The event assembled technology, corporate, finance, government, academic, ecclesiastic and media leaders in an interactive forum to catalyze awareness and establish the best path forward.

On October 23, Fergusson and Moreira, together with Father Philip Larrey, Chairman of Humanity 2.0; Chair of Logic Epistemology and Dean of Philosophy at the Pontifical Lateran University in the Vatican; and author of Artificial Humanity, will return to Collegio Teutonico to introduce The Code to the Metaverse - Programming Our Future For Good, a forthcoming twelve-part multi-media series that convenes the brightest minds and most important resources to one end: ensuring the highest human values are embedded into todays most important technological advancements.

This exclusive, invitation only event, a feature of the Elite Global Leaders Conference, brings financial, philanthropic, spiritual and business leaders together to discuss The Code and the steps we must collectively take to create the future we most desire.

Programming Our Future For Good

Saturday, October 23, 2021 | Collegio Teutonico, Vatican City

Agenda

2:00 2:15 p.m.

2:15 2:20 p.m.

2:20 - 2:30 p.m.

Arrival

WelcomeNeil A. Greene, CEO, Jaboy Productions

IntroductionDavid Fergusson, Co-Creator, The Code to the Metaverse; Executive MD, Generational EquityFather Philip Larrey, Chair and Dean, Pontifical Lateran University in the Vatican; Chairman, Humanity 2.0; Author, Artificial Humanity

4:30 5:00 p.m.

Reception

Praise for The transHuman Code

''The principles of The transHuman Code remind us that we have an obligation to ensure that our society is programmed for the betterment of all. This is the handbook for the future we all deserve!''- Risto Siilasmaa, Chairman, Nokia

Human society is being transformed by new technologies. David and Carlos have assembled a tremendous resource for understanding what this transHuman world will look like. A must read!''- Professor Alex ''Sandy'' Pentland, co-creator, MIT Media Lab, Director MIT Connection Science

''In a time when climate change is making catastrophic weather events more frequent and scarcity of water more dramatic we need to think how technology can be re-focused to the human needs. Everyone should read this book and contribute to finding the transHuman way.''- Dr. Enrico Fucile, Chief of Data Representation, World Meteorlogical Organization

''It is essential that as we navigate our way towards an uncertain future, that the best of humanity is strengthened and protected, and not irrevocably compromised. Strong, thoughtful leadership and creative ideas are needed. This incredibly important book provides just that.''- Julia Christensen Hughes, Dean of the College of Business and Economics, University of Guelph

''Leaders must realize it's their people, and not technology, that is the biggest competitive advantage for their organizations to succeed in this new world. I highly recommend this great book by David and Carlos. The transHuman Code should be on everyone's required reading list!''- Leena Nair, Chief Human Resources Officer, Unilever

''The new digital age promises us the opportunity to live richer, fuller and rewarding lives while marginalizing some sectors of the population and creating anxiety about the relevance of humanity. This book handles these questions deftly!''- Mohit Joshi, President, Infosys

''Only David and Carlos have the foresight and network to bring together a stellar group of experts on the socio-political impact of techno-economical transformations. This is a great platform to engage us in conversation that is so critical to our future!''- Danil Kerimi, Head, Technology Industries for the World Economic Forum

''With the transHuman Code we can establish the most important basic principle of technological innovation - Ethics of use. We have been waiting too long for this book!''- Kavita Gupta, Founding Managing Partner, ConsenSys Ventures

''Every user of technology-which is pretty much everybody-should read this book. It's filled with profound questions we should all be asking ourselves about what our relationship with technology. Before you pick up your phone again, read The transHuman Code.''- Jon Rettinger, President, TechnoBuffalo

''The TransHuman Code is the MUST-READ book of the year! As technology continues to disrupt every aspect our lives, David and Carlos discuss the imminent need for a bold conversation on what makes us human and what values we need to preserve and strengthen - before it's too late.''- Megan Alexander, Host, ''Inside Edition'', CBS

About WISeKey

WISeKey (NASDAQ: WKEY; SIX Swiss Exchange: WIHN) is a leading global cybersecurity company currently deploying large-scale digital identity ecosystems for people and objects using Blockchain, AI, and IoT respecting the Human as the Fulcrum of the Internet. WISeKey microprocessors secure the pervasive computing shaping todays Internet of Everything. WISeKey IoT has an installed base of over 1.6 billion microchips in virtually all IoT sectors (connected cars, smart cities, drones, agricultural sensors, anti-counterfeiting, smart lighting, servers, computers, mobile phones, crypto tokens, etc.). WISeKey is uniquely positioned to be at the leading edge of IoT as our semiconductors produce a huge amount of Big Data that, when analyzed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), can help industrial applications predict the failure of their equipment before it happens.

Our technology is Trusted by the OISTE/WISeKeys Swiss-based cryptographic Root of Trust (RoT) provides secure authentication and identification, in both physical and virtual environments, for the Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence. The WISeKey RoT serves as a common trust anchor to ensure the integrity of online transactions among objects and between objects and people. For more information, visit http://www.wisekey.com.

Press and investor contacts:WISeKey International Holding LtdCompany Contact: Carlos MoreiraChairman & CEOTel: +41 22 594 3000info@wisekey.com

WISeKey Investor Relations (US)Contact: Lena CatiThe Equity Group Inc.Tel: +1 212 836-9611lcati@equityny.com

Disclaimer:This communication expressly or implicitly contains certain forward-looking statements concerning WISeKey International Holding Ltd and its business. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance, or achievements of WISeKey International Holding Ltd to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. WISeKey International Holding Ltd is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and it does not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of article 652a or article 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations or a listing prospectus within the meaning of the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of WISeKey and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of WISeKey

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WISeKey to introduce The Code to the Metaverse - Programming - GlobeNewswire

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WISeKey to introduce The Code to the Metaverse – Programming Our Future For Good at the forthcoming Vatican Collegio Teutonico meeting -…

Posted: at 11:36 am

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WISeKey to introduce The Code to the Metaverse - Programming Our Future For Good at the forthcoming Vatican Collegio Teutonico meeting

Programming Our Future For Good

Saturday, October 23, 2021 | Collegio Teutonico, Vatican City2:00 :00 pm CET / 8:00 11:00pm CST / 8:00 11:00am EST

Authors of The transHuman Code and Artificial Humanity to host the introduction of The Code to the Metaverse - Programming Our Future For Good at The Vatican, Rome

Programming Our Future For Good

Saturday, October 23, 2021 | Collegio Teutonico, Vatican City

Agenda

2:00 2:15 p.m.

2:15 2:20 p.m.

2:20 - 2:30 p.m.

Arrival

WelcomeNeil A. Greene, CEO, Jaboy Productions

4:30 5:00 p.m.

Reception

Praise for The transHuman Code

About WISeKey

Press and investor contacts:WISeKey International Holding LtdCompany Contact: Carlos MoreiraChairman & CEOTel: +41 22 594 3000info@wisekey.com

WISeKey Investor Relations (US)Contact: Lena CatiThe Equity Group Inc.Tel: +1 212 836-9611lcati@equityny.com

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WISeKey to introduce The Code to the Metaverse - Programming Our Future For Good at the forthcoming Vatican Collegio Teutonico meeting -...

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New fossil discovery may add 100s of millions of years to animal evolution – EarthSky

Posted: at 11:35 am

A new fossil discovery in the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada, may change how we consider animal evolution. Image via The Conversation.

By Elizabeth C. Turner, Laurentian University

Ever wonder how and when animals swanned onto the evolutionary stage? When, where and why did animals first appear? What were they like?

Life has existed for much of Earths 4.5-billion-year history, but for most of that time it consisted exclusively of bacteria.

Although scientists have been investigating the evidence of biological evolution for over a century, some parts of the fossil record remain maddeningly enigmatic, and finding evidence of Earths earliest animals has been particularly challenging.

Information about evolutionary events hundreds of millions of years ago is mainly gleaned from fossils. Familiar fossils are shells, exoskeletons and bones that organisms make while alive. These so-called hard parts first appear in rocks deposited during the Cambrian explosion, slightly less than 540 million years ago.

The seemingly sudden appearance of diverse, complex animals, many with hard parts, implies that there was a preceding interval during which early soft-bodied animals with no hard parts evolved from simpler animals. Unfortunately, until now, possible evidence of fossil animals in the interval of hidden evolution has been very rare and difficult to understand, leaving the timing and nature of evolutionary events unclear.

This conundrum, known as Darwins dilemma, remains tantalizing and unresolved 160 years after the publication of On the Origin of Species.

There is indirect evidence regarding how and when animals may have appeared. Animals by definition ingest preexisting organic matter, and their metabolisms require a certain level of ambient oxygen. It has been assumed that animals could not appear, or at least not diversify, until after a major oxygen increase in the Neoproterozoic Era, sometime between 815 and 540 million years ago, resulting from accumulation of oxygen produced by photosynthesizing cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.

It is widely accepted that sponges are the most basic animal in the animal evolutionary tree and therefore probably were first to appear. Yes, sponges are animals: they use oxygen and feed by sucking water containing organic matter through their bodies. The earliest animals were probably sponge-related (the sponge-first hypothesis),and may have emerged hundreds of millions of years prior to the Cambrian, as suggested by a genetic method called molecular phylogeny, which analyzes genetic differences.

Based on these reasonable assumptions, sponges may have existed as much as 900 million years ago. So, why have we not found fossil evidence of sponges in rocks from those hundreds of millions of intervening years?

Part of the answer to this question is that sponges do not have standard hard parts (shells, bones). Although some sponges have an internal skeleton made of microscopic mineralized rods called spicules, no convincing spicules have been found in rocks dating from the interval of hidden early animal evolution. However, some sponge typeshave a skeleton made of tough protein fibers called spongin, forming a distinctive, microscopic, three-dimensional meshwork, identical to a bath sponge.

Work on modern and fossil sponges has shown that these sponges can be preserved in the rock record when their soft tissue is calcified during decay. If the calcified mass hardens around spongin fibers before they too decay, a distinctive microscopic meshwork of complexly branching tubes results appears in the rock. The branching configuration is unlike that of algae, bacteria or fungi, and is well known from limestones younger than 540 million years.

I am a geologist and paleobiologist who works on very old limestone. Recently, I described this exact microstructure in 890-million-year-old rocks from northern Canada, proposing that it could be evidence of sponges that are several hundred million years older than the next-youngest uncontested sponge fossil.

Although my proposal may initially seem outrageous, it is consistent with predictions and assumptions that are common in the paleontological community: the new material seems to validate an extrapolated timeline and a predicted identity for early animals that are already widely accepted.

If these are indeed sponge fossils, animal evolution can be pushed back by several hundred million years.

The early possible sponges that I describe lived with localized cyanobacterial communities that produced oxygen oases in an otherwise low-oxygen world, prior to the Neoproterozoic oxygenation event. These early sponges may have continued living in similar environments, possibly unchanged and unchallenged by evolutionary pressure, for up to several hundred million years, before more diverse animals emerged.

The existence of 890-million-year-old animals would also indicate that biological evolution was not substantially affected by the controversial Cryogenian glacial episodes so-called snowball Earth that began around 720 million years ago.

My unusual fossil material may provide a new perspective on Darwins dilemma. However, radical new ideas are generally not fully accepted by the scientific community without vigorous discussion; I expect lively controversy to ensue. At some point, probably years in the future, a consensus may develop based on further work. Until then, enjoy the debate!

Elizabeth C. Turner, Professor, Earth Sciences, Laurentian University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bottom line: Elizabeth Turner said her new fossil discovery may be the oldest animal fossil on record. The 890-million-year-old sponge would push back the evolutionary timeline for animals.

Read the original:

New fossil discovery may add 100s of millions of years to animal evolution - EarthSky

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The Evolution of the Pro Photographer Through Phases and Crises – PetaPixel

Posted: at 11:35 am

The professional growth of a photographer, and therefore the maturity of his or her projects, passes through several phases. Different phases require different skills from the photographer. In each phase the work and the goal of photography change, the maturity of his or her work grows.

Borrowing ideas from Greiners growth model (good designers copy, great designers steal), I came up with a model for the evolution of the commercial photographer. Just like Greiners famous model, my model has different phases. It also has crisis moments marking the transition from one phase to the next. And I want to say right away that this is a rather subjective model, and Im sure its different for everyone.

The foundation of photography is creating beautiful images. This is a fundamental skill of any photographer. Its what is taught in art school. Thats why photographers become photographers, to create beauty. Its what makes photography appealing. Its what most people imagine when they think of photography.

The creator uses classic tools and possesses aesthetic skills: color grading, rhythm, form. Further professional growth depends on learning and mastering to create more beautiful things.

The first moment of crisis comes when the photographer succeeds. The better the photography gets, the more photo projects he or she can work on. The photographer needs to collaborate with more people and create projects on a larger scale. It requires tools that help to create more complex photography.

This is quite an obstacle for a creator who was taught in art school to work solo on a single project and who has mastered the craft to perfection.

When photographers overcome the obstacles of collaboration and systems thinking, they become art directors. They now work with larger teams of stylists, agencies, and even approach retouching and color grading differently. Further growth will ensure better collaboration and sharpened systems thinking.

An art director works with stylists, brands, location scouts, magazines, editors, etc. He or she develops beautiful and on-trend projects. Now the final picture has more impact because the scale is bigger. But sometimes the team does their work not according to the assignment, but in the way they want or know how to do it. And thats where the problems come in

If the team wants more impact, the next hurdle they have to overcome is establishing the perfect point of interaction. The photographer (AKA art director) needs to become a problem solver, not a picture maker. For the photographer to allow others to participate in his or her process is a big leap.

If the photographer can connect to all stakeholders and develop organizational skills, he or she can create much bigger solutions. To establish a dialogue, the photographer must understand the language of the business.

Even if youve worked it all out, put ideas together in powerful mood boards, youre faced with the fact that the reality of your idea is too complex to implement. Creating large-scale projects takes a lot of time and money, and in our complex world doesnt bring enough value. Either the world has changed since TikTok, or it turns out youve drifted far into creativity. To solve this problem, the photographer must become a researcher, or better yet, a scientist. Scared?

Scientists are able to build, measure, and learn, apply their unique perspective, mindset, and skillset to lift projects to a higher level. Such a hybrid approach of the artistic, combined with analytical thinking, allows them to create even more valuable projects. Visual thinking, ability to create concrete things, creativity, courage, and ability to see connections all contribute to the quality and success of the projects. They no longer do tasks, they create them. Take a look at Nick Knights photography projects, for example.

And thats when they discover their superpowers, they want more. They want maximum influence: to lead people according to their visions.

And now the photographer faces the final crisis. It needs to raise his or her leadership status. When the photographer was an art director, he or she was already leading a team. But now the playing field has changed. It is no longer just influencing a team, it is about influencing entire organizations.

Its not just about learning how to communicate properly like when it was at the connectors phase. Its a step up. It requires understanding how modern designers, brands and entire industries think and work. To break the rules, you have to learn them first.

There is a growing need in business for a new type of leadership based on imagination. A powerful image can be a tremendous force for change.

About the author: Dmitry Ostrovsky (@ostrovsky) is a photographer and editor of the independent editorial board EDITTS (@editts.class), which is the most useful and beautiful blog about contemporary photography on Instagram in Russia and the CIS. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

Image credits: Header photo licensed from Depositphotos

Excerpt from:

The Evolution of the Pro Photographer Through Phases and Crises - PetaPixel

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Daily Archives: October 24, 2021

Denver Broncos: Its all about improving the simple things – Predominantly Orange

Meigs Health Matters: The impacts of bullying – Daily Sentinel

A Kitten Hit By A Car Thursday Turned Out To Be A Bobcat Kit – Patch.com

36% of Americans will spend more on Halloween this year. Don’t go into debt over it. – USA TODAY

Deadmau5’s ‘Oberhasli’ is what it looks like when the metaverse comes for music fans – Mashable

Truth or Fake – No, the Covid-19 vaccine did not make this baby transhuman – The France 24 Observers

WISeKey to introduce The Code to the Metaverse – Programming – GlobeNewswire

WISeKey to introduce The Code to the Metaverse – Programming Our Future For Good at the forthcoming Vatican Collegio Teutonico meeting -…

New fossil discovery may add 100s of millions of years to animal evolution – EarthSky

The Evolution of the Pro Photographer Through Phases and Crises – PetaPixel

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