Monthly Archives: February 2022

In The Books Of Jacob, a Nobel laureate tells the epic story of a self-proclaimed messiah – The A.V. Club

Posted: February 1, 2022 at 2:50 am

Books are always arriving at the wrong time in Olga Tokarczuks The Books Of Jacob. The 18th-century Eastern Europe and Mediterranean through which this novel charts its course is a thoroughly multilingual environment. Its not uncommon for characters to juggle Polish, German, Yiddish, Turkish, and Ruthenian within a single conversation. Accordingly, writing moves at a much slower pace, and printing is often a matter of great personal cost. Official edicts take years before theyre translated into popular language, and heretical books are subject to censure and often burned. The Books Of Jacob also details prescient volumes that arrive too soon, and for that amount to prophecy. Its appropriate then, that it should take a monumental amount of time, and deft translation work from Jennifer Croft, for this 965-page novel, which first appeared in the authors native Poland in 2014, to make its way into English.

It comes with the recommendation of the Nobel Committee for Literaturewhich, in another example of bibliographic mistiming, retroactively awarded Tokarczuk the 2018 prize a year late, due to resignations at the Swedish Academy amid a #MeToo scandal. In the Anglosphere, little of Tokarczuks work had been made widely available at that time, and most reporting on the prize was devoted instead to 2019 laureate Peter Handkes controversial support for Slobodan Miloevi. The Books Of Jacob appearing now feels like a long-promised setting to rights, an occasion for English readers to experience a genuine global artistic event: the publication of a genre-broadening contribution to the historical novel.

For her subject matter Tokarczuk takes on the real-world figure of Jacob Frank, a Polish Jew who, beginning in the 1750s, claimed to be a messiah before leading his followers down a path of mysticism, apostasy, and often-dangerous adventure. Believed to be a reincarnation of the previous messianic claimant, Sabbatai Tzvi, Jacob Frank preaches a doctrine of liberation from the Talmud, Mosaic Law, and nearly every other cornerstone of conventional Jewish faith. In extraordinary times, according to Franks teaching, it falls to the messiah to transgress the old law and so herald the new. Scandalously, the Frankists convert to Christianity and face excommunication from the Jewish community. Only shortly thereafter, theyre accused of Christian heresy, and Frank is put in front of a tribunal. Religious disputation and changing political winds then find these true believers alternately embraced, embattled, imprisoned, or on the road within the roughly 40-year span of The Books Of Jacobs principal action.

The magic of the novel is that an encyclopedically researched account of a fringe schismatic denomination from nearly three centuries ago should feel so wildly contemporary. At times, the long and abstract asides on Kabbalism can seem remote from modern readers concerns. But when the true believers establish their communitarian peasants republic on the site of a town abandoned by its previous inhabitants after a bout of plague, something of our own times apocalypse is brought into relief. The Books Of Jacob is studded with similarly affecting moments, in which both the proximity and the distance of the past are thrillingly, simultaneously affirmed.

In a certain sense, Tokarczuk is concerned with letting you see the sweat on her product. The book concludes with a note on sources, and every period detail reads as faultlessly placed. The Books Of Jacob projects verisimilitude. Simultaneously, fictional composites exist alongside the historical personalities. Novelistic convention is subtle here, but ever-present. Frequently present, too, are reproduced paintings, lithographs, maps, and long blocks of direct quotation. Archival documents and pure invention share page space in a way that invites commentary and endless interpretation, putting into formal play the very questions of allegorical and mystical meaning that feature as the novels content.

Reality becomes increasingly difficult to parse from fabrication, and the power of narrative, its clear, lies in the resonances and connections that artifice can reveal between known facts. As one late passage has it, Over time, moments occur that are very similar to one another. The threads of time have their knots and tangles, and every so often there is a symmetry, every once in a while something repeats, as if refrains and motifs were controlling them, a troubling thing to notice.

Within the Enlightenment period that Tokarczuk presents, much progress was made in the study of optics. Jacob Franks preaching is depicted alongside Benjamin Franklins invention of the bifocal, the publication of Newtons physical observations of light, and the popularization in Europe of the camera obscuraa technological precursor of the photograph. The suggestiveness of this choice in images for The Books Of Jacob is rich, as light and its manipulation come increasingly to be explained in the terms of the incipient Scientific Revolution. One story that the book has to tell is then of the undecidable encounter between eons-old faith and a growing rationalism.

At the same time, its a virtue of mysticism to be contradictory and puzzling, and in Jacob Frank, Tokarczuk has a hugely confounding figure. Most of the novel observes him in a broad third-person. Occasionally, there are diaristic asides from Franks disciple and biographer, Nahman of Busk. Perhaps the most interesting and reaching of the perspectives on offer here is that of Yente, Jacob Franks comatose grandmother: Hovering somewhere between life and death after a debacle involving an amulet, she dispassionately observes the entirety of the plot as a disembodied spirit. She synthesizes the diversity of otherwise random events, cutting out of them an intelligible figure. In this way she most resembles the author, as The Books Of Jacobs art is restoring and activating that recognizably human movement thats always present beneath the inert, static material of facts.

The Books Of Jacobs choices can sometimes be daunting. The books scale; its hugely populous cast of named characters; its reverse-ordered page numbers, done in honor of Hebrew convention; and the intense pitch of human suffering so often achievedit all makes for less than hospitable reading. In many ways, its the contents of the past itself thats the source of this difficultyobdurate as it is, and liable to unpredictable change. If theres one thing that Joseph Frank, the messiah, is concerned with imparting, its the provisionality of all earthly things. In her clear-sighted rendering of enormous historical momentum, pitilessly displaying the dissolution of both national borders and whole systems of belief, Olga Tokarczuk achieves much the same objective.

Author photo: Lukasz Giza

Drew Dickerson lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

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In The Books Of Jacob, a Nobel laureate tells the epic story of a self-proclaimed messiah - The A.V. Club

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Encountering Science in the 1980s – Splice Today

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One day in the early-1980s,when I was in my late-teens,Ibought a couple of books and brought themtoNYU Medical Center. Iwas a frequent visitor tothe hospital, given family health conditions and thatmyuncle,BobSilber,headed the hematology division.The books wereThe Creation, by P.W. Atkins, andModern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Eighties, by Paul Johnson.These reflected diverse interests Id developed; as ascience enthusiastabsorbed with questions aboutphysics and free will; andas alibertarian conservativefor whomgrowingdisaffectionwith the rightlay far in the future.

Both books shaped my views of science-related matters. And so did the environment where I began readingthem, a major hospital with research and teaching arms.

The Creationoffered a worldview of extreme rationalism and militant reductionism, as the dust jacket put it. Atkins, an Oxfordphysical chemist,sketchedout a universe with no role for a creator;whereinnatural processes arise from a purposeless collapse into chaos,andcomplex phenomena concealan underlying simplicity.Atkins held thatperfect freedom generates its own constraints, such thatevenspace, time and physical law are products of chance.He noted a debate that would intensify in later years,onclaims thatphysical constants show evidence of fine-tuningfor compatibility with life,buthedismissedthat idea as an illusion.

Atkins sawtheuniversehe describedas compatible with free will. The singular property of the brain is that its response to circumstance is to a degree under its own control, he wrote,though he added that this capacity was ultimately just purposeless dispersal of energy.The Creationwas a fascinating read, with an appealing formatwherethe main narrativewason right-hand pages while left-hand pageshadmore-technical comments.The book bolstered myskepticismtoward claims that scientists had uncovered, or were trying toevade,evidence of the divine; such claimslater became a staple of conservative magazines.

Modern Timeshad a different sensibility. Johnson, a conservative journalist and historian, sawmuch calamityinthe 20thcentury as having arisen from displacement of traditional religion by secular or atheistic ideologies. The book took a tack ofseparatingsciencefromsuch ideologies.It opened with the idea that the modern world began in 1919 when Einsteins theory of relativity was confirmed by solar-eclipse observations. Johnson proceeded to lament that this physics theory helped spur cultural trendsthat underminedtraditional morals and standards. He wrote:Mistakenly but perhaps inevitably,relativity became confused with relativism.

Johnson wrote with verve, putting forward a sweeping historical tableau resonant with Thatcherite and Reaganite conservatism. I was generally receptive to his interpretations, though in retrospectI findthe books tendentiousnessoverwrought, as with Johnsonscontention that Warren Harding was an exceptionally shrewd president,orthatWatergatewitch-hunterstoppled Nixon in what might be described as a mediaputsch.Modern Timess sympathetic treatment of the Franco regime in Spainisan ominous portentin light of right-wing affinities for authoritariangovernments in the 2020s.

Johnsonevinceda disdain for the social sciences as left-wing endeavors to remake society. Economics, sociology, psychology and other inexact sciencesscarcely sciences at all in the light of modern experiencehad constructed the juggernaut of social engineering, which had crushed beneath it so much wealth and so many lives, he wrote. He expressedapprovalthat such disciplines had faced growing disesteem in the 1970s but regretted ithad taken so long.

The effects of the social science fallacy will therefore still be felt until the turn of the century,Johnsonwrote. But its influence will steadily diminish and never again, perhaps, will humanity put so much trust in this modernmetaphysic. This argument influenced menegatively, I now believe, as itfostered a contemptuous dismissal of subjects about which I knew little.(I did, nonetheless, choose economics as one of my majors at NYUa year or so later, seeing it as partly exempt from the negative tendencies that Johnson had described.)

Johnson closedModern Timeswith an encomium to sociobiology, a school of thought led by biologist E.O. Wilson that emphasized genetic factors in understanding human behavior. According to Johnson, sociobiology was an exact science that was opposed by the radical social scientists, especially the Marxists because it suggestedthat their work and beliefs were no more than a metaphysics, a form of superstition. The books final paragraphwondered whether the whole process of seeking social and economic equality might run counter to a beneficial biological process under way in every second of creation, as humans evolve.

I thought back to thatpassagerecently amidallegationsafter Wilsons deaththathe hadracist ideas,a contretemps Ive previouslynoted. Wilson expresslydisavowedany such connection, writing that no justification for racism is to be found in the truly scientific study of the biological basis of social[behavior].Still,Wilsons work could be interpreted in bizarre ways, as with Johnsons suggestionto avoidsocialreforms so as to keep out of the way ofbiological improvementsover vast periods of time.Nearly two decades after readingModern Times, IreviewedWilsons bookConsilience, which sought to link various disciplines into a comprehensiveworldview, with sociobiologyas an important connector.Id maintained skepticismthatthis gene-centeredapproachwas an exact science.

Spending time with Uncle Bob at NYU Medical Center gave me a view of science and its messy realities I couldnt get from books. One day, he asked a young woman who worked in one of the labs to show me around. At one point, she unlocked a door so I could see where the monkeys are kept. Inthat room, the lab animals were in cages on shelves, andtheyreacted with rage at seeing us. At another point, we passed containers of blood, which had a strong smell.

Bob told me stories about scientists he knew. One of them had become well-known as an AIDS researcher andoncetold Bob hewas headingto another scientists lab as there was something theotherwanted him to see. Later, there was a dispute between the two scientists as to whod seen something first, and the well-known guys claim of credit wasfalse. Another anecdote was about a scientist whod bullied another,even overturning the guys desk and scattering his papers. When I asked what motivated this, my uncle described the bully as a psychopath.

There were more inspiring colleagues, such asLinda Laubenstein, famed for her work with AIDS patients.She used a wheelchair because of childhood polio and was called a bitch on wheels for her assertiveness with other doctors. I met her at a hospital party, and she was very nice.

Uncle Bob published over 100 science papers, withafocus on developing treatments for leukemia and other diseases. He was also a popular professor at the medical school. Treating patients was his overriding passion, though.He and they often formed close connections.

One day, I walked into the hospital, and to my surprise heard my name over the paging system. Calling the specified extension, I reached Bob, who told me that a terminally-ill woman he was treating enjoyed milkshakes of a particular type; he recited a list of ingredients, and asked me to get such a shake made. I went to a deli andinstructed a dubious counterman about the elaborate concoction, then brought ittothe womans hospital room, fulfilling her dying wish.

Kenneth Silber is author ofIn DeWitts Footsteps: Seeing History on the Erie Canaland is on Twitter:@kennethsilber

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the review of Joel Coens film with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand – D1SoftballNews.com

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Macbeth, a new film adaptation of the tragedy of William Shakespeare after those of Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles and Roman Polanski, is the first film made by Joel Coen alone, without the collaboration of his brother Ethan. It is therefore the feature film that marks the unprecedented separation between one of the most decisive, brilliant and influential couples of contemporary American cinema: the definitive split has not yet been formalized, but Ethan has in the meantime decided to devote himself to something else and an indirect confirmation has also come from their composer and collaborator habitual, Carter Burwell.

The transposition, produced by the fertile production house A24, standard-bearer for the new territories of genre cinema, and with protagonists Denzel Washington And Frances McDormand in the role of Lord and Lady Macbeth, he re-reads the raw and bloody soul of the work of Bard, not a little freezing instincts and impulses and letting the sound of the cynical and anti-humanist detachment typical of the works of the Coens (a strong stretch of discontinuity, undoubtedly, compared to the previous versions for the cinema of Macbeth).

The expressive hold is very remarkable and dazzling, with the complicity of black and white bruise photographed by the always excellent Bruno Delbonnel in 4: 3 format, while glacial elegance, although constantly on the edge of the patinated, fortunately never disperses the black heart, archetypal and universal, of the events of a man convinced by a trio of witches to be next king of Scotland, flanked and overwhelmed by a ambitious and furious wife.

The terrible and tyrannical spiral of violence thus translates into one dissertation on purely visual power, with a punctually unhealthy pallor, pushed towards abstraction by a geometric and spectral rationalism of forms. At the base of the operation there is after all an idea of macabre and sardonic thriller, in full Coen style, with a provocative and destabilizing approach to the psychoanalytic impulses of the classic text.

In fact, the protagonists face their own personal challenge for absolute power as they watch their mutual hopes inexorably unravel under the weight of a collapsing world and emotional landscape. The result is human portraits torn and deep contrasts, which are not only applied in the aesthetic packaging, indebted to so much German expressionist cinema and the Danish master Carl Theodore Dreyer, but also in the reflection on the case and fate of individuals crushed by a blind and unfathomable fate, ready to blow the bank of any reasoning.

All themes very dear, in the past, to Coenian poetics, with respect to which Macbeth is, in filigree, a sort of cold return to origins, of an ideal prodrome, of a literary rib noble in which all the characters are aware of their own physical and inner deterioration, as well as bearers of an exhaustion that passes from introspection as much as from framing.

Photo: A24, IAC Films

REPRODUCTION RESERVED

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The trouble with tradition | Ben Sixsmith – The Critic

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In the introduction to his recent book What Happened to Tradition? Tim Stanley writes about the rebuilding of Notre Dame and horrendous ideas for its modernisation:

Sanity prevailed. The French Senate voted to rebuild Notre Dame to look exactly as it had before, a deference to history, a rare acknowledgement that, when it comes to comparing old and new architecture at least, things aint what they used to be.

Not so fast. Since Stanleys book was published, plans have emerged to remove elements of the interior of Notre Dame to make it more accessible, and to feature contemporary artwork on its walls. Its Notre Dame turned into Disneyland, protested one French critic.

What is it about trad discourse that makes me want to eat my tongue?

In a time of such irreverence towards the past it might seem ridiculous to pick on traditionalists like mocking short-sightedness in the land of the blind.

Who even are traditionalists? The term has different meanings. For traditional conservatives, like Mr Stanley, it refers to the defence of values, rituals and customs that have lasted long enough to prove their worth. For religious traditionalists it refers to doctrinal orthodoxy. For a loose network of people on social media platforms it refers to either, but also to a passionate enthusiasm for uploading photographs of slim young women in regional dresses and arguing about whether civilisation fell in 1789 or before.

To be clear, I think that many traditional values and customs are vastly preferable to their alternatives, and that people who adhere to them more closely than I do tend to have better, happier lives than mine. So, what is it about trad discourse that makes me want to eat my tongue?

In case you had not guessed, it is the Twitter crowd that sometimes makes me want to dine on my own organs. Not always! But sometimes. They have righteous opinions, and funny memes, and nice aesthetics, but they also often have that lofty moralism in the grip of which people project austere judgement without ever turning their cold-eyed gaze inwards. They often enjoy those competitive displays of ideological purity that begin with someone saying that pornography is bad and end with someone saying that showing your ears in public is a mortal sin. They often have rhapsodic notions of their future on a little farm with ten children and a wife who somehow keeps her figure, even as they live in London, work in IT and camp out in the direct messages of unattainable women. There is a pervasive sense of unreality, as if an ideological universe is being created that bears no relation to the world in which we live.

Yet having decried blinkered outward judgement, I can hardly be hypocritical. Does my disdain towards trad content reflect some measure of guilt towards my own failings? Perhaps. But it also reflects some measure of political guilt on behalf of the tradition that in a small way I represent. Would young trads seem so aimless if they had a clearer path?

In a recent tribute to the late Roger Scruton, Giles Fraser writes:

Cherishing things in the face of their passing away, their intrinsic mortality, is a kind of heroic loving resistance to the fragility of human life.

There is some truth to this, of course, but if conservatism and traditionalism can be reduced to elegiac mourning they have failed. The plausibility of this suggestion has many roots, but one of them is the insistence on defending traditional values, rituals et cetera on the basis of their being traditional.

Tradition, if it has any value, must speak to the future

How many times, for example, have conservatives (myself included) referenced Chestertons Fence the theory that if you want to destroy something you must comprehend why it exists as if such bloodless warnings would delay a gung-ho property developer? How many times have we chirped that things are difficult to build and easy to destroy as if anyone is listening? Never mind standing athwart history crying stop, as was William F. Buckley Jr.s original intention for National Review. Too often we have been skulking inside history mumbling steady on.

Westerners have in countless ways abandoned our traditional values, rituals and customs, and we cannot resurrect traditions on the grounds of their being traditional. Do not misunderstand me here. I am not saying you cannot revive a tradition. But if it can be accomplished it is on the basis of its being useful, moral, beautiful or true (or all of the above) on the basis of, as Stanley rightly comments in his book, the original truth that [it] was built to express. A habit perseveres until it is broken and people have to know why they should take it up again. That this strikes some of us as excessively rationalistic is beside the point. We cannot will ourselves out of that rationalism any more than a miniature boat can be inserted into a bottle whole.

Besides, tradition, if it has any value, must speak to the future even as it speaks of the past. Almost a hundred years ago, in The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot wrote a shockingly modern poem that carried tradition, as he advised young poets to do in Tradition and the Individual Talent, in its bones. To conform merely would be for the new work not really to conform at all, wrote Eliot in that fine essay, It would not be new, and would therefore not be a work of art. A new traditionalism, if it emerges, must be strikingly original.

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Unlimited WhatsApp backups on Google Drive could soon end, shows report – The Indian Express

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WhatsApp is one of the most popular apps for users in India, and many rely on Google Drive to backup their chats from the messaging service. However, not many of us know that WhatsApp backups to Google Drive do count against the storage space on your Google account. But all of this could soon change.

The latest report comes from WABetaInfo, which states that WhatsApp chats will also count against Google Drive storage in the future for Android users. If users are running short of space, they might be prompted to opt for a paid Google One plan. Keep in mind that on iOS, WhatsApp chats are backed up to iCloud. Apple only give 5GB free storage space on iCloud.

Google implemented a similar change for Photos in 2021, where these photos and videos uploading via Google Photos count against the free storage as well. Typically, Google offers 15GB of free storage to users to be used across Gmail, Photos, Google Drive, etc.

According to the report, the feature is still under development. The new feature would allow users to manage their WhatsApp chats when backing up on Google Drive and let the user could exclude certain message types in order to save space on Google Drive.

The report has also shared string code that showcases what the feature will look like when it rolls out. A notification saying Google Drive backup is changing will likely appear in the future. Users will get notifications when their Google Drive is almost full and they are trying to backup Google chats as well.

The report adds that while Google will still offer a certain quota to store WhatsApp backups for free, it will be a limited plan. It is not clear how much free storage will be offered. Our guess is that Google will not be too generous on this front.

For users in India, who are predominantly on Android and use Drive to backup WhatsApp chats, this will come as bad news, especially for those on free Google accounts. Thats because once the policy changes, WhatsApp chats could start taking up a significant amount of space on ones Google account and 15GB will be limiting, if one has to spread it across photos, Gmails, docs and WhatsApp backups.

Users will have to either sign up for a paid version of Google One or reduce the content which is being backed up. This also explains why WhatsApp would introduce a feature to let users skip backup for some types of messages such as media content given they are resource heavy and take up more space.

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2022 Tax Filing Season: Nine Things You Need to Know – JD Supra

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The 2022 tax season is upon us. With what promises to be an unusual tax filing season, below are nine updates and tips to keep in mind.

1. Tax Returns are Lagging. On January 12, the National Taxpayer Advocate issued its 2021 report to Congress. The report highlights how the IRS is substantially behind in processing returns, the breakdown of the IRS call center, delays in processing responses to IRS notices sent to taxpayers, and a myriad of other issues. The money quote? The IRS is in crisis. Read the full report here.

2. The IRS is Ramping Up Enforcement Efforts. New enforcement agents (read: auditors) that were brought on as part of the IRSs 2021 hiring spree will finish their training this month and be released to the field. It wont stop there, because on Monday, January 24, the IRS posted job openings to hire 200 more tax attorneys in 2022. A 2022 goal of reporting and recordkeeping compliance is a must for small, medium, and growing businesses.

3. Taxpayers Should File Early and Electronically. In IR-2022-08, the IRS encouraged early return filing as soon as possible and to file electronically to help minimize the effects of potential tax season problems. Doing this has set the table to place responsibility for filing acknowledgment and refund delays on the shoulders of taxpayers by giving fair warning of significant potential difficulties. In other words, if taxpayers run into a filing problem this year, the IRS can claim that We told you to file earlier!

Further, the IRS protected its flank by releasing IR-2022-18 on the first day of filing season (Monday, January 24) urg[ing] extra caution for taxpayers to file accurate tax returns electronically to speed refunds, avoid delays.

Theres an adage that you can only have two out of the fast, cheap, and accurate categories. The IRS wants fast and accurate, pushing cost onto the taxpayer. It may be a little more expensive, but using a professional is worth saving the hassle.

4. Slightly Longer Filing Deadline. The non-extended filing deadline for individuals this year is April 18. This is because the regular deadline of April 15 falls on Washington, DCs Emancipation Day, a recognized holiday for the District. Taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts get one more day, however. They celebrate Patriots Day on April 18, so they have a one-day reprieve and must file by April 19.

5. Child Tax Credit. Individuals who have received letters from the IRS regarding the Child Tax Credit have been reporting that they are inaccurate. This is the tip of the iceberg, as the information in the form is what the IRS has in its system, even if its inaccurate. Taxpayers who report different but accurate information on their returns will receive further correspondence from the IRS to sort out the discrepancies.

6. Relief has been Requested of the IRS. A coalition that included the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) sent a formal letter to the IRS requesting relief for taxpayers for the 2022 filing season. It requests that the IRS:

The full letter is here. The IRS has not yet responded.

7. Photo ID is Available for Taxpayer Security. The IRS is implementing ID.me, which utilizes facial recognition software for a taxpayer to log in to their account. In order to log in to their IRS account, the taxpayer will have to take a selfie and upload a photo of their drivers license or passport to verify their identity.

Give in to the machines if you like, but luddites will continue to exist for a long time, and the IRS will have to be able to service everyone. So, if youre skeptical about uploading a picture, use the call center, but be prepared for its long wait times. Even better, delegate the hassle to a professional.

8. Enforcement Resources Focus on Small Businesses and Self-Employeds. As a reminder, OPI (Office of Promoter Investigations think return preparers) was formed in 2021 and OFE (Office of Fraud Enforcement) was moved from LB&I (Large Business and International), both now housed in the SB/SE (Small Business/Self-Employed) Division. This provides insight on where enforcement efforts are focused.

9. Grievances Were Communicated to the IRS. Finally, the National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins hosted a conference on January 20. Ms. Collins reviewed the report to Congress mentioned above, highlighting the most serious problems and data behind the expected 2022 filing problems. The most serious problems currently are:

To illustrate just how behind the IRS is, the Taxpayer Advocate recently published the below figures, outlining the work the organization had ahead of it as of late last year.

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Built secure from the ground up. | About Verizon – Verizon News

Posted: at 2:49 am

Happy final Friday of January! On todays Up To Speed Live, host Raquel Wilson shared the following updates:

Monday: Andy teased our 4Q21 Earnings with a special look at our Credo with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.

Tuesday: Hans and the leadership team discussed our 4Q21 Results and the Credo Award was presented to all of us for making the launch of Ultra Wideband such a success.Thursday: We got the motivation we needed to keep our health and fitness goals strong with tips from the Health & Wellness Team.

With today being International Data Privacy Day, Andy Choi caught up with Sue Vinci, Verizons Chief Privacy Officer, to learn more about how when it comes to privacy, we all play a role. Sue pointed out that in a meaningful way all of us on the V team are members of the privacy team. But knowing all the details of best practices can be difficult due to the wide range of roles and locations of V teamers around the globe.

Be on the lookout for emails regarding training opportunities that will be launching soon. Note: depending on your role and location, you may receive multiple training invitations. Regardless of where you work or what we do, my team is here to provide support, so when you have questions please reach out to us via VZWeb, said Sue.

Raquel was joined by our Chief Product Development Officer Nicki Palmer. Nicki talked about how when millions of Americans are out and about, theyll often use public WiFi, not realizing they are putting their personal and business-related information at risk.

Each one of us should think twice before connecting our devices even with Bluetooth, warned Nicki. Although the average consumer probably doesnt have state secrets on their devices, a cyberattack can still reveal personal information, including login credentials and financial information.

While WiFi requires manual configuration which puts the onus on the user, our networks are built for privacy from the ground up with security in mind. And 5G further advances the security features already built into cellular networks and adds on new features to protect users from a variety of attacks:

Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband also offers superior speeds versus public WiFi. Our 5G network expansion means more and more people and businesses will be able to experience up to 10x higher speed than 4G.

Im so proud of our entire organizations work to not only plan, build, and operate the very best networks, but to create new products and experiences on these networks that move the world forward, said Nicki.

By now, you should know about The Ultra Challenge, an opportunity for each of us to make a video pitch about 5G Ultra in whatever form you think works best: sales pitch, poem, TikTok-style dance, the skys the limit! A selection of Retail Associates put together videos of their own to motivate all of us to take part. A big thank you to Retail Specialist Osmar Trujillo (Los Angeles), Retail Assistant Manager Javon Price (Cincinnati), Retail Specialist Andrew Hopkins (Belton, Missouri) and Retail Manager Zach Eldridge (Columbia, Missouri).

Submit your 5G Challenge video for a chance to win concert tickets, Verizon brand gear and more.

Videos can be submitted starting now. If youre uploading from a personal device, please drop your video at this link. If youre using a Verizon device, please use this link. Note: Please label your video submission with your name and business group. Plus, weve got a great resource page on VZWeb with all of our 5G Ultra info.

Verizon has scored 100 on the Corporate Equality Index and is considered a best place to work for LGBTQ+ Equality for 2022. Scoring high means we are a driving force for LGBTQ workplace inclusion with policies and practices committed to equality.

Thats why it was no surprise that Verizon was also recognized by JUST Capital and CNBC as part of the JUST 100. Not only were we listed in the top 10 of Americas Most JUST Companies, but we were also ranked #1 in our industry for our commitment to doing right by our customers, shareholders, society and, of course, our V Team.

Raquel wished a happy Lunar New Year to all those who will be celebrating on February 1. Starting Monday, our Employee Resource Group PACE will be launching a week full of events to celebrate.

If you have any questions, email them to live@verizon.com.

Click here for a transcript of the webcast.

Tell us what you think of Up To Speed.

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7NEWS Real Life podcast: Ann Reardon’s ‘How To Cook That’ YouTube channel busting food and cooking hacks – 7NEWS

Posted: at 2:49 am

It seems everywhere you look these days, theres some sort of misinformation floating around.

Most recently weve seen it around the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines, the 2020 US Presidential Election and 5G.

But there are other types of misinformation that are potentially more dangerous, and potentially deadly.

Weve all seen viral cooking and food hacks pop up on social media - theyre fast, bright and usually have an upbeat soundtrack.

As fun as they may be to watch, food scientist, YouTuber and author Ann Reardon is proving you cant believe everything you see.

Ann Reardon is a qualified food scientist, dietitian and mother who has found unexpected fame on YouTube.

Food in itself is fascinating, Reardon tells the Real Life podcast.

But then once you delve into the science of it, theres just so much I mean, essentially cooking is doing mini science experiments.

Youre mixing different ingredients and heating them up and seeing what the outcomes going to be - and small changes can make a big difference!

Her journey started straight out of high school.

I went to uni and did a degree in nutrition and food science, then from there, I went on to do postgraduate studies in dietetics to become a dietician.

Ann has been a community dietician, consulted for food companies and worked with young people before she started having kids.

Then motherhood intervened and she began looking for a new project.

I got into doing YouTube quite by accident when I was pregnant with my third son, I knew I had a year off (with) maternity leave, and I love, love, love little babies, but changing nappies and doing feeds and all of that stuff really didnt use that much of my mind space, and I knew that from previous kids.

So I thought Im going to start a website that I can work on during night feeds and basically just type with one hand and do all of that stuff, so I would just post once a week on the website.

I was doing blog posts every week and only did videos occasionally, if I felt like I could explain it better with a video, especially cake decorating type stuff, showing is much easier than doing.

There was virtually no videos about cake decorating back then on YouTube.

Being a YouTuber didnt exist 10 years ago, nobody knew you could make money from YouTube - you couldnt just upload and start making money.

So I started uploading weekly videos that was near the end of the year off maternity leave, and we could see that the videos were doing really well.

YouTube had emailed me saying, do you want to monetize your videos? and Id ignored it thinking yet its not actually going to make any money

I eventually filled out the form just to stop them emailing me and then realised this could become my part-time job, and I could stay at home, which is what I wanted to do.

But Ann has noticed a change in the types of videos posted to YouTube.

When I started way back then, everyone posted videos to help people you would never imagine trying to post a video that you knew was false.

But the monetisation of videos has seen what she calls content farms pop up, posting outrageous food and craft hacks that look good but are, at best impossible, and at worst, deadly.

Theres a difference between misinformation and disinformation - and thats one of them is deliberate.

If I put up a recipe and Im explaining how something works, but I didnt actually know, and the person had no background in food and thats how they thought it worked, that would be misinformation.

But if you know that what youre saying is wrong, like some of the videos say mix together, ice cream and icing sugar and youll get this beautiful, thick whipped frosting - thats physically impossible, theres no way that they did that.

Theyve switched it out for a different frosting at the end - thats disinformation, because they know that its not true, but theyre doing it for financial gain and to get views.

Weve all heard of puppy farms, places that continually breed dogs with little regard for the health or happiness of the animals, to produce and sell as many puppies as possible.

The digital equivalent is content farms, content creators who pump out viral hack videos with little regard for safety or authenticity, for clicks and cash.

So a content farm is where youve got 50 or 60 stations all filming video at once pumping out just hundreds of videos a month, all to just gain the algorithm to get heaps of views.

Theyre well produced, so they look like they should be real, and a lot of people have that misconception of why would anybody fake this?

But the trend is taking off.

More people are copying that trend now, so some of them are not content farms, some of them are just normal creators.

Normal creators now are doing the same thing, making fake content, making it look like its a real recipe and the outcome is not possible from what theyre saying or theyre doing.

Some of them can get dangerous, some of them are going to waste a lot of ingredients.

The other thing that theyre not sure about is, well if it is fake, why wouldnt YouTube or Facebook take it down? Surely if its fake, they wouldnt leave it up.

In response to Anns claims, YouTube says their Community Guidelines prohibit content that is intended to encourage dangerous activities that have an inherent risk of physical harm. According to YouTube, they use a combination of technology and people to enforce these guidelines.

While many of the fake recipes and hacks are fairly innocuous, others can be extremely dangerous.

In one case, one girl was killed and another injured in China.

They were following (a hack video) where they made a popcorn popper out of a Coke can, and you could do that safely, but it can also go very wrong if you dont know the basics of using flammable liquids.

Its presented in a way that it looks like a kid could do it and it doesnt come with any of the warnings.

One of the content farms, I saw an interview with one of their people and they said they were doing something with the burner and nearly set the whole studio and fire, but they had a fire extinguisher there, so they put it out.

None of the (videos) say you have to have a fire extinguisher next to it, so theyve got safety precautions, but the audience doesnt even get the warning.

With her How To Cook That channel, Ann tries out these recipes and hacks that have gone viral to demonstrate why they dont work.

I can watch the video and go that wont work and I know why it wont work.

Its more a matter of knowing whats going to happen but going it anyway, so that you can actually demonstrate it to people because once theyve seen it falsely work on a video, they need to see what really happens in order to sort of re-educate your mind.

As well as debunking viral hacks and rescuing cakes, Ann has been hard at work writing her first cookbook, Crazy Sweet Creations, released last year.

After 10 years, it took me a while to actually get around to doing it.

Its been going amazingly well, far better than I thought it woulda bestseller in the UK, in the US very, very exciting.

It has lots of desserts and they actually work!

Theyve been tested by multiple people to make sure everythings great, and you will get the outcome that youre supposed to get at the end of it.

Anns book Crazy Sweet Creations is available now. You can also check out the How To Cook That channel on YouTube.

You can hear Anns full interview in the Real Life podcast above. Its available now on Acast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or your preferred podcast platform.

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Love Island’s Tyla Carr sobs over ‘horrendous’ co-parenting nightmare with ex – The Mirror

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The reality star is co-parenting her young son, Archie who she shares with ex-boyfriend Rossco Edmonds. Tyla and Rossco split in June 2019 when Archie was just seven months old.

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Love Island's Tyla explains the struggles of co-parenting

Love Island star Tyla Carr has opened up about her struggles to raise her young son amid the collapse of her romantic relationship.

The 28-year-old reality star who appeared on Love Island back in 2017, the same year as Kem Cetinay and Olivia Attwood was in a relationship with businessman Rossco Edmonds, who she shares three-year-old Archie with, but they split in 2019 seven months after their son arrived.

Tyla and Rossco are now raising their child as co-parents, but the former Love Islander has admitted it can be difficult at times.

She explained that she always wants to put her child first, but struggles with keeping the reason for her split from Rossco to herself and wants to keep her reasons secret in order to protect her young son.

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Opening up on Instagram, Tyla explained: "I thought I'd come on here and be a little bit more real about my co-parenting situation, currently in tears, it is the hardest thing ever to deal with these crappy emotions and all the agg that goes with having to break up with someone and trying to be good parent it is the hardest thing.

"I say on here you have to co-parent, be on side and make it bad. When things are good its great when things are rubbish it is horrendous.

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"Im always an advocate if co-parenting but heres some more of the reality. I'm no angel as people well know, I dont do everything right, in fact, I make mistakes everyday!

"Archie comes first an thats all I try and keep in mind"

She went on to hint that she and Rossco endured a particularly painful break-up when they split in June 2019.

She said: "You're not friends with your ex and most of the time theres bad blood so you dont get on bring a child into the mix and youve got a recipe for a real s**t storm.

"Ive never spoken about why my ex and I broke up and Im not sure I ever will (I never ever ever want my baby to know that happened, it was that bad)."

She continued: "Truth is, its not easy! Its actually the most draining thing of al trying to keep the peace for the sake of Archie.

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"At home my baby never speaks to a woman the way Ive been spoke to, or get spoken to on a regular basis. The amount of deep breaths I have to take, Im surprised I dont pass out."

During her Instagram Stories videos, Tyla could be seen getting emotional and breaking down in tears but she assured fans later that she was fine.

Uploading a snap of herself smiling, the reality star wrote: "A little cry helps get it all out your system."

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Love Island's Tyla Carr sobs over 'horrendous' co-parenting nightmare with ex - The Mirror

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Snack is a dating app for the TikTok generation – Mashable

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Modern dating is in its flop era. Intimacy is dead, daters are burned out after two years of swiping, and apps introduced a decade ago are starting to show their age.A new app, Snack, wants you to break up with photo-based dating apps. And while it's designed with Gen Z in mind, it may also be a godsend for millennials who are tired of swiping to find love.

Snack CEO Kim Kaplan knows dating: She spent 10 years optimizing marketing, revenue, and product strategies at Canadian dating site Plenty of Fish. Pre-pandemic, she started thinking about building a video-based app after discovering #singletok, where TikTok users post personal info like their name, age, and zodiac sign to attract potential dates. With the help of a syndicate of Gen Z investors, Kaplan and her team built Snack by asking, "If we were to strip away all the things [about dating apps] that you don't like, what would that look like from a social and dating experience?"

And Snack really does strip it all away. My profile showed my name, age, location, a few hashtagged interests, and my videos that's it. There's no bio or basic info like education level, job, political leanings, and height. Video prompts like "show me how tall you are by comparing yourself to another object in your room" are designed to capture your info and interests instead. Then the algorithm goes to work, identifying video elements, like "skiing," "dogs," and, yes, "fishing," to learn what you like and to surface more compatible matches.

Snack may be built for Gen Z, but millennials can still feel the love. You can choose to see potential matches up to 35 years old.Credit: Snack App

As a young-ish millennial used to swiping apps, Snack's simple design broke my brain (the app is currently available for daters aged 18 to 35, so it's definitely not just for Gen Z). It felt casual, fresh, and really fun, like flipping through my For You Page. You can flick up and down your feed to revisit profiles you've already seen and tell someone you're into them by tapping a heart button. Try swiping right or left, and the app will cheekily remind you that "swiping is old af." After a few days on Snack, Bumble and Hinge started to look more like resumes than dating apps.

And the video element definitely worked for me. After watching a guy I'd usually swipe left on boldly twerk upside down on a wall at a house party, I thought, "Yeah, I'd grab coffee with him."

Kaplan says that's the point: Watching a video, even for a few seconds, forces you to be "more intentional about the decisions you're making" versus the "low intent" of swiping on a photo. Curated photos get stale fast, especially for Gen Zers who constantly update their feeds and share their experiences, or move dating app conversations to Instagram, where they "flirt through the content that they post," says Kaplan. "Why wouldn't you just keep uploading what happened on a weekend or a night out with your friends or what you're studying?" That type of content says more about who they are than a few old pictures. "You're seeing a more authentic version of somebody," Kaplan explains. "[They're saying] here's who I am and I'm proud of who I am, and you're gonna like me for who I am."

Another element of online dating that Snack wants to see dead and buried? Ghosting.

Letting a conversation die when it fizzles, abandoning apps when life gets super busy Kaplan says that kind of "light ghosting" is super common and not a big deal to most daters. But when it comes to chronic ghosting "that actually impacts people, it creates a really negative experience for everybody else on the app." Snack has decided to try to weed out those folks. "If you continually ghost, we're not going to show you as frequently," Kaplan says. "Hopefully, that changes the behavior and gets people to be more open and honest with the other party about what's going on."

She points to last week's West Elm Caleb uproar, noting that Snack would have kept a lot of the women involved from ever seeing Caleb on the app.

The goal for Snack is, "How do we make it easier for you to enjoy and laugh and engage with what people are doing [on a dating app], just like you would on TikTok?" Kaplan says. After all, "Dating is meant to be fun, right?"

Related Video: How Tinder and other dating apps use algorithms to find your match

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Snack is a dating app for the TikTok generation - Mashable

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