Monthly Archives: July 2022

The mustard family of plants, also called Brassica is very diverse and has numerous members. Our canola, Brassica napus is from this family, but so is kale, rutabaga, turnip, swede, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, mustard and many more.

Rapeseed is a much more recent evolution than wheat. I should probably explain the difference between rapeseed and canola before we proceed any further. Rapeseed is the naturally evolved plant. Canola is man-made. Both are identified as Brassica napus. A natural cross between two distinct members of the mustard family; cabbage with 9 chromosomes and turnip with 10 chromosomes joined to form Argentine rapeseed (Brassica napus) with 19 chromosomes. It is called Argentine because we first imported it as an undeveloped rapeseed plant from Argentina. In 1936 we also imported a Polish rapeseed plant. Rapeseed was an industrial oil gaining popularity during World War II as Germany could not get access to fossil fuel oil to run their machines, they adapted to using rapeseed oil not only to lubricate their machines but to burn the rapeseed oil in their diesel engines. Rapeseed or canola oil can be directly substituted for diesel fuel in warm conditions. In the cold it gets too thick (viscous) to be useful unless heated. To prevent the viscosity from being a problem, chemists have turned the rapeseed or canola oil into an ester, a biodiesel. This is easily done in any 45 gallon barrel in your backyard. There is even a version of a mustard plant, Brassica carinata that can directly produce jet fuel.

Before the 1970s Canada had no healthy edible vegetable oil. We ate a lot of butter and lard. The search for an edible vegetable oil started with taking the two non-edible ingredients out of rapeseed. Erucic acid is a component of rapeseed that produces fatty deposits in the heart; unhealthy. Glucosinolates, also a component of rapeseed are detrimental to human and animal health because they interfere with the uptake of iodine in our bodies, contributing to liver disease.

Dr. Keith Downey in Saskatchewan and Dr. Baldur Stefannson in Manitoba selected and crossed rapeseed cultivars to reduce the erucic acid and glucosinolates. They were successful in the mid 1970s and canola was the new name they gave this man-made plant in 1978. The definition of canola is that it must have less than 2% erucic acid and less than 30 micromoles per gram of glucosinolates. Canola was not recognized as a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) food in the USA till 1986.

Today Canada is the worlds largest producer of this healthy vegetable oil, producing more than 18 million tonnes annually. The next closest producer is China at 13 million and India at 9 million. We can boast that we produce 10 times more canola than the USA. Canola does not like hot weather as its flowers spontaneously abort above 30 degrees Celsius.

Canola is arguably the healthiest edible vegetable oil in the world after flax. Unfortunately, the healthy part of flax, linolenic acid is also very unstable and will quickly go rancid at room temperature making it harder to market.

Since rapeseed and canola are very recently evolved, they still have characteristics of wild plants; their seeds shatter and do not stay on the plant at maturity. Canola is quite easily manipulated by plant breeders and finally only about 10 years ago they were able to breed a non-shattering characteristic into canola. This had an immediate uptake by farmers who now could park their swathers and straight-cut their canola in the same way they straight-cut their other crops like wheat.

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The Evolution of Canola - mySteinbach.ca

As far as cinephile archetypes go, none are quite as notorious as the film bro. Once upon atime, they were characterised as the obnoxious student who worships at the feet of Quentin Tarantino, Nicolas Winding Refn and Stanley Kubrick. They completely miss the point of American Psycho, and claim they understood the plot of Inception on the first watch. Their movie appetite is limited to the IMDb 250, acanon of films directed by mostly white cis men, deemed to be worthy by mostly white, cis male gatekeepers.

But as arecent TikTok trend demonstrates, the definition of the film bro has now expanded. The videos involve users filming themselves with their mouths agape, alongside ironic captions maligning apicky moviegoing partner. Film bros when you tell them you want to watch aMarvel movie and not atwo-hour black and white movie about the Serbian government shown through the eyes of apigeon, one reads. Pretentious film bros when someone says they would rather watch acomedy than a15-hour black and white Polish film that critiques capitalism, says another. Further TikToks mock the film bros horror at someone who wont watch a Croatian film about amans divorce process with his wife.

The message is clear: film bros should simply lighten up abit. But theres also been acurious shift in the perceived tastes of the film bro online beyond Christopher Nolan and the like, these now seem to include anything perceived as foreign. The geographical descriptors in these captions imply that anything non-American is automatically pretentious and elitist (which in itself is pricked with xenophobia.)

Is it silly to put this much thought into ameme? Perhaps. But when film bro movies are seen as misogynist red flags, its concerning that the number of films branded as such stretch far beyond Pulp Fiction and Joker. To close oneself off from all cinema in favour of what feels comfortable sets an alarming precedent. Theres adisturbing lack of curiosity when it comes to cinema, evident in the near-complete erasure of the mid-budget movie, and calls for the Academy Awards not to reflect the best films of the year, but simply whats popular at the time. Now that the cinematic scope of the average viewer is as narrow as the original film bros, the goalposts have moved.

In 1993, Martin Scorsese wrote aletter to the New York Times in response to an article criticising Federico Fellinis films for being too opaque to decipher astory. Its not the opinion Ifind distressing, but the underlying attitude toward artistic expression that is different, difficult or demanding, he said. I feel its adangerous attitude, limiting, intolerant. If this is the attitude toward Fellini, one of the old masters, and the most accessible at that, imagine what chance new foreign films and filmmakers have in this country? Its telling that Scorseses words from almost 30years ago continue to resonate today.

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The evolution of the film bro - The Face

WASHINGTON: Fossils unearthed in China are helping scientists get a better grasp on one of the marvels of evolution: the giant panda's false thumb, which helps this veggie-loving bear munch the bamboo that makes up most of its diet.

Researchers said on Thursday they discovered near the city of Zhaotong in northern Yunnan Province fossils about 6 million years old of an extinct panda called Ailurarctos that bore the oldest-known evidence of this improvised extra digit actually a greatly enlarged wrist bone called the radial sesamoid.

It closely resembled the false thumb of modern pandas, but is a bit longer and lacks the inward hook present on the end in the extant species that provides even greater ability to manipulate bamboo stalks, shoots and roots while eating.

The false thumb is an evolutionary adaptation to augment the existing five actual digits of the panda's hand. A bear's hand lacks the opposable thumb possessed by humans and various primates that enables the grasping and handling of objects using the fingers. The false thumb serves a similar function.

"It uses the false thumb as a very crude opposable thumb to grasp bamboos, sort of like our own thumbs except it is located at the wrist and is much shorter than human thumbs," said Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County paleontologist Xiaoming Wang, lead author of the research published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Ailurarctos was an evolutionary forerunner of the modern panda, smaller but with anatomical traits signaling a similar lifestyle including a bamboo diet. The modern panda's false thumb has some advantages over the earlier version.

"The hooked false thumb offers a tighter grasp of the bamboo and, at the same time, its less-protruded tip - because of the bended hook makes it easier for the panda to walk. Think of the false thumb as being stepped on every time the panda walks. And therefore, we think that is the reason that the false thumb in modern pandas has become shorter, not longer," Wang said.

The panda's tight grip on bamboo acts against the jerking action of the mouth in order to quickly break food into bite-size chunks, Wang added.

The researchers initially found an Ailurarctos arm bone in 2010, then discovered teeth and the false thumb in 2015, giving them a much better understanding of the animal. Until now, the oldest-known evidence of this thumb-like structure dated to fossils from about 102,000-49,000 years ago in the same panda species alive today.

The false thumb lets pandas hold bamboo to eat but not rotate the food as a true thumb would allow.

"One of the most important features of human beings and their primate relatives is the evolution of a thumb that can be held against other fingers for precise grasping. The panda's false thumb is far less effective than the human thumb, but it is enough to provide the giant panda with the grasping ability to eat bamboo," said paleontologist and study co-author Tao Deng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Pandas, one of the world's eight bear species, once inhabited large swathes of Asia. They now live primarily in temperate forests in the mountains of southwestern China, with a wild population estimated under 2,000.

A panda's diet is 99% vegetarian, though they do sometimes eat small animals and carrion. Because of their inefficient digestive system, pandas consume large amounts to meet their nutritional needs - 26-84 pounds (12-38 kg) of bamboo while eating up to 14 hours a day.

The false thumb was not present in another closely related bear that lived about 9 million years ago, the researchers said.

"This is a great innovation transformation of a minor bone into an element that is useful for a particular purpose," said Harvard University paleobiologist and study co-author Lawrence Flynn.

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Marvels of evolution: Pandas and their extra false thumb - Geo News

Lake Tahoe has become one of the most sought after places in the world to not only live at, but to explore. With rich history and immersion into the wilderness, backcountry trails in the Tahoe Basin give an up-close experience with nature like none other. Imagine a world where it was impossible to reach and explore hidden gems within the basin. Glenn Hampton thought about this potential future in 1981, and decided to get to work to create a way for anyone to hike or ride the entire circumference around Lake Tahoe.

STARTED AS AN IDEA

Glen Hampton worked for the Forest Service and had a dream of a trail that circled Lake Tahoe, said the Tahoe Rim Trails Developmental Director Veronica Long. It was established back in the early eighties and construction started in the mid-eighties after they got permitting and approval. Although the trail was originally proposed to be 150 miles, the trail eventually grew larger and is now a 200 mile-long trail system.

The process took a lot longer than they thought to complete the trail. I think they were envisioning it was only going to take a few years, but it ended up taking 20 years to complete the trails, said Long. The final loop wasnt completed until 2001.

The trail, which would take a total of 10 to 12 days to hike in total, is broken up into nine major segments. The first segment begins in Tahoe City and spans to Brockway Summit, totalling 20.2 miles. The segment features beautiful views of Watson Lake, along with the Truckee River Canyon. The segments are divided where the highways cross through the trailheads. This allows hikers to trek an individual trail in a day, or spend multiple days completing the entire loop. Trails within the TRT include Brockway Summit to Mt. Rose and Tahoe Meadows, which is also 20.2 miles long, and brings explorers to the highest point on the trail at Relay Peak. From there, the next segment spans to Spooner Summit, with views of Christopher Loop and Marlette Lake View available to all.

From Spooner Summit to the Kingsbury South Connector, hikers can enjoy 19 miles of ancient fir trees and panoramic views of both the Tahoe Basin and Carson Valley. From the South Connector to Big Meadow, there is a pass under the highest peak in the Lake Tahoe Basin, while also giving campers the opportunity to visit and even camp out at Star Lake. From Big Meadow to Echo Lakes, the trail merges into the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, and for 18.3 miles, theres opportunity to enjoy alpine lakes and wildflower displays, before reaching the longest segment of the trail: Echo Lakes to Barker Pass.

The 32.5 miles of the segment passes several more alpine lakes, including Lake Aloha, before bringing hikers back to the first segment in Tahoe City. In the last segment of the trail, an abundance of wildlife can be seen, along with creeks and wildflowers that eventually lead into Page Meadows.

By providing a path around the trail, we have given people a place they can experience nature and everyone can be on the same path and use that same sacrifice to the wilderness, said Long. By consolidating people on the one trail, theyre not going out exploring everywhere and trampling everything. Theyre all on the same path.

COMMUNITY OF VOLUNTEERS

The trail was initially pitched in 1981 by Hampton before the Tahoe Rim Trail Fund was formed in 1982 and granted nonprofit status. Construction initially began in 1984 at Luther Pass.

The first trailhead was completed in 1990 at Big Meadow in California and then 17 years later, the entire loop was completed at Stateline on the north shore. The work was done by volunteers, amounting to over 200,000 hours dedicated by members of the community. Theres plenty that goes into planning for a trail including what the optimal route for the paths would be, where water is going to be traveling, erosion, as well as the type of users that will be on the trail. Long explained that although there is a small team at the top of the association to organize, volunteer work on the trail is what truly allows it to keep functioning.

We organize volunteers to build and maintain everything, said Long. Building reroutes and new trails is a very important part of what we do. But with 200 miles of trail, you have to put a lot of focus on the maintenance as well. Theres a lot of big pieces of what we do that people dont necessarily think about; just because the trail is there doesnt mean its good to go forever.

Volunteers spend countless hours on the trail, clearing brush, rebuilding drainage areas, removing logs and other obstructions in the way of the path or any rebuilding, and taking care of erosion that might have happened due to continued use of the trail.

Long noted that the work of the volunteers and the association is what allows locals and visitors alike to continue recreating safely in Tahoe.

Trails really do protect the wilderness and let people engage with it in a way that will protect the forest for years to come. People dont want to protect something that theyve never experienced, said Long. By giving people an opportunity to go out into the wilderness and fall in love with it, then hopefully they will think about that in the future and protect nature in general.

MORE VISITORS HIT THE TRAIL

Lake Tahoe has had an influx of visitors since the pandemic started in 2020. This heavily impacted the dynamic of hiking and outdoor recreation.

More people were hitting the trail who had never hiked before, said Long. We found a lot more heavy use impacts from all of those people. We realized we need to educate the public on the proper way to sustainably recreate on the trail.

A program called Taskforce Trailhead was launched in 2021 to address the concerns of sustainability. Volunteers were trained to go to trailheads on busy weekends and educate people about the Leave No Trace slogan in the basin. The volunteers are equipped with wilderness ethics which include reminding visitors to pick up their trash, carry enough water, and the prohibition of campfires in the basin.

Tahoe is booming and we are seeing millions of visitors each year. The visitors are not going away, said Long. Theyre coming more and more, and our biggest challenge is to create an infrastructure that can handle all of those people and this vision of how that can scale up. Focusing on improving the trail, maintaining quality and maintenance, and investing in infrastructure to accommodate more people will help.

See the article here:

Take a hike: The continuing evolution of the Tahoe Rim Trail - Sierra Sun

By Thomas Filbin

A powerfully relevant study about an iconoclastic Black thinker and poet who was dedicated to economic reform as well as the eradication of racism.

Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik by Winston James. Columbia University Press, 426 pp., $32 (paper).

Claude McKay might be the most famous Black writer that Americans have never heard of, and that is not your fault. The reason is that he was a devout Marxist at a time when that stance was neither popular or correctly understood. Given the trauma of the First World War and then the Depression and worldwide upheavals, Marxism was seen by many as the solution, a salve for humanitys wounds because it spoke directly to the plight of the common working man and woman. Not everyone agreed with this position; for many, Marxisms call for collectivism over individuality was castigated as the enemy of all that was good and holy in American life. This splendid new biography by Winston James, a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, looks at McKays embrace of radicalism through a sympathetic lens. McKay did not become a Marxist through ideological indoctrination, but because it was how he made sense of an unjust world and the powers that kept it that way.

Festus Claudius McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889, the youngest of 11 children of Thomas and Hannah McKay, owners of a farm of a hundred acres, acquired by gift of marriage and hard labor. Workers were employed and the holdings functioned as a profitable business. James notes that these were reasonable criteria for qualifying as a capitalist farmer. Thomass father had been an enslaved African of the Asante nation, todays Ghana. The end of slavery allowed some Black peasants to become property owners. Upward mobility was not unique, but it was rare in turn-of-the-century Jamaica. Thomas was very dark-skinned, a characteristic that James identifies as a marker, at the time, of ones class as well as race. One could almost read a persons social class from the color of his or her skin, the historian explains.

The economic status of McKays family made it possible for Claude to acquire an education. Older brother Theo graduated from a teachers college and then became a headmaster. Theo was a freethinker, and he passed books on literature and politics to Claude, who described his years with his brother as a great formative period in my life a time of perfect freedom to play, read and think as I liked.

Jamaica became too small for Claude and he emigrated to America, first attending college in Kansas but eventually winding up in New York where, as a respected author, he became part of the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote poetry and novels throughout the 20s and 30s, but before that he had become increasingly radicalized as he learned of the horrific treatment of Blacks during Jim Crow. Lynching, beating, and burning of homes were common occurrences, and not only in the South. Violence was the means of preventing Blacks from attaining equality and full participation in social and economic life. McKay worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad for a time as a waiter; he started carrying a revolver for protection. His activist leanings became increasingly extreme: he moved from being a Fabian (or gradual socialist) to an outright Bolshevik after the 1917 Russian revolution. Promises of change for Blacks and workers were in the air. Marcus Garvey moved the headquarters of his Universal Negro Improvement Association to Harlem in 1913, while A. Philip Randolph, who organized the Black railroad porters into a union, left Florida for New York in 1911. The ferment of ideas, grounded in the goal of generating unified action, charged the air the reformers breathed. McKay was exhilarated by everything around him during his first years in New York.

Still, McKay was hungry for travel. He went to England, where he lived for a time, and visited Russia in 1922-23, where he was feted by the Bolsheviks, who saw racism and oppression as an essential part of the capitalism they opposed. His transformation from a submissive colonial to an anti-imperialist radical began slowly, but he became a fervent believer. He was harshly condemned at the time, but his belief that Marxs doctrines were not pipe dreams is becoming increasingly acceptable to a younger generation, which sees them as blueprints for a revolution that will upend an economic order that perpetuates inequality by exploiting the dispossessed. Thus the powerful relevance of a study dedicated to an iconoclastic Black thinker and poet who was dedicated to economic reform as well as the eradication of racism.

For many back home, this embrace of Soviet socialism marked McKay as suspect; he became branded as un-American, a hostile voice to be feared. The Red Scare of the 20s turned Americans who might otherwise be inclined to empathize with the workers of the world into suspicious patriots frightened by cartoon images of Communist revolutionaries coming to cut their throats as they slept. Americas visceral fear of socialism began then and continues to this day. Bernie Sanders is labeled a socialist by contemporary conservatives, who are anxious to stop any challenge to the neoliberal status quo. Of course, by global standards Bernie is no more than a center left European social democrat.

Socialism in most Western countries has morphed into an unstable hybrid of statism and capitalism, and the same can be said of the communist world. Russian oligarchs enabled by Putin are the new robber barons, the owners of gigantic yachts and castles. Years ago China opted for a middle way, although Xi has attempted lately to bring private actors under greater control by the state. The pragmatic as well as idealistic values of socialism have been perverted by the same forces that turned free enterprise into mega capitalism: the desire for unlimited power and the need to maintain it.

After time in France, McKay returned to America and wrote prolifically, editing a leftist newspaper. His poetry and nonfiction carried the banner of revolution, but the rise of Stalin and in 1929 the exile of Trotsky, whom McKay deeply admired, transformed him into a full-throated opponent of Russian authoritarianism. The decade leading up to McKays death in 1948 is barely covered here, but Jamess history is explicitly dedicated to the formative years of this Jamaican-American Black agitator and writer, his evolution into an apostle of Marxist socialism.

McKay was an artist whose written work covered a wide range of human feelings, not just the political. As an example of the latter, there is his 1919 poem If We Must Die, a forceful expression (drawing on resonances with WWI) of the angry desperation of Black resistance to white racism. Here are its opening lines:

If we must die let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursd lot.

The poem ends with a call to fight back, to die, if necessary, on ones feet and not on ones knees.

Yet McKay could also be more personal and unabashedly sentimental. The second stanza of his 1922 poem Spring in New Hampshire is an idyll, a daydream about the beauty of nature and our place in it:

Too wonderful the April night,

Too faintly sweet the first May flowers,

The stars too gloriously bright,

For me to spend the evening hours,

When fields are fresh and streams are leaping,

Wearied, exhausted, dully sleeping.

One comes away from Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik feeling that the Black writer lived a full and admirable life, politically and socially engaged, but never to the diminution of his individuality. Pure Bolshevism would have dogmatically dismissed the personal and emotional as bourgeois affectations, distractions that took energy away from the struggle against oppression. But McKay was too much of a creative spirit to be remade into something other than what he was. For him, humankind needs both the bread and the roses.

Thomas Filbin is a freelance critic whose reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Boston Sunday Globe, and Hudson Review. He lives outside of Boston.

Originally posted here:

Book Review: "Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik" -- The Evolution of a Radical Thinker - artsfuse.org

Roth Capital cut shares of Evolution Petroleum (NYSEAMERICAN:EPM Get Rating) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $9.50 price objective on the energy companys stock.

Shares of NYSEAMERICAN:EPM opened at $4.95 on Wednesday. Evolution Petroleum has a 12-month low of $3.60 and a 12-month high of $8.17. The company has a market cap of $167.02 million, a PE ratio of -45.00 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.22 and a quick ratio of 2.22.

Evolution Petroleum (NYSEAMERICAN:EPM Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 10th. The energy company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.23. The business had revenue of $25.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $25.09 million. Evolution Petroleum had a positive return on equity of 14.47% and a negative net margin of 8.88%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Evolution Petroleum will post 0.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of EPM. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. raised its position in Evolution Petroleum by 97.0% during the first quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 3,656 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Evolution Petroleum during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA raised its position in Evolution Petroleum by 253,450.0% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 5,071 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 5,069 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Evolution Petroleum during the first quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. acquired a new position in Evolution Petroleum during the first quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.84% of the companys stock.

Evolution Petroleum Company Profile (Get Rating)

Evolution Petroleum Corporation, an oil and natural gas company, engages in the development, production, ownership, and management of oil and gas properties in the United States. The company holds interests in a CO2 enhanced oil recovery project in Louisiana's Delhi field. Its Delhi Holt-Bryant Unit covers an area of 13,636 acres located in Northeast Louisiana.

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Evolution Petroleum (NYSEAMERICAN:EPM) Lowered to Neutral at Roth Capital - Defense World

FAIRFIELD, N.J., July 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bleakley Financial Group (Bleakley), is pleased to announce that it has become an independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). Since 2015, Bleakleyhas been affiliated with Private Advisor Group, one of the largest and fastest-growing independent wealth management firms in the country.* Private Advisor Groupwas selected as the preferred partner and RIA of choice to provide regulatory, compliance, and operational support, as Bleakley embarked on its own journey toward full independence after departing from Northwestern Mutual. During their seven-year relationship, both firms have grown significantly and worked closely toward fulfilling Bleakley's aspiration to operate its own RIA and complete their transition to their own independent business. Bleakley Financial Grouplaunched its new RIA in the Spring of 2022 and has taken a phased approach to completing their transition to full independence.

Andy Schwartz,Principal of Bleakley Financial Group remarked, "Our partnership with Private Advisor Group has been exceptional in every facet of supporting our firm and helping us reach our goals. We consider them personal friends, in addition to outstanding business partners, and will continue our relationship well into the future."

Private Advisor Group's CEO, RJ Moore, commented, "We are excited for the principals and advisors at Bleakley Financial Group. Much has been accomplished during our partnership and we look forward to continuing in supporting each other's successes and the progression of firms in our profession."

Bleakley is comprised of over 50 advisors in thirteen states and as of December 31st, 2021, services approximately $9 billion in brokerage and advisory assets.

Private Advisor Group is comprised of more than 700 financial advisors nationwide with over $30 billion in assets under management as of December 31st, 2021.

About Bleakley Financial Group

For more than 30 years, Bleakley has been providing customized financial planning and wealth management services to a diverse array of clients across the country. Bleakley prides itself on delivering personalized guidance to fit the goals and lifestyle needs of each customer. With more than three decades of experience, our state-of-the-art financial planning comes with a personal touch. Our team consists of more than 160 investment professionals, from financial advisors and research assistants to client support.

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For more information, visit http://www.bleakley.com.

About Private Advisor Group

Founded in 1997 in Morristown, NJ, Private Advisor Group is one of the nation's leading financial services firms. With over $30 billion in assets under management, the firm strives to improve financial outcomes for individual investors and inspire growth, fiduciary adherence, legacy planning and a client-centric approach for independent financial advisors' practices. Barron's has recognized Private Advisor Group as a top ten registered investment advisory firm since 2019.

*Barron's "Top 100 RIA Firms" ranking is based upon quantitative and qualitative criteria including: regulatory records, client retention reports, assets managed, revenue generated, technology spending, number of clients, size and diversity of staff, placement of a succession plan, and more. Investor experience and returns are not considered. Neither Private Advisor Group nor its financial advisors pay a fee to Barron's in exchange for the ranking.

For more information, visit http://www.privateadvisorgroup.com.

Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through Private Advisor Group, a registered investment advisor and separate entity from LPL Financial.

Media Inquiries:

Andy SchwartzPrincipal, Bleakley Financial GroupAndy.Schwartz@bleakley.comOffice: 973-244-4202

Kelly CoulterMarketing Director, Private Advisor GroupKelly.coulter@privateadvisorgrouop.com480-815-8695

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Bleakley Financial Group Announces the Evolution of Their Business to an Independent Registered Investment Advisor - Yahoo Finance

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CHENNAI: March 27, 2022, Hagley Oval, Christchurch. India was playing South Africa in their final league game of the Cricket World Cup a must-win encounter for them to progress to the semifinals. South Africa needed three runs to win from two balls. Mignon du Preez was on strike, batting on 51 from 61 balls. At the other end was Deepti Sharma, standing steely-eyed at the top of her mark, ready to bound in.

Mignon seemed all set in her stance, with her trademark paradoxical movements. Having struggled in the earlier games, she had enjoyed one of her better days in the tournament. She was the one who could potentially end the World Cup dream of Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami.

Meanwhile, 9.4 overs into her day, Deepti had had an excellent outing, conceding just 38 runs in her spell. Defending only seven runs in the final over, the off-spinning all-rounder had given away just four and been a part of a run-out in the first four deliveries.

There were long discussions among the Indian team after almost every ball in that over - fields adjusted, plans altered and re-altered and attempts made to calm everyone down. If there ever was a clutch moment in the game that was it.

The pressure was palpable. But Deepti remained visibly calm. Still supremely self-assured, she took a few quick steps into her run-up and went through with her action. Mignon waited for the ball, but it never came, still lodged firmly in the bowlers hand. It was the mandatory Deepti-Sharma-fake-delivery of the match one that left the batter in anticipation. It was an act that came as no surprise - something that has become her trademark when under the pump.

It comes to me pretty naturally, said Deepti when asked about it in an exclusive chat with The New Indian Express from Bengaluru. I have been doing it for several years now. Second thing, you'll also get a glimpse of what the batter is trying to do, whether it's stepping out or going on the back foot, added the off-spinner.

And she had a point. But just like any other cricketing tactic, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesnt. On that day, in the most important match of the tournament for India, it almost worked. Mignon stepped out to launch Deepti down the ground on the very next delivery but was caught at long-on by Harmanpreet Kaur Except that Deepti had overstepped.

While Mignon took South Africa home and India faced an early exit, one of the things that stood out that night was the calmness that Deepti showed under pressure. The calmness, that is, despite the no ball. She was no longer the nervous 19-year-old who tried to slog her way through the 11 runs that were required in the last two overs of the 2017 World Cup final. She was now more aware of her game, more in control of her emotions and had clearer, more precise plans whenever she took the field.

But even back in 2017, there was never any question about her potential: she became the first teenager to score 200-plus runs and take more than 10 wickets 216 runs and 12 scalps in a Womens World Cup. However, in the most important moment of the final during the chase, she panicked.

In the five years since Deeptis confidence has grown leaps and bounds. Shes gone from someone who buckled under pressure, to a player who now thrives under it a quality that showed on that day in the final moments of Indias final World Cup league match against South Africa at Christchurch.

How did she get to this point? Because confidence isn't built overnight. It comes from hours, weeks, months and years of work behind the scenes on both the technical and mental front. And for Deepti, like most top athletes, hard work is her default setting. But in recent times, her work, she says, has been driven by two key aspects - visualization and improvisation.

Till now whatever matches I have played, after a match I always go back and see how I did in the videos and what I can improve, she said. For example, it's not like if I do well, I don't go and look at it and see what I did right and then when things go a bit up and down, suddenly, I go and follow what was the issue in the batting, what was the problem.

For me, every match, irrespective of whether I did well or not, whatever innings I played, I liked to go back and watch it. Even the positives, whatever boundaries I hit or good innings I played, it has helped me a lot. When I go back, I practice based on that whether it's bowling or batting. I feel that it has helped me improve a lot.

Between July 23, 2017, and March 2020, Deepti was the fourth-best off-spinner in the world in terms of wickets (24 scalps at an average of 36.20 with a 4.15 economy) behind Sana Mir, Leigh Kasperek and Ashleigh Gardner. Among Indians, Poonam Yadav and Ekta Bisht were the two spinners to have more wickets than her in that period.

When the pandemic broke, India did not play any international cricket for over a year. When they returned, Deepti hit a bit of a roadblock in 2021, taking just five wickets in 10 innings with that average shooting up to 76.80. But it was not just her; every Indian spinner, barring Rajeshwari Gayakwad who averaged 31.12, had a bad year. No one else averaged below 40. In 2022, however, they did better and so did Deepti, taking 17 wickets in 12 innings so far.

Deepti's growth is not only evident in the numbers, but also in the fact that she has become India's go-to bowler in recent times. With India's pace attack lacking international experience apart from Jhulan Goswami ( Shikha Pandey has played only three ODIs since March 2020) the off-spinner has often been tasked with bowling in the powerplay and death overs, something she had to do in that World Cup game against South Africa as well.

Its a skill Deepti has practiced a great deal over the years, doing a lot of spot bowling to get used to bowling with the new ball. So, the funda is the same, if you know where you have to bowl and how to execute it, that's all there is. You know, the batter shouldn't get any room as with just two fielders outside, it will be easier for them. I just keep in my mind to stick to my strengths, said the 24-year-old.

Whether it's powerplay, middle overs or death, I like bowling in every situation. That's what I practice for and once you keep doing that, you get used to it. It doesn't matter if it's powerplay or slog-overs as long as you know where to bowl. Once you are confident, you can bowl in any given situation.

While Deepti has truly grown into a top-class off-spinner, with the bat, her journey has been quite a contrast. She made her India debut as a backup opener in some style, smashing a 188 the highest individual ODI score by an Indian against Ireland as a teenager. As years went by, she has batted in all positions between 1-9 and has often been used as a floater, largely in the lower middle order. Deepti has batted 68 times so far but has got an extended run of sorts (more than 10 times) only in two positions - No 3 and 6.

Just like any other batter, the southpaw has had her share of challenges, struggling to keep pace with the demands of a new position 1804 runs at an average of 35.37 while striking at 64.63. But shes hardly shied away from those battles, trying to contribute to the best of her abilities, adjusting her methods along the way. And similar to her bowling, visualisation and improvisation seems key to her preparation in adapting to different roles in the batting order.

So, what happens with my role is that (it is) based on which position I get to bat, I always try to do my best for the team. Whatever role I get, it doesn't matter. It's all about making sure I contribute to the team's cause. See, when you open the batting, you'll have some time to settle in, and powerplay makes it a bit easy with just two fielders outside the circle. You will have the opportunity to score the maximum runs possible. In middle overs, you'll have to play according to the scoreboard, read the match situation and react accordingly.

I always try to stay positive. Whatever match is there, every match I look at it the same way, whether it's domestic or international. The focus remains the same. Mentally, if you think about it, it's still the same. Just the bowlers, their pace and standards differ a little bit. But yes, my mindset will remain the same. If you keep it the same, it helps is what I believe.

After all these years, Deeptis keenness to stay positive throughout the challenges and heartbreaks and her ability to keep things simple on and off the field is what has helped her grow in confidence, not just as a player but also as a person. And when any player shows that kind of level-headedness and maturity in their cricket, they always get noticed.

It happened to Deepti as well when she was named vice-captain to Mithali in the last couple of ODIs against New Zealand earlier this year. When the former Indian skipper did not take part in the recently concluded Womens T20 Challenge, Deepti led Velocity to the final. It was the first time she was captaining a team, something she seemed to have enjoyed doing as well.

It was a great experience. I was confident because when you get to do it in a match on a big stage like the T20 Challenge, it is a sign of positivity, she said, before adding, you could say it comes with an extra responsibility to do your best for the team, whatever the team or any player needs, you make sure that you give them the opportunity to do what they want. Whether it's a bowler or a batter, whatever demands are there for the team, I always back the players.

Our team had a lot of youngsters as well, playing for the first time in the T20 Challenge. I told them, 'whoever gets an opportunity in the match, stick to your strengths, whether it's bowling or scoring shots, just try to do that and more importantly believe in them. It'll always help you do well.' All I gave was a little bit of motivation and they did extremely well, which benefitted the team as well. It was a different feeling to play in the final as a captain.

There is a calmness and keen understanding in the way she speaks - a stark contrast to the hesitant teenager who took her initial steps in international cricket. Between two World Cup heartbreaks, Deepti has evolved from a nervous young talent to a utility cricketer who has constantly upskilled herself, is well aware of her strengths and limitations and can hold her nerve in clutch situations. And as she keeps repeating through the chat, visualisation and improvisation are at the centre of it all.

But there is one more underlying theme to her evolution. Its the fact that she doesnt say no to anything thats asked of her and tries to fulfil it to the best of her abilities. She is a trier who never gives up. And its a quality that no one can take away from her.

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The evolution of Deepti Sharma between two World Cup heartbreaks - The New Indian Express