Monthly Archives: March 2022

Netflix Roulette: Everything you need to know about the Reelgood service – Android Authority

Posted: March 11, 2022 at 12:02 pm

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

So, what is Netflix Roulette? How does it work? Will it make your life easier? Read on for a full breakdown of the service from Reelgood.

Netflix

Netflix is still the leading premium streaming service, with over 200 million worldwide subscribers. It offers thousands of movies and TV shows to binge watch, including its always growing list of original films and series, including Stranger Things, The Witcher, Bridgerton, and many more.

How to play Netflix Roulette

Netflix Roulette is pretty easy to use. Just head over to the Reelgood website to get started.

Once there, you can simply hit the spin button and let Reelgood choose a title at random from the entire Netflix catalog. If you have some sense of what you want to watch, you can narrow the field as much as you like. You can select a genre, toggle between TV and movies or both, and set a minimum audience score if you want to watch something popular.

The service also automatically gives you the IMDb and Reelgood audience scores with every selection. You may not care what other people thought of the selection, but then again if a 2.1/10 score scares you off, theres always the option to spin again.

Yes! Netflix Roulette is a completely free service. Its free on your desktop and as a mobile app.

You can use it without signing in or create a free account so that Reelgood remembers your preferences.

If you have a smart TV or a connected device like Apple TV, Firestick, or Roku, you can download the Reelgood app from the Apple Store or Google Play and go straight to your selection on Netflix without searching for the title you got on another device.

With a free Reelgood account, you can add all of your favorite streaming services to the roulette wheel, so that once youve set the parameters for your randomized selection, the service pulls from all of the streamers youve selected to help make your choice.

Every major streamer is available to add to Netflix Roulette. This includes Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Peacock, Apple TV Plus, Starz, Showtime, and more.

See also: The best free streaming services

Theres also an option to only select from free streamers like Tubi, Crackle, and Pluto TV.

If youre still stumped and not feeling the options offered up by Reelgood Netflix Roulette, weve got plenty of streaming guides to help you choose something. Keep up with new titles using our weekly TV show and film lists. Or, check out one of the longer lists below for some inspiration:

The rest is here:

Netflix Roulette: Everything you need to know about the Reelgood service - Android Authority

Posted in Roulette | Comments Off on Netflix Roulette: Everything you need to know about the Reelgood service – Android Authority

Opinion – Russian roulette of human rights protections – Truth, for its own sake. – New Era

Posted: at 12:02 pm

Namibia should take all necessary measures to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons from threats and any form of violence, the United Nations Committee against Torture recommended to Namibia in 2016. Include same-sex relationships in the Combating of Domestic Violence Act (Act No. 4 of 2003) so as to protect same-sex partners, the Human Rights Committee (which monitors the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), in the same year (2016), urged Namibia to address. Statements by international communities and committees which Namibia subscribes to (by virtue of our Constitution to uphold the fundamental human rights of all Namibians), continue to pile up, whilst progressive legislature is not fully realised. It almost begs the question on whether or not our representation in and at international bodies is only a smokescreen to accrue international credibility when in fact targeted and selective discrimination brazenly remains the order of business on our local scenes.

The Combating of Domestic Violence Amendment Bill statement was recently tabled at the floors of parliament, in which heavy though necessary emphasis was placed on safeguarding the lives of women, children and persons with disabilities or vulnerable groups. The Bill, as the statement reads, comes at the backdrop after which a series of demonstrations were held under the #ShutItAllDownNamibia banner (and countless petitions before the birth of the movement), calling on government to decisively and urgently deal with the alarming rates of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in Namibia. A petition was submitted with a host of demands pertinent to addressing and apprehending the rise in these staggering cases on SGBV across various sectors. Almost a year-and-a-half later, an amended Bill is tabled and proposed to expedite the commitment from all stakeholders to adopt and operationalise. Progressive as the Bill may be in the many strides it exemplifies for women, children and persons with disabilities, a significant gap under which human rights protections and the dignity of a minority community ought to be recognised, is still missing.

Section 3(1) of the Bill lists several forms of domestic relationships, and this only applies to victims of different sexes cohabiting or in domestic relationships, which means that same-sex couples continue to be excluded from any protection under the amended Bill, where in fact sexual and gender-based violence in domestic settings equally applies to same-sex relationships. For context in Namibia, we do not have an active database on the number of sexual, gender and sex minorities who have been victims and/or survivors of SGBV (within their own domestic relationships). Amending legislature would be beneficial not only to same-sex couples and to protect all sexes and genders from domestic violence, but it would also aid as a tool of sensitisation to law- enforcement officials, for example, who are frontline service providers meant to safeguard victims of same-sex couples in abusive relationships.

It is notably and commonly known that most law- enforcement officials are homo-bi-transphobic, in which the majority of the LGBTQIA+ persons have been mocked, humiliated, intimidated, harassed and ridiculed by them. Police officers are obliged by law to protect all members of Namibian society, regardless of their gender, a High Court judge has stated in a judgement on a lawsuit which a transgender woman instituted after she was unlawfully arrested and assaulted by a police officer in Windhoek, a headline read in The Namibian in November last year. Though this was not a matter related to domestic violence, it still exposed and confirmed prejudicial, harmful and abusive attitudes which law-enforcement officials hold against the LGBTQIA+ community because national legislation does not provide for the equal protection of our rights. Furthermore, a factsheet compiled by the Legal Assistance Centre to reiterate how the inclusion of same-sex couples in the Bill would coalesce perfectly with progressive legislature in neighbouring countries, presents the following, South Africas Domestic Violence Act 1998 provides protection from domestic violence for both same-sex couples and couples of different sexes. Similarly, the definition of a domestic partnership in Botswanas Domestic Violence Act 2008 does not explicitly require that the persons involved in such relationships must be of different sexes.

The above should compel us to reflect a little more and deeper on the many ways in which lawmakers employ Russian roulette tactics to disregard the human rights of all Namibians; the ways in which we gamble with the lives of minority identities in such a way that the outcomes are almost invariably fatal, because regardless of who is holding the gun, victims and survivors of SGBV within the LGBTQIA+ community often get harmed eventually because our political history, cultural and social memes, reinforce it to be so.

Human rights are expressly enshrined in our constitution; they are not suggested or implied. So, if the President of Namibia understands that SGBV is a human rights issue of endemic proportions in Namibia, why would we immediately exclude equal protections for same-sex couples when protections of our rights are not suggested nor implied, neither are they conferred only to a single group of people in Namibia? Perhaps international representation through signed treaties and agreements, which mandate that Namibia protects the fundamental rights of all its citizens, indeed, does serve as a red herring under which Russian roulette on the rights of minority identities may effectively and consistently be employed.

Read the rest here:

Opinion - Russian roulette of human rights protections - Truth, for its own sake. - New Era

Posted in Roulette | Comments Off on Opinion – Russian roulette of human rights protections – Truth, for its own sake. – New Era

Which Casino Games Give You The Best (And Worst) Chances Of Winning? – Salon Priv Magazine

Posted: at 12:02 pm

Casino games are super fun to play. And a lot of classic table games have been around for centuries.

As well as these traditional titles, a lot of people play online casino games that are more modern. These include gambling games such as online slots, video poker, and live casino titles. But which ones actually give you the best chance of winning?

Today, were going to take a look at some of the most popular games online, along with how likely you are to win at them.

So, without further ado, lets get started.

Possibly the most famous card game in the world, the rules of blackjack are simple. You receive two cards from the dealer, and your aim is to try to make 21, or as close to it as possible, without going over.

It might be the simplicity of this game that makes it so popular. And, with the exception of some gaming rules, players usually stand to win double the money if they beat the dealers hand.

A lot of people believe blackjack is a combination of luck and skill, rather than pure chance. So, this means that you have more chance of winning the game with strategic thinking than just sheer luck alone. Which, in turn, makes blackjack a game that people often win at.

So, while were not suggesting you try to learn how to count cards, a good memory will certainly stand you in good stead at a blackjack table! Hence, blackjack is one of the most popular online casino games where seasoned players regularly win.

Online slot games are by far an online casinos most popular type of game. And you can play games online and win real money at all leading casino sites. And you can read more about different casino games at the popular UK gambling portal Casino.xyz.

Slot games are 100% rooted in luck. Meaning you have just as much chance of landing a big jackpot as any other player.

However, not all slot games are created equal. And you can see how likely you are to win at a slot game by checking the games RTP and volatility.

RTP stands for return to player and is the predicted percentage of your stake that the casino says you will get back if you play one game for long enough.

In fact, its not just slot games that have an RTP. Every casino game comes with its own predicted percentage. So keep that in mind!

In the case of online slots, the average RTP is 96%. So anything about this number is considered high. And it means that, if you place 10 on a game, you should see back at least 9.60 after a long period of gameplay. But, a lot of slots come with an RTP closer to 99%. So, although its not a big win, youre more likely to break even on these high RTP slots.

Furthermore, slot games are marked as high, medium, or low volatility. And this is another way to calculate how likely you are to win at these games.

For instance, low volatility slots payout frequently, but in low amounts. Whereas, high volatility slots dont pay out very often at all. But, when they do, the prizes can be breathtaking!

Another classic casino table game, roulette is 100% based on luck. Your goal is to predict where the ball will land in the roulette wheel. And, depending on which version of roulette you play, you will usually have 37 slots where the ball can land. 18 are red, 18 are black and 1 is green.

But, although roulette is a fortune-based game, there are a lot of betting options where you can increase your chances of winning.

For example, most people think they need to bet on a specific number to win at roulette. However, the chances of your choosing the right number between 0 and 37 are extremely low. So, instead, you can make bets with far better odds, such as choosing red or black, as well as odds or evens (numbers).

There are many other types of bets you can make on roulette as well, and you can find a great guide to the game here. So, this means that roulette gives you some very good chances of winning, compared to a lot of other online casino games. It just depends on how you bet. And, dont forget, the version of roulette itself is also important. For instance, American roulette has a green 00, as well as a green 0.

Which decreases your odds of choosing red/black by a small margin. And French roulette has the la partage rule, which actually helps players. So, choosing which game of roulette to play can also increase your luck!

More here:

Which Casino Games Give You The Best (And Worst) Chances Of Winning? - Salon Priv Magazine

Posted in Roulette | Comments Off on Which Casino Games Give You The Best (And Worst) Chances Of Winning? – Salon Priv Magazine

Hybrid Games Get Mixed Reviews Except From The Ones Coming Out Of The iGaming Industry – Nerdbot

Posted: at 12:02 pm

Over the past few decades, gaming software developers have been on a mission to successfully create hybrid games that blend multiple genres together to offer players something similar yet different. While the execution of hybrid games hasnt always been great, one gaming niche that has particularly excelled in creating hybrid games is the iGaming sector, which has set a new standard for the gaming community to follow when it comes to this gaming style. Why? Because casino operators blend games with similar themes and audiences, making their attraction more concentrated and widespread.

Roulette, in particular, has been at the forefront of this transition in the iGaming industry. Today, there are dozens of variations ofcasino roulettethat combine elements of other games. One example is Playtechs Live Age of The Gods Roulette game. This hybrid game combines roulette with elements of slots as players access a bonus round which provides them with three spins on a single-line slot machine. These mixed roulette games mark a transition in the online gambling industry, where new variations are emerging all the time, including multi-wheel roulette, which allows bettors to wager on the outcome of six wheels rather than one.

There are also hybrid roulette games that incorporate both elements of slot games and live casino games. The concept of a live casino is one of the hottest trends in the iGaming industry, allowing players to interact with real dealers via webcam while in the comfort of their own homes. A popular example of this is Playtechs Live Spin and Win Roulette game. This hybrid casino game merges a roulette wheel with some of the best spin-to-win slot features and is operated by real dealers in a studio.

With the success of hybrid casino games, many video game developers have tried their luck in this area. However, just like Hollywood adaptations of video game franchises, hybrid video games have seen many failures during their lifetime. In part, this is due to poor execution, but its also because mash-up video games often combine genres that do not make sense. That is why hybrid casino games work so well. The genres are similar, and so are the audiences. When it comes to video games, audiences can be segregated and opinionated.

That said, there are afew exceptions. One critically acclaimed example is Brutal Legend, an action-adventure game that combines elements of real-time strategy. Brutal Legend also incorporates Heavy Metal music as the characters in the video game range from Ozzy Osbourne to Lita Ford. This hybrid video game became the 12th-top-selling game in October 2009, and gaming journalists praised Brutal Legends story and characters. Odama is another interesting hybrid video game, combining real-time tactical games with pinball.

Hybrid games provide gaming operators with excellent growth and revenue opportunities. Mash-up games bring different demographics together, helping to build a global gaming community while also increasing an organizations revenues and margins. In other words, the more games a platform offers, the more players they will attract and retain, and, thus, the more money they will make.

That said, not every game developer has struck gold in this niche. For the most part, hybrid video games have not been universally accepted due to poor execution and odd genre combinations, though there are a few exceptions. However, hybrid casino games are proof this gaming style works when you blend genres with similar themes and audiences.

Read this article:

Hybrid Games Get Mixed Reviews Except From The Ones Coming Out Of The iGaming Industry - Nerdbot

Posted in Roulette | Comments Off on Hybrid Games Get Mixed Reviews Except From The Ones Coming Out Of The iGaming Industry – Nerdbot

Stay or go? Ukrainians like my in-laws are being forced to play a terrifying game of Russian Roulette Steve Cardownie – Edinburgh News

Posted: at 12:02 pm

They constantly weigh up the risk of fleeing the city along dangerous roads or stay put in the hope that they will emerge unharmed from any new onslaught by Russian armed forces.

My brother-in-law, along with his wife, nine-month-old son and nine-year-old daughter have taken to their food cellar night after night as Russian missiles strike their neighbourhood.

Whilst the cellar may offer some protection, it is not ideal, and their lives are still threatened. However, leaving their home and trying to make it to the west of the country by car is also fraught with danger, as they would have to negotiate several checkpoints along roads that are still being targeted by Russian missiles as recent tragic pictures in the press have reminded us.

The photograph of the young Ukrainian mother and her two children lying prone in the road as Ukrainian soldiers tried to assist them, to no avail, will live long in the memory. Their blood is on Putins hands.

These pictures and many more like them are only available to the Russian public via social media as Putin cracks down on internal information outlets to try and prevent his murderous activities from scrutiny.

Still, Russians are taking to the streets, risking jail sentences, in cities throughout the country, protesting against the war and calling for Putins removal. I have demonstrated and afterwards have gone for a drink, but when Russians demonstrate they know that they could end up in a police cell, facing the very real prospect of years in prison brave people indeed!

Many families in Kyiv, my in-laws included, have already faced the terror unleashed by Putin in his despotic quest to subjugate the people of Ukraine a quest that is destined to fail as the heroic resistance, ably demonstrated by the Ukrainian people, shows no signs of weakening.

We make contact with relatives in Kyiv by Viber every night and once more in the morning to check that everyone is still OK. We cannot wait for the day when they will be going for breakfast in Edinburgh, with us, just dodging hailstones not bullets.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

See original here:

Stay or go? Ukrainians like my in-laws are being forced to play a terrifying game of Russian Roulette Steve Cardownie - Edinburgh News

Posted in Roulette | Comments Off on Stay or go? Ukrainians like my in-laws are being forced to play a terrifying game of Russian Roulette Steve Cardownie – Edinburgh News

Francis Heylighen – Wikipedia

Posted: at 12:01 pm

Belgian cyberneticist (born 1960)

Francis Heylighen

Francis Paul Heylighen (born 27 September 1960) is a Belgian cyberneticist investigating the emergence and evolution of intelligent organization. He presently works as a research professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (the Dutch-speaking Free University of Brussels), where he directs the transdisciplinary research group on "Evolution, Complexity and Cognition"[1][2] and the Global Brain Institute. He is best known for his work on the Principia Cybernetica Project, his model of the Internet as a global brain, and his contributions to the theories of memetics and self-organization. He is also known, albeit to a lesser extent, for his work on gifted people and their problems.

Francis Heylighen was born on September 27, 1960 in Vilvoorde, Belgium. He received his high school education from the "Koninklijk Atheneum Pitzemburg" in Mechelen, in the section Latin-Mathematics. He received his MSc in mathematical physics in 1982 from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), where he also received his PhD Summa cum Laude in Sciences in 1987[3] for his thesis, published in 1990, as "Representation and Change. A Metarepresentational Framework for the Foundations of Physical and Cognitive Science."[4]

In 1983 he started working as a researcher for the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (NFWO). In 1994 he became a tenured researcher at the NFWO and in 2001 a research professor at the VUB. Since 1995 he has been affiliated with the VUB's Center Leo Apostel for interdisciplinary studies.[5] In 2004 he created the ECCO research group[6] which he presently directs. Thanks to a grant from a private sponsor, in 2012 he additionally founded the Global Brain Institute at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, becoming its first director.

In 1989 Valentin Turchin and Cliff Joslyn founded the Principia Cybernetica Project, and Heylighen joined a year later. In 1993 he created the project's encyclopedic site, one of the first complex websites in the world. In 1996, Heylighen founded the "Global Brain Group", an international discussion forum that provides a working platform for most of the scientists who have worked on the concept of emergent Internet intelligence.[5] Heylighen was also one of the founders and former editor of the Journal of Memetics[7] which ceased publication in 2008.

Heylighen is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science,[8] and a member of the Global Agenda Council on Complex Systems of the World Economic Forum.[9] His biography has been listed since 2002 in Marquis Who's Who in the world.[10] In 2015, he received an "Outstanding Technology Contribution Award" from the Web Intelligence Consortium,[11] for his research on the Global Brain.

His research focuses on the emergence and evolution of complex, intelligent organization. Applications include the origin of life, the development of multicellular organisms, knowledge, culture, and societies, and the impact of information and communication technologies on present and future social evolution.

Heylighen's scientific work covers an extremely wide range of subjects, exemplifying his intellectual curiosity and fundamentally transdisciplinary way of thinking. In addition to the topics mentioned above, his publications cover topics such as the foundations of quantum mechanics, the structure of space-time, hypermedia interfaces, the psychology of self-actualization and happiness, the market mechanism, formality and contextuality in language, causality, the measurement of social progress, the mechanism of stigmergy and its application to the web.

This broad variety of work is held together by two basic principles. The relational principle notes that phenomena do not exist on their own, but only in relation (connection or distinction) to other phenomena. They thus only make sense as part of an encompassing network or system.[12] The evolutionary principle notes that variation through (re)combination of parts and natural selection of the fitter combinations results in ever more complex and adaptive systems. This principle is a direct application of Universal Darwinism, the idea that Darwinian mechanisms can be extended to virtually all disciplines and problem domains.

The two principles come together in Heylighen's concept of a distinction dynamics.[13] In his analysis, classical scientific methodology is based on given, unchanging distinctions between elements or states. Therefore, it is intrinsically unable to model creative change. But the evolutionary principle makes distinctions dynamic, explaining the creation and destruction of relations, distinctions and connections, and thus helping us to understand how and why complex organization emerges.

Moreover, any system must be adapted to its environment, which implies that it is able to react adequately to changes in that environment. This is the origin of mind or intelligence, as the system should be able to select the right actions for the given conditions. These "condition-action" relations are the basis of knowledge.[14] As systems evolve, their adaptiveness tends to increase, and therefore also their knowledge or intelligence. Thus, the general trend of evolution is self-organization, or a spontaneous increase in intelligent organization.

Together with Cliff Joslyn and the late Valentin Turchin, Heylighen is a founding editor of the Principia Cybernetica Project, which is devoted to the collaborative development of an evolutionary-systemic philosophy. He created its website, the Principia Cybernetica Web,[15] in 1993, as one of the first complex webs in the world. It is still viewed as one of the most important sites on cybernetics, systems theory and related approaches.

In 1996, Heylighen founded the "Global Brain Group",[16] an international discussion forum that groups most of the scientists who have worked on the concept of emergent Internet intelligence.[5] Together with his PhD student Johan Bollen, Heylighen was the first to propose algorithms that could turn the world-wide web into a self-organizing, learning network that exhibits collective intelligence, i.e. a Global brain.

In the 2007 article "The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society" Heylighen gave a detailed exposition of the superorganism/global brain view of society, and an examination of the underlying evolutionary mechanisms, with applications to the ongoing and future developments in a globalizing world. Presently, he is developing a detailed mathematical and simulation model of the global brain, together with his collaborators in the Global Brain Institute.[17]

Heylighen has published over 100 papers and a book.[18] A selection:

See the article here:

Francis Heylighen - Wikipedia

Posted in Memetics | Comments Off on Francis Heylighen – Wikipedia

Social Cohesion | Healthy People 2020

Posted: at 12:01 pm

Endnotes

iTerminology used in the summary is consistent with the respective references. As a result, there may be variability in the use of terms, for example, black versus African American.

iiThe term minority, when used in a summary, refers to racial/ethnic minority, unless otherwise specified.

Thoits PA. Mechanisms linking social ties and support to physical and mental health. J Health Soc Behav. 2011;52(2):14561.

Berkman LF, Syme SL. Social networks, host resistance, and mortality: a nine-year follow-up study of Alameda County residents. Am J Epidemiol. 1979;109(2):186204.

Keyes CL, Michalec B. Viewing mental health from the complete state paradigm. In: Scheid TL, Brown TN, editors. A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health: Social Contexts, Theories, and Systems. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 2010. p. 12534.

Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. PLoS Med. 2010;7(7):e1000316.

Umberson D, Montez JK. Social relationships and health a flashpoint for health policy. J Health Soc Behav. 2010;51(1 Suppl):S5466.

Kawachi I, Berkman L. Social cohesion, social capital, and health. In: Berkman LF, Kawachi I, editors. Social Epidemiology. New York: Oxford University Press; 2000. p. 17490.

Bourdieu P. Forms of capital. In: Richardson JG, editor. Handbook of Theory for the Sociology of Education. Greenwood Press: Westport, CT; 1986. p. 24158.

Lin N. Building a network theory of social capital. Connect (Tor). 1999;22(1):2851.

Granovetter M. The strength of weak ties: a network theory revisited. Sociol Theory. 1983;1:20123.

Berkman LF, Glass T, Brissette I, Seeman TE. From social integration to health: Durkheim in the new millennium. Soc Sci Med. 2000;51(6):84357.

Berkman LF, Glass T. Social integration, social networks, social support and health. In: Berkman LF, Kawachi I, editors. Social Epidemiology. New York: Oxford University Press; 2000.

Kawachi I, Kennedy BP, Lochner K, Prothrow-Stith D. Social capital, income inequality, and mortality. Am J Public Health. 1997;87(9):149198.

Gilbert KL, Quinn SC, Goodman RM, Butler J, Wallace J. A meta-analysis of social capital and health: a case for needed research. J Health Psychol. 2013;18(11):138599. doi: 10.1177/1359105311435983

Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW, Earls F. Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science. 1997;277(5328):91824.

Browning CR, Cagney KA. Neighborhood structural disadvantage, collective efficacy, and self-rated physical health in an urban setting. J Health Soc Behav. 2002;43(4):38399.

Matsaganis MD, Wilkin HA. Communicative social capital and collective efficacy as determinants of access to health-enhancing resources in residential communities. J Health Commun. 2015;20(4):110. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2014.927037

Idler E. Religion: The invisible social determinant. In: Idler E, editor. Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health. New York: Oxford University Press; 2014. p. 130.

Maselko J, Hughes C, Cheney R. Religious social capital: its measurement and utility in the study of the social determinants of health. Soc Sci Med. 2011;73(5):75967.

Christakis NA, Fowler JH. Social contagion theory: examining dynamic social networks and human behavior. Stat Med. 2013;32(4):55677.

Christakis NA, Fowler JH. The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years. N Engl J Med. 2007;357(4):37079.

Christakis NA, Fowler JH. The collective dynamics of smoking in a large social network. N Engl J Med. 2008;358(21):224958. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa0706154

Rosenquist JN, Murabito J, Fowler JH, Christakis NA. The spread of alcohol consumption behavior in a large social network. Ann Intern Med. 2010;157(7):42633. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-152-7-101004060-00007

Uchino B. Social support and health: a review of physiological processes potentially underlying links to disease outcomes. J Behav Med. 2006;29:37787.

Cohen S, Wills TA. Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychol Bull. 1985;98(2):310.

Knox SS, Adelman A, Ellison CR, Arnett DK, Siegmund KD, Weidner G, et al. Hostility, social support, and carotid artery atherosclerosis in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study. Am J Cardiol. 2000;86:108689.

Finch BK, Vega WA. Acculturation stress, social support, and self-rated health among Latinos in California. J Immigr Health. 2003;5(3):10917.

Marsden P. Memetics and social contagion: two sides of the same coin?. JoM-EMIT. 1998;2(2):17185.

Berkman LF. The role of social relations in health promotion. Psychosom Med. 1995;57(3):24554.

Van Tilburg T. Losing and gaining in old age: changes in personal network size and social support in a four-year longitudinal study. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 1998;53(6):S31323.

Cooney A, Dowling M, Gannon ME, Dempsey L, Murphy K. Exploration of the meaning of connectedness for older people in longterm care in context of their quality of life: a review and commentary. Int J Older People Nurs. 2014;9(3):19299. doi: 10.1111/opn.12017

Tomaka J, Thompson S, Palacios R. The relation of social isolation, loneliness, and social support to disease outcomes among the elderly. J Aging Health. 2006;18(3):35984.

Chen-Edinboro LP, Kaufmann CN, Augustinavicius JL, Mojtabai R, Parisi JM, Wennberg AMV, et al. Neighborhood physical disorder, social cohesion, and insomnia: results from participants over age 50 in the health and retirement study. Int Psychogeriatr. 2015;27(2):28996. doi: 10.1017/S104161021400182

Klinenberg E. Heat wave: a social autopsy of disaster in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2015.

Anderson LM, Scrimshaw SC, Fullilove MT, Fielding JE. The Community Guides model for linking the social environment to health. Am J Prev Med. 2003;24(3 Suppl)1220.

Hunter BD, Neiger B, West J. The importance of addressing social determinants of health at the local level: the case for social capital. Health Soc Care Commun. 2011;19(5):52230. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2524.2011.00999.x

Liao Y, Siegel PZ, White S, Dulin R, Taylor A. Improving actions to control high blood pressure in Hispanic communitiesRacial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health Across the US Project, 20092012. Prev Med. 2016;83:1115.

Buckner-Brown J, Sharify DT, Blake B, Phillips T, Whitten K. Using the Community Readiness Model to examine the built and social environment: a case study of the High Point Neighborhood, Seattle, Washington, 20002010. Prev Chronic Dis. 2014;11:e194.

Continue reading here:

Social Cohesion | Healthy People 2020

Posted in Memetics | Comments Off on Social Cohesion | Healthy People 2020

AMC Dips 4% Despite Strongest Earnings in 2 Years – The Tokenist

Posted: at 12:01 pm

Neither the author, Tim Fries, nor this website, The Tokenist, provide financial advice. Please consult ourwebsite policyprior to making financial decisions.

On March 1st, AMC Entertainment released its Q4 2021 earnings along with the years results. With the governments responses to Covid-19 waning, the theater chain is finally seeing the light at the end of the lockdown tunnel. However, the market seems yet to be impressed.

Here is the brief roundup of AMCs gains and losses compared to previous periods:

Overall, the quarterly losses were on the lower end of the spectrum, from last months estimated between $114.8m $194.8m. Notably, for the first time in two years, AMC reached positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).

This translated into positive cash, measured by non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) to over $220 million for Q4 2021. AMCs CEO Adam Aron framed the earnings report as leaving the worst behind.

Our positive recovery glide path from the global pandemic continued in earnest in the fourth quarter

Aron further noted that AMC retail investors were critical in supplying the company with a monetary war chest, stemming from memetics against Wall Street hedge funds. Recently, even Citadel withdrew more of its $2 billion from Melvin Capital after its abysmal performance. Aron noted that right now, its $1.8 billion cash reserve is its greatest asset, taking care on how to invest it across AMCs three core business models:

Join ourTelegram groupand never miss a breaking digital asset story.

According to Adam Aron, AMC is firmly in the hands of retailers, to whom it owes its existence.

If you exclude index funds who have no choice but to own and hold AMC shares, individual retail investors would seem to own more than 90% of our officially issued 516 million shares as of today.

In other words, as Aron often points out on social media, retailers own 90% of the float, which is the total number of shares available for public trade. Given the history of the short squeeze saga and the concern about naked shorting and dark pools, Aron assuaged these fears in the report by saying that:

no reliable information on naked shorting or so-called fake shares or so-called synthetic shares.

However, according to Fidelitys report on AMCs float structure consisting of 516 million shares, 34.4% of the float is in institutional hands.

At the head are the worlds largest asset managers, Vanguard Group and Blackrock, with 9.17% and 8.36% ownerships respectively. All others fall under 3%. Nonetheless, Aron appears to be proceeding with the plan to introduce a number of upgrades to how retailers interact with AMC.

Namely, introducing Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) as the biggest meme coins with a $30 billion total market cap between the two.

We expect that our market share among that audience will grow when we can take cryptocurrencies.

Interestingly, despite the high volatility of both dog coins, AMC underperformed both of them after the earnings report, dropping by 4%.

This may be due to the fact that AMCs price moves were already priced in because Aron pre-released unaudited Q4 2021 figures all the way back in January. There is also the matter of AMCs ongoing debt problem. To stay afloat over the last two years, and even prior, AMC had to accrue a lot of debt.

September 2016 was the last period in which AMCs long-term debt was under $2 billion. Ever since, AMCs debt is hovering mostly at over double that, at the current $5.5 billion. In the most recent debt refinancing deal in February, AMC committed to a $950 million bond issuance to pay off maturing debt and its fees.

Unexpectedly, this was almost double from the initial target of $500 million with a 10.5% interest rate. The new $950 will have an interest rate of 7.5% up until 2029. Interestingly, that exact percentage is the current 40-year-high inflation rate the Fed is trying to squash with announced March interest rate hikes.

This will mean that borrowing money will be a lot more expensive for companies, often resulting in taper tantrums and stock market downturns.

Update (8th March 2022, 10:00 am GMT): Changed Citadel Securities to Citadel. Citadel LLC and Citadel Securities are two separate businesses.

Finance is changing.

Learn how, with Five Minute Finance.

A weekly newsletter that covers the big trends in FinTech and Decentralized Finance.

Awesome

Youve subscribed.

Youre well on your way to being in the know.

Do you think AMC is looking forward to a rally in 2022? Let us know in the comments below.

About the author

Tim Fries is the cofounder of The Tokenist. He has a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim served as a Senior Associate on the investment team at RW Baird's US Private Equity division, and is also the co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firm specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.

See the original post here:

AMC Dips 4% Despite Strongest Earnings in 2 Years - The Tokenist

Posted in Memetics | Comments Off on AMC Dips 4% Despite Strongest Earnings in 2 Years – The Tokenist

Noise Pollution and Why Populism Failed – The American Conservative

Posted: at 12:00 pm

I used to be a populist, but it got too expensive. I couldnt afford the rent in D.C., the dry cleaning, the taxis home from parties on Connecticut Ave. So I moved back home, got a job with a local business, and married a cute girl I met at church. Now were living happily ever after.

No, Im not a populistIm the populace. (Sorry.) And Im glad for that.

Look, I love the Republican base. I am the Republican base. But when you live out here in the sticks, you dont write paeans to the multiracial working-class. Lower-income Americans are getting screwed; theres no question about that. But a huge amount of that misery is self-inflicted.

Case in point: The other day I was going to split wood at my uncles farm in Derry, New Hampshire. Derry is just north of Massachusetts, so property values are pretty high. I passed a trailer park. Without fail, every single home had a brand-new pickup in the driveway. How can they afford those vehicles? There are only two possible answers. Either they dont have children, or theyre not very attentive parents.

Number two may sound harsh, but it must be true. I find it hard to believe that theyre living frugal, sober livessocking away as much cash as they can so their kids can have every advantageand their only comfort in life is a shiny new F-150. (Leases starting at $500 per month.)

Trucks are a hang-up of mine because I love them, too. But, like the Republican base, they seem to be on the decline, and for the same reason.

To put it bluntly, the GOP is no longer a pro-family party. True, its still wedded to the Bible Belt. The social-conservative lobby in Washington still holds a bit of sway. But, in retrospect, the Trump presidency marked a definite shift in party culture. It no longer feels like the party of suburban dads and soccer moms, because its not.

Think about the tools who drive around with the flags that say Fk Biden and Fk You for Voting for Him. Theyre probably not dads. If they are dads, theyre probably not good dads. And yet the Republican Party is increasingly pandering to them.

Actually, TAC contributing editor Matthew Schmitz noticed this shift taking place way back in 2018 in an opinion piece for the New York Times. He said that the Red State/Blue State model is looking a bit dated. Its not about conservatives vs. liberal anymore, because Republicans arent really conservative the way they used to be:

A third model can be found among working-class whites, blacks and Hispanicslets call it purple. In these families, bonds between mothers and children are prized above those between couples. Unstable relationships are the norm, and fathers quickly end up out of the picture.

Baffling as it may be to elites, Mr. Trump embodies a real if imperfect model of family values. People familiar with the purple family model tend to view his alienation from his childrens mother as normal and his closeness to his children as exceptional and admirable.

Much as I admire Schmitz, I think Im with the elites on this oneagain, maybe because those people are my neighbors. In fact, my family and I are moving this year, in no small part because the noise pollution has gotten so bad. And all of it falls into three categories.

First are the tools with the pickup trucksvirtually none of whom actually need trucks. And yet they get the model with the loudest engine, turbo, etc.

Second are the motorcycles. These are probably the same guys as the trucks. Ive noticed that not only are the engines getting louder and louder, but theyve also started using their radiossomething my father and grandfather (both bikers) thought was taboo.

Third are the white trash kids with riced-out hatchbacks. They all pay extra for the loudest muffler, the bumping stereo, and whatever it is that makes the engine backfire.

In other words, its all totally unnecessary. Their vehicles dont need to be that loud. They pay extra for that.

Noise pollution can have serious long-term effects on childrens health. In the meantime, it wakes up our baby from her nap. It wakes us up from a sound sleep in the middle of the night. In the warmer months, it makes playing outside or working at the picnic table impossible.

Im sure many of the parents (and otherwise responsible adults) reading this article will know what Im talking about. And, believe it or not, most states have laws against modifying a vehicle to make it louder. Theyre just not enforced, even in Republican states.

Why? Because the GOP is no longer the party of parents (or otherwise responsible adults). Its the party of single dudes and negligent fathers. They think its only libtards in their Priuses who get irritated by their souped-up GMCs howling down the road at 2 a.m. when theyre driving home from the bar blasting Kid Rock.

Its not. Its also conservative Christians who are trying to raise a family in something like peace and quiet.

And, yes, the Trump years made things worse in this respect. Donald Trump made the right meaner, angrier, and less considerate, even as he made the Dems deranged. Its not an Orange Man Bad thing, but the rhetoric of the moment. If and when my kids learn the F-word, itll probably be from one of those tools in a Silverado with a Fk Biden flag blasting We the People on the radio.

Hey, like I said, these are my people. Theyre my neighbors, my cousins, my aunts, my uncles. I do love them, and I thank God for them. But Im not a populist. I cant romanticize the multiracial working class, because Ive met them. Theyre not a plank for the Republican platform. Theyre human beings with virtues and vices, like me. Like you.

Thats why I was glad to read that New York is cracking down on noise pollution. Cameras and microphones are being installed around the city to automatically flag too-loud vehicles. Gov. Kathy Hochul also signed the SLEEP Act, which raises existing fines for vehicles that are modified to be noisier. Mechanics who make these modifications risk losing their operating license or if theyre caught too many times.

According to The City, theres been a surge in noise complaints since the beginning of the pandemic. We saw the same thing here in New Hampshire. Many businesses shut down, while the rest are desperate for workers; meanwhile, the number of expensive vehicles with expensive modifications has exploded. I think there are two main reasons:

First, most of the middle-class guys who got Covid bailout money didnt need the extra cash, so they blew it on a big toy. And second, lots of young men who worked minimum-wage jobs got their first taste of welfare thanks to Trump Bucks. So, they decided to quit their jobs, settle into their parents basement, and enjoy life as a welfare queen.

Critics of New Yorks crackdown are calling it a tax on the underclass. Good! Tax em up the wazoo. Why should working families have to suffer so these guys can go VROOM VROOM VROOMMMMMMM?

Noise pollution is a public health issue. Prolonged exposure causes high blood pressure, hearing loss, and anxiety. It can impair childrens mental development, especially their language skills. As Micah Meadowcroft wrote in these pages just last year,

In the observed birds, the noise of traffic hindered vocal development and song learning. Moreover, noise was an enormous stressor for chicks and fledglings, suppressing their immune systems. Were torturing the songbirds. They cant sing as well as they used to. What are we doing to us?

Hey, who knows? Maybe those guys are the victims of noise pollution, too. Maybe their dads loud trucks killed so many of their brain cells that they turned into the kinds of people who think loud trucks are cool. Really, New York is doing them a favor. Hopefully other states will follow suit.

Michael Warren Davisis author ofThe Reactionary Mind. Subscribe to his newsletter,The Common Man.

Read the original:

Noise Pollution and Why Populism Failed - The American Conservative

Posted in Populism | Comments Off on Noise Pollution and Why Populism Failed – The American Conservative

Nationalism and populism in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine – Catholic World Report

Posted: at 12:00 pm

People displaced by war are seen at the Ivano-Frankivsk Theological Seminary of St. Josaphat in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, in this photo taken in March 2022. (CNS photo/courtesy Archeparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk)

With the world in turmoil following Russias invasion of Ukraine, it is worth noting just how singularly unfitted the current Western elite is for coping with the current disaster in Eastern Europe, precisely because the visceral issues at stake nationality, patriotism, ethnic identity, borders, religion are issues that the globally-minded political functionary refuses to take seriously on their own terms.

We can set aside the case made by various scholars and foreign policy experts, who have been arguing for years that the imperatives of globalism and NATO expansion has paved the way for this crisis of Russo-American relations. What is positively surreal is to find an American political class which at home incessantly denounces love of homeland and national identity as small-minded, if not racist now pretending to understand and empathize with the sentiments of Ukrainian citizens taking up arms to defend their territory. Since when have neoliberals or neoconservatives commended an old-fashioned devotion to ones homeland?

A couple years ago First Things editor R.R. Reno presciently took it upon himself to explain the state of the West in Return of the Strong Gods. As Reno observes, ever since World War II Americans and Europeans have been dominated by a postwar consensus that insists upon fighting the last war, against Hitler and the Nazis, instead of recognizing the new threat to mankind posed by atomizing, secular liberalism, radical egalitarianism, and dehumanizing technologies.

For its partisans,

the postwar consensus is more than political. Its powerful cultural influence is evident in the emphasis on openness and weakening in highly theorized literary criticism and cultural studies in universities, often under the flag of critique and deconstruction, and in popular calls for diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusivity, all of which entail a weakening of boundaries and opening of borders.

For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with postwar intellectual history, Reno relates the ascendance of figures such as Karl Popper author of The Open Society and Its Enemies as well as the neo-Marxists of the Frankfort School, and libertarian Friedrich Hayek. All of these thinkers were deeply suspicious, even hostile toward transcendent aspirations, for they saw such aspirations as potentially fascist. Where religion, patriotism, tradition, and other passionate devotions were once regarded as sources of human enrichment, they are now seen first and foremost as threats to the rights of the individual.

Thus arose the ideal of negative piety, which gives priority to critique and self-questioning over conviction. This negative piety is directed against the Church no less than against the nation, Reno explains, for it guards against resurgent authoritarianism by renouncing metaphysical claims. After all, someone who defines an end or purpose for man becomes a black-and-white thinker, a potential fascist.

Yet in practice, he argues, a too rigorously anti-utopian outlook is itself dangerously utopian, and leads to sociopolitical dysfunction:

The nations of Europe are experiencing a profound demographic change. Since 1945, people from non-European lands have immigrated to the West in large numbers. Some have come in accord with government policies put in place decades ago to deal with labor shortages. Others are being settled as a result of emergency measures to accommodate refugees from the war-torn Middle East. Still others arrive illegally [] For more than fifty years, voters in Europe have told their leaders that they dont like the cultural changes caused by immigration and they dont want more immigrants. The politicians consistently promise to reduce the inflow. But they never do. In many instances, the leadership class pushes in the opposite direction, toward more immigration, while it celebrates diversity as redemptive.

So, well before the Russian invasion, many European countries were in the process of getting wiped off the map, or transformed beyond recognition, all in the name of diversity, and with not only the acquiescence but often the active collaboration of Western leaders. In Renos words, such leaders exhibit a strange inability to affirm their loyalty to the people they lead. It is hardly clear why anyone should count on a Bush, a Biden, or a Macron to prudently and responsibly provide for Ukrainian sovereignty and national identity when such leaders actively undermine that of their own nations.

Going deeper, Reno argues that the patriotic sentiment is best understood as rooted in but not limited to nature. Human beings are by nature social animals, he points out, and so,

My parents, grandparents, and ancestors before them are in a real sense far more necessary to me than my generic humanity, so much so that Im far more likely to sacrifice my life for my blood relations than for someone outside the family circle, however equal he may be in the eyes of God. This is at once an obvious point about human nature blood is thicker than water, as folk wisdom puts it and something remarkable[] Its not simply a metaphor to speak of our motherlands and fatherlands. Here as well the power of the we transcends biology. Nations unite clans and tribes, villages and provinces. They can incorporate newcomers by naturalizing them, a process of civic adoption, as it were.

Here proponents of Poppers Open Society might object that such attachments can turn into idols for fanatics. The Christian response is that anything not only ancestors, or nation, but also generic humanity, as well as a heart-rending image served up by a manipulative mass-media, or an abstract principle like freedom or equality can become an idol when made the object of disordered love. Even so, abuse does not invalidate proper use. As C.S. Lewis put it, it is the true patriot who is best equipped to resist jingoism, precisely because the true patriot actually knows what patriotism is.

Certainly there are limits to Renos analysis. For instance, he is clearly reluctant to admit that in America, ground zero for the disenchantment with homeland is the American South, which has for decades been subjected by the liberal establishment to a one-sided and simplistic demonization campaign. And while Reno is entirely correct to note that the open society alone fails to meet our basic human need for a home, it is still not entirely clear how a continental span populated by over 300 million people, of increasingly divergent heritages, can serve as a distinct home for anybody. It also seems to me that he goes too far out of his way to assure his readers that he is not himself a fascist. It is as if a pro-life activist were to feel obliged to say I am not a misogynist every five minutes. If one frank disclaimer isnt enough, no number of disclaimers will be.

Yet to dwell too long upon such limitations would be not only ungracious but misleading. In the remote chance that some kind of modus vivendi is ever achieved among the parties in Ukraine or, for that matter, in these United States it will be because voices like Renos move from the margins to the center. The only way for the West to find a third way, an alternative to catastrophe or dystopia, is through an honest and open discussion of existential questions.

How such a discussion could ever happen in the public square is not clear. For some time now the liberal establishment has taken for granted its right to define who we are and the establishmentarians show no signs of opening up to negotiation on the matter.

Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the Westby R.R. RenoRegnery/Gateway Editions, 2019Hardcover, 182 pages

If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Link:

Nationalism and populism in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine - Catholic World Report

Posted in Populism | Comments Off on Nationalism and populism in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine – Catholic World Report